Adventures of the Mind

Links to the Literature of Wonder

If you have explored our book reviews to any extent, you'll have noticed that we are partial to fantasy and science fiction, though we read works outside these realms as well. The common element to our choices are works that impart a sense of wonder, an exploration of humanity beyond the mundane. It happens that science fiction and fantasy are more apt to have these qualities than other fiction, which is why they are more heavily represented. The links presented on this page deal with this sort of literature.

- Tim

Lord Dunsany
This is a page on an early innovative fantasy writer, with links to some of his works that are now in the public domain. Especially recommended is his Book of Wonder.

D.L. Ashliman's Home Page
Professor Ashliman of the University of Pittsburgh (retired) presents a site of folklore texts he has edited or translated. There is an incredible amount of fascinating material on Indo-European folklore on these pages.

The Literature Network - Rudyard Kipling
This page includes a biography and works by one of my all-time favorite poets and storytellers. It includes a large number of poems, several collections of short fiction, and one novel. I particularly recommend, as one of the best yarns ever told, the short story "The Taking of Lungtungpen", from the collection Plain Tales from the Hills, which tells how two dozen British soldiers came to take a bandit stronghold by night, stark naked! My sister, on the other hand, commends you to the wonderful tales collected in The Jungle Book. - Tim

Ansible
The on-line edition of the well-known British science fiction fan-zine. I connect to this site monthly just to keep up with the department titled "Thog's Masterclass", where can be found prime examples of embarassing prose by some of sf's worst - and sometimes best - writers! - Tim

AwardWeb
This site keeps track of the major awards for speculative fiction, past and present. Not only winners, but nominees are listed here.

Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny is, in my humble opinion, one of the finest writers of the 20th century. This is a link to the Wikipedia article on Zelazny, which will remain here until I can find a better page.