> Okay guys, here's the plan. I'm doing an independent study this term in modern American fantasy, and I need a reading list. I need at fewest about six works of modern American Fantasy literature, and perhaps some other stuff (movies, et al) to round it out. Any suggestions? I'm looking for a fair spread of stuff that I haven't already read... the one thing already on my reading list is the Dragonlance chronicles (autumn twilight, winter night, spring dawning, and summer flame), but I'd be uneasy about using more than one for the course... suggestions, anyone?

You've asked the right question, mein freund, since I've been tearing through sci-fi/fantasy books at a pretty fair clip (for me, at least) for the past year.

Having read both the Chronicles and the Legends series of Dragonlance books (as well as a lot of the "mindless drek" that followed them :-) ), I'd recommend the Legends trilogy to you before I'd recommend the Chronicles series. You really don't absolutely have to have read Chronicles to follow the events that happen later in Legends, so you may want to tackle Legends first. If you need to pick only one Dragonlance book, it's hard to say, since most of the standalone entries in the series aren't all that wonderful. I liked The SoulForge (Margaret Weis), Brothers Magere (forgot the author), and Weasel's Luck (again, can't remember who wrote it).

Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay, was a pretty decent read. Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness is good, although I don't know whether a book like that, more sci-fi than true fantasy, qualifies for your list. Dan Simmons' Hyperion is also excellent sci-fi with a touch of horror (again, if that's acceptable).

Anne McCaffrey's Pern series should probably figure somewhere in the list, although I've only read the first of those books (DragonFlight), and can't say that it was exceptional. Some later entries in the series can no doubt be recommended more highly. I haven't read anything in Jordan's Wheel of Time series -- and judging from the reviews it's gotten from Dave and others, I'm not sure I ever want to -- but if you're basing your list on importance to the genre, it might be worth dipping into WoT.

I've tackled the first two entries in the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, and thought the first book, Seventh Son, was pretty good, even if it did feature a predictably rigid, fanatical preacher. (Just once I'd like to read a good story in which the preacher, not the nominal believers in his congregation, is the one who shows the greater wisdom and virtue. Oh, well.)

There's probably more that I could think of given time, but I need to get off the 'Net to free up the phone line for awhile. Later!

Iss "a modern American Fantasy class? You lucky dude!" achar