This is kind of a radically condensed appendex N.   If you had to recomend 3 books to a non-fantasy reader to get kind of a feel for Fantasy what would they be.  They have to be good so you don't lose your audience.  And if they need the course they really aren't that interested in Fantasy so they will be easy to lose.  They have to be short or short ish, so again so you don't lose them and so they can finnish the course in a reasonible amount of time.  And they have to be IMPORTANT, or Broad, or arch, so they can have a feel for it after only 3 books.

My list.

1/ The Hobbit.  But not the lord of the rings.  Fun easy to read, short, and it spawned the whole everything.

2/ Sheep-farmers Daughter - Great read, short, and if they like it there are two more books but they don't have to read them, probably the best military fantasy book.
2/ or Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Not good but fun and it moves quick, easy, and it's really a perfect example of D&D fantasy.

3/ The Finnavar Tapestry?  Guy Gaviral Kay.  Very well written, touches on all the tropes, all the fantasy stuff.  Cons really big.  Unlike the two above I don't think you can just read one of them, you need all three to get the story.  

I'ld like to put Zelaznys Lord of light on here, since it's my favorite book but I don't think it belongs.  Maybe Nine princes?  Yeah, maybe nine princes in Amber, its great, it's short, you don't have to read the rest of them but you can.  

Something by David Gemmell could kick anything but the Hobbit of the list, if I knew which single book to pick.  

Thoughts?  I am only sure of the Hobbit.  It's only partly an academic question.

It's much easier for Sci-Fi.  Enders game.  The moon is a harsh mistress, Hienlien.  and either Snow crash, or Neuromancer.

oh maybe Glory Road, Hienlien belongs on the fantasy list, I forgot about that one.

So you're referring to a narrow sub-genre of fantasy... because something like The Twilight Zone is fantasy as well.
I'd just hand them some Grimm's fairy tales, Lord Dunsany, and Arabian Nights stories.

I'd probably go with some conan and some elric action, given the particular rules you listed.  On a more open list I might pick some vlad taltos or myth,inc.

Vlad taltos, Myth inc. Conan, and Arbian Nights all appropriate for the list.  The others probaly are too.  I just haven't read them.

I will cheat and use these recent anthologies by Del Rey:

(1) The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
(2) The Conquering Sword of Conan
(3) The Bloody Crown of Conan

That's all I need. Tolkien is okay, too, but you said three and I don't much care for elves, dwarves, and hobbits.

REH, Tolkien, Moorcock... in that order. Lloyd Alexander in 4th.

But if I had to give one short book, it would be The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.  Published in 1954, the same year as lord of the rings (so it wasn't influence by it), it combines all of Tolkien's tropes of elves, dwarves, trolls, and giants with REH's style sword and sorcery prose and, pace, is heavily influenced by Norse mythology and set in "historical" Britain.  I don't know how he squeezes it into 180 pages, but it is basically a crash course in fantasy lit.

Edit: It's a helluva great story too.

So...I have never read any Michael Moorcock books and keep hearing "Elric! Elric! Elric!" I saw some books and anthologies on Amazon; it seems a lot of the books are not even in print. It also appears the books were published out of (fictional) chronological order, much like the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. I don't really care if I read them in the order the stories "happened" unless it matters or doesn't make sense otherwise, but can someone tell me: if I were to seek out an Elric book to start with, which one should it be? And why?

Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner. While I wouldn't say it does Conan better than Howard, but beats the hell out of anything Moorcock wrote and I say that as someone who has read almost all Moorcock's work.

The Book of the Three by Lloyd Alexander, first of the Prydain books. Sort of the Harry Potter of its day, kinda forgotten now, but I re-read the whole series a year or so ago and was struck by just how good they were

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros by Clark Ashton Smith.  Comical adventure explaining why you shouldn't try to loot a temple of Tsathoggua.  I don't think Smith gets enough credit for his fantasy tales which were remarkably good. His Hyperborean tales (like this one) were darkly comical, his Zothique tales were just dark as heck, his Averoigne stories are charming.

Quote from: Dumarest;958407So...I have never read any Michael Moorcock books and keep hearing "Elric! Elric! Elric!" I saw some books and anthologies on Amazon; it seems a lot of the books are not even in print. It also appears the books were published out of (fictional) chronological order, much like the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. I don't really care if I read them in the order the stories "happened" unless it matters or doesn't make sense otherwise, but can someone tell me: if I were to seek out an Elric book to start with, which one should it be? And why?

Like Howard, Moorcock didn't write his Elric stories in chronological order, but he later strung them together, filled in the gaps, and wrote a conclusion.  I would read the original six (very short) books, which combined are shorter than a GRR Martin volume. That will give you the story and all of the canon, setting and tropes - and the stories don't make much sense without them.  Moorcock has written a bunch of Elric stories since (because of the way the multiverse works, time isn't an issue, and there is really no limit to the amount of stories that can be squeezed in).

I devoured these books when I was teen. Re-reading them I am less impressed (more jaded?).  The ideas and stories are truly original and fantastic, but the writing... well, lets just say MM doesn't have REH's natural flair for prose or Tolkien's mastery of language.  It is more heroic fantasy, like Conan, than high fantasy because the focus is on a single sympathetic character.  Betwixt the break-neck action, it's much about getting to know Elric, a tragic anti-hero, as a character, as well as exploring Moorcocks very strange existential and dramatic view of the universe in conflict.  Its really quite good, if you can get past the sometimes sophomoric writing.

He also wrote a ton of stand alone books.  I don't think they are as good as the original series though.  Most of them, Like the Revenge of the Rose, are better within the context of the saga.  A few, like The Fortress of the Pearl, can stand on their own wobbly legs but will seem like a bizarre LSD dream without knowledge of the Million Spheres, the Young Kingdoms, the concept of the eternal champion, or the forces of Law and Chaos.

Quote from: Madprofessor;958415I would read the original six (very short) books

If you can spare the time for two more questions: which six are those, and in what order?

Quote from: Headless;958401. . . Genera . . .

Christ Kristofferson, go to the Help forum and get an admin to fix your fucking thread title.

Quote from: Dumarest;958417If you can spare the time for two more questions: which six are those, and in what order?

Going from memory here:

Elric of Melnibone
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower
The Bane of the Black Sword
Stormbringer

I think they have been collected into some two volume sets as well.

As I believe I was the first to mention Elric, I feel compelled to point out that I didn't put it up there because it was the very bestest fantasy out there, but because

A: it meets the criterion of being a fast intro to swords and sorcery

B: God damn if it ain't all D&D an' shit!  Magic swords and memory stealing mirrors, potions to do just about anything you need, ruined kingdoms and mysterious places dropped all over the landscape like sprinkles on a fucking cupcake!  For Fucks Sake, Elric is, for most of his literary career, a murder-hobo!

C:  Its actually pretty easy to get into.  A typical Elric book, at least according to my recent adult forays, was a short bit, maybe 180 pages at the top end, and actually contained a good half dozen loosely linked mini-stories.

Quote from: Madprofessor;958405REH, Tolkien, Moorcock... in that order. Lloyd Alexander in 4th.

But if I had to give one short book, it would be The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.  Published in 1954, the same year as lord of the rings (so it wasn't influence by it), it combines all of Tolkien's tropes of elves, dwarves, trolls, and giants with REH's style sword and sorcery prose and, pace, is heavily influenced by Norse mythology and set in "historical" Britain.  I don't know how he squeezes it into 180 pages, but it is basically a crash course in fantasy lit.

Edit: It's a helluva great story too.

I just got around to The Broken Sword a couple of years ago - that was a great story!

Quote from: darthfozzywig;958444I just got around to The Broken Sword a couple of years ago - that was a great story!

I'll have to check that out. Never read any of his fantasy books.  I'm more a science fiction reader. Love the Van Rijn character and stories.