BOTM: L. Sprague de Camp, Literary swordsmen and sorcerers (1976)
M. Baylis, Man belong Mrs Queen (2013)
D. Brin, Startide rising (1983)
D. Brin, The uplift war (1986)
J. Strachey, An integrated man (1986)
M. Pollan, The omnivore's dilemma (2006)
K. Wilhelm, Where late the sweet birds sing (1977)
I enjoyed lots here. Pollan a close runner up and I really liked the first third on the dominance of corn in our food system. It's made me mutter - to Anna's horror - that maybe we should eat more seasonally. I think the conceit is unbalanced though, and the latter sections don't really work as well. I could completely have lived without the foraging / hunting section. Plus I have also gone over some of this ground before.
Bizarrely, I hadn't gone over the ground of de Camp's account of the major heroic fantasy authors of the first half of the twentieth century. In this, he covers who he sees as the biggest nine with some linking contexts and mini-biographies and reviews. It was illuminating, and hugely enjoyable to read. Some of the judgements are dated: there's a too quick dismissal of the lack of women in Tolkien and some clumsy psychology (though driven by the fact that almost all the American writers are really weird). However, he knows his stuff, and I have a huge fondness for clear judgements, backed up with reasons, especially when picking through a lot of scattered short story material. As also a protagonist, de Camp is really good at showing the overlapping nature of the worlds people created; and also contextualising the famous bits into their wider oeuvre.
This is not the definitive history of fantasy literature, but it's probably a lot more more fun than one. I'm going to read some Conan the Barbarian now.
