Actually, there has never been so much epic fantasy published than right now, which means a lot of mediocre and downright terrible books as well, since Sturgeon's Law still applies. There have never been as many terrific writers working in the genre as there are right now. As great as Tolkien, Leiber, Vance, REH, and those others were, THIS is the golden age of epic fantasy. Those I like to point at some of my contemporaries. I have lots of readers for whom that is true as well. Maybe you've read all the fantasy classics, however. but they were all important, and each, in his or her own way, was a great storyteller who helped make fantasy what it is today.

some wrote quite a long time ago, and neither their prose nor their attitudes are tailored for modern attention spans and sensibilities. But those writers should keep you busy for quite a while. Lovecraft (more horror than fantasy, admittedly), Clark Ashton Smith, and. White (THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING), Rosemary Sutcliffe, Alan Garner, H.P. Le Guin (Earthsea, the original trilogy), Mervyn Peake (GORMENGHAST), T.H. Moore (Jirel of Joiry), Jack Vance (THE DYING EARTH, Lyonesse, Cugel the Clever, and so much more), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser), Richard Adams (WATERSHIP DOWN, SHARDIK, MAIA), Ursula K. Howard (Conan the Cimmerian, Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane), C.L. If you have enjoyed my own fantasy novels, you owe it to yourself to read J.R.R. without whom, in truth, there might not be a fantasy genre at all. It never ceases to amaze me to discover that some of my own fans have never heard of all the great fantasists who came before me, without whom A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE could never have been written.

There is so many of them out there that do not get half the attention that they deserve.ДЇor some readers I like to draw attention to the classics of our genre. And I am always glad to recommend good books. But I do reply to some, when the mood strikes me. I can't possibly reply to all my emails, of course. In the process many liberties have been ' taken with historical characters вЂ“ and to a much lesser extent with dates.GrrmI get emails all the time from fans asking me to recommend books for them to read 'while I am waiting for your next one.' One writer's notion of Patrick Gray as he might have been one man's attempt to clothe the bare bones of history with warm human flesh, however erring. What follows here is no more than a novel. What sort of a man could this be? What lies behind a man like that? Could so black a traitor be yet a lover of beauty, a notable poet and one of the- closest friends of the noble Sir Philip Sidney? Or have the historians all missed something? Was the Master of Gray as black as he was painted вЂ“ or even blacker? None, apparently, could withstand his charm вЂ“ and though it is claimed that he betrayed everyone with whom he had any dealings, the same folk continued to trust him to the end. Moreover, he was accepted to be the handsomest man of his day вЂ“ it was said, of all Europe вЂ“ as well as one of the most fascinating, talented and witty.

Yet he was admittedly the most successful and remarkable Scottish adventurer of his adventurous age вЂ“ the age of Mary, Queen of Scots, of Elizabeth, and of James the Sixth of Reformation Scotland, the Huguenot Wars and the Spanish Armada, in all of which he had his finger. Again, 'He carried a heart as black and treacherous as any in that profligate age.' And so on. He was, we read, 'a young man of singular beauty and no scruples'. They unanimously portray him in colours so odious that, to find his parallel as a master of unprincipled statecraft, we must search amongst the Machiavellian politicians of Italy'. WAS the Master of Gray a devil incarnate? The historians say so. Nigel Tranter Lord and Master AUTHOR'S FOREWORD

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