Guests of Honour
Peter Beagle
Introduction by Farah Mendlesohn
Peter Beagle is one of the very finest fantasy writers, and by finest I mean fine as in Fine Art. Beagle paints the fantastic with a slender sable brush. His best known novel is The Last Unicorn, a whimsical tale of a unicorn who believes she is the last of her kind. The novel is a tale of loss and love, and of great heroism, but it is written in a way that connects the fantastic intimately to our own world. If the unicorn is the last, it is us who make her so.
Yet my conversion to Beagle's work was through the lesser known A Fine and Private Place. This is one of the quietist fantasy novels I know of. There are no great events. No magics as such. It is just a tale of a man who has moved into a cemetery, and there become a kind of welcoming committee for new ghosts. Each day he is fed by a raven who brings him a sandwich. Then one day his peace is disturbed by a middle-aged lady looking for someone to talk with, and two of the ghosts he has befriended reveal that they have been lying to themselves and each other.
The conversational mode Beagle developed for this book has become one of his trademarks, and in A Dance for Emilia, one of his most recent novels, is used to create a beautifully evocative story of possession.
Beagle is also a really superb short story writer, but at this point I'll leave you to find that out for yourself: We Never Talk About My Brother.
Joe Abercrombie
Introduction by Serena Culfeather
A UK author first published in 2005 and instantly acclaimed as a great new talent in the fantasy market, Joe's writing comes highly recommended. Described as edgy and humorous, his books are intricate, compelling and with a gritty, real-life feel.
Still working as a film editor on a wide range of media this is an author who has broad writing skills and a real talent for making the fantastical utterly believable and large as life. The Blade Itself, Before They are Hanged and most recently, Last Argument of Kings make up The First Law Trilogy but there is more to come from this refreshingly different author.