The Gods of Pegana by Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Horror in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Mar 23, 2016 Markus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mythology, 2016, fantasy

An excellent merge of fantasy and mythology from the man who wrote The King of Elfland's Daughter, Gods of Pegana is a very short and thoroughly enjoyable piece of fantasy fiction from the early days of the modern genre.

It's easy to see this book as the predecessor to The Silmarillion, and in many ways Lord Dunsany is the one author prior to Tolkien that's the most similar to him in style. And that, of course, also makes Dunsany the best of the early fantasy writers in my eyes.

The tales of the c ...more

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May 02, 2013 Joseph rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Not for everyone, but definitely for me. This isn't so much a collection of short stories as a collection of vignettes and prose poems that, taken together, create a kind of artificial mythology -- kind of a precursor to The Silmarillion but without as much narrative linkage and structure. But the episodes are told in a kind of rich King James Bible-influenced prose that I find almost impossible to resist. Not a recommended jumping-on point for Dunsany -- if you're new to his work, I think you'd ...more

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Jul 06, 2020 Eddie B. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

يكفي من يهمه الأمر أن يعرف أن لافكرافت وتولكين صرَّحا بالإعجاب وبالتأثر بكتابات لورد دنساني. ويكفي أن أقول إن "آلهة بيجانا" تحمل -على صغر حجمها- سحرًا وعذوبةً وشاعريةً قد تُناهز، في بعض المواضع، ما كتبه تولكين عن لوثلوريين وريفنديل، وما كتبه لافكرافت عن عوالم أحلامه.

أحمد الديب
يوليو 2020 ...more

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Mar 14, 2015 Riju Ganguly rated it did not like it · review of another edition

When a work, that should be accurately described as unadulterated pompous b*****t, gets practically worshipped as one of the most influential writings in English, it's time to realise that either Sir Terry Pratchett has succeeded in moving all of us into the Discworld (possibly some unfathomable pool of stupidity created by those wizards of Unseen University), or else the so-called evaluators (or auditors) of literature have gone ape. Regrettably, the later appears to be more probable. Therefore ...more

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Mar 16, 2019 Oliver Brackenbury rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A very pretty book chronicling the birth of a universe and its gods with a focus on the fantastic, not so much the human element. A brisk, enjoyable read made all the better by the beautiful illustrations.

In theory this was an influence on Lovecraft's Dreamlands cycle books. ...more

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