Looking back over the years I have to admit that fantasy has been one of my favorite reading genres.
(1) The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower II) by Stephen King in 1987.
While pursuing his quest for the Dark Tower through a world that is a nightmarishly distorted mirror image of our own, Roland, the last gunslinger, encounters three mysterious doorways on the beach. Each one enters into the life of a different person living in contemporary New York.
(2) Dragons of Winter Night (Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy #2) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in 1985.
With the return of the dragon minions of Takhisis, the Queen of Dragons, the land of Krynn has become more dangerous than ever. But as the nations of Krynn prepare to fight for their homes, their lives, and their freedom, longstanding hatreds and prejudices interfere. When fighting breaks out among the races, it seems the battle is lost before it even begins. Meanwhile, the heroic Companions have been torn apart by war. A full season will pass before they meet again—if they meet again.
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(3) Krull by Alan Dean Foster in 1983.
It follows Prince Colwyn and a fellowship of companions who set out to rescue his bride, Princess Lyssa, from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet.
(4) Bearing an Hourglass (The Incarnations of Immortality #2) by Piers Anthony in 1984.
When life seemed pointless to Norton, he accepted the position as the Incarnation of Time, even though it meant living backward from present to past. The other seemingly all-powerful Incarnations of Immortality—Death, Fate, War, and Nature—made him welcome. Even Satan greeted him with gifts. But he soon discovered that the gifts were cunning traps and he had become enmeshed in a complex scheme of the Evil One to destroy all that was good.
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(5) Vale of the Vole (Xanth #10) by Piers Anthony in 1987.
When Esk, a young ogre-nymph-human, began his pilgrimage to the Good Magician Humfrey to rid himself of a seductive demoness, little did he know it would become a mission of mercy. A running river paradise and its harmless inhabitants were perishing in the wrathful wake of a greedy demon horde. Now it is up to Esk and his companions, a winged centaur named Chex and a burrower called Volney, to defend the precious Vale of the Vole.
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(6) Clash of the Titans by Alan Dean Foster in 1981.
Tells the story of Perseus and his band of companions brave the mystical threats of the gods to save princess Andromeda from a huge sea monster called the Kraken.
(7) Ogre, Ogre (Xanth #4) by Piers Anthony in 1982.
Smash the half-ogre goes to see the Good Magician Humfrey to get his question answered, although he doesn’t know what his question is. The magician’s answer: Travel to the Ancestral Ogres to find what you seek. His payment is to guard Tandy, a half-nymph, for one year.
(8) The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower I) by Stephen King in 1982.
The story centers Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, following Roland’s trek through a vast desert and beyond in search of the man in black “The Man in Black”, encountering an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake.
(9) Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn (Xanth #8) by Piers Anthony in 1984.
This book is a story within a story as one of Castle Roogna’s ghosts, Jordan the Barbarian, tells Princess Ivy his story of betrayal and death via the magical medium of the Tapestry.
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(10) Dragons of Spring Dawning (Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy #3) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in 1985.
The war against the dragon minions of Queen Takhisis rages on. Armed with the mysterious, magical Dragon Orbs and the shining, silver Dragonlance, the Companions of the Lance lead their people in a desperate final battle where no one has reckoned how high the price of defeat, or even victory, might be.
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