Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Styrbiorn the Strong


By far my favorite fantasy novel of all time is The Worm Ouroboros, by E.R. Eddison. (If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you quit whatever you're doing and remedy that stat. I recommend the 1991 Dell trade paperback if you can find it, because it contains a great many useful explanatory notes, even though the cover is to my mind horrific). So of course I was elated to discover that the University of Minnesota Press has recently reissued Styrbiorn the Strong, one of Eddison's earlier novels (written after the Worm but before the Zimiamvian Trilogy), which for many years now has been out of print and extremely difficult to get hold of in any kind of decent, affordable print edition. As an added bonus, this new edition includes for the first time the author's original letter of introduction and closing notes. Do yourself a favor and check it out; you shan't be disappointed.