Recommended Reading

Use the Subject links to explore the list. The cover art links to Amazon.co.uk where you can of course buy these books!

	Adams, Douglas : The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy Douglas Adams' quintessential sf-comedy-adventure-farce trilogy in 5 parts.
	Campbell, Joseph : The Hero With A Thousand Faces The renowned comparative study on mythic cycles through time and around the world. How metaphor becomes mythology which in turn becomes metaphysics.
	Dawkins, Richard : The Blind Watchmaker A great follow-up to the seminal Selfish Gene, the theme of this book provides an explanation of how organised complexity (i.e. life) can arise from simple origins without the need for a conscious creator.
	Fraser, George MacDonald : Flashman (The Flashman Papers) The first of a long series of memoirs from the bully of Tom Brown's School Days, Flashman manages to be witty, eridute, despicable, hilarious, historically informative and utterly compelling.
	Lovecraft, H.P. : At the Mountsins of Madness Omnibus A collection of Lovecraft's longer stories concering the infamous Cthulhu Mythos; the title piece and the following story, The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward, are works of unholy genuis and remain unsurpassed in the field of horror.
	May, Julian : Intervention A brilliant standalone book which links the Saga of the Exiles to the Galactic Milieu Trilogy, Julian May's other great series.
	Moorcock, Michael : The War Hound and the World's Pain Tragically, seemingly no longer in print, this is a perfect introduction to Moorcock's work, as it is very accessible, and bridges the gulf between his earlier works of cosmic fantasy and the more introspective literary style of his later works.
	Moorcock, Michael: Elric of Melnibone Moorcock's first and most lasting creation. Elric of Melnibone charts the epic saga of a doomed hero which is brilliant, archetypal high fantasy, full of rhetoric, irony and poignant images, culminating in the apocalyptic Stormbringer.
	Tolkien, J.R.R. : The Lord Of The Rings The paragon of all mythic/heroic fantasy which spawned a thousand imitators and yet remains unsurpassed.
	Tolkien, J.R.R. : The Silmarillion If The Lord of the Rings is the New Testament of Middle-Earth, then this is the Old Testament. An astounding creatve work and an utterly convincing myth-cycle. Tolkien's magnum opus, published posthumously by his son Christopher.