It's hard to draw a clear line between what is pagan-themed and what
isn't... This list, therefore, is obviously rather selective and
reflects my personal bias. I should also note that I add books as I
read them, so some things on this list are books I haven't read in
years, and my opinions may change when I reread them.
Kingsley Amis, The Green Man
A rather unpleasant "supernatural" tale of an
unhappy alcoholic Englishman in the 70's who uncovers the ghost of a
17th-century magician (who calls up the Green Man, a pretty creepy figure
in this telling).
Kim Antieau, The Gaia Websters
This book has some interesting ideas. It is set in
a future America where industrial civilization has basically destroyed
itself, and people live in small communities in harmony with the earth.
The main character is a healer who suddenly encouters a strange illness in
her community... The writing is a little uneven at times but I liked the
story.
-------, Jigsaw Woman
A story about a woman who is created from the
bodies of three different women... She goes on a journey through the lives
of these women, as well as their various past lives, to better understand
herself. An imaginative critique of patriarchal violence, with
ancient-modern Goddesses, as well as a matriarchal Goddess-worshipping
utopia from the past. I liked this book a lot.
Meg Elizabeth Atkins, By the North Door
A strange 1970's novel about a suburban housewife
who gets married and discovers witchcraft and ceremonial magic in her new
family. I wasn't sure exactly what the point of the book was. I found
the main character somewhat irritating, and other characters seemed to
function mainly to advance the plot.
Gael Baudino, Gossamer Axe
This is in many ways a story about healing.
Christa grew up in ancient Ireland and then spent centuries fighting the
Sidh for her lover Judith. Now she's been around for quite a while and
plans to fight the Sidh with heavy metal. Be prepared for the hairspray
and other 80's trappings! It's a good story, although I found that the
occasional preachiness around feminist issues got a bit annoying. Christa
practices the same rituals and has the same conception of the Goddess that
many neo-pagans do.
Jessica Berens, Queen of the Witches
A novel about two (contemporary) witches who are
highly placed in the British pagan hierarchy; they are vying for the
position of "Queen of the Witches," who rules over the "Coven of All
Covens." There's a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor which makes fun of
neo-paganism while still having respect for it. Note: this book is
British and probably difficult to find in the U.S.
Francesca Lia Block, Witch Baby
Well, okay, this has very little Actual Pagan
Content. It's about a witchy little girl with an unusual family. But I
wanted to put a book by Francesca Lia Block on this list because I think
her writing is magical :)
Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Forest House
This is a story about a young priestess of the
ancient religion which is being threatened by the Roman invaders; she
falls in love with a Roman. It didn't leave much of an impression on
me.
Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code
I'm sure you've heard of it by now! A suspense
novel about a symbologist and a cryptologist trying to find the Holy Grail
and recover the divine feminine. It's not "literature," nor is it good
history, but it's an extremely entertaining page-turner with lots of
pagan-related subject matter.
Emma Bull, Bone Dance
This is an excellent film-noir-style futuristic
novel involving voudou-related things - I'd be spoiling the plot if I
tried to explain. You'll just have to read it for yourself.
Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising (series)
This is a series of five books - wonderful
contemporary fantasy about an age-old struggle between the Light and the
Dark, using British/Celtic myth and folklore. These books are imaginative
and beautifully written. I can't say enough good things about them.
---------- Seaward
This story has many pagan/mythological elements,
although I wouldn't exactly call it a pagan book. It's about two young
people who are on a quest in a mythological place that is out of time;
they are often used as pawns by two opposing forces (though as in Cooper's
earlier series, there's no question about which is good). A very beautiful
story.
Aleister Crowley, Moonchild
This novel by the famous early 20th-century
magician has a number of flaws. It clearly betrays the author's rampant
and egregious sexism and misogyny; it wanders quite a bit, with random
monologues on various and sundry topics; it gives the goddess Hecate an
undeservedly bad name; and it has an irritating, bizarre ending. Still, I
found it interesting for the historical value, and his satirical
descriptions of the Black
Lodge magicians (which I'm sure are based on historical figures) are very
funny. In conclusion: read it, but don't expect to get helpful magical
material out of it, and don't take it too seriously.
Elizabeth Cunningham, The Return of the Goddess: A Divine
Comedy
In this book, the wife of an Episcopalian
rector in a small Hudson Valley town awakens to the limitations of the
Church and the possibilities of Witchcraft and Goddess worship. I found
some of the characters to be a little two-dimensional, and I didn't find
the plot hard to predict. Then again, I couldn't help but be moved by the
beautiful, sensual descriptions of nature-centered spirituality.
Definitely worth a read - I think most Pagans will enjoy this one.
Charles de Lint, Greenmantle
Some of the author's urban fantasy books are very
good, for example Memory and Dream; unfortunately, others, like
this one, are rather mediocre. I read this book for the pagan theme which
runs through it (nature, a Horned God, that sort of thing) but found the
answers to be too easy, and the characters got a bit boring. So read it
if you get the chance, but don't go out of your way.
Diane Duane, The Door Into Fire
This is an out-of-print fantasy book (with several
sequels) that takes place in a world where bisexuality is the norm and the
gods worshipped are particularly pagan-related. Enjoyable
sword-and-sorcery novel.
Rosemary Edghill, Speak Daggers to Her
This tells the story of Bast, a contemporary
pagan (who is very down-to-earth and notes the quirks of her fellow
pagans with dry humor). This book is a mystery/thriller about her
investigation into the death of one of her friends; it is definitely
worth reading, and Bast is sensible and funny, though her flippancy can
get annoying.
Dion Fortune, The Sea Priestess
Dion Fortune was a well-known mid-20th-century
practitioner of occult mystery traditions, although within
a Christian context. This novel tells the story of a man who comes into
contact with the Divine Feminine.
Monica Furlong, Wise Child
This book, set in a Scottish village, tells about
a girl who is training to be a doran, which is (more or less)
someone who lives in harmony with nature and knows magic, essentially.
It's a lovely book, and I think it serves as a vision of what paganism is
about. (The same remarks apply to its prequel, Juniper.)
Ellen Galford, The Fires of Bride
A fun story revolving around a woman living on a
Scottish island, as well as pagan lesbian nuns from long ago. Kind of
lacked focus, but enjoyable.
Robert Graves, Watch the North Wind Rise.
A man from the present (well, actually, from the
40's, when Graves was writing) finds himself in New Crete, a future
civilization which has returned to the worship of the Triple Goddess, as
well as a caste-based social structure. This society has become somewhat
stagnant, and so the main character has been sent by the Goddess to shake
things up. An interesting book, if a bit strange...
Liz Greene, Dreamer of the Vine
This is the story of Nostradamus, so it deals with
medieval magic, Qabbalism, and astrology. I guess it was a well-written
book, but I found it kind of dark and depressing.
Elizabeth Hand, Waking the Moon
This book is unpleasant and sort of odd. Or
rather, the writing is beautiful, but the message is odd. It's kind of
about the modern Goddess revival, in terms of the light/order/male vs.
dark/chaos/female dichotomy. But the author seems to be on the side of the
men. But kind of not. I finished this and felt very, very confused. On
the positive side, it is poetically written and deals with interesting
issues of gender, power, and divinity.
Robert Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land
After you read this classic SF book, you'll
understand why the Church of All Worlds
got started... You too may find yourself grokking, trying to teleport, and
referring to your friends as your water brothers. The pagan content
becomes quite clear the more you read, especially with sacred sexuality
and the constantly-repeated "Thou art God." Recommended, although be
warned that you will have to put up with Heinlein being, as a friend of
mine once put it, "a sexist, narrow-minded, homophobic bastard." Well, I
guess we can't all be perfect.
Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic
This book is more about the power of love than
about magick per se, but its tone of wonder and its depiction of the
synchronicity between the cycles of nature and the cycles of our lives
make it very magical.
Robert Holdstock, Mythago Wood
The story of an old English forest where strange
things happen and reality is constantly shifting. Fascinating elements of
myth, archetype, legend... Definitely recommended.
Tanya Huff, Sing the Four Quarters
An enjoyable fantasy novel set in a world where
spiritual beliefs focus on the Circle, composed of Earth, Air, Fire, and
Water. In this world there is also gender equality and acceptance of
gay/bi/lesbian folk.
Clysta Kinstler, The Moon Under Her Feet
This novel tells the story of Mari Magdalene, the
High Priestess of the Goddess, and her Sacred Marriage to Yeshua (a.k.a.
Jesus), the Messiah. Now that we've gotten all those capital letters out
of the way, I wouldn't recommend this book on literary grounds, as I
found the writing to be over-dramatic. In addition, the scholarship behind
the story is somewhat sketchy (referencing Robert Graves as an accurate
historical source?). It is interesting and entertaining, however, for
those of us who are interested in both Goddess worship and alternate
histories of Jesus.
Katherine Kurtz, Lammas Night
There is a legend that in 1940, witches throughout
England raised a cone of power to stop Hitler from invading... This book
tells that story. A suspenseful adventure.
Mercedes Lackey, Children of the Night
This is one of Lackey's Diana Tregarde novels
(and the best, in my opinion). Diana is a modern-day witch and psychic
Guardian, who teams up with a vampire to fight evil. While the Wiccan
parts are accurate, these books do give the idea that witches spend their
lives battling supernatural creatures.
---------- The Fire Rose
This is a fun retelling of Beauty and the
Beast, set in San Francisco in 1905. There is a focus on ceremonial
Magick dealing with the elements. There are some parts that kind of
ramble, though, and some stereotypes. (And while I'm on the subject,
Robin McKinley's book Beauty is an excellent version of
this fairy tale)
Aileen LaTourette. Cry Wolf.
This feminist SF/fantasy book tells the story of a
post-nuclear-holocaust world where spirituality centers around "the Gods
of the Body." Which is interesting, but then the story becomes scattered
and loses this particular thread. The book left me very frustrated; I felt
it was trying to tell too many stories at once, and ended up not satisfactorily
telling any of them.
Ursula K. LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The
Farthest Shore, and Tehanu
This fantastic series is a really interesting look
at magic; all of them have a really great handle on what it means to come
to terms with the "shadow" side of yourself. (The second and fourth ones
are my personal favorites, especially the fourth one, because they look at
the differences between men's power and women's power and how much
of that is socially constructed. The fourth one was written long
after the others, and LeGuin's ideas about feminism and gender had
really shifted.)
Rhoda Lerman, Call Me Ishtar
Novel from the 70's about the goddess Ishtar
recreating herself in a modern housewife. The book doesn't try to remake
Ishtar into some kind of New Age ideal, which I appreciated. Earthy,
intelligent, and very funny.
Morgan Llewellyn, The Elementals
The four stories in this book (each in a different
historical setting - from ancient Greece to colonial New England - and
each dealing with a different element) are linked by a common theme of the
earth as a living organism.
Donna Jo Napoli, The Magic Circle
This story is a reworking of Hansel and Gretel,
set in the Middle Ages. It presents, sort of, the Christian Church's
definition of a witch - there are definitely demons - but it's a
beautifully told story, poetic and hallucinatory.
Carol Orlock, The Goddess Letters
I found this book slightly tedious at the
beginning but it got better. It's a series of letters written back and
forth between Demeter and Persephone; it deals with the shift from
matriarchy to patriarchy, among other issues. Interesting.
Rachel Pollack, Godmother Night
I can't say enough good things about this book.
It's mysterious and delightful. It tells the story of two women who fall
in love in college and eventually have children together. It also features
one of the coolest incarnations of Death that I've ever run into. It asks
a lot of metaphysical questions as well as teling a great story.
(Oh, and of course it's out of print.)
Mary Renault, The King Must Die and The Bull From the
Sea
These books are a retelling of the Theseus myth;
there are lots of pagan things going on. They're good reading, if a
little dry, and I generally think she does a really good job of bringing
ancient religious traditions alive in her writing. But be warned that
Theseus is sexist and obnoxious.
Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
A wonderful fable about a painted stick, a conch
shell, and a can o' beans. Oh, and a restaurant run jointly by a Jewish
man and an Arab. This book somehow managed to incorporate all of the
elements which are central to my worldview (the sacredness of everyday
life; goddess-worship; the evil of capitalism; the evil of religious
zealotry; a wonderful sense of humor; and many, many more things!) Most
highly recommended.
----------- Jitterbug Perfume
Another wonderful fable, this time about
immortality, the god Pan, and the powers of our sense of smell.
Josephine Saxton, The Travails of Jane Saint
A witty feminist novella about a woman who,
while experiencing sensory deprivation (in an attempt by the State to
brainwash her) undertakes a quest to change the relationships between men
and women. This quest takes place in an Otherworld which might be the
collective unconscious, and involves all kinds of symbols and archetypes.
Intelligent, funny, and enjoyable.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, The Egypt Game
This is a story about six junior-high-school
kids who are fascinated by ancient Egypt and its gods, so they recreate
Egyptian rituals. I've loved this book ever since I was about ten or
eleven and it's one of my absolute favorites :)
------------ The Changeling
This book is sadly out of print. It's about the
somewhat magical adventures of two girls: Martha, who is essentially a
miserable misfit; and Ivy, who is different from anyone else Martha
knows. Their friendship brings magic into Martha's life. Difficult to
describe but recommended!
Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing
The story is set about fifty years from now in
California. It deals with the conflict all peaceful societies have had to
deal with - i.e., how to resist violence without becoming violent. This
book is one of the few things that gives me hope that it's possible to do
so. Magick, sacred sex, syncretism, and all sorts of pagan goings-on (no
surprise there, given the author). Highly recommended.
S.M. Stirling, Dies the Fire
A futuristic novel in which all electricity (and
guns) on Earth suddenly stop working. The book tells the story of small
bands of people attempting to survive and re-create communiy. While it
presents
a positive picture of Wicca (a Celtic Witch named Juniper is one of the
main characters and is a strong and powerful leader), I had a lot of other
issues with this book. I found the book to be very sexist (and the fact
that the author clearly believes he is not being sexist made it even more
irritating). Also, it reflects an SCA-like nostalgia for cultures and
societies that never really existed as we imagine them. Which is fine in
the SCA, but let's not try to pretend it would work in the real world.
Jean Stubbs, The Witching Time
Delightful British novel about a young woman who
moves out into the English countryside and takes up with a group of
witches, women who practice healing and celebrate the Sabbats at the local
standing stones, but are not looked on with favor by all the locals. She
is also drawn into local intrigue via a theatrical production. Much drama
ensues. Occasionally I found plot elements unconvincing (the villain and
his dastardly doings, for example), but the characters were generally
well-drawn and I very much enjoyed the story.
Thomas Tryon, Harvest Home
Most definitely pagan, but also creepy, in that
special fertility-cult sort of way!
Joan T. Vinge, The Snow Queen
A fantastic book (in every sense of the word) that
manages to mix science fiction, fantasy, mythology, fairy tales, and
social commentary. Something for everyone.
Elisabeth Waters, Changing Fate
This is a really good fantasy story about a girl
who is a shapeshifter. Some themes, such as the "Year-King",
the gods worshipped, and the importance of the four elements, are rather
pagan in nature. One thing I really liked about this book was that there
were no easy villains.
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, Illuminatus!
This extremely inventive and confusing trilogy is
vaguely Discordian. Then again, it is so random that it relates to pretty
much anything else you could think of! Recommended, especially if you have
a short attention span and a lot of time on your hands.
In these books, the Actual Pagan Content is
limited or nonexistent. However, I think they deal with important issues
of society, nature, and community in a way that resonates with pagan
ideology. (My idea of "pagan values" is pretty well
expressed by Starhawk's pagan political
agenda.)
Dorothy Bryant, The Kin of Ata Are Waiting For You
This is a wonderful story about the power of
dreaming. The plot is basically that a spiritually empty man has an
accident and finds himself on a remote island where none of the rules of
the normal world apply. It kind of reminds me of Stranger in a Strange
Land. Highly recommended. (Note: this book is also published as The
Comforter)
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
This story takes place around 2020, in
California, in a society in which violence has increased and the
environment has gotten worse. The narrator is a young woman who is
resourceful and not afraid to face the truth - that things are not going
to get better on their own. She is in the process of creating her own
religion, predicated on the observation that "God is Change." This book
really changed my thinking. Oh, and also, it is one of the few visionary
novels I've come across that really deals with issues of race.
Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia
Would it be too much to ask for a utopia story
told through the eyes of a female protagonist? *sigh* Anyway, this book
made for somewhat flat reading (from a literary perspective) but was
interesting theoretically. It tells the story of a (male) journalist who
visits the environmentally friendly state of Ecotopia (formerly Northern
California, Oregon, and Washington, having seceded from the US - sounds
good to me!). The utopian aspect of the book definitely provided some
interesting food for thought.
Sylvia Engdahl, The Far Side of Evil
While not pagan-themed, this book presents some
very interesting ideas about the nature of
civilization and technology, in particular the idea that each world makes
a choice between nuclear development and space travel. It's about a young
woman from a highly advanced civilization; she has an observation mission
on a planet very similar to ours. (Plus, Sylvia Engdahl is really
neat.
Aldous Huxley, Island
This is a great pagan utopia story, which reminded
me both of The Kin of Ata (see above) and The Three Sirens
(see below), but with a more scientific approach. It was rather too
behavioristic for me, but nonetheless interesting. Definitely
recommended.
Ursula K. LeGuin, Always Coming Home
This book blew me away. It's an anthropological
study of a fictional culture who "might be going to have lived" in a
valley in California in a couple thousand years. It's a mixture of
stories, poems, songs, myths, and descriptions of how the people live. A
beautiful vision (and, of course, out of print).
------- The Dispossessed
This book's unofficial subtitle is "an ambiguous
utopia," which is a good description. It tells the story of a man from an
anarchistic society who goes back to visit the capitalist planet from
which the founders of his society escaped. This book is beautiful, and
realistic without being cynical. It made me cry. Most highly
recommended.
Perhaps I should mention that I'm a huge fan of Ursula LeGuin. Her
books are moving, beautifully crafted, and deeply human. I encourage
everyone to explore her works.
Morgan Llewellyn, The Elementals
(See previous section)
Patricia McKillip, Moon-Flash
This is a short book about a young girl from a
tribal sort of culture who leaves her little village to explore; what she
discovers changes her forever. A beautifully told story about the
intersection of technology and nature.
Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time
A woman who has been wrongfully placed in an
insane asylum has visions of two very different futures which are both
still possible. The one she hopes to bring into being is very loving,
small-community-oriented, and close to nature.
------ He, She, and It
I didn't think this book was as well-written as
the above one, but the story is very powerful. It takes place in a
future where "multis" (huge corporations) dominate most of the
world; the narrator, however, comes from one of the few free towns. The
book mixes ancient Jewish legend with current social issues and a very
good adventure story.
Irving Wallace, The Three Sirens
An interesting book about a group of
anthropologists who start to question their own assumptions about
civilization and sexuality when they visit an uncharted Polynesian island.
Engrossing and entertaining, although I was disappointed by the
ending.
I used to make it a point to read all the Arthurian books I came across -
it's always fun to compare the different accounts of
incidents, the different motives assigned to characters, the different
plot focuses, and, of course, the different spellings of names :>
(If you can stand the foreshadowing and predestination and endless
irritating prophecies, that is...)
Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon
This book is incredible. It's a retelling of the
Arthurian myth with an emphasis on the struggle between pagans and
Christians at the time, and also an emphasis on the stories of the women
involved. It's quite a saga. I will say that (a) sometimes I wish MZB had
more of a sense of humor in her stories and (b) by the end I was sort of
sick of so much "Of course
I should have realized that it was All Part of the Great Plan" (but I
talked about that before). Anyway, if you haven't read this book, you
should do so immediately.
Gillian Bradshaw, Hawk of May
This one is told from the point of view of
Gwalchmai (the son of Morgause and Lot), which gives it a rather new
perspective. Wonderfully told, but I couldn't help noticing that women are
allied with black magic/ darkness, whereas men (especially warriors) are
on the good side, the side of the Light.
Parke Godwin, Firelord
An excellent story, the characters are very real
and down-to-earth, and Godwin's depiction of the Prydn, who are sort of
faeries, is very original. The focus is both on Arthur's psychological
development and the conflict between Roman and native British cultures.
Courtway Jones, In the Shadow of the Oak King and
Witch of the North
I didn't enjoy these books all that much, although
they certainly put a different spin on things - there's an emphasis on
the different tribes which inhabited Britain. I felt that the dialogue
was somewhat stilted and the characters were not real enough. Also, there
were too many people and places to remember, a problem which I didn't
think the author handled well.
Stephen R. Lawhead, Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur
(There's a fourth book out, but I've only read
the trilogy) The first two books are great reading, but Arthur, for
some reason, has a vehemently anti-pagan tone. I think I would have
enjoyed it a little more if I could have ignored that. Also, the focus of
the first two is more on bards, while the third mainly talks about war and
battles. Go figure.
Ian McDowell, Mordred's Curse
This is a very good book, although occasionally I
felt as if the author was trying too hard to be iconoclastic and
irreverent. But he does succeed - his Mordred is a fully developed and
interesting character, as are most of his characters.
Nancy MacKenzie, The Child Queen, The High Queen
As you might suspect from the title, these two
books focus on Guinevere. They're very nice and make good reading,
although Guinevere gets sort of weepy when she's not being strong in a
crisis. There's relatively little paganism.
Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last
Enchantment, and The Wicked Day
This series is something of a classic. There is a
focus on Merlin, but of course he knows everything that's going on, so
it's not as if you miss out on anything :) These books are all wonderful.
There's really not much else I can say; the story is basically the
traditional one.
Elisabeth Wein, The Winter Prince
This book is a wonderful, poetic retelling from
the point of view of Medraut (Mordred). It's very pagan. It's about
the struggle to be Arthur's heir, between the Winter Prince, Medraut, and
Arthur's other son, sickly Lleu. Medraut's ambivalence about Lleu -
alternately he is jealous and protecting - are the main focus of the
story. This is another one of those books that I can't say enough good
things about.
T.H. White, The Once and Future King
This is a classic; for those who haven't read it,
it's by turns satirical and serious; there's a lot of humor and also a
lot of deep issues. There's not much paganism in it, unless you count an
encounter with Robin Hood, who is called Robin Wood. Merlin, in this
version, is a wizard who lives backward in time (which provides some
interesting grammatical wonderings).
Gael Baudino, Shroud of Shadow>
This is about Elves (Goddess-worshipping ones)
during the Inquisition. As with most of Gael Baudino's books, this has a
feminist slant which can get preachy. But on the whole it's an okay
book. Gael Baudino has another book that deals with Elves/ magic/ the
Goddess during the Inquisition - it's called Strands of Starlight.
I liked it better in a lot of ways; there are some interesting
psychological debates, if I remember correctly. Then there's Strands of
Sunlight, which is about the rebirth of Elves in the twentieth century
and is a story about (emotional) healing.
Emma Bull, War for the Oaks
This book is similar to Gossamer Axe (see first
section) but not as political. A rock musician gets drafted in a war
against the Unseelie Court. Excellently told and highly recommended.
John Crowley, Little, Big
: A beautiful novel about Faerie, architecture, and
human relationships. Enchanting, poetic writing (although I came away from
the novel not sure if I totally understood it.)
Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot.
This book is sometimes funny and sometimes very
frightening. It's a collection of short stories about Newford, an
imaginary city; by halfway through the book, you feel like you've
actually been there. Also, there are recurring characters; these and the
unity of setting make this book not a series of unrelated short stories,
but a series of episodes. (Note: most of Charles de Lint's works are urban
fantasy involving faery-like creatures, but I don't feel like listing them
all here)
Rosemary Edghill, Sword of Maiden's Tears and Cup of Morning
Shadows
I don't like these two as much as Edghill's
other fiction - I think she uses cliches which she could have avoided; but
they still make a pretty good read. They're about a young woman in
contemporary NYC who meets up with an elf lord looking for a lost
treasure; the first takes place in NYC and the second in Elfland.
Lisa Goldstein, Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon
This story takes place in Elizabethan England;
the story of a widow who runs her late husband's bookselling business but
otherwise is fairly ordinary - until she comes in contact with the
faeries... This is a very interesting and imaginative story with plenty of
historical figures, e.g. Kit Marlowe, Thomas Kyd.
Ellen Kushner, Thomas the Rhymer
This is a richly and beautifully told tale,
reworking an old ballad about a harper who is seduced by the Queen of
Elfland and is taken to live with her for seven years. There's humor,
pain, poetry, and everything in between. I recommend it most highly!
Mercedes Lackey and Holly Lisle, When the Bough Breaks
This is good contemporary fantasy about an
elf trying to save a psychically gifted child who is being molested by
her stepfather. Fast-paced and fun, if not a great work of literature.
(Note: there are also more Mercedes Lackey books about faeries and
elves and such, but you can find them for yourselves if you're so
inclined!)
Patricia C. Wrede, Snow White and Rose Red
A retelling of the fairy tale set in Elizabethan
England; some historical figures such as John Dee and Edward Kelly, who
practice ceremonial magick and, trying to get power from the Faerie
world, trap some of the Faerie Queen's son's mind, so that he turns
into a bear. This book is not extraordinary but I think it's worth
reading.