Robert Holdstock

Encounter myth and terror in the forest deeps in Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood--a classic fantasy novel in The Mythago Cycle now available in a Tor Essentials edition, with a new introduction by Michael Swanwick. The mystery of Ryhope Wood, Britain's last fragment of primeval forest, consumed George Huxley's entire long life. Now, after his death, his sons have taken up his work. But what they discover is numinous and perilous beyond all expectation. For the Wood, larger inside than out, is a labyrinth full of myths come to life, "mythagos" that can change you forever. A labyrinth where love and beauty haunt your dreams...and may drive you insane. "This is a winning novel with a fine feeling for the interface between airy dreams and sweaty reality."--Publishers Weekly Tor Essentials are new editions of great fantasy and science fiction classics of our time, featuring new introductions by contemporary authors.

Winner of the World Fantasy Award "I am placing this entry at the beginning of my edited journal for reasons that will become apparent. Time is very short for me now, the final part of the ritual draws near... I cannot pretend that I am not frightened." There were these two British writers, one lived in the country, the other in the city. The country writer loved to visit the city and partake of brandy and Greek kebabs in the local hostelry. The city writer liked to visit the country and guzzle ale and barbecued steak under the apple trees. The two writers needed an excuse for these indulgences, and so they invented one, and this excuse was called "collaborating on a story" ... It soon emerged that the story was to be about a legendary tree, which they both vaguely recalled from the tales their grandfathers used to tell them of mystery and myth. Soon they were delving with suppressed excitement into old documents at the British Museum and began to come up with some frightening discoveries. The first of these finds was in studying the original text, in Anglo-Saxon, of the Old English poem "The Dream of the Rood". The marrying of the "tree" (crucifixion cross) and the "thorn" (a runic character) was too elaborately regular to be an accident of metre or alliterative language. Other discoveries followed, and the story gradually surfaced, like a dark secret from its burial mound. The Ragthorn: a dark and unsettling World Fantasy Award-winning novella by Robert Holdstock and Garry Kilworth. Also included in this volume, two bonus stories: "The Fabulous Beast" by Garry Kilworth, and "The Charisma Trees" by Robert Holdstock. Robert Holdstock: 'Britain's best fantasist ... these are the visions of a real artist.' - The Times 'Our finest living mythmaker. His narratives - intense, exuberant, earthy, passionate, dense with metaphor - are new trails through the ancient forest of our imaginations. An essential writer.' - Stephen Baxter 'No other author has so successfully captured the magic of the wildwood.' - Michael Moorcock 'A new expression of the British genius for true fantasy.' - Alan Garner, on Mythago Wood Garry Kilworth: 'Garry Kilworth is arguably the finest writer of short fiction today, in any genre.' - New Scientist 'Kilworth is one of the most significant writers in the English language.' - Fear Magazine 'Probably one of the finest writers of short stories Britain has ever produced.' - Bookstove Online 'Kilworth is a master of his trade.' - Punch Magazine

The haunting sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning Mythago Wood.

MYTHAGO WOOD won the WORLD FANTASY AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL and is regarded as one of the finest fantasy novels of the 20th century.

From the vaults of the SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes this republication of a trilogy of early, pseudonymous adventure tales by Robert Holdstock, WORLD FANTASY AWARD-winning author of MYTHAGO WOOD. The Berserker books are raw, primeval stories of a young Norse warrior, cursed by the gods to a life of savage warfare. Possessed by an animal, ferocious rage - implacable, invincible - Harald Swiftaxe fights his way across the Celtic world in search of release from his curse and, finally, peace. The Berserker omnibus contains SHADOW OF THE WOLF, THE BULL CHIEF and THE HORNED WARRIOR.

The triumphant return to the world of MYTHAGO WOOD, one of the greatest fantasy novels of the twentieth centuryAt the heart of Ryhope Wood, Steven and the mythago Guiwenneth live in the ruins of a Roman villa close to a haunted fortress from the Iron Age, from which Guiwenneth's myth arose. She is comfortable here, almost tied to the place, and Steven has long since abandoned all thought of returning to his own world. They have animals, protection and crops. They also have two children, a combination of human and mythago. Jack is like his father, an active boy keen to know all about `the outer world'; Yssobel takes after her mother, even to her long auburn hair. But this idyll cannot last. The hunters who protected Guiwenneth as a child have come to warn her she is in danger. Yssobel is dreaming increasingly of her Uncle Christian, Steven's brother, who disappeared into Lavondyss, and Jack wants to see 'the outer world' more than anything. Events are about to overtake them.

A powerful and compelling tale of the birthplace of Merlin by the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Mythago Wood.

Long before King Arthur is born to rule England, the enchanter Merlin is caught up in a tangled web of magic and mayhem, treachery, truth and heady enchantment

A NOVEL IN THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD-WINNING MYTHAGO CYCLE Ryhope Wood, Mythago Wood, is the great forest steeped in mystery, whose heart contains secrets that change all who come there. Alex Bradley is a damaged and visionary child. Little does he know that the distorted creations of his mind are alive inside nearby Ryhope Wood. When the forest claims him, his father goes in pursuit, along with a scientific expedition looking for the secret of "mythago-genesis"... But inside Ryhope, Alex has created a hundred forms of the Trickster-all of them seeking their maker, and all of them deadly.

A sequel to Mythago Wood finds thirteen-year-old Tallis searching for a realm in the heart of the forest, hoping to assist an older brother who disappeared in her infancy and who has appealed to her from the Otherworld. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.