refuse to be bonded to the present king, which
makes them outlaws. A young woman becomes
the uneasy heir to the throne in Sky of Swords
(2000) and secures her claim through clever ma-
nipulation at court aided by the loyalty of several
of the Blades. Paragon Lost(2002) moves to a
neighboring country in which a delegation es-
corted by the Blades discovers that the local ruler
is dangerously unbalanced. Another foreign ruler
appeals for help in Impossible Odds(2003), seeking
to free her people from the domination of an evil
sorcerer, and a small delegation of Blades are
given the apparently impossible task of helping
her. The most recent in the series is The Jaguar
Knights(2004), a fascinating and original work in
which an outlying fortress is attacked by a band of
warriors, some of whom are not human. They are
clearly from an unknown land, but their methods
of travel and attack are so strange that the king
decides he will sacrifice some of his loyal Blades if
necessary to discover the truth.
Duncan also wrote two adventures of the
King’s Daggers, a short-lived young adult sequence
set in the same world. Sir Stalwart(1999) compels
two young enemies to work together to clear their
names of scandal, and The Crooked House(2000) is
a moderately clever murder mystery. Duncan is
one of the handful of contemporary fantasy au-
thors who avoid using familiar settings and situa-
tions and consistently provide original and
innovative new adventures. He also tackles
steadily more intricate story lines and creates in-
creasingly elaborate cultures in his later work.
Dunsany, Lord (Edward John Moreton Drax
Plunkett)(1878–1957)
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett wrote exten-
sively using his title, Lord Dunsany, as his byline,
and the significant portion of his work that was
fantasy is generally his best-remembered fiction, al-
though he also wrote the classic mystery short
story “Two Bottles of Relish.” His first major fan-
tasy work was The Gods of Pegana(1905), a collec-
tion of anecdotes about a set of mythical gods,
most of which would not technically qualify as
short stories. His second collection, Time and the
Gods(1906), contains more plot and narrative,
and the third, The Sword of Welleran and Other Sto-
ries(1908), contains several classic tales, including
“THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE, SAVE FOR SAC-
NOTH,” which anticipated many of the now all-
too-common themes of modern fantasy fiction.
Several more collections followed, each containing
at least a few outstanding stories. Many of the later
stories are in the Jorkens series, not all of which
are fantasy and most of which are decidedly hu-
morous.
Dunsany’s full-length novels are, in general,
not as interesting as his short fiction. Don Ro-
driguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley(1922) is an
episodic adventure set in a magical version of me-
dieval Spain and was clearly influenced by Don
Quixoteby Cervantes. The King of Elfland’s Daugh-
ter(1924) is the best of his novels, relating the
sometimes comical consequences when a mortal
man marries a fairy princess. The Charwoman’s
Shadow(1926) is a pleasant but minor fairy tale,
and magic plays a decreasing role in The Blessing of
Pa n 1927) and The Curse of the Wise Woman
(1933).
There was revived interest in Dunsany’s fan-
tasy during the early 1970s, when Lin CARTER
edited three new collections of his short stories for
the Ballantine Books adult fantasy line, At the
Edge of the World(1970), Beyond the Fields We
Know(1972), and Over the Hills and Far Away
(1974), and there have been reprints and cross
collections ever since. Recent new volumes, In the
Land of Time(2004) and the Complete Jorkens
(2004), indicate that interest in his work has not
diminished. Dunsany is rightly considered one of
the inventors of adult fantasy fiction, and many of
his short stories are undeniable classics. He was
also the author of many plays, several of which
have fantastic elements.“The Dunwich Horror”H. P. Lovecraft
(1929)
A large portion of the horror tales of H. P. LOVE-
CRAFTare set within the context of the Cthulhu
Mythos, which assumes that Earth was once ruled
by a race of monstrous alien intelligences who
were banished to another reality and who hope
one day to return. In several of his stories, includ-98 Dunsany, Lord