Back in 1987, I read Thomas Burnett Swann’s Day of the Minotaur, and enjoyed it, but did not follow through with any more of his books until recent weeks. Now, reading four more of his novels gives me a better appreciation of this odd fantasy writer, who descends more from the Pre-Raphaelites, Lord Dunsany, and James Branch Cabell than the more usual fantasist’s patrimony of Tolkien and Howard.
Thomas Burnett Swann lived from 1928 until a youthful death from cancer in 1976. In the few years before his death, he wrote a series of interconnected fantasies set in “historic” periods — the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East — but only if you imagine that the mythological creatures of those civilizations actually existed in them. The satyrs, dryads, minotaurs, and other mythological creatures are always presented in a psychologically, if not physically realistic way. His centaurs, like the kinnaras in the Mahabharata, are treated in a matter-of-fact way that makes you forget they are impossible. You expect one to trot by you as you are reading one of the books.
Four of the five I’ve read are set in this fantasy-antiquity. The book that does not quite fit in is The Goat Without Horns, which is set in the 19th century, and is narrated by a dolphin. It amusingly spoofs many conventions of Victorian fiction.
All the books bathe in a pleasant sensuality, and are never far from a sexual tease. They were published by DAW Books, directed at the sub-cultural market of science fiction and fantasy readers, an audience which was then (and perhaps remains) notorious for its infantile sexual attitudes. They did not fit into the zeitgeist, although a small minority of readers took to them. All the books hinted at some sort of pan-sexuality, but when DAW brought out How Are the Mighty Fallen in 1974, with it’s overt (gasp!) homosexuality, editor Donald Wollheim had to fight to get the distributor to handle it, and genre reviewers went into homophobic panic. Yet, it’s re-telling of the biblical story of David and Jonathan is charming, intelligent, and poetic.
5830. (Thomas Burnett Swann) Day of the Minotaur
19240. (Thomas Burnett Swann) The Minikins of Yam
19248. (Thomas Burnett Swann) Cry Silver Bells
19284. (Thomas Burnett Swann) How Are the Mighty Fallen
19289. (Thomas Burnett Swann) The Goat Without Horns
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