For those who only think of Lin Carter as an editor and pastiche creator, I suggest they take a clos
For those who only think of Lin Carter as an editor and pastiche creator, I suggest they take a closer look at his extremely humorous, lighthearted, and satiric Terra Magica series. Lin Carter is a giant in the world of fantasy, his work editing the Ballantine Fantasy Paperback Line essentially created the modern fantasy canon by what it chose to reprint in paperback. His Terra Magica series has a fascinating idea: what if Medieval concepts of the world were absolutely right? The world is flat, there are countries of dog-headed men and men with faces in their chests, and you can find the Fountain of Youth in Prester John’s Kingdom, if you can avoid the griffins, three-eyed ogres, and pagan Muslims who pray to the evil god Termagant. Lin Carter claims that it was inspired by Orlando Furioso, but a closer and more direct inspiration he’d probably not admit to (but is obvious to a fantasy lover) is the Poictesme series by James Branch Cabell (specifically the humor) and the light, comedic romps of L. Sprague de Camp in Viagens Interplanetarias. -- source link