Rachel Neumeier got me thinking with her blog entry about bringing out the best old books into the spotlight, because I love telling people about The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.

It’s from 1974, and it’s a real gem. The writing style has the mythic weightiness similar to Ursula K. Le Guin’s prose, with every sentence feeling like a fragment of a dark, ancient legend. The magic in the story is beautiful and fascinating. The scenes are as exciting as they are intimate.

Overall, it’s a very thoughtful book, and it features an unforgettable heroin. For a fantasy story, I really think it was ahead of its time in terms of writing style and character complexity. It’s hard to find a better book.

The best part is how well The Forgotten Beasts of Eld holds up over time. Whenever I pour myself into those old pages (my copy is older than I am and pretty well-traveled) I get sucked into the mystery and the magic all over again. Not a lot of books can keep giving like that.