Niel Hancock
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Niel Hancock (born 1941) is an American fantasy writer. ( "Niel" is the correct spelling of his name.)
After being out of print for several years, his novels are being reprinted by Tor Books. Hancock's fantasy books are grouped into three sets of four books each. (A stand-alone novel, Dragon Winter, is not explicitly part of this storyline, but is extremely similar to the other books.)
Hancock writes high fantasy with strong spiritual overtones, similar to Ursula Le Guin, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. His books were released at a time when interest in high fantasy was at a peak, and very little writing in that genre existed. As the genre expanded, his books went out of print.
Hancock has a unique approach to the high fantasy genre which separates him from other authors. While other authors are influenced by Eastern beliefs (such as Le Guin), Hancock constructs his fantasy to explicitly include Buddhist concepts of moving through cycles of time and rebirth. The river "Calix Stay" of his books is very similar to the river out of samsara in the Dhammapada. Characters cross this river into another world, but are soon reborn back into their lower world to work out their karma. The books use the framework of the traditional fantasy quest, but this quest is often secondary to the real plot, which centers on the struggle to escape samsara in the fantasy world. The plot is often difficult to follow, particularly to those unfamiliar with Buddhist thought, which may explain why Hancock has never achieved the same degree of classic status as other early authors in the fantasy genre who explored spiritual themes.
Hancock freely intermingles talking animals and humanoids in his books (including humans, elves, masters of sorcery, etc). In the first set of books, the animals are able to change into humans and pass as human. Later sets blur the distinction and have animals and humans together.
Hancock's universe has an ambiguous technological setting. Sometimes, the world he creates is like that of Tolkien, a primitive sword-and-sorcery world. At other times, it becomes modern with warfare resembling the state of technology in World War One (or, perhaps, the American Civil War). Hancock is a veteran of the Vietnam war and uses his experiences in writing his fantasy books. His world, however, does not seem to have the automatic weapons and helicopters of that war.
Like C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, the books as published were not in chronological order of the events in the fantasy world itself. The first set is the last to occur in the chronology. The second set is the earliest. The final set is in the middle. Dragon Winter is set some time after the second set, although it is the most ambiguous of the novels because it does not belong to a set.
As an early contributor to the mass-market fantasy genre, Hancock's fate is similar to his contemporary Elizabeth Boyer in that his books required the reader to be interested in a specialized area of study (in this case, Buddhist philosophy) in order to fully appreciate the books, and thus he did not find the sort of wide acceptance which would have given him a more prominent place as a pioneer in the genre.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Circle of Light Series
- Greyfax Grimwald November 1982 ISBN 0446314773
- Faragon Fairingay November 1982 ISBN 0446314226
- Calix Stay November 1982 ISBN 0446314102
- Squaring The Circle November 1982 ISBN 0446310999
- The Wilderness Of Four Series
- Across The Far Mountain August 1983 ISBN 0446312134
- The Plains Of The Sea August 1983 ISBN 0446312150
- On The Boundaries Of Darkness August 1983 ISBN 0446312177
- The Road To The Middle Islands August 1983 ISBN 0446312118
- The Windameir Circle Series
- The Fires Of Windameir October 1984 ISBN 0445205636
- The Sea Of Silence November 1987 ISBN 0445205652
- A Wanderer's Return October 1988 ISBN 0445208228
- The Bridge Of Dawn December 1990 ISBN 0445208244
- Dragon Winter December 1983 ISBN 0446312096
The original editions were published by Warner Books. The print in many of these is unusually small even for pocket-sized paperbacks.
The reprints were by Tor, and classified as young adult literature.
- The Circle of Light Series (2004 reprint)
- Greyfax Grimwald Feb 2004 ISBN 0765346133
- Faragon Fairingay Apr 2004 ISBN 0765346168
- Calix Stay June 2004 ISBN 0765346176
- Squaring The Circle July 2004 ISBN 0765346184
Note: These reprints are advertised as for ages ranging from 8-12. This doesn't seem realistic in light of the advanced spiritual thematic matter of the books, and the books are hard to appreciate on the surface level of talking animals and a quest. Further volumes of the other series were expected to be reprinted, but have never actually been issued.
