Publication Details
UK: Victor Gollancz, 1984; HB; ISBN:0575034963
USA: Arbor House, 1984; HB; ISBN:0877957614
UK: Grafton Books, 1986; PB; ISBN: 0586065857
USA: Berkley, 1986; PB; ISBN: 0425087859
UK: Grafton, 1990; PB; ISBN: 0586065857
USA: Voyager, 1998; PB; ISBN: 0586065853
UK: Earthlight, 2002; PB; ISBN: 0743440811
USA: Orb Books, 2003; PB; ISBN: 0765307294
UK: Gollancz, 2007; HB; ISBN: 0575079703
UK: Gollancz, 2009; PB; ISBN: 0575086572
UK: Gollancz, 2014; PB; ISBN: 147320545X
Order it from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. Buy the e-book from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
The special 30th Anniversary edition of Mythago Wood was published as part of the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks series in 2014, featuring an introduction by Neil Gaiman which you can read here.
Read Chapter 4 from Mythago Wood
Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged. Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable … and stronger than time itself.
Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christopher, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity.
‘One of the major achievements of contemporary fantasy’
Time Out
‘Indescribably enchanting… a fantasy which celebrates the immensity of love… should be read several times.’
The Spectator
‘Classic yet original setting… A haunting book…Holdstock’s best.’
The Guardian
‘A stunningly good book. Conveys the haunting power of old heroes and lost gods.’
Locus
‘Beautifully written and conceived. Some books are hard to put down. I found Mythago Wood hard to shake off.’
New York Times
‘A new expression of the British genius for true fantasy.’
Alan Garner, author of Red Shift and The Owl Service.
‘We have here a powerful and profound work of creation which I believe will be reads, not merely in the present, but in a hundred years time, and in the eternal entanglements and winters yet to come.’
Brian Aldiss, author of The Helliconia Trilogy
‘A tour de force…A deeply satisfying book… There are resonances and lyric passages here, strange discoveries and old histories clothed anew. Highly recommended.’
Charles de Lint, author of Greenmantle and The Ivory and the Horn
‘No other author has so successfully captured the magic of the wildwood.’
Michael Moorcock
‘Mythago Wood is epic on the human scale, the individual lives of his protagonists caught up in the great web of story that connects each one of us to the other and to the past. It’s not soft, his heroes suffer as do all the true heroes of myth, and in Mythago Wood all that is left is hope, but then what are stories for if not to carry the candlelight of hope from generation to generation?
Mythago Wood is a remarkable, evocative book, and one that shows us that the tropes of fantasy are not restricted purely to alien worlds troubled by dark lords and dragons.’
SFX, 2002
‘Larger inside than out, like Dr Who’s Tardis, and populated by…primal yet multifaceted elements of myth, it’s a feral, spooky, and thoroughly exhilarating arena of Story.’
Paul McAuley, Interzone
Robert Holdstock 