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P.S.
I shall shortly be getting a $20 Amazon gift certificate, thanks to answering surveys. :) Feel free to rec me books.
General things I'm liking at the moment:
--traditional generic-medievaloidExtruded Fantasy Product fantasy. Yes, I've read Lackey [don't like], Eddings [ditto], most everyone who started writing fantasy in the '80s. It's recent ones I'm not familiar with. (Yes, I've read PC hodgell and am about to commence rereading so I can review To Ride A Rathorn this month for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
estara, who I owe it to. XD)
--YA fantasy
--interesting papercraft books
--interesting nonfiction, especially travel books
General things I am not liking at the moment:
--urban fantasy. Especially the sort with vampires, werewolves, zombies, or any mix of the above.
--depressing books
--anything I consider too literary, which is mostly anything that you guys love the writing of, but which I find dull to read. Er, sorry, not much help there am I?
Although feel free to rec stuff that fits the above Don't criteria, although you must explain why this one is the exception.
General things I'm liking at the moment:
--traditional generic-medievaloid
estara, who I owe it to. XD)--YA fantasy
--interesting papercraft books
--interesting nonfiction, especially travel books
General things I am not liking at the moment:
--urban fantasy. Especially the sort with vampires, werewolves, zombies, or any mix of the above.
--depressing books
--anything I consider too literary, which is mostly anything that you guys love the writing of, but which I find dull to read. Er, sorry, not much help there am I?
Although feel free to rec stuff that fits the above Don't criteria, although you must explain why this one is the exception.
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I'm not gonna squee about them, though. I'll just go incoherent with how much I like them.
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Have you read Neil Gaiman's latest? The Jungle Books go Gaiman gothic ... .
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You must also absolutely snag Pratchett's latest Nation if you haven't already, as it has sneaky awesome I couldn't have predicted.
Travelogue of awesome: You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons by Mo Willems, who created my iconified Pigeon.
Maybe a book on making pop-up books!
Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All by Christina Thompson, Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan and Then the World by Courtney Humphries (no mention of Willem's Pigeon, alas!), and The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell are among the most delightful nonfiction I've read lately.
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Aside from Ever (which I bounced off of hard) I've enjoyed Gail Carson Levine's medievaloid fairy tale books. Simon R. Green's Hawk and Fisher books are fairly insane medievaloid fantasy about a badass husband and wife cop team who are the only up-and-up people in a fairly standard but amoral fantasy city.
Trudi Canavan's Black Magiciam Trilogy was pretty good medievaloid fantasy, but (A) trilogy instead of standalone, and (B) I have Issues regarding the ending, and expect the forthcoming sequel to address them.
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Like 90210?
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Elizabeth Bunce's A Curse Dark as Gold - YA retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. The setting is very well done (water powered fabric mill), and she changes enough motivations of the Rumpelstiltskin story so it makes more sense.
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In a Japanese manga/novel series I've been reading this week, a character goes by the nickname Rune from his (inexplicably given?) real name Rumpelstiltskin. A joke about his long name fell pretty flat in English, as in Japanese "Rumpelstiltskin" is something more like "Runperusutirutsukin."
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http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=7878
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- Marie Brennan's Midnight Never Come (fantasy) isn't medievaloid, but it's Elizabethan fantasy with Faerie that has court politics and intrigue and manages to do it in a way that's actually comprehensible to me. And I actually liked her Faerie, and I'm pretty sick of Faerie.
- Clare B. Dunkle's The Hollow Kingdom (YA fantasy) is a beast bridegroom story and reminds me of Perilous Gard, though not quite as good. And it has a hilarious talking snake.
- Kathleen Duey's Skin Hunger (YA fantasy) is a fascinating take on many medievaloid tropes, but it is horribly depressing.
- Emma Donoghue's Kissing the Witch isn't medievaloid or YA, but it's fairy tale retakes. I know it was written a while ago, but I figure some people don't know about it and it is AWESOME.
- Susan Fletcher's Alphabet of Dreams and Shadow Spinners are YA retakes of Three Magi and Scheherazade, respectively. She has excellent characterization and great female characters. Not fantasy per se, but has the same worldbuilding/story feel of fantasy for me.
- Colleen Gleason's The Rest Fall Away is Regency!Buffy, but it may be too romance-y for you. It's actually not a romance per se, but some of the voice bugs me.
- Maureen Johnson's Devilish is fun YA modern fantasy involving a deal with the devil, and it amazingly has female friendship and competition that doesn't make me want to throw things. I like her Bermudez Triangle and Key to the Golden Firebird a lot as well, but those aren't fantasy.
- I'm pretty sure you've read Ellen Kushner's Privilege of the Sword?
- I'm also pretty sure you've read Ursula K. Le Guin's Voices? Gifts and Powers are the other two in the trilogy, but Voices is my favorite. Also, kickass girl fighting colonialism!
- Laurie J. Marks' Elemental Logic series (so far, Fire Logic, Earth Logic, and Water Logic) have excellent worldbuilding, especially with gender/sexuality politics, and really looks at war and nation-building in a way a lot of fantasy doesn't. There are some plot points which I think are very deus ex machina, but I found the series very worth reading.
- I think you've read China Mieville's Un Lun Dun?
- Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu has African-based SF YA that feels like fantasy (plant computers! interdimensional traveling!). I like Shadow Speaker more than Zahrah.
- Am assuming you've read Megan Whalen Turner and Elizabeth Wein? If not, DO. They are AWESOME AND I LOVE THEM.
- Not sure if you've read Catherynne Valente and been turned off by the style?
- Ysabeau Wilce's Flora Segunda is really fun YA fantasy involving an alternate California and an adventurous girl and her boy sidekick and several ghostly butlers
Uh. May come back if I think of more, or can always babble more in comments!
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So I'd recommend them, but with reservations.
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Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville
A Song of Ice and Fire, by George RR Martin (actually might be too depressing)
Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Anything you haven't read by Diana Wynne Jones
To my eternal shame, I'm currently enjoying The Host by Stephenie Meyer. Not as many laughs as Twilight, but also less misogynistic, and easier to read. Mostly because it's less misogynistic, and has more plot.
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- Valiant (http://www.amazon.com/Valiant-Modern-Faerie-Holly-Black/dp/0689868235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225415801&sr=1-1) by Holly Black: Urban YA fantasy. Rather interesting trip through the faerie side of New York City from the point-of-view of some runaway teens. Also, a Beauty and the Beast variant with the Beast staying bestial instead of prettying up at the end.
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An Earthly Knight - A retelling of the legend of Tam Lin. (This is not a modern retelling like Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, but one that's set in a contemporary-to-the-legend time.)
I really suspect you'll enjoy it. I reread it once a year or more.
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Benighted AKA Bareback by Kit...somebody is also bloody werewolf fun.
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I will third the recommendation for Ysabeau Wilce's Flora books, and also say that you might actually like The Secret History of Moscow, which might fall under the umbrella of urban fantasy, but urban fantasy with Russian folk figures. I adore Cat Valente's work, but it sounds like it might be a bit too literary at the moment. For steampunk werewolves, you might dig Cherie Priest's Dreadful Skin (I'd also recommend her Eden Moore books, which are more straight-up horror than urban fantasy, but might still be too much that kind of thing for the moment for you).
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Otherwise... George R.R. Martin's good, with A Song of Ice and Fire, Michelle West's Sun Sword series is good(and the accompanying volumes, the Hunter duology, plus House War, that just started, with The Hidden City.
Also, checked out from the library recently, by Jennifer Fallon, Medalon(start of a series) is shaping up to be good so far.
Kristen Britain's Green Rider series is pretty light, but entertaining.
Mmmm. I'll repost if I think of anything else. :)
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Her first four-book series is incredibly dark epic fantasy, but I haven't managed to finish it yet, because it does get so dark emotionally.
YA: Tamora Pierce, anything by her.
Jay Lake might be cool, Tor.com had a short story that makes me really interested in his new book as it's about the aftermath of something that happens there: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=story&id=7757
And in the comments they link to his LJ with the original short story that the new novel will be based on.
I'm also starting Mindy Klasky's Glasswright series, which looks to be deeply medieval machiavellian fantasy.
Oh and re: owing me a review
If you're really unhappy with where she's going, you can let the review drop. Personally, although the in-novel time is very short, I thought it was a great step forward into the mysteries and loose plot points of earlier novels (not the least of whom is the Rathorn).
Re: Oh and re: owing me a review
I had not heard that. Yay!
Re: Oh and re: owing me a review
http://estara.livejournal.com/6317.html
You can preorder the hardcover omnibus reissue of the first two books already, so I'm nagging telophase to review To Ride A Rathorn in time to hopefully make people want to read more PC Hodgell - or even just get introduced to her.
Re: Oh and re: owing me a review
Re: Oh and re: owing me a review
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