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Recs for fantasy novels?
I haven't been buying book books for so long that I for once am not conversant with a lot of the recent books. You used to be able to mention any fantasy published in the last five years and I'd either have read it or read the back of the book and rejected it, but that's no longer the case. However lately I've been in the mood for fantasy. Quest novels, coming-of-age novels, whatever. And I'm looking for recommendations in the area of fantasy, either adult or YA.
Things that make me love a book:
-- Characters. I really really want good characterization and fascinating characters in my fiction.
-- Er .... characters, again. Don't think there's any serious other thing that's common to most of the books I've liked.
-- If there's a girl disguising herself as a boy in it, I'll usually give it a try - that's been a favorite (theme? genre? trope?) since I was a kid. I have no idea why.
Things that make me view a book skeptically:
-- Elves that are just humans with pointy ears and attitudes.
-- Fantasy novels meant to be humorous, when it's not Terry Pratchett. Love Pratchett to death. Can't stand Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing, or Craig Shaw Gardner, or John Moore's The Unhandsome Prince. If there is humor in the book, good, but not anything that attempts to compare itself to Pratchett on the cover and is full of the author is yelling "LOOK!! ISN'T THIS FUNNY?? SEE! I AM TAKING A FAIRY-TALE TROPE AND TURNING IT INSIDE OUT!! AND MAKING A HUMOROUS COMMENT ON MODERN SOCIETY WHILE I AM DOING IT!!" Story over humor, please.
-- Arthurian. I read tons of Arthuriana when I was a kid and into my teens, then totally burned out on it. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eegatland, I'm about halfway through The Winter Prince, and I love Medraut to death - the darker characters are my faves XD - it's just ... Arthurian. But you'll be happy to know that this is what kick-started my recent realism thing with the art ... while I don't see it as pure realism, there's a picture starting to form inside my head that isn't cartoony, either. XD No telling when it'll come out or what it'll look like when it does, though.)
-- Talking animals unless done really well and snuck into the book when I wasn't looking.
-- Dragons and unicorns. Burned out, for much the same reason as Arthuriana.
-- Great long epics with a million different characters in them. I like my books a bit more intimate usually, although I've been known to enjoy the occasional epic. "Occasional" being the key term.
-- A magic system suspiciously close to modern Neo-Pagan practice
-- A magic system broken down to logical steps, or with the appearance of logical steps. It's magic! It's not physics!
-- Character from our world going into a fantasy world (see Arthuriana and dragons)
-- Native American themes, for some reason. Maybe it's a hazard of having trained in anthropology or something, but I have a hard time reading things like Charles de Lint, when he uses Native American beliefs and spirits and blends them with Celtic tradition, and when other authors appropriate it. On the other side, I have absolutely no problem with doing it with Asian beliefs, so I'm a wee bit hypocritical, but it probably has something to do with anthropology, because we studied a lot of Native American things and very little from elsewhere in the world.
Books I love to hate:
-- Mercedes Lackey. Drives me up a wall, but I check her books out of the library (not going to spend money on them, thank you) when I need a good book to metaphorically throw against the wall and scream "I COULD DO BETTER THAN THAT!!" It's a guilty pleasure.
Anyway, to give you an idea of what I've read and liked:
-- Glen Cook's Black Company series (but not the Adjective Metal Noun or, I fear, his most recent Instrumentality of the Night series)
-- Tanith Lee in mid-career - the one published about the time of the Flat Earth series, but not her earliest or more recent ones.
-- Tamora Pierce
-- JK Rowling
-- Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasies
-- Garth Nix
-- Kij Johnson's Fudoki and The Fox Woman
-- Kage Baker's fantasy novel Anvil of the World
-- James Stoddard's The High House and The False House
-- Jeanne Larsen's Chinese fantasies - Bronze Mirror, Silk Road, and whatever the other one was
-- Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds trilogy
So, have at it. Suggest away. I figure I'll probably have read a lot of what people suggest, but I can't list everything I've read. :) Feel free to ask questions or whatnot.
Things that make me love a book:
-- Characters. I really really want good characterization and fascinating characters in my fiction.
-- Er .... characters, again. Don't think there's any serious other thing that's common to most of the books I've liked.
-- If there's a girl disguising herself as a boy in it, I'll usually give it a try - that's been a favorite (theme? genre? trope?) since I was a kid. I have no idea why.
Things that make me view a book skeptically:
-- Elves that are just humans with pointy ears and attitudes.
-- Fantasy novels meant to be humorous, when it's not Terry Pratchett. Love Pratchett to death. Can't stand Peter David's Sir Apropos of Nothing, or Craig Shaw Gardner, or John Moore's The Unhandsome Prince. If there is humor in the book, good, but not anything that attempts to compare itself to Pratchett on the cover and is full of the author is yelling "LOOK!! ISN'T THIS FUNNY?? SEE! I AM TAKING A FAIRY-TALE TROPE AND TURNING IT INSIDE OUT!! AND MAKING A HUMOROUS COMMENT ON MODERN SOCIETY WHILE I AM DOING IT!!" Story over humor, please.
-- Arthurian. I read tons of Arthuriana when I was a kid and into my teens, then totally burned out on it. (
eegatland, I'm about halfway through The Winter Prince, and I love Medraut to death - the darker characters are my faves XD - it's just ... Arthurian. But you'll be happy to know that this is what kick-started my recent realism thing with the art ... while I don't see it as pure realism, there's a picture starting to form inside my head that isn't cartoony, either. XD No telling when it'll come out or what it'll look like when it does, though.)-- Talking animals unless done really well and snuck into the book when I wasn't looking.
-- Dragons and unicorns. Burned out, for much the same reason as Arthuriana.
-- Great long epics with a million different characters in them. I like my books a bit more intimate usually, although I've been known to enjoy the occasional epic. "Occasional" being the key term.
-- A magic system suspiciously close to modern Neo-Pagan practice
-- A magic system broken down to logical steps, or with the appearance of logical steps. It's magic! It's not physics!
-- Character from our world going into a fantasy world (see Arthuriana and dragons)
-- Native American themes, for some reason. Maybe it's a hazard of having trained in anthropology or something, but I have a hard time reading things like Charles de Lint, when he uses Native American beliefs and spirits and blends them with Celtic tradition, and when other authors appropriate it. On the other side, I have absolutely no problem with doing it with Asian beliefs, so I'm a wee bit hypocritical, but it probably has something to do with anthropology, because we studied a lot of Native American things and very little from elsewhere in the world.
Books I love to hate:
-- Mercedes Lackey. Drives me up a wall, but I check her books out of the library (not going to spend money on them, thank you) when I need a good book to metaphorically throw against the wall and scream "I COULD DO BETTER THAN THAT!!" It's a guilty pleasure.
Anyway, to give you an idea of what I've read and liked:
-- Glen Cook's Black Company series (but not the Adjective Metal Noun or, I fear, his most recent Instrumentality of the Night series)
-- Tanith Lee in mid-career - the one published about the time of the Flat Earth series, but not her earliest or more recent ones.
-- Tamora Pierce
-- JK Rowling
-- Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasies
-- Garth Nix
-- Kij Johnson's Fudoki and The Fox Woman
-- Kage Baker's fantasy novel Anvil of the World
-- James Stoddard's The High House and The False House
-- Jeanne Larsen's Chinese fantasies - Bronze Mirror, Silk Road, and whatever the other one was
-- Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds trilogy
So, have at it. Suggest away. I figure I'll probably have read a lot of what people suggest, but I can't list everything I've read. :) Feel free to ask questions or whatnot.
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I'm a big fan of the short story compilations between Ellen Daltow and Terry Windling. Most of the short stories are variations on fairy tales, and they're all extremely well done. I love Silver Birch, Blood Moon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380786222/qid=1127186115/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), Snow White, Blood Red (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380718758/ref=pd_sbs_b_1/102-4568194-5766501?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance), Black Heart, Ivory Bones (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380786230/qid=1127186301/sr=1-16/ref=sr_1_16/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books), and Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380778726/qid=1127186301/sr=1-19/ref=sr_1_19/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books). Really, I can't pimp these books out hard enough. They're exceptional.
White as Snow (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312875495/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-4568194-5766501?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) by Tanith Lee is also very good. I'm actually not a big fan of her writing, but this is quite a nice book, and very well-written. A different take of the Snow White story.
I like Francesca Lia Block's stuff, though she has a very unique writing style that not everyone enjoys. I particularly like Echo (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0064407446/qid=1127186515/sr=1-12/ref=sr_1_12/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books), because it really takes you through a lot of the main character's experiences so you can see her grow and change, and watch everything come to a full circle.
Anything Neil Gaiman, obviously. Nearly everybody and their grandma had read his stuff, but I love Stardust (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060934719/qid=1127186699/sr=1-11/ref=sr_1_11/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books), Smoke and Mirrors (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060934700/qid=1127186662/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books), and The Sandman: Endless Nights (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1401200893/qid=1127186718/sr=1-28/ref=sr_1_28/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books) more than words can express.
Till We Have Faces (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0156904365/qid=1127186786/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-4568194-5766501?v=glance&s=books) by C.S. Lewis is one of my all-time favorite books, if not my very favorite. There's really no way to describe this book. It's brilliant, period. It's a retelling of the Greek myth of Psyche, but not by Psyche herself. Instead it's told by her half-sister. It's fascinating and heartbreaking, and I love it to death. *pimps*
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