Need Good Fantasy Literature Recommendations (again)

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Wicked good Fantasy

The Exalted RPG includes bibliographies in each of its books. I wish other FRPGs would do the same. There are so many styles in the genre and yet authors who aren't following Tolkien, not too interestingly doing so either, or licensed by WOTC are hard to find.

I highly recommend Sean Stewart. Very very very good stuff.

He's only written a few things in 'traditional' fantasy settings, but his books are filled with magic and great ideas on how magical beings would interact with humanity.

To put a horrifcly simple spin on it: It sort of takes off from how horrible life would be if fairy tales really did come true.

Also, George RR Martin's song of Ice and Fire is still being published and is the better than any other series I've read that's been written in the last 12 years.

Sort of like Shakespeare meets Tolkien. Really phenomenally good, particularly the later books.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Re: Wicked good Fantasy

The Exalted RPG includes bibliographies in each of its books. I wish other FRPGs would do the same...

Well, if we could just go to their sources to get flavor, why would we need their books?

Sean Stewart...
To put a horrifcly simple spin on it: It sort of takes off from how horrible life would be if fairy tales really did come true.

Sold!

George RR Martin's song of Ice and Fire...
Sort of like Shakespeare meets Tolkien...

Very nearly sold. A lot of people have suggested these to me, but no one's made a convincing enough argument to get them on the short list. Possibly until now. Are you saying it's a Shakespearean writing style in a Tolkienesque world?

 

[Rain]

Some of the best fantasy books i have read is David Farland's Runelords series, i recomend everybody check them out

 

[Drakmar]

Ok.. here is my cents.

Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy (book 3 to be written) - I quite like the writing style and the author has some really brilliant ideas. .plus different cultures are portrayed well.

Harry Turtledove - The Videssos Cycle - A series about a Roman Legion transported to another world.. and then about how they get on. Very well done. Lots of cool gritty stuff on cultures, and why and how things are done.

Those two authors have some really great ideas, a lot are worth incorporating.

Another one.. that you probably can't get in the States is -

Trudy Canavan - The Black Magician Trilogy - in my mind a very good series (3rd out in Jan 03) - Australian author. I thought the take on how a society incorporates and views magic users and their role quite fascinating.

 

[Tuerny]

J. Gregeory Keyes' the Waterborn and the Blackgod.

He wrote the Fool Wolf fiction in Dragon Magazine.


In this pair of novels he has created a delightful, magical world that seems very different most fantasy settings. I have considered it a primary inspiration behind many of my creations since then.

Its good stuff.

 

[Requiem]

By Katherine Kerr: The "Derry" series - Daggerfall and its sequels - GuardianLurker

Too much forgotten realms for you GuardianLurker..its Daggerspell etc not Daggerfall. I also highly recommend the same.

 

[Tsyr]

Mercedes Lackey: Any of her Velgarth-set books are good. My suggestions would be the Gryphon series (Black Gryphon, White Gryphon, Silver Grypon), the Last Herald Mage series*(Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, Magic's Price), the Mage Winds series (Winds of Fate, Winds of Change, Winds of Fury), the Mage Storms series (Storm Warning, Storm Rising, Storm Breaking), and the Owl Knight series (Owlflight, Owlsight, Owlknight). The others are good, those are just my favorites. Read 'em in that order too... it's more or less chronologicly correct in terms of the worlds history, though she didn't write them in that order. Though the Gryphon series is really a pre-history type thing, it's sorta optional... does help you understand Mage Winds and Mage Storms, though)

C.J. Cherryh: Specificly, I'd suggest the compilation of two books collectivly called "The Dreaming Tree", though I forget the individual names of the books. Very interesting, involving an elf named Arafel... but this isn't your standard tolkien elf, Arafel is much more... fey, I guess. I mean, literaly, 200 years can pass between paragraphs for her. Time has that little meaning. Set in a very early cleltic-type setting. I have never been able to run an elf quite the same since I read this book.

Anything Moorcock is good... I'd suggest starting with the Elric saga, myself, as I consider it probably the best of his work, but that's just me.

 

[mmadsen]

Sturgeon's Law, that 90% of everything is crap ("Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That's because 90% of everything is crud.") definitely applies to fantasy. I recommend just about anything in Gollancz's Fantasy Masterworks series (published in the UK):

The Conan Chronicles by Robert E. Howard
The Conan Chronicles, vol. 2 by Robert E. Howard
The King Of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance
The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison
etc.

Many of the books are available in US editions; some aren't.

 

[Undead Pete]

J. Gregeory Keyes' the Waterborn and the Blackgod.

He wrote the Fool Wolf fiction in Dragon Magazine.


In this pair of novels he has created a delightful, magical world that seems very different most fantasy settings. I have considered it a primary inspiration behind many of my creations since then.

Its good stuff.

You should also read his Age of Unreason series...four books (starting with A Calculus of Angels) set in an alternate fantasy 18th century Earth where Alchemy works and angels and demons exist.

If you like Orson Scott card's Alvin Maker series, you'll like this (which by the way is another series everyone should read).

And don't forget CHINA MIEVILLE !!

All 3 of his books are friggin' PHENOMENAL:

King Rat
Perdido Street Station
and
The Scar
are all masterpieces.

Hope I put enough emphasis on that.

Other authors' series to check out:

• Sara Douglass - The Wayfarer Redemption
• Laurell K. Hamilton - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
• Brian Lumley - Necroscope
• Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksennarion

Some elements of horror and scifi in addition to fantasy, but all great reads. I have read every one of these books at least twice.

One more recommendation that is not fantasy at all, but is great if you don't mind MASSIVE books....

The Children's War by J.N. Stroyar http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...34434982/sr=12-1/102-7030304-2215353?v=glance
Yes, it is 1167 pages long....and it's a first novel! It just won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History.....deals with a modern earth where the Nazis won WWII. Yeah, it's been done before, but not with such intricate detail.

Everyone should check these books out!

 

[Agback]

Try these:

Jack Vance: "Lyonesse I: Suldrun's Garden", "Lyonesse II: The Green Pearl", "Lyonesse III: Madouc", "The Dying Earth", "Rhialto the Marvellous", "Eyes of the Overworld", "Cugel's Saga"

Roberta MacAvoy: "Damiano", "Damiano's Lute", "Raphael"

Elizabeth Marshal Thomas: "Reindeer Moon"

Gene Wolfe: "Soldier of the Mist", "Soldier of Arete"

Ursula Le Guin: "A Wizard of Earthsea", "The Tombs of Atuan", "The Farthest Shore"

Mary Renault: "The Bull from the Sea", "The King Must Die"

Roger Zelazny: "Creatures of Light and Darkness"

Barry Hughart: "Bridge of Birds"

Neil Gaiman: "Neverwhere", "Stardust"

Regards,


Agback