AAAARRGGGHHH!!! (Or "Enough with the trilogies already!!!")

[Pozatronic]

A bunch of people already mentioned China Mieville and Guy Gavrial Kay, and I'd like to third (or fourth, or fifth) these motions. I read Mieville's "The Scar" first, and I'm glad I did because I liked it a lot better then "Perdido Street Station". Oh, and "The Iron Council" was pretty damn good too.

"Tigana" is my favorite Kay book also. It was the first one of his I read and I devored all his others soon afterward. His last novel, "The Dying Of The Light" (I think) is my second favorite. Be warned with Kay though, his first books were the Fionavar Tapersty...A TRILOGY!!

Somebody mentioned Tanith Lee's Night's Master. Yes, it is stand alone, but it's also the first in the Flat Earth Series. The second in the series, Deaths Master, is one of my favorite fantasy books ever. It's mythic and tragic and beautiful. Once the third book hits it becomes more connected however with a total of five books in the series. You could always read Deaths Master as a stand alone, too.

Also, there's Maia by Richard Adams. It's basically a fantasy, as it's setting is a place that never existed, but it has more of an historic feel. Long book...I never actually finished it, but its still book marked...

 

[Banshee16]

Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!!!

Could someone please assemble all the heads of publishing for the various companies, lock them in a room with a nest of really angry hornets, and tell them they can only come out when they acknowledge that not every fantasy story has to be a multi-book epic!!! Sometimes I really, really want to buy a new book--one new book--read it and be done.

So, please, help me out. Tell me what good fantasy novels you've read that are complete, standalone, single novels. Not "the first of a series." Not even "Oh, it's part of a series but it stands alone enough that you don't have to read the whole thing." One book. Alone. By itself. One.

Thanks.

I enjoyed Faerie Tale, from Raymond Feist. It's older, though. Personally, I don't have a problem with trilogies, but everyone has their own opinion.

The book "Iron Throne" by Simon Hawke from the Birthright trilogy was actually very good. I really enjoyed it. But it's older as well, so you may only find it on used markets.

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786903570/qid=1106984098/701-8168662-9862722

Two others that you might want to try are "The Temple and the Stone" from Catherine Kurtz...though it has one sequel. It's a fantasy about the Templars, and the fall of their order. I thought it was pretty good, though it wasn't high literature.

China Mieville's books, Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and, apparently, the Iron Council, are all really, really good. It's a series of books that take place in the same world, but are completely different stories. The characters are not carried over from one book to another. The events in one book don't seem to reflect or influence the next.

I hope that at least provides a few ideas

Banshee

 

[Thanee]

There is the Lord of the Rings one-book edition.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

But okay, let's loosen the criteria a bit. I'm okay with people recommending books that have since had sequels, so long as the original book stands alone without said sequel.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Just thought of another one: The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Somewhere beyond the northern mists lies a land where dreams live and dragons are real.
This is the tale of the twilight of the dragons, of two nations plunged into war by a tragic misunderstanding, of a shy dreamer's incredible voyage of peace to a long-forgotten land where nightmares are born.

A magnificient creation, a sweeping epic of high fantasy set in a richly imagined world, vividly brought to life with over eighty pages of stunning illustrations by Joseph Zucker

Dragonworld, by Bryon Preiss and Michael Reaves