What other fantasy books do YOU read?

[Thinlómien]

Personally, I love (most of) Robin Hobb's books because of her superb storytelling and the books' huge "awwww-ing potential". I can see that the slowish everyday life and emotional zigzag of the main character could annoy somebody but I like it - maybe because I feel for the main character and can sympathise with him. Maybe it's an age thing? I first read the books as a teenager and I have had a soft spot for them ever since although I don't relate with Fitz so much anymore. I also like the way Hobb picks the most ridiculous clichés and turns them into something captivating, and I find the characters very likable. Some of them seem a little flat, yes, but I'm blaming it on the narrator's subjectivity as it's just the main character speaking. Maybe that's one more reason I like the Farseer series and the subsequent Tawny Man trilogy so much - they have a likeable and complicated enough first person narrator which is (a little sadly) quite rare in epic fantasy.

Nerwen and others - if you're bored of fantasy literature just recycling the same old ideas, I would suggest authors like Neil Gaiman and China Miéville, or maybe even the crazy Hal Duncan. None of it is traditional "high fantasy" though.

Last year I didn't read maybe as much fantasy as I normally do, but I did for example finally read some stuff I had been meaning to read for years, such as Lord Dunsany's King of the Elf-land's Daughter, Frank Herbert's Dune (which I would classify as science fiction, though) and The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern/ William Goldman. They were all definitely worth reading, but had their weak points too. I also acquainted myself with aforementioned China Miéville and Kage Baker, a humoristic fantasy author, whose style left me a little confused. Of course, I also read more of one of my definite favourites, Guy Gavriel Kay, and was amazed again (just how can someone write in such a beautiful and epic manner?), and reread George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. He's now been promoted to be included in the list of my favourite authors.

Lastly, I read two collections of "short" stories by supposed masters of the fantasy genre, named Legends and Legends II and edited by Robert Silverberg. Based on what I read there, I'd like to ask a question: are Orson Scott Card and Terry Goodkind worth a closer acquaintance? I quite liked their stories in these collections.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

II [/I]and edited by Robert Silverberg. Based on what I read there, I'd like to ask a question: are Orson Scott Card and Terry Goodkind worth a closer acquaintance? I quite liked their stories in these collections.

I asume the Orson Scott Card story you are referring to is The Grinning Man and that therfore you are asking if it is worth persuing his Alvin Maker series (his Ender's game stuff is quite different). I'd say yes, they are a very well written series (just bear in mind that there is still one more book to go, but Card has been slow to write that one) besides the books (Seventh Son, Red Prophet, Prentice Alvin, Alvin Journeyman, Heartfire, and The Crystal City) there's one more short story "Yazoo Queen" (you can find that in the Swords and Sorcery anthology) and "Prentice Alvin and the No Good Plow" which is a long epic poem that outlined the whole plot of the series before Card wrote the books (and therfore has clues about what is going to happen in the last book")

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

I asume the Orson Scott Card story you are referring to is The Grinning Man and that therfore you are asking if it is worth persuing his Alvin Maker series (his Ender's game stuff is quite different). I'd say yes, they are a very well written series (just bear in mind that there is still one more book to go, but Card has been slow to write that one) besides the books (Seventh Son, Red Prophet, Prentice Alvin, Alvin Journeyman, Heartfire, and The Crystal City) there's one more short story "Yazoo Queen" (you can find that in the Swords and Sorcery anthology) and "Prentice Alvin and the No Good Plow" which is a long epic poem that outlined the whole plot of the series before Card wrote the books (and therfore has clues about what is going to happen in the last book")

Thanks Alf! I did indeed read The Grinning Man, and actually Yazoo Queen was also in one of these collections. So maybe once I've read the books in my shelf borrowed from library and from my parents (a pile of classics I need to read for a literature course and a few others) I will probably make a reservation for Seventh Son in the city library.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Thanks Alf! I did indeed read The Grinning Man, and actually Yazoo Queen was also in one of these collections. So maybe once I've read the books in my shelf borrowed from library and from my parents (a pile of classics I need to read for a literature course and a few others) I will probably make a reservation for Seventh Son in the city library.

Actually, it's the poem that's going to be the tough one to locate, that hasn't been reprinted much. I think your best chance (once you read all the books) is to ask your library if they have a copy of Maps in a Mirror, a HUGE book that collects a lot of Card's short story work (reading that will also give you an idea about the other stuff he has done) Alternitively (if you are lazy) you can try and find/download the audio collection "The Elephants of Poznan" which has Card reading the poem. The fist of this also re-prints the Tolkein tribute story Card did for After the King

Oh and one piece of advice for going through the series, do not even TRY to work out what the actual date is, you are just going to go crazy. You're going to meet a lot of historical people through the series, but thier life stories are so different, and history has gone such a different that trying to pin down a date is nearly impossible (I've always guessed sometime between 1820 and 1860, but that is just my guess)

[HerenIstarion]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

...and reread George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. He's now been promoted to be included in the list of my favourite authors.

Ah, that one, regardless of double R in the middle of his name that brings home nice reminiscences, I could not force myself past the chapter the whole lot of them (can't remember the names for the life of me) find direwolf cubs and proclaim these to be tied with the fates of their clan. Just got stuck there and went to read something else instead (It was Space Trilogy of C.S.Lewis IIRC)

Anyway, I hope it was not a total waste of money (as I've got all 5 Kindle editions, again, IIRC, maybe it's four, can't remember whether book 5 was already out by then) and one day, someday, I will turn back to the series and read them and, hopefully, enjoy them

Maybe I was just in no mood for it first time, but it seemed to lack certain knack for me. Though I definitely abstained from watching the movie so far, saving my judgement till I finally get over books (if I do read them after all)

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by HerenIstarion

Ah, that one, regardless of double R in the middle of his name that brings home nice reminiscences, I could not force myself past the chapter the whole lot of them (can't remember the names for the life of me) find direwolf cubs and proclaim these to be tied with the fates of their clan. Just got stuck there and went to read something else instead (It was Space Trilogy of C.S.Lewis IIRC)

Anyway, I hope it was not a total waste of money (as I've got all 5 Kindle editions, again, IIRC, maybe it's four, can't remember whether book 5 was already out by then) and one day, someday, I will turn back to the series and read them and, hopefully, enjoy them

Maybe I was just in no mood for it first time, but it seemed to lack certain knack for me. Though I definitely abstained from watching the movie so far, saving my judgement till I finally get over books (if I do read them after all)

If you're suspicious of GRRM just because of this kind of stuff, please go on and read him. Out of all fantasy writers I've read, Martin probably handles prophecies and religion the way I like the most. Stuff works, but it is ambiguous. All the characters/factions interpret omens and prophecies in their own way and it's impossible to say who is right. There are dozens of gods, and it's impossible to judge whether they exist or not, because they kind of are there and kind of not. Characters have prophetic dreams, or maybe you just think they they are prophetic because something that vaguely fits them happened later. And maybe even later happens something else that makes you see the dream or prophecy in a completely different light. And if you keep your eyes open you could probably predict so much stuff based on random dreams and quotes of withc women at markets and who knows what but it's kind of impossible to keep track - but in retrospect it all makes sense. It's very cool.

And yes, Martin is using the over-used connection with wolves, but while the family Stark whose sigil is the direwolf might seem like the central one in the beginning, it eventually spreads out so that they are just one family among others, there are wolves and dragons and lions and fish and eagles and roses and krakens and suns and stags and who knows what kind of epic sigils with the great houses of the kingdoms, and you're not rooting just for the wolf family anymore - or at least that's what happened to most people I know who read the books.

I warmly recommend Martin's novels to everybody who doesn't mind the huge scale of it or the ugly realism (war happens so people die - even major characters, and people are beaten, raped, robbed, tortured, abused, some freeze to death, innocents are slaughtered and so on). Martin writes really well, his characters grow to unforeseen dimensions and picking favourites or taking sides becomes almost impossible as the saga goes on and the writer is always one step ahead of you so you keep picking up your jaw from the floor. Furthermore, the sort of realism I mentioned - even in all its ugliness - is really refreshing in the fantasy genre, and the world is interesting and carefully constructed.

/end rant



ps.

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Oh and one piece of advice for going through the series, do not even TRY to work out what the actual date is, you are just going to go crazy. You're going to meet a lot of historical people through the series, but thier life stories are so different, and history has gone such a different that trying to pin down a date is nearly impossible (I've always guessed sometime between 1820 and 1860, but that is just my guess)

Thanks for the advice! Fortunately, although I study history I've always been lousy with dates, and the US history has never been my speciality, so I think I will be able to ignore the temptation to put it too strictly into historical context.

[NazgulQueen]

Mainly just A Song of Ice and Fire, big fan of George RR Martin.

[Eruanna]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

I warmly recommend Martin's novels to everybody who doesn't mind the huge scale of it or the ugly realism (war happens so people die - even major characters, and people are beaten, raped, robbed, tortured, abused, some freeze to death, innocents are slaughtered and so on). Martin writes really well, his characters grow to unforeseen dimensions and picking favourites or taking sides becomes almost impossible as the saga goes on and the writer is always one step ahead of you so you keep picking up your jaw from the floor. Furthermore, the sort of realism I mentioned - even in all its ugliness - is really refreshing in the fantasy genre, and the world is interesting and carefully constructed.

I'm a bit late to the party but I agree entirely, especially with the bit I've put in bold. I don't think I can remember the last time a novel shocked me in this way. I've become too used to plots being predictable!

I've also read the Patrick Rothfuss novels mentioned earlier and thoroughly enjoyed them both.

Estelyn, for what it's worth, I've read all of the Shadowmarch Chronicles. I enjoyed the first two but after my favourite (and in my opinion) the most promising character was killed off, I lost interest a bit. The ending of the final book was also a bit of a trial. Like the ending of the RotK movie it just seemed to go on and on and on...
I actually enjoyed Tad Williams' earlier series 'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn' much more.

I've recently discovered China Mieville. His books are 'fantasy but not as we know it,' so to speak. Definitely weird and thought provoking. His 'The City and The City' made my brain hurt but was a terrific read for all that!

[Bom Tombadillo]

Hmmmn. I'm always looking for new authors to read, but I rarely get the chance to buy new books (even on the lovely, wonderful, spectacular Kindle), and nearly as rarely to *gasp* visit the library. This means, of course, that I have a great big list of works I would like to read, but a considerably smaller list of ones I actually have read.

I've read the first book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin, but not been terribly impressed. I don't dislike it, and think I might have been kept off of it for too long by a comment somewhere (I believe I was linked to it from this very site) that greatly exaggerated, to my mind, the quantity and graphicness (?) of the . . . ugly realism, as Thinlomien puts it? In other words, I really should get the second book, and would recommend the bit of it I know to anybody who is interested in some highly morally grey fiction.

I'm rather impressed by "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, which I'm currently rereading (rather less so by the sequel, sadly, but that's another subject) - I like the main character a lot, and it's one of the few books I've read that actually manages to put me in a state of suspense as to the outcome.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Eruanna

I've recently discovered China Mieville. His books are 'fantasy but not as we know it,' so to speak. Definitely weird and thought provoking. His 'The City and The City' made my brain hurt but was a terrific read for all that!

I recently reread Perdido Street Station which, though intriguing, isn't one of his best works (at least in my opinion - I mean, it's well written but it just can't hold my attention for very long), and Iron Council, one of my favourite books ever. It's a steampunk western with socialism, imperialism, terrorism, gay rights, and golems.
Before that, I acquainted myself with Embassytown which is his most recent novel, and I really liked it. While Miéville's Bas-Lag novels have steampunk as a common element, Embassytown is good ol' science fiction.

Originally Posted by Bom Tombadillo

I've read the first book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin, but not been terribly impressed.

I wasn't terribly impressed by the first book, either - as a matter of fact, I didn't read A Clash of Kings until a year later, and it was only then I understood why people whose literary judgement I normally trust had been praising the series.

I've also reread Jeff VanderMeer's short story collection The Secret Life, and it was a disappointment given that he was one of my favourite writers as a teenager. Now his (sometimes experimental) style didn't sit well with me at all, and I found most of the stories boring and pointless. I still like his Veniss Underground novel, though.

[Eruanna]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

I recently reread Perdido Street Station which, though intriguing, isn't one of his best works (at least in my opinion - I mean, it's well written but it just can't hold my attention for very long), and Iron Council, one of my favourite books ever. It's a steampunk western with socialism, imperialism, terrorism, gay rights, and golems.
Before that, I acquainted myself with Embassytown which is his most recent novel, and I really liked it. While Miéville's Bas-Lag novels have steampunk as a common element, Embassytown is good ol' science fiction.

I just started to read 'Perdido Street Station' yesterday after finishing 'Kraken' last week. I'm having a similar problem. It's well written and the characters are even weirder to imagine than usual, but I'm finding it a bit harder to immerse myself this time. It's early days yet, so I'll see how I get on.
I'll look out for 'Embassytown' and 'Iron Council', thanks for the recommendations.

In an earlier post someone mentioned Joe Abercrombie's 'First Law' series. I loved those, Inquisitor Glokta is one of my favourite characters in a novel....ever! The other stand alone novels set in the same world: 'Best Served Cold' and 'The Heroes' are also very good. He's writing another at the moment....when he can tear himself away from Skyrim; according to his blog!