Recommend me some GOOD, !!ORIGINAL!! fantasy - Page 3 - Writers Forum

ManaCorp · 05-06-2007, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerr511

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Obviously Magician by Raymond E Feist.

Damn it's already taken, well there goes my help...

martlet · 05-16-2007, 05:13 AM

Hi,

a few fantasy writers you might like :

- Jeff VanderMeer (a little like china miéville, but writes much better IMHO). Try City of Saints and Madmen.
- Catherynne M. Valente. The Orphan's Tales is awesome. Great prose, great fairy tale stories.
- Jeffrey Ford's short story collections : The fantasy writer's assistant, and The Empire of Ice Cream.

In the epic genre, Greg Keyes is quite good (Kingdom of Thorn and Bone) if you like multiple POV series (Martin, Erikson, Bakker).

For good standalone books, you should check out Guy Gavriel Kay (The Lions of Al-Rassan is my favorite of his, Tigana is good too).

Hope that helps !

Ghost.X · 05-16-2007, 10:29 AM

Harry Turtledove and his Darkness series?

PageOfCups · 03-18-2008, 07:24 PM

James Clemens is an excellent writer. His Banned and the Banished series (starting with Wit'ch Fire) are probably the best I've ever read. Robin Hobb is also a genius.

And is anything in fantasy original anymore? While it's my favourite genre it does just seem like most of it is an authors (occasionally) unique take on an already existing concept.

RainyDayNinja · 03-18-2008, 10:11 PM

You could try "Monster Hunter International" by Larry Correia. It's kind of an occultish action story, but elves and orcs make an appearance (though not as you usually see them). He self-published it, and you can read the first chapter on his blog. I read the entire second half of it for most of the day when I should have been doing homework instead.

CodeRed · 03-19-2008, 11:34 AM

Anything by Lucius Shepard, The Tales of the Otori, by Lian Hearn (5 books in total), and The Wandering Unicorn by Manuel Mujica Láinez.

RomanticRose · 03-19-2008, 12:14 PM

Neil Gaiman's American Gods

I liked it and I normally am not a big fan of fantasy.

seigfried007 · 03-21-2008, 09:28 AM

I'll ditto Robin Hobb. Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies were both excellent, though I haven't read her other stuff.

Garth Nix, Sabriel, I liked though I've heard the others in that series were crap. The notion of using bells as weapons and binding devices was intriguing to no end for me.

I'd steer clear of Feist and Salvatore. Feist is all elves and magic and dying dragons and I just couldn't get into past the Magician books. Salvatore... well, Dark Elf trilogy is the only thing that can be read as well as used as a doorstop or even--dare I say it--construction.

I'm not a fan of His Dark Materials. The whole point of the series was to choke the reader with anti-God sentiment and that's exactly what it did. I thought that message got old really fast (on account of its being hammered into my skull) and that many of the characters were boring, selfish and rather pointless. I liked the first book mostly because of Iorek. Many of the magic items I found intriguing (far more so than magic swords and armor and rings). In short, numerous nifty world-building tricks but I came away feeling like I'd been yelled at by a writer that knew of no such thing as subtlety and just wanted to kill God. At that point, it sadly devolved into sigh-worthy adolescent ranting rather than good fiction.

Perhaps you might try old-fashioned horror (Poe, Lovecraft) or science fiction (McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card) to get your jollies.

Normski · 03-23-2008, 04:50 PM

Personally I cannot stand Eddings. One good story re-written many times imvho.

Good fantasy is like sex. what turns you on may have the opposite effect on 90% of the population. Donadlson's first series was excellent. The Camber of Culdi (Derynni ?) series was well done as well, but is dated now. Salvatori first efforts I liked, but only as light reading.

The Mega-Series, Sword of Truth and Wheel of Time both very good to start with, but losst their eway in the last couple of books.

Ilasir Maroa · 03-23-2008, 10:16 PM

Normski "Deryni". A decent series, and not of the usual D&D type, but there're some annoying religious aspects, usual repression of witches by the Church.

Tiamat10 · 03-24-2008, 02:21 AM

Even though this is an old thread, here's my two cents.

The Dragon Jousters series by Mercedes Lackey. I haven't read the fourth (last) book yet, but the first three were fantastic.

Also, The Sword, The Ring, and The Chalice by Deborah Chester is a worthwhile read.

Stewart · 03-24-2008, 01:30 PM

Here's something that may interest you. There's a publisher in the UK called Dedalus Books and they have the following series of books:

Obviously, they aren't novels but anthologised collections of short stories from various world cultures, but surely within them there has to be a wider variation on the definition of fantasy than the usual sword and sorcery nonsense.

Monkuta · 03-30-2008, 09:05 PM

I suggest the Ranger's Apprentice series written by John Flanagan.

There are four books released in the states right now. More in Australia because that's where Mr. Flanagan lives.

It's a great series which could, for the most part, be described as fantasy. Very little magic is involved, but it does take place in a medieval setting in a land that doesn't actually exist.
Check it out.

Damian_Rucci · 04-10-2008, 05:54 PM

Eye of God trilogy by John Marco. It's about this special amulet called the Eye of God. I haven't gotten too far in it, but it's so amazing as a fantasy, check it out!

Sam Winchester · 04-10-2008, 06:15 PM

John J. Nance - Blackout, Pandora's Clock.

Tom Clancy - Without Remorse, Clear and Present Danger.