Fantasy reading recommends, please

Red-Green · Oct 22, 2007

As I'm working on querying for my fantasy novel, I'm looking to find some comparable books. The writers I most readily think of when I'm considering comparisons are LeGuin and Hambly, but I'm looking for something more contemporary of that ilk--world-building fantasy for adults, a little on the literary side, and preferably without elves, dragons, or vampires.

Suggestions for reading?

Thanks!

edgyllama · Oct 22, 2007

Earthsea has that, and is a classic. Anyone who is familliar with fantasy, knows about Earthsea.

Earthsea has dragons but no elves, dwarves, etc.

sunna · Oct 22, 2007

Maybe CJ Cherryh's Fortress in the Eye of Time? (I know; I never shut up about Cherryh.

) There are Sidhe (well, one), but they way she wove that theme in is pretty unusual compared to most of the other stuff I've read. No dragons, no vampires. And it's definitely literary.

Zelenka · Oct 22, 2007

Try Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies. Very contemporary anyway, and I really like his style and his world building.

Red-Green · Oct 22, 2007

Thanks for the suggestions. Any more?

The danger of LeGuin is she's become so venerable that to say, "My book will appeal to readers of Earthsea," is nearly as disastrously pompous as to say, "My book will appeal to readers of Tolkien."

III · Oct 22, 2007

Have you checked out Carol Berg's Transformation series? Fantastic character-driven fantasy. No dragons, elves, etc.

mscelina · Oct 22, 2007

Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series is about as far away from archetypal fantasy as you can get.

brokenfingers · Oct 22, 2007

George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire:
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swoprds
A Feast For Crows
A Dance With Dragons (coming)

R. Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing series:
The Darkness That Comes Before
The Warrior-Prophet
The Thousandfold Thought

edgyllama · Oct 22, 2007

Oh the Vlad Taltos novels by Steven Brust. World building for adults there.

sunna · Oct 22, 2007

mscelina said:
Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series is about as far away from archetypal fantasy as you can get.

oh, I second that! I love her stuff.

mscelina · Oct 22, 2007

Carey's work should serve as a ray of hope for writers who looooooooooove their backstory. Her world-building is incredible.

blacbird · Oct 22, 2007

Lots of people here are going to have good recommendations about current writers. But you do yourself a disservice if you're not aware of the early founders of fantasy writing, most notably Dunsany, whose unique stories are seldom imitated, but wonderfully readable, often darkly funny, and filled with sharp, delightful forays into areas of fantasy seldom repeated.

caw

JBI · Oct 22, 2007

Read outside of the basic 20th century fantasy fixation. You are better off reading Homer's and Virgil's Epics, Beowulf, the Faerie Queen by Spenser, and other much older texts. The general building of fantastical worlds is primarily developed from older documents. Skip a step, look back to where it really comes from, then pick up The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Follow his monomyth and you won't go wrong.

mscelina · Oct 22, 2007

As far as classics go, I'd recommend Ovid's Metamorphoses as a great read. Le Morte D'Arthur by Malory and Goethe are good bets too.

Vincent · Oct 22, 2007

We need Shweta on this thread. Shweta, where are you?

Shweta · Oct 22, 2007

I'm packing the car because the fire's closer! I'll get back to this soon, promise

Vincent · Oct 22, 2007

Red-Green · Oct 22, 2007

Um, I appreciate the many well-meaning "classics" suggestions, but I've read Ovid, Virgil, Homer, Spenser, etc. (I have a BA in Classics and an MA in English.) I'm not looking for reading suggestions to improve my background--I'm looking for contemporary, current stuff that I can use in query letters to suggest whose reading audience would like my book. I suspect that saying, "People who loved The Faerie Queene will like my book," won't gain me any ground with an agent.

mscelina · Oct 22, 2007

I think at this point we're offering up suggestions that might help younger writers broaden their bases. While there are numerous contemporary examples of fantasy authors that will help you in your search, so will the classics mentioned above help someone who hasn't yet acheived the same level of education as you. After all, it's nice to have all those suggestions compacted into one thread, isn't it?

Good luck.

Shweta · Oct 22, 2007

We have stickies for general recommendations. Many of them have reasons/descriptions.
Red, that might help you.

badducky · Oct 22, 2007

Let's see... Literary Fantasy for adults with world-building that would appeal to fans of Ursula K LeGuin...

*cough*

Where on earth could you get some of that around here?

*cough* *cough*

I'm not a mod, so don't take this as a moddish statement. It's not. However, we do have a stickied thread dedicated to questions of this nature, and surfing through it whilst comparing Amazon pages would be a great way to start.

Oh, and if you haven't checked out the Amazon page where they go, "People who bought this book also bought...", then you should. Mine is like a who's who of contemporary fantasy right now.

edit: I admit that quite a few of my aunts are huge paranormal romance fans, and they've bought more than a few (I have more than 10 aunts counting marriages...), so the results got a couple hangers-on from paranormals, but still... Paranormal is contemporary fantasy, and my little subsection is like a who's who of up-and-coming contemporary fantasy authors.

(Ducks out of thread.)

Shweta · Oct 22, 2007

Okay, so we're packed and not going anywhere anytime soon.

Redzilla, are you thinking of particular Le Guin/Hambly books? They both have such a vast range, I'm not sure what it means to be "like" them.

Sharon Shinn might be worth looking at, though, as might Charles de Lint. And maybe Ellen Kushner?

Definitely do look up The Lies of Locke Lamora too -- it's fascinating, and would be a good thing to be like

waylander · Oct 23, 2007

Juliet McKenna is IMHO one of the best fantasy writers for world-building. Check out her Aldabreshin Compass series for a very coherent fantasy world - does contain magic users and dragons.

Red-Green · Oct 23, 2007

I started with the "master book" list, and found some things, but there's some good stuff here that I didn't see over there--or that I wasn't able to sort out.

I would describe mine as a bit LeGuin's Earthsea, a bit Hambly's Circle of the Moon, but something else as well. Trying to pin down that something else.

Thanks for the many suggestions, and now I'm off to the library and book store.

JimmyB27 · Oct 23, 2007

Robin Hobb maybe? There are dragons, but (at least in the Farseer trilogy) they are quite different to 'normal' dragons. But the worldbuilding is awesome, and Fitz is an awesome character.

Fantasy reading recommends, please

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