Question for Members

Fun thread! I could write a book just on this

Three authors I'm surprised not to see yet: Lord Dunsany, Ursula LeGuin, and Patricia McKillip.

They are all very much stylists; Dunsany's writing is lyrical, vivid, and gently satirical (I love The Charwoman's Shadow, in which it took me about 40 pages to realize he was poking fun at his characters).

LeGuin is something of a minimalist; every word counts, and she's pruned away everything that could be. It makes me think of Japanese painting. For fantasy buffs, I'd really recommend at least the first three Earthsea books, and for SF buffs, The Left Hand of Darkness is a good place to start.

McKillip's writing is embroidery to LeGuin's brush-and-ink. Her writing is lavish, and I find reading her to be very much like vivid dreaming. It's almost hallucinatory. Images from her books do make it into my dreams. Her Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy is a great place to start, though it's quite different from her most recent work, of which I'd recommend Song for the Basilisk or In the Forests of Serre most strongly.

People have said that The lord of the Rings, the Earthsea trilogy, and the Riddlemaster trilogy go together as a set. They're all very different, but I agree; they're all spectacular examples of the field of epic fantasy.

As a last note, I'd strongly recommend all the Scribblies, not just Emma Bull and Steve Brust. They were a writer's group in Minneapolis; members include Emma Bull, Steve Brust (by the way, I'd point everyone at his The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars) and Patricia Wrede; less well-known (but great) members include Will Shetterly and Pam Dean, and ones I haven't read are Kara Dalkey and Nathan Bucklin.

If people are interested I'm happy to recommend books by each of these, but I think this post is long enough

Though, I should say more than just style. Even though we are writers.

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Lord Dunsany: Firstly, how can you not just adore that name? Second, he's one of the founders of the field, and (I think) influenced Tolkien. The Charwoman's Shadow is about a boy called Ramon Alonzo Matthew-Mark-Luke-John (another great name) who is apprenticed to a master of the Black Arts. It goes from there, and is great fun. Do bear in mind that (a) the book predates a number of cliches, and (b) he's being satirical. It's easy to miss this, and misjudge the book accordingly.

Le Guin: A Wizard of Earthsea is the first book ever (I think) that asked "So okay, what are powerful wizards like when they are kids?"

It's the first ever wizards'-school book, I think. And it's not at all about a cheery little british school; the wizards' school is mysterious and freaky, and it is convincingly magical, and Bad Things really do happen, and they are character-driven, and the resolution at the end involves a twist I really loved.

I don't remember as much about books 2 and 3, because I read them all in one go and the last two were read well past my bedtime. And I keep meaning to reread the trilogy and never get past book 1, because new books keep grabbing my attention.

The Left Hand of Darkness is about a diplomat on a wintry planet in which people don't have a particular gender. They're hermaphroditic neuters, asexual for 3 weeks out of 4, and either male or female (depending on the situation) in the fourth week. The diplomat is trying to bring these people into aninterplanetary allliance, and (at least at first) failing to understand what's going on, at all. It's a challenging book; getting into the different mindsets is certainly work. B ut well worth it.

McKillip: The Riddlemaster series starts out endearing and gets dark and mysterious. I can't really talk about it without spoilers, sadly. But it is epic fantasy about riddles. And magic, and evil shapechangers, and an ally named Deth.

Song for the Basilisk has a protagonist who is a musician at the edge of the world, so badly hurt by childhood trauma that he cannot remember his early life at all. But he cannot become a bard until he can face this pain and deal with it. One of the things I love about this is that it's not about a 17-year-old of mysterious parentage. The protagonist is in his forties, and has an adult son.

In the Forests of Serre starts with a curse. You will have a very bad day. And when you leave your father's palace at the end of it, you will not find your way back to it until you find me. The cursed man is a prince, a broken man whose beloved wife infant son child died. Now he's heading home from a nasty battle, and cannot imagine things getting worse -- but they will.
This one's got a very strong fairy tale feel to it, complete with a Baba Yaga - type witch. But it's much more vivid and complex than your basic fairy tale.

There. I think that avoids major spoilers.

For Epic Fantasy, I've seen everyone (good and bad) except for Steven Erikson Malazan Book of the Fallen. Large in the scale of Martin, but with more magic, fantastic powers, and deep layers of history to the world. The military aspect is heavily emphasized, but the drama and suspense goes beyond the battles.

Everyone HAS to go out and read something by Dan Simmons. I love the way he weaves great poets into his work -- potentially a great source of lameosity, but he makes the fabric interesting and complex...

His Hyperion series has all the mythos, mystery, and intrigue of the Dune series without getting progressively drugged-out, weird, and pointless as you go on. Plus, the first book reads kind of like a sci-fi Canterbury Tales, which is just a tremendous idea.

And when I first picked up ILIUM I thought that having the Iliad happen on Mars would either fall out really stupid or really great -- definitely the latter. Just like Hyperion, complex and literary with great characters, background and setting, and techno-wizardry. Haven't read the sequel yet (waiting for the paperback, since I'm a student with low fundage), but definitely will.

Just a few off the top of my head I don't recall being mentioned above:

Series:

Glen Cook's "The Black Company" series

Glen Cook's "Garrett, P.I." series

Robert Asprin's "Another Fine Myth" series

Katherine Kurtz's "Deryni" series

Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey, et al, "Thieves' World" series

Singlets:

Steven Boyet "Ariel"

Gordon Dickson and Poul Anderson "Earthman's Burden"

Gordon Dickson's "The Way of the Pilgrim"

Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light"

Peter Beagle's "The Last Unicorn"

I recommend James D. Macdonald's and Victoria Strauss' novels. Both contribute to this board and are terrific writers. Go buy their books.

Are there any other forum regulars here with books you can rec?

Fantasy:
Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey: The Halfblood Chronicles
Piers Anthony: the Xanth series
Gordon R. Dickson: The Dragon Knight
C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia
J.R.R. Tolkein: The Hobbit; The Silmarillion; Farmer Giles of Ham (short story)

SF:
A.E. van Vogt: Slan; Voyage of the Space Beagle; The World of Null A (Written, I believe, in the 1940's.)
Anne McCaffrey: The Dragonriders of Pern

Glad somebody finally mentioned Narnia and Pern.

Xanth was fine for the first few books, then the puns got old. I much prefer Anthony's Adept series.

Love Lawrence Watt-Evans, especially With a Single Spell.

Are we recommending science fiction, too? If so, check out Calculating God, by Robert J. Sawyer.

If you want over-the-top funny fantasy, try out Chicks in Chainmail. Really great stuff.

Yeshanu said:

Are we recommending science fiction, too?

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Sure, either science fiction or fantasy.

And since this is heading fast toward three pages, does anyone want to volunteer to compile the list for a sticky post?

victoriastrauss said:

Really liked the characters and worldbuilding in this one. I thought the first novel was spellbinding, but was disappointed in the second, which seemed very rushed at the finish, almost as if Russell had just gotten sick of the concept.

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I haven't read the second one (still looking for a copy), but had a difficult time with how he worked with the setting. Maybe because alternate Japan is my setting, I was too sensitive to the mix of cultures. And calling the whole conglomeration "Wa" only confused things, because that's the ancient Japanese name for Japan. Russell used Japanese or modified Japanese far too often where an English word would work fine. "Cha" for example. Why not just use "tea"?

Having said that, I am still looking for the sequel. Good characters will do that.

I picked up Parke Godwyn's "Robin and the King," loved it, but haven't been able to find "Sherwood." When I asked at my favourite store they said it wasn't available just now.

One book I would recommend is Connie Willis' "The Doomsday Book." It's technically a science fiction as the premise is time travel but half the book is set in medieval England, which most of the fantasy readers would likely find interesting. I usually find jumping between times somewhat disconcerting but Willis manages to keep the reader enthralled as she follows the time traveler's sojourn in medieval England being parallelled (sp? My dictionary says yes) by an epidemic in her birth time.

She did much the same sort of thing for the following book, but it didn't work a second time. I lost interest about 20 pages in and can't even remember the title now.

BardSkye said:

I picked up Parke Godwyn's "Robin and the King," loved it, but haven't been able to find "Sherwood." When I asked at my favourite store they said it wasn't available just now.

One book I would recommend is Connie Willis' "The Doomsday Book." It's technically a science fiction as the premise is time travel but half the book is set in medieval England, which most of the fantasy readers would likely find interesting. I usually find jumping between times somewhat disconcerting but Willis manages to keep the reader enthralled as she follows the time traveler's sojourn in medieval England being parallelled (sp? My dictionary says yes) by an epidemic in her birth time.

She did much the same sort of thing for the following book, but it didn't work a second time. I lost interest about 20 pages in and can't even remember the title now.

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The medieval England stuff is good in this book, but the parts set in contemporary/near future England are poor with a lot of errors in the settings and dialogue. All she needed to do was run the manuscript by someone who lives here to get a lot of it right.

Here are a couple of books I would recommend:

C.S Lewis, That Hideous Strength (darker than his other work, still a dash preachy, but I think he tries here to illustrate his essay, The Abolotion of Man, which everyone should read.

Richard Adams, Watership Down

I'll defintely agree with Stephen R. Donaldson's The Mirror of Her Dreams, and I did love his Thomas Covenant series as well.

And, on the more science fictiony side:

Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, and I liked Speaker of the Dead too...

Well that's what I'm thinking of this morning...

This is a great idea! I can just print this list out and there will be my holiday presents in a nice package for my family to find for me!!

I'd like to add the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Very cool stuff.

Can I add my own series? If it's okay, I will. The people who read it are digging it - getting great fan mail and responses!
The first is Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye and the second is Erec Rex: The Monsters of Otherness. (Both by Kaza Kingsley.)

Thanks!!
Kaza Kingsley
Author of the Erec Rex series
erecrex.com

Okay two, working on three pages into a great fantasy/sci fi book thread, and no one has mentioned this year's Quill award winner in that genre? Wow.

Patrick Rothfuss. The Name of the Wind. Buy it. Read it. Love it.

I accidentally found his book on amazon, stumbled onto his blog (which is awesome for up and coming writers btw) and laughed out loud. I kinda dithered around a bit as to whether or not to buy the book. I've had real trouble getting into epic fantasy, because I think sometimes worldbuilding can get in the way of the story, so I wasn't keen on trying it. I walked past it several times in the bookstores, and finally picked it up.

It sat on my bedside table for a couple of days. And then one night I started reading it.

I'm a fast reader as a rule. If a story has a fast pace, I can finish it fairly quickly. I read the latest Harry Potter book in a day and a half, and only took that long because I had to go to work. And sleep.

I savored every single word of this book. I couldn't make myself go fast. I didn't want it to end. When you also take into consideration that I was reading this during a time in which I was editing my own novel, and was getting frustrated with every book I read (because I wanted to edit them as well), his was a book that I forgot about editing and the story took over.

I actually emailed the author through his website when I finished it, and he answered quickly and gratefully. I was thrilled to see he'd won the quill award, and very sad when he didn't win book of the year.

If you (or anyone you know...remember that the holidays are coming quickly) read and enjoy fantasy....it's a must read.

Rothfuss and Lynn Flewelling are two of the authors I really need to start reading, I've been told. And people seem to talk about them both in the same breath.

Name of the Wind looks very cool. I'm looking forward to getting it.

Another person I only just started reading is Susan Palwick. I'm halfway through a collection of her short stories, "The Fate of Mice", which includes (at current count) three of the most kickass short stories I've ever read.

I read books that have ancient history settings, wizards, goblins, dragons etc. but original plots too. I can't find a lot, but here are some I love:

- The Silmarillion= Fantastic history to Tolkien's world, reccommended.
- The Hobbit= My all time favourite Fantasy book.
- The Lord of the Rings= A little long, and some parts bored me, but still good if you haven't already seen the movies.
- A Wizard of Earthsea= Well written, descriptive and a wonderful story.
- Harry Potter Books 1 to 3= I like the others, but to be honest I never found books 4, 6 and 7 to be as good.
- Shannara Books= Good, and an original plot for the most parts.
-Chronicles of Narnia= I enjoyed them, but book 2 was definetly the best, and I liked 7 too, that's the one with the end of Narnia stuff in it.

glutton said:

Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion trilogy

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Absolutely. I always thought the first one should have won the Nebula it was nominated for.

As far as recent work, I have been recommending Jackqueline Carey's two volume THE SUNDERING - Banewrecker and Godslayer. I'm not a fan of her Kushiel's Dart but these two just stunned me they are so good.

Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

I found myself with tears in my eyes while reading the last two-thirds of this book. The symbols and images are well done.

Hello everyone. I am new to the writing world and a complete noob to the publishing industry. I have written the first book of my three part series and am currently looking for a good publisher to publish the book. I need help on finding a fiction novel publisher. If anyone could give me even a little push towards a company, I would greaty appreciate it. Thank you all for your time its much appreciated =)

Warriors Trilogy said:

Hello everyone. I am new to the writing world and a complete noob to the publishing industry. I have written the first book of my three part series and am currently looking for a good publisher to publish the book. I need help on finding a fiction novel publisher. If anyone could give me even a little push towards a company, I would greaty appreciate it. Thank you all for your time its much appreciated =)

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I left you a longer response in another thread, but I'll give you a short one here.

You want an agent. Agents will get you through the door at publishers because most publishers won't look at things from writers without an agent.

Do NOT call it a "fiction novel". There's no such genre. Take a look in the Share Your Work forum (password: vista) and read through some pointers on query letters. This is what you have to write to send to prospective agents.