Fantasy novel recommendations?

[Stan]

Stuff I read as a kid: Robert Howard (Conan but also his other characters), Fritz Leiber, Ursula LeGuin, and Tolkien


Recent likes are
Guy Gavriel Kay - feels realistically medieval, even in his fantasy. Tigana is a nice starter.

Saladin Ahmed - Throne of the Crescent Moon is a great sword and sorcery book with a middle eastern flavor. I just wish he would add ot the serires.

China Mieville is one of my favorite authors currently. He makes very interesting, alien worlds. The writing can be dense but he's super nerdy and there's lots going on at different levels. His Bas Lag books are the ones most in the fantasy genre.

Glen Cook's books about a hard boiled detective in a fantasy world are a good light read. His Black Company books follow a mercenary company is a fantasy world.

[2D8HP]

Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora series is pretty good, though I haven't gotten around to reading the third one. It's basically Ocean's Eleven in a high fantasy world. If you like heists his works are great. Fun characters with an interesting dynamic, and I enjoy watching them put together the pieces of the puzzle for their various crimes and just surviving a fantasy city criminal underworld.

For fantasy, I really second this.

Thanks for your recommendation of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, it's been great!

[dps]

I'll second the recommendations that you check out Glen Cook and Roger Zelany.

[Bohandas]

It's not a novel, but the World of Greyhawk Webcomic is pretty good.

[Bohandas]

Also the Queen of the Tearling novels by Erika Johansen - Sci-fi-Fantasy in a past-like future, but with magic and stuff.

and

The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker - Low fantasy set in 20th century New York

[BWR]

Most anything by Tanith Lee, who is probably my favorite author all around. Her wordcraft is almost unparalleled.
Her Flat Earth stories are, imho, her best work, so I'd start with "Night's Master". This series is pure poetry in prose form, and is basically just amazingly well-written dark fairy tales.
The Secret Books of Paradys" and "The Secret Books of Venus" are two series, which each consist of four books with stories about their city (Paradys and Venice) set in different times and universes. Variations on a theme, you might say.
The "Blood Opera" trilogy is what modern-day vampire fiction should be like.

Charles Stross is basically a SF author but there is a lot of overlap. I'd go with the Laundry Files, which are the Men in Black meets Call of Cthulhu, set to the inhuman, mind-boggling horror of British bureaucracy. Starts with "The Atrocity Archives".

And I'll have to support the earlier recommendation for Gene Wolfe, who is another amazing writer. Just make sure to read his works carefully; otherwise you might miss something vital. I skipped a few sentences in one book and a couple chapters later suddenly came to a passage that made no sense until I painfully backtracked my way until i found what i had overlooked the first time around.

[endoperez]

Max Gladstone writes intriguing fantasy stories that are part steampunk, part legal drama. They're set on a fantastic versions of New York or (I think) San Fransisco or Hawaii, in a world where industrialization was done through magic, which was the realm of gods. Then there was a war, gods lost to Craftsmen who shed their humanity and became liches with names like the King in Red. Now Craftsmen and Craftswomen, both living and undead, run the world through contracts and commerce. Of souls.

The books are in many ways reminiscent of China Miéville. The world-building is a dark mirror of the real one, which is in some ways similar to Discworld. Also, like Miéville and Pratchett, the books in the series happen in the same world, with some characters appearing in several books, but the protagonists change from book to book and the events are mostly unrelated.

The premise: souls are a slowly replenishing source of magic power. Worship gives soulstuff to the gods in exchange for miracles, while human magicians get it in payment for services rendered. Magical contracts are bound by magical laws, which means all priests and all magicians are lawyers. Since souls are the tools and resources of their Craft, all magicians are necromancers by default. All powerful gods head religions with contractual obligations that make them something of a bank and a conglomerate. Actual banks and conglomerates have been lead by the Craftsmen and Craftswomen ever since they killed most of the gods in the world's version of the World Wars, and the difference between the likes of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao and the Church of Kos the Everburning seems to be mostly theological. Enter courtroom drama!

In the first book, Three Parts Dead, a young craftswoman gets her frst job at Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, an international company of necromancers, concerning the death of a God. Since there's no one there to perform the miracles, she just might have to create an unholy something to do it in His stead, since Alt Coulumb (think New York) uses His holy fire for heating, industry and so on.

In the second book, Two Serpents Rising, a risk manager for Red King Consolidated has to make sure there's no demons in the water, falls for a girl and deals with family matters. His office is in the obsidian pyramid where his father used to sacrifice people to pseudo-Aztec Gods until Craftsmen, most notoriously this lich called King in Red, killed most of the local pantheon. Since water in the desert was a miracle, which were in short supply without the gods (and the blood sacrifice), the King in Red promptly founded Red King Consolidated, which gets us back to the demons in water.

[Tom Tearcamel]

Yeah, can't go wrong with Max Gladstone's (not Gladwell ) Craft Sequence. It's really lovely. The novels weren't published in chronological order, which can be confusing, but they are labeled that way with the number worked into the title. Tor.com has some great articles on the sequence (how I found the series) including one suggesting reading order.

In regards to reading order, publication order is fine, (3,2,5,1,4 how I read them) but not what I’d recommend to a newbie. I would defiantly save Last First Snow for last. Keep Lady K’s motivations unknown for as long as possible. Plus, it’s got that normal prequel vibe that breaks up the rest of the current overarching plot.

I think, I recommend reading them following the numbers in the titles; Two Serpents Rise, Three Parts Dead, Four Roads Cross, Full Fathom Five, and finally Last First Snow. Let Caleb’s story and origin be the bookends since his concern… Spoilers.

[Lethologica]

Charles Stross is basically a SF author but there is a lot of overlap. I'd go with the Laundry Files, which are the Men in Black meets Call of Cthulhu, set to the inhuman, mind-boggling horror of British bureaucracy. Starts with "The Atrocity Archives".

Also, Rule 34.

[endoperez]

Yeah, can't go wrong with Max Gladstone's (not Gladwell )

Oops - fixed! Thanks for the correction.

Your suggested reading sequenvce (heh) is interesting. I started Last First Snow, but it felt off right after Two Serpents Rise. I'm also going to read the other books before returning to it.

[Bohandas]

...liches with names like the King in Red.

Is that a spoof on the King In Yellow?

[Tom Tearcamel]

Is that a spoof on the King In Yellow?

Spoof? No. Tribute? Certainly.

The King in Red is a moniker for Kopil, the CEO and majority shareholder of Red King Consolidated. He is an extremely powerful Crafsmen (necromancer) and the name is from The God Wars. A lot of the old-guard Crafsmen were given names then either by themselves or their adversaries. We also hear of "The Carrion Queen" (who if I remember correctly is Belladonna Albrecht) and a few others.

Anyway, Kopil is a nonthreatening name belonging to someone of the lower class of the strict cast system of old pre-God War DL, he needed something with pizzazz to instill fear in his enemies. He always dressed in red robes, and now that he's a litch, his skeleton is lacquered red. He's a big one for image.

[Fri]

On Craft Sequence, you could also play Choice of the Deathless, which is a genuinely good story on its own, as a CYOA Adventure book/game set in Craft Sequence universe..

[Tom Tearcamel]

I've tried to read CotD twice now. The choose paths make me all paranoid that I may have missed things. And I can't reread things from a few pages ago, if something went over my head. It's pretty cool but I wish there was a Cannon path so I knew who the main character was rather than making him myself... if that makes any sense. But that completely misses the point of CYOA. I guess I'd just rather read novels than play video games. It is really well done tho.

[GrayDeath]

Anything Butcher is very much supporeted, as is Name of the Wind and AMber.

And very much Sandersons Stormlight Archives ... ideally when its done ^^
Mistborn ... is much less well written but again shows his genius in world building.

if you like your Fantasy straightforward and with loveable (if a ttimes simple to very simple) Characters, I can also recommend David Eddings, although I might be going against the tide and recommend his Elenium Trilogy the most, but thats mostly because I really love .... a certain Horse (and ok, its rider^^) in that series. ^^


Let me add Brent Weeks for his BLack prism series. While not particularly well written it is a hugely interesting take on magic and a cool world with lots of potential.

his Night Angel series on the other hand varies between really ... weirdly mediocre and some awesome moments, but suffers from lackluster editing and bad naming.

[Lord Torath]

I'm going to throw a plug out for Michelle Sagara (West). Her current "Cast in..." series (Chronicles of Elantra) is a great read. The main character is a human Private in the Dragon Emperor's police force. I enjoyed her Into the Dark Lands series (Books of the Sundered) as well.

They are young-adult novels, but I really enjoyed Tamora Pierce's Tortall novels - all female protagonists:
The Song of the Lioness quartet: Girl hides her gender to become a knight and do great deeds.
The Immortals quartet: Immortal monsters not seen in centuries start appearing
Protector of the Small quartet: Girl openly tries for Knighthood
Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen: Overthrow of oppressive regime
Terrier (I found the two other Rebecca Cooper books to be much weaker than the first one). Girl joins co-ed police force in tough inner-city beat.
She has another series, The Circle of Magic, but I didn't find it nearly as engaging.

Patricia Briggs has some good books: I have really enjoyed her Mercy Thompson werewolf books, but couldn't get into her Alpha and Omega werewolf series. I like the Dragon Bones/Blood duet, and the Sianim series is pretty good, too.

Robin McKinley has a look of great books, but I've found her latest several less interesting. Sunshine is one of my favorites. The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword are great. Chalice was interesting. Spindle's End was a great version of Sleeping Beauty, and she has Beauty and Rose Daughter as two very different retellings of Beauty and the Beast. (Sunshine and Chalice could also be considered Beauty and the Beast retellings).

[Flying Turtle]

Roger Zelazny's Amber has probably my favorite magic system but some of the heroic characters can behave in jerkish or even out right villainous manners. Given the rules of the universe they inhabit their action and attitudes do make sense but it can still be hard to root for them.

Brandon Sanderson's works are great especially Stormlight Archives. Some people criticized his prose but I actually think it is brilliantly utilitarian. He's not one to dote on scenery and he tends to reuse phrases and metaphors but his prose is perfect for writing high speed action sequence that literally had my heart pounding in my chest.

The Queen's Thief series is also a personal favorite. It is super low magic, the only time you see anything fantastical is when subtle unexplained miracles happen. Really the focus is on the politics and occasional action sequence. It is also very heartfelt with relatively small scales. The main character is not trying to win a war, just get amnesty, marry the woman he loves, get the respect of his soldiers, etc.

[Verbannon]

QUOTE=2D8HP;21300830].
Don't tease! Please post at the
Fantasy novel recommendations?
thread![/QUOTE]
I am not sure what you want. I cant go over my complete list of books as Im on my phone. But the heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron was the last series I went through with a male lead written by a woman. The pillars of reality by Jack Cambell was the last series I went through with a female lead written by a male. the Roe Project series by Richard Phillips was another series with a female lead written by a male.(Or at least the vast majority of the story was from the perspective of the girls) And I cant really remember the rest. But I cant really recommend these, they all suck except maybe the heartstrikers series. But thats what I get for buying all my books out of the bargain bin.

[Themrys]

My absolute favorite of last year was Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. It's King Ralph, except instead of an American becoming emperor of the British after a freak accident, it's an 18-year-old half-elf, half-goblin becoming emperor of the Elves after what was probably very much not an accident. The main character Maia (product of a political marriage) wasn't expected to ever ascend to the throne, so he's spent his entire childhood in exile somewhere in Nowheresvale, and has no clue whatsoever about the politics and intrigue of the Court, or who killed his father and elder half-brothers for that matter. He better learn fast, though!

This is the kind of character who wouldn't last five minutes in a "grimdark" 'verse - he'd just get offed for the unfortunate, clueless dunce he is - but this being a more optimistic world, most characters are basically decent people, and some become Maia's allies; the trick is in figuring out who isn't, and doesn't.

One important thing to note: There's basically no fighting in this book. It's all about character interaction and life at the Court, trying to figure out who can be trusted and who can't, and especially Maia's own growth as a character, as well as that of various supporting characters. It's a perfect fit for me, but I can definitely see how it's not a book for everyone.

Now having read the book, I second the recommendation.

I would add that the protagonist is, while clueless, actually very intelligent. Unlike some other suddenly-royal-protagonists I could name, he actually is aware of his cluelessness and asks people for advice - the one reason he is able to become emperor in the first place is probably because he asks his abusive cousin, who is really good at scheming, for advice (the man who, in a grimdark verse would have already offed him, but in this story is three-dimensional enough to have a bit of a conscience)

[Razade]

Now having read the book, I second the recommendation.

I would add that the protagonist is, while clueless, actually very intelligent. Unlike some other suddenly-royal-protagonists I could name, he actually is aware of his cluelessness and asks people for advice - the one reason he is able to become emperor in the first place is probably because he asks his abusive cousin, who is really good at scheming, for advice (the man who, in a grimdark verse would have already offed him, but in this story is three-dimensional enough to have a bit of a conscience)

I think that's both over-stating the Cousin's role in the story and not being all together honest on why he didn't off the MC. He really had zero influence on the MC becoming the Emperor and didn't train the MC what so ever on being a courtier let alone prepared for being the Emperor. In fact that's one of the first main story parts, just how ill-equipped he is because his Cousin was an abusive jerkass. It's not until he gets to the Capital that he starts learning what he needs to do from his Royal Guards and personal assistant (all of whom could have had their own books and I wish they did). He also had nothing to gain from killing the MC. The Cousin wasn't in the line of succession even before he ended up where he was when the story starts and another of the major story points is that there was already someone ready to take the throne if the MC couldn't do it. Hell, it's the major story point by the middle of the book. The other stuff gets resolved only near the end. The Cousin isn't even a major character by a third of the way into the story. He's shipped off and we only ever hear his name because of how much of a jerk he was.

[Silfir]

The Cousin isn't even a major character by a third of the way into the story. He's shipped off and we only ever hear his name because of how much of a jerk he was.

By sending Setheris away, Maia manages to defy the fear and subordination that Setheris' abuse has drilled into him. At the same time, he puts his trust in Csevet - essentially the first person outside the staff at Edonomee he has even met, by all accounts a total stranger, and a subordinate of prime minister Chavar. Part of the reason he trusts Csevet is that he has to trust someone and he doesn't want it to be Setheris - but in the end it comes down to Maia trusting his own gut feeling, and proving he has the courage to let it guide his decisions.

It's no wonder Setheris didn't show up much after this - his role in the story as Maia's first obstacle is completed when Maia sends him away. He joins the extensive gallery of characters in the book that we can suspect of involvement in this intrigue or another.

[Themrys]

I think that's both over-stating the Cousin's role in the story and not being all together honest on why he didn't off the MC.

Well, Setheris says that Maia would have been offed before a year was up if he didn't seize power immediately. Had Maia not thought to ask Setheris for advice, do you think he would have come up with the idea to immediately travel to court himself? And do you think, if he had not, that he would have survived?

[Sermil]

Huge fan of Lois McMaster Bujold's two fantasy series:

• The Five Gods series. The first one The Curse of Chalion is really good and the second Paladin of Souls is even better. Very much about the characters, very good writing.
• Sharing Knife is a four book romance / low-fantasy story. I'm not a fan of romance novels, but again, I really liked the characters and writing.

(Ya, ya, I keep coming on these threads to talk up Bujold, but she's really good!)

Also a +1 for Kay's Tigana.

[Razade]

Well, Setheris says that Maia would have been offed before a year was up if he didn't seize power immediately. Had Maia not thought to ask Setheris for advice, do you think he would have come up with the idea to immediately travel to court himself? And do you think, if he had not, that he would have survived?

Yes, I do. Setheris is pretty much regulated to a minor role as soon as they get to court and Maia didn't have a year to think it over. Csevet comes to get him for the Funeral immediately. Without Csevet, Maia would have been screwed. Oh, and Idra. Setheris hurt Maia more than anything and not just physically. Setheris is the reason Maia was so unprepared, Setheris only offered what little advice he gave in the first few chapters in hopes Maia would pardon him his crime and give him a nice position. Setheris was self serving until the end.

[Tom Tearcamel]

I'm excited for Brent Weeks's new Lightbringer (Blood Mirror I think) coming out on Tuesday. Just finished re-reading The Broken Eye; the 3rd book yesterday. I really like that one. The 1st one is The Black Prism. I want to write a good synopsis on the series but I'm on mobile.

[TheManicMonocle]

I don't know if this has been suggested, but I recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, and the series, that is named in such a way that I cannot say it on these forums.

[Themrys]

Setheris was self serving until the end.

Sure he was. Doesn't mean he wasn't useful.

I am not so sure that Chenelo would have predicted that Chavar plans to seize power in the time between the death of Maia's father and Maia's arrival at the palace. As a princess, she might have been savvy enough for that, but then, the goblins seem to be more direct and may not tend towards subtle backstabbing plans.

[Silfir]

One of the refreshing bits about The Goblin Emperor is it doesn't go for the simple route when it comes to its characters. The vast majority people who do horrible things in the book all have understandable grievances and motivation to do so. The closest thing to moustache-twirling you'll find is

Spoiler

Show

the Duke Tethimar, naturally. Even the guy who masterminded the airship explosion single-handedly - and intentionally - ushered in a golden era of peace and prosperity for all the common people of the Empire and its neighbors, by putting Maia on the throne. It's just that he murdered people to do it.

Setheris, for instance, is quite interesting in that he's not a completely rotten person. There's no excusing what he did, but the text makes sure to keep us aware that he did teach Maia quite a bit of information, of legal nature and regarding etiquette, that he ends up using from very early onwards, that he did stop physically abusing Maia after he'd gone far too far over the line one time, that his and Hesero's love is genuine, that he was banished in the first place because he couldn't silently tolerate Chavar's corruption and mismanagement of the court, and that his loyalty to the crown - and, therefore, Maia - stayed strong throughout. His worst failing is that he is too mediocre of a man - incapable of mentally enduring his isolation at Edonomee, resisting the lure of the drink, or of developing genuine empathy for a strange boy who needed it dearly. Not adept enough at court intrigue to face Chavar and win, either.

I do agree Setheris helped Maia get his bearings swiftly because it'd get him back to the Court, but I also think Setheris at least deluded himself into thinking that he and Maia had a somewhat close relationship. And I don't think it's quite fair to suggest Setheris never did anything for Maia. He did teach him, and that knowledge does end up helping Maia - and there was absolutely no one forcing Setheris to even make the effort, save for his sense of duty. He has that, at least.

It's good fortune for Maia - and good judgment of character on his part - that he people he later surrounds himself with people who are quite a lot better in every quality than Setheris was. But there are plenty of people in the book who are a lot worse than Setheris, too.