Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

[Confusion]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

On George R R Martins website he has a letter to the fanbase where he dicusses these "release dates". He doesn't even know when the book will be done because he hasn't finished writing it yet, and doesn't know when he will finish it, so there is no way that anyone else can produce a valid release date.

 

Actually,.. I knew that already. I got over excited, I was at amazon.com getting the names of something, and went ahead and looked at their release date, and not checking with the man himself.

 

 

edit: Ok, that made no sense. I should have said, I know about Martins site, as well as his practice regarding release dates (It'll be done when it's done) However, I failed to check his website, merely the amazon website, since I was already there.

[Black_Thaddeus]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

I loved Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. It is dark and brutal and amazingly evocative for a stand-alone fantasy. I would recommend it to anyone who is enjoying Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. On the strength of Tigana, I tried his Fionovar Tapestry series as well, but I didn't care for it at all.

[Beetle]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

I loved Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. It is dark and brutal and amazingly evocative for a stand-alone fantasy. I would recommend it to anyone who is enjoying Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. On the strength of Tigana' date=' I tried his [i']Fionovar Tapestry[/i] series as well, but I didn't care for it at all.

I wonder if it has something to do with the order one comes across them. I read Fionavar first (it was written first) and liked it very much (even if it does get over-Tolkeinish at points). But when I read it, I wasn't burdened with comparing it to Tigana, which is a masterpiece.

[Barwickian]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

George MacDonald Fraser (the author of the Flashman series -- novels about a man named Harry Flashman' date=' who is not a superhero. 10 points if you can name the first novel in which Flashman appeared).[/quote']

 

That would be Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857). I love Macdonald Fraser's re-working of Flashman. His Pyrates is also very amusing - features a cast of characters that make Jack Sparrow look normal.

 

But to get back to fantasy, my (non-Tolkien) favourites are:

 

Ursula le Guin, The Earthsea Trilogy Now a quintet, or more, but the first three are the best - and the first, The Wizard of Earthsea, is the best by far.

 

David Gemmel, pretty much everything. As someone's already pointed out, Gemmel is a very formulaic writer - read one and you've read them all - but his style is a very endearing pathos. Waylander remains one of my favourite fantasy characters - he's basically the Outlaw Josie Wales with a crossbow. His first book, Legend, came out in 1981, the year I started playing RPGs (so did Ray Feist's Magician, but I largely gave up with him after the Riftwar trilogy, Servant of the Empire and Faerie Tale). To this day, my gaming group describes a particularly intense, descriptive combat scene in a game as "doing a Gemmel". And yes, I have the graphic novels, too - Jon Shannow, the Jerusalem Man, is exactly as I pictured him...

 

Katherine Kerr - The Deverry Series (now nearing the last of three planned quartets). The first quartet - Daggerspell, etc - is the best, but the whole thing's like a damned soap opera; given the ending to the eleventh book, I can't wait to find out what happens to Rhodry Maelwedd in the last book. The series starts out as an ancient Celtic-influenced low fantasy work, but becomes preogressively higher fantasy as it goes on. The frequent flashback sequences to characters' previous lives (yeah, re-incarnation is in) will either captivate you or irritate the hell out of you. They captivated me.

 

Homer, The Illiad and The Oddessy. Not the easiest reads, I grant you, but pure brilliance. You should probably get a good, readable modern translation, but it's best to read Homer in the original Klingon...

 

The Mabinogion. My favourite version is the Everyman Jones & Jones translation.

 

There are many, many more - Paksennarion, Thieves' World, Thomas Covenant (it's by Stephen Donaldson, to the chap who couldn't remember) and a host of others - but in the interests of brevity, I'll stop there...

[Barwickian]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

I wonder if it has something to do with the order one comes across them. I read Fionavar first (it was written first) and liked it very much (even if it does get over-Tolkeinish at points). But when I read it' date=' I wasn't burdened with comparing it to Tigana, which is a masterpiece.[/quote']

 

I read Tigana first, was hugely impressed, and was subsequently hugely disappointed with The Fionavar Tapestry.

 

Song for Arbonne and Lions of Al-Rassan restored his standing in my eyes, though.

 

I re-read Tigana about once a year. It's a magnificent work.

[Southern Cross]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

I have to recommend The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory,though only the first two novels have been published.Not only are they up to her usual standard,but I could swear that the United States was ther inspiration for Armethalieth,the City of Bells,especially after the tragedy that happened earlier this month.

[JMcL63]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is a classic fantasy series with an atmosphere as unique and compelling now as it was 20 years ago when it was first published. More recent books that I would recommend are Trollslayer and its sequels by Bill King, featuring his epic heroes Gotrek and Felix. These are essentially monster-hunting romps featuring strong characterisation, including a great backing cast, some epic fight scenes, and some great moments of comedy. Fine entertainment.

[jml]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

Homer' date=' [i']The Illiad[/i] and The Oddessy. Not the easiest reads, I grant you, but pure brilliance. You should probably get a good, readable modern translation, but it's best to read Homer in the original Klingon...

 

Too right. Well, except for the Klingon bit.

 

Which reminds me. Paradise Lost by John Milton is similarly excellent. It is poetry in Elizabethan English, and it contains some of the best lines ever penned. It also lays out an impressive mythology, one based heavily on Christianity with many classical influences. As far as I'm aware, it is the English language's answer to The Iliad and The Odyssey.

 

"Yet from those flames

No light, but rather darkness visible."

 

Lines like these make me want to write lines like these.

[tancred]

Re: Reccomended Reading: Fantasy Novels

 

Can't believe I forgot to mention Katherine Kurtz.

The Deryni books (now at 4 trilogies, at least 2 full novels, at least 3 collections of short stories, and goodness only knows what else) are absolute classics.

 

Kurtz is a historian by training, and it shows in her work. Really good series of stories. And the first-written trilogy (Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate, High Deryni) is being re-issued in hardback.

 

Another incredibly good fantasy author is Harry Turtledove. He's also a classically-trained historian (is this a pattern with me?)

The Misplaced Legion introduced his world of Videssos, which is essentially the Holy Roman Empire (Byzantium) with magic added.

One of the four series set in this world alternates between Videssos (the Roman Empire analogue) and the Persia equivalent (the name in the book escapes me now).

The series tells the story of the war between these two great powers from the point of view of both sides.

 

Turtledove's Agent of Byzantium is an unconnected book that deals with an Middle Ages version of Bond, a spy who works for the Holy Roman Empire. Also rollicking good fun.