SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I need a great epic fantasy standalone to read! I've already read the sword of kaigen, the four secret projects, and the emperor's soul, so please don't recommend those.

If you have read and enjoyed a lot of Shakespeare, or just the King James Version, and are not going to be thrown by a pastiche of sixteenth and seventeenth century English, try E.R. Eddison’s “The Worm Ouroboros,” the great-grandfather (1922) of epic fantasy.

It is often published as part of his unfinished Zimiamvia Cycle, including the Kindle omnibus of “The Complete Zimiamvia: but the overlap is very minor, and the settings and plot are unrelated, and it makes perfectly good sense by itself.

There are many inexpensive Kindle editions, not all of them well-produced. I gave up trying to keep track of them years ago.

(If you like it, you can go on to the three Zimiamvia books, often mislabelled a trilogy: the author intended at least four novels. In publication order they are “Mistress of Mistresses,” “A Fish Dinner in Memison,” and the unfinished “The Mezentian Gate,” the last of which is a sort of prequel, except that the action of “Fish Dinner” falls somewhere in the latter part of its chronology.)

I've read the Bible as a Christian, and some Shakespeare, but I don't particularly enjoy the writing styles of either, so I unfortunately think I'll have to pass on that one

For a great standalone epic you might try Janny Wurts’ “To Ride Hell’s Chasm”.

Okay! I'll have to check it out

To Ride Hell’s Chasm

___________

The Worm Ouroboros

I enjoyed Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay as an audio book, and Under Heaven on Kindle. Of those two I dare say Tigana is more fantasy.

I'll also share this list from a web page I hear nice things about "Best Standalone Fantasy"

Thanks!

That’s a great list. I’ve read the majority of the books at the beginning of the list, but there are a lot of them I haven’t read! Thanks!

I argue that The Hobbit stands alone. I have loved it for almost 50 years, though I cannot get into LotR at all.

I'm not much of a hobbit fan lol

if you liked Sword of Kaigen, you might also enjoy The Water Outlaws by SL Huang

Master of Djinn is a complete story that you do not need to read anything else to enjoy, but there are other works in the same world.

Blacktongue Thief is an amazing standalone epic. Really great in audio too.

Wayward Children series by Seanan Maguire is, yes, a series, but only 1 book that I know of is actually reliant on another book in the series, and they're all very short novellas.

Wee Free Men is part of a series inside a larger series, but is very funny and magical and epic and can be read alone, but it fits the "vibe" of some of the books you've mentioned.

Neverwhere by Gaiman is a classic standalone, highly recommend.

Charlie Jane Anders has 2 books that are both standalone blends of sci-fi and fantasy. Those might fit in with the ones you mentioned as well.

And of course T Kingfisher has a lot of fairytale inspired books that are all standalone. the ones on our shelf are a good place to start!

While maybe not "epic", I'll never stop singing praise of The Spear Cuts Through Water.

Oh yes! That’s a great one!

DivaDiane wrote: "Oh yes! That’s a great one!"

Me three! I also loved his first book, The Vanished Birds - it's sci fi rather than fantasy though,

Hexed in Texas might not be Epic but it was a fun read. A very different look at Baba Yaga

The High Crusade is a bit dated now but it is about what could have happened if Crusaders met Aliens. More of a Sci/Fi mix than pure fantasy

The High Crusade is a lot of fun. I have read it several times, all ages ago, and enjoyed it very much. Probably not in the epic fantasy category though.

A portion of Poultry Anderson’s output is definitely fantasy, and mostly standalone.
Five are based on medieval Scandinavian literature and modern folklore:

The Broken Sword (in two editions, both of which have champions)

Hrolf Kraki’s Saga (not to be confused with the medieval “Saga of Hrolf Kraki”)

The Merman’s Children

Mother of Kings

War of the Gods

For books in short series, which can be read separately:
Three Hearts and Three Lions
A Midsummer Tempest

and, sometimes published as an omnibus,
Operation Chaos
Operation Luna

Part of the last sentences was cut off, at least on my iPhone: the correct title is Operation Chaos

These books also overlap a little with A Midsummer Tempest and Three Hearts and Three Lions.

Non-fantasy is Anderson’s The Last Viking Trilogy, concerning a very real Norwegian King, Harald Hardrede:
The Golden Horn
The Road of the Sea Horse
The Sign of the Raven

These are available as a Kindle omnibus, and as individual volumes, currently much less expensively: I suggest getting them at their current sale prices.

Mother of Kings also comes close to being an historical novel: Anderson chose to use magical elements from his medieval sources.

Ian wrote: "A portion of Poultry Anderson’s output is definitely fantasy, and mostly standalone.
Five are based on medieval Scandinavian literature and modern folklore:

The Broken Sword (in two editions, both..."

Looks like the author’s name was mangled by autocorrect.

Right. I really should be doing this on something bigger than my phone, which is hard to read when I am working on it.

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
is now in TBR list, probably next read.

Anything from https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

most notably https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

(she also has short trilogies/duologies)

Actually, I thought that apart from Fledgling and Kindred, most of her novels were part of series.

We did a buddy read of The Broken Sword a few years ago.
Here is the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...