Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library discussion

Well I'm out of books to read and - maybe worse - I have no idea what to read next. As the title says, what I want is kind of....fantasy with a twist.

Although I do enjoy pretty much everything that is just a good story well told, I prefer if it has something out of the ordinary about it, because I feel that there is so much...standard, bland fantasy out there. Also I'd rather not start an unfinished series, I so hate having to wait forever for the next books to come out hehe.
To hopefully give you an idea about what I like, here are some books I recently read and liked a lot.

The Name of the Wind - somewhat standard fantasy with quite a few nice ideas and EXTREMELY well done, enjoyed it very much (and waiting for the next one argh!)

Painted Man by Peter V. Brett - rather conservative fantasy, but well done and thoroughly enjoyable.

Mistborn Trilogy: great books, full of unique great ideas and just extremely good, loved it.

You guys have always been a great help when I couldn't find anything by myself and well...here I am again :)

Daniel wrote: "Well I'm out of books to read and - maybe worse - I have no idea what to read next. As the title says, what I want is kind of....fantasy with a twist.

Although I do enjoy pretty much everything..."

Based on Rothfuss, might look at
Song of the Beast by Carol Berg. Also a bard, a standalone, (so you can see if you like this author,) very deep characterization and nice twists to the plot line. Also if you have not read works by Guy Gavriel Kay.

Based on your second two, if you have not read anything (yet) by David Gemmell - (like Painted Man, this author has very action oriented heroes)

For magical systems/good characters, look at The Barbed Coil - also standalone.

I'd strongly recommend all three (stand-alone) novels in Kage Baker's fantasy world: The Anvil of the World, The House of the Stag, and The Bird of the River; I found all of them fairly subversive of traditional fantasy tropes. Publication order (which is how I ordered them above) is probably best; in the first you get a really unique fantasy world, in the second you get to see the traditional heroic fantasy plot upended, and then the third is sort of Mundane Fantasy (like Mundane SF) -- it's about the sort of lives the common people live in crazy fantasy worlds.

If you've ever read any companion animal fantasy, I strongly recommend A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear; it foregrounds all the icky stuff most of those fantasies prefer to gloss over (in a good way, at least IMO). It is technically the first book in a planned trilogy, but I think it stands well on its own.

Lois McMaster Bujold's three Chalion novels (The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, & The Hallowed Hunt) are wonderful high fantasy; nothing really out-of-the box beyond the fact that they're set in a vaguely Spanish (rather than Celtic) milieu. But they are wonderful, polished bits of art, and feature my favorite reluctant heroes ever. The first one stands alone well; the second picks up right after but jumps to a totally different main character, and the third is related only in featuring the same religion, so they can all be read independently (but it makes no sense to read the second before the first).

Finally, my favorite books of all time are Jacqueline Carey's original Kushiel's Legacy trilogy: Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, & Kushiel's Avatar. I always have to list a ton of caveats when I recommend them (bisexuality is the norm, prostitution is depicted as a sacred act, the main character is gifted/cursed to be the perfect submissive, sex happens on-screen, and the major religion is clearly a blasphemous version of Christianity) but if none of those things bother you then I think you'll find a wonderful first-person narrative and a really epic fantasy plot. Plus, it's the only fantasy world I have ever wanted to live in. It is an ongoing series (up to eight novels!) but Carey writes trilogies naturally, so the first two trilogies complete their own arcs -- plus Carey's been great at cranking out a book a year, without a break, so the waiting isn't interminable. :)

So that's what I read over and over again. . . for what it's worth. ;)

Phoenixfalls wrote: "If you've ever read any companion animal fantasy, I strongly recommend A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear; it foregrounds all the icky stuff most of those fantasies prefer to gloss over (in a good way, at least IMO). It is technically the first book in a planned trilogy, but I think it stands well on its own.


I'll second this, and I agree that A Companion to Wolves works well as a stand alone.

As far as animals in fantasy with a twist I'd recommend Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. It's technically YA but many of the scenes are quite graphic / disturbing and the plot has many complicated shifts in time and place.

A series I recently finished and thoroughly enjoyed was the Codex Alera, by Jim Butcher. Apparently, he wrote the series on a bet that he could write a good story based on a bad idea, or in this case two bad ideas: The 9th roman legion and pokemon.

Daniel wrote: "Well I'm out of books to read and - maybe worse - I have no idea what to read next. As the title says, what I want is kind of....fantasy with a twist.

Although I do enjoy pretty much everything..."

The Curse of Chalion, very definitely. The best book in the last decade. But I've been saying that for years so it's more than a decade by now.

I'm reading The Lies of Locke Lamora right now, and it's absolutely fantastic. Funny, dark, great prose. Excellent.

Great list of books! I bought a few working my way down to the comment box. Daniel, you may enjoy my The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy Similar to 1984 and A Brave New World, the book is set in a police state the day before a nuclear melt-down. It's won 2 national awards so far and just got a 5 star review from Red Adept Reviews. (Check it's Amazon reviews as well.)

Red Adept reviewer Jim Chambers said, "I have to say that The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy is probably the most original story that I’ve read in quite some time. . . . The story was ultimately a fascinating and gripping tale about survival and the desperate measures that some—on earth and elsewhere—would take to ensure their survival."

The Angel is available on Amazon as a trade paperback and Kindle. It's also available as a Nook, Sony book and iBook. All the ebooks are 99 cents. It's a stand alone book, though two sequels to the book are being edited and should be out soon.

Any of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar novels.

I just finished reading Heroes Die and the rest of the books in that series, by Matthew Stover. I have to say, nothing I've ever read is anything like it, except perhaps Joe Abercrombie's series. Quite worth a look.

The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness by Hugh Cook is excellent. The first five books can be read in any order and the fourth book, The Walrus and the Warwolf, was my favorite read of 2010.

have you tried Eric Flint's "1632" and it's sequels?

Have you tried Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore? They are my absolute favourite fantasy books. They are really amazing and keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Every now and then I just have to pick up one and reread it. If you haven't tried them I really recommend you do. There is another book by Kristen Cashore coming out called Bitterblue but they are all stand alone books so you don't have to wait on a cliffhanger for the next one.

Have you tried books by Charles de Lint or Roger Zelazny. Great writers.

http://www.tomkeplerswritingblog.com/...

I would like to second Tom's Roger Zelazny suggestion. Nothing I've ever read comes close to his descriptive prose, just this side of purple. (And sometimes just a hair on the other side of purple, but he's good at it.) The Chronicles of Amber is one of my favorite go-back-to series when I've run out of new stuff to read.

I first discovered Amber when I was at high school, the first page of Nine Princes in Amber had me hooked. I especially love the idea of shadows of the real world.
I adore this series and over the years have re-read it many times.
I agree with Tom and Inithello. Lasairfiona Smith sums it up for me It captured my imagination and has kept ahold of it for years.

I loved the Amber series. Read it 15 years ago.

Ever read Zelazny's science fiction short story/novella "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth"? (Fifty pages in the my short story collection.) It's an incredible tour de force of vision, ability, and style--my writing talisman, in many ways.

As for the Amber series, I have the five-novel compilation hardback edition, The First Chronicles of Amber. Love it!

http://www.tomkeplerswritingblog.com/...

Tom wrote: "As for the Amber series, I have the five-novel compilation hardback edition, The First Chronicles of Amber. Love it!"

That's the same one I have. I wished I'd stopped after the First Chronicles.

LOL! I read the reviews and did stop at the first.

Hi, haven't posted here before I don't think. I'd like to second Marcin's suggestion of The Lies of Locke Lamora, as well as the second in the series, Red Seas Under Red Skies. This is a long-term series that has just gotten started, and he's not quick about getting the next book out... but each one has worked well on its own so far.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is pretty good epic fantasy if you haven't read that one yet. Although the series is unfinished, there are currently 13 or 14 books and only one or 2 until its finished, so if your running short on books thats one series that will take up your time.

I noticed someone mentioned Charles de Lint... I acutally just bought his Jack of Kinrowan book at a sale but I have no idea if its any good.

The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson. By far one of the best books I've ever read. Anything by her is fabulous.

Christine wrote: "The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson. By far one of the best books I've ever read. Anything by her is fabulous."

This sounds interesting. Ive heard about the kitsune "fox spirits" and thought they were pretty cool. Looks like the book is fairly romance heavy though.

Hmmm, I would have never thought about this as a romance book (which I don't read), I would say more obsession/deception/animal on human sex.

The new e-book Islandia: The Lost Colony by C.J. Klinger is a great read. It is smartly written with an excellent plot and character development. Not your usual sci-fi book. Available on amazon on B&N.

If you like young adult adventure fantasy, you might want to try my book.

Here's the blurb:



Gibbering Gnome Press Presents a Tale of Epic Fantasy

For Lily and Jasper Winter, the Moon Realm began with a single secret bedtime tale. As the children grew older, Uncle Ebb enthralled them with thrilling tales of the Dragondain riding horse-sized, catlike Rinn; mysterious tales of peerin-wielding lunamancers manipulating the magic that lies just beneath the surface of reality; exciting tales of flying dragons, swimming merfolk, stomping giants, and troublesome faeries. But as the magic of their childhood faded, so too did the tales. Eventually, they were just . . . good stories.

Or were they?

Now, nine years after it all began, Uncle Ebb is missing.

Lily and Jasper search for clues, but their uncle's mansion is full of distractions. A Tesla generator thrums in the basement. Prismatic electrimals flit around walls resembling underwater reefs. Then a most unexpected friend comes to their aid, leading them to a hidden room where they find a mysterious coin—the moon coin. Before the night is out, Lily is transported to the real Moon Realm. But the moons are in trouble. The Rinn of Barreth are under siege, and the lunamancers of Dain are beset by the very dragons they once loved. Most horrifying of all, the moon Darwyth has fallen to a villain named Wrengfoul, whose creeping evil now threatens to overshadow all the Realm.

Are Lily and Jasper too late to save the Moon Realm, or will they have enough time to write an ending of their own?

Featuring twenty-two stunning full-color illustrations by Carolyn Arcabascio. Volume One of the young adult fantasy adventure series The Moon Realm.

TheMoonRealm.com

$2.99 at Barnes & Noble., Amazon, and the iBookstore.