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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Is there any good fantasy anywhere?

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at the scarwash

03:19 / 18.02.04

So, I like the idea of fantasy novels. Fairy tales grown up. Imagining worlds that couldn't be. But fantasy authors that can actually write are as rare as the Spear of Destiny, or a +5 Sword of Beheading, so it seems. Love Mervyn Peake. Love Gene Wolfe. Fritz Leiber, natch. Robert Howard's Conan is so well done that I forget that it's just about some guy tossing a sword about and saying "Crom!" But I'm running out of decent fantasy authors. Are there any more? And if anyone says "Tolkien," I'll track you down and sick a Lich on you.

Baz Auckland

03:50 / 18.02.04

I enjoyed the first few Dragonlance and David Edding's first set of books (The Belgariad I think they were?)... nothing special admittedly, and I haven't actually read them in a decade, but they're good fun and they have those lovely maps of Krynn/Eddingsworld inside the front cover, which I love referring to throughout the books...

Trijhaos

03:55 / 18.02.04

Robin Hobb! She has three trilogies out right now. The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveships Trilogy, and the Tawny Man trilogy. You've got all your basic fantasy elements. Talking ships, The Skill (magic), dragons, pirates, young boys growing up to be heroes, and everything else but it's done in an interesting way. I really don't know how to demonstrate my complete and utter love for these books.

I hear that George R.R. Martin guy is pretty good too. I've read the three books in the Sword Of Ice And Fire series, but they didn't really catch my interest.

I'd stay away from Terry Goodkind after the first book since he has some sorta odd rape fetish and in the latter books he's become nothing more than Ayn Rand with swords.

---

04:34 / 18.02.04

I need to read some good fiction too, i haven't read anything in a while now. Ursula LeGuin is supposed to be one of the best though from what i've heard.

unheimlich manoeuvre

14:31 / 18.02.04

i second Robin Hobb. Great characters and ideas.

my current favourite is Steven Erikson. The first part of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Gardens of the Moon, is excellent. The author is a in anthropology and the writing is involved, intelligent and enthralling.

at the scarwash

23:49 / 19.02.04

Okay, the big deal for me is writing. In my opinion, you could write about making a sandwich, and if you're a good writer, I'm down. In fantasy (just as in straight fiction) there aren't any new clever ideas (I've read--to my shame--Weis and Hickman, Piers Anthony, etc.). Who's telling the story of village-idiot-cum-Messiah in a way that's actually beuatiful to read?

rakehell

03:28 / 20.02.04

I haven't read it - though I now have a copy on my shelf waiting - but especially since you mention liking Mervyn Peake, you should probably give China Mieville's "Perdido Street Station" a go. Her cites Peake as the biggest influence on the book and is in a lot of circles considered as having single-handedly re-energised the fantasy genre.

woodenpidgeon

06:54 / 20.02.04

Lord Dunsany is one of my favorite authors. Mostly short stories, but incredible style. 'The Hashish Man' is an anthology I just picked up. Great stuff.

illmatic

07:46 / 20.02.04

Ursula Le Guin's "Wizard of Eathsea" trilogy is one of my favourite things ever. The writing is prety superb as well. You might find it intersting to contrast the first 3 with the later books where she attempts to do something completely different with her characters.

Jestocost

10:42 / 20.02.04

I recently read the new antology of Clark Ashton Smith that got published by the Fantasy Masterworks series. It was very nice to confirm that his tales of Zothique were as good as I remembered them from a reading 15 years ago. His languange can be a bit funny (I think the adjective might be overflorid, if that is even a word) to devour in a big clump, so take a few stories a day and it will work out great.

Alex's Grandma

14:25 / 20.02.04

Well they're not strictly fantasy, more extreme Victoriana, weird sex, horrors, ghosts and con men and so on, slow creeping sense of gothic melancholy, but beautifully written, very much proper art, as well as being books you can't really put down. If you're into Mervyn Peake, you'll be into these too. So Affinity or Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. You'll like them, honestly. You might not like yourself for liking them - Affinity in particular really pretty much slayed me, but you'll like them all the same. You can trust me on this.

Keith, like a scientist

16:36 / 20.02.04

I'm a pretty big fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books. There are 10 now with 2 more planned to finish up the story. It's a very big, complicated story. Looking it up on Google will probably give you a better idea than I could explain quickly. Prophecies, battles, mysteries, other worlds, powers, evil things, etc.

at the scarwash

19:41 / 22.02.04

You know, I was really excited about Mieville for about a month. The ideas were quite pretty. And then I tried rereading them (Perdido and Scar, and realized that there was not a single actual character to be found anywhere in either novel.

rakehell

22:52 / 22.02.04

Oh great... But I should read them once, right?

Catjerome

20:06 / 23.02.04

Another vote for George R.R. Martin's *Song of Ice and Fire* series. I couldn't put them down, and ordinarily I have _zero_ patience for high fantasy novels. What helped me enjoy these books: no "chosen one" characters, no "thieves guild", some magic but used in a believable way, unexpected character death, bad things happening to good people, and overall good plotting that had me saying "And then what?" at the end of each chapter.

Simplist

21:56 / 23.02.04

You know, I was really excited about Mieville for about a month. The ideas were quite pretty. And then I tried rereading them (Perdido and Scar, and realized that there was not a single actual character to be found anywhere in either novel.

You didn't think Teafortwo was a real character?

Axolotl

12:47 / 24.02.04

You can't beat Fritz Leibers' Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series. Classic swords and sorcery without too much of the po-faced tone of lots of fantasy (I'm looking at you Tolkien). Nice and easy to read too. It's not all that deep, but it's good fun none the less. The ones where they end up in the ancient near east are excellent.

Nobody's girl

14:35 / 24.02.04

His Dark Materials (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Syglass) by Philip Pullman is fantastic fantasy, it also has excellent Gnostic themes.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

15:21 / 24.02.04

OK, it was a looooong time ago, but I enjoyed the Raymond E Feist set of books Magician, Silverthorn and Darkness at Sethanon...he also did a gaelic / faerie tale type thingy call, er, Faerie Tale, which I enjoyed at the time.

Many moons hence, and could be pants in retropect, but maybe worth a look.

foot long subbacultcha

16:41 / 25.02.04

Read David Gemmell. The writing style is very easy on the eye so you'll get through his books in lightning speed. Some of his earlier writing is a little rusty but the passion is there. Thematically his books tend to clone each other but I dare you not to read them all. I haven't found anyone who can write like him.

King of Town

23:42 / 25.02.04

Janny Wurts is really excellent. Read Stormwarden or Curse of the Mistwraith. She writes real human nature into her characters and doesn't tell a story from a blind narrow minded point of view the way so many pump-out-the-fiction writers do.

Any suggestions on a book that actually includes Liches? I've only ever found one in my life.

at the scarwash

01:43 / 27.02.04

These are all wonderful suggestions as far as good storytelling is concerned, but what I'm after is someone who really does something different stylistically with the genre. I love Leiber and Phillip Pullman (who is certainly someone that I would have found exactly the ticket, had I not already discovered him). Someone who is giving us a world of magic and wonder, and telling it in a way that doesn't ignore all of the stylistic developments mainstream literature has uncovered and discarded in the past 50 years.

kiwi

04:10 / 27.02.04

fionnavar tapestry trilogy by guy gavriel kay. the guy is from canada and he worked with the son of tolkien on this one. totally unrelated to middle-earth but still there is some similarities in the naration. I read those a couple of times.

grant

14:32 / 01.03.04

Little, Big by John Crowley is sort of about the Fair Folk, and sort of about modern urban romance, and sort of about politics and topology, and is gorgeously written.

noodle vague

21:01 / 03.03.04

M. John Harrison is fantastic, a proper writer who happens to work in the general area of fantasy.

believer

10:48 / 04.03.04

kelley armstrong shes a new novilist who has onlt wrote three books so far but the first two are about werewolves and are unbelievably brilliant the third is about witchcraft shes almost finished her fourth book and she plans to write many more all of the books have interlinking characters its fantastic story line of violence sex and vendettas i would reccamend these books to anyone

kelley armstrong - Bitten
- Stolen
- dimestore magic

The Falcon

18:34 / 04.03.04

To my surprise, I find myself reading and very much enjoying, in a light, occulty way, Michael Moorcock's Von Bek trilogy.

I had expected someone else to mention him by now. But they haven't, so I shall.

at the scarwash

22:43 / 04.03.04

M. John Harrison is indeed a sprightly figure in the field of intelligently written fantasy, as is Moorcock, who's surprisingly adept at making phthisic drug addicts with swords and eldritch magic seem like worthwhile subjects for novels. I remain skeptical about Jerry Cornelius, but have enjoyed most of the rest of his output, particularly the Oswald Bastible novels and Gloriana.

misterpc

20:36 / 08.03.04

Ursula le Guin is pretty startling, often.

Most of Moorcock is a bit too 70s rock for me, but he's an excellent writer - Gloriana and the Pyat quartet deserve a read.

How about John Brunner's "Traveller in Black"? That book had a big impact on me, long ago.

A fall of geckos

13:46 / 09.03.04

I've recently been impressed by Hope Mirrlees novel Lud in the Mist. It's a book from the 1920s which contrasts fairyland (also the land of the dead) with Lud - a town of middle class merchants. I found the book breathtaking to read. Mirrlees builds the world of Lud using stunningly evocative language and the whole book is filled with a mixture of humour and melancholy.

There's some information on Mirrlees here.

unheimlich manoeuvre

00:35 / 10.03.04

what an excellent list. lots of titles i've never even heard of let alone read. i must confess to being a little ashamed to even write that as i worked as a bookseller for fucking years.

thought i'd also recommend The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. These books share the same sources as the works of Tolkien, Holdstock, Guy Gavriel Kay, M. John Harrison (etc.), the Pre-Christian Northern European myths such as Beowulf, Edda and the Kalevala. The novels have an intriguing psychological aspect as the main protagonist doubts the reality of the fantastical Land he finds himself in.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

03:41 / 10.03.04

I have a lot of trouble with Fantasy now that all of the novel tend to ask the reader to make a committment to 3 - 5 (or more) novels, most of which feel like they are really just a single novel, padded so that you have to buy three.

However, one of the best things to happen to fantasy is the re-issuing of the Conan work by Robert E Howard, taking out all of the re-writings and corrections by DeCamp and Carter. Howard's work is very direct, pure and filled with pulp, but has a clarity that was taken away by other authors playing in the sandbox and rewriting Howard's mile-a-minute prose.

luke hugh

19:19 / 10.03.04

What about Micheal Moorecock and the Elric saga. I can't get into fantasy often but I read all those books.

at the scarwash

20:21 / 10.03.04

I never really got the whole Thomas Covenant thing. He never seemed like a very, well, motivated character. I usually put the first book down after he randomly rapes the girl in the first 50 pages.

Mourne Kransky

20:29 / 10.03.04

Just getting into Ursula Le Guin's new book of thematically linked short stories Changing Planes and drooling over the invention and allegory. But I want to marry her and have her babies, so I may count as irretrievably biased.

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