Fantasy books | Imamother

amother

Brunette

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 8:06 pm

amother [ Blue ] wrote:

Juliet marillier
It's like Celtic historical

Her books are mostly retellings of various fairy tales, as I recall, though it's been some time since I've read her books.

Probably the best fairy tale retelling I've read is, The Girls at the King fishers Club by Genevieve Valentine. Retelling of The 12 Dancing Princesses, but set in the 1920s with the Jazz Age, flappers, and Prohibition Era bars. Highly recommend!

LiLIsraeli

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 8:22 pm

Rubber Ducky wrote:

I didn't know that and may read Uprooted just because of it, because Jewish characters in recent fantasy are so rare. Which character is Jewish?

So reading synopses, because it's been so long since I read it, I can't remember why I thought the main character was Jewish. I don't see any mention of it anywhere. I distinctly remember coming away with that impression, though.

I also recently read The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. I enjoyed it a lot, though some details felt anachronistic and poorly researched. The story itself was good and the characters well-developed.

amother

Forestgreen

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 6:05 am

amother [ Burgundy ] wrote:

The Eragon series by Christopher Paolini is YA but very well written and quite clean.

Funny that you found it well-written, because I literally stopped in the middle because I found it written so badly. And I'm usually the type who feels the need to finish something I've begun just for the sake of finishing it. This wasn't even a conscious decision to give up on it, I just realised after a while when going through my Kindle that I'd never actually finished it. I guess it was so uncompelling that I simply forgot about it.

I do have family members that loved it though.

youngishbear

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 6:57 am

sequoia wrote:

Why are people calling The Magicians dark? It's literally the most uplifting, optimistic thing I have ever read. Are you sur you don't mean the awful tv series?

Sometimes people mean different things when they use a word.

Dark in this case probably means the main character's negativity. Sometimes it's a general feeling of horror or fear that a reader is left with.

I haven't read it in a while so I can't point to specifics anymore.

mommy2379

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 11:53 am

amother [ Forestgreen ] wrote:

SAME! Found it compelling in a cutesy way but it read like it was written by a fifteen year old, which by the way IT WAS. Never finished it, but I know others enjoyed.

bigsis144

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 12:00 pm

sequoia wrote:

Why are people calling The Magicians dark? It's literally the most uplifting, optimistic thing I have ever read. Are you sur you don't mean the awful tv series?

The books have graphic scenes of rape and child abuse and the core group of characters go through long periods of empty, nihilistic hedonism... drugs and orgies and people just being so mean to one another even though they’re presumably friends?? There is so much *humanity* in these books, but there is much more of the bitter, jagged, broken side of humanity on display than in most books people read for enjoyment.

So yes, these books are dark! There’s hope and light and yes, magic at the end of the tunnel, but it’s hell (sometimes literally) getting there.

—

Not quite the same, but when I read NK Jemison’s Broken Earth series, I hated it.

The books are award-winning and objectively good literature, though I still find the second-person narration off-putting even after finding out why it was used (I’m just an unsophisticated plebe, I guess).

And yes, they deal with important issues through the lens of fantasy, but toward the end, my experience was more of an exhausted commitment to reach the finish than an investment in the world or characters. The characters were also very complex and unlikeable and lived in a world that denied them everything. It wouldn’t have surprised me if everyone I spent hundreds of pages reading about just fell in a volcano because that might as well happen for all the needless suffering and cruelty.

bigsis144

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 1:09 pm

mommy2379 wrote:

SAME! Found it compelling in a cutesy way but it read like it was written by a fifteen year old, which by the way IT WAS. Never finished it, but I know others enjoyed.

Me too. It followed the classic fantasy tropes very well, but didn’t do anything particularly original or interesting with them.

It was great for teenage me who hadn’t read much yet, whose brain went - Aw, yes!! Omg, I never heard of a monster called a “shade” before, is that like sheid in Hebrew?! Weird creepy bug monsters! Elven warrior girls! Underground dwarf cities! MADE UP LANGUAGES 💕

But grown me has read enough to see that those are almost cliches at this point, if they’re not made unique or subverted somehow.

—

I felt the same about the Belgariad by David Eddings. It’s about a farm boy who goes on a quest, meeting colorful characters along the way, and eventually becomes a wise and magical king.

Most of the characters are one-note — I kept looking for hints that people weren’t what they appeared to be at first glance, but they were pretty much solid archetypes. It’s like if dnd subclasses were played straight - the wise wizardly mentor. The brusque warrior from a barbarian tribe. The sneaky yet charming thief. The crazy hermit. The haughty sorceress. The Dark Lord.

There’s a reason why these tropes stand the test of time, but by now, I usually expect a bit more complexity.

amother

Lime

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 1:21 pm

And how could I forget Mercedes Lackey? I've reread some of her work so many times. I love the unique twists of the fairy tale series, especially the 500 hundred kingdom series which has such a lighthearted way making fun of all the tropes etc. And I love her Valdemar series.

cbsp

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 7:29 pm

shanie5 wrote:

I'm surprised no ones mentioned Piers Anthony. He has a few series, the most known one is the Xanth series. Magic and puns.

Was holding myself back from recommending him as some of his series can get pretty explicit (Adept, for example)

Same for Thieves World.

Douglas Adams anyone?

Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World trilogy was extremely well written and thoroughly immersive.

Would Redwall be considered fantasy? Very different than any of the recommendations...

amother

Periwinkle

Tue, Sep 29 2020, 11:30 pm

Ahhhh this thread is so old but I had to add sorry

For those of you who like Naomi Novik and Leigh Bardugo, PLEASE try the Darker Shades series by VE Schwob, you won't regret it! (There are four Londons in four parallel universes all with a different relationship to magic, our main character is a rarity who can travel between them and act as a messenger for the kings, but on the side he's a smuggler and he makes a mistake that leads to ADVENTURE, yay adventure)

Another vote for Rothfuss. I'll never not. (Harry Potter for adults)

If you like SFF and you like Jane Austen, try Shades of Milk and Honey which is like Austen but with magic. (the author also has a series called the Lady Astronaut series which was about women astronauts in alternate history 1950s, if you're into that sort of thing. It won ALL the awards. She is good friends with Sanderson)

This is so fun!

tigerwife

Sun, Dec 20 2020, 5:21 pm

amother [ Brunette ] wrote:

I enjoyed The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh.
Am looking forward to the final Queen's Thief book coming out October 6. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

Finally read Return of the Thief and while I enjoyed reading it, I was kind of waiting in vain for some kind of crazy bombshell all the way through and only got a couple of little twists.

The first three books are the best.

amother

Brunette

Sun, Dec 20 2020, 5:49 pm

tigerwife wrote:

Agree. It wasn't a total disappointment but nothing close to the tension and layered characters & relationships of the first three books.
Robin McKinley is an "oldie but goodie"--recently I've been rereading her books. The Blue Sword and Deerskin are my favorites. Warning about Deerskin, though it is addressed and handled delicately, there are some extremely dark scenes depicted there. I didn't read it till I was an adult, and I'd never recommend it to a teen. It's still an excellent read, a powerful retelling of the old French fairy tale Donkeyskin (which I had never heard of before reading McKinley's book).