Fantasy books | Imamother

Rutabaga

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 10:46 am

If you liked Wheel of Time, have you tried the author who finished the series after Robert Jordan's death -Brandon Sanderson? He's written a few series.

Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
Book of the Ancestor Series by Mark Lawrence
Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden

Look on goodreads.com - they have lists of fantasy series put together by readers and also recommend books based on what you already read and liked.

Rubber Ducky

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 11:00 am

I love Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik — I'm not sure whether the author is Jewish but the main protagonist is Shomer Shabbos. The story is set in Lithuania around the year 1600. This would be considered a fairy tale fantasy in that it is very loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin. I would consider this to be clean but not for kids or younger teens, and in frum circles definitely for adults. Learned about it here on imamother (I think from Single Again). A terrific read, I've read it half a dozen times.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Spinnin.....80982

(edited to add a word: "not for children or younger teens")

Last edited by Rubber Ducky on Sun, Sep 13 2020, 12:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

bigsis144

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 11:03 am

ANYTHING by Brandon Sanderson, he is so so so good.

He is slightly obsessed with magic systems*, and some of them can take a little while to adjust to, but they are so creative and make the world so much richer. He is also a religious Mormon, so his books are relatively clean — relationship stuff usually “fades to black” with stuff implied rather than shown, and he uses lots of made-up curse words that do double duty as world building material. He also has very complex ideas on religion and culture and philosophy — I find many atheist authors treat all religions as evil and power hungry, and Sanderson writes many individual *characters*, who may find purpose and good in religion, or use it to their own ends.

If you want a small taste, try Elantris (it’s his first book, and it’s a little less polished than his later books, but still excellent) or Warbreaker. Those are both standalone books, so you’re not committing to an entire series.

The Mistborn series has two “eras”; the first trilogy is epic fantasy, and the second (the “Wax and Wayne” books) are more steampunk mysteries. But both are set in the same world, many years apart.

The Stormlight Archives are massive, thousand-page doorstops, with the most complex worlds and characters yet. So so so good.

_________

* different series use different magic systems (language based! Color based! Metal based!) and take place in different “worlds”, but they all belong to a shared universe called the Cosmere that will eventually have the different worlds and magic systems interact! The ultimate crossover! But as of now, you don’t need to have read all the books to understand the others; it’s more like subtle cameos from dimension-hopping characters.

Last edited by bigsis144 on Sun, Sep 13 2020, 11:21 am; edited 2 times in total

bigsis144

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 11:10 am

sequoia wrote:

The best fantasy series is The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

I would qualify these as “extremely well-written literature” but be warned that many characters are deliberately unlikeable, the fantasy world is a dark, dark deconstruction of children’s fantasy book worlds, and the s-xual content is frequent, graphic and intense.

I stopped reading after the first book but a friend convinced me to finish the trilogy and I’m glad I did. I appreciate “having read” these books, but actually “reading” them was difficult at times. Definitely not for everyone.

bigsis144

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 11:48 am

If you liked the Codex Alera by Jim Butcher, you might like his “main” series - the modern-day urban fantasy Dresden Files.

There are at least 15 books by now but they are fun, action-packed reads with awesome humor and a massive world of characters. The stakes start out small but build as the protagonist grows in power and influence. Harry really evolves as a character.

Warnings:
- the first-person narrative falls into some misogynist/male-gaze-y tropes of s-xualizing the female characters with lavish descriptions of their curves and legs and hair, etc. but it’s sort of part of the “hard-boiled detective” genre/style, especially in the earlier books. Every woman is the most beautiful one Harry has ever laid eyes on, LOL. It’s part of Harry being a somewhat unreliable/biased narrator. He has a thing for saving damsels and it gets him into trouble sometimes. Oh, and Bob the talking skull loves romance novels.
- definitely language and s-xual content. One book heavily features a p0rnography studio (because the unnaturally attractive White Court of vampires feed on lust rather than blood); the Lady of the Winter Court of the Fae is in-your-face provocative because she’s kinda insane and embodies the animal nature of mating and survival, etc.

But if you like kitchen sink fantasy, Butcher has built a world where ALL the myths and legends and religions are true. Fallen angels and demons; dragons; Santa Claus and the Billy Goats Gruff; vampires, werewolves, zombies; Mab, Titania and Oberon of the Faerie Courts; skinwalkers from Native American legend; Odin and Valkyries from
Norse mythology; Merlin and Excalibur...

Also it takes place in Chicago and when I lived there, it was fun finding the places where Harry had his various adventures — aww, there’s the Shedd Aquarium! It’s not blown up! There’s Sue the T-Rex at the Natural History Museum!

amother

Lime

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 12:05 pm

Great website I found recently is called https://www.risingshadow.net/ and it has all different fantasy books listed.
Some of my favorite authors are Juliet Marillier (set in ancient Briton), Jennifer Fallon (very political but very well done), Maria V Snyder-her study series is excellent, wasn't as keen on the interplanetary ones. Melissa Macshane has some great series.
If you liked Robin Hobb, you'd probably also like Trudi Canavan.
Btw all of these authors are pretty much clean-there is some romance but not bedroom activity.

bigsis144

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 12:10 pm

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is set in the Grisha-verse, a world inspired by Russian/Eastern European culture rather than the more common Tolkien-esque Western European fantasy worlds.

It’s definitely a dark-n-edgy setting, with slums and crime and murder and religious fanatics and characters who were sold into s-xual slavery, etc. Everybody has some sort of psychological trauma.

But the plot itself doesn’t focus on the darkest stuff, that’s more backstory and atmosphere — so if you like clever heists with hyper-competent characters and quippy dialogue, it does that really well.

bigsis144

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 12:32 pm

The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire
The trope of “kid falls through a portal to a magical world” doesn’t usually deal with the aftermath of coming home to an ordinary life after Wonderland or Narnia or the Land of the Dead.

This series of novellas (these are quick reads) is about a boarding school for kids who came home to the “real world” and are having trouble adjusting. These books are lush and full of emotion and imagery, and are great for people who are familiar with many stories and love that meta-knowledge of comparing worlds and characters.

amother

Yellow

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 12:52 pm

Lord of the Rings is the ultimate in fantasy. Not gonna lie it's very slow going at first, especially if you start with The Hobbit, but it's amazing and everything else either tries to copy it or bedavka to be different.

My favorite fantasy authors are Diane Duane (technically young adult) and Anne McCaffery. The latter insists her Dragonriders of Pern is Sci-fi but that doesn't really play into it for most of the series. It's fantasy. Just, set in the future.

If you can find it, The Hounds of the Morrigan is Celtic fantasy and is a great novel.

Coke Slurpee

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 12:56 pm

Thank you all so much for all the great suggestions! With alot of YT coming up I'm desperate for new reading material.

I've read all the Meir Uri Gottesman books
and liked them alot. I also read the Eli Shekter books as well.

I forgot I did the mistborn and starlight archives and enjoyed them.

I did do the hunger games, when my kids read it.

I tried Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, but I didn't get them. I didn't enjoy Spinning Silver either.

Thanks BigSis144 for the detailed summaries, I really appreciate it, and will definitely check them out!

bigsis144

Sun, Sep 13 2020, 1:16 pm

Brandon Sanderson also has a space-opera/science fiction series, Skyward. The second book in the series, Starsight, came out recently-ish, but I haven’t read it yet.

This is totally appropriate for older kids and teens (at most, the 16 year old female protagonist refers to a peer as “cute”, or mentions who a friend is dating, but it is SOOO not the main point); in fact, I listened to the audiobook with my kids in the car over the past few weeks.