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On the Record  Posts: 5974 Joined: 7 Feb 2008     | |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2770 Joined: 13 Feb 2008    | Ever read A Game of Thrones/it's sequels? |
On the Record Posts: 5974 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 | I have read those, they're GREAT, but dark and depressing, I need several months of recovery time after each installment, I still haven't recovered from the... I'll eventually get back into it. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3317 Joined: 1 Nov 2007     | High Fantasy (Elves, Dwarves, Tolken rip offs basically) bore me senseless. Personaly I prefer Fantasy set in the modern age, without the whole "You are the chosen hero, and therefore you must slay this dragon" crap. It just makes the charcters more relatable, and less irritating. If your looking for a good fantasy, but your tired of kid stuff and want set in a more real world, try a Niel Gaimen Book, Netherwhere preferabley. Its basically fantasy, with all the sex, drugs and violence intact. Plus they're extremely dark with a few laughs thrown in (except with american gods...my god that book is wierd). |
On the Record Posts: 5974 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 | Hmmm.... okay.... time to post what I've read since I've read everything people are suggesting... I've read pretty much everything by these folks. So to rephrase the question, can anyone suggest something I haven't already read? EDIT: SomeBritishDude... Don't dis Kids Books, sure it sometimes lacks narrative complexity but alot of them make up for that by being really clean reads and having enough imagination to knock your socks off. (Anyone who disagrees needs to go read the Mortal Engines Quintet by Phillip Reeve... NOW!) |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 2770 Joined: 13 Feb 2008 | Look up Ursula K. Leguin. She is an excellent author, but may not suit your tastes exactly. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2893 Joined: 6 Mar 2008    |
True dat. That was brutal. And I can second the Neil Gaiman suggestion. He just came out with a new book about a kid raised by ghosts in a cemetary. It's called The Graveyard Book (like The Jungle Book, lol). I haven't read it yet, but I will soon. I haven't read anything by him that I haven't loved. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 751 Joined: 10 Jul 2008     |
The XANTH novels have put me off...Until I found a book full of magic and wonder and magical wonder called ERAGON. I'm on the third installment. It is really good. Read it. |
On the Record Posts: 5974 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 |
I forgot about her... (Adds Ursula K. Leguin to his list) |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3317 Joined: 1 Nov 2007 |
Im not dissing it at all (His Dark Materials and, Obviously, Harry Potter are possibley my two faviourt series) its just I've only just turned sixteen, and I'm just bored by it now. Maybe I'll come back to some childrens literture in future, but not for awhile, not until another craz like the potter books. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 2893 Joined: 6 Mar 2008 | OH, and you should check out stuff by Jeff Van Der Meer. I've read this book called City of Saints and Madmen that was excellent and very unique. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3317 Joined: 1 Nov 2007 |
I've heard reviewers say its the best thing he's ever writen. I have no idea why I don't have it yet... |
On the Record Posts: 5974 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 |
Fair enough, it happened to me and it'll probably happen to you. Also, read His Dark Materials AGAIN once you have a few years of University under your belt, it felt like a whole new experience! |
On the Record Posts: 5974 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 |
XANTH isn't good fantasy, it's formula writing for a paycheck, Piers Anthony IS A good writer, but read Incarnations of Immortality, not Xanth. Don't mean to insult your favorite books, but Christopher Paolini should never have been published, or allowed to self publish, it's simple fantasy by a kid who loves dragons for kids who love dragons. I do not love dragons. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 3317 Joined: 1 Nov 2007 |
Hmm...Im not sure. I like ERAGON and ELDEST, but I started the new one and I just kind of...stopped. Maybe its just because Im a bit anti-elf at the moment, but it just wasn't as much fun to me. Not much as really happened yet. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 2807 Joined: 4 May 2008   | Have you read the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud? Although, upon reading this wiki page, I realized something. But still, if my memory serves correctly, these books were very well written and were quite original compared to what I've been reading before. If you haven't read the Bartimaeus Trilogy, I highly recommend it. . EDIT I also remember a time when nobody knew about Harry Potter ;) who else does? |
BANNED  Posts: 829 Joined: 9 Aug 2008   | Cough, Eragon sucks. User was banned for: Half-wits to the left of me, Wankers to the right. (Permanent) |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 751 Joined: 10 Jul 2008 |
"Do not Meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with Ketchup". |
On the Record Posts: 5974 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 | I understand the APPEAL of Eragon, but I used to read R.A. Salvatore... now... I can't really stand him, that and I am bored to tears of Elves/Dwarves/Dragons etc. I'd rather have Inter-Dimensional Spider Gods, Creepy Bug Headed Chicks, Hellish Multimouther Monsters, Dark Dream Eaters, Crazy Cactus Folk and odd little frog critters who summon water demons. Props to anyone who knows what book I'm talking about. EDIT: I knew some SERIOUS Dragon-Furries in Highschool (people who think the ARE dragons in human skin) so yeah... I can't really enjoy dragons anymore. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1097 Joined: 6 Oct 2008    | Its a fantasy series by my favorite recent author, but not alot of people like him or the books. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. Starts with The Gunslinger. Really cool, and a mix of modern fantasy with sci-fi and just pure AWESOME. Just give it a try. |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 565 Joined: 6 Nov 2007   | Tried Tad Williams? |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 429 Joined: 26 Sep 2008   |
Seconded I'm 19 and I love that trilogy for those that don't know its set in an alternative victorian london and..yeah just read the link from Tabor. Also I'm going to second the Dark Tower series I got quite attached to those characters despite knowing what would happen. As for my recommendation I'm going to throw Mark Chadbourne out there. He has two and 2/3rds of trilogy published at the moment all dealing with the failure of technology and a new dark age and each series introduces 5 majorly flawed and unwilling champions of the human race I realise that might sound cheesy but trust me these guys are majorly flawed. The first series is in my opinion the best and is called "Age of Misrule" and deals with the descent into the new dark age, an invasion by shape shifting enemies and the rise of the first of the two sets of "Brothers and Sisters of dragons" that the series focuses on (I realise you said your sick to the back teeth of dragons but in this case dragon is a metaphor read and find out). If you like that then the next two trilogies follow on. Info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Misrule_(series) A warning though the plot summary has spoilers. Described it better than I can though- "It seems that Celtic cosmology is much closer to Lovecraftian ideals (Evil vs. Indifferent) than to Christian ones (Evil vs. Good)" |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 751 Joined: 10 Jul 2008 |
DRAGON furries? |
Paperboy  Posts: 23 Joined: 21 Sep 2008     | Try The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera By Jim Butcher |
Paperboy  Posts: 11 Joined: 26 Aug 2008  | I heartily recommend the Gotrek & Felix series of Warhammer books by William King and Nathan Long. The first book is called Trollslayer and was published in 1999. The series has a very unique form of exposition, often shifting perspective to antagonists or other surrounding characters. Also the story and setting is top notch. Books eight through ten, Orcslayer, Manslayer and Elfslayer (and the eleventh being on the way) was written by another author, Nathan Long, who didn't carry on William King's form of writing, but writes interesting stories nontheless, especially his skill in painting wondrous descriptions with the English language is notable. Check them out. Especially if you already find the Warhammer universe compelling. |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 494 Joined: 4 Aug 2008   | I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet, it deserves another mention even if it has. I highly recommend The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. It's set in modern London but the politicians are all magicians(the kind who summon demons not pull rabbits from hats). |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1220 Joined: 4 Jul 2008 | The city of Ember books are pretty good for fantasy.It's the kinda book that both a kid and an adult can read and they both think it's good. and i have the same problem as you.ever since reading the Godfather,i have been more interested Crime-related stuff. |
Press Junketeer Posts: 494 Joined: 4 Aug 2008 |
Have you read the two Godfather books by Mark Winegardner? He does a good job of emulating Puzo's style. |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 369 Joined: 3 Sep 2008  |
Those are Otherkin actually. (I have some of them as my friends) |
Beat Writer  Posts: 148 Joined: 30 Jul 2008  | Little off topic, but there are furries of EVERYTHING. :P You just haven't been looking in the right places if you wanted to know more on that. (I could've sworn the dragons ARE called scalies. Unless we're thinking two different kinds of furries.) *AHEM* Anyway, I got a bit of a different issue. I just can't sit down with a book these days. I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings cover to cover, as well as the first three Harry Potter novels, a few Star Wars novels here and there (some are better than others), the first Eragon (neither of the other two, I got sick of the 'ELVEZ R TEH BETTA DAN ALLZ' tone of it), and, uh, a few others... I... think... Then I just sort of... stopped. Just couldn't sit down and read anymore. Dunno why. My dad recommended Dune to me, and despite being interested, I couldn't open it. Probably not very helpful. |
Infamous Scribbler Posts: 565 Joined: 6 Nov 2007 | Eww... dragon furies... worse than normal furies. Seriously though Tad Williams the "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" and the "Shadowmarch" series are worth a read. Not trying to spoil them but the latter is pretty much a darker nastier version of the plot of the former with different names and places. "Otherland" series also by Williams is worth a read as well, although it's not quite fantasy. It felt like a series written about MMO addiction when I read it. Although it was Pre-mainstream MMOs. Other than that you've read most of what I'd recomend OP. Like someone else said, try some Stephen King, Gunsliger in particular. |
Red Guard Posts: 3611 Joined: 27 Mar 2008  |
Sounds like part of your problem is trope fatigue. One thing that sucks about the genre today is that there are all these elements that keep on being reused and regurgitated. Oftentimes they lose their initial symbolic associations as well. So now you've just got a bunch of magic swords and smelly orcs and big dragons and none of it has any real emotional content behind it. Unfortunately, a lot of good modern writers still obsess over those tropes, too, trying to rehabilitate them by casting them in a new light -- certainly Pratchett and Gaiman love this. This gets really old very quickly, too. One way to fight trope fatigue is to go with older stuff, stuff that was written before the modern trope goo really congealed. (Unfortunately, a lot of older fantasy is crap, too.) Another way to fight trope fatigue is to jump to a subgenre you're less familiar with. (Unfortunately, that's not very different from just switching to a different genre entirely for a while.) You don't seem to have a lot of fairy-tale-inspired stuff on your list, for example. -- Alex |
Beat Writer  Posts: 147 Joined: 17 Jun 2008   | I'm gonna second Tad Williams, he's definitely my favorite author lately. If you're into purely high fantasy, then the Dragonbone Chair / Stone of Farewell / To Green Angel Tower. Personally though, I prefer the Otherland saga, which spans a mixture of different virtual reality worlds encompassing fantasy, children's fairy tales, historical re-enactments and scientific simulations. The characters are better fleshed out and the worlds are more engaging and diverse, makes for a better narrative in my opinion. His newest saga, Shadowmarch and Shadowplay are back to high fantasy again and so far those are pretty good though it's only up to book 2. |
On the Record  Posts: 5950 Joined: 7 Mar 2008    |
yeah it's good for Stephen King, mostly cause well it's not a horror book, tho it does take a bit of stuff from his other books but if you didn't read them you won't get the reference but it also isn't a story killer as was said Jim Butcher is good, if you haven't read him also if you haven't read him, since you didn't mention it, JRR Tolkien is simply amazing, so are some of the Forgotten Realms books i could also suggest Clive Barker, just don't have hang ups about gay stuff, or Sergei Lukyanenko and his Night Watch Series. also there is Gregory Maguire and his alternative fairy tales |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1013 Joined: 4 Dec 2007 | I recommend Hard to be a God, by Arkady and Boris Strugatski. It's medieval fantasy-ish sci-fi. That sounds really weird... I shall explain it, eh? There's one planet, like Earth, and it's advanced to the age of space travel and such. There's another planet that's almost exactly like it (in terms of evolution of species, atmosphere) and it has advanced at the same rate as the Earth-planet, but it is in the dark ages still. So a bunch of scientists are sent to the dark age planet to observe what goes on there. They remain under the disguise of nobles, scientists, and most castes of society, and must keep their technology hidden to everyone but other scientists. That's the setting and basic concept behind it. Here be a link to it. That's the entire book. Complete with translation errors and grammar mishaps. It's being/been made into a hack-n-slash game, which makes it the second game based on a book by the Strugatskies. (The first being STALKER, based on Roadside Picnic.) |
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I have become damn bored of Fantasy Literature these days, and I used to be an unabashed fantasist, championing it as a grand genre full of imagination and excitement. Sadly, I have not read a fantasy book in my recent days which has truly captured my interest. There are many intellectual works out there, like China Meivilles Bas-Lag books or the Historical Fantasy of Guy Gavriel Kay, but all of that is so stuffy and lacks energy. As well anything that isn't Intellectual is far too stupid or unoriginal, lots of pointless sword swinging and macho posturing, or in the case of Terry Goodkind lots of Psuedo-Sexual Torture. So I have a question for the Fantasy Readers of the Escapist... is there anything good anymore? The Last good fantasy series is read was The Age of Unreason by Gregory Keyes, a mile a minute alternate history based around Alchemy and Apocalypticism. People, give me smart, action packed Fantasy, there has GOT to be something I'm missing.