actually good and interesting fantasy recommendations

[Anonymous No.2428979]

I feel like, in my experience, fantasy isn't really reaching its potential as a genre. Fantasy could be used to explore themes in a different way to literature set in modern times, like good sci-fi writers do - Philip K Dick and Richard Matheson, for example.. However, most of the fantasy I've seen just seems to be about a human a dwarf and an elf wandering around not-europe murdering dragons and orcs, pure entertainment fiction with no deeper meaning. Similarly, it could be used to explore interesting societies and cultures, perhaps as a satire of our own or just as an intellectual experiment, again like some good sci-fi writers do (dystopian fiction is perhaps the most obvious example), but again little fantasy seems to do this.

However, I don't pretend to have a comprehensive knowledge of what fantasy is out there, and I'm confident there should be at least some authors that write stuff that doesn't fit this mould. Apparently China Mieville is good, but I haven't got around to reading anything of his. Any recommendations?

Pic related because Magic the Gathering, while obviously not literature, regularly has far more interesting settings than the majority of actual fantasy novels.

[Anonymous No.2428981]

Plebquest

[Anonymous No.2428999]

Obligitory

[Anonymous No.2429016]

ITT: we conflate D&D Adventure Fiction with fantasy

[Anonymous No.2429018]

>>2429016
That's all 90% or more of fantasy is. Stop pretending.

I wish Garth Nix wrote adult fantasy, at least his settings are interesting rather than dated and bleh.

[Anonymous No.2429021]

>china mieville
>example of good fantasy

Goodbye.And read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant or the Prince of Nothing, if you want something deep, for fuck's sake.

On another note, if what you've seen of fantasy is a human, a dwarf and an elf, I'm almost certain you have read nothing out of what there is good and worth reading.

Personally speaking, that's one of the things I wholly dislike - allusions to our world. I like philosophical novels, but fantasy novels that take up modern issues? Please, spare me. The only reason I read fantasy is so that I don't have to deal with the bullshit found in most books, the ramming of the same point over and over ad infinitum till it becomes disgustingly unpleasant. If you want an example of that, I suggest you try Joe Abercrombie.

What's good about fantasy is precisely that it's a genre that focuses on creativity revolving around the characters, the settings, the story and the plot. Usually, if those four elements are functioning correctly ,and the writer is good, you'll undoubtedly find some meaning in the work.

[Anonymous No.2429040]

>>2429018
i don't think he needed to, i know plenty of adults who loved that shit. i for one loved sabriel to death.

[Anonymous No.2429045]

>>2429040
Everything Nix has ever written is Sabriel tier.

True fact.

Even the 7 towers series that's aimed at 12 year olds.

I shit you not.

[Anonymous No.2429119]

>>2429021
>china mieville
>example of what I've heard to be good fantasy, but haven't actually read
please actually read my post next time
in line with that, I also said fantasy didn't have to be about any real world issues
>it's a genre that focuses on creativity revolving around the characters, the settings, the story and the plot
any specific recommendations?

[Anonymous No.2429127]

>>2428979
Try The Witcher. At least the early short stories and novelettes. They're pretty creative and heavy on atmosphere and mood, as well as humour. Not much of philosophy or social commentary, or at least it's not the main attraction of the series, but it's entertaining as fuck and pretty well-written (not sure about the English translation though. The Russian and Ukrainian ones are pretty good). Plus the first couple of stories are actually based on the well-known fairy tales, placed in a gritty "dark fantasy" world.
Also, the games are pretty well written as well, from what I hear. I only had the chance to play the first one, and it really impressed me when it first came out with it's outstanding cutscene direction, dialogue writing, choice and consequence system and atmosphere, you should try them too.
>>2429021
I completely agree.

[Anonymous No.2429128]

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

You owe it to yourself to read these fucking novels.

>No elves/dwarves/generic fantasy shit
>Every character is a minor asshole at best, God-tier troll/asshole at worst
>Little amounts of magic. Whatever magic there is, it's serious shit.
>Shit-tons of realistic humor

After that, pick up Best Served Cold (the first in the trio of stand-alone books in the series). Then pick up The Heroes (the second). This year he'll release A Red Country (3rd and last standalone) and then off to pen another trilogy, all in the same world.

[Anonymous No.2429130]

>>2429045
i've only read the sabriel series but honestly I think they declined in quality as the series progressed. Sabriel is the one of the best fantasy books I've ever read, Lireal is pretty good but not amazing, and Abhorsen was not awful but almost hard to get through for me.

[Anonymous No.2429142]

>I feel like, in my experience, fantasy isn't really reaching its potential as a genre
>However, I don't pretend to have a comprehensive knowledge of what fantasy is out there

SO WHY JUDGE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THEN SAY YOU NEVER READ ANY OF IT RETARD?TYPICAL e/lit/ fag right here

Discworld
The First Law
The Way of Kings
Wheel of Time -only if you want a huge story with many characters that grow through it, you either hate it or love it because of its lenght
A Song of Ice and Fire
Prince of Nothing
Discworld (yeah go fucking read it it deserves two mentions, read all of the damn books)
Abhorsen Trilogy
The Name of The Wind (found it overrated, focuses on details of the world instead of good story and characters, and main character's a mary sue)
start reading you piece of shit, then presume to judge an entire genre - not that that in itself is retarded

AVOID: Terry Goodkind

[Anonymous No.2429155]

>>2429142
and each and every series or trilogy that I mentioned is unique in both settings and writing

if you want original settings i.e. worlds and magic systems that shape the worlds read Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings first, or maybe his Mistborn Trilogy

so now you don't have any excuses

[Anonymous No.2429162]

>>2429142
>SO WHY JUDGE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE AND THEN SAY YOU NEVER READ ANY OF IT RETARD?
to incite people like you to post helpful suggestions :)
it worked

[Anonymous No.2429173]

>>2429128
that's supposed to be logen? he should be a lot bigger and uglier

I like the bloody map covers a lot more

>>2429162
well fuck you

[Anonymous No.2429183]

>>2429142
Don't listen to this guy, OP. Read Terry Goodkind.

[Anonymous No.2429198]

>>2429162
Devious bastard.

Go read the First Law. DO IT NOW!

From Best Served Cold:
>"There was a huge canvas in a gleaming frame on one wall - a woman with an improbable bosom bathing in a stream, and seeming to enjoy it a lot more than was likely. Monza never had understood why getting out a tit or two made for a better painting. But painters seemed to think it did, so tits is what you got."

[Anonymous No.2429209]

>>2429173
Yeah he should. I have all my books with the bloody map versions. I fucking love them. I loved how the first two books were normal-sized then Last Argument of Kings is like an inch taller than the rest and disproportionately heavier. It's like a proper tome.

Also, these covers got Jezal down quite well, I think.

[Anonymous No.2429231]

>>2429209
yeah

man jezal did not deserve the ending

[Anonymous No.2429246]

>>2429183
LOOK AT ME AND MY SMOKING HOT BITCH

WE BOTH ARE LOVED BY OUR FRIENDS AND HATED BY OUR ENEMIES (WHICH ARE EEEVIL XD)

WE ALSO DAAAAAZZLE AND AMAAAZE EVERYONE AROUND US WITH OUR MAGIC POWERS

THE BITCH CAN SHRUG OFF A WIZARD HITTING HER WITH A SPELL AND KILL HIM WITH A BOW DESPITE HAVING NO MORE THAN ONE TRAINING SESSION

THE MAN IS ANGEREY, HE IS A WOODSMAN , BUT HE CAN KILL 30 BLADEMASTERS IN A FEW SECONDS BECAUSE HES ANGEREY, WAIT NOW IN THIS NEXT BOOK HES A WIZARD, WHEN HE GETS ANGEREY -probably because hot women rape him or do kinky dungeon stuff to him AND rape him- NOW HE MAKES THE WALLS CRACK WHEN HE IS ANGEREY AND HE DEFEATS THE MAIN ANTAGONIST THROUGH -get this- SHEER STRENGHT OF WILL

tl;dr; the cancer of fantasy, it's shit like this ...

again, avoid

[Anonymous No.2429266]

>>2429246
NO YOU SHUT UP TERRY GOODKIND IS THE GREATEST AUTHOR OF ANY GENRE EVER EXISTING.
READ HIM OP READ HIM

[Anonymous No.2429269]

>>2429266
go to bed terry

[Anonymous No.2429300]

Does Gene Wolfe count?

Or is he just sci-fi so far ahead in the future it reads like fantasy.

A little purple but I genuinly loved reading Book Of The New Sun.

[Anonymous No.2429334]

>>2429209

The first releases of each of the books in the trilogy were all in the large size (I know, I have all three). They were then reprinted in a slightly smaller format, and then re-reprinted with the new covers.

All of my First Law trilogy are pretty much the same size as my hardback BSC and TH books B-)

[Anonymous No.2429371]

>>2429334
aww fuck, I thought Last Argument of Kings was huge cause of the whole "ending" thing.

Shit, now i'm probably gonna get massive OCD in trying to find the large versions so everything can be beautifully symmetrical.

[Anonymous No.2429393]

>most of the fantasy I've seen just seems to be about a human a dwarf and an elf wandering around not-europe murdering dragons and orcs, pure entertainment fiction with no deeper meaning.

That is a basically accurate characterization of epic fantasy, the fantasy that is popular and visible and that sells, the sort of thing most nerds mean when they say fantasy. Some of it is more worth reading, and there's a lot of it that I have an affection for, but you're basically right: it's very limited. However, that does not constitute the entirety of fantasy. And there's tons of fantasy out there that is really good.

Read RA Lafferty, for instance - one of the most imaginative and unpredictable writers I've ever read. Read Jack Vance, who combines sword&sorcery entertainment with marvelous prose, mordant irony, and an unbelievable ability to imagine societies. M John Harrison - his Viriconium stories are incredible. Mervyn Peake has the Gormenghast stories which are strange, and incredibly atmospheric, and great. John Crowley's Little, Big is my favorite book - it's essentially about the generations of an American family, and the way that they interact with magic - it is beautiful and addresses human themes as much as you could wish a book might. Jeffrey Barlough. Tim Powers. Patricia McKillip. Lisa Goldstein. Charles de Lint. Theodora Goss.

There is a treasure trove of great, imaginative, worthy fantasy out there. Explore! Check it out! It's incredible! don't be limited to epic fantasy! greatsfandf.com is a great resource for writing of this kind by the way.

>>2429300
That question assumes a distinct division between sf and fantasy that doesn't really exist. The important thing about Book Of The New Sun and the rest of Wolfe's work is that it's quite good. And you should read it.

[Anonymous No.2429408]

My issue is there never seems to be a "fresh" feeling fantasy book. No matter what I read, the world always just seems...flat. I'm not sure what the problem is, it's just whatever I read feels dry and doesn't quench my thirst for a new, brilliant world.

Okay, does anyone understand my issue, at all?

[Anonymous No.2429410]

>>2429408
What fantasy have you read?

[Anonymous No.2431223]

>>2429408
again read Way of Kings, Mistborn or Discworld

[Anonymous No.2431260]

>>2429408

I think those are some diverse books in terms of fantasy.

Sometimes I feel people want fantasy without the pseudo-medieval setting. But to me that's like asking for a murder / crime novel without any killings going on.

Yes, the setting is generally cliché but it wouldn't really be fantasy without that. And lots of authors do a lot of interesting things within that tired frame work.

I think fantasy is enjoying a really good time at the moment. The tired old Tolkien imitators have gone the way of the dinosaurs and instead you've got a lot of good fantasy series with very different objectives and feels.

The (initially) more political / court based fantasy of GRRM, the subversive stuff of Abercrombie, the Crusades inspired work of Bakker, the hustle of The Gentlemen Bastards, the longest most epic high fantasy possible (surely?) with Malazan, and the on going good work of Pratchett. (Haven't gotten round to Sanderson yet).

All those series are very different in style, content and what they set out to do. I don't know how someone couldn't find something fresh out of all those lots.

[Anonymous No.2431264]

Why is Howard never mentioned in these threads?

Conan:
>no dwarves or elves
Check
>no dragons or orcs
Check
>deeper meaning
Check (yeah, say what you will, but Howards preference for barbarity over civilisation is fairly interesting and refreshing)
>interesting societies and cultures
Check

I've also heard good things about Bakker's The Prince of Nothing and The Aspect-Emperor. They're on my shelf but I haven't gotten round to reading them yet. Might be worth looking into.

Also, I don't understand why Abercrombie gets as much attention as he does. I thought The First Law was generally predictable, anticlimactic and boring.

[Anonymous No.2431267]

>Fantasy, no one talking about Zelazny ...

[Anonymous No.2431306]

>>2431264
Probably because howard blows all this hacks out the water

[Anonymous No.2431314]

howard's conan stories read like bazooka joe comics. it's utter trash.

[Anonymous No.2431323]

>>2431264
The Prince of Nothing trilogy is great though it feels more like the plot, characters and setting were written for the philosophy, not the other way around. I haven't read any of the Aspect-Emperor books yet.

I'm currently reading Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino. It's great Romantic Fantasy although I did just come off of the Gormenghast series and i can't help but compare them.

Also, anyone that recommends Wheel of Time is an absolute moron.

[Anonymous No.2431334]

>>2431323

what is wrong with the wheel of time? moreover, why is it so commonly touted as one of the best fantasy series, yet so scathingly criticized by its detractors? i'm only asking because i've considered reading it in the past. it seems like i'm going to have to read it anyway just to find out.

[Anonymous No.2431358]

>>2431334
>what is wrong with the wheel of time?
There's nothing good about it. The characters are flat and completely static, the plot is generic fantasy, the prose reads like a high school student, all the interesting events/places happen off camera, etc.

>why is it so commonly touted as one of the best fantasy series
Nostalgia. Or maybe just people with shitty taste.

>yet so scathingly criticized by its detractors
Because it is everything that's wrong with modern fantasy.

>because i've considered reading it in the past. it seems like i'm going to have to read it anyway just to find out.
Save yourself some time and money and just read this:

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=386600

[Not Terry Goodkind !2u39kta1NU No.2431368]

I would definitely recommend Terry Goodkind.

[Anonymous No.2431395]

Old school is the way to go, OP.

You know, Lord Dunsany, E.R. Eddison, George MacDonald, William Morris, etc.

Oh, and Mervyn Peake. Can't believe no one mentioned him yet.

[Anonymous No.2431401]

>>2431395
I mentioned Mervyn Peake indirectly by mentioning Gormenghast. Also, for all you fellow writers out there, don't even start thinking of an idea without reading Time and the Gods by Dunsany.

[Anonymous No.2431413]

>>2431368
>Terry Goodkind

Enjoy your conservative demagoguery.

What? You are pacifists? Well, that only means you won't fight back when I slaughter you all, men, women, and children, said the protagonist.

[Anonymous No.2431424]

>>2431413
>reality has a conservative bias, and this makes me MAD

[Anonymous No.2431465]

Try the four Ender's Game books. The first one is generic sci-fi, but the following three are quite deep and interesting in alot of ways.

[Aquaide No.2431479]

>>2429300
I read Shadow & Claw a few months ago, and am eagerly anticipating the second half. Great book.

I've always been more of a sci-fi guy, but I'm branching out into fantasy a bit. Currently I'm reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and am loving it.

[Allonym No.2431489]

Sanderson has been mentioned a few times now...
I ended up with a copy of Warbreaker recently, but I've never seen it mentioned on here. How does it compare with his other works? I've yet to read it myself.