[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 205 KB, 864x864, 1341789819637.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2798816 No.2798816 [Reply] [Original]

Does anyone know of some quality high fantasy that has unique races, I tired of Elves goddammit. Also, if you don't know any, give me some ideas as to what you are sick of in traditional fantasy and what new things you'd like to see.

I ask these things because I'd like to write fantasy and have a unique world created but I'd like to see some other non-elf-having fantasy before I really start to set everything into stone.

>> No.2798818

The Wheel of Time. No elves or dwarves or gnomes or halflings or ... Just humans and this other giant/beast/creature race.

>> No.2798820

I also am pretty sick of the generic man/elf/dwarf/evil creature, usually troll/goblin/orc.

>> No.2798824

>>2798820
Actually, I rescind my "dwarf" inclusion, because a lot of fantasy doesn't even have dwarves in them.
>inb4 GOT LOL TYRION
I wouldn't mind reading a dwarf-heavy book.

>> No.2798826

I'd like some kind of wise giants like moving trees or rocks

>> No.2798834

Maybe we should try and make one up?

who has any suggestions

>> No.2798835

>>2798834
This thread is fast devoling.

>> No.2798836

The Dark Tower was pretty original. Really weird too, definitively not like anything else you've ever read, if that's what you are looking for.

and don't believe any of the negative hype, its a great series.

>> No.2798838

>>2798826

I had an idea for a race that at the moment is simply "plant race". They would be a hive mind though, with later generations achieving smaller forms and possibly outside communication with other races. They would be extremely intelligent and clever as each body would basically be a conduit of the hive mind flavored with the little twerks of individual.

>> No.2798840

Guys, you know how whenever Dwarves are present, they always live underground, and are usually miners or blacksmiths? Dude, what if Dwarves lived in the sky?!

>> No.2798841

>>2798836

Currently reading and loving this serious.
But I am looking for more of a magical setting than the world that has moved on.

>> No.2798849
File: 60 KB, 550x367, ughghghghg.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2798849

>>2798836
>>2798841

>> No.2798851

>>2798849

What don't you like about this series, Anon?

>> No.2798852

>>2798838

Welcome to Frank Herbert's "The Green Brain".

>> No.2798855

>>2798851

It's very poorly written, especially for Stephen King. If you're familiar with the quality of his (earlier, better) writing, you should be shocked when you read the Dark Tower series. It's that bad.

>> No.2798856
File: 122 KB, 724x1000, falero — the balance of the zodiac.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2798856

Fantasy literature, at its best, taps into something that exists on the fringes of history, society, and language. Of course it isn't going to be original, and when down market fantasy tries to be, it always fails miserably.

The reason everyone cribs from Tolkien is that Tolkien did the work.

>> No.2798862

>>2798856
Of course it isn't going to be original [...] The reason everyone cribs from Tolkien is that Tolkien did the work.

How eurocentric of you.

>> No.2798863

>>2798862
Fuck, forgot the >. You know where it goes.

>> No.2798865

>>2798855
Breaking on a tangent, for a moment, what about it was poorly written? I ask this as a person who has never read a Stephen King novel, and whose knowledge of his work was obtained almost entirely through osmosis.

>> No.2798866

>>2798855
I disagree

>> No.2798868

>>2798855

I have recently come into a large collection of King's work and I had only read Needful things before I started the Dark Tower series. I see what you mean though, there were quite a few parts that were unnecessary. The thing that bothered me the most was that when he was traveling north along the beach somehow the western ocean was to his right...

>> No.2798872

>>2798862

I keep forgetting we speak Tagalog here.

>> No.2798875

Michael Shea is a master of the fantastic bestiary. So is Jack Vance, but he doesn't feature those creatures as dominantly as Shea does. They're both sword and sorcery though, so if you specifically wanted high fantasy because you wanted characters out of those races, then these two don't qualify.

>> No.2798879

Damnit OP, go visit /tg/, they'l help with everything fantasy.

>> No.2798882

>>2798868

I meant to add this to my post but went and got food so I'll say it now. The books appear to be getting better as they go along, with the exception being I liked the first book better than the second but feel they were about the same quality. The third was better than the first two and I'm on the fourth now which is better than the third.

>> No.2798884

KJ Taylor's The Dark Griffin is dark fantasy at its best. No elves, no dwarves, just humans and Griffins.

>> No.2798893

>>2798865
I'm not sure I can even qualify what it is about his writing that's suffered. Mostly, you get the feeling that he doesn't have anything more to say, but he can't stop typing. The Dark Tower series is easily one of his most bland, despite also being his most outlandish.

>> No.2798898

>>2798893
That is pretty much exactly how I feel, a lot of the first two books felt like filler.

Trying to get back on topic, what are some of your least favorite cliches in fantasy works?

>> No.2798900

>>2798868
....That's a pretty embarassing fuck up.

>> No.2798918

While this was mostly unproductive it is also late (in the US) so I'm not so disappointed, going to sleep will start another thread or continue this one later.

Good morning, Anon.

>> No.2798924

>>2798835
That's not what devolve means dipshit.

>> No.2798951

There is good fantasy, only it's when authors don't try to write fantasy. Most of the time, when someone settle for a genre, it's shit.

Try Gormenghast. Elric cycle is nice to.

>> No.2798955

>>2798951
>I don't know what high fantasy means

Gormenghast isn't high fantasy. It's the lowliest of low fantasy.

>> No.2798959
File: 1.10 MB, 320x240, 1341906442174.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2798959

>>2798955

Sorry I didn't know that you were a moron who only wanted to read one genre (or even cared about genres in general). No get out of /lit/ please.

If you wan't to be stupid about it, Elric is Heroic Fantasy so I guess I'm triple wrong (two books which are not high fantasy, and posting in a fantasy thread).

>> No.2798963

>>2798959
Aw, now I feel bad after watching that .gif. :(

I'm not the OP. That's what the OP wants: high fantasy. Didn't you read the OP?

>> No.2798964

>>2798963


I don't care about OP, I'm an anarchist.

>> No.2798972

>>2798963

He's not here for the OP.

He's here to be pedantic.

He is /lit/.

>> No.2799539

>>2798816
Not high-fantasy but if you want weird, monstrous races give the Bas-Lag cycle a try.

>> No.2799557

GEMMELL GOD DAMNIT

>> No.2799566

First off, /tg/ is ALWAYS helpful with book recommendations and they love worldbuilding and other shit.
Although I haven't read it, China Melville has some pretty out there crazy creatures in his book
A personal favorite is Codex Alera. the Marat are basically barbarian elves with living totems. Their are wolf-men with blood magic, telepathic Yetis, and the Vord, which are obviously based off the Zerg (Jim Butcher is a massive Starcraftfag).
Joe Abercombie's world has the Shanka, but they don't get much time in the spotlight as their bumbling monstrosities.
>>2798834
Calm the fuck down, no.
If you want to do that, /tg/ nwill happily and gleefully oblige you. This a book board, not a worldbuilding board.

>> No.2799575

>>2799566
codex alera is fucking shit and jim butcher is a hack. the male stephenie meyer.

OP, some quality fantasy that does not feature "standard" fantasy races:

>The Black Company
Humans only. Well, there's some shadowpeople and talking rocks. And black midget wizards.

>Malazan Book of the Fallen
Mainly humans. No elves or dwarves. There's a bunch of magical races and undead proto-humans, though.

>> No.2799586

>>2799566
I'll second this. CM is pretty much king of the Tolkien-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things faction of fantasy. "The City and the City" is a decent place to start, or any of the Borribles stuff.

Also, he's so fuckable.

>> No.2799601
File: 30 KB, 281x357, 1339907107594.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2799601

>>2799586

fangirl detected

>> No.2799618

>>2799586
The guy looks like he'd stab me if I said hello to him, he has massive gauges, and he's a member of the UK's socialist party and has run as a socialist.
To me, that's the definition of unfuckable.
But since you recommend, I'll check it out.
>>2799575
>Jim Butcher
>Hack
Please, go fuck yourself. He's the best at writing urban fantasy and Codex Alera is arguably one of the most original fantasy in a long time. No elves (okay, Marat are kind of elves), a new, fresh magic system, and a society based off Rome rather than England.
So, I'll repeat it again for clarity's sake. Go fuck yourself.

>> No.2799626

>>2799618
Different strokes, etc.

His review of the recent edition of J.G. Ballard (and his scathing invective against Martin Amis' prolegomena) is a really good introduction to his style of expository writing imo:
http://www.thenation.com/print/article/disobedient-rooms

I think he's really good.

>> No.2799639

>>2799557

Gemmel is for skinny retarded 14 years old boys who wish they were muscular and live in a world where everything is violent, and really badly written. I mean, lot of fantasy books are just plain, some are grandiloquent, I've read Legend and I just kept laughing all along, the characters, the story, the situations, and that style, it was so awful I thought it was some kind of practical joke.

>> No.2799642

>>2799618
Codex Alera was written as a bet. He was hanging out with some other fantasy authors, and one of them said "I bet you can't write a series based off two things I randomly think of."
JB took the bet, and the ttwo things were Pokemon, and the lost Roman legion.
I enjoyed the series.

>> No.2799648

>>2799642
You've got it wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylKRYe0ZWHo

>> No.2799662

>>2799586
Though you're rather eloquent, you're full of retarded fagshit. de Larrabeiti wrote the Borribles books. Mieville did Perdido Street Station and The Scar, both of which are amazing works of fiction.

>> No.2799667

>>2799639

legend was his first book and its agreed that it is not well written.

ill agree slightly with your first statement but its not meant to be so simple (i didnt think it was..)

legend was mostly about his own struggle with cancer years before and is easily my least favoured book

though i have to say, you summing it up as '...wish they were muscular and live in a world where everything is violent..' makes me wish you read it with the above in mind, or even a few of the other books

by no means a GREAT author, dont feel like he deserves to be classed as a 'practical joke'...

>> No.2799738

>>2799618
>best at writing urban fantasy
I seriously hope you're not referring to the awfully written Mary Sue clichefest that is The Dresden Files.

>> No.2799832

>>2798840
What if... the dwarves are actually dead and the elves descended from them (usually I think dwarves are corrupted elves?).

>> No.2799834
File: 33 KB, 297x450, ancient-greek-statue-thumb9100753.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2799834

>High quality fantasy

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

>> No.2799845
File: 18 KB, 300x250, zeus.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2799845

>HIGH

>> No.2799846
File: 37 KB, 605x412, leonidas-statue.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2799846

>QUALITY

>> No.2799847

>FANTASY
HAHAHAHHAAHHASDHADHASDBAD ERFAC,FDSF
SFSF ROFLFLFLSADF SLAMOFORLAMFSAOFAFA

>> No.2799850

>>2799832
oh god you have the worst shittiest ideas you're a 10-year-old

>> No.2799852

Most fantasy races are based on some level of mythology. Elves, dwarves, giants, fair folk, etc. The gamut of what can be done with human-like races is pretty well covered already, I'm sure something new could be done, I don't really know what though.

>> No.2799860

Save Tolkien, fantasy is the most juvenile genre of fiction.

Sure, some of the content can be "cool", but it's pathetic in almost every other sense.

Drizzt Do'Urden? No thanks. I'm not 10.

>> No.2799862

>>2799860
I take that back... I forgot about mainstream Romance for the 39 year old mother.

>> No.2799863
File: 101 KB, 537x537, 1336469976515.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2799863

>fantasy
>unique

>> No.2799865

>>2799850
I was actually hoping someone would call me out because it's already been done as the sky dwarves have been too.

>> No.2799867

>>2799738
>Implying Dresden isn't flawed.

>> No.2799880

>>2799867
he's still a disgusting mary sue piece of shit

I hate that fucking character

>> No.2799893

>>2799667

It was for the love of exaggeration, thanks for the enlightenment though.

>> No.2799912

Dance of Cloaks. A fun read, humans are the main characters O.O

It mentions elves once or twice. I think there are elves in later books

>> No.2799945
File: 238 KB, 618x274, geneforge_ban02.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2799945

Its a different medium than you're looking for (computer game), but generforge is fantastic in terms of races.
Pic related, not a single elf.