[ 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: 543 KB, 629x620, thor thor.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4435412 No.4435412 [Reply] [Original]

have you ever read a fantasy-genre novel that was actually good and made you go "oh wow, this is actually good" ?

>teenagers need not reply

>> No.4435416

I thought the wizard of oz was good, not as a children's story, but as blatant propaganda.

>> No.4435421

Gormenghast, some China Mieville, a lot of Gene Wolfe, a lot of Jack Vance (particularly Lyonesse and the Dying Earth cycle), a couple of the best Pratchetts (Thud! and Night Watch stand out), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Delany's Neveryon series, and Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy (haven't read any more in the series). Obviously, that's just off the top of my head.

>> No.4435427
File: 5 KB, 106x160, Unknown.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4435427

>>4435412
Yes.

>> No.4435446

No, fantasy is a shitty genre with the same cliches being milked over and over while teenagers masturbate to naked elves.

>> No.4435462

>>4435412

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie.

Legend by David Gemmell. This one is actually a bit cliched, but it's very powerful, partly due to circumstances Gemmell wrote it under.

>> No.4435480

I was just about to make a thread like this but, specifically, about series. I was talking to a friend who reads fantasy the other day and I realised that I've only read three fantasy series - Harry Potter, The Belgariad and A Song of Ice and Fire - and each one I got bored of halfway through with the exception of ASoIaF and that's only because it is halfway through, even if I think I'm probably not going to read the next one.

So have you ever read a fantasy-genre series that was actually good and made you go "oh wow, this is actually good" ?

>> No.4435501
File: 183 KB, 595x897, BC-Homer-Odyssey.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4435501

>> No.4435502

>>4435480
I like Jack Vances Dying Earth.

He uses purple prose, but it fits the setting perfectly.

>> No.4435505
File: 37 KB, 498x614, 1385715477027.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4435505

>>4435501

>> No.4435507

Is hating on 'genre x' a new thing here or?

>reading genre fiction xD
>reading genre fantasy xD

Do you fucking read cave paintings? Fucking hardcore shit nigga I tell you. Not for the plebs.

>> No.4435510

A century of loneliness

>> No.4435512

>>4435412
Tolkien's and Dunsany's

>> No.4435515

>>4435416

Wizard of Oz still rules, that book and a couple of the others have held up. Ozma was one of the good ones I think (whichever one had the Nome King) and the last one which is just a satire of totalitarianism interspersed with Glinda the Good Witch being big mama pimpin' in her swag palace.

>> No.4435514

>>4435507
>2014
>Not reading cave paintings

It is like you hate literature.

>> No.4435517

>>4435505

>Implying all modern fantasy isn't based on mythology

>> No.4435518

>>4435512
>Tolkien
>good

Oh wow

>> No.4435519

>>4435507

No, it's not new at all, as this board has always been full of insecure early-twenties sometime-readers seeking to potentiate their transition into adulthood by trashing on their childhood loves.

>> No.4435524

>>4435517
>implying this put them on the same genre

Pls

>> No.4435530

>>4435421
>Neveryon

good taste that man

>> No.4435535

The Nonexistent Knight, by Calvino.

>> No.4435532
File: 25 KB, 536x165, 1356557234546.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4435532

>>4435514
Fuck it. I enjoyed A Game of Thrones, the following two books, and ADWD.

I full-heartedly liked them (-minus the constant traveling in ADWD).

Stay rustled /lit/.

I also disliked Dostoevsky, one of the most wanked writers here and I'd read any russian writer instead of him any day of the week

>> No.4435542
File: 43 KB, 900x563, 1388769265595.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4435542

>>4435532
Correction to second part.


Throw Tolstoi there with Dostoevsky. He was boring, unintresting, lame, whatever, bad one too.

Picture related, now it's time to turn off my blog once again.

>> No.4435555

>>4435480
Lord of the Rings
Gormenghast
The Book of the New Sun
The Book of the Long Sun
The Book of the Short Sun

>> No.4435559

>>4435555
Tell me more about Gene Wolfe.

The impression I've gotten is that BotNS is just Conan with more sex.

>> No.4435560

>>4435518
>Tolkien
>Bad

Oh wow

>> No.4435576

>>4435559
Botns is a mindfuck and the sex is tasteful.

I have to read it again Cruz its complex. I don't like how he uses archaic words all the time though

>> No.4435597

>>4435559
Gene Wolfe exists at the weird intersection of traditional Catholicism and reality-challenging postmodernism. He writes nothing simple. Everything he does is to do with the complex relationship of author, narrator, and the stories being told, with Borgesian labyrinths and cycles and the ways his characters' minds work. He's among the greatest four or five writers in SF history and a genuinely brilliant writer full stop. I love Conan, but comparing Howard to Wolfe is like comparing Aliens to Solaris.

>> No.4435600

>>4435597
S-s-s-sorry it's just you guys are hyping him up to a some sort of legendary based God status and I can't wait to pick him up after I am done with few books I have in queue now.

>> No.4435618

>>4435600
It takes a while to really appreciate Wolfe. Which book are you starting with? I'd recommend The Fifth Head of Cerberus over TBotNS because it's sufficiently difficult to teach you how to read Wolfe, whereas TBotNS tries to distract you by almost having a traditional narrative.

>> No.4435623

>>4435600
BotNS is good.

Avoid The Wizard, or The Knight. Those suck, unless some other anon refutes my point.

>> No.4435634

>>4435524
I bet you insist that magical realism and everything else that isnt elves & wizards isnt fantasy, then turn around and complain that all fantasy is Elves & Wizards cliches.

Fuck
You

If you wanna split hairs just so you can continue to shit post and feel "superior" then maybe you belong on >>>/mu/

>> No.4435644

>>4435623
I liked them, but you have to understand that they're Wolfe's version of YA books. He values classical escapist, heroic fiction very highly, especially in an adolescent context (see The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories, which is a single short story), and the Wizard/Knight books are a faithful kind of pastiche. I think the Vance influence comes through very strongly in them, even more so than in the Solar Cycle, and knowing the kind of work it references is essential for the 'adult' reading of the text, as opposed to the more narrative YA reading.

It's not his best, though. It's just good.

>> No.4435654

>>4435644
Hmm, ill have to give them a re-read.

Thanks anon.

>> No.4435657

>>4435644
I'm reading the wizard now and I enjoy it

Its a much lighter read than botns imo

>> No.4435658

>>4435644
>He values classical escapist, heroic fiction very highly
Like Tolkien - unlike George Martin?

>> No.4435675

>>4435658
Maybe not quite like Tolkien. Tolkien's mostly rooted in classical mythology and fairy-tales, whereas Wolfe has a lot more pulp and Golden Age SF in him. I really do recommend The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories, both as an excellent little work in and of itself and as a tool to understand Wolfe's perspective on escapist fiction.

>> No.4435736

>>4435623
The only Wolfe's book I read was BotNS and I absolutely love it. Nevertheless, I'm used to reading challenging or apparently dry/boring books, so others might want to read some other stuff by him.
If you are a The Name of the Wind reader, you liked it and found nothing wrong with that piece of shit, then BotNS will never be your cup of tea.

>>4435530
I'm reading some pretty cool stuff about this Delany guy, never heard from him before.

>> No.4435750

>>4435736
>If you are a The Name of the Wind reader, you liked it and found nothing wrong with that piece of shit, then BotNS will never be your cup of tea.

lol this is true.

>>4435623
>Avoid The Wizard, or The Knight. Those suck, unless some other anon refutes my point.

Those books are still very well crafted even if he doesn't bother to use overly complex purple-prose for no reason like "good authors" do.

>> No.4435836

>>4435736
>>4435750
I said here >>4435657
I would rethink The Knight and The Wizard.

Never read The Name of the Wind.

I'm more about Swords and Sorcery, your Elric's, Lahnkmar, Cugel, Waylander.

>> No.4435842

>>4435836
Wait, that one post wasn't me.

This one was.>>4435654

My bad other anon.