Recommend some lesser-known fantasy

I read really fast, and I’m always in need of new books.

The thing about looking for new stuff on the Web is that they always recommend the authors you already know about. Pratchett, George RR Martin, Robin Hobb- yes, I know who they are, thank you. Either I’ve read them, or I’m planning to read them, or I’ve looked them over and decided not to read them. In either case, I do not need to be informed of their existance.

Another thing that pops up if you’re browsing on Amazon or B&N are the series. If you’re looking at urban fantasy, for example, you will get Simon Green, Jim Butcher, and a thousand vampire novels. Now, I like Green and Butcher. But I’ve already read their stuff. The next page will have Butcher, Kim Harrison, and those Weather Warden novels. The next page is Green, Charlaine Harris, vampires… etc.

Basically, what I’m looking for are some new fantasy books- standalones, series, or loosely connected- that I probably haven’t seen a thousand times before. Fantasy here means “anything with supernatural elements”.

The last new author I discovered was Lois MacMaster Bujold, but the local B&N only has a few of her books, and I’ve finished the Chalion and Sharing Knife series already.

In short, I’m not sure what to read. Any suggestions?

Bujold also wrote The Spirit Ring, a standalone fantasy novel.

Not sure how “new” these are :

Have you tried Glen Cook’s Garret series ? It starts with Sweet Silver Blues; a PI in a fantasy setting.

Pyramid Schemes ** and Pyramid Power by Eric Flint & David Freer mix sci-fi and magic.

David Weber, one of my favorite authors has written three fantasy novels set in “Orfressa”, starting with Oath of Swords. Mostly featuring the 7’ 9" hradani Bahzell, who gets semi-drafted as a god’s champion. **

Tanya Huff’s The Keeper’s Chronicles series is fun ( starts with Summon the Keeper ).

Lawrence Watt-Evans writes quite a lot of fantasy; I especially like his Ethshar novels and his first trilogy The Lords of Dus ( although the latter isn’t new of course ). I also enjoyed Touched by the Gods.

Not at all new, but I’ll throw the names out anyway in case you haven’t heard of them :

LE Modesitt Jr’s Spellsong Cycle, starting with The Soprano Sorceress. A singer and assistant professor of music ( I think that was her title ) gets yanked into a world where song and music makes magic. Political intrigue and mass destruction ensue.

Changer by Jane Lindskold is good, as is her Firekeeper series ( some books in the latter series are new I think ).

** You can get these, or some of the series in the Baen Free Library.

One assumes you’ve read Steven Brust? CS Friedman wrote some great sci fi of the “it’s technically sci-fi but on the ground it’s really magic” sort, if you haven’t read those. Octavia Butler? There’s also a lot of great YA stuff around these days - Garth Nix, Tamora Pierce (well, her earlier stuff, IMHO), etc?

A couple of authors that come to mind:

Kage Baker and her The Company series. The first book is In the Garden of Iden. Historical fiction meets time-travel and cyborgs. The first book is admittedly a little slow, but if you like the premise, the later books pick up a lot.
**
Naomi Novik**'s Temeraire series. The first book is His Majesty’s Dragon. The Napoleonic Wars with dragons. Great characters and plot.

**Scott Lynch is **an excellent young fantasy writer - his first two books, The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies both show real promise. Set in a faux-Renaissance Italy and dealing with con-men and thives, his stories are light, but his characters have real weight. Plus, he’s one of the few modern fantasy writers who can actually wrote dialog.

He and **Patrick Rothfuss **(the Name of the Wind) are the two best new fantasy writers I’ve read this decade.

Oh, what about Glen Cook and the Black Company books?

If you’re looking for recent fantasy, here’s two series I really enjoyed that haven’t been hyped up (so far as I know).

Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
And the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies.

Also, check out the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.

I don’t see it mentioned in fantasy rec threads and I usually forget to mention it myself, but I really liked The Innamorati by Midori Snyder.

Library Journal’s description from Amazon: “Cursed by love, revenge, or their own human failings, a maskmaker, poet, priest, actor, peasant girl, and mercenary journey to the city of Labirinto, where a magical maze holds the ability to redeem or destroy them. Set in an alternate Renaissance Italy filled with magic and mystery, Snyder’s (The Flight of Michael McBride, Tor, 1995) dreamlike novel resonates with overtones of the commedia dell’arte as her characters confront mythical creatures and nightmarish visions in their search for the secret at the center of the maze. A allegory that is a priority purchase for fantasy collections.”

It’s out of print but there are lots of cheap used copies. The Flight of Michael McBride was good too – sort of a fantasy historical horror western romance.

I quite liked The Book of Joby by Mark Ferrari.

You’ve undoubtedly read Tim Powers. If not, there ya go. Start with The Anubis Gates.

ER Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros. Very Epic, even down to being written in middle english despite being written in the 1920’s.

The only fantasy writer I read is Jonathan Carroll. It is weird stuff but doesn’t involve dragons and the like.

Neil Gaiman, in part says in his introduction to Carroll’s site:

*Writing fiction is not a profession that leaves one well-disposed toward reading fiction. One starts out loving books and stories, and then one becomes jaded and increasingly hard to please. I read less and less fiction these days, finding the buzz and the joy I used to get from fiction in ever stranger works of non-fiction, or poetry. But a new book by Jonathan Carroll is still, as they used to say on the back of the book jackets, a cause for celebration.

He has the magic.

His most successful books and tales defy genre categorisation. They’ve more life, more balls, are more true than pretty much anything else you’ll encounter out there. They call some fantasies ‘Magical Realism’ to try and lend them respectability, like a whore who wishes to be known as a lady of the evening. Jonathan Carroll’s work, however, has every right to parade under the banner of magical realism, if you have to call it something.

I call them Jonathan Carroll stories, and leave it at that. He is one of the handful, and one of the brotherhood. If you don’t believe me, pick up Outside the Dog Museum, or A Child Across the Sky, or Sleeping in Flame or The Panic Hand, or, any of his other works (you’ll find a list of them within, I have no doubt) and find out for yourself.

He’ll lend you his eyes; and you will never see the world in quite the same way ever again.*

Oh, another good one in the Baen Free Library is The Shadow of the Lion by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer ( it has a sequel or two ). It’s set in an alternate past Venice. There’s various differences; magic works, Christianity is split into the Pauline and Petrine sects, the North American Viking settlements survived ( which is why Erik the badass Viking has a steel tomahawk among his weapons ).

Have you read In the Suicide Mountains by John Gardner? It’s a little lean on fantasy elements, but it’s John Friggin’ Gardner!

Sounds good.

I’ve tried Cook. Didn’t like him.

I’ll look into these.

Yes, Summon the Keeper was great. I got it out of the library, and then went and bought a copy anyway.

Again, I’ll check it out.

Sounds like an interesting premise

There are new Firekeeper books out?
I think I was going to read the Changer series, but my library didn’t have them.

Nope, never heard of Brust, actually. Then again, if it’s sci-fi-ish, I probably wouldn’t have come across him.

Octavia Butler sounds familier…

Agree with you on both of them.

I tried them, but I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. Glen Cook just isn’t my thing.

I just recently ordered them from my library. They don’t have all the books, but if it’s good I guess I’ll have to buy the rest.

I think I’ve read Midori Snyder before. I’ll go back and cehck her out again.

Will check it out.

I found Anubis Gates to be a bit meh. Last Call, on the other hand, was awesome.

I read Glass Soup, but the surrealism was a bit too much for me.

Er, I’m only allowed to post once every minute. So let me just say thank you for your suggestions, and I will look into them.