Point me towards some good trashy fantasy fiction?

Hello all
The desire to indulge myself with some good ol’ time-wasting, escapist fantasy reading has cropped up again. I tried digging up recommendations on the web, but you know how it is, you can’t really trust an opinion on the internets :wink:
To give you an idea of my taste in books -
I loved Name of the Wind, but was very disappointed with Wise man’s fear. I thought Butcher’s Alera series was average. I did not enjoy George Martin’s ASOIAF. I disliked Peter Brett’s Warded/painted man. Inspite of thinking I wouldn’t, I really liked Lois Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels. Steven Brust’s Taltos books were ok, but a little too trashy. I like dragons. In fact, I’d love to read a great dragon story. Dragons and people, interacting. Like Eragon, only not crappy. Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series does a very good job of dragons, although her decision to mix them up with the napoleonic wars seemed…strange. So. Got anything for me?

Robin Hobb’s Liveship series has dragons in it, as does the series that comes afterward, whose name I forget.

If you like Dragons, have you tried Gordon R. Dickson’s series, starting with The Dragon and the George?

Dragon Knight series
The Dragon and the George (1976)
The Dragon Knight (1990)
The Dragon on the Border (1992)
The Dragon at War (1992)
The Dragon, the Earl, and the Troll (1994)
The Dragon and the Djinn (1996)
The Dragon and the Gnarly King (1997)
The Dragon in Lyonesse (1998)
The Dragon and the Fair Maid of Kent (2000)

Of course, there’s Anne McCaffery’s Dragon stuff, and The Hobbit, but I’m sure you’re familiar with those. I haven’t read any of the books in the OP, so I’m not precisely sure the type of thing you’re looking for.

There are 3

Farseer Trilogy
Liveship trilogy

each of which stand alone, followed by a unifying

Tawny Man trilogy

Did you like it? I read the Assassin series. That had dragons (of sorts), and was well written but somewhat, dare I say it, bleak and a tad boring. Which is not to say gritty or bleak is bad in itself. I loved Abercrombie’s First Law series, which I’d definitely recommend to people who haven’t read it.

For escapist fantasy I would suggest you can’t go wrong with David Gemmell. I love me some Drenai, or Sipstrassi tales

I loved the Farseer trilogy, I would say the Liveship books have a less bleak tone, but bad things do still happen to protagonists.

I’ll check these out, they do sound interesting, thanks! And yes, I have read McCaffrey(who varied in quality) and the Hobbit(which was excellent).
I used to recommend Name of the Wind very highly to people, but then Rothfuss went and lost all of the considerable respect I had for him with a turd of a second book.

Has anyone read Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next or Last Dragonslayer books? I read ‘Shades of Grey’ by him and loved it, but unfortunately it’s only the first book of a trilogy that is not rushing towards completion.

I vaguely remember having read some Gemmell. Wikipedia says its something called Heroic Fantasy. Will go back and give him a try. I wonder if making more escapist fantasy recommendations will give away too much about myself, but man, was Tarzan ever a good set of pulp ‘Heroic’ fantasy fiction.

For dragons, I liked Patricia Briggs’s duology Dragon Bones/Dragon Blood. Also Barbara Hambly’s novel Dragonsbane.

For gritty fantasy along the lines of Abercrombie and Martin, you might try Richard K. Morgan’s new fantasy series, starting with The Steel Remains. It’s a trilogy, and the second book has just been published.

I liked The Lies of Lock Lamora, by Scott Lynch, which is sort of a mashup of Oliver Twist and Ocean’s Eleven. A caper story in a fantasy setting.

Bujold has written some fantasy. I like her Chalion books, but I did not like the first Sharing Knife book.

There’s a fourth series, the Rain Wilds trilogy, which is set in the same world. This is centered on the re-emergence of dragons in the world.

I’m reading the Thursday Next series now. They’re lots of fun but I wouldn’t call them trashy or fantasy. Not sure what I’d call them, actually. SF for book nerds?

Have you read any Tim Powers? You’d probably like The Anubis Gates.

They’re at least half a dozen genres rolled into one. No dragons that I can recall, but just about everything else.
For dragons (and griffins), I could suggest Diana Wynne Jones’s Dark Lord of Derkholm (and its sequel).

I’m a huge fan of Gemmell, even though his plots are, after the first few, almost always redundant. I recommend that you start with Morningstar and Legend.

I very much enjoyed Dragonsbane. It’s an excellent book. The other two books in the trilogy are tougher.

Or, so I thought. Wikipedia tells me there’s actually 4 books and a novella. Wikipedia also tells me that the second book, Dragonshadow was written almost a decade and a half after Dragonsbane, which might explain the dramatic differences in them.

Knight of the Demon Queen is also superb, but it made me cry. That’s your fair warning.

I’ve added Briggs to the to-read stack, and realised that I’ve read Dragonsbane. Isn’t it the one where The woman either turns into the dragon at the end, or takes his power? .

I’ve read Lynch, and liked the books, but unfinished fantasy series, especially after Rothfuss’ epic let-down, are a tough sell for me to myself right now.
I read a synopsis of Chalion, and the premise sounded so similar - scrawny character in a terrible situation who then works things out - I figured I’d just wait for another Miles book.

SF for book nerds sounds right up my alley :smiley: I think I’ll definitely read Thursday Next, especially since I enjoyed Shades of Grey by Fforde so much. Powers I haven’t read, will check him out.

Sounds a bit like Pratchett, this book does. And as such, definitely worth a whirl.

Yes, that was the memory I have too. Will pick up Morningstar or Legend first, thanks.

And knowing is half the battle :slight_smile:

Thanks all. Much appreciated.

The YA series The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is chockful of dragons and other fantasy stuff wonderfully subverted.

There are no dragons in Tanya Huff’s Summon the Keeper series but I can’t think of a series that does a better job of epitomizing trashy urban fantasy.

Hambly wrote the Dragonsbane sequels right after her ex-husband, her soul mate, died. He was her ex for legal reasons, but she still loved him very, very much. She was in a great deal of pain when she wrote those books, but she had a contract. ANY book that she wrote during that time would have been very painful to read.

Or at least this is what I’d heard.

Ah yes–good call. (link)

I started David Gemmell with White Wolf which I would recommend (I loved his books though some more than others)

Other “trash” fantasy I would recommend
David Eddings - Belgariad & Mallorean
Maria V Snyder - Poison Study
Raymond E Feist - The Riftwar Saga & The Empire Trilogy (Loved the Empire Trilogy)

I only read The Alera series this year and loved it so we may have different tastes