I do not see a thread like this in our book recommendation threads and searching did not bring it up.
I’m looking for what everyone thinks are the best stand alone fantasy books. Books that begin and end between two covers.
I would guess that Lord of the Rings is an automatic since I consider it one book and read it as one book when I was younger.
I request no spoilers since this will probably be used as a recommendation thread for many. I will leave it to us to decide what constitutes a spoiler. I don’t think explaining the basic setup of a book is usually a spoiler, but yelling out key events is.
Anyway, I am not the massive reader that many of our fellow Dopers, but I will put my two cents in. Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll - an amazing book about a lady who dreams of another world, is sent on quest to help a mystery child there collect the mystical “bones of the moon”. I’m aware there are some other Carroll books that reuse one or two characters, but there is no series and this is definitely a stand alone.
I’m reading a book called Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay right now and I’ve heard rave reviews about it, but I will hold my final review of it later. It is really good, but I don’t know where it ranks yet.
For the best single book, I would go with Black Sun Rising by CS Friedman. I know it’s part of a trilogy and the final book was kinda meh, but, it, by itself was great. The fae, Erna, the characters, all of it, a terrific book.
I submit Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. It has a wonderful story set in a fantastical ancient China, and it is hysterically funny, with a sprinkling of extremely poignant moments. There are two other books about the same characters, but each is an independent story, and Bridge is the first and best of them.
I have read “Little, Big,” and it was the first thing I thought of when I read the thread title. It is DEFINITELY the best stand alone fantasy novel, and also, the best fantasy novel ever written, period.
However, if “Little, Big” were not around, I’d probably be nominating “Declare” by Tim Powers. It does one of the finest jobs I’ve ever encountered of creating a sense of the alienness of a supernatural race of beings (the djinn), and of integrating them into a story of Cold War spying in the Middle East.
Let me amend that post a bit, explaining WHY I think so highly of “Little, Big”:
I have read “Little, Big,” and it was the first thing I thought of when I read the thread title. It is DEFINITELY the best stand alone fantasy novel, and also, the best fantasy novel ever written, period. It’s a story about the immortal fae, but it has an awful lot to say about what it is to be mortal, and human. It’s a story in which the fae are almost never directly seen, or directly manifest themselves, but in which there’s a more palpable sense of a magical world lurking around every corner, glimpsed out of the corner of the eye, than in any other fantasy novel I’ve ever read.
However, if “Little, Big” were not around, I’d probably be nominating “Declare” by Tim Powers. It does one of the finest jobs I’ve ever encountered of creating a sense of the alienness of a supernatural race of beings (the djinn), and of integrating them into a story of Cold War spying in the Middle East.
Problem I had with it was that it dragged in places (for me) especially around halfway. I acknowledge this is just me, but I prefer a leeetle more action in a book that thick.
If we are looking for second best, (Tolkien is always first), I nominate Greg Bear’s Songs of Earth and Power. Yes, I know, it was originally published as two separate novels, but now they are together as one under the above title, just as LotR is actually 6 books, originally published as three, in one. Greg Bear has the feel and mechanics of world creating just right, and uses world myth wonderfully well.
By the same logic, I also nominate Sean Russell’s The Initiate Brother duology. Best use of Asian lore I’ve seen. Wait, no, now Yangsze Choo’s The Ghost Bride is is out and is terrific in that respect, specifically Malay Chinese lore, but it’s too new to be considered one of the greats yet. A good read and a genuine stand alone, though, and I recommend it.
Agreed with the nominations of John Crowley’s and Guy Gavriel Kay’s work. I love them both.
I’d go with Under Heaven by him, but I haven’t yet read Tigana. Though there is a sequel (River of Stars) it has little to do with UH and can be ignored (and kinda should be).
For something more recent/urban fantasy, I like The Rook. It’s a stand-alone, though the author is apparently writing a sequel.