# it's been too long - recommend me some fantasy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199 "2007-06-16T00:40:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/41 "2007-06-20T21:40:38Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] Wow, I loathed “Little Big,” and have never figured out why it gets such acclaim. De gustibus, I suppose. The one addition I’ll make is one you could guess by my username: Ursula Le Guin, especially her Earthsea books. The fourth one isn’t all that great, IMO, but the others are wonderful. Daniel [/QUOTE] Crowley is such a gifted writer that he is always going to be a a serious proposition. Most of the mainstream ‘serious’ literary authors aren’t in his league, so even when his books get a bit shaky (Aegypt for me is a bit overrated, Little Big gets a bit baggy and meandering), the sheer mastery of prose has to be acknowledged. You don’t think the fourth earthsea book is all that great? 😛 I think there’s been threads before on the jaw-dropping, scrotum shrivelling, literary abortion that is tehanu. I may have posted this before, but it retro-actively degraded her entire ouvre for me. Wizard of Earthsea is untouchable, obviously, but is ‘The Dispossessed’ or even ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ really all that good? I haven’t read them for a long time, but viewed through the lens of the hateful book that should not be named, I don’t think I’d like them as much. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/42 "2007-06-20T23:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] Wow, I loathed “Little Big,” and have never figured out why it gets such acclaim. De gustibus, I suppose. … The one addition I’ll make is one you could guess by my username: Ursula Le Guin, especially her Earthsea books. The fourth one isn’t all that great, IMO, but the others are wonderful. [/QUOTE] I didn’t like _Little, Big_ or Le Guin. Or _Un Lun Dun_ by Mieville, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Vimp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vimp/32/4186_2.png) [@Vimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vimp)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/43 "2007-06-21T03:54:29Z")
I’ll third (fourth? fifth?) Tim Powers – I just recommended his books in another thread [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=425546) Another beautifully weird series is a (so far) trilogy by G. P. Taylor [Shadowmancer](http://www.shadowmancer.com/) consisting of Shadowmancer, Wyrmwood, and The Shadowmancer Returns (new – I haven’t read it yet). They are wonderfully nuanced stories which are very evocative of the dark fantasies that seem to be representative of northern England ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/44 "2007-06-21T05:52:22Z")
I tried reading Le Guin, but I never quite clicked with any of her books. I did read _The Mists of Avalon_ and liked it a lot, but I’ve heard that her other books aren’t as good. A lot of these titles are ones I’ve been eyeing at the bookstore but haven’t had the conviction to buy. Again, thanks for the suggestions everyone! I’m well into The Bone Doll trilogy and am trying to decide what to try next. So far, so good. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/45 "2007-06-21T06:10:34Z")
I always have to recomment The Philosophical Strangler by Eric Flint to people asking for fantasy recommendations. It’s a light read when you just want to unwind. “When the mighty Greyboar, professional strangler, discovers The Supreme Philosophy Of Life, he becomes a new man - but just how can a villian in good standing pay the bills with all this philosophical exploration getting in the way? That’s that his hardheaded agent and manager Ignace wants to know!” -Back cover- you can read the rest of the back at Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/46 "2007-06-21T06:58:39Z")
[QUOTE=Projammer] I always have to recomment The Philosophical Strangler by Eric Flint to people asking for fantasy recommendations. It’s a light read when you just want to unwind. “When the mighty Greyboar, professional strangler, discovers The Supreme Philosophy Of Life, he becomes a new man - but just how can a villian in good standing pay the bills with all this philosophical exploration getting in the way? That’s that his hardheaded agent and manager Ignace wants to know!” -Back cover- you can read the rest of the back at Amazon. [/QUOTE] Actually, you can read the whole thing at [the Baen Free Library.](http://www.baen.com/library/) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/47 "2007-06-21T12:27:37Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] I tried reading Le Guin, but I never quite clicked with any of her books. I did read _The Mists of Avalon_ and liked it a lot, but I’ve heard that her other books aren’t as good. [/QUOTE] Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote _Mists of Avalon_, not Le Guin. That book really irritated me–again, different tastes! (I actually don’t mind _Tehanu_ that much: if you read it as a portrait of a bitter old woman who nonetheless does a few decent things despite her bigotry, it’s a lot more palatable than if you see the protagonist as intended to be wise). **jsgoddess** , I didn’t like _Un Lun Dun_ much, either. My expectations for it were impossibly high, but I ended up thinking it was derivative, preachy, and uninspired, as if _The Phantom Tollbooth_ collided with _Stories for Young Socialists_. My wife liked it, though: I think hearing me whinge about it lowered her expectations sufficiently :). Daniel ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/48 "2007-06-21T13:04:25Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] **jsgoddess** , I didn’t like _Un Lun Dun_ much, either. My expectations for it were impossibly high, but I ended up thinking it was derivative, preachy, and uninspired, as if _The Phantom Tollbooth_ collided with _Stories for Young Socialists_. My wife liked it, though: I think hearing me whinge about it lowered her expectations sufficiently :). [/QUOTE] Ha! That’s what I needed. Someone standing there saying, “Well, you can read it but it isn’t very good.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/49 "2007-06-21T14:01:20Z")
_The Forgotten Beasts of Eld_ by Patricia McKillip. ---
**Author:** ![delsol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6f9a4e/32.png) [@delsol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delsol)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/50 "2007-06-21T15:27:11Z")
I was never a big fan of reading fantasy, but seeing it in action is really different. I’ve been watching Afterworld on [bud.tv](http://bud.tv) and I am totally hooked, the plot is fascinating to me. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199/51 "2007-06-21T19:12:32Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] _The Forgotten Beasts of Eld_ by Patricia McKillip. [/QUOTE] Also, her _Riddle-Master of Hed_ trilogy; I actually liked that better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-been-too-long-recommend-me-some-fantasy/408199.md?page=2)