# Recommend some fantasy to me, please! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 10, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287 "2015-04-10T03:08:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/21 "2015-04-10T17:40:59Z")
Also, Charles Finney’s _The Circus of Dr. Lao_. Brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![IT\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3ec8ea/32.png) [@IT\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IT_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/22 "2015-04-10T19:06:06Z")
The _Garrett P.I._ series by Glen Cook. Fantasy and film noir/detective fiction mixed (with a little SF in one volume). 14 books so far. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/23 "2015-04-10T19:23:48Z")
A big second for Discworld, if you’ve never tried it. It’s massive, varied, complex, rewarding, funny, endlessly entertaining, and densely peopled with characters you will care uncommonly deeply about. I’ve never been emotionally moved as much by pretty much any other author. The Dresden Files books might be worth a look if you’re interested in something that’s dark-ish but doesn’t push the buttons you don’t like. One the surface, it _seems_ like it should be dark, gritty fantasy, but it’s mostly not. Dresden is a fake antihero – gruff exterior but sweetness underneath. There’s certainly some violence, but it’s not excessive. Very little that couldn’t sneak into a PG-13 movie. The stories rarely inflict arbitrary punishment on sympathetic characters. Pretty easy reading, but some decent world-building, especially as the series goes on and the faerie elements come more to the fore. I’m actually not a huge fan because I _prefer_ darker, grittier, and/or more realistic fiction, but I mention it because, based on the covers, one would probably assume the books are much darker than they are. Really, it’s pretty similar in tone to a show like Angel or Supernatural. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/24 "2015-04-10T19:36:46Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I recently read Patrick Rothfuss’s _The Name of the Wind_, and liked it (except for a few grammatical peeves, such as that neither Rothfuss nor his copy editor, if he has one, knows the difference between _parents’_ and _parent’s_). It’s pretty long itself (about 700 pages IIRC) and is the first of a series. It seems to be pretty well-regarded both by ordinary readers and by writers & critics. It has likeable characters and not much on-screen violence. > > The vast majority of the book is a first-person “How I became a great hero” life story told by the main character, a magician (and musician and some other things), but that part doesn’t get going until at least 50 pages in, so you may have to persevere a while before you get a feel for what the book is really like. I think the book it most reminded me of was Le Guin’s _A Wizard of Earthsea_, though the resemblance isn’t real close. Have you read the 2nd book, “The Wise Man’s Fear”? Very good! The Name of The Wind is on Kindle for $4.99, a per-word bargain. StG ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/25 "2015-04-10T20:09:18Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Have you read the 2nd book, “The Wise Man’s Fear”? Very good! Not yet. I mean to, but it’s dauntingly long enough that I’m waiting until I’ll have some time available. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/26 "2015-04-10T20:47:24Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I also highly, highly recommend the fantasy of [Avram Davidson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avram_Davidson). Particularly [url=]_The Adventures of Dr. Eszterhazy_, set in the Triune Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania in an AH 19th-Century Europe. (Eszterhazy is remarkably intellectual for a fantasy hero.) And the Vergil Magus series and the (sadly unfinished) Peregrine series. I just had the joy of re-reading Dr. Eszterhazy! Wonderful! I’d never heard of the Vergil Magus series; I’ll get right on it! Thank you! **jsgoddess** : Have you had the joy of reading Murder and Magic by Randall Garrett? Okay, yeah, stories, not a novel, although it sets you up for the novel Too Many Magicians. When Garrett passed away, Michael Kurland received the rights, and wrote Ten Little Wizards and A Study in Sorcery, which are quite good. They aren’t absolutely up to Garrett’s standards – who the heck is? – but they work very well. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/27 "2015-04-10T21:45:17Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Balance, I never read Hodgell because I’m lazy and want ebooks. It looks like the first two books are combined and available through Kindle now, so I’m in! Thanks for the reminder! Yay! They’re all available directly from [Baen](http://www.baenebooks.com/s-122-pc-hodgell.aspx) in a variety of formats, including Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/28 "2015-04-10T22:11:56Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > The Dresden Files books might be worth a look if you’re interested in something that’s dark-ish but doesn’t push the buttons you don’t like. One the surface, it _seems_ like it should be dark, gritty fantasy, but it’s mostly not. Dresden is a fake antihero – gruff exterior but sweetness underneath. There’s certainly some violence, but it’s not excessive. Very little that couldn’t sneak into a PG-13 movie. The stories rarely inflict arbitrary punishment on sympathetic characters. Except Dresden himself, who seems always to be nursing physical injuries. For all his power, he does not appear to know any healing spells. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/29 "2015-04-10T22:28:31Z")
I’m going to be looking many of these up myself, because it sounds like we like a similar style of fantasy. If you don’t mind slipping into Young Adult, there’s a great little series from Megan Whalen Turner called _The Queen’s Thief_. Four books with complex, but likable characters, strong female figures, good plot lines with twits that aren’t cliche, and a good fantasy setting. I enjoy them thoroughly. It doesn’t feel that YA. There’s no love triangles anywhere, some angst but well deserved and short lived (with characters telling the angsty one to get over themselves). The plot even involves some political machinations that are more complex than I would expect in a YA book. ---
**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:** [April 10, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/30 "2015-04-10T22:28:47Z")
This thread has been an interesting mix of books I’ve been meaning to try, new books, books I kinda hated, and books I loved. I consider that a win! silenus, sorry for skipping your suggestion earlier. I’m putting it ON THE LIST! I’ve read Tolkien. I’ve read Dresden (actually, I haven’t read the latest because I’m a little tired of the “Let’s ramp up the powers and the misery for this character in a never-ending escalation”). And I’ve read some Discworld. I don’t tend to be a huge fan of humorous books. That always strikes people as strange, but it’s true. I have to be in exactly the right mood to read them. I have _Three Parts Dead_ on hold at the library. Those are the ones I had an immediate reaction to. I’ll happily check out the others. ETA: I’ve read the Megan Whalen Turner books, too. I read a lot! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/31 "2015-04-10T22:29:55Z")
The Guardians of the Flame series might fit your criteria. It has much better characterization than most fantasy, heroically intentioned but realistically empowered protagonists. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/32 "2015-04-10T23:07:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Except Dresden himself, who seems always to be nursing physical injuries. For all his power, he does not appear to know any healing spells. To an almost comical degree, sometimes. I’m not quite caught up on the series, but I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if one of the later books features Harry fighting vampires while in a full-body cast. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/33 "2015-04-10T23:18:52Z")
If you like _The Far Kingdoms_ after reading, be aware that there are two more books in the main sequence and a side trilogy on the same world. That should keep you busy for awhile. Review comment on the first sequel: “What might have been a standard nautical fantasy patterned on the Odyssey reveals itself to be a charmingly subversive lesbian feminist romp about a group of women warriors who battle wizards, demons, pirates and sexism on land and at sea.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/34 "2015-04-10T23:42:38Z")
It’s only a Novella but _The Man Who Bridged the Mists_ by Kij Johnson is one of the most satisfying fantasies I’ve read recently. You can download it free from Kij Johnson’s website: [http://www.kijjohnson.com/read.html#shortstory](http://www.kijjohnson.com/read.html#shortstory) ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/35 "2015-04-10T23:43:52Z")
Have a look at _The Iron Druid_ series by Kevin Hearne. [Hounded is the first in the series.](http://www.amazon.com/Hounded-Druid-Chronicles-Kevin-Hearne/dp/0345522478) Fun books and the main character’s wolfhound Oberon is extremely funny at times. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/36 "2015-04-10T23:50:52Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Anything by Dave Duncan would be very likely to hit your spot. Dave Duncan is a mushy romantic of the highest order, and an excellent deviser of intriguing magic systems that make sense, and plotter of tight corners for his heroes and heroines to escape from. The boy and the girl always get each other at the end, but it’s often a long road. “A Man of His Word” is great high medieval fantasy; Strongly seconded. Along with the sequel series “A Handful Of Men” Also Lawrence Hardy’s “Master of the Five Magics” is good (There are two sequels, each progressively less good, but still decent) The Belgariad series by Eddings is fun–he basically sticks thinly disguised versions of every major character into a big ol’ plot-coupon quest novel. So…if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if Mary Poppins (the book version, not the Disney version) met Lancelot, Fahfard and the Grey Mouser, etc, this is for you. It’s not great literature…it’s pleasant, fun fluff. But it’s unabashedly good fluff. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/37 "2015-04-11T00:12:55Z")
> [@IT\_Guy](#): > > The _Garrett P.I._ series by Glen Cook. Fantasy and film noir/detective fiction mixed (with a little SF in one volume). 14 books so far. I’m a big fan of his _Black Company_ series (which, given the OP’s criteria, is right out as a “recommend” for fantasy material), but the _Garrett_ series didn’t pique my interest the one time I tried it; but that was almost two decades ago, so I might give it another go. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/38 "2015-04-11T04:23:31Z")
Absolutely try Jack Vance, who wrote a ton of books in both fantasy and science fiction. Start with the Lyonesse Trilogy: _[Suldrun’s Garden](http://www.amazon.com/Lyonesse-Suldruns-Garden-Jack-Vance-ebook/dp/B004KZQN20/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428725941&sr=1-1&keywords=Suldrun%27s+Garden)_, _[The Green Pearl](http://www.amazon.com/Green-Pearl-Jack-Vance/dp/0441303161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428726022&sr=1-1&keywords=the+green+pearl+jack+vance)_, and _[Madouc](http://www.amazon.com/Lyonesse-Madouc-Jack-Vance-ebook/dp/B004I6EITQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428726053&sr=1-1&keywords=Madouc)_. It’s an amazingly dense and complex plot set on the “Elder Isles”, supposedly existing in the mid-Atlantic in medieval times. Lots of strange interactions between human characters who inhabit the seacoasts and the fairy tale-type beings in the center of the main island. Also hilarious comedy. I love it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/39 "2015-04-11T08:07:36Z")
How about the _Darkover_ series by Marion Zimmer Bradley? 😛 More seriously, though - how do you feel about mixed fantasy/alternate history? Naomi Novik’s _Temeraire_ series about Napoleonic-era dragons is quite nice. Janny Wurts’s and Raymond Feist’s _Empire_ series (a spin-off from Feist’s _Riftwar_ series) was quite nice. ---
**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:** [April 11, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/40 "2015-04-11T16:10:28Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > How about the _Darkover_ series by Marion Zimmer Bradley? 😛 Smart aleck! 😃 I’ve read the Novik, Hearne, and Butcher books, tried Jack Vance, Eddings, and Rosenberg. Not really a fan of the latter three. I thought _Guardians of the Flame_ was one of the worst books I’ve ever read, which isn’t a slight on wolfman for suggesting it (it’s hard work suggesting books for people, and I appreciate all efforts!), but just another data point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287.md?page=3)