# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/41 "2015-04-11T17:05:19Z")
Given what you say you liked and didn’t, I’ll tentatively second MrDibble’s rec of the Empire trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist. It’s very traditional sword and sorcery fantasy, BUT it is headed by a really really powerful central female character, has a lot of gender politics and thoughtful treatments of power and abuses of power, and it’s set in an Egyptian/ancient Greek-analogue world instead of the usual european-ish one. ---
**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, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/42 "2015-04-11T17:16:00Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Given what you say you liked and didn’t, I’ll tentatively second MrDibble’s rec of the Empire trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist. It’s very traditional sword and sorcery fantasy, BUT it is headed by a really really powerful central female character, has a lot of gender politics and thoughtful treatments of power and abuses of power, and it’s set in an Egyptian/ancient Greek-analogue world instead of the usual european-ish one. Thanks! I very much hope my pointing out suggestions that I’ve read and not enjoyed doesn’t make people feel like they should be scared to recommend something. I swear, I’m not going to hunt anyone down and yell at them if they suggest something I don’t like. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/43 "2015-04-11T17:21:00Z")
Nope, it actually makes it easier to narrow down the recommends. I work at a public library and purchase our fantasy/sf collection. I do a lot of recommending of books to people - staffers and patrons. I rarely have anyone throw a rejected book at me. 😃 I do like it when people (like you are) say what they do and don’t like, and WHY. So many people don’t think about the WHY and that’s what helps me to find similar things to either avoid or pursue. ---
**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, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/44 "2015-04-11T17:24:16Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Nope, it actually makes it easier to narrow down the recommends. I work at a public library and purchase our fantasy/sf collection. I do a lot of recommending of books to people - staffers and patrons. > > I rarely have anyone throw a rejected book at me. 😃 > > I do like it when people (like you are) say what they do and don’t like, and WHY. So many people don’t think about the WHY and that’s what helps me to find similar things to either avoid or pursue. Very cool. I’m happy to give any other details that help narrow the field. And if anyone has similar or relatively similar taste (like Miss Woodhouse upthread) and you want to give more details about what you’re looking for, please feel free! ---
**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:** [April 11, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/45 "2015-04-11T17:46:06Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Son of a Rich, I’ve been warned away from Mieville. I tried to read one of his books and found it nauseatingly grotesque. I’m a ginormous fan of half of Mieville’s books. He’s often off, writing books that just don’t do anything for me; but when he’s on, my god, he hits all my buttons exactly right. That said, if you don’t like things that are nauseatingly grotesque, stay the hell away from Mieville :). A couple of modern fantasy novels that I enjoyed: [Angelmaker](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/12/nick-harkaway-angelmaker-review), by Nick Harkaway. It’s funny but not a comic novel, if that makes sense, with some truly wonderful heroines. The attached review aptly describes it as an “ambitious, crowded, restless caper, cleverly told and utterly immune to precis.” Gangsters, spies, WMDs, clockwork, like Le Carre if Le Carre thought the whole thing was worth laughing about. [The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August](http://www.orbitbooks.net/tag/the-first-fifteen-lives-of-harry-august/), by Claire North. Apparently the idea’s been done before–the protagonist is born in the early 20th century, lives a full life, dies, and wakes up as himself as an infant in the early 20th century with full memory of his previous life–but the author does some very cool things with the premise. It was possibly my favorite fantasy of last year. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/46 "2015-04-11T18:40:13Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Given what you say you liked and didn’t, I’ll tentatively second MrDibble’s rec of the Empire trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist. I always rather liked Raymond Feist’s one-off _Faerie Tale_, about contemporary folks interacting with a take on the classical fae. Sort of like Like Charles de Lint only, you know, good :D. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/47 "2015-04-11T18:46:13Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Given what you say you liked and didn’t, I’ll tentatively second MrDibble’s rec of the Empire trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond Feist. It’s very traditional sword and sorcery fantasy, BUT it is headed by a really really powerful central female character, has a lot of gender politics and thoughtful treatments of power and abuses of power, and it’s set in an Egyptian/ancient Greek-analogue world instead of the usual european-ish one. More of a feudal Japan-ish world, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![alted315](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cc9497/32.png) [@alted315](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alted315)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/48 "2015-04-11T19:00:55Z")
> [@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. I would definitely recommend that spoke and he second one in the series I believe it’s called The Wise Man’s Fears. they are two of the best books I have ever read ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/49 "2015-04-11T20:25:26Z")
Try Martin Scott’s _Thraxas_ series and Ben Aaronovich’s \*Rivers of London / Peter Grant \*series. ---
**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:** [April 11, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/50 "2015-04-11T21:21:20Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Try Martin Scott’s _Thraxas_ series Thraxas is comic to a fault–and I do mean fault. How many jokes can you milk out of a barbarian woman’s chainmail bikini before it stops being funny? (hint: zero) That book ended both the book club I recommended it for and my unstinting trust in the World Fantasy Award. De gustibus and all, though :). ---
**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, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/51 "2015-04-11T21:54:15Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > it’s set in an Egyptian/ancient Greek-analogue world instead of the usual european-ish one. > [@fachverwirrt](#): > > More of a feudal Japan-ish world, I’d say. Yes, _much_ more Japanese than anything else, with also some Aztec-ish bits. ---
**Author:** ![XaMcQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f9ae1b/32.png) [@XaMcQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XaMcQ)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/52 "2015-04-12T00:42:18Z")
Have you read any of Wen Spencer’s books? Her Elfhome series might appeal to you. How about Garth Nix’s ‘Abhorsen’ trilogy? ---
**Author:** ![c\_carol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@c\_carol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_carol)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/53 "2015-04-12T02:09:03Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Ben Aaronovich’s \*Rivers of London / Peter Grant \*series. Second this one, it’s a fun series with very likeable characters. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/54 "2015-04-13T16:35:00Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Thraxas is comic to a fault–and I do mean fault. How many jokes can you milk out of a barbarian woman’s chainmail bikini before it stops being funny? (hint: zero) Well yes, that’s the point of him mentioning it. It’s satire. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/55 "2015-04-14T02:20:58Z")
I can recommend an author named John Moore. Most of his stuff is out of print but not too hard to find second hand. Heroics for Beginners, Fate Worse Than Dragons, Bad Prince Charlie. They are light-hearted romps, including parody of fantasy tropes. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2015, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/56 "2015-04-14T02:51:19Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Well yes, that’s the point of him mentioning it. It’s satire. Yeah, but it’s been the target of satire since the 1980s at least, in pretty much exactly the same way. His jokes about it were tired and boring, in my opinion. And in any case, in post 30 jsgoddess mentioned not liking humorous books in general. ---
**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 14, 2015, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/57 "2015-04-14T02:55:21Z")
I’m not really a fan of parody or satirical fantasy. Not saying they can’t be high quality work, I just don’t tend to want to read it. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/58 "2015-04-14T03:00:51Z")
Then Joe Abercrombie’s stuff is doubly unrecommended for you, I think :). He’s an excellent writer, but his Blade Itself books function as the most vicious satirical takedown of fantasy tropes I’ve ever seen, both hilariously cutting and appalling at the same time. I’m not entirely glad I read them, and I like bleak fantasy a lot. ---
**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 14, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/59 "2015-04-14T03:32:47Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Then Joe Abercrombie’s stuff is doubly unrecommended for you, I think :). He’s an excellent writer, but his Blade Itself books function as the most vicious satirical takedown of fantasy tropes I’ve ever seen, both hilariously cutting and appalling at the same time. I’m not entirely glad I read them, and I like bleak fantasy a lot. I wonder if you (and people who like grittier stuff than I do) might like some of the books I’ve been ditching early: The Powder Mage series by Brian McClellan, starting with _Promise of Blood_ _The Warded Man_, by Peter Brett _Prince of Thorns_, by Mark Lawrence _Empire in Black and Gold_, by Adrian Tchaikovsky _The Iron Thorn_, by Caitlin Kittredge _Besieged_, by Rowena Cory Daniells _Incarceron_, by Catherine Fisher And then some I feel like I wouldn’t normally like, but did (though I haven’t read further in any of these series): _The Thousand Names_, by Django Wexler _A Shadow in Summer_, by Daniel Abraham _Blood Ties_, by Pamela Freeman _The Black Prism_, by Brent Weeks And for anyone reading who might share tastes with me: _Sisters of the Raven_, by Barbara Hambly _The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms_, by NK Jemisin \*House of Shadows, \*by Rachel Neumeier _Seraphina_, by Rachel Hartman ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287/60 "2015-04-14T04:05:21Z")
Oooh _Serafina_, I liked that one. If you liked that, you may like _The last Dragonslayer_ by Jasper Fforde. May being the operative word; Fforde is a somewhat humorous writer, but there’s a possibility you may not find that a turn off. I may also suggest _Deathless_ by Catherine Valente, and _A Secret History of Moscow_ by Ekaterina Sedia, both featuring heroines navigating russian myths and fairytales in communist and capitalist russia, respectively. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-fantasy-to-me-please/717287.md?page=4)