# Recommend some lesser-known fantasy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006 "2009-06-07T14:37:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/61 "2009-06-21T19:45:40Z")
Have you read _Holes_ by Louis Sachar? It’s a kid’s book, aimed roughly at age 12, won the Newberry Award. Very fine book. Also very fine by the same author are the Wayside School books. The first one, _Sideways Stories from Wayside School_, has a concluding chapter that’s about as profound as anything you’ll find in a book written for grade schoolers. Lots of humor and scary parts in both those books. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/62 "2009-06-21T20:43:00Z")
The Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake. _The Man Who Was Thursday_ by G. K. Chesterton. The Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin. Any of Charles Williams’s novels, possibly starting with _The Place of the Lion_. _Good Omens_ by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. _The Mysterious Stranger_ by Mark Twain. _Till We Have Faces_ by C. S. Lewis. _Borgel_ (or any of a whole slew of other novels) by Daniel Pinkwater. _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter S. Beagle. _Silverlock_ by John Myers Myers. _Dandelion Wine_ by Ray Bradbury. _The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath_ by H. P. Lovecraft. _The Face in the Frost_ by John Bellairs. _The White Deer_ by James Thurber. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/63 "2009-07-16T21:56:34Z")
Jabberwocky tonsils. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/64 "2009-07-16T22:17:04Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Jabberwocky tonsils. …have to be removed with a vorpal scalpel. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/65 "2009-07-16T22:33:05Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I also bought a John Morressy based on **asterion’s** recommendation. It’s up next. I’ve read nothing but Morressy since the first one arrived. I ended up buying 10-12 of his books, all the Kedrigern titles as well as his SF and one general fiction. So a big **Thank You** to **asterion**. I also wrote to NESFA asking about possible reprints of the chronicles in nice hardcover editions (response: not likely but thanks for asking). One thing I’ve noticed is that even though the books were ridiculously cheap (a few were a penny plus shipping), every one of them was shipped with extra care, as if the sellers recognized their quality. I’m talking boards, mylar folders, Tyvek - the whole schmeer. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/66 "2009-07-16T22:39:08Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > _The Last Unicorn_ by Peter S. Beagle. A special 40th Anniversary Edition is coming out from [Conlan Press](http://www.conlanpress.com/html/books.html#unicorn). Mr. Beagle is having severe financial problems (his mother’s medical expenses and some other things) so half of the proceeds are going directly to him. So if anyone’s thinking of picking up this book, that might be the way to go. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/67 "2009-07-16T22:39:08Z")
\*Gossamer Axe \*by Gael Baudino. I seem to be the only person who has read this book. Thorne Smith, the author of _Topper_ and _The Night Life of the Gods_, was really big in the 1930’s, but seems to be forgotten today. Fitz-James O’Brien wrote some pretty good supernatural stories in the 19th Century and is almost forgotten today. Check out Robert W. Chambers. He was a best-selling author in the first three decades of the 20th Century, but is remembered today only for his fantasy and horror. “The Yellow Sign,” a story in \*The King in Yellow \*influenced Lovecraft and is a damn good story. _The King in Yellow_ is a great book, too, but not all of the stories are fantasy. However, “The Street of the First Shell” is a fantastic historical novellette about American and French art students living in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. J. Sheridan le Fanu, M.R. James, F. Marion Crawford and H. Russell Wakefield are writers from the 19th and 20th Centuries who wrote excellent horror stories. There is no gore, but there are plenty of chills. I’d also check out William Hope Hodgson, author of _The House on the Borderland_. I second both Conjure Wife and the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series by Lieber. That man was one of the best prose stylists in science fiction. Also, try his novel _The Silver Eggheads_. It is technically science fiction, but is a wonderful satire of a lot of things. I also second \*The Worm Ourobos \*by Eddison. The language is arcane, but the villains are wonderful. Lord Gro is worthy of Shakespeare and the king is truly nasty. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/68 "2009-07-16T22:41:41Z")
Whoops. I forgot to add Jorge Luis Borges. He is an Argentine writer who sometimes wrote fantasies. He should have won the Nobel Prize, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/69 "2009-07-16T23:40:21Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > …have to be removed with a vorpal scalpel. Well, I was having problems looking up this thread on the Search Engine. And I need to look it up fairly often, because I’m going down the list v e r y slowly. So I thought I’d post some random obscure words, so I can find it easily next time. ---
**Author:** ![gang\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f07891/32.png) [@gang\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gang_green)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/70 "2009-07-17T00:26:45Z")
> [@raspberry\_hunter](#): > > You (and everyone else) MUST read Bridge of Birds (Barry Hughart) which is also an extremely wonderful and incomprehensibly underrated book. There are two sequels which are hard to find and not nearly as good. > > Diana Wynne Jones is a YA fantasist whom I really like, but you have to be in a YA kind of mood. Hughart and DWJones were the ones I was going to mention. Apparently, Hughart has 4 more books in his Master Li series, but, being a bit of an asshole, and getting into it with his publisher, has caused him to deny us all. These are set in China, which I find particularly enjoyable, as I’m kind of burned out on the LOTR-type of high western fantasy. Diana Wynne Jones is best known (if you can call her well-known - I think she’s better known in the UK) for her YA stuff, but I find all of it to be extremely clever and engaging. She’s very good at world building, and has some very different interpretations of classic folklore. Naomi Novik’s _Temeraire_ series is quite good, though I found the first to be the best. I find Robin Hobb to be too dismal for me - excellently written books that leave you feeling like you want to kill yourself. I like Sean Russell’s Initiate Brother duology, though I detest everything else he’s written. Might be the Chinese theme again. ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/71 "2009-07-17T00:40:08Z")
I found Elizabeth Moon’s trilogy [The Deed of Paksenarrion](http://www.amazon.com/Deed-Paksenarrion-Novel-Elizabeth-Moon/dp/0671721046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247790772&sr=1-1) thoroughly enjoyable. Most fantasy stories about holy warriors (or “paladins” for us gamers) are pretty straightforward (unimaginative) stories about righteous vengeance or cheesy whatever, but this one is rather unique. It’s about a sheepfarmer’s daughter who leaves the farm to join a mercenary army, and somewhere along the way she discovers a more spiritual side, leading her on a journey of sin, sacrifice, and redemption. Really great storytelling, and the combats are pretty unique as well – nothing along the lines of Drizzt turning his enemies into blood puree with a single swipe after charging up with 15 somersaults – it’s more formation-focused with militarty tactics and overarching strategy, which I found refreshing as well. It’s as much a character study as it is an adventure. Heartily recommend. Footnote: The current anecdote is that while Elizabeth Moon isn’t a gamer, after hearing stories about the way people were playing Paladins in their gaming sessions, she was appalled at the way they thought holy warriors would behave. This series was born out of what she imagined a paladin would truly be. It’s an incredibly inspiring, and human, work. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/72 "2009-07-17T01:06:55Z")
Where do you get the information that Hughart has four more books in the series, gang green? It appears that there are only a total of three books in the series: > **[Barry Hughart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Hughart)** > > Barry Hughart (March 13, 1934 – August 1, 2019) was an American author of fantasy novels. > Hughart was born in Peoria, Illinois on March 13, 1934. His father, John Harding Page, served as a naval officer. His mother, Veronica Hughart, was an architect. > Hughart was educated at Phillips Academy (Andover). After graduating from high school, he had undiagnosed depression, which was classified at the time as schizophrenia, and was treated in the Kings County Psychiatric Ward. Following his release he... ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/73 "2009-07-17T05:54:55Z")
Let me introduce you to a new and VERY good writer, Ken Scholes. He’s been doing short stories for a while, and when he decided to write a novel, Tor liked it so much, they gave him a five-book contract for a series — which is damn near unheard of for a new writer. Check his stuff out [here](http://www.kenscholes.com/). He includes links to several of his short stories and one novella. The first novel in the series, “Lamentation,” has drawn rave reviews from people in the biz, including Orson Scott Card since it came out in March. Here’s part of a review I wrote for our newspaper: > [@](#): > > Set in a distant post-apocalyptic future, the book begins, literally, with a bang. > For 2, 000 years, the Androfrancine Order has been gathering the scraps of ancient science and guarding them in their holy city, Windwir. > As the book opens, Windwir, home of the Order and its Pope, is destroyed by a spell that is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, killing 200, 000 people and flattening the city. > Who is behind the destruction and what does that mean to the surviving states of the Endrolusian Delta and Ninefold Forest? “Lamentation” is filled with gripping, three-dimensional characters and compelling action, as nations and Houses compete, ally and war in a mesmerizing dance. > Unlike standard action thrillers, though, “Lamentation” is filled with an incredible richness of detail, that rewards multiple readings. > Scholes has built a world as compelling Arrakis in as Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” or Larry Nivens’Ringworld. > It is a world of mostly 14th Century technology, where armies fight on horseback with swords and pikes, and magick (as Scholes spells it) can turn warriors invisible and give them great strength. > But the world also contains “mechanoservitors,” robots that can reason and talk and other bits of advanced technology. > The prose not only moves the plot forward admirably, but it contains poignant observations like the following:“The truth is a seed planted in a field of stones beneath a stone and guarded by snakes. To have it, be strong enough to move the stone, patient enough to dig the hole and fast enough to dodge the viper’s fang.” Absorbing, rich and rewarding, “Lamentation” is a gem and highly recommended. I had the opportunity to interview him for our newspaper in April, and would be happy to forward a copy of that interview to any Doper interested. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/74 "2009-07-17T15:34:30Z")
[Skallagrigg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skallagrigg), by William Horwood, is one that has been recommended to me by several people online, as the best book they’ve ever read. It’s apparently magical-realism with a quest-like structure. It was published in England but I’ve had no trouble finding it on Abebooks, etc. Virtually every mention of the book, when googled, is a rave. ---
**Author:** ![gang\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f07891/32.png) [@gang\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gang_green)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006/75 "2009-07-17T15:49:15Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Where do you get the information that Hughart has four more books in the series, gang green? It appears that there are only a total of three books in the series: > > [Barry Hughart - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Hughart) Dammit, the links discussing that are now all broken. To be fair, what I’d read was that he’d plotted and outlined another four books, but there was nothing about him actually writing them. And new info [here](http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=hughart&Category_Code=PRE&Product_Count=16) pretty much puts the kibosh on them entirely. A real shame. I love those three books. Another rec for the Paksenarrion books. I’d forgotten about them. Very very good stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-lesser-known-fantasy/499006.md?page=3)