# Short fantasy novels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639 "2016-08-13T00:12:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/1 "2016-08-13T00:12:21Z")
I like Raymond Feist’s stuff since it’s not very long. I just can’t get into these 900 page books. (I wonder how long they were before they were edited) I like GOT on TV but never read the novels because of their length. Any good authors who write around 400-500 pages? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/2 "2016-08-13T01:06:35Z")
What sort of fantasy? Christopher Moore’s books are short and funny, but are set in contemporary times. You also must want to check out YA novels. ---
**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:** [August 13, 2016, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/3 "2016-08-13T01:15:09Z")
Charles Finney’s _The Circus of Dr. Lao_ is under 200 pages, and it’s my favorite fantasy novel EVAIR. Michael Arlen’s _Hell! Said the Duchess_ is also under 200. I love that one, too. Of course, my idea of brilliant fantasy is Mervyn Peake, so most folks who read “fantasy novels” look at me kinda funny. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/4 "2016-08-13T01:38:19Z")
Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos books are pretty good - they take a dip around the time he was getting divorced. Read them in published order, starting with _Jhereg_. They’ve been running a couple of hundred pages. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/5 "2016-08-13T02:21:52Z")
Ursula K. LeGuin’s “Earthsea” trilogy (now expanded to six books) is brilliant, and very easy to read. I don’t know if it formally qualifies as YA, but it’s close kin to YA, anyway. These are my favorite-most of all the books I’ve ever read. They deal with themes of universal morality…in a very gentle way. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/6 "2016-08-13T02:32:08Z")
Roger Zelazny did two five-volume series about Amber. All ten books are collected in [one volume of 1264 pages](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471055498&sr=8-1&keywords=the+complete+amber+chronicles). ---
**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:** [August 13, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/7 "2016-08-13T03:20:41Z")
Lord almighty, 400-500 pages is what you’re looking for? I was coming in prepared to recommend novels less than 200 pages. Less than 500 pages is easy as hell. I’m gonna limit myself to novels of the last couple years, just to make it interesting :). Check the World Fantasy Awards for a great list. Here are some of my favorites: **China Mieville** ’s latest novel, **This Census Taker** , is short and wonderfully disconcerting. Dude specializes in disconcerting. **Uprooted** , by Naomi Novik, is a lovely fairy tale of a novel, at 448 pages. **The Library at Mount Char** is a gory little gem, at 400 pages. If your sense of humor isn’t pitch black, skip it. **The Traitor Baru Cormorant** is my favorite fantasy novel of the past several years. It’ll kick you in the guts. It’s fucking brilliant and is not getting the recognition it deserves. **The Violent Century** is very cool. If John Le Carre decided to write superheroes, it’d be this. These are all stand-alone novels, although Baru Cormorant and possibly Mount Char will have sequels. I recommend them all very highly–with the proviso that not all tastes are the same :). ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/8 "2016-08-13T04:55:53Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Roger Zelazny did two five-volume series about Amber. All ten books are collected in [one volume of 1264 pages](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471055498&sr=8-1&keywords=the+complete+amber+chronicles). And John Betancourt wrote a three-volume prequel series, about the background of Oberon, before he became king. Actually fairly good, although book two of the three dragged terribly. Books one and three were hot stuff. (The “book two of a trilogy” curse.) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/9 "2016-08-13T11:52:04Z")
200 pages is fine. I did not think many people wrote books that short especially in the fantasy realm. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/10 "2016-08-13T12:37:54Z")
My favorite book of this century is _The Curse of Chalion_, by multi-Hugo winner Bujold. It’s about average novel length, and pretty light on the fantasy, but it’s a beautifully written book. Her earlier novel _The Spirit Ring_ is also pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/11 "2016-08-13T12:45:15Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I was coming in prepared to recommend novels less than 200 pages. Hey, some of us might be interested in the list of sub 200 page fantasy novels. Also if you can do some high quality shorter novellas and short story collections I would be interested in those too. (I don’t have much time for reading these days. So I gotta stick to quick reads or I lose the thread.) ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/12 "2016-08-13T12:52:19Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > Hey, some of us might be interested in the list of sub 200 page fantasy novels. Also if you can do some high quality shorter novellas and short story collections I would be interested in those too. (I don’t have much time for reading these days. So I gotta stick to quick reads or I lose the thread.) GRR Martin wrote three short stories set in the GOT universe, but a century or so before the action in the main books. They’ve been collected as _A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms_. ---
**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:** [August 13, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/13 "2016-08-13T13:42:05Z")
Try the Thraxas series. Very light reading. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/14 "2016-08-13T14:01:37Z")
They’re on a different axis from most fantasy, but Lawrence Watt-Evans’ Ethshar series is written in short chunks, nearly all of them quite entertaining. One or two of the late, subscription-published ones are weak, but you can’t go too wrong with the first half-dozen. Start with _The Misenchanted Sword_. ---
**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:** [August 13, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/15 "2016-08-13T14:21:16Z")
Here are some fantasy novels that I like that aren’t very long: Lewis Carroll _Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_ Lewis Carroll _Through the Looking Glass_ Peter Beagle _The Last Unicorn_ G. K. Chesterton _The Man Who Was Thursday_ Madeleine L’Engle _A Wrinkle in Time_ Ray Bradbury _Dandelion Wine_ Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman _Good Omens_ Daniel Pinkwater _Borgel_ L. M. Boston _The Children of Green Knowe_ The L’Engle and the Boston books are the first in series. I could add several more books that aren’t short but aren’t long either. What’s the maximum word length? Doesn’t anyone here read older books? Most of those mentioned are fairly recent books. There is a lot of good older fantasy. ---
**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:** [August 13, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/16 "2016-08-13T14:35:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Doesn’t anyone here read older books? Most of those mentioned are fairly recent books. There is a lot of good older fantasy. (Waves hand frantically) The Finney and Arlen novels I suggested are from the '30s, and the two good _Gormenghast_ novels are from 1946 and 1950. I read older books almost exclusively when I read fiction. I’ve read nearly all the books on your list. Loved them all and some of them are life-changers (when read young enough). ---
**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:** [August 13, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/17 "2016-08-13T14:38:25Z")
Some can be literally life-changing. See Kuttner & Moore’s great short fantasy story “Mimsy Were the Borogroves,” 1943. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/18 "2016-08-13T14:58:00Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Some can be literally life-changing. > > See Kuttner & Moore’s great short fantasy story “Mimsy Were the Borogroves,” 1943. I’d recommend a good Kuttner collection as a substitute for a novel, here. There are a couple of good ones, and yes, most of the stories are co-authored by CL Moore even if not so credited. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/19 "2016-08-13T14:59:32Z")
Piers Anthony’s \*Xanth \*series are all pretty short, as I recall. Jack Vance has a collection of short novels and interrelated short stories that can be read together or stand-alone, collectively called _The Dying Earth_ stories. ---
**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:** [August 13, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639/20 "2016-08-13T15:16:24Z")
I recommend the Kuttner and Moore collection _Two-Handed Engine_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-fantasy-novels/762639.md?page=2)