Suggest me your favourite (not best) fantasy books ever and for what reason.
I’m **slightly** uneducated in this topic, since i’m trying to get back into reading (like i used to) and fantasy has always been my go-to genre, so i thought why not start there? Tell me what your favourites are and why.
Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars”. Elliott is probably the most gifted, hard-working world-builder working today. If there’s a castle, she’s considered how it was built- what local resources are available, what kind of architecture would be at play, where the labor would come from. If there’s a religion, she’s crafted a millenia or three worth of schisms, texts, and heresies. She keeps track of the position of the stars.
“Crown of Stars” was where she was UNLEASHED. It’s an early medieval Europe, with a matriarchal dualistic church, in the shadow of Charlemagne’s death. The magic system is based on medieval cosmologies.
Having said that, “Crown of Stars” can be a bit of a slog if you aren’t loving the endless details. I’d argue her “Crossroads” series is way more readable, without sacrificing Elliott’s love of world-building. It’s about a non-hierarchical society that’s starting to crumble, and is suddenly faced with an invading army. Mild spoilers, but the ending >!is controversial, because it doesn’t wrap everything up with a bow. I appreciated that, though.!<
(Sorry if this sounds like I’m recommending bad books, I try to include the downsides as well as the good qualities)
Wot106 on
The Wheel of Time, Jordan
CharmainKB on
I only got into the genre in the past couple of years. It started as a book recommendation from a co worker who likes to read as much as me. (Besides the SOIAF series)
To start:
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
What I like is that though there’s some magic, it’s not really the center of the books. The many different characters he writes are entertaining and fun and infuriating in their own ways. I enjoy the “Medieval” feel of the books. That battle scenes are very well written and pull you right in. You could almost imagine you were there.
Unlike SOIAF, there aren’t a bunch of (unneeded) sex scenes. I think there were less than a handful but they weren’t super descriptive and were short. Look, I enjoy a good sex scene once in a while but sometimes they are too much and take away from the story.
My other is the Bloodsworn Trilogy by John Gwynne
This was a recommendation from a book store employee. I mentioned I liked the above series so he directed me to John Gwynne. And Oh. My. God did I *devour* the first 2 books (still waiting on the third)
He writes in such a way that you get really attached to some of the characters. It has kind of Viking vibes to me, as far as the characters/customs etc
There is “magic” in them, but it’s more powers that people have, inherited from the old Gods (who were animals) and the books are SO good! Rather than people with the powers being the ones in charge, they’re enslaved by those without. I cannot talk about these books enough.
I also started reading the Faithful and Fallen collection as well and they’re just as good as the Bloodsworn books.
Both authors obviously have different styles and such but they each hold their own and are excellent story tellers
ReturnOfSeq on
Second vote for wheel of time
Everything written by NK jemisin, she’s an excellent writer and good at the downtrodden antihero
Libriomancer- clearly a less experienced writer but the premise of the book is a lot of fun
Altered carbon- picked up the book after *Loving* the Amazon series. There are some major differences but both good- premise is humanity has largely gotten past death via ‘stacks’ their identity is encoded to, which lets them shuffle between bodies and get beamed into new bodies on other worlds
American gods- contemporary mystery/thriller/heist fantasy, one of my favorite books ever. Deities in america find themselves neglected and forgotten and struggle to maintain a foothold
4 Comments
Kate Elliott’s “Crown of Stars”. Elliott is probably the most gifted, hard-working world-builder working today. If there’s a castle, she’s considered how it was built- what local resources are available, what kind of architecture would be at play, where the labor would come from. If there’s a religion, she’s crafted a millenia or three worth of schisms, texts, and heresies. She keeps track of the position of the stars.
“Crown of Stars” was where she was UNLEASHED. It’s an early medieval Europe, with a matriarchal dualistic church, in the shadow of Charlemagne’s death. The magic system is based on medieval cosmologies.
Having said that, “Crown of Stars” can be a bit of a slog if you aren’t loving the endless details. I’d argue her “Crossroads” series is way more readable, without sacrificing Elliott’s love of world-building. It’s about a non-hierarchical society that’s starting to crumble, and is suddenly faced with an invading army. Mild spoilers, but the ending >!is controversial, because it doesn’t wrap everything up with a bow. I appreciated that, though.!<
(Sorry if this sounds like I’m recommending bad books, I try to include the downsides as well as the good qualities)
The Wheel of Time, Jordan
I only got into the genre in the past couple of years. It started as a book recommendation from a co worker who likes to read as much as me. (Besides the SOIAF series)
To start:
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
What I like is that though there’s some magic, it’s not really the center of the books. The many different characters he writes are entertaining and fun and infuriating in their own ways. I enjoy the “Medieval” feel of the books. That battle scenes are very well written and pull you right in. You could almost imagine you were there.
Unlike SOIAF, there aren’t a bunch of (unneeded) sex scenes. I think there were less than a handful but they weren’t super descriptive and were short. Look, I enjoy a good sex scene once in a while but sometimes they are too much and take away from the story.
My other is the Bloodsworn Trilogy by John Gwynne
This was a recommendation from a book store employee. I mentioned I liked the above series so he directed me to John Gwynne. And Oh. My. God did I *devour* the first 2 books (still waiting on the third)
He writes in such a way that you get really attached to some of the characters. It has kind of Viking vibes to me, as far as the characters/customs etc
There is “magic” in them, but it’s more powers that people have, inherited from the old Gods (who were animals) and the books are SO good! Rather than people with the powers being the ones in charge, they’re enslaved by those without. I cannot talk about these books enough.
I also started reading the Faithful and Fallen collection as well and they’re just as good as the Bloodsworn books.
Both authors obviously have different styles and such but they each hold their own and are excellent story tellers
Second vote for wheel of time
Everything written by NK jemisin, she’s an excellent writer and good at the downtrodden antihero
Libriomancer- clearly a less experienced writer but the premise of the book is a lot of fun
Altered carbon- picked up the book after *Loving* the Amazon series. There are some major differences but both good- premise is humanity has largely gotten past death via ‘stacks’ their identity is encoded to, which lets them shuffle between bodies and get beamed into new bodies on other worlds
American gods- contemporary mystery/thriller/heist fantasy, one of my favorite books ever. Deities in america find themselves neglected and forgotten and struggle to maintain a foothold