My tips:

- Andrezej Sapkowski’s “Witcher” Novels
- George R R Martins’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” Novels

I assume everyone and their mum will be throwing A Song of Ice and Fire at you here, so here’s something weirder. I’ve not finished it just yet, but Johannes Cabal: Necromancer by Jonathan Howard feels really fresh. It’s not quite the swords-and-horses kind of fantasy, but there’s Faustian bargains, a good smattering of the undead, and a hilarious douchey murderer as a main character. (Plus, you learn all kinds of weird new words reading it. Always fun.)

If you’ve not read David Gemmell’s Legend, you’ve not read fantasy.

I love Megan Whalen Turner’s ‘The Queen’s Thief’ books. Her setting is inspired by ancient Greece with some more modern elements, which is in and of itself a break with the trend with fantasy having a tolkienesque, medieval setting. In the first book the protagonist is not too far from the thief/rogue archetype, but in the second and third, he really goes beond that. The first books is kinda quest based, but the following are more about politics and scheeming.

I am also currently reading the first book in Scott Lynch’s series about Locke Lamora. It has a setting inspired by medieval Venice, gritty and realistic. Oh, and there’s profanity. Again the protagonist is a thief/rogue/con-artist (beginning to see a pattern here) and since I’m on the first book, I don’t know how he’ll evolve, but I have high hopes for the series.

Diana Wynne Jones have also written lots of books that play with the fantasy tropes and do unexpected things with the. And her ‘The Tough Guide to Fantasyland’ is one of the best high-fantasy parodies out there.

I would like to see more fantasy settings inspired by Russia or India or really just a greater variety of countries.

I think Joe Abercrombie might be your speed, based on writing voice and style. His protagonists tend to be older, and he only indulges in the standard tropes if he’s about to invert them. He’s british, so expect wit and gallows humor aplenty. What is really cool about Joe is he does something different with each book. The first three are his twisted version of a epic trilogy, and each one feels self contained, far more than these kind of books often do. Then the standalone that comes after that, Best Served Cold, is a revenge story, kinda Count of Monte Cirsto meets a Quentin Tarantino film. The next stand alone after that, The Heroes, is more a war novel, like a Civil War historical novel centered around a single battle, and the whole book takes place over 3 days. His upcoming book is going to be a western-fantasy.

I second the Scott Lynch rec. Sword and sorcery in a setting that isn’t the typical fake-medieval stuff. The main characters are thieves and the books detail their heists along with the on-going story of Locke’s life.

You could try the mysterious K. J. Parker. I’ve read The Island by her/him and found it pretty choice, but I hear The Folding Knife might be a better place to start. These are standalones. Parker loves exploring the dark, messed up side of the human condition, and her world is well researched and realistic. Hard fantasy, I guess.

Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns takes place after world war three, in a world that has magic again. It follows a leader of a band of bandits, and while some of the tropes will be pretty familiar, Mark makes them seem new again. It’s a pretty grim book, but fast paced and about the length of Throne of the Crescent Moon. I think you’d dig this one a lot, if you can get along with a protagonist that is designed to be despicable yet charismatic.

The Half Made World by Felix Gilman is excellent. A wild west fantasy world were demonic locomotives war against demonic gun slingers/rogues and the innocent people caught inbetween. For all the fantastic elements thrown about the story feels very grounded and realistic, and you’ll not soon forget the glimpse this book provides of a humanity fully industrialized.

R. Scott Bakker’s series The Second Apocalypse is about as fringe as it gets. That one starts with The Darkness That Comes Before. Philosophy + Neuropsychology + the Crusades + alien invaders + a cruel world based half on Middle Earth and half on the Old Testament where religious beliefs are objectively true, even the messed up ones.

@Mild –

A great heaping helping of good recommendations in there. Thankya!

@Everyone Else –

I do not consider Song of Ice and Fire all that different in terms of fantasy. That’s not a knock against them — I just think they’re a new(er) take on old tropes.

– c.

Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series features an anti-hero in a high-magic setting, so its not precisely gritty, but its sword and sorcery and excellent fantasy.

Sadly, I have no recs because I’ve been out of the fantasy genre for years (got rather sick of white dudes running around medieval England/France – it’s not like we seem to get even fake!Eastern or way Northern Europe, either), but I’m certainly going to be stalking the comments here for ideas!

But for what I *want*? Oh, gosh, so many things: fantasy that is fantastical, fantasy with different cultures in different settings, because please oh please can we have something else other than pseudo-medieval patriarchy and monarchy, please. I’m Aussie, so I’ve grown up reading about rolling green fields and forests and dragons and deer, but around here, it’s rolling hills of gold (brown in winter) with a fuckton of kangaroos and scraggly bush; green fields look fake to me, like it’s all fake grass. So, why not fantasy set…somewhere else other than Europe? The globe is a damn big place, and different settings would be amazing. (uh, if the author remembers about setting, as I’ve read fantasy set in the tropics where the author had the heroine running around in leather pants. It was baaaaad).

Fantasy that pushes the boundaries of what is ‘human’ – Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens probably would have thought differently, much like cheetahs would have different things going on than tigers, (and hell, even wildly different human cultures can have wildly different thought-processes) so why can’t elves, dwarves, giants, goblins be DIFFERENT? Different morality based on different instincts, and again, different cultures (and varied! no monocultures for the species, please! it’s unrealistic! and boring!)

Fantasy with guns. Guns like canons or muskets, or with trains and mechanical looms. Not ‘modern’, but still, magic and technology isn’t explored nearly enough. (Magic and spaceships?)

Fantasy about those left behind when the questers go a-questing. How does the village fare during the civil war or Evil Invasion? Does the tavern-wench end up being head of a rebel network due to her awesome multi-tasking and social interactions skills? Sure, that strange kid with the birthmark and the Special Sword has gone, but how does the town move on without the magical protection of the Long Lost Heir’s guardians? Do they even care, as the crops are coming in, and the wyverns are eating the sheep. Domestic fantasy would be amazing.

Fantasy with different characters, different reactions – not everyone can kill, after all, even if they are a solider or a knight. Not all thieves are gifted, not all heirs turn out amazing rulers after all.

Just….

Fantasy that is different. It’d be awesome.

The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukanyenko (though I always got the feeling that I was missing something reading it in English translated from Russian). The IDEAS aren’t necessarily new, but the ways he puts them together are.

I liked the Dhampir series by Barb and JC Hendee. Sort of a play on the same trope, but their names and places are inspired more by an Eastern European setting instead of Western Europe. As someone of Slovak descent, this made me really happy.

The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks is pretty good too.

I don’t know if you’d consider her completely outside the Tolkienist purview, but I’ve really enjoyed reading Robin Hobb. Her Soldier Son trilogy is set in a colonial vs. natives environment, where the wimpy son of a military family is taken over by native magic, which makes you fat and ugly, and he’s cast out of “civilized society” and left to fend for himself. A lot of her books seem to have conflict between colonizing forces and native populations, or the new land in general.
There’s also an anthology of short stories that specifically deals with the problem of stale fantasy, The Secret History of Fantasy ed. Peter S Beagle. It’s got a great introduction about how Tolkien knock-offs came to rule the market and how fantasy historically wasn’t separated from “real” literature.
I’ve started reading Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century books, they’re a lot of fun: what if the Civil war never ended, and there were dirigibles all over the place and a zombie apocalypse happening in the unaffiliated northwest?
Also, I’ve been reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: if there’s any place to find fantasy that’s not tainted by fake-medieval tropes it’s fantasy that pretends it’s really Magical Realism.
And if you like physics and conflicting world-views, there’s the Orphans of Chaos by John C Wright.

You’ve probably already read it, but I’ll throw it out for anyone cherry-picking your comments: The Bas Lag trilogy (Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council), by China Miéville. Actually, just about anything by him.

And I’m assuming you’ve read the Elric books by Moorcock? They were kind of like Punk to Tolkien’s Rock n’ Roll.

Am rather partial to Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel trilogy. (the 1st trilogy) Not sure how off the beaten track they are since I got bored of a lot of fantasy books a while back and stopped reading the genre but this trilogy held me in thrall from cover to cover. Strong female lead and an interesting twisty plot made it a could not put down set of books for me. I often re read them and enjoy them just as much each time.

For me the obvious one that has not been represented in main-stream fantasy is a homosexual protagonist. Sure, Dumbledore was gay, but he’s not really a protagonist or someone that readers can identify in. Loras and Renly out of Song of Ice and Fire are hardly more than side-characters, and their story is quite clumsy. I mean Rainbow-guard? Really? I think the series could do with a great story of a main character who is gay.

Fantasy that I can recommend, and is different:

- China Mieville: Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council – are all brilliant tapestries of baroque language and the best freaking creatures/monsters out there.

- Walter Moers: The City of Dreaming Books – A dinosaur called Optimus Yarnspinner travels to Bookholm, the City of Dreaming Books, where reading can be dangerous, and ruthless Bookhunters fight to the death. It is funny and BRILLIANT.

- Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward – Strange mind-trip of a book that hugs the boundary between fantasy and sci-fi. It’s ending tore my soul apart.

China Meiville’s The Scar is what you’re looking for, Chuck. Mild’s recommendations are all quite solid, as well. Jeffrey Ford’s Well-Built City trilogy is also excellent.

Tim Lebbon’s books Dusk and Dawn. They’re incredibly dark fantasy but ohhhhhh so good!! I’ve read them both multiple times, and I STILL can’t decide if I love the characters or hate them. I love it!

The Misenchanted Sword is about a guy with a magic sword that doesn’t work quite right–and the story is completely uninterested in his heroic exploits with the sword. Once the opening sequence ends, it becomes all about him, with the sword just this thing in the background. Very weird and nicely done.

Where to start… I’m more into Urban Fantasy these days.

Jim Butchers Dresden Files series is a good starting point.
Mike Careys Felix Castor Books.
Kate Griffins Matthew Swift books
Harry Connolly – Twenty Palaces series

Obviously these are swords and sorc really, but they’re bloody good magic based reads.

Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori series, beginning with “Across the Nightingale Floor.”

It’s a fantasy series based in alternate feudal Japan, contrasting the life of the samurai and the ninja, in which ninja have supernatural abilities.

The author spent several years in Japan studying the culture and mythology, and the writing is reflective of the austere aesthetic present in Japanese poetry. It’s wonderfully written, I can’t recommend it enough.

Point of interest: a ‘nightingale floor’ is a real thing.

Plenty.

Prince of Thorns, Mark Lawrence. Post-apocalypse earth turned into a fantasy setting with a “Doogie Howser, young psychopath” protagonist

Miserere, Teresa Frohock. Dark fantasy with religious iconography in a world next door to ours where the conflict between a hell aligned sister, her conflicted and tormented brother and his former lover is what is holding the fate of Woerld and Earth in the balance.

China would be your man, I suspect. Old school? Crowley’s “Little, Big.”

I am an enormous fan of James Blaylock if you like a strong dose of dreamy/mythic weird.

Walter Jon WIlliam’s Metropolitan is technically fantasy and unlike anything else I have read.

If you like the Vlad Taltos books, I highly recommend To Reign in Hell. Let me sum up: The guy who wrote Vlad Taltos does a rewrite of Paradise Lost in a modern fantasy style, in which Lucifer was framed.

I’ll also throw out a controversial recommend. If you have never read the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, give it a shot. However, much like Anita Blake, please don’t judge the first few books by what the series ended up becoming. A Spell for Chameleon has a lot of nifty ideas in it. Do be aware, of course, that it is YA fantasy in the old mold. You might also find the Incarnations of Immortality interesting, though like with most of his series, he really loses the thread about halfway through. (I know, this rec is full of backhanded compliments. With most of Anthony’s stuff, I love the first half, and am always disappointed by the climax.)

Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World and his just-release (UK anyway) Angelmaker are both brilliant. Real-world (kinda) settings, with non-real-world stuff happening. Now whether they’re strictly (or even not strictly) fantasy is debatable, they could lean more to sci-fi. Still, they’re damn good: original, funny, moving, clever, witty, bright and enjoyable.

Damn it! Everyone’s stealing my recommendations, but I’d like to second and highly recommend Abercrombie and KJ Parker.

But I’m wicked excited for the recommendations new to me! I was just asking for recommendations for new writing on my own blog, and it’s nice to add Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon to my to-buy list!

@Arnout – Have you not read Mercedes Lackey? At least half her protagonists are gay, and she is (or at least was) pretty mainstream.

@Shiri – As much as I love Night Watch, I doubt it will ring as all that unusual to Chuck. When I was reading it, my thoughts were always “Wow, this is an awesome take on World of Darkness.”

@ Arnout – here is a list for you. Also, I believe the newish The Cold Commands should be on there, though I haven’t read it.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3948.Best_Fantasy_Books_with_Gay_Main_Characters

How about Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast books? It’s such a different approach to fantasy (no magic, no non-humans) that it feels weirdly out of place next to all the Tolkien-inspired fiction. I’ve seen it referred to as a “fantasy of manners”; the struggles are all more-or-less civilized (by, say, Renaissance Italy standards) and have in Steerpike a fascinating antagonist.

I’d also recommend Adam Cadre’s Varicella (a text game, actually, not a novel, but it’s a very fresh look at the genre in a similar vein to Gormenghast)

I am a huge fan of Robin Hobb. Though, I wasn’t entirely wowed by her Soldier Son series — I wanted to be, but it felt draggy. I did appreciate her attempt to do something different, though.

– c.

Arnout, there’s some great and truly different books you’ve mentioned there. Do check out The Steel Remains/The Cold Commands by Richard Morgan. Wonderful stuff, dark and gritty, lots of moral ambivalence. Three main characters, one gay, one lesbian, one hetero; all strong people, all get explicit love scenes here and there.

Chuck, I’d recommend Sheri Tepper’s ‘Marianne’ trilogy, Tim Powers’ ‘Last Call’, Brian McNaughton’s ‘Throne of Bones’, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson’s ‘Illuminatus!’ trilogy, and Roger Zelazny’s ‘A Night in the Lonesome October’ and the ‘Amber’ sequence. They’re all long in the tooth, so you quite probably know them all already, but different seems to be in short supply in our modern, playing-it-safe times.

Okay, call me crazy, but I think Avatar: The Last Airbender is a nice candidate for fantasy that is outside of the Tolkien mold. Sure, it’s not crazy-obscure, but it’s probably the most accessible distinctly non-Western fantasy to come along in ages.

You never have to sell me on AtLA, @Daniel.

I eagerly await Korra!

– c.

Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter. A human girl, kidnapped by the fairies and sent to the foundries where she builds sentient fighter planes shaped like dragons. There is an escape, a period of teen rebellion, magic college, anti-Sidhe protest rallies, and a final assault on the spirit of the world itself because nothing sates the Dragon’s hunger for death and destruction.

I’m surprised at the recommendations for Robin Hobb, Joe Abercrombie and GRR Martin. For me, their books are quite mainstream. If you really want offbeat stuff I don’t think you can beat the output of EibonVale press, (although it’s not all fantasy, more is horror or slipstream). David Rix’s Feather is particularly challenging and weird.

Guy Adams’ The World House and Restoration, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books, and the Johannes Cabal books are all ones I’d heartily recommend too.

The best book I have ever read (and I mean that literally, exactly as written and with zero exaggeration) is A MIRROR FOR PRINCES by Tom de Haan. Technically fantasy (the world/setting is medievalesque but definitely not Earth), it has no magic. No magical beasties. None of the usual. All it is is a tragedy with about eleventy zillion twists on the usual themes… and when I say “tragedy”, I mean “book that quite literally brings tears to my eyes”. I’m usually not at all a fan of angsty, doomy-gloomy, oy-gevalt stories (which is why, while I respect his writing ability tremendously, I’ll never really be a fan of Martin’s ASoIaF), but this one’s so well done that it more than overcomes that obstacle.

Sorry, I meant to comment that it’s excessively difficult to find; I’ve only personally seen three copies in twenty years, and I’ve HUNTED for it. So, if you can find it (and that’s a HUGE “if”), grab it with all fucking haste.

Huh. I think I lost my post somewhere.

Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter. A girl is “changeling’d” Into very modern day world of the fairies, where she is put to work in a foundry building sentient fighter plane/dragons. There is an escape, instructions on how to steal a new purse from a fairy shopping mall, magic college, student protests against the ruling Sidhe class, plenty of sex and violence, and a nihilistic assault on the spirit of the world as the Dragon’s desire for destruction cannot be stopped. Highly recommended.

Sarah Monette’s “Doctrine of Labyrinths” series, which starts with Melusine, is an awesome example of fantasy Doing Something Different. To begin with, one of the POV characters (there are only two in the first two books, then three in the third and fourth books) spends half the book mad. His madness makes an odd sort of sense in parts, and lets us see things that we might not see otherwise, but it was still a novelty for me for the character to be hopelessly insane and for the author to be writing from that POV.

Both Mildmay and Felix are more antiheroes than heroes, too, Felix especially–he Does The Right Thing more often than not, but he is not nice or helpful and often goes out of his way to hurt the people he saves. Mildmay was a murderer for hire and has no qualms about stealing from people to survive, and his favorite saying when something isn’t going right is “fuck me sideways” — he has a lot of colorful sayings, all of which I love to death; he is very much the fan-favorite.

Felix is gay, too, and the book does involve him being gay, just as much as it involves scenes with Mildmay being straight. I am not going to say any more, for fear of spoiling it, but I will say this: the series takes a unique approach to magic, which I find intriguing and I discover more about magic as it exists in that world every time I re-read the series.

Monette is very good with voice; the characters jump right off the page at you. I don’t really like reading first-person narration because it’s one of those things you either get right or dead wrong, and most people get it dead wrong. Monette gets it right, and I think the books are reading if only to see the way that first person should be written.

My other rec for y’all is The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells. It’s just one book, and I don’t believe she means to write any more set in the universe. The most unique thing about the book is that there are no *humans* anywhere in it. There are human-shaped people, but they are all some measure of different, from having tusks to having scales and beyond. And the race that the book centers around, the Raksura, are a race of shifters who fly; their winged form looks a little like the Gargoyles in the old cartoon.

The book also does something I love and uses simple names instead of odd names you don’t know how to pronounce. The main characters are all named things like Moon, Pearl, Jade, Stone, River, Branch, etc. and I was so delighted by this as it turned a familiar thing on its head and turned into names all of the things around us in the natural world.

The plot is also not Saving The World As We Know It. I tend to dislike epic fantasy unless it’s exceedingly well-written (which is really fucking rare, as the books go on, because established authors get less editing usually) and this is more… saving their one colony. They’re not worried about saving the world from the Fell (the other race of flying shifters, who bring death and destruction everywhere they go) and actually don’t want to face them at all until they are attacked. Even then, they don’t take on the entire flight of Fell, instead focusing on the ones who have attacked them.

It’s also a more accessible book than Monette’s series, so if you want somewhere to start, start there.

China Meiville’s the Scar is what you’re looking for, Chuck. Mild’s recommendations are all quite solid. Also, Jeffrey Ford’s Well-Built City Trilogy is just great. His short story collections are EXCELLENT!

I’m going to second the Gormenghast books. And I’m going to double down on the short story “Boy in Darkness,” which is a tale set within the timeline of the Gormenghast novels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_in_Darkness

I fucking so highly recommend Tanith Lee’s “Night’s Master,” along with her other Flat Earth books (though they’re all terribly difficult to find.) Seriously, “Night’s Master” is incredibly well written (SO WELL WRITTEN) but to your specific request, they are strange and alien in both morality and sensibility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_From_The_Flat_Earth

Also, “The Birthgrave” by Tanith Lee. Seriously.

And I’m sure you’re probably familiar with his stories, and they’re old and so in their own way have been cliche, but the weird fantasy of Clark Ashton Smith is something else:

“Most of Smith’s weird fiction falls into four series set variously in Hyperborea, Poseidonis, Averoigne and Zothique. Hyperborea, which is a lost continent of the Miocene period, and Poseidonis, which is a remnant of Atlantis, are much the same, with a magical culture characterized by bizarreness, cruelty, death and postmortem horrors. Averoigne is Smith’s version of pre-modern France, comparable to James Branch Cabell’s Poictesme. Zothique exists millions of years in the future. It is “the last continent of earth, when the sun is dim and tarnished.” These tales have been compared to the Dying Earth sequence of Jack Vance.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith

Along these lines, I’d recommend a few of Robert E. Howard’s stories (the original texts, not the ones edited by Lin Carter), such as “Tower of the Elephant” and “Red Nails.”

Finally, while this bends the rules a bit, if you haven’t yet read Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun series, you might want to take a look.

Technically, it’s science fiction, set in a future earth so far in the future that the sun is bloated and dying and people have forgotten the histories of the lives we live in now. Old technologies are forgotten by some, used by others, mysteries are still mysteries. Our protagonist, Severian, is an apprentice in the guild of torturers and we get the story from his point of view.

As he leaves his guild and travels the world there is much that is mysterious to him. And in this way the world, with it’s mysteries of science, bio-engineering, advanced physics and more, FEELS like a fantasy setting even though Wolfe could walk you through every speculative element of actual tech he used to build the world. Again, that’s off the beam, but it is a thought.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun

So, there’s some things to look at…

CK!

I’m going to go with Lilith St. Crow’s Dante Valentine books. Urban Future Fantasy, Egyptian Gods.

Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes is also a good pick for this I would think.

I always enjoyed Piers Anthony’s “Incarnations of Immortality” series, even if he’s a bit ham-fisted at times. Ham is delicious.

Sword-Dancer by Jennifer Roberson
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

If you want freaky, you can’t go wrong with Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series.

Alex Bledsoe! I think the first Eddie LaCrosse story is The Sword-Edged Blonde. Hilarious anachronistic noir meets swords.

And if you’re doing urban fantasy, don’t forget the Iron Druid books by Kevin Hearne.

Since I get so many of my recommendations for left-of-center sci-fi/fantasy/noir novels from posts & interviews right here, I’m mostly useless on this question. (Though Bob knows I’m filling out my TBR list from these comments!)

However, if you’re up for comic books too, then Mike Carey’s Vertigo titles – Lucifer, Crossing Midnight, The Unwritten – will probably hit that spot. His Hellblazer run is also excellent, with some journey-into-hell-to-fix-my-latest-mistake-and-the-three-fuckups-after-that-too action that’s a little like an epic quest, made even more delightful when you imagine the sneer with which our antihero would greet that characterization.

I’d also second the Gormenghast books, which I’ve also seen described – I feel rather accurately – as “Dickens on acid”. Strange and creepy and a lot of fun.

The weirdest thing I’ve read in fantasy lately is Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves. The protagonist is a teen struggling with manic depression, hallucinations and a history of violence. Which oddly enough makes her perfect for the demon-infested town she stumbles into. …

@Lugh & @Rebecca

Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn’t heard about Mercedes Lackey. Are hers good stories? The other day I was 230 pages into ‘The Name of the Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss and completely convinced Kvothe was gay (am now 430 pages in, and he is not (though that might still change, I guess)). When Kvothe develops his first crush on a girl, I felt a bit disappointed, because I like that twist on the traditional hero, and then I realized I knew of no fantasy story that had a gay protagonist. I’ll check out Lackey. But I see that the book with the most ratings on that goodreads list has 6.000 rating. I think it would be healthy for the genre’s diversity if there was on with say 38.000 like tthe Name of the Wind.

@Tim, thanks for the suggestion, I’ll check it out.

@Umbrea I loved Dusk and Dawn by Tim Lebbon as well, but I do find them traditional in that they have the ‘save-the-world-from-the-evil-mages’ story line going. Tumblers are kick-ass creatures though. And the Nax gave me chills.

This: http://nkjemisin.com/
and
This: http://users.rcn.com/delicate/

but, also this: http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/books.htm

Enjoy.

@ Arnout — Um, well, I loved her work when I was fourteen. YMMV. It’s heavy on the angst and magic horses, which works better for some life stages than others.

Kushner’s Swordspoint, on the other hand, is one of my favorite books of all time.

Tanya Huff also writes dependably decent stuff. Her vampires don’t sparkle.

Michael Chabon’s _Gentlemen of the Road_ I can recommend without reservation.

Some non-white, non-Tolkein fantasy I have heard good things about are The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin and the Acacia Trilogy by David Anthony Durham.

And of course if you haven’t read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, you should.

Also Clark Ashton Smith rocks! As does most of Leiber (last book of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser is a bit meh).

I don’t like to toot my own horn, Chuck, but I wrote series of genre-straddling Post-Apocalyptic/Horror/Fantasy/Mysteries a few years back. Ghosts in the Snow, Threads of Malice, and Valley of the Soul, all published through Bantam. As books about an old man haunted by the dead while tracking magic-assisted serial killers, they’re definitely different.

Pat O’Shea, The Hounds of the Morrigan Wonderful characters, Irish legend woven into everyday life, a quest, and wonderful descriptions. Not typical fantasy at all.

John Bellairs The Face in the Frost Very quirky and funny magicians, but also some nightmare-inducing scenes and an ancient book reminiscent of the Voinovich Manuscript that can change reality and make you mad. There’s also a nice Kabbalist who saves the protagonist with some handy doors. Bellairs wrote a lot of YA but this one is for adults.

What about Tom Holt and his humorous fantasy novels like You Don’t Have to be Evil to Work Here But it Helps?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Have-Evil-Helps-ebook/dp/B002TXZS9Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1330966499&sr=1-1

Erekos by AM Tuomala – a very unusual zombi, some interesting hedge magic, and a primarily mixed-race society with some steampunk elements to it, rather than medieval European swords and sorcery. It’s sort of…postcolonialist fantasy fiction, and hugely literary/lyrical, rather than being slam-bang action. Love it.

I really need to get reading Throne of the Crescent Moon and, oh, EVERYTHING by Nnedi Okarafor.

Barry Hughart, if you want to get away from European. Bridge of Birds is beautifully written, and it’s nice to go over to mythic China for a change of pace. Plus two sequels if you find it’s your thing.

Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road. Perhaps not technically fantasy, but it scratches the fantasy itch.

I assume because you have a pulse you are already aware of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

If you don’t mind going younger readers, Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy has a fantastic take on necromancy that sends me into fits of jealousy. Plus, there’s a fun dualistic take on fantasy implicit.

OH! How did I forget the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia – starting with Hard Magic – for some cool alternate-universe/magic ideas set in the 1920s/1930s; it gets a little…deus ex machina…for me towards the end, but the setting is AWESOME and the powers are really intriguing.

Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne are fun, too – Irish gods, a modern-day Druid, and a nifty little update on urban fantasy.

Kameron Hurley’s God’s War. I am only fifteen or so pages in, but wow. Vaguely Middle Eastern setting, bugs as a form of transport, and female main characters who are hired assassins. Good stuff.

One of my upcoming projects is a weird west series.

It started out as basic Tolkienian fantasy upgraded to the steampunk part of history colonizing an American fantasy continent… filled with sword and sorcery tribes.

It’s still about that, but I’m confident I’ve made it more unique. You don’t see weird west alot, and when you do it’s just mostly “You got supernatural horror in my western!”

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a fun alternate-history Regency England with Magic, and it spans from Austen to Byron in its inspirations.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but hardly a mention of a short story in the comments yet. If you’re looking for experimental fantasy or fantasy that pushes boundaries (location, theme, protags, etc), check out the fantasy magazines. There have been some amazing stories in the past few years that fill all these niches people are describing here. Read Lightspeed, Apex Mag, Mag of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 10Flash Quarterly, Clarkesworld. Read stories by Saladin Ahmed, Catherynne Valente, Ken Liu, Cat Rambo, Mary Robinette Kowal…(I could go on and on). Especially with all the “Best of” lists floating around now for the awards season, now is a great time to peruse them to find some great stuff to read.

You know, sometimes these fringe stories can be difficult to turn into a full novel, but short stories are just the right length for experimentation. That’s why I love the shorts.

I have forgotten to mention Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. It’s an African fantasy.

It’s on my to-read pile, so I cannot vouch for it’s quality myself (maybe someone else here can?), but it’s bound to be unique because… dude, how many African fantasies are there in U.S. bookstores?

Yeah, some of these recommendations posted here could be considered ‘main stream’ but there’s Concept vs Content and Tropes vs Execution and “Voice” to consider. Any of these done well could make a book feel fresh and original. It depends on what Chuck is looking for most, and reading his post I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I spread my recs across several categories. I think he’d find something non-standard in all of them (along with plain ol’ good storytelling).

I’m not sure if it’s labelled as “fantasy” or maybe “science fiction” either way, you can’t miss reading Felix J. Palma’s THE MAP OF TIME. Brilliant book. It’s only downfall is not introducing the real plot sooner. It’s a long buildup-sort of like a movie trailer that goes about the wrong advertising-but it’s well worth the wait. I loved every minute of it. It has H.G. Wells as the centre character and is a fantastic re-imagining of the TIME MACHINE. Also fun but might be classified as “science fiction” (I’m really not sure how they’re categorising “steampunk” these days) is the BURTON&SWINEBURN trilogy from Mark Hodder. These are a definite fantasy series that play around with the notion of the parallel dimension theory and just what would happen if actions that were supposed to be taken weren’t, and the consequential rift in the space/time matrix. These books feature Sir Richard Francis Burton and the poet Algernon Swineburn (and a host of other historical persons) doing things they definitely weren’t in the history books we know today. Lots of fun to read despite the “Soprano”-esque ending in the third novel.

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart deserves a mention, though it’s a quest-based fantasy. It’s well-written, hilariously offbeat, and set in a mythical ancient China, which already makes it different than the normal fantasy type. Also, the main characters is a not-so-bright but well-meaning man named Number Ten Ox and an old sage named Master Li with a slight flaw in his character.

In yet another style, there’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, which is also well-written and not yet another rehash of the most tired-out tropes. I also enjoyed the first book of Elizabeth Moon’s Paksennarion series, which yes, trotted out the standard Tolkienish races (elves, dwarves, gnomes, yada yada yada) but that was mostly incidental. The story itself had more to do with the gritty reality of being a soldier, down to the digging of latrines and the day-to-day chores. Not romantic stuff, but actually really interesting to me, and written with authenticity since Moon herself is an ex-marine.

The Black Company by Glen Cook excellent. It’s dark, epic and full of bad ass characters making terrible decisions and getting everyone around them killed.

Thought of an author rec– Emma Bull. In particular, Territory. It’s magic… set in the wild wild west, with (historically accurate) elements of Chinese philosophy/magic.

Most of her books are worth reading if you enjoy fiction that strays from the beaten path, but Territory and Bone Dance are my favorites. Bone Dance is good for anyone who loves post-apocalyptic stuff, though it’s the kind of book you understand a LOT better the second time you read it–to say it moves along at breakneck speed is an understatement.

Glen Cook’s Garrett P.I. books have always been favorite’s of mine. They’re pure, simple, funny fun.

If you’re looking for a rather different take on war, mercenaries and magic, his Black Company series is hard to beat.

I’ll second the suggestion for Swanwick’s Iron Dragon’s Daughter, which is one of my favorite novels despite the fact that I also find parts of it utterly depressing.

Also, Mieville’s Bas Lag books.

I definitely second the NK Jemisin, although I’ve only read the first two books of her first trilogy. Looking forward to her new series, too.

Somewhat second the Brent Weeks recommendation. I’m still not sure what I thought of the Assassin trilogy and Black Prism. Some salting of the earth going on there, at least in the assasin books. If nothing else, I have thought about the books since finishing them.

I am so making a to-buy list out of these suggestions. So many sound great.

Just about anything by Glen Cook- The Dread Empire Series, The Tower of Fear, and the Black Company books (the first book, The Black Company, is one of my favorite books of all time)

Older Tim Powers – The Stress of Her Regards, On Stranger Tides (Yes, he sold out to Disney and they butchered the story for the most recent Pirates movie. But, the book is phenomonal.

I should have mentiones The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers as well. It has a slight Sci-Fi twist to it, and it is not as dark and creepy as his other stuff, but there is a reason ti won both a Hugo and a Nebula.

Dunno if anyone has mentioned them already, but Steph Swainston’s Castle Circle books are fantastic – the first is “The Year of Our War.” “The Etched City” by KJ Bishop is good too. I love Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel books which are pretty nuts in places. Peake & Mieville of course but everyone will mention them. Anyone who hasn’t read Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger books must do so, immediately. They are mad & wonderful. If you don’t mind fantasy written for younger readers, the Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson is great.

I second The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. Be aware that it’s a hell of a big book. I dropped it while reading in bed and nearly gave myself a concussion. Love the light/color based magic system, very cool.

I recommend P.C. Hodgell’s Kencyrath novels to pretty much everyone, and nobody has ever heard of them, or her. They start with the book God Stalk, and the protagonist Jamethiel is an avatar of the destructive face of her people’s Three-Faced God. She just can’t seem to help destroying things…including people. The setting is very different, and there’s a complex backstory to the Kencyrath (Jame’s people) that the author doles out a little at a time over the course of the series.

I know this won’t bother Chuck, but for others considering reading these, be warned that they get pretty ugly in spots. People skinning other people alive for fun, many mentions of abusive childhoods, and other things that may be triggers for some.

I recommend, as a few others above have, Scott Lynch’s books, “The Lies of Locke Lamora” and “Red Skies over Red Seas”. Think Ocean’s Eleven + Renaissance Italy + exotic setting with no magic. I really enjoyed the stories and couldn’t put them down. A lot of action and intrigue that keeps pushing through the pages.

I also heartily recommend you read Patrick Rothfuss’ “The Name of the Wind” and “The Wise Man’s Fear”. These are amazingly detailed and wonderfully characterized, telling the story, from 1st POV’ the tale of a legendary hero/villain (depending on perspective) and how he became that person, and highlighting the errors of where those legends came from (calling lightning from the sky when in fact he caught a magnesium stash on fire). It’s funny, endearing, and amazing!

Another, mentioned above, is Brent Weeks’ “Night Angel Trilogy”. An interesting take on magic through ownership of a linked stone and the rogue who acquires a shadow stone giving him powers over shadows and darkness. Action packed and fast paced and doesn’t feel like any fantasy trope even though there are some sprinkled within.

Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy is also really well done. Sanderson claims that when writing (Sanderson’s First Law of Magic)is: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic. He makes this perfectly poignant by introducing this system of magic (consuming metals for specific effect) and has a rather dark story about the current world when the Hero of Ages failed to save the world a thousand years before. Somewhat religious allegory but a story about a group of rogues upsetting the status quo under the tyrant who defeated the Hero.

Lastly, for an interesting take on magic and story telling is “With A Single Spell” by Lawrence Watt-Evans. The tale of a somewhat lazy apprentice who ends up finally apprenticing under a wizard and learns one spell before that wizard is killed. Too old to apprentice and too under educated for anything he wanders about seeking his fortune. Very clever story and really drives home the idea of what one can do with just a little skill and lot of luck and creativity.

Oh, and if you want characters that will make you pull out an extra chair at the dinner table before realizing they are fictional then anything by Paul S. Kemp, especially his Erevis Cale books. Though the Star Wars books will get your goat too.

I second The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. Love the light/color based magic system, very cool. Be aware that it’s a hell of a big book. I dropped it while reading in bed and nearly gave myself a concussion.

I recommend P.C. Hodgell’s Kencyrath novels to pretty much everyone, and nobody has ever heard of them, or her. They start with the book God Stalk, and the protagonist Jamethiel is an avatar of the destructive face of her people’s Three-Faced God. She just can’t seem to help destroying things…including people. The setting is very different, and there’s a complex backstory to the Kencyrath (Jame’s people) that the author doles out a little at a time over the course of the series.

I know this won’t bother Chuck, but for others considering reading these, be warned that they get pretty ugly in spots. People skinning other people alive for fun, many mentions of abusive childhoods, and other things that may be triggers for some.

Don’t know if anybody’s mentioned it already, but I really enjoyed Holly Black’s White Cat, the first book in her Curse Workers series. It’s definitely a take on fantasy that I’ve never encountered before. She takes a mob world and injects fantasy elements: the curse workers, and then shows how that world works. She also has a different (and very cool, in my opinion) take on how magic works in this world, because every time someone works magic (or, more properly, a casts a curse), they endure a fitting “blowback” that affects them in a manner appropriate to what they accomplish. For example, someone who kills people with curses will suffer a similar deathly effect in their person.

It’s a really easy read, entertaining, and pretty unique. Give it a try.

Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands. Dark, brutal, gay protagonist, lesbian protagonist, awesome prose.

Really bizarre stuff (and I can’t say if I liked it, but it reads like poetry and it’s like nothing else): Hal Duncan’s 2 novels, Vellum and Ink.

Tad Williams’ Otherland series. Half sci-fi, half fantasy. One of the weirdest and most entertaining I’ve ever read.

Yay for Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series (and I found him through To Reign in Hell…also really dug on his Phoenix Guards/3 Musketeers sendups), and I’m happy to see lots of nods to Glen Cook’s Black Company. Hell, I might need to read that all over again, now.

NK Jemisin has been mentioned, so I’ll just 3rd or 4th that rec. Can’t wait for her new duology.

The Liminal People by Ayize Jama-Everett – starts in Africa, ends in England. You have people with superpowers hidden among the normals. The lead in this one is a healer, but I liked how they showed that a healer can be a very destructive weapon when he wants to be. Lots of grey areas here, not too many “heroes” among those with superpowers. I liked it.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes – still reading it; set in Africa; you’re just thrown into the world of the story, and it takes a bit to figure out what’s going on, but I like that sort of thing.

Briarpatch by Tim Pratt – another one I’m still reading, but good so far; Things are pretty f’d up for the lead guy right now, and I still have a ways to go until the end, so this should be good. Has a hidden “other” side to the city that he is going to be thrown into soon.

I know I mentioned Kushiel’s Dart over on G+ . But one I forgot was Kadrey’s Sandman Slim books.

The Jump 225 trilogy (Infoquake, Multireal, and Geosynchron) by David Louis Edelman (@davidledelman) is a fantastic, very believable series set 500 years in the future. Take a look at his website for more info: http://www.davidlouisedelman.com

Also, The Codex Alera — that “other” series by Jim Butcher — was quite enjoyable.

A huge strong recommendation for Prince of Nothing – R Scott Bakker’s first trilogy of the Second Apocalypse, for all the reasons Mild mentioned. And also because it’s vicious and mean and fucks with you.

For something different try almost anything by Charles De Lint – fantasy woven through with mythology (all kinds) and beautifully written.

Dave Duncan’s Alchemist series is historical/fantasy cross. I like everything of his I’ve read so far.

If I were to assume by “fantasy” you really meant “spec fic” then I would be able to recommend Ian McDonald’s “The Dervish House.” It’s a look at a near-future Istanbul and has great prose, engaging ideas, and a cast of terrific characters. It’s really worth reading.

@Arnout Brokking – The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan (mentioned above, I think) has a gay protagonist, though I had issues with that story in other matters.

I’ll second Tambo’s mention of her novels. “Ghosts in the Snow”, “Valley of the Soul” and “Threads of Malice” are great books, straddling fantasy and crime fic/mystery. I especially love Threads, which deals with a Gacy-style serial killer and some real tough times for the protags.

I’d also recommend Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards books, especially if you like it when things all go to shit.

Also check out Stephen Lawhead’s King Raven books if you like a new twist on an old tale (Robin Hood) where the magic is subtle but real.

Something I just read that’s a long way off the post-Tolkein radar is Kaaron Warren’s ‘Walking the Tree’, about young vaguely Polynesian women embarking on an epic journey around their entire world, an island occupied by a single vast tree. Amazing focus on culture in world building (and pretty damn creepy as well)

I’m personally fed up by this cliche of the young outcast who then goes through a portal/is informed by some sipernatural creature that he/she is the supercool chosen one and gets fae and praises in some parallel world. I mean, after Harry Potter, you can’t really afford to write that anymore

I didn’t read all the comments before mine, but the entire Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey–as far as I can tell it’s entirely new and different. She creates an alternate history by turning Christian mythology on its head, creating a world that resembles our own but with crucial differences. Her books are also incredibly sensual and use sexuality as an important part of the plot, rather than just as titillation. They’re all-around brilliant. I also recommend the Foundling’s Tale by DM Cornish. Don’t be discouraged by the fact the the books are classified as YA; they’re incredibly dark and the world-building is lush and unique. Men sail vinegar seas and inhabit a world rife with monsters. The prose is a bit dense, but I like that, especially in a pseudo-Victorian fantasy setting.

I always used to have trouble accepting ‘elves’ in fantasy (I admire Tolkien’s work but his elves were a little too flowery for me) but damn James Barclay’s take on the pointy-eared percentage in his fantasy series is fantastic. Would definitely recommend his RAVEN books. Great sense of humour between the characters and his portrayal of magic, dragons and the ‘kickassery’ of his elves was wonderfully done. Well worth a read!

What a great discussion. The best conversation on fantasy reading I’ve seen for a long time. I’m not sure why people haven’t mentioned Stephen Donaldson – his third Covenant trilogy is out now. Is that too “mainstream”?

Anything by Elmore Leonard. Not fantasy, but reads like it in a way. Super!
I’ve found a ‘new’ author lately> Patricia Anthony> post apocolyse and sci fi.
Also The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins. And two sequels. Must go get them.

Why no love for David Gemmell, eh? Abercrombie et al wouldn’t be anywhere without characters like Druss, Waylander and Jon Shannow.

I absolutely adore Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters Trilogy (Daughter of the Forest is the first book), and anything by Charles de Lint (but especially Someplace to be Flying). What I love about those authors is their lyrical nature and that they deal with real folklore and use old stories to tell new stories and ideas.

I’m late to commenting, but Stephen Brust’s Taltos Series is different and addictive. I reread 6 of the books from the series last month….so ….good..

And Lois McMaster Bujold is another favorite of mine. The Vorkosigan series is classified as Sci Fi. Amazing characters and stories.

The Rothfuss books, i couldn’t lay them down. And the writing is great, you get the feeling that every word is chosen with greatest care and every sentence is built with the help of precision technology. I guess it is since he takes about three years, not writing the next book, but editing it. Rothfuss is a douchbag/hero for that