I’m reading Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon right now and I’m loving the unholy fuck out of it. Arabic myth with a protagonist who’s a fat, old ghul hunter? Oh. Oh. Oh yeah.
(Needless to say, you should go and read it posthaste.)
It’s kind of scratching an itch I’d forgotten I had, which is for fantasy fiction that goes well beyond that Tolkeinist purview to be brave and bold and do something unexpected with the very notion of fantasy.
So, talk to me. Make some recommendations. What would I like? What fantasy is out there — now or from the past — that operates outside the comfort zone and does something new instead of regurgitating all the same old tropes and archetypes and hero-plot piffle?
Further: what do you want to see in fantasy that’s just never represented? What niches need filling?
Jay says:
My tips:
– Andrezej Sapkowski’s “Witcher” Novels
– George R R Martins’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” Novels
March 5, 2012 — 1:48 AM
Dylan C. says:
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.)
March 5, 2012 — 2:12 AM
Rob Mammone says:
If you’ve not read David Gemmell’s Legend, you’ve not read fantasy.
March 5, 2012 — 2:16 AM
Eva T says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 4:15 AM
Mild says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 5:20 AM
terribleminds says:
@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.
March 5, 2012 — 6:22 AM
Tim says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 6:33 AM
AshKB says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 6:58 AM
Shiri Sondheimer says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 7:01 AM
Jen Galbavy says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 7:20 AM
Erin says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 7:22 AM
Chris Wilde says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 7:31 AM
merlyn says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 7:41 AM
Arnout Brokking says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 8:04 AM
Gregor Xane says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 8:44 AM
Umbrea says:
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!
March 5, 2012 — 9:07 AM
Harry Connolly says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:12 AM
Cas says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:15 AM
Jackie says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:16 AM
Paul Weimer (@princejvstin) says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:16 AM
Rebecca says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:19 AM
Lugh says:
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.)
March 5, 2012 — 9:20 AM
James Burbidge says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:20 AM
Nathanael Green says:
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!
March 5, 2012 — 9:25 AM
Lugh says:
@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.”
March 5, 2012 — 9:25 AM
Rebecca says:
@ 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
March 5, 2012 — 9:26 AM
John Murphy says:
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)
March 5, 2012 — 9:27 AM
terribleminds says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:28 AM
Tim says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:30 AM
Daniel Solis says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:32 AM
terribleminds says:
You never have to sell me on AtLA, @Daniel. 🙂
I eagerly await Korra!
— c.
March 5, 2012 — 9:34 AM
Russell says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:46 AM
Ros says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:47 AM
Shecky says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:48 AM
Shecky says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 9:49 AM
Russell says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 10:02 AM
Elizabeth Hyder says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 10:15 AM
Gregor Xane says:
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!
March 5, 2012 — 10:19 AM
Christopher Kubasik says:
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!
March 5, 2012 — 10:27 AM
Rowan Cota says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 10:30 AM
Stephen M. Foland says:
I always enjoyed Piers Anthony’s “Incarnations of Immortality” series, even if he’s a bit ham-fisted at times. Ham is delicious.
March 5, 2012 — 10:35 AM
Kathlyn H says:
Sword-Dancer by Jennifer Roberson
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
March 5, 2012 — 10:42 AM
Keith Rawson says:
If you want freaky, you can’t go wrong with Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series.
March 5, 2012 — 10:43 AM
Alice says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 10:44 AM
Corinne says:
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.
March 5, 2012 — 11:01 AM
Miriam Forster says:
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. …
March 5, 2012 — 11:03 AM
Arnout Brokking says:
@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.
March 5, 2012 — 11:03 AM
Casz Brewster says:
This: http://nkjemisin.com/
and
This: http://users.rcn.com/delicate/
but, also this: http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/books.htm
Enjoy.
March 5, 2012 — 11:11 AM
Rebecca says:
@ 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. 🙂
March 5, 2012 — 11:27 AM
AIleen Miles says:
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).
March 5, 2012 — 11:28 AM
tambo says:
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. 😉
March 5, 2012 — 11:41 AM