Fantasy Book Post of Doom
Jun. 7th, 2006 03:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedI found a list of recommended fantasy book authors and since I am just made of time (read: I have another essay to write and haven't slept in two days) I decided to make a list of how many I'd read already, which new authors sounded particularly interesting, etc. Somehow this morphed into entirely subjective descriptions of every book on the list I was familiar with, clearly I am insane.
If you have a little bit of time, comments are below the cut. WARNING: not feeling particularly coherent right now.
Lloyd Alexander (b. 1924)
# The Black Cauldron
Didn't make a strong impression, though I do agree it's better than the Disney movie (much funnier). Read this at a time when not getting credit for a good deed was no longer a painful and grievious slight, so I couldn't really sympathize on that account.
Piers Anthony (b. 1934)
-Xanth
# A Spell for Chameleon
# The Source of Magic
# Castle Roogna etc etc
-Apprentice Adept
# Split Infinity
# The Blue Adept
# Juxtaposition
An author "best read while still in middle school." I started Xanth with Dragon on a Pedestal (still a favorite) but after maybe the first seven books the series becomes unreadable, especially the more sexed-up books, which are only good if you don't know anything about sex. Apprentice Adept: I liked the worldbuilding in these, but the sex is still very weird. He also has a series whose main character is a 14-yr-old suicidal girl, even AT THE TIME I didn't really like these.
*Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999)
# The Mists of Avalon
Never finished this book because I didn't like the way the characters kept making stupid descisions and ruining their lives, but I did like the first half. Firmly entrenched in an alien mindset (Celtic/early Christian England), this bothered me A LOT but others might like it.
**Terry Brooks (b. 1944)
# Sword of Shannara
I really hated this, I don't think I got past the first chapter. I also don't like Tolkien. The Middle Ages irk me.
Octavia Butler (b. 1947)
# Wild Seed
Two Immortal African sorcerers try to keep apart but can't help being drawn to one another. Has a lot to say about relations between men and women, this is one of my favorite O.E.B. books and she's one of my favorite authors.
Orson Scott Card (b. 1951)
#Enchantment
I like Orson Scott Card, but this book is no good.
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
# Through the Looking Glass
Very clever, lots of fun.
*Susan Cooper (b. 1935)
# The Dark is Rising
# Over Sea and Under Stone
# The Dark is Rising
# Greenwitch
Did I really never finish this series? Will was overpowered, but in a can't-stop-thinking-about-it way, and Over Sea and Under Stone was my favorite book EVER for a while. The sort of books that stay with you long after you've read them, though the more Arthurian parts bothered me.
Brian Daley (1947-1996)
# A Tapestry of Magics
I don't remember this book at all, except that there were certain words Daley was waaaay too fond of.
Diane Duane (b. 1952)
-The Tales of the Five tetralogy
# The Door Into Fire
# The Door Into Shadow
- Young Wizards series
# So You Want To Be a Wizard?
# Deep Wizardry
# High Wizardry
# A Wizard Abroad
# The Wizard's Dilemma
# A Wizard Alone
# Wizard's Holiday
# Wizards at War
- The Adult Young Wizards series ("cat book")
# The Book of Night With Moon
# To Visit the Queen
-Stealing the Elf King's Roses
Tales of Five: generic, not very good. Young Wizards: I liked the first four a lot but Dillemna/Alone/Holiday are too focused on Nita's family problems, and Wizards at War is awful. (EDIT: Had the titles wrong, I meant Dilenma/Alone are too focused on Nita's family problems, Holiday is awful. I haven't read Wizards at War yet.) The cat books are fun but I don't see how they're any more adult that the Young Wizard books, espeicially now that those are moving into more serious territory; there are some mentions of being in heat, but otherwise? Stealing the Elf King's Roses ends badly (not unhappily, badly, as in the ending isn't tied together well at all).
Kate Elliott (b. 1958)
# The Burning Stone
# Child of Flames
Like Bradley's Mists of Avalon or Kate Forsynth's Witches of Eileanen trilogy, very firmly set in the celtic half-civilized mindset. This bothered me but others might like it. Another similarity is that the characters ruining their own lives, so much so that I found this series too much of a chore to continue (these books are also about 700 pages long each). Great worldbuilding, though, and I do reccommend Kate Forsynth's series.
**Raymond Feist (b. 1945)
# Prince of the Blood
Standalone my ass, if you haven't read the earlier books there's nothing to endear you to the characters in this one. Badly written, didn't like it.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960)
# American Gods
A lot of fun, but too inside-jokey. I feel the same way about Good Omens.
William Goldman (b. 1931)
# The Princess Bride
Possibly the funniest book I've ever read, great writing, highly recommended.
Terry Goodkind (b. 1948)
# Wizard's First Rule
# Stone of Tears
# Blood of the Fold
# Temple of the Winds
# Soul of the Fire
Liked the first book, couldn't stand the rest of them. This series gets worse and worse as the books become more and more pendantic, and Goodkind's moralizing becomes more and more insane (actually, it was always perverse, but after a while you realize that he really BELIEVES it). Main character Richard is such a Gary Stu. These book are full of dominatrices! There are also many sex/torture scenes, suspect the author is repressed.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963)
# Guilty Pleasures
Possibly another "must read in middle school" author, I couldn't get past the first chapter of this book.
Tanya Huff (b. 1957)
# Summon the Keeper
# The Second Summoning
# Long Hot Summoning
The first book is great! It's inside-jokey like Good Omens but for some reason I like it much better (female POV?). The second is not as good, it suffers from fulfilled-romance-subplot-turns-to-marital-distress-subplot syndome. The third, starring Claire's younger sister -- who is A LOT like Nita's (Young Wizard series) younger sister, overpowered and vanguely self-insertionist -- is awful. Possibly it would appeal more if I were still in high school.
Brian Jacques (b. 1939)
# Redwall series
# Redwall
# Mossflower
# Martin the Warrior
I've read more of these, but they're so interchangeable that I can't remember which ones. I burned out on Redwall after four or five books. The only one that really stands out is Martin the Warrior - it's structured differently (narrative switches back and forth between two viewpoints), and it's a prequel, which is cool.
Diana Wynne Jones (b. 1934)
- Crestomanci books
# The Lives of Christopher Chant
- The Magician Howl series
# Howl's Moving Castle
# Castle in the Air
- Deep Secret
- The Fantasyland Series
# The Dark Lord Of Derkholm
# Year of the Griffin
I didn't know there was another fantasyland book! (The Tough Guide to Fantasyland). Anyway I like these a lot, some day I'll get around to reading through her entire catelogue. The Lives of Christopher Chant made a profound impression on me when I was eight, unfortunately I wasn't keeping track of authors back then and I promptly forgot all about it. Wynn Jones is great at creating vivid characters who are motivated by mundane things, not by the desire to do good or evil. The only real problem with some of these is that they end too neatly.
**Guy Gavriel Kay (b. 1954)
# Sailing to Sarantium
I've had this for years, but I haven't read it.
**Mercedes Lackey (b. 1950)
#Valdemar series
#Bedlam's Bard
#Firebird
I'm not going to list the Valdemar books, suffice to say I've read all of them except the latest (Owl Mage and standalone prequels); I tried to read those and couldn't. I also can't re-read the older books, EXCEPT for the Griffon series which I do still like. The Oathbound books are also still okay. You can read either as standalones, so those are the ones I'd recommend to anyone who wants to try Mercedes Lackey who ISN'T still in high school. Bedlam's Bard is actually a lot of fun, in an overpowered Renfaire muscian/girl/elf threesome kind of way, and Firebird, based on a Russian fairytale, is (surprisingly?) really good.
Tanith Lee (b. 1947)
# Black Unicorn
# Gold Unicorn
# Red Unicorn
Another series that made a profound impression, although I'd forgetten that Tanith Lee was the author. Very, very, very good, recommended to everyone without reservations.
*Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
# Earthsea
I did not like this book, but I may have been too young too read it.
Madeleine L'Engle (b. 1918)
# A Swiftly Tilting Planet
I did not like this book, but I may have been too young to read it.
C.S. Lewis
# The Chronicles of Narnia
# Out of the Silent Planet
I liked Narnia, but not the ending or any of the more obviously Christian books. My favorites were The Magician's Nephew, because it's a neglected boy in London and because I like prequels, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because it draws heavily from Gulliver's Travels, and The Horse and His Boy, because it draws heavily from the Arabian Nights. I did not like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Out of Silent Planet infuriated me because Lewis' version of outer space was so completely backwards and wrong and unscientific.
George MacDonald (1824-1905)
# The Princess and the Goblin
I love this book with all my heart. A classic. The animated version is also good, but different. There is also a sequel, Curdy and the Princess, which is great because it has the brave and clever Curty from the first book grown up into a loutish adult who's forgotten how to use his brain. This was I think the book I'd read that talked about how, even if you're smart, if you live an intellectually unfulfilling life and stop thinking about things, you can actually become dumb.
**Anne McCaffrey (b. 1926)
#Dragons of Pern series
I liked most the Pern books at one point, but the only ones I really still like are Dragonsdawn and Dragonseye, the two more SFnal ones. Unlike a lot of people I didn't start on Pern with the Harper's Hall trilogy, and I have never really liked those books (too much wish-fulfillment).
Patricia McKillip (b. 1948)
# The Riddlemaster of Hed
Didn't like it, though I did finish it (it's not at all badly-written). By this point I think I can attribute the dislike to my general loathing of Arthurian fantasy, which is what this feels like although it technically isn't one. Feels like The Dark is Rising or The Once and Future King, but with a less aristocratic protagonist (he's a king, but his kingdom is small and pastoral).
Robin McKinley
# The Blue Sword
Even in fifth grade I was struck by how fluffy the imperialism is in this one. Well-written.
Tim Powers (b. 1952)
# The Anubis Gate
Total absurdist madcap fun, I'm totally tracking down more books by this author.
**Terry Pratchett (b. 1948)
# Discworld
Is it me, or have the latest ones not been as good? I like almost all of these, but I really didn't like Monstrous Regimine. The Night Watch books are my favorites (though Rincewind's are a close second, and I wish Moving Pictures and Pyramids had sequels).
Philip Pullman (b. 1946)
# The Golden Compass ('Northern Lights' in the U.K.)
# The Subtle Knife
# The Amber Spyglass
Destined to be classics. Actually, I hate pendantry in fantasy books, even if it is anti-religious pendantry, so I didn't like the third book in this series. The Golden Compass is great because it's AU England and Lyra's a liar, The Subtle Knife is great because it's a crossover. I like Pullman's Sally Lockheart series better.
J. K. Rowling (b. 1965)
# Harry Potter series
In order of preference, 3 > 6 > 2 > 1 > 5 > 4. Good lord do I hate books five and four, getting through those was a slog. The rest are written in a way that makes them a compulsive read -- ie you pick one up and it's easier to keep reading until the end than to stop -- but they aren't groundbreaking or anything. (You know, when I read the first one I though Rowling was an American ripping off of British boarding-school fantasy? I wasn't impressed had no plans to continue the series, but I picked it back up again after it became massively popular. It helped to know that Rowling really was British.)
Josepha Sherman
# Son of Darkness
Fun! This book reminds me of Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson series, also favorites. It's about a museum currator and interdimensional fantasy prince fighting demons. My enjoyment is shallow yet deep.
Caroline Stevermer (b. 1955)
# Sorcery and Cecilia (with Patricia Wrede)
# The Grand Tour (with Patricia Wrede)
In Sorcery and Cecilia Wrede's parts are better, in The Grand Tour Stevemer's parts are. Stevemer gives the impression of being more influenced by regency romances and less by actual British history. I started A College of Magics several years ago (during final ahahaha) but lost the book before I finished, and haven't felt a pressing desire to remedy the situation.
**J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
I hate J.R.R. Tolkien and the only part of his books I like at all are the appendices.
Delia Marshall Turner
# Nameless Magery
# Of Spells and Swords
I love these books, I love the way they're narrated, Smart observations, self-deprecating humor, barely contained rage.
Vivian Vande Velde (b. 1951)
# A Hidden Magicbattle against a witch.
# A Well-Timed Enchantment
# Dragon's Bait
# The Conjurer Princess
# The Changeling Prince
Except for A Hidden Magic, all are nonhuman/girl, non-explicit romances with a strong female lead and a dangerous male lead. (In a Hidden Magic, the male lead is a bumbling magician.) I love them.
T.H. White (1906-1964)
# The Once and Future King
I hated this book, but this is only because I hate Arthurian fantasy. (If only I'd realized this before reading so many of them.)
Patricia Wrede (b. 1953)
- Lyra series
# Shadow Magic
# Daughter of Witches
# The Harp of Imach Thessal
- The Enchanted Forest Chronicles
# Dealing with Dragons
# Searching for Dragons
# Calling on Dragons
# Talking to Dragons
-Mairelon series
# Mairelon the Magician
# Magician's Ward
An I-will-read-anything-by-this-author author. Her book of short stories is also very good. Some people don't like the Lyra books, but I thought they were okay (except Imach Thessal, which is awful). It's true that the other ones are better, though. Enchanted Forrest plays off fairytales, to good effect; Mairelon plays off Regency romances, to good effect.
Jane Yolen (b. 1939)
# Dragon's Blood
Everyone always points to Yolen's Pit Dragon trilogy as the example of smart literary YA with dragons, but I hated Dragon's Blood -- mostly, I think, because it was so ugly. It's possible I was too young to read it and that if I try again, I'll feel differently.
*Roger Zelazny (1937-1995)
# Lord of Light
This book totally lost me. Knowledge of the Hindu pantheon and Buddhism definitely required.
Before I started blogging, my memory was terrible: everything earlier than 11th grade is hazy, so it's likely I've read more listed fantasy and simply don't remember it. With all of my books at home, I can't make this complete, but here's some fantasy I liked that wasn't on the list:
Lawrence Yep
#Dragon of the Lost Sea
#Dragon Steel
#Dragon Cauldron
#Dragon War
Shimmer/Thorn OTP!!! Snooty disposessed dragon princesses who are forced to rely on intrepid but uneducated peasant boys for the win. I seem to recall Shimmer had a human form, which puts her a step ahead of Temeraire, but that she considered it beneath herself to use it. XD. This series intersects with Chinese folktales, most noticeably Monkey (a major character from Steel onwards).
Anne Logston
#Waterdance
More than anything else, this reminds me of Patricia Wrede's Lyra books. No literary merit, but I liked the romance subplot, the cultish main plot, and the characters.
Kate Forsyth
# Dragonclaw
# The Pool of Two Moons
# The Cursed Towers
# The Forbidden Land
# The Skull of the World
# The Fathomless Caves
This series must be good because it is Celtic fantasy and yet I still liked it. (For those just tuning in, I HATE Arthurian and Celtic fantasy, there is something about the half-wild mindset that drives me absolutely crazy.) This book is full of characters doing dumb things with terrible consequences, another thing I am not so wild about in fantasy -- but the worldbuilding is amazing, the pacing is very consistent and there are a lot of memorable characters.
If you have a little bit of time, comments are below the cut. WARNING: not feeling particularly coherent right now.
Lloyd Alexander (b. 1924)
# The Black Cauldron
Didn't make a strong impression, though I do agree it's better than the Disney movie (much funnier). Read this at a time when not getting credit for a good deed was no longer a painful and grievious slight, so I couldn't really sympathize on that account.
Piers Anthony (b. 1934)
-Xanth
# A Spell for Chameleon
# The Source of Magic
# Castle Roogna etc etc
-Apprentice Adept
# Split Infinity
# The Blue Adept
# Juxtaposition
An author "best read while still in middle school." I started Xanth with Dragon on a Pedestal (still a favorite) but after maybe the first seven books the series becomes unreadable, especially the more sexed-up books, which are only good if you don't know anything about sex. Apprentice Adept: I liked the worldbuilding in these, but the sex is still very weird. He also has a series whose main character is a 14-yr-old suicidal girl, even AT THE TIME I didn't really like these.
*Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999)
# The Mists of Avalon
Never finished this book because I didn't like the way the characters kept making stupid descisions and ruining their lives, but I did like the first half. Firmly entrenched in an alien mindset (Celtic/early Christian England), this bothered me A LOT but others might like it.
**Terry Brooks (b. 1944)
# Sword of Shannara
I really hated this, I don't think I got past the first chapter. I also don't like Tolkien. The Middle Ages irk me.
Octavia Butler (b. 1947)
# Wild Seed
Two Immortal African sorcerers try to keep apart but can't help being drawn to one another. Has a lot to say about relations between men and women, this is one of my favorite O.E.B. books and she's one of my favorite authors.
Orson Scott Card (b. 1951)
#Enchantment
I like Orson Scott Card, but this book is no good.
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
# Through the Looking Glass
Very clever, lots of fun.
*Susan Cooper (b. 1935)
# The Dark is Rising
# Over Sea and Under Stone
# The Dark is Rising
# Greenwitch
Did I really never finish this series? Will was overpowered, but in a can't-stop-thinking-about-it way, and Over Sea and Under Stone was my favorite book EVER for a while. The sort of books that stay with you long after you've read them, though the more Arthurian parts bothered me.
Brian Daley (1947-1996)
# A Tapestry of Magics
I don't remember this book at all, except that there were certain words Daley was waaaay too fond of.
Diane Duane (b. 1952)
-The Tales of the Five tetralogy
# The Door Into Fire
# The Door Into Shadow
- Young Wizards series
# So You Want To Be a Wizard?
# Deep Wizardry
# High Wizardry
# A Wizard Abroad
# The Wizard's Dilemma
# A Wizard Alone
# Wizard's Holiday
# Wizards at War
- The Adult Young Wizards series ("cat book")
# The Book of Night With Moon
# To Visit the Queen
-Stealing the Elf King's Roses
Tales of Five: generic, not very good. Young Wizards: I liked the first four a lot but Dillemna/Alone/Holiday are too focused on Nita's family problems, and Wizards at War is awful. (EDIT: Had the titles wrong, I meant Dilenma/Alone are too focused on Nita's family problems, Holiday is awful. I haven't read Wizards at War yet.) The cat books are fun but I don't see how they're any more adult that the Young Wizard books, espeicially now that those are moving into more serious territory; there are some mentions of being in heat, but otherwise? Stealing the Elf King's Roses ends badly (not unhappily, badly, as in the ending isn't tied together well at all).
Kate Elliott (b. 1958)
# The Burning Stone
# Child of Flames
Like Bradley's Mists of Avalon or Kate Forsynth's Witches of Eileanen trilogy, very firmly set in the celtic half-civilized mindset. This bothered me but others might like it. Another similarity is that the characters ruining their own lives, so much so that I found this series too much of a chore to continue (these books are also about 700 pages long each). Great worldbuilding, though, and I do reccommend Kate Forsynth's series.
**Raymond Feist (b. 1945)
# Prince of the Blood
Standalone my ass, if you haven't read the earlier books there's nothing to endear you to the characters in this one. Badly written, didn't like it.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960)
# American Gods
A lot of fun, but too inside-jokey. I feel the same way about Good Omens.
William Goldman (b. 1931)
# The Princess Bride
Possibly the funniest book I've ever read, great writing, highly recommended.
Terry Goodkind (b. 1948)
# Wizard's First Rule
# Stone of Tears
# Blood of the Fold
# Temple of the Winds
# Soul of the Fire
Liked the first book, couldn't stand the rest of them. This series gets worse and worse as the books become more and more pendantic, and Goodkind's moralizing becomes more and more insane (actually, it was always perverse, but after a while you realize that he really BELIEVES it). Main character Richard is such a Gary Stu. These book are full of dominatrices! There are also many sex/torture scenes, suspect the author is repressed.
Laurell K. Hamilton (b. 1963)
# Guilty Pleasures
Possibly another "must read in middle school" author, I couldn't get past the first chapter of this book.
Tanya Huff (b. 1957)
# Summon the Keeper
# The Second Summoning
# Long Hot Summoning
The first book is great! It's inside-jokey like Good Omens but for some reason I like it much better (female POV?). The second is not as good, it suffers from fulfilled-romance-subplot-turns-to-marital-distress-subplot syndome. The third, starring Claire's younger sister -- who is A LOT like Nita's (Young Wizard series) younger sister, overpowered and vanguely self-insertionist -- is awful. Possibly it would appeal more if I were still in high school.
Brian Jacques (b. 1939)
# Redwall series
# Redwall
# Mossflower
# Martin the Warrior
I've read more of these, but they're so interchangeable that I can't remember which ones. I burned out on Redwall after four or five books. The only one that really stands out is Martin the Warrior - it's structured differently (narrative switches back and forth between two viewpoints), and it's a prequel, which is cool.
Diana Wynne Jones (b. 1934)
- Crestomanci books
# The Lives of Christopher Chant
- The Magician Howl series
# Howl's Moving Castle
# Castle in the Air
- Deep Secret
- The Fantasyland Series
# The Dark Lord Of Derkholm
# Year of the Griffin
I didn't know there was another fantasyland book! (The Tough Guide to Fantasyland). Anyway I like these a lot, some day I'll get around to reading through her entire catelogue. The Lives of Christopher Chant made a profound impression on me when I was eight, unfortunately I wasn't keeping track of authors back then and I promptly forgot all about it. Wynn Jones is great at creating vivid characters who are motivated by mundane things, not by the desire to do good or evil. The only real problem with some of these is that they end too neatly.
**Guy Gavriel Kay (b. 1954)
# Sailing to Sarantium
I've had this for years, but I haven't read it.
**Mercedes Lackey (b. 1950)
#Valdemar series
#Bedlam's Bard
#Firebird
I'm not going to list the Valdemar books, suffice to say I've read all of them except the latest (Owl Mage and standalone prequels); I tried to read those and couldn't. I also can't re-read the older books, EXCEPT for the Griffon series which I do still like. The Oathbound books are also still okay. You can read either as standalones, so those are the ones I'd recommend to anyone who wants to try Mercedes Lackey who ISN'T still in high school. Bedlam's Bard is actually a lot of fun, in an overpowered Renfaire muscian/girl/elf threesome kind of way, and Firebird, based on a Russian fairytale, is (surprisingly?) really good.
Tanith Lee (b. 1947)
# Black Unicorn
# Gold Unicorn
# Red Unicorn
Another series that made a profound impression, although I'd forgetten that Tanith Lee was the author. Very, very, very good, recommended to everyone without reservations.
*Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
# Earthsea
I did not like this book, but I may have been too young too read it.
Madeleine L'Engle (b. 1918)
# A Swiftly Tilting Planet
I did not like this book, but I may have been too young to read it.
C.S. Lewis
# The Chronicles of Narnia
# Out of the Silent Planet
I liked Narnia, but not the ending or any of the more obviously Christian books. My favorites were The Magician's Nephew, because it's a neglected boy in London and because I like prequels, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, because it draws heavily from Gulliver's Travels, and The Horse and His Boy, because it draws heavily from the Arabian Nights. I did not like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Out of Silent Planet infuriated me because Lewis' version of outer space was so completely backwards and wrong and unscientific.
George MacDonald (1824-1905)
# The Princess and the Goblin
I love this book with all my heart. A classic. The animated version is also good, but different. There is also a sequel, Curdy and the Princess, which is great because it has the brave and clever Curty from the first book grown up into a loutish adult who's forgotten how to use his brain. This was I think the book I'd read that talked about how, even if you're smart, if you live an intellectually unfulfilling life and stop thinking about things, you can actually become dumb.
**Anne McCaffrey (b. 1926)
#Dragons of Pern series
I liked most the Pern books at one point, but the only ones I really still like are Dragonsdawn and Dragonseye, the two more SFnal ones. Unlike a lot of people I didn't start on Pern with the Harper's Hall trilogy, and I have never really liked those books (too much wish-fulfillment).
Patricia McKillip (b. 1948)
# The Riddlemaster of Hed
Didn't like it, though I did finish it (it's not at all badly-written). By this point I think I can attribute the dislike to my general loathing of Arthurian fantasy, which is what this feels like although it technically isn't one. Feels like The Dark is Rising or The Once and Future King, but with a less aristocratic protagonist (he's a king, but his kingdom is small and pastoral).
Robin McKinley
# The Blue Sword
Even in fifth grade I was struck by how fluffy the imperialism is in this one. Well-written.
Tim Powers (b. 1952)
# The Anubis Gate
Total absurdist madcap fun, I'm totally tracking down more books by this author.
**Terry Pratchett (b. 1948)
# Discworld
Is it me, or have the latest ones not been as good? I like almost all of these, but I really didn't like Monstrous Regimine. The Night Watch books are my favorites (though Rincewind's are a close second, and I wish Moving Pictures and Pyramids had sequels).
Philip Pullman (b. 1946)
# The Golden Compass ('Northern Lights' in the U.K.)
# The Subtle Knife
# The Amber Spyglass
Destined to be classics. Actually, I hate pendantry in fantasy books, even if it is anti-religious pendantry, so I didn't like the third book in this series. The Golden Compass is great because it's AU England and Lyra's a liar, The Subtle Knife is great because it's a crossover. I like Pullman's Sally Lockheart series better.
J. K. Rowling (b. 1965)
# Harry Potter series
In order of preference, 3 > 6 > 2 > 1 > 5 > 4. Good lord do I hate books five and four, getting through those was a slog. The rest are written in a way that makes them a compulsive read -- ie you pick one up and it's easier to keep reading until the end than to stop -- but they aren't groundbreaking or anything. (You know, when I read the first one I though Rowling was an American ripping off of British boarding-school fantasy? I wasn't impressed had no plans to continue the series, but I picked it back up again after it became massively popular. It helped to know that Rowling really was British.)
Josepha Sherman
# Son of Darkness
Fun! This book reminds me of Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson series, also favorites. It's about a museum currator and interdimensional fantasy prince fighting demons. My enjoyment is shallow yet deep.
Caroline Stevermer (b. 1955)
# Sorcery and Cecilia (with Patricia Wrede)
# The Grand Tour (with Patricia Wrede)
In Sorcery and Cecilia Wrede's parts are better, in The Grand Tour Stevemer's parts are. Stevemer gives the impression of being more influenced by regency romances and less by actual British history. I started A College of Magics several years ago (during final ahahaha) but lost the book before I finished, and haven't felt a pressing desire to remedy the situation.
**J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
I hate J.R.R. Tolkien and the only part of his books I like at all are the appendices.
Delia Marshall Turner
# Nameless Magery
# Of Spells and Swords
I love these books, I love the way they're narrated, Smart observations, self-deprecating humor, barely contained rage.
Vivian Vande Velde (b. 1951)
# A Hidden Magicbattle against a witch.
# A Well-Timed Enchantment
# Dragon's Bait
# The Conjurer Princess
# The Changeling Prince
Except for A Hidden Magic, all are nonhuman/girl, non-explicit romances with a strong female lead and a dangerous male lead. (In a Hidden Magic, the male lead is a bumbling magician.) I love them.
T.H. White (1906-1964)
# The Once and Future King
I hated this book, but this is only because I hate Arthurian fantasy. (If only I'd realized this before reading so many of them.)
Patricia Wrede (b. 1953)
- Lyra series
# Shadow Magic
# Daughter of Witches
# The Harp of Imach Thessal
- The Enchanted Forest Chronicles
# Dealing with Dragons
# Searching for Dragons
# Calling on Dragons
# Talking to Dragons
-Mairelon series
# Mairelon the Magician
# Magician's Ward
An I-will-read-anything-by-this-author author. Her book of short stories is also very good. Some people don't like the Lyra books, but I thought they were okay (except Imach Thessal, which is awful). It's true that the other ones are better, though. Enchanted Forrest plays off fairytales, to good effect; Mairelon plays off Regency romances, to good effect.
Jane Yolen (b. 1939)
# Dragon's Blood
Everyone always points to Yolen's Pit Dragon trilogy as the example of smart literary YA with dragons, but I hated Dragon's Blood -- mostly, I think, because it was so ugly. It's possible I was too young to read it and that if I try again, I'll feel differently.
*Roger Zelazny (1937-1995)
# Lord of Light
This book totally lost me. Knowledge of the Hindu pantheon and Buddhism definitely required.
Before I started blogging, my memory was terrible: everything earlier than 11th grade is hazy, so it's likely I've read more listed fantasy and simply don't remember it. With all of my books at home, I can't make this complete, but here's some fantasy I liked that wasn't on the list:
Lawrence Yep
#Dragon of the Lost Sea
#Dragon Steel
#Dragon Cauldron
#Dragon War
Shimmer/Thorn OTP!!! Snooty disposessed dragon princesses who are forced to rely on intrepid but uneducated peasant boys for the win. I seem to recall Shimmer had a human form, which puts her a step ahead of Temeraire, but that she considered it beneath herself to use it. XD. This series intersects with Chinese folktales, most noticeably Monkey (a major character from Steel onwards).
Anne Logston
#Waterdance
More than anything else, this reminds me of Patricia Wrede's Lyra books. No literary merit, but I liked the romance subplot, the cultish main plot, and the characters.
Kate Forsyth
# Dragonclaw
# The Pool of Two Moons
# The Cursed Towers
# The Forbidden Land
# The Skull of the World
# The Fathomless Caves
This series must be good because it is Celtic fantasy and yet I still liked it. (For those just tuning in, I HATE Arthurian and Celtic fantasy, there is something about the half-wild mindset that drives me absolutely crazy.) This book is full of characters doing dumb things with terrible consequences, another thing I am not so wild about in fantasy -- but the worldbuilding is amazing, the pacing is very consistent and there are a lot of memorable characters.