Fantasy Recommendations for the Unenlightened 2

I recently read some of the "Chronicles of the black company" - Glen Cooke. Mostly dark, gritty stuff, though not quite as gritty and high-minded as say Stephen Eriksson.
 
If you like historical fantasy then Paul Kearney books like Sea Beggars series,Tim Powers's The Drawing of the Dark.

Must it be British,dark ages history theme or any good historical fiction ?

Also Robert.E Howard wrote some quality Romano British historical stories. His crusade historical fiction feature gaelic,scottish heroes.
 
I'm not sure its just historical fantasy,but kinda like nature fantasy. Err. Rather than magic and Dragons instead have animals,native peoples (like the american indians),hence my label pastoral there. I liked David Eddings' Belgariad but when looking for similar fantasy authors I don't know where to start. My other half likes fantasy but hates Terry Goodkind or Terry Brooks and David Gemmell(she didn't mind the John Shannow books tho)
I'm in the middle of a SF classic right now but am bored with it!
 
Well Gemmell is as low magical as it gets. Dragons is never in his books.

He is hailed the as great heroic fantasy writer because he writes down to earth, historical themed books,with great heroes,characters.

People who dont read fantasy usually is likely to like him. My brothers are historical fiction fans and they read DG cause its very close and they dont have worry about reading a fantasy epic,more magical,fantastical than they would like.
 
AE35Unit said:
I'm not sure its just historical fantasy,but kinda like nature fantasy. Err. Rather than magic and Dragons instead have animals,native peoples (like the american indians),hence my label pastoral there. I liked David Eddings' Belgariad but when looking for similar fantasy authors I don't know where to start. My other half likes fantasy but hates Terry Goodkind or Terry Brooks and David Gemmell(she didn't mind the John Shannow books tho)
I'm in the middle of a SF classic right now but am bored with it!
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You might try Medicine Road by Charles de Lint. See this:


Medicine Road by Charles de Lint
 
You could also try Gary Wassner's Gem Quest series. His are very much "green" books and whilst I didn't find the earlier books all that well written w.r.t. prose the plot is compelling and characters interesting enough to keep one going. He's also a member here and someone I've enjoyed corresponding with. In fact you remind me I need to get back in touch with him LOL!

If you wanted to stretch that theme a little you could go for the IMO superb Thomas Covenant series by Stephen Donaldson. You'll either love or hate these books, not much of an in-between response is likely.

Good luck.
 
I'm almost finished the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and I'll second Gollum. I've found them really well written and exhaustingly epic. It's unlike any fantasy I've read - I think AE35 you would enjoy the focus on the Land.
 
Hilarious Joke said:
I'm almost finished the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and I'll second Gollum. I've found them really well written and exhaustingly epic. It's unlike any fantasy I've read - I think AE35 you would enjoy the focus on the Land.
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You mean the first chronicles, second chronicles or Last chronicles (current series) ?

Whichever one I enjoyed them.
 
murphy said:
I don't remember the books being that big. Looking at them the first one in the series is only 480 pages. (That's only Lord Foul's Bane, not the entire first chronicles).
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Only 480 pages! Well 150 - 200 is the size of novel I like at the moment. When I have more time on my hands I'll be able to tackle something bigger.
 
AE35Unit,

Have you considered trying something like Bernard Cornwell's Warlord series?
It's a take on the Athurian Legend with very little in terms of magic, the way it's written makes you question if the magic is real and it sort of explores the belief's of the people in the time of the dark ages against the rise of the church. Very well written and sort of fantasy like as in swords quests etc.
The Winter King: A Novel of Arthur (Warlord Chronicles, book 1) by Bernard Cornwell

There's three books Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur. It's not like other Athurian tales that i've read but a different slant on the legend.
 
I would definintely not recommend Thomas Covenant to AE35Unit, it is long winded epic fantasy that is not going to do anything for most SF fans who are skeptical to start with of the fantasy genre.
 
My recommendations; (some of which may have been mentioned in which case I applogise, but there are nearly 200 posts here)

The Clay Machine Gun - Viktor Pelevin Set both at the beginning of the Russian revolution, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it covers buddhism, revolution, philosophy, fighting, gender, magic mushrooms etc, and it's just beautifully written and translated.

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov Another Russian novel, it can be read on two levels, one as a satire on stalinist Russia, and one as simply what happens when the devil comes to town. It's laugh out loud funny, lyrical, and moving all at the same time.

Anything by Flann O'Brien, especially The Third Policeman, or At Swim, Two Birds, the first is a sureal Irish yarn, with maddening but likeable characters, the second is a complex look at the lives of a writer and his characters, both hard to sum up books but well worth checking up.

On - Adam Roberts Often classed as Scifi, and it does have plenty of elements of that, in my view it far more of a traditional fantasy quest novel, and is one of the books that opened my eyes to fantasy, having previously been a die hard scifi partisan.

All my recomendations are in my view easy to read (but not easy reading) and light introductions to the massive potential of the fantsy genre. Do not start with the epic sagas, in fact I've not read more than two ever that I can think of, and that's LOTR, and The Belgariad by David Eddings, and the latter I hated anyway.

ETA: How could I have forgotten? My favourite. Mason and Dixon by Tom Pynchon. It follows the adventures of the two english men tasked with drawing up the Mason & Dison line, and it's far, far more than that - it's an historical novel with fantasy elements, and a fantasy novel with historical elements, it's really long as well, so maybe don't read it first.
 
nj1 said:
AE35Unit,

Have you considered trying something like Bernard Cornwell's Warlord series?
It's a take on the Athurian Legend with very little in terms of magic, the way it's written makes you question if the magic is real and it sort of explores the belief's of the people in the time of the dark ages against the rise of the church. Very well written and sort of fantasy like as in swords quests etc.
The Winter King: A Novel of Arthur (Warlord Chronicles, book 1) by Bernard Cornwell

There's three books Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur. It's not like other Athurian tales that i've read but a different slant on the legend.
Click to expand...

Hmmm possible. Just wish fantasies were singletons!
 
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