non-medieval fantasy

[dreamseeker]

I could send you mine lol Given the era it is set in is part of the reason I am getting agent rejections. There are power struggles and a royal family - it is also set in a medieval palace but my MC has a laptop and my Gandalf style character has a mobile phone. It's also YA but it is dark and gritty with plenty of magic.

if it's earnest (not "comedy") maybe

 

[AnyaKimlin]

It has comedic moments but not the story is not a comedy.

 

[Nerds_feather]

DId someone already mention The Thousand Names by Django Wexler? If not, it's awesome.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Minus the critters and those imaginative landscapes, you might enjoy Carol Berg's Collegia Magica series. I've always imagined the setting as Renaissance or a little later, rather than medieval. Lots of magic. Parts of it are quite gruesome (which would usually not recommend something to me, but I liked the books very much anyway). For a while, it looks like the main character is simply facing personal challenges, but the plot does open up so that you eventually see that larger things are at stake.

Oh, and when replying to several people in one post, so that you don't end up with a whole long string of posts yourself, there is a multi quote icon at the bottom of each post (it's the little picture of a page with a quotation mark and a plus sign). You can click on it for the posts you want to quote, and then when you want to reply to them all you hit Post Reply at the bottom of the page instead of using the Quick Reply.

 

[dreamseeker]

DId someone already mention The Thousand Names by Django Wexler? If not, it's awesome.

will check it out

Minus the critters and those imaginative landscapes, you might enjoy Carol Berg's Collegia Magica series. I've always imagined the setting as Renaissance or a little later, rather than medieval. Lots of magic. Parts of it are quite gruesome (which would usually not recommend something to me, but I liked the books very much anyway). For a while, it looks like the main character is simply facing personal challenges, but the plot does open up so that you eventually see that larger things are at stake.

Renaissance is no better than medieval:
I wrote non-medieval because most fantasy is more or less based on the medieval times, but I also don't want allusions to mythology, Renaissance, western, (existing) religions... - really fantasy actually
- maybe I should say "non-historical", or as Teresa Edgerton put it: "a world that is as little as possible like our own", but of course with characters in it that sufficiently think and act like us so one can identify with them.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

OK, I thought of one. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.

Very much not in our world. May not be gritty enough for you, though.

 

[dreamseeker]

OK, I thought of one. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.

Very much not in our world. May not be gritty enough for you, though.

thanks, seems amazing from the reviews, maybe also other books from Elizabeth Bear?
seems to draw from Asian culture (which is also not what I want), but to also have enough really new ideas

 

[Nerds_feather]

OK, I thought of one. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.

Very much not in our world. May not be gritty enough for you, though.

That's a great book. It is still medieval, though not European medieval.

 

[biodroid]

Brian McClellan - A Promise of Blood, is flintlock fantasy based in a similar setting to the American civil war with twists on magic and magical people. Very good.

 

[dreamseeker]

thanks, maybe we should put together different lists of novels for the cultures / time periods they're based on, could be interesting for people looking for something special.

what I was initially looking for were novels not based on any historical / current culture, worlds that are as far away from such as possible, we could call this "non-historical" or "imaginary" fantasy, what do you think?

I suggest opening threads to compile lists of good novels by these criteria, or is there something like that already? Is there interest in such here?

 

[Brian G Turner]

I suspect you would need to look at something more normally categorised as science fiction, or even surreal, to find fantasy stories that are not based on any parallels to historical cultures.

 

[Hex]

To get back to the Diana Wynne Jones question -- Hexwood might be of interest, and A Sudden Wild Magic. Deep Secret does have a reference to a nursery rhyme, but if you can get past that, it's a great story.

I'm not sure if they're science fiction, though, or fantasy.

 

[dreamseeker]

I suspect you would need to look at something more normally categorised as science fiction, or even surreal, to find fantasy stories that are not based on any parallels to historical cultures.

I'm looking here specifically to fantasy, with real "fantasy-magic". I'm sure there exist many such novels, Earthsee being an example

To get back to the Diana Wynne Jones question -- Hexwood might be of interest, and A Sudden Wild Magic. Deep Secret does have a reference to a nursery rhyme, but if you can get past that, it's a great story.

I'm not sure if they're science fiction, though, or fantasy.

Hexwood seems more SciFy, but to have magic also and very interesting indeed.
Deep Secret and A Sudden Wild Magic seem too comedy-like

I (as everyone) can of course search Wikipedia, Amazon reviews,... - so I suggest posting books here only if you have actually read them and are sure they fit, especially from lesser known authors, e.g. Martha Wells or David Dalglish whom I mentioned in the first post.

 

[Nerds_feather]

thanks, maybe we should put together different lists of novels for the cultures / time periods they're based on, could be interesting for people looking for something special.

what I was initially looking for were novels not based on any historical / current culture, worlds that are as far away from such as possible, we could call this "non-historical" or "imaginary" fantasy, what do you think?

I suggest opening threads to compile lists of good novels by these criteria, or is there something like that already? Is there interest in such here?

The Malazan series comes to mind.

 

[ratsy]

Just thought of another one that fits the bill. Try Francis Knight's Fade to Black..it's a great read...magic, pulse pistols and a love of bacon.

 

[hitmouse]

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen Alan Garner
The 13.5 Lives of Captain Bluebear Walter Moers
Winnie the Pooh AA Milne
The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Graham
The Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch
Little Big John Crowley
Harry Potter JK Rowling
The Box of Delights John Masefield
The Dark is Rising Susan Cooper
Astra and Flondrix Seamus Cullen
Thraxas Martin Scott
Nine Princes in Amber Roger Zelazny
Mythago Wood Robert Holdstock
Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carrol
The War of Don Emannuel's Nether Parts Louis de Bernieres
The Bartimeus Trilogy Jonathon Stroud

 

[beenorthern]

Something dark and different in fantasy ... I suggest:

Sergei Lukyanenko *The Night Watch*

John C. Wright *Orphans of Chaos*

Sean McMullen *Voyage of the Shadowmoon*

Steph Swainson *The Year of our War*

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. *Of Tangible Ghosts*

S. Andrew Swann *The Dragons of the Cuyahoga*

Alan Campbell *Scar Night*

Jaida Jones & Daniele Bennett *Havemercy*

Robert V.S. Reddick *The Red Wolf Conspiracy*

Kristin Cashore *Bitterblue*

Chadwick Ginther *Thunder Road*

and on the SF side:

Neil Asher *Hilldiggers* or *Voyage of the Sable Keech*

 

[tinkerdan]

You might try Shiva Winters Shalak'Patan series.

The first book is a bit slow and has some small similarities to the first Amber book from Roger Zelazny (I assume you might already have read those.) or even the first of the Tier series of Philip Jose Farmer.

The later books really take off but you have to be tolerant of some few grammar guffaws such as then and than and its and it's and even its' ; other wise the storytelling and world building are awesome.

If you have no leniency toward some few editing glitches like that then they won't be helpful.

 

[End of Time]

Have you read The Magicians, by Lev Grossman?

The story starts out as a cynical take on Harry Potter and the Narnia chronicles, but grows into something entirely new. It reminded me a bit of New Wave, in that it incorporates a literary sensibility into its structure and narrative.