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Thursday Thirteen -- Fantasies
Although I started reading in the children's section of the library, what really drew me into reading was fantasy, and I've loved it ever since. In college, I more or less gave up fantasy; I was an English major and fantasy was obviously garbage. Fortunately, in grad school for music, I picked up some fantasy when I was in the mood for some light reading, and thank goodness! I picked up some fantasy and realized that there's some really wonderful, brilliant stuff being written in the genre. It is, of course, a rather different kind of brilliance than what's being done in "literary" fiction, and each has its merits.
Fantasy, of course, typically comes packaged in a series (the most common serving size, of course, is the trilogy), so today's Thursday Thirteen will be my thirteen favorite fantasy series.
1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien -- The original trilogy, not just for me but for so many people. I first read these novels, preceded by The Hobbit, in 5th grade and have read it many times since, though not for a few years now (I re-read them when the films came out).
2. The First and Second Amber Chronicles (The Great Book of Amber) by Roger Zelazny -- When I first read these novels, they were in the form of the two-volume The Chronicles of Amber (five books in two) and a second series of five novels that follow the son of the first series' protagonist. For some reason, I read the second series first, but I've re-read them both several times.
3. The Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust -- I read these when I was in high school, but it wasn't until later that I really appreciated how good they are. These stories of an assassin's capers have something of a Zelazny-esque feel to them.
4. The Kaavren Romances by Steven Brust -- These have a very different feeling, modeled as they are on Alexandre Dumas' work. These stories happen in the past of the same world as the Taltos series. Likewise, I read the ones of the series that had been written then when I was in high school, but definitely didn't fully appreciate them.
5. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan -- I started these in high school, re-read most of them a couple times, and they still weren't finished last year when Jordan died. The series didn't stay quite as compelling as it began, but they still have a certain charm. Apparently, he left extensive notes so that the series can be finished.
6. The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb -- She not only knows how to write fantasy well, she knows how to finish a series she starts. It's an under-appreciated virtue, to finish what you start and not let the tale grow in the telling. This story centers around the illegitimate son of a prince, who is trained as an assassin and in whose hands the kingdom's future lies.
7. The Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb -- This is a follow-up trilogy with the same protagonist as the above trilogy, rather later in his life.
8. The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb -- Set in the same world as the previous two series, this series only has one overlapping character with the other two, and fall chronologically between them. The story centers around magical living ships, pirates, and the re-awakening of dragons.
9. Inda by Sherwood Smith -- Speaking of ships, much of this excellent (so far) series takes place at sea.
10. The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker -- This trilogy features a dark, brutal fantasy milieu. Written by a philosophy PhD student, there's some deep stuff here.
11. The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson -- I discovered this as an author that Bakker recommended, and it is excellent, excellent epic fantasy. It's a long, unfinished series though. I've reviewed most of the novels somewhere on this blog, so I'm not going to spend too much time re-reviewing the books here. Of course, that's also true of most of the series above.
12. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin -- This is the most recent epic fantasy series I discovered, and it's excellent stuff. It has a very medieval feel to it, with knights and kings and castles and such, but nothing is romanticized about it.
13. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher -- I'm currently reading the latest entry in the adventures of Chicago's hard-boiled wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden.
Do you have any favorite fantasy series to recommend to me? I'm always looking for more good stuff. Incidentally, a couple of Sean Russell's series almost made the cut, and Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series probably would have made the cut if I'd read more than just the first book of the series--it was quite good, but I never got past the first volume, for some reason.
May I suggest 1 of my fave authors, James P Blaylock. Read and re-read his
books whilst growing up in the early 80's! Did like your list.
Yes, I think Bujold belongs on this list, though nominally the Miles series
is science fiction, she has written fantasy, some of it quite excellent and
some not so. Should we add Harry Turtledove to this list? Ursula Le Guin?
J. K. Rowling? Orson Scott Card? C. J. Cherryh?