Fantasy Writers

[rollhead]

Any fantasy aficionados here?

I don't read the stuff myself, but my daughters all love it.

In fact, my 17-year-old aspires to be a fantasy novelist, and has written 165 pages of a novel (started at age 15) so far, which she has posted here:
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/libr/c...aitlinmay.html

Although I haven't read much of anything in the way of fantasy -- including Tolkien -- I would like to be able to encourage her interests.

Any ideas of "good" fantasy writers I could recommend to her? Maybe Christmas gifts ideas?

She has mentioned to me that she likes Neil Gaiman's fantasy writing a lot.

[Brian Olewnick]

Not for a long, long time. But Piers Anthony's stuff was pretty good, witty fun back in the day. Greg Bear, too. Have no idea what, if anything, they're up to now.

[rollhead]

Thanks, Brian. I will check out those two.

I just remembered another writer she likes: George R.R. Martin

Don't know if anyone here knows his work.

[Brian Olewnick]

I know David Eddings has been very popular for a good ten or more years. Never read him though.

[moneyp]

The holy trinity for me is Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd/Grey Mouser), Michael Moorcock (Elric of Melnibone) and Thomas Malory (Le Morte D'Arthur). I haven't read much other fantasy that I've liked. Tolkein's LOTR trilogy bored me to tears (although I liked THE HOBBIT). George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series gets a lot of raves, but I couldn't make it past the first book. Couldn't get into Piers Anthony. I like Neil Gaimen's Sandman series but some of his auctorial conceits annoy me. I didn't care for "American Gods" (which should have been a graphic novel). What else is out there? Robin Hobb's Assassin series is modest but entertaining.

[moneyp]

Originally Posted by rollhead

I just remembered another writer she likes: George R.R. Martin

Don't know if anyone here knows his work.

I read A GAME OF THRONES and the prose was so vanilla and the plot so mind-numblingly rote and predictable that I struggled to finish it. I'm told the subsequent books are better, in terms of plot and writing, but even now I've forgotten most of the details of the first one and his books are so damned long that I'm not going to risk it.

[jesus marion joseph]

When I was about 13, I used to read the "Doc Savage" novels. Doc was what you might consider a "science-based" superhero. He and his gang saved the oppressed through their knowledge of the various natural sciences. My mother thought they were trashy books and tried to dissuade me form reading them, but I think that was based upon the cover art, which depicted Doc as a bronzed, muscle-bound sort. I don't recall the names of the other characters, except his dog, which was named Habeas Corpus.

As with everything, there's a website: http://members.aol.com/the86floor/novels/

Perusing the website reveals that Habeas Corpus was a pet *pig* of one of the characters.

[Tanager]

Agreed re: Moorcock and Piers Anthony (err...I agree with those who liked them. Unlike Mone, I dug Piers Anthony, although I thought the series got old pretty quickly). A longtime fave of mine was Roger Zelazny, who wrote the Amber series (first four books were fabulous, then it gradually tailed off). He wrote several other excellent books as well. I know a lot of people like Anne McCaffrey, but I never really dug her. Terry Brooks wrote some books so blatantly based on the LOTR conceit that it's a wonder he didn't get sued, IMHO.

[Monte Smith]

Haven't read much of the genre outside of a Conan fixation when I was thirteen. But I did recently enjoy Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's a substantative novel and not a genre potboiler.

I agree with mone; liked THE HOBBIT, but bored of the rings.

[Sergio Zamora]

I got bored by The Hobbit and stayed away from the Rings.

[rollhead]

Just what exactly is the difference between fantasy and SF?

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by mone peterson

Moorcock

hee hee

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by rollhead

Just what exactly is the difference between fantasy and SF?

Fantasy has unicorns. SF generally doesn't (unless they're cyborgs).

[Pete C]

I've never understood why the stuff is popular with adults.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I read fantasy almost exclusively.

George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice predictable? Wow! I haven't read a novel that killed off so many "main" characters in my life. The fourth book just came out and I wonder who'll get the axe next. I was just telling someone how unpredictable that series could get. It really defies many of the "hero saves the day" plot lines. The hero is often is badly beaten and sometimes killed off. That doesn't happen in any Tolkein books.

Of the past few years, some my favorites have been Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Anne McCaffrey, Robin Hobb, JV Jones, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and George R. R. Martin.

The biggest "problem" with both Jordan and Goodkind is that they don't seem to know how to end a book. Good reading but they do meander too much. I have certain characters I like to follow in each series and that keeps me buying them. I hope Jordan ends The Wheel of Time before he dies.

Melanie Rawn used to be a good one, but she stopped a series right in the middle about 10 years ago that really ticked me off. Too bad because they were very good up to that.

Mercedes Lackey is a tricky one. She writes well and her stories can really keep you reading. Unfortunately, she did this series about the Herald Mage that included some gay love scenes between male characters and it was written in the first person. Since I'm not gay (not that there's anything wrong with that ), I couldn't get into those. Reading a first person written scene about one guy getting it on with another gave me the willies. I didn't give up on her though. Her recent "Joust" books have been great. She's also just started a series co-written with James Mallory called the Obsidian Trilogy. The first two books were very good.

Obviously, anyone into fantasy is reading JK Rowling's Harry Potter books. Another writer in that vein is Eoin Colfer with his Artemis Fowl series.

Well, I'm off to take my daughters to the new Harry Potter movie. I have a lot of other authors that I read. If any specific titles come up that I can recommend, I'll let you know. However, for a 17 year old, if she hasn't read them, get the Artemis Fowl books. Great fun.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Pete C

I've never understood why the stuff is popular with adults.

I've not either, but then I don't read it.

And I don't read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, because magical realism seems too much like fantasy to me.

And why do adults read that?

[moneyp]

Originally Posted by Kevin Bresnahan

I read fantasy almost exclusively.

George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice predictable? Wow! I haven't read a novel that killed off so many "main" characters in my life.

Like I said, I stopped with the first book, which seemed to telegraph every "twist" at least three chapters beforehand. I also thought that the cardboard characters and lack of any definitive writing style made it a really dull read. I do remember reading WILD CARDS several years ago and liking it, so maybe GAME OF THRONES was just an anomaly.

Does C.S. Friedman do fantasy? I like her sci-fi stuff, especially IN CONQUEST BORN.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Fantasy has unicorns. SF generally doesn't (unless they're cyborgs).

Yes and elves and dragons, etc. But I understand that it doesn't necessarily HAVE to have these kinds of things in it -- and it would still be considered fantasy.

Some of the stuff that appeared on Rod Serlings "Twilight Zone" -- what was that?

SF, fantasy, Kafkaesque (don't you love that term?)?

[Brian Olewnick]

SF, as a general rule, extrapolates from known reality (more or less--obviously there are many exceptions). Fantasy sets up worlds where magic exists, physical laws don't apply and so on (kinda like religion!).

I gather that the heroes in fantasy books tend to save the world more often than SF protagonists so, to that extent, you might argue it's more adolescent.

[Pete C]

Garcia Marquez is overrated and unbearable. His work has that "pay attention, I'm wiser than you" tone. Give me Borges & Cortazar any day, both of whom are wiser than me, but have a Montaignesque humility.

[Captain Hate]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Garcia Marquez is overrated and unbearable. His work has that "pay attention, I'm wiser than you" tone. Give me Borges & Cortazar any day, both of whom are wiser than me, but have a Montaignesque humility.

Megaclasp to Pete on this one.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Brian Olewnick

Fantasy has unicorns. SF generally doesn't (unless they're cyborgs).

Well, there was that one scene in the directors cut of Blade Runner....................


I actually enjoyed the Lord Of The Rings trilogy quite a bit. It's a much different kind of read than most fantasy writers go for. They tend to read more like history books than actual fantasy stories. But I really dug the approach.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by (Ollie)

SF, as a general rule, extrapolates from known reality (more or less--obviously there are many exceptions). Fantasy sets up worlds where magic exists, physical laws don't apply and so on (kinda like religion!).

Depends on whether there are LSD darts involved.

[Chris D]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Garcia Marquez is overrated and unbearable. His work has that "pay attention, I'm wiser than you" tone. Give me Borges & Cortazar any day, both of whom are wiser than me, but have a Montaignesque humility.

Bah. "Autumn of the Patriarch" is at the apex of modern fiction.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Chris D

Bah. "Autumn of the Patriarch" is at the apex of modern fiction.

[Captain Hate]

Fixed

Originally Posted by Chris D

Bah. "Autumn of the Patriarch" is at the anus of modern fiction.

[rollhead]

I was reading on Wikipedia that there are two forms of fantasy fiction --
1) sword and sorcery -- which is the unicorn, elf, dragon stuff;
2) so called "high fantasy" which involves a parallel universe. Here are examples of "high fantasy" writings:

Terry Brooks's Shannara series
Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series
C. J. Cherryh's Fortress series
Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series
David Eddings' Belgariad/Malloreon and Elenium/Tamuli
Eric Rucker Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros
Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen saga
David Farland's Runelords saga
Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga and other Midkemian sagas
Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series
David Gemmell's Legend saga
Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth saga
Jim Grimsley's Kirith Kirin
P. C. Hodgell's Jame of the Kencyrath series
Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time saga
Katharine Kerr's Deverry series
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series
Mercedes Lackey's and James Mallory's Obsidian Trilogy
Mercedes Lackey's and Andre Norton's The Halfblood Chronicles
Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series
Patricia A. McKillip's The Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy
Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga
Dennis L. McKiernan's The Iron Tower trilogy
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s The Saga of Recluce and Spellsong Cycle
Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion series
William Morris' The Well at the World's End
Margaret Ogden's The Realm of the Elderlings series under the name Robin Hobb
Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy
R. A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms and Demon Wars series
J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy
Margaret Weis's and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance series
Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy
Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight series
Roger Zelazny's Amber series

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Garcia Marquez is overrated and unbearable. His work has that "pay attention, I'm wiser than you" tone. Give me Borges & Cortazar any day, both of whom are wiser than me, but have a Montaignesque humility.

Funny, I never think of Borges as particularly humble. If ever there was someone who seemed to think he was smarter than everyone else in the room, it's Borges. I do love that cranky old elitist, though.

[Brian Olewnick]

Originally Posted by rollhead

Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight series

Ah, Gene Wolfe! There's someone I'd recommend. I haven't read this series but his "Shadow of the Torturer" series was exceptionally well written. In fact, depending on your daughter, maybe a little to dense for a High Schooler. Hadn't thought about him for a while....

LeGuin is also a pretty good writer; might've read an Earthsea book or two, not sure.

I found this over the top citation of Wolfe in Wikipedia:

Award-winning science fiction author Michael Swanwick has said: "Gene Wolfe is the greatest writer in the English language alive today. Let me repeat that: Gene Wolfe is the greatest writer in the English language alive today! I mean it. Shakespeare was a better stylist, Melville was more important to American letters, and Charles Dickens had a defter hand at creating characters. But among living writers, there is nobody who can even approach Gene Wolfe for brilliance of prose, clarity of thought, and depth in meaning.".

[blawless]

Couldn't fantasy writers be compared to fantasy football players? Aren't real writers more interesting? Just wondering.