"High Fantasy" recommendations?

[The Dark Elf]

Whoa, yes. Norrell/Strange is not exactly "high" fantasy, but it's one of the most original fantasy novels in the last 20 years or so.

Norrell/Strange is very reminiscent of Moby Dick in its mode of storytelling (the asides, citations, footnotes and stories within stories). And I'm sure if Herman Melville was considering writing a fantasy epic devoid of allegory, then it might be set up like this. The novel itself started off promising, but I found I really disliked it by the end. There is a lot of dicking around and dawdling, with much belaboring of points, and the climax is...anti-climactic. But I heartily suggest reading the first few chapters, which are excellent. Then stop.

[MaikH]

^ I was reading your description of the Susanna Clarke book and thinking to myself "That sounds a lot like Little, Big. Then I kept reading. I'm unfamiliar with the Clarke book, but will probably order it tonight.

Hey, so my post was already worth writing! Based on your remarks in this thread, I'd be surprised if you did not at least like it.

Regarding Little, Big, I just finished rereading Crowley's first three short novels (collected as Otherwise, and it's interesting to see how the accessability improves from book to book, while the ideas are brilliant right from the start. Have you already read Ka from 2017? I've got in on order, and really look forward to see how his return to more fantastic topics works out.

[Mister Triscuits]

Have you already read Ka from 2017? I've got in on order, and really look forward to see how his return to more fantastic topics works out.

Superb book, though that's not surprising from Crowley.

[rickawakeman]

Gene Wolfe • The Wizard Knight


So, thanks again for starting this thread - for myself, the first recommendation I'll pick up from here is Patricia McKillip, who was a complete unknown to me but sounds right up my alley.

My pleasure. The recommendations here have dominated my reading since my initial post. I did read The Wizard/The Knight by Gene Wolf, enjoyed the use of the "unreliable narrator". McKillip's Forgotten Beasts of Eld led me to her RiddleMaster trilogy. All thanks to the good folks here.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

Have any of you read anything by Naomi Novik? "Uprooted" and "Spinning Silver" were both fantastic.

[Painter]

Have any of you read anything by Naomi Novik? "Uprooted" and "Spinning Silver" were both fantastic.

Her Temeraire series was very good. The first three novels in the series were excellent.

[rickawakeman]

After finishing Lawhead's Song of Albion trilogy (I find his prose captivating, as I did when I read his Pendragon Cycle, of which I still have Avalon waiting), just enjoyed Poul Anderson's charming "Thre Hearts and Three Lions" which I devoured in a day. Thanks once again for these recomendations!

[rickawakeman]

Halfway through "Foundryside" by Robert Jackson Bennett. Had been on my list for past year but pulled the trigger after reading a great review of the second book in the NYT Book Review. Not sure if others are enjoying this as much as I am. Fast-paced, intriguing stuff. The writing kinda reminds me of China Mieveile's urban fantasies.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Just finished a rather astonishing book called Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It's set in an alternate, or maybe future (after a few rises and falls of human civilization) Africa-like place, with all sorts of magickal stuff going on. The hero is called Tracker because he "has a nose", the ability to know where someone is after getting their scent. He and a bunch of other people get hired by a slaver to find a young boy who was stolen three years ago. Politics of kingdoms and war are involved.

Not for the weak of stomach or those who can't handle gay sex and random vulgarity.

[Azol]

I just finished City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, a very nice book (the 1st one in a trilogy The Divine Cities) and I don't think it was recommended before. Very good prose, awesome worldbuilding. It surely took some time for me to dive in, but I enjoyed the ride! Looking forward reading next book in the series.

P.S. Can't believe this thread hasn't seen updates for a long time. COV, staying at home and reading epic fantasy books - what could possibly go wrong?

P.P.S. I can see Foundryside by the same author was mentioned... so I have more stuff to research.

[Sputnik]

A bit off topic here as they are not strictly "high fantasy," but I have signed a four+ book deal with Evolved Publishing, and the first book in my series, Playing with Fire, is due to be released in September 2021. The genre is sort of "urban paranormal," and the books weave my love of history and myth with a modern thriller/suspense type book. If anyone is interested you can follow me on Facebook (William E Noland) or visit my website, http://wenoland.com, or Evolved Publishing's website, https://evolvedpub.com/. They have a lot of genre fiction, including fantasy and sci-fi, so Evolved may be of interest to many here.

Bill

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Congratulations, Bill!

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

A new-ish recommendation (as in I started reading her since the last time this thread was resurrected): N. K. Jemisin. Her "Broken Earth" trilogy is amazing*, and her other stuff ain't shabby either - I have read all her published books except for a short story collection which is on my want-list. Her fantasy worlds are genuinely original, her characters engaging, and her writing sucks you right in. The best place to start is probably either with Vol. 1 of the "Broken Earth", The Fifth Season, or with her most recent novel, first of a "Great Cities" series: The City We Became.

Her work is "High Fantasy" in the sense that it is about a deeply-imagined other world, but it doesn't involve a lot of elves and fairies and knights and such. It is very original indeed.

* "The Broken Earth" also was:
- the first book by a Black woman author to win the Hugo award for best novel (this is the first volume)
- the first trilogy by anyone where all three volums won the Hugo award
- the first time anyone has won the Hugo for best novel three years running.
It really is that good.

[dropforge]

A bit off topic here as they are not strictly "high fantasy," but I have signed a four+ book deal with Evolved Publishing, and the first book in my series, Playing with Fire, is due to be released in September 2021. The genre is sort of "urban paranormal," and the books weave my love of history and myth with a modern thriller/suspense type book. If anyone is interested you can follow me on Facebook (William E Noland) or visit my website, http://wenoland.com, or Evolved Publishing's website, https://evolvedpub.com/. They have a lot of genre fiction, including fantasy and sci-fi, so Evolved may be of interest to many here.

Bill

Whoa! Congrats, Bill...I mean Mr. Noland!

[Sputnik]

Congratulations, Bill!

Whoa! Congrats, Bill...I mean Mr. Noland!

Thanks guys!

[Shamus Nym]

Rickawakeman:
Good call on E.R. Eddison. Like Vance and Clark Ashton Smith he had an outstanding vocabulary.

....

I don't have much by way of American authors in my collection, but I possess over twenty hardcover titles by James Branch Cabell. Much, much recommended - but dont expect sword and sorcery or too much "magic". Just superb writing. (Well, not much S@S or magic in Gormenghast trilogy, and that is singularly stand-out high fantasy.)

[Shamus Nym]

Boyer & Zahorski combed through 140 anthologies and short story collections to make their 3 ('70s") collections of High Fantasy , "Fantastic Imagination".

Its not easy to find short story high (myth) fantasy . I suppose because it takes space to do an epic.

They point out that high fantasy is not supernatural stories ,nor folk theme. It can by fairy-tale-based and more often than not involves a hero figure and a quest. It is "lofty" writing.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Let me recommend here a pair of huge anthologies edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer: The Big Book of Classic Fantasy and The Big Book of Modern Fantasy. Drawing a somewhat-arbitrary line at WWII (and a rather-less-arbitrary line by ending the first book with Tolkien ["Leaf by Niggle"]), the two present a panoramic view of what fantasy is and can do.

Yes, there are some significant omissions - I would, for example, have liked to see some James Branch Cabell (one of the stories from The Silver Stallion or Chivalry, perhaps) in there. But one of the things the VanderMeers do very well (as they also did in their previous monster anthos, The Weird and The Big Book of Science Fiction) is to bring in examples of work from authors you've never heard of, from places you've never assosciated with fantasy (weird, science) fiction before. All the continents except Antarctica (and maybe Australia, I'm not sure) are represented in these pages.

Not all the stories, by any means, are "High" fantasy in the meaning of the act, but they're all good stories.

At less than twenty smackers apiece, and 800+ oversized pages with two columns of print, these are not only huge books, they're huge bargains, and wonderful places to find your next author-obsession.

[Fracktured]

Whoa! Congrats, Bill...I mean Mr. Noland!

Bill's books are compelling and very well written. Check them out when they are published.

I found a series of books by Russel Kirkpatrick called
the right of god
In the earth abides the flame
Across the face of the world

I got them at a thrift store for less than a buck. Couldn’t pass them up but does anyone know anything about them? Are they any good?

Rick

[Guitarplyrjvb]

I know this is slightly off-topic, but who is now doing the Gardner Dozois anthology since he's passed? I always loved his recapitulation of the year in SciFi. I think it was St. Martin's Press who was the publisher.

[Jerjo]

I never saw a new one once Gardner died. There are other anthologies out there but I have yet to see St Martin's resurrect the series.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

With Dozois and Hartwell gone, the best "best of" left is Strahan's.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

^^ I read one of Strahan's "best of's" and found that I didn't like his taste much.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

^^ Chacun a son gout. I don't like them as much as Dozois's, but better than Hartwell's.

There's also the series run by John Joseph Adams, with a different main editor each year. I have the 2016 edition, edited by Karen Joy Fowler, and it was pretty good. The only drawback is that it's "The Best American SF&F", meaning that the rest of the world, even Canada, gets left out.

[dropforge]

Speaking of anthologies and authors who have departed this mortal coil, today is Harlan Ellison's birthday.

Thanks to J. Michael Straczynski, who is the executor of the Ellison estate, we're finally getting The Last Dangerous Visions. Apparently it features a previously unpublished Ellison story along with all the others, a work which may or may not be Suspect Zero in the volume's decades-long delay.