Really glad to see all this praise for Lyonesse. I discovered it some years ago and just devoured it. Devoured all the Vance I could after that, but little of it moved me the way Lyonesse did.
Really glad to see all this praise for Lyonesse. I discovered it some years ago and just devoured it. Devoured all the Vance I could after that, but little of it moved me the way Lyonesse did.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
Same here, and I love Vance's writing in general.
Just started reading Sebastien de Castell's Traitor's Blade. Not quite the standard medieval setting, move it up a few centuries, but damn, this book gets up and moves.
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I'm on Book 2 of The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch and it's throroughly enjoyable so far! It's like a high fantasy mafia story, taking palce in the seemier parts of the world the author creates. No dealings with nobility; only criminal types.
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
Hello!!! Aren't you all forgetting someone rather important to the genre?
Robert E. Howard:
Conan
Cormac mac Art
Bran mac Morn
All fantastic stuff.
Fred Saberhagen also wrote some amazing fantasy novels.
"The Lyremouth Chronicles" by Jane Fletcher
Part 1: "The Exile and the Sorcerer"
Part 2: "The Traitor and the Chalice"
Part 3: "The Empress and the Acolyte"
Part 4: "The High Priest and the Idol"
This is, however, lesbian fantasy, so maybe not up your alley. But Jean and I liked it.
Tolkien, of course, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And the ten volume History of Middle-earth along with The Children of Húrin.
Then there is the great The Once and Future King by T.H. White. One of the funniest and at the same time saddest fantasies ever written.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. If I tell you it's a book about rabbits, you'd miss the point.
Dune by Frank Herbert, for all its sci-fi trappings, is high-fantasy at its best, particularly the internecine battles of wit between feudal houses.
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How about the Redwall series by Brian Jacques? Some say the series is children's stuff, but it is in my opinion much too gory for that (deaths galore, and not only the bad guys).
The series has 26 books, so lots of stuff to read. I only read three of them, but I liked what I read.
Oh, and one of the best books I ever read, outside of fantasy as well: "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. Settled in England of early 19th century, but a slightly altered England in which magic still exists. Highly amusing, with lots of footnotes that you definitely have to read; some of them are absolutely hilarious. The prose is early 19th century as well, like Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, but I love early 19th century literature. I haven't laughed that much while reading for a long time. The paperback edition has 1100 pages. Lots of illustrations as well. BBC made a TV-series of the book.
R.E. Howard's Conan is pretty much the definition of sword & sorcery.
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Not exactly; none of those elements is required. For example, Robin Hobb's excellent Farseer trilogy has no non-human races in it (except dragons, and only at the end), but is definitely HF.
High Fantasy is fantasy where the author has created a self-consistent alternate world -- usually with magic and/or fantastic critters, but not always. The world is the thing.
Probably the first real practitioner of HF was William Morris (The Well at the World's End, e.g.).
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Oh, it's sissy now, is it?
I don't disagree with that, save that high fantasy, as it's recognized today, features significantly more magic use than low fantasy — what REH's works fall under by default (I prefer the label sword & sorcery) — wherein exhibition of magical abilities is comparably less common. REH's characters are usually underdogs and the stories take place on this Earth, not an alternate Earth or other realm. Those qualities don't always apply to high fantasy.
The Farseer Trilogy (both the first and second trilogies) were indeed excellent! I am awaiting the 3rd book of the third trilogy before starting in on it.
I don't recall other series I may have mentioned here an am too lazy to go back and look, but I would strongly recommend Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" trilogy. Dark and violent with a cast of very flawed characters...
On the lighter side is Michael J. Sullivan's "The Riyria Revelations"...
"Corn Flakes pissed in. You ranted. Mission accomplished. Thread closed."
-Cozy 3:16-
I think there is a tone and emphasis quality to high fantasy as well. REH wrote gritty, id-gratifying stories with the emphasis on action. High fantasy is usually some kind of conventional morality play, an unashamed reinterpretation of the monomyth, with an attempt to evoke tragic emotions. High fantasy leans heavily on classical and pre-modern European literary traditions, whereas sword-and-sorcery raids ancient and medieval traditions for images and tropes, but is decidedly modern, often trying to subvert the monomyth, and throws over a conventional morality play in favor of an anti-hero.
Oh, and I always understood REH's Hyborean Age to be an alternative Earth past, not unlike Tolkien's Middle Earth.
Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.
By now I have finished reading both the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, a very intense reading. In fact, I enjoyed the 1st trilogy more than the 2nd one, as it offered more action less reflexion (two main characters of 2nd trilogy requiring twice as many words to describe their psychological complications). And Donaldson was very serious throughout, dead serious.
"The world will soon be right again,
Innocence and undying love will reign." - Transatlantic
Then there's all the Shannara books, in all their guises. Plus the new TV show based on them.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Yeah, but I haven't read these since high school, so I thought I would catch up a bit. I made it through the 1st 3 (Word and Void) but agree that they are hugely predictable and suitable for high schoolers. Time to move on now. Maybe I will re-read Covenant or Jonathan Strange.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
Vance-Vance-Vance!!! A best of two worlds: not too dead serious and depressing and yet not too sugary-sweet or predictable. But 1st Covenant trilogy is worth all the praise it receives. Really.
By the way, I wonder why no one mentioned The Dark Tower series yet. I didn't like the 1st volume (The Gunslinger) and won't bother to read the rest, but many people believe it's great. Try to dissuade me
Last edited by Azol; 02-03-2016 at 08:17 AM.
"The world will soon be right again,
Innocence and undying love will reign." - Transatlantic
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