Fantasy Author Recommendations

[Stu]

I've recently been getting back into reading fantasy fiction. Any book or author recommendations? Old, new, male, female, PoC, popular, obscure, or any other category you can think of.

[qcrisp]

Quote Originally Posted by Stu

I've recently been getting back into reading fantasy fiction. Any book or author recommendations? Old, new, male, female, PoC, popular, obscure, or any other category you can think of.

Jack Vance.

Jack Vance.

Jack Vance.

I intermittently hear this call myself latterly: "Come back to us! Come back to fantasy!" it whispers in my ear as I look up from the station platform to see another train has been cancelled, as I accidentally scroll down on a music video I'm watching to see the sewer of the human psyche exposed in the comments section, as I... well, never mind.

I'm sure other posters here can come up with a far more comprehensive list than mine above, but I will add that in my late teens I was a most avid reader of Nancy Springer's White Hart/The Book of the Isle series, and sometimes think wistfully that I would like to revisit it.

[Stu]

I used to own the Fantasy Masterworks edition of Vance's Dying Earth stories but I only read the first novel before it go consigned to one of my sporadic book purges. I wish I'd kept it as I think I'd appreciate his style more now. (This is why my book purges eventually became a thing of the past.)

[Frater_Tsalal]

Stephen R. Donaldson!

E. T. A. Hoffman.

[Gnosticangel]

Other than Jack Vance, I am very fond of Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake and (in an over-the-top, heroic vein) E.R. Eddison. In their own unique ways, each of these may have something to offer fans of Vance.

Masterpieces of unreliable narration, this is the start of Wolfe's multi-volume epic work, The Book of the New Sun, including The Shadow of the Torturer:

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Claw-First-Half-Book/dp/0312890176/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501593559&sr=1-1&keywords=gene+wolfe

 

https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Claw-First-Half-Book/dp/0312890176/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501593559&sr=1-1&keywords=gene+wolfe

An omnibus edition containing the complete Gormenghast trilogy. Mervyn Peake created a meticulous one-of-a-kind, Dickensian, shadow world filled with memorable characters locked in decaying hierarchical institutions:

https://www.amazon.com/Gormenghast-Novels-Titus-Groan-Alone/dp/0879516283/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501593542&sr=1-1&keywords=gormenghast+trilogy

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gormenghast-Novels-Titus-Groan-Alone/dp/0879516283/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501593542&sr=1-1&keywords=gormenghast+trilogy

E.R. Eddison's Zimiamvia trilogy in one volume. Not for everyone, the writing is ornate, bejewelled, sophisticated, filled with references to classical European tradition.

https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Mistresses-Zimiamvia-E-Eddison/dp/000757813X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501593524&sr=1-1&keywords=mistress+of+mistresses%2C+eddison

 

https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Mistresses-Zimiamvia-E-Eddison/dp/000757813X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501593524&sr=1-1&keywords=mistress+of+mistresses%2C+eddison

[Gnosticangel]

Frater_Tsalal wrote, "Stephen R. Donaldson!"

I also love Donaldson's multi-volume, "Chronicles of Thomas Covenent the Unbeliever." Amazing works, the intersection of Tolkienesque holistic world-building with modern concerns of ethics, cynicism, shame, moral responsibility and the futility of power.

The language is amazing for some, but for others can apparently be off-putting, as can the anti-hero nature of the protagonist in the early books.

Have read these interconnected trilogies several times with great appreciation.

[Acutely decayed]

Quote Originally Posted by Gnosticangel

Other than Jack Vance, I am very fond of Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake and (in an over-the-top, heroic vein) E.R. Eddison. In their own unique ways, each of these may have something to offer fans of Vance. Masterpieces of unreliable narration, this is the start of Wolfe's multi-volume epic work, The Book of the New Sun, including The Shadow of the Torturer: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Claw-F...rds=gene+wolfe An omnibus edition containing the complete Gormenghast trilogy. Mervyn Peake created a meticulous one-of-a-kind, Dickensian, shadow world filled with memorable characters locked in decaying hierarchical institutions: https://www.amazon.com/Gormenghast-N...nghast+trilogy E.R. Eddison's Zimiamvia trilogy in one volume. Not for everyone, the writing is ornate, bejewelled, sophisticated, filled with references to classical European tradition. https://www.amazon.com/Mistress-Mist...ses%2C+eddison

by way of disclosure, when conversing with you I am assuming you have read these (reverse order but Jack Vance included) and watch Wimbledon (unless the court isn't green - then excepted) - if you think I am being ironic you are right - but sincerely only AFTER you have read the txts. (with a wry wrinkle dancing to the corner of your mistresses mouth as she sips the foam of a dry white)


truly love every author mentioned BTW

[Frater_Tsalal]

I still have yet to read the last 4 of the Covenant books, sadly (have only read the first two trilogies so far). Hope to get to that maybe next year.

Quote Originally Posted by Gnosticangel

Frater_Tsalal wrote, "Stephen R. Donaldson!" I also love Donaldson's multi-volume, "Chronicles of Thomas Covenent the Unbeliever." Amazing works, the intersection of Tolkienesque holistic world-building with modern concerns of ethics, cynicism, shame, moral responsibility and the futility of power. The language is amazing for some, but for others can apparently be off-putting, as can the anti-hero nature of the protagonist in the early books. Have read these interconnected trilogies several times with great appreciation.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Quote Originally Posted by Gnosticangel

Masterpieces of unreliable narration, this is the start of Wolfe's multi-volume epic work, The Book of the New Sun, including The Shadow of the Torturer:

Or you could get this complete omnibus, it has two different titles: Book Of The New Sun or Severian Of The Guild. Don't know why this version isn't the standard one in bookshops.

Title: The Book of the New Sun