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Fantasy Novel Recommendations?

Started by Waaaghpower, April 04, 2015, 06:35:25 AM

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Waaaghpower

Hey there. After finishing the currently existing library of Game of Thrones, working my way through several items on my list of one-shot stories, and generally running out of things to read in my preexisting library, I'm looking for something... Specific. Namely, I'm looking for a really good Fantasy (Sci-fi could work, but isn't ideal) novel that doesn't follow the traditional fantasy style. I want to read something weird, if that makes sense. 'Fantasy' is often synonymous with 'Medieval Europe With a Magic and Dragons'. That isn't always a bad thing, but I'm trying to branch out in variety a bit.

So, yeah. What are your atypical fantasy recommendations?

Thank you!
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Mabbz

I reccommend the 'Skulduggery Pleasant' series. Starts out with an 11 year old girl finding out that there's a secret magical society. I could make comparisons to Harry Potter, because by the end she's gone through hell and had a lot of character development, not all of it good. There's action, heartbreak, and a whole lot of humour. To give you an idea of Derek Landy's writing style, I'm just going to quote the dedication from one of his books:

Quote
This book is dedicated to my nieces.

Girls, none of you were born when Skulduggery Pleasant first appeared. But since you've arrived, no one wants to talk about the writer any more. Now all they want to talk about are the damn babies. All of a sudden, no one wants to cuddle me, and for that I blame you.

But I suppose you have your good points. You're all mildly cute, reasonably adorable, and you make me laugh when you fall over.

So this book is dedicated to you, Rebecca and Emily, Sophie and Clara and

(insert names of any more nieces and nephew that might sprout up between now and when they're old enough to read this.)

I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am your favourite uncle. And you probably prefer me to your parents too.

(I've met your parents, I don't blame you. They're rubbish.)

I don't know if it's the sort of series you were thinking of, but in my favourite book series list it's second only to Discworld (oh yeah, read that too if you haven't already) so I had to say it.

Narric

I have a couple recommendations.

Dragonriders of Pern, a series by Anne McCaffrey. Admittedly, I have only read one book so far, but its certainly was a fine red.

The Saga of Darren Shan and The Demonata, two series writen by Darren Shan. I have read the entire Darren Shan saga and the first four/five books of the Demonata. Most excellent reads, especially if you can apreciate increadibly gory detail.
- Darren Shan is vampire focused, and in my opinion adds some very interesting and unique elements to the mythology, including the effects of drinking blood, the way a vampire is "Made," differing factions of vampire and their ideaologies, and other elements of the weird and supernatural.
- The Demonatat is a much more mature work, and literal starts with the main character discovering the slaughtered remains of his family. If actually alternates between one storyline, in the first, and third books (and so on in a similar fashion) with the second book relating to a new central character experiencing a different part of the same story universe, sometimes during different times periods. The secondary storylines, actually filter into the main storyline, kind of like how Agents of Shields is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Wardstone Chronicles, by Joseph Delaney. Set sort of before modern times, in the most rural county you can imagine in England. The main character is the "seventh son of a seventh son" meaning he has extraordinary senses of the supernatural. He is made an apprentice of the local "Spook," a man trained with knowledge on the things "that go bump in the night" and how to defeat/contain them. You could think of it as a Fantasy version of SCP :P The book is written as if told by the main character reading from his diary.

Inheritence Cycle, by Christopher Paolini. The best thing I can compare this to is the "Enter, the Darkness" RP that Rav ran. It focuses on a young man who finds a dragon egg, and must raise it and protect it from an evil empire. I could also compare it to Lord of the Rings but thats mostly in the sense that it has full scale war and battlefields. :P

Thats what I can think of right now. MY old collection of books probably has more series to suggest, but these ones are at the front of my mind for this. :)

Waaaghpower

Mabbz:
I finished Skulduggery Pleasant book 1, and it was pretty good. It felt like somebody took Artemis Fowl and the Dresden Files, (Two series which I am quite fond of,) and smooshed them together. I will say that the magic itself was a little disappointing in its vagueness and the plot was pretty predictable, but the writing was witty enough that I didn't much mind. (And seeing as it's a book for children, I'm willing to offer a little leeway towards problems like that, though Artemis Fowl has the same audience and a similar genre and setting but didn't suffer from that at all.)
Super Mario 3D World is The. Best. Thing.

Mabbz

Glad you liked it. The magic does get expanded on somewhat in later books (I remember being a little disappointed by the Elemental/Adept split when I first read it), and the plots get more intriguing. As for the problems caused by the book having a childrens audience, the first couple of Harry Potter books had that too. Skulduggery Pleasant grows out of it. Basically if you stick with it, you wont regret it.

Narric

Ah, Artemis Fowl, i remember that series :3 I think I haven't yet finish it though. The Dwarfs are a laugh though XD

Scout Sergeant Mkoll

I'm going to go ahead and assume you've read the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, Waaghpower? They're delightfully weird and, at times, insane. But they're also very well written and downright hilarious too.
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