Book suggestions
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I'm looking for suggestions for stuff to read. I like urban fantasy, but less of the high-heels romance sort and wasn't too keen on Iron Druid. Alex Verus, Midnight Mayor, etc, is more my cup of tea. I also like high fantasy (Way of Kings, Warded Man, Codex Alera), but don't really have an interest in books like Game of Thrones.
Anyway, here's to hoping!
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@Glitch
Dresden Files? I only just started them. They're okay, so far. Do you like witty, snarky, comedic fantasy? Robert Asprin's "Myth" series is fantastic for that; a lot of his stuff reminds me of a less poetic and more personal Pratchett. The Percy Jackson books, especially the second collection, "The Heroes of Olympus", are pretty phenomenal. For darker, grittier urban fantasy, "John Dies at the End" is pretty great.For High fantasy, I strongly recommend The Death-Gate Cycle, and if you haven't read it for some punishable-by-death reason, The Earthsea Cycle, particularly the first three (though the others are nothing to scoff at, as LeGuin is pretty much amazing at anything she attempts).
You can also go here and then scroll down and hit the "Literature" tab for a list of cool urban fantasy stuff.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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I'd recommend Kelly Armstrong's Cainsville series (Omens is the first book. Not really much of a "romance", which is her typical but she's veered away from that in her more recent stuff.). Anton Strout's Simon Canderous series (Dead to Me is the first book there) is obscure enough that it might have missed notice and was pretty entertaining.
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@Coin I've read Dresden, Pratchett, the Percy Jackson books and the Death-Gate Cycle (which I read when I was a lot younger and thought it was great). I also read the Earthsea Cycle even younger, but I don't remember that one as well. The tropes site is a good place to look and I'm browsing through it now.
@2mspris I got Dead to Me just now and will give it a read. Thanks!
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@Glitch I love the Black Company books by Glen Cook (though its not urban fantasy). The book Three Shades of Night (nWoD Fiction) is pretty good too. I'm a huge Dresden Files fan so I'd recommend those as well.
Then when it's all over and the rest of you are ready for Dead Animal Pickup, I'm gonna go balls deep into Dahl. But only because she asked me to. Sweet-like. - Riddick (2013)
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My favorite new urban fantasy right now is by a guy named Craig Schaefer - the books start with A Long Way Down, and there are 3 of them in the series. They're quick reads, and my only complaint at present is that there aren't more of them.
You might also enjoy John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" (and the following books) - it's more sci-fi than fantasy, but I found them to be a damn fine read.
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@Glitch -- I'd suggest Blackbirds and Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig, if you haven't read them. Also, it's not fantasy, but House of Leaves is personally my favorite novel. It's a bit hard to get into at first, but you're a smart guy; it's a horror novel. Outside of that, I'm pretty sure you've read American Gods and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman; if you haven't, they're amazing.
Hm. Oh, Michael Shean's Wonderland books: Shadow of a Dead Star and Redeye. Loosely connected is another book called Bone Wires. Also very good. He's a former MU*er as well and a friend of mine. It's cyberpunk, not fantasy.
There are probably more, but I can't think of any right off the bat. I'll second the Scalzi suggestion by @Darinelle and the other suggestion by @Coin. The Death-Gate Cycle is really good.
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If you do any SpecFic, you could try out "Forsaken Lands: Tragedy" by Sydney Cooper. It might seem high fantasy ish at first but it isn't really. She is a independent author with that one novel out and two short story slash novellas out.
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@ThatOneDude said:
@Glitch I love the Black Company books by Glen Cook (though its not urban fantasy). The book Three Shades of Night (nWoD Fiction) is pretty good too. I'm a huge Dresden Files fan so I'd recommend those as well.
I highly recommend is more recent series, The Instrumentalities of the Night. (Tyranny of the Night, Lord of the Silent Kingdom, Surrender to the Will of the Night, Working Gods' Mischief, so far) It's got most of the good features of the Black Company but in a very different (and astonishingly) more detailed world based around medieval Europe and the Palestine. Summary: Fantasy, Humans conquering Gods.
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I'd reccomend The Prince of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker. The Darkness That Comes Before being the first one in the series. It's High Fantasy but less generic than a lot of things I myself tend to see. I rather enjoy it.
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http://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283 I enjoyed this series -- its a "realistic" para-historical series set during the Napoleonic Wars era where in addition to ships and cannon and horses and rifles, the nations use Dragons much in the matter of Dirigible and early airplanes were used in WWI. Political intrigue, cultural clashes... and Dragons. I enjoyed it, maybe you will as well.
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I would be remiss if I didn't suggest David and Leigh Eddings: I've only read the Belgariad and Mallorean cycles, as well as Belgarath the Sorceror, Polgara the Sorceress, the Rivan Codex (which is actually a fair bit of Eddings' preliminary notes for the Belgariad and Mallorean, so might be interesting if you're a writer), The Redemption of Althalus (completely separate, but interesting in it's own right). I don't think Regina's Song (also by Eddings) qualifies as fantasy, per se, but it's also a fun read -- at least, I thought so.
Of course, Papa Tolkien is also good for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy, too.
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@Coin said:
For darker, grittier urban fantasy, "John Dies at the End" is pretty great.
I'll second this pretty strongly. John Dies at the End is...is...
The man walked past me and stopped, observing the blood running down my neck.
"Your injury. Let us tend to it." He looked out through the open doorway and silently gestured to someone out there. "Our world," he said, "is far more advanced than yours. For reasons you'll understand shortly."A thin, bony, naked woman entered the room, carrying two small, white kittens. She sat one of the fluffy cats in my lap and stuffed the other down my shirt. She turned and left.
"There," said the large man. "The kittens will make your sad go away.”...there are no words. They should have sent a poet.
I'd also recommend War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, anything by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Daughter of Hounds is probably closest to the "urban fantasy" mold), The Magicians by Lev Grossman, and the So You Want To Be A Wizard series by Diane Duane.
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All the Rivers of London, or Quiet Riot as it is called in the US for some reason. Ben Aaronovitch.
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Some of my favorite novels/series:
The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
The Broken Empire + The Red Queen’s War by Mark Lawrence
The Barrow by Mark Smylie
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
Raven's Shadow by Anthony Ryan
The Faithful and the Fallen by John GwynneIf anyone is on GoodReads feel free to toss me a friend request.
I'm Arkandel there too. -
I've been hearing a lot of good about the 'Magic Ex Libris' series by Jim C. Hines - modern day setting, well-developed world and magic system, very Urban Fantasy, 2 Books are out so far.
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Kind of obvious, but I got it for Christmas and so far it's living up to the hype. One of the best books released last year.
"The Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell
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The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne is a seriously good series. 2/3 books are now out. Solid politics, a great story, strong both female and male characters, plenty of action.
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I've been rereading Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. It's really nice, the first three have an extremely WoD feel to them (in the writing styles and everything).
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@Glitch - You know what else I fucking LOVED was Katherine Kerr's novels of Deverry. I think the first is called Daggerspell and I just found it really a lot of fun.
