YA Fantasy Recommendations
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So with @insomniac7809 working retail, we don't really get to celebrate the holiday until we go visit his family in January.
I've decided to go full Jólabókaflóð this year and get everyone books for Christmas. I need recommendations on series in the genre, and preferably newer series that my sort-of sister-in-law type person (it's complicated!) is unlikely to have read. I've already hit up the boyfriend's little brother, but surprise surprise, he's about as helpful in picking out presents as @insomniac7809 is. By which I mean not at all. (I'm looking at you here, boo.)
Thoughts or ideas? I have very little to work with besides a genre.
https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello -
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GOOD FRIEND OF MINE (not really, but I hung out with him via friends a few times) Tony DiTerlizzi does very good young books. I don’t know how his YA is.
He does/did Spiderwick, of course, but I’ve wanted to check out his WonderLa books too.
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Since I don't know what kind of YA Fantasy you're looking for, we're shooting in the dark here but to start with I think you can't possibly go wrong with anything written by Brandon Sanderson. I did quite enjoy Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crow even though it felt very forced that every single character had to be paired up. I havn't read anything by Marissa Meyer but she's very popular and new so she might be what you're looking for, same goes for Victoria Aveyard (Honestly the premises of Red Queen and Lunar Chronicles are so similar I struggle to remember which is which).
Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab is pretty decent and if you think your sister in law has a thing for hilariously poorly written overpowered protagonists, there's always the inexplicably popular Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
What is obvious to you may not be obvious to me and vice versa.
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@groth said in YA Fantasy Recommendations:
Since I don't know what kind of YA Fantasy you're looking for, we're shooting in the dark here
Yeah, that's kind of the problem. (You've been dating this woman for four years and don't know what friggin' books she reads? Really, little brother? REALLY?)
Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab is pretty decent and if you think your sister in law has a thing for hilariously poorly written overpowered protagonists, there's always the inexplicably popular Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.
Ironically, I was just looking at the Throne of Glass series because it's apparently won the Goodreads choice awards for YA Fantasy for four years running. Is it really that bad?
https://whatiswrongwith.me/Mia
There were never any good old days. They are today. They are tomorrow. It's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow. -- Gogol Bordello -
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater is pretty much my absolute fave. THAT IS THE ONLY HELPFUL THING I HAVE
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When I was a young adult, I read works by Eddings.
Not the best of fantasy offerings, but hilarious nonetheless.
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@aria said in YA Fantasy Recommendations:
Ironically, I was just looking at the Throne of Glass series because it's apparently won the Goodreads choice awards for YA Fantasy for four years running. Is it really that bad?
Honestly, I enjoyed the Throne of Glass books enough to read the whole set, though I preferred the earliest ones; they're hardly in my top favorite series, but neither do I regret reading them. Still, there's definitely some truth that the power levels some of the characters—in particular the main one—are throwing around by the last books are a bit ridiculous; the cast at the start of the books are basically level 3 D&D characters, and a not-insignificant amount of the cast around at the end of the books are pretty much level 20 D&D characters (with all that implies).
The Raven Cycle is superb, though. And if you want some YA science fiction I did enjoy Brandon Sanderson's latest, Skyward.
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They're not new but published in the 80s they're might be old enough to be new to her. In any case, I liked a bunch of Tamora Pierce's YA books. She's till writing I think so could have new stuff.
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@sparks
It's not about the power level as such more then the way that the power level is described. The first chapter of the first book starts out by telling us about how the teenage protagonist is the most notorious and skilled assassin in the land and you're expected to take that as a given because unlike say the Farseer Trilogy or Arya's chapters in Game of Thrones or The Nevernight Chronicle by Jay Kristoff(I quite enjoyed that one) it's not an assassination story, it's as far as I can tell primarily a love triangle drama. -
@groth said in YA Fantasy Recommendations:
Since I don't know what kind of YA Fantasy you're looking for, we're shooting in the dark here but to start with I think you can't possibly go wrong with anything written by Brandon Sanderson. I did quite enjoy Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crow even though it felt very forced that every single character had to be paired up. I havn't read anything by Marissa Meyer but she's very popular and new so she might be what you're looking for, same goes for Victoria Aveyard (Honestly the premises of Red Queen and Lunar Chronicles are so similar I struggle to remember which is which).
Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab is pretty decent and if you think your sister in law has a thing for hilariously poorly written overpowered protagonists, there's always the inexplicably popular Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
Definitely seconding the Shades of Magic series. I really enjoyed it, and she's writing a prequel series, so there'll be more stuff if she enjoys it.
It's not YA, but, the Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman is spectacular. It´s bloody, it´s mysterious, and it has so many references it's basically Ready Player One for vampire/classical sci-fi/historical lit. but without the exposition being introduced like a brick to your face, thanks, RPO, jesus.
"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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Speaking of Brandon Sanderson, The Reckoners is a damn good YA series based in a dystopian world where superheroes are assholes.
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@coin said in YA Fantasy Recommendations:
@groth said in YA Fantasy Recommendations:
it's basically Ready Player One for vampire/classical sci-fi/historical lit. but without the exposition being introduced like a brick to your face, thanks, RPO, Jesus.I watched a review of the movie that talked a lot about the book.
“Ready Player One is less like a book and more like a speed-run of a book.”
I hadn’t laughed so hard in a while.
