My Top Fantasy Recommendations

Fantasy is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, genres in literature. While some credit George MacDonald (mentor of Lewis Carroll) as the first fantasy author (John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River published in 1841 not withstanding), others point to the Grimms' Fairy Tales published earlier in the century, while the puritans would, not without merit, trace the history of Fantasy all the way back to the Epic Mythologies (Beowulf anyone?). The earliest Fantasy book that still remains popular would perhaps be The Wizard of Oz, even though it would now qualify more as a Children's book with limited appeal to the adults.

As with the history of fantasy, the sub-genres of Fantasy remains an equally contentious discussion point and varies from a few to over 50, depending on whom you ask and how granular the sub-division. In this post, I would try to provide my reading recommendations under the main two sub-genres, High and Low Fantasies. The categories are fairly broad and I think I do more justice in keeping the categorisation limited than splitting them into a large number of unmanageable, and perhaps less useful, sub-genres for the casual fan of the genre. I have also tried to split my reading recommendations into casual and advanced categories, since some of the recommendations would be quite heavy for a casual reader of the genre.

1.    High / Epic Fantasy

This is probably one of the most famous sub-genre of Fantasy. The term High Fantasy itself was coined by Lloyd Alexander, an excellent fantasy author who wrote mostly YA literature, The Book of Three being his most famous work. This sub-genre includes complex world building, feature fantastical races and usually (but not always) features a Hero’s journey.

Reading recommendations for casual readers

1.    Chronicles of Narnia series by Lewis Carroll

2.    Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson

3.    Lord of the Rings series by JRR Tolkien

4.  Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

3.   Chalion Series by Lois McMaster Bujold 

Reading recommendations for advanced readers

1. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin

2. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (concluded by Brandon Sanderson)

3. Malazan Book of the Fallen Series by Steven Erikson

4. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

5. The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

2.    Low / Contemporary / Urban Fantasy

The key feature that differentiates low fantasy from high fantasy is that low fantasy doesn’t undertake massive world building, but builds on / tweaks the existing world. There is a lot of overlap between this sub-genre, Contemporary Fantasy, and Urban Fantasy, and it is largely a matter of personal preference on which book to be classified under which sub-genre. I have therefore decided to categorised these books under one common, all inclusive sub-genre.

Reading recommendations for casual readers

1. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

2. Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

3. Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (anything by Neil Gaiman really, but this is as good a place to start as any)

Reading recommendations for advanced readers

1. His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman

2. Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

3. Watch Series by Sergei Lukyanenko

4. The Once and Future King by T. H. White

Disclaimer: I have included only one set of work from each author, some authors deserve multiple nominations on the list, but for the sake of variety, I have refrained from doing so.

72. Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

This is Book 2 in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series. A slow paced book, with period of action and excitement sprinkled in between. In this book, there are a host of new characters and only few of the ones from Book 1. We also follow a bunch of stories based on those characters, set presumably in the same time frame - some of those stories and chracters converge within the book, others I believe are left for another day. In this book, we don't get to meet the mighty Anomander Rake, but there is a new, mighty character to meet and follow, over extended periods. And finally we catch a glimpse, a hint, a shadow, of the legendary Empress. 

The plot is still devoid of simplicities like Good Vs. Evil, and at best we pick our champions on a fight per fight basis, regardless of his/her affiliations. There is drama, there is politics, but less bouts of awesomeness, as were evident in Book 1. There is some bloodbath, but a surprising less slaying of major characters, Erikson seems to protect his characters, fatten them up for the impending showdown (I think), very un-Martinish in that. Which style is superior, we will leave that question for another day.

A worthy sequel, a book that is still setting up the series, building up the world, creating and fleshing out the characters. I will take up the next book book, perhaps after a short break of couple of months, given my relatively busy reading schedule in quarter 1 next year, more on that latter.

62. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Halloween 2013#5

I am not yet sure what made me pick this book up as one of my Halloween reads, maybe it was the genre listed as "Paranormal" and "Dystopian". I do admit to being curious to read this book in general, with the young author already being hailed as the next Rowling. The declaration being a bit premature, in hindsight, maybe.

There is no denying the fact that Samantha Shannon has a lot potential as a writer, her imagination good, and the execution not too shabby. However, in her debut novel, I think she tried to do a bit too much, a bit too soon. In a novel of this size, she created a new Dystopian world, added a couple of alien races, not-so-ordinary human beings (and tonnes of categories of them, no less!) and strung along far too many ideas for a reader to keep track of, or make associations and connections with.

Then there was the fact that the protagonist was not likeable, not one bit. Indeed, she was annoying for the most part, and mule-headed for the other. And she didn't even have the benefit of a traumatic past like Katniss Everdeen or Lisbeth Salander to explain her behaviour. The biggest shock she seemed to have undergone is the fact that her first crush is gay! Boo hoo! Cry me a river and see if I care!

Having said all of the above, the effort for a debut novel was fantastic, I hope and believe she will only improve from here. The theme and ideas in the novel were quite original, the concepts and powers quite fresh and the writing satisfactory.

I am reasonably certain that I will try the sequel as well - but will I continue to read the series (the series is intended to have 7 books from what I have read), is a question for another time.

In this review, I have obviously dwelt more on the negative and done little to justify my 3.5 star rating. That however, was the intention, to highlight why this book didn't get a 4 or 4.5 from me, rather than the other way around.

54. The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

A stand-off novella from Sanderson, a form which was just right for this work. After reading so many of his works, it is easy to see a pattern emerge, in which he uses simple objects like colours, stones, chalk, metals, lenses, etc. as articles of power, the theme being a simple object can be used with varying effect based on the skill of the user. This book was a little different with soulstones (not always necessary) and the individual's skills being used to forge - change the history of an object making it take the properties and appearance of another one.

Shai, the master forger was caught red-handed at a stealing attempt and her skill being held in blasphemous contempt, her seemingly only choice is to rewrite the consciousness of the comatose king within 90 days to survive her execution sentence. Oh, a couple of small roadblocks, what was expected of her has never been done before; and she has to carry her work while trying not to get knocked off by the council members after she finishes the tougher parts of her work.

A decent piece, even if it lacked the usual twists and turns of a usual Sanderson book.

53. Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1) by Steven Erikson

And thus do I start with the Malazan series. A very voluminous book and a very voluminous series - something which made me delay and incur false starts a few times. It didn't help that I was quite lost during the first half of the book, where the story kept jumping and in the absence of any background, it was difficult to keep track of the characters, timeline or the story. I persisted and was richly rewarded in the second half when the book really picked up pace, the dots began to connect and the characters got fleshed out.

This is one of those series in which everything is gray, and there are multilateral angles to the story with no good side or an evil one, except possibly the Empress Laseen (whose story we don't know yet). There are lots of political and social undercurrents; unlikely alliances and truces; a world where no faction ever trusts another.

And then there is action. Truly unconventional, amazing action. What more can one expect? Needless to say, I will be diving into Book 2 soon.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Book #49 - 2013

This marks my debut with Gaiman books, an author I have been meaning to read for a long time, but it took a RL Book Club for me to get around to him. Having said that, I am happy that get around to him I eventually did. I am not sure how representative Stardust is, of his general writing style, it just seemed so different a book, so I will restrict my thoughts to the book in question. How Gaiman transformed this story from a bunch of fairy tales woven together into a coherent and may I add, amazing story continued to amaze me throughout the novel.

The book has more than its fair share of bloodshed, and yet there is no slaying of the great evil by the hero and saving the world stuff - which makes it without doubt a most refreshing fantasy to read, after all the other stereotypical ones, no matter how well written. And the ending, well, it is like no other ending either, with its simplicity and realness, an irony in a fantasy if you ask me, and yet after the way the entire book read, it came as no great surprise.