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.

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.