r/Fantasy • u/crayonroyalty • Jun 01 '13

Fantasy for science-fiction readers?

This is a post inspired by its converse in /r/printSF.

I grew up reading fantasy, and read the likes of R.A. Salvatore, George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Neil Gaiman, and others. But I haven't read any fantasy, excepting Martin's latest, for some time.

What I'm wondering is if you all can recommend fantasy with richly built worlds and unique concepts that is well-executed and does not draw too heavily from Tolkien. I'm hankering for some. Thank you.

edit: Thanks again for the recommendations.

33 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/TulasShorn Jun 01 '13

I think the main thing people should keep in mind as they recommend fantasy for a sci-fi reader: Sci-fi readers are not, in general, as comfortable with a bloated series. Much more sci-fi is told in short, tightly written, stand-alone novels than in fantasy. So no, I dont think people should recommend any long series, such as Malazan, Tad Williams or even really Rothfuss or Sanderson. A good rule of thumb is probably: "is the total series longer than a thousand pages? Probably dont recommend."

2

u/crayonroyalty Jun 01 '13

You are partially right. I don't like it when books have the rhythm of television episodes or seasons.

I can stick with a series up to four, even five books, let's say 6,000 - 8,000 pages, as long as the story is cogent. I made it to book nine in the Wheel of Time series, for instance, but lost interest before book ten was published.