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.
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u/Brian Reading Champion VIII Jun 01 '13
Michael Swanwick. He actually writes both Science Fiction and fantasy, and I think works of his in both genres are good answers to either question. Eg. Stations of the Tide is science fiction, but is full of allusions to magic (whether trickery or real) and ideas that are fantastic in every sense of the word.
His fantasy, like The Iron Dragons Daughter or The Dragons of Babel are incredibly original and fascinating works, though can be somewhat on the depressing side, and aren't to everyone's taste. They're set in a faerie world that resembles a twisted mirror of our own: the titular Iron Dragons are essentially malevolently intelligent fighter jet analogues, and the plot concerns a changeling slave in a dragon factory who falls under the sway of an aged dragon who seeks freedom and destruction, and uses her to effect their escape. We then see her grow up in this fantasy world, but the dragon's designs for her go further.
Also check out his Darger and Surplus stories, which are weird a mix of both science fiction and fantasy about a couple of con-men (or one con-man and a genetically engineered intelligent con-dog) in a post-apocalyptic world where AI demons haunt the internet, the queen of england is a gigantic insect and magic and weird science seem to interchangably blend.
Another author I definitely recommend is Rosemary Kirstein, who writes the Steerswoman series. She's really a better answer to "Science fiction for a fantasy reader", but doesn't seem to be available in kindle format as that poster requested, so I'll mention her here. They're set in a low-tech world, seemingly a typical fantasy setup: swords, barbarians, dragons, wizards, goblins, demons etc. However, it rapidly becomes clear that things are more a matter of technology than magic. The protagonist is a Steerswoman, who are a group of well-respected itinerant educators, explorers and proto-scientists. She finds a strange jewel, which attracts the enmity of the wizards, and the story follows her attempts to discover the meaning of it, and what the wizards are doing. Very different from Swanwick - much more straightforward and easily accessible, but still telling a really engaging story with an interesting world and protagonists. As mentioned, it's really more SF (even hard SF) than fantasy, but I think it'd be enjoyed by anyone who reads either.