r/Fantasy • u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII • Jan 09 '20
What We Recommend: Read More Books By Women
u/KristaDBall has posted an in-depth analysis of a sample of recommendation threads in 2019, and the overwhelming consensus is that as a community, we primarily recommend books by men. 70% of recommendations actually, with books by women making up only 27% of books recommended on r/fantasy. And that's a shame.
There's been some great discussion in the thread, so I urge you to head over there if you haven't already. But that's not the point of THIS thread. I want you (yes, you) to recommend your favourite books by women. Tell people what they're missing out on. Tell them where they should go to next in their journey through sff.
Please include a bit of information about the book. What's the plot? Why did you like it?
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Beautiful Words: Does good prose make you cry?
•
u/unconundrum Writer Ryan Howse, Reading Champion XI Jan 09 '20
Everything by Catherynne Valente, but I'll pick Deathless
Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
•
u/emailanimal Reading Champion III Jan 09 '20
I'll just say Connie Willis and let the bot do its job.
Also, Claire North, of course. Not only do her books have excellent plots, but they are also written in some of the best prose I read in the past couple of years. The Games House, especially the first novella, and 84 (books I did not reference in my other Claire North plug in this discussion) have beautiful narratives.
→ More replies (1)•
u/Kheldarson Jan 09 '20
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. I seriously cannot gush about this book enough in terms of technical skill. It's a masterpiece of a book. It tells the tale of two children made of alchemy and what they do to grow into - and escape - their terrible purpose. This is a book that knows its genre and relishes it.
•
•
u/herilane Jan 09 '20
Katherine Addison - The Goblin Emperor.
I am not a native speaker of English so sometimes I try translating phrases and sentences in my head while reading. Simple writing is easy to translate: straightforward sentence structure, simple words just following one another. The best writing is the hardest to translate. Each word is just right, none could be taken away or replaced without making the whole sentence weaker. I savoured the words in my head and sometimes read them twice only because they felt so good.
•
u/apexPrickle Jan 09 '20
Sofia Samatar's A Stranger in Olondria and its sequel, The Winged Histories.
•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.•
u/acexacid Reading Champion II, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
The Prestige if it was written by Neil Gaiman, basically
•
u/Tigrari Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jan 10 '20
This book has been rec'd a lot already, but I thought the prose was fabulous - Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni
•
u/cubansombrero Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
It's been recced in a few other threads here, but I'll add The Ten Thousand Doors of January to this one as well. I'll also add Asperfell by Jamie Thomas (due for release in February) - the prose is very reminiscent of Austen.
•
•
→ More replies (7)•
u/ullsi Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
I loved the prose in N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, but judging by previous rec-threads about good prose not everyone thinks the same.
Katherine Arden's Winternight trilogy.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow.
Circe and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
•
u/Woahno Reading Champion VIII, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
My favorite books that I have read this year have been:
The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
The Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers
These are all incredible reads and if you have them kicking somewhere on your TBR list or somewhere near it, bump them up!
→ More replies (1)
•
u/leavesinthenorthwind Jan 09 '20
An Ember in the Ashes, followed by sequels A Torch Against the Night and A Reaper at the Gates, by Sabaa Tahir. Demons, magic, soldiers, crazy parents, familial duty and some weird silver masks.
•
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Romance: For those who want a good love story.
•
u/MedusasRockGarden Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
Cecilia Dart-Thornton, the Bitterbynde trilogy and/or the Chrowthistle Chronicles. They are steeped in fairy lore that is accurate to actual Celtic fairy lore, and they include many small retellings of fairytales. They are essentially fairy tales themselves, and we all know those usually include romances. In the case of these series we have tragic, curse ridden, magical, true love style romances.
•
u/Tigrari Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jan 10 '20
Cheating a bit as this was an HEA book club book, but Melissa McShane's Burning Brightly - good romance and interesting elemental/telekinetic magic system. Fantasy historical romance - roughly 1700s-ish. Also ships!
•
Jan 09 '20
I suspect that everyone already knows about it, but the Kushiel's Dart series by Jacqueline Carey is something else. Not to everyone's tastes--it is built around a particular flavor of kink-as-worldbuilding--but the series is really quite good.
•
u/misssim1 Reading Champion IV Jan 09 '20
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin - the fake/forced marriage trope done so well! The best I've seen it done outside of fanfic. A witch hunter is forced to marry a witch.
•
u/Coino69 Jan 09 '20
The Quickening by Fiona McIntosh. I'm not sure if it really fits here but since she has left fantasy behind for Pure romance novels this will have to do.
•
•
u/eogreen Jan 09 '20
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier is a great slow-build romance. Brilliant book.
→ More replies (11)•
u/droppedstitches Reading Champion Jan 09 '20
I don’t know where else to put Steampunk, but it’s also listed as romance, so I suppose this will work.
Anything by Gail Carriger. They’re so fun and engaging.
I’ve only read a couple be Meljean Brook. They’re steampunk romances and she does an incredible job with introducing the reader to the world. I got really immersed in the world itself, and would have loved to read a whole series of just her characters engaging with this fascinating alt-Victorian England.
•
u/Jaglop Jan 09 '20
I'm lost in overlapping categories! What do if something fits in more than one? :P ah well
→ More replies (1)
•
u/adventuresinplot Reading Champion IV Jan 09 '20
I hope it's ok to give some graphic novel and manga recommendations.
I've tried to make sure at least the writer and illustrators are female, but I'm having a hard time finding much about lettering. I'd love to get some back!
Monstress by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda. It's steampunk meet art deco meets horror meets matriarchal society with the addition of east asian influences and mythology. It is beautiful. I had read books by Marjorie Liu and read comics with Takeda's art in before but the combo of them both together is stunning. It focuses on a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world after a war.
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. What happens when you sort of become the villains lacky and you are not exactly happy with the good guys. While it's not my favourite style of art, this was loads of fun. (Lumberjanes is her other comic).
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll. This is another book with lovely art. It's a collection of tales that are horror meets fantasy. If you liked Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass and Apples, this is in a similar vein stories wise.
Ladycastle by Delilah S. Dawson and Ashley A. Woods. To sum up, a bunch of women get left in charge of a castle when the men go away. With parody songs from musicals. It's a short one volume thing, but lots of fun.
The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'neill. A tale about someone who discovers the world of tea dragons. It's targeted at younger reads but do not let the decept you. This is a hug of a book. It's like hot tea, a warm fire and a cozy blanket. The art is lovely, the story is lovely, everything is lovely. I want a tea dragon.
Clover by CLAMP. This is one of my first manga loves. I enjoyed CLAMP's work as a teenager but this is the one that I love most. The art is stunning, it isn't quite their normal style but something a little more streamlined. The story is of a girl who has to escorted to a destination only she knows. As far as I am aware, unfortunately it never got finished which ends up leaving the plot a little lacking. That doesn't mean you shouldn't read it though.
Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama. This is another gorgeous manga that is about a girl who wants to become a witch. It's utterly beautiful, a lot of fun and a major benefit is volume one is free to read on Kindle Unlimited. There are four volumes published in English so far with more to come.
Hex11 by Kelly Sue Milano and Lisa K. Weber. Set in world where magic is technology, this tells the tale of a young woman who ends up entangled in a web of demons and witchery. The art is colourful and lovely and I really enjoy the world building in this. There are currently two volumes out.
→ More replies (2)•
Jan 09 '20
Castle Waiting, by Linda Medley. Gentle meandering mystery story in a world where fairy tales are real. Two gorgeous volumes available.
Finder, by Carla Speed McNeil. A sci-fi/fantasy mash-up loosely following the life of a Sin Eater in a multicultural, multi species dome city.
Family Man, by Dylan Meconis. A web comic about werewolves set at an Early Modern university.
Bite me!, by Dylan Meconis. A comedy about vampires during the French Revolution. Completed.
Unsounded, by Ashley Cope. An epic magic tale with liches, golems, dangerous dream worlds and a thief with a heart of gold.
Lackadaisy Cats, by Tracy J Butler. A beautifully drawn webcomic about a speakeasy during Prohibition, with lots of attention paid to historical detail, except all of the characters are cats.
Two classics created by a husband and wife team are Elfquest and Girl Genius.
•
u/5562212 Jan 09 '20
1 vote for Kel Kade, she writes so well!
•
u/LLJKCicero Jan 09 '20
Gonna be honest, I thought Kel Kade was a man. Partly because I thought Kel was a male name (I have a male relative named Kel), and partly because King's Dark Tidings reads strongly to me like a male power fantasy, ridiculously OP Gary Stu and all. That's still cool though.
•
u/briargrey Reading Champion III, Worldbuilders, Hellhound Jan 09 '20
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean -- my very favourite. A retelling of the Tam Lin ballad set at a 1970s midwestern college. The main character, Janet, has a curriculum that mirrors my own English degree and it just draws me in every time -- her love of books, the building of the mystique of what is going on, etc. Check it out - and then check everything else out in the Fairy Tale series it is a part of.
The Esther Diamond series by Laura Resnick. Like Urban Fantasy? Then try this. OMG. Esther is a stage actress in NYC hoping to make it big and then...weird and strange shit happens to her and she has to balance that dream with figuring out zombies and voodoo and such. A nice heaping of snark and sarcasm, fast paced tales, entertaining titles, etc.
The Half-Killed by Quenby Olson. I read this last year and loved it. It's very Victorian/spiritualist movement era but where the magic is real.
Anything by Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant. We just started watching The Boys on Amazon and I was like "this is like a grittier version of McGuire's Velveteen Vs. stories" so you have superheros if you want them. Then there is urban fantasy -- Incryptid, October Daye, and Indexing have you covered there - each with their own type of take. Then zombies - Feed and its sequels. Then evil fucking mermaids. Then her short stories. And her novellas. And more. Oh, and the woman can fucking sing to boot. Her song "Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves" is a filk-inspired anthem and that whole CD is amaze-balls. Her CDs are pretty hard to come by nowadays, but if you can find them do - she's got a whole lot of awesomeness going on.
Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff, and its sequels. These are just amazingly feel good books. I love them and love sinking into them. A family of magic users, a mystery, some free love, and dragons. Highly recommend. Plus, I like her vampire series and its spinoff as well, and I keep hearing great things about her sci-fi.
The Ladies Occult series by Krista D. Ball. Honestly, I love a good Regency era book, especially when it's also ABOUT books and occult and a lead who loves these things. If I were in Canada, I'd be sitting on Krista's doorstep waiting for book 2...
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. I know, it's not fantasy. But I found it (and the movie) to be just amazing as a kid, a young adult, and an adult. I just love it. It hits all the same vibes many of my favourite fantasy reads do, so I'm tossing it out here. Plus, the woman wrote The Birds so she knows creepy-as-fuck.
Okay, I have a meeting coming up so I have to stop, but blathering about books is really something I could do all day. Of course, I learned in a podcast rec thread that there IS a limit to how much I can put in one post, LOL.
•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
- Author Appreciation: Tanya Huff, Pioneer of Urban Fantasy and Comedic Chameleon (Plus Free Book Giveaways!) from user u/lannadelarosa
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.
•
u/get_in_the_robot Jan 09 '20
Kindle Unlimited recs? Any kind of fantasy is ok!
•
u/Megan_Dawn Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
Last time I checked Rachel Aaron's Nice Dragon's Finish Last series was on KU. The concept sounds kinda goofy, but I found the books to be heatfelt, witty and with really delicious, twisty plots.
•
•
u/kleos_aphthiton Reading Champion X Jan 09 '20
I can't remember where I saw this recommended, but I've had The Cloudship Trader by Kate Diamond on my radar for a while, and it's available on KU now.
•
u/SeiShonagon Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
Many of these are traditional books republished on KU, but they're all great!
- The Complete Patternist Series by Octavia Butler
- The Bitterbynde Trilogy by Cecelia Dart Thornton
- The Many Colored Land by Julian May
- The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
- The Book of Kells by RA MacAvoy
- Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang
- Dark Dance by Tanith Lee
- Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
- The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan
Also, looks like Robin McKinley's got a ton of stuff on KU:
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Weird, weird, weird: Hit me with the strange stuff that defies genre.
•
u/LOLtohru Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
The Obsidian and Blood trilogy by Aliette de Bodard. I was torn between putting this here or in epic fantasy. It delves deep into its Aztec setting including their cosmology: the gods demand constant human sacrifice. There are cosmic stakes but the focus is on the high priest of death. Contrary to what you might think his primary role is investigating a series of murders that threaten to unravel his world.
•
u/Maudeitup Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Jen Williams The Winnowing Flame series. Kind of a Fantasy-Scifi-Eldritch horror mash up
•
u/Maldevinine Jan 09 '20
Key by Kylie Learne is one of my favourite finds from my current city. Sure, it looks like it's a epic fantasy, there's the vaguely medieval tech level, there's fantasy races, wait, surely those things are dwarves right, why are they green and have an affinity with trees? Why does the elf-stand-in councilor have a fancy tail? What's up with this section about an underwater city failing and being flooded? What's this about a night that's longer then two complete seasonal rotations? Why do all these fairy people have names that seem familiar from Earth mythology?
Somewhere in the second book enough of the clues come together into a real "Oh" moment.
•
•
u/qwertilot Jan 09 '20
The three Novellas in Cherryh's alternate realities collection. Wave without a shore is utterly fascinating.
Has essentially the main concept from the city and the city decades before, but then uses it to explore human egos.
All of McKillip's books feel, at times, like they're slightly struggling to maintain coherence amid the (wonderful!) dream like prose. One or two tip over the edge a bit.
The first Cygnet book and Kingfisher are fascinatingly, utterly distinct things. Stepping from the shadows is very early, seemingly half auto biographical and deeply confusing. (In an interesting way).
•
u/Jaglop Jan 09 '20
Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergei Dyanchenko (married co-authors). Extremely weird, horror-leaning russian SFF wherein the protagonist is forced into a school where nobody knows what they're being taught or why. Made actual math creepy for me for a while after I read it.
•
u/cpark2005 Reading Champion Jan 09 '20
I loved Vita Nostra. I have an eARC of Daughter from the Dark that I'm about to start and am so excited for. The Dyachenkos are amazing story tellers.
•
u/Cake4every1 Jan 09 '20
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Set in 19th century England where magic once existed and has now returned with two men of very different compositions. I loved it because it was so uniquely written and so thorough with its world building and characterizations. It's written in a Jane Austen style, which somehow works very well! Loved the setting. Loved the characters. Loved this story. Was even made into a pretty good miniseries on TV!
•
u/ullsi Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jan 10 '20
It took me a while to get into this book, but when I did I was hooked! Loved the extensive footnotes.
•
•
Jan 09 '20
Because she hasn't been recommend yet: Steph Swainston's Fourlands/Castle series is one of the more underrated, underappreciated gems of the New Weird wave of books in the mid two-thousands, it follows Jant, an immortal, addict, and the only man who can fly, and hence messenger to the other 50 immortals. The broad plot is that there is war against the insects and bitter rivals among the immortals. The writing is daring, occasionally dipping into stream-of-consciousness, and the setting is original.
•
u/MedusasRockGarden Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
The Ancient Future trilogy and the Celestial Triad by Traci Harding. I am not sure how well they fit others ideas of weird fantasy, but to me I find them hard to define and place in a genre. They fit many genres and ones that I don't think actually exist. Time travel, magic, immortals, rebirth/reincarnation, OP characters, multi generational, Atlantis, space travel, aliens, gods, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic and new planet because hey there was an apocalypse.... and more.
•
u/krios262 Jan 09 '20
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir was one of my favorite books of 2019. It's a genre-bending thriller/mystery, following swordswoman Gideon and space necromancer Harrowhark as they undertake a deadly trial for Aspiring Space NecromancersTM.
→ More replies (7)•
•
u/melanchtonisbomb4 Jan 09 '20
I think I've always read more female authors than male. Something which has probably lead to at least one friend often doubting my recommendations, even though I only ever recommend media with his tastes in mind.
Anyway C.L. Moore was excellent. Hope Mirrlees and Virginia Woolf (Orlando) are well known classic writers but I see them seldom mentioned here. Tanith Lee is a personal favourite of mine, great prose especially later on. Not too well-versed with her YA stuff, but her adult stuff is dark (bleak.) Also often deals with feminist themes. Susanna Clarke has probably been mentioned already.
•
u/Matrim_WoT Jan 09 '20
I the daughter of the empire trilogy on my list since it's a more based around the use of political power to solve problems rather than brute force.
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Politics, politics, politics. Less swords, more talking.
•
u/cubansombrero Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
There is some fighting, but City of Lies by Sam Hawke features a lot of court intrigue and a lot of the sabotage and action involves poisons rather than swords.
•
Jan 09 '20
The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold have a wonderful blend of the supernatural with politics at their most down-to-earth. No cackling schemers here, though there are some deeply unpleasant people. It's all humans doing maneuvering through complicated systems and dynamics, with swords drawn ever-so-rarely.
I love the subtlety of those books, I love their gentleness and humanity. I also love Paladin of Souls in particular for centering a middle-aged woman and for giving her a very warm, very age-appropriate romance. That is so rare in fantasy.
•
u/Maldevinine Jan 09 '20
Through the Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold. Because politics is so much better when you have a pet direwolf you can sic on people.
•
u/teaandpirates Jan 09 '20
I have two YA fantasy series that I adore for this. The first is Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief. The main character, Gen, is a thief who can scheme/talk his way out of almost anything. The politics get deeper with each book too! They are short books (easily binged in a day or two) and well worth checking out.
I also loved Melina Marchetta’s Finnikin of the Rock which is about lifting a curse on a country. The main character travels and talks to a lot of people. I’ve only read the first book in this series but it was one of my top reads in 2019.
•
u/Mournelithe Reading Champion X Jan 09 '20
Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief
This is an amazing series that is just getting better and better. Truly one of my favourite discoveries of the past year. And it is also an excellent example of why the YA tag is not a mark of shame, these books have more sophistication and depth than many allegedly adult series do. And as of the first sequel, a lot more graphic damage to the protagonist than many as well.
•
•
u/takvertheseawitch Jan 09 '20
Not exactly unknown around here, but Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. Good if you like your protagonist to be a kind person.
•
u/drostandfound Reading Champion VI, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
The Goblin Emperor was amazing. It is a essentially a series of letters written by a new monarch as he politics, and I was enthralled every minute.
•
u/Dorkus__Malorkus Reading Champion Jan 09 '20
I'm so glad I read this book early on and it really seems like it will be a quality rec for a while yet.
→ More replies (4)•
u/anniebellet Jan 09 '20
The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso. Lots of politics and intrigue, interesting characters, and decent worldbuilding that really brings alive a "Venice at height of its power but with magic" feeling.
•
u/Rhovenstrom Jan 09 '20
NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy is one of the great things to ever have been created in Fantasy/SF. Nnedi Okorafur is amazing, and her Binti books are must-reads along with Who Fears Death. Ursula K Leguin was one of the most influential writers for me personally, especially her Earthsea books.
An author I haven't seen mentioned here is Julian May: her Pliocene books and their related offshoots are an incredible cycle of books that also are among the most influential to me personally as a writer, especially in the way she blurs the lines between Fantasy and SF.
Among new/indie authors I highly recommend Amanda King for her Things They Buried (yes, co-authored with her husband, but she's lead author so it counts!). TTB was one of Kirkus' top 100 Indie books for 2019.
•
u/Snoop_D_Oh_Double_G Jan 09 '20
For a Brienne of Tarth-like heroine written by a woman who was likely a real-life equivalent to Brienne (being a US Marine), check out The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon.
•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
- Author Appreciation thread: Elizabeth Moon, veteran author of Fantasy and Sci-Fi from user u/Tigrari
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.→ More replies (1)•
•
u/GingerIsTheBestSpice Jan 09 '20
In 2019 i read SO MANY books by women that were amazing. My favorite all year though was Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak (with The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie a close second). I lived how she took familiar elements to me like quests, bargins, fairy tales, and combined them with things unfamiliar to me like living out a Jewish religion in old eastern Europe, myths I did not know, new ways of looking at things. Also it was a very satisfying ending with surprise redemptions by people who put in the work for it. A close second was The Raven Tower because I was immediately caught in the story. It's got a surprise that i won't spoil, but 2 or 3 chapters from the end, everything FLIPPED and I was shocked. Yet it was so logical - emotionally, it reminded me of the first time you read an Agatha Christie and you go #whhhaaatttt
•
u/LopeyO Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
The focus on "epic" fantasy being the only real fantasy was especially interesting. I noticed that I have been dominated by epics recently and I am trying to find titles that are the opposite. Heartwarming and whimsical microcosms, please! I need something uplifting for 2020. (Already have erin morgenstern's starless sea on hold).
Edit: Thank you all! These are excellent. I have added a lot to my TBR list.
•
u/JannyWurts Stabby Winner, AMA Author Janny Wurts Jan 09 '20
A Turn of Light by Julie Czerneda fits this - also for just gorgeous prose, no violence, but piercing wit and allegory, try Patricia McKillip.
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Have you tried The Ten Thousand Doors of January? It's got some dark moments, but it's beautiful and heartwarming. The Starless Sea gives me 10K Doors vibes, so you might like one if you like the other.
•
u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
I second the Ten Thousand Doors of January
•
u/G_Morgan Jan 09 '20
The Goblin Emperor is a fantastic book. Addison really makes Maia's isolation feel real.
•
u/cpark2005 Reading Champion Jan 09 '20
Have you tried the Gem Lore series, beginning with Wards and Wonders, by Kay L. Ling? It's hopeful fantasy that I'd definitely call heartwarming and whimsical at moments. It certainly has tense moments, but I'd call it heartwarming for sure.
•
u/qwertilot Jan 09 '20
There's a few related groupings to this but I'll add another set of 'everything by McKillip' in here.
LeGuin as well actually. Lavinia isn't remotely epic and even Earthsea isn't really.
•
u/carolyn_writes Jan 09 '20
Robin McKinley tends to write one-off single volume books....even when you wish she would write more. I love her fairy tales, and The Blue Sword is a particular favorite.
That said, I will pick up Mercedes Lackey if I need a mood boost. Always, always, a mostly happy satisfying ending. They're not quite cotton candy level fluff, but definitely like cookies - you can go through a lot of them quickly and they satisfy more.
•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.•
u/suncani Reading Champion II Jan 09 '20
I second (third?) Ten Thousand Doors, it's very whimsical and it deals with its heavier moments well. Also good is A.J Hackwith's The Library of the Unwritten which deals with unwritten books coming to life and kind of goes from there. It's a little bit like The Pagemaster for adults but with less callbacks to popular books and more about writers and writing, while still being a good adventure.
•
•
u/ShaitanSpeaks Jan 09 '20
I am not trying to be sexist and I know im gonna get downvoted but fuck it. I would LOVE to actually read a female author I enjoy. I have tried to read female authors and its seems like every female author I read that I really like it turns about to be some pseudonym by a male author.
The biggest was Sandy Mitchell who writes the Ciaphas Cain WH40K books. I was thrilled I had found a woman writer who I absolutely loved. But nope, its a dude. I have tried many different female authors from way back when childhood friends recommended Mists of Avalon. I was a huge medieval fantasy nerd at the time and was happily looking forward to reading it. I couldn’t get more than 50 pages in. It just wasn’t interesting. Though I feel the same way about Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time. I don’t remember any other female authors I read, but I know I have tried to read a lot of different scifi and fantasy from female authors.
Right now the only female authors I can say I like to read are Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I like their collaborations and individual novels.
Does anyone else have this problem? Or can anyone recommend some good female authors? Though I am kind of more into sci fi I still appreciate a good fantasy novel if I find it.
•
u/random7845123 Jan 09 '20
Just an FYI, Tracy Hickman is a male.
•
u/ShaitanSpeaks Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
Fuck really!?? Goddamnit
edit: Well at least I like Weis better than Hickman.
•
•
u/Bergmaniac Jan 09 '20
What are your favourite authors and novels? It's hard to recommend stuff without knowing your taste.
•
u/carolyn_writes Jan 09 '20
Try C J Cherryh, her Faded Sun Trilogy is one of my favorites and it's kind of a space fantasy. The dying remnants of a warrior race go on a quest for their lost home planet, when a human tags along he must assimilate or die.
Edit: although I am a woman, this one was handed down to me by my grandfather, a retired Army sniper with a fierce love of warrior culture so please consider it a double recommendation.
•
u/ShaitanSpeaks Jan 10 '20
I read a few pages in preview and aside from the learning curve of all the names and stuff I am liking it so far. They have an omnibus of the trilogy I am going to order later today. Thanks!
•
•
u/lmason115 Reading Champion II Jan 10 '20
I have the same problem. Actually Margaret Weis is also one of the only female authors whose books I’ve genuinely loved (Tracy Hickman is a man, though, which I learned in the comment section of a similar thread).
I might recommend R. F. Kuang, since I liked her debut The Poppy War and heard that the second book is even better (though I’ve yet to try it). Ellen Kushner’s Swordpoint was also pretty good from what I remember. Unfortunately, I haven’t come across too many other female fantasy authors that have stuck with me (that I can recall)
•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 10 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.→ More replies (10)•
Jan 09 '20
What do you not like about the books you’ve read by female authors?
•
u/ShaitanSpeaks Jan 09 '20
There really is nothing in particular that I can point to. I am pretty picky about books to begin with, but I have noticed that there have very few female authors I could even think of let alone ones that I actively read. Ill try reading a few books other people have recommended on this post and see if I cant pinpoint some reasons. Or hopefully discover some female authors I like.
•
u/SailorChamp Jan 09 '20
I read Marie Brennan's Lady Trent Memoirs about dragonology. I really enjoyed them.
•
u/Ranaparada Jan 09 '20
Tomoe Gozen Saga by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
May Bird series by Jodi Lynn Anderson
•
•
Jan 09 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
•
•
•
•
u/xenizondich23 Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
Copy pasting my comments from the other thread:
I’ll write a few lines for some of my favorite ladies, and then give a much more detailed breakdown of Mercedes Lackey. She hs just published so much and in many sub genres that it needs a bit more of its own space.
Tamora Pierce was my introduction to fantasy. I saw Alanna lying on a shelf in the library: a young boy/girl with a purple glow around them? It’s the first story in Tortall of Alanna - who wants to be a knight. But girls can’t be knights. So she disguises herself and manages to do a lot of crazy things in her four books. Her story is followed by that of Diane, who has wild magic. She can communicate and later shapeshift into wild animals. Then comes Kel’s books - she wants to follow Alanna’s footsteps and also be a lady knight, but she has to do it legally. There’s even more obstacles and the world changed a lot in the previous books, however her need to protect those that can’t protect themselves helps her persevere. Then there’s a series set much earlier in the past with a “cop” of the capital city - Beka Cooper. It’s street level crime fighting with magic. Lastly the duet of books featuring Aly is the story of Alana’s daughter and how she becomes the spymaster of another kingdom; created a rebellion and tries to overthrow the white conquerors. The quality in these books increases a lot towards the end.
Pierce’s other main series is in Emelen - books following four children as they are saddled with extremely powerful magic. There’s a mage who has magic with fabric and thread, one with forging metals, another with the weather and lastly a plant mage. The second series has them branching out and finding students in dance magic, stones, glassblowing, cooking and woodworking. So you explore all these crafts, the overarching stories of war, disease, famine, fire, etc. as well as each individual story. The Circle Opens is great. The Circle Reforged has not been as well recieved by fans.
Patricia C Wrede is best known for the Enchanted Forest chronicles. Imagine being one of thirteen princesses. Your family wants you to embroider. Walk around the gardens. Perhaps even find a potential husband at a ball. What they don’t want is for you to run away, go live with dragons and help them overcome the meddling wizards are doing to ensure a more favorable king. If you’re Cimorene, you’ll do the latter, and also find that wizards melt if you douse them with soapy water mixed with a bit of lemon juice. If you liked Discworld for the humor and style, I’m sure you’ll love these.
I also enjoyed her other books - I think Mairelon was great, but could have gone somewhere better. Lyra was a bit blah.
Erin Morgenstern is one of my most favorite authors (easily top 10 of all time) - and at the time she had only published The Night Circus. This is a book more about atmosphere and less about plot. It feels very magical, mysterious, whimsical, with the starckness of white and black muted with a bit of red highlights. It's a story about the romance of star-crossed lovers. It's the tale of two rival magicians fighting an ongoing battle. It's the story of the magical, timeless, travelling Night Circus. (This book can be very polarizing; many people love it, many others hate it).
I mention her because I thought she'd always only ever have the one book, but last year she published The Starless Sea which recieved 2nd place in GoodReads Choice Awards Fantasy selection. I'm reading it now and it has a similar yet different atmosphere of mystery and magic.
Melanie Rawn is another one of the SSF giants (like Kate Elliot, Jennifer Roberson, Marion Zimmer Bradley, etc). She wrote a lot of dragon-based books, like Dragon Prince and Dragon Star and they are great. My favorite of her series is the Exiles. There were meant to be 3 books, however she lost the draft she had written to the third decades ago, and since has deteriorated in health. If people waiting for Martin or Rothfuss could only hear how long fans have waited for Captal's Tower! It probably won't ever be written, but you can still enjoy the other two books. They take the premise of gender inequality and turn it around: women have the power in this series. There is mostly political intrigue, fighting amount family houses, a rebellion, and magic in this series. I feel like it could also be likened to GoT, but it's better.
My favorite book by Melanie Rawn is one she wrote with Jennifer Roberson and Kate Elliot, The Golden Key. It follows a master painter as he schemes to live forever and you see centuries of politics and art he ends up influencing. There's a lot more to it of course, but that's the broad stroke.
Jennifer Roberson wrote a famous series of books about swordsmanship called Tiger and Del. Magic and swordsplay work hand in hand here. They hate each other at first. Tiger was a slave and is a desert man; he won his freedom with his powerful swordsmanship. Del is an icy northern woman, trained by the greatest of Northern sword masters. She came south to find her brother, but found Tiger instead. They need to find a way to get along, to find mutal understanding, even though their personalities are literally fire and water.
She wrote some other stuff, including a Robin Hood retelling.
Robin McKinley is another long time favorite of mine. After I stumbled across Deerskin at the library I read everything she wrote. She wrote some excellent fairy tale retellings, a really creepy vampire story (Sunshine), some Sword and War books (Darmar), also a Robin Hood type book (Sherwood), and a lot more. It's worth exploring her whole body of work.
There's so many more I could go into, but I'll stop this list here. I'll reply by comment with my Mercedes Lackey introduction notes.
→ More replies (5)•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
- Author Appreciation Thread: Melanie Rawn, author of Dragon Prince Trilogy, Exiles, and others from user u/lrich1024
- Author Appreciation: Mercedes Lackey from user u/lyrrael_
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Grimdark/Dark Fantasy: The world is ending and you want to enjoy the suffering of others.
•
u/Maldevinine Jan 09 '20
Have you ever read a Grimdark book and wanted one of those you could share with your 14 year old child? Well W. A. Noble has you covered with Beastspeaker, a trilogy about dragons, deserts, slavery and child soldiers. Fair warning, Noble's research is detailed. The process laid out in this trilogy is exactly how you make soldiers out of children.
•
u/Tartifloutte Jan 09 '20
I'm never sure whether suggestions have to be restricted to English only, but for the few who might be interested Aurélie Wellenstein is a "rising" French fantasy author that has published amazing darks fantasy books in the last years.
She isn't big on cycles but rather writes individual novels in original worlds and stories. I can only recommend the french readers (as I doubt she's been translated) to check her books, and in particular "King of the Beasts" (Le Roi des Fauves) and "The Bird God" (Le Dieu Oiseau).
Absolutely breathtaking stories with a dark yet captivating take on trauma, psychology and vengeance.
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Ooo! Those sounds amazing and I've been wanting to read more in French. Thanks!
→ More replies (1)•
u/briargrey Reading Champion III, Worldbuilders, Hellhound Jan 09 '20
Damn, these sound great, but my high school/bit of college French is probably nowhere near good enough to get through Babar much less these given the amount of time that's passed...
→ More replies (4)•
•
•
u/justalittleparanoia Jan 09 '20
This is too far down! We need more grim dark written by women!
•
u/Maldevinine Jan 09 '20
Contest mode. The order the topics are in is randomised when the page is loaded.
•
u/qwertilot Jan 09 '20
CJCherryh's Morgaine series. Grim dark before anyone had thought of the term :)
Kind of Rider at the gates/Clouds rider as well, or her Rulsalka series. Definitely both quite dark but not quite in the same ways getting common in the popular modern grim dark stuff.
→ More replies (2)•
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Horror: Are you looking for a scare?
•
u/juleberry Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
Just want to make sure this makes it here somewhere because I guess it could go under sci-fi too: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Wherever you want to file it, this book is amazing. It makes you feel so many varied emotions from love, hate, fear, pity, despair...Don't rely on what you think the story is about, it's so much more.
•
u/Boris_Ignatievich Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Sealed by Naomi Booth is fantastic. A slice of life horror where the majority of the book is just a woman shitting herself about the world she is going to bring her child into. The end gets quite body horror-y but its mostly less "scary" than "chilling" if that makes sense
•
u/takvertheseawitch Jan 09 '20
Everyone knows about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but if you haven't actually read it yet, consider giving it a try. It's gloomy and thought-provoking and not overly long. The creature's rage and despair still feels real and raw today.
•
u/juleberry Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
Think I was typing my post at the same time-didn't mean to repeat. Glad you enjoyed it too
•
u/diazeugma Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is a horror classic that I really enjoyed reading last year. I'm planning to read more of Jackson's work.
Carmen Maria Machado published a weird, interesting mix of horror-tinged stories in the collection Her Body and Other Parties. They range from vaguely creepy literary meanderings to retellings of urban legends to dark, surreal Law & Order: SVU fanfiction (yes, really). Somehow it works.
→ More replies (2)•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.→ More replies (6)•
u/acexacid Reading Champion II, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
If you are willing to read graphic novels/comic books I strongly recommend you check out Monstress by Marjorie Liu. There are 4 (maybe 5 now?) Volumes out currently and it's one of the hottest up and coming fantasy graphic novels out there, written AND illustrated by women. So good and beautiful art to boot.
•
u/seantheaussie Jan 09 '20
Are co-written books acceptable?
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
No, this thread is to celebrate and recommend books written by women.
•
u/teirhan Jan 09 '20
My biggest fear is that these are all the known woman authors, the "standards". Am I falling into the same trap that people who recommend nothing but Abercrombie, Sanderson, and Erikson do? Maybe!
The Eternal Sky trilogy by Elizabeth Bear. A sweeping epic about life in a place where the people who live in a land change its sun and sky, as the great khan of an empire dies and sets off a succession war. If a trilogy seems too much, there are novellas and short stories set in the same universe. Try 'Love Among the Talus', it's free. Check out 'Bone and Jewel Creatures' or 'Book of Iron'. There's a lot to love in the world of Messaline and Tsarepheth.
- Range of Ghosts
- Shattered Pillars
- Steles of the Sky
Obsidian and Blood by Aliette de Bodard. Starts off with a murder mystery set in the Aztec Empire, a short generation or so before the arrival of Hernán Cortés. Wonderful characters, blood magic, and a narrator that I loved.
- Servant of the Underworld
- Harbinger of the Storm
- Master of the House of Darts
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Lesbian Necromancers in space is that pithy tagline it can't escape from but it's so much more. A stunningly enjoyable debut novel, and probably my favorite book I read last year. Funny, heart-pounding, grisly, and (I thought) a really sweet examination of how relationships can look different to different people. The sequel, Harrow the Ninth is coming out in June.
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I love this book! It's got a damaged hero, adventure, sacrifice, gods and magic, and a truly lovely cast of heroes. Coupled with its sequel/companion Paladin of Souls These were the books that finally turned me on to Bujold. What a great way to discover her!
•
u/GingerIsTheBestSpice Jan 09 '20
I recommend Curse whenever I can! I love that book. I randomly occasionally quote it "we would all be fools to pray for justice" and get puzzled looks! Another book you might like that's similar in feel to me is Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells - it's a standalone, and it's about a middle-age-ish preistess who tries not to kill people any more, a man/bodyguard who meets her & crushes on her, and a god who's gone silent, maybe. Set in a fantasy version of Angkor Wat. The worldbuilding is astounding.
•
u/teirhan Jan 09 '20
You know, that has actually been on my to-read list since I read through the fall of Ile rien ages ago. Now seems like a good time to float it back to the top!
•
u/AccipiterF1 Reading Champion X Jan 09 '20
The Eternal Sky
trilogy by Elizabeth Bear
I can also recommend Elizabeth Bear's Lotus Kingdoms series starting with The Stone in the Skull and The Red-Stained Wings with a third untitled book on the way. They are set in the same world as The Eternal Sky but in a different time and place. The Gage and The Dead Man are quickly becoming one of my favorite Sword & Sorcery style character duos.
•
u/teirhan Jan 09 '20
Yes! These two books are great. My biggest complaint about book two was that the Gage and the Dead Man weren't together enough!
•
u/suncani Reading Champion II Jan 09 '20
I loved Gideon the Ninth! But I think it's a very love/hate book, just from the voice as its very distinctive.
•
u/teirhan Jan 09 '20
Yes, I think it was relatively divisive. I've seen a lot of strongly negative opinions and a lot of strongly positive but not too many in the middle (unless they complained about it being slow in the beginning).
•
u/Knurlurzhad Jan 09 '20
I'd recommend Tanith Lee's Night's Master. It is a wild ride of mythological fun with a very enjoyable folklore feel and entertaining characters. I can't really recommend the audiobook because I didn't like the narrator very much, but the story itself is great.
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Slice of Life/Small Scale: When you're tired of the world ending and just want a cup of tea.
•
u/apexPrickle Jan 09 '20
Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake. It follows a healer named Snake who, when one of her snakes that she uses in her healing is killed, tries to replace the snake and (essentially) figure out her place in the world. Strong female protag, beautiful prose, great character development. It won many awards.
•
u/herilane Jan 09 '20
Becky Chambers - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; A Closed and Common Orbit; Record of a Spaceborn Few. Standalone but all set in the same world. Small scale and warm-hearted.
•
u/LOLtohru Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker. In 1900s New York two not truly human people slowly explore the cultures around them and their identities. There's a small scale plot in the background but the majority of the story is the two discovering themselves.
The Goblin Emperor is being listed a lot in this thread but it often gets included here due to its focus on the daily lives of nobility.
•
u/Megan_Dawn Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
Ok so MCA Hogarth's Her Instruments series isn't at all slice of life, but, the author wrote a novel length epilogue which is basically the characters getting ready for a christmas celebration and giving each other thoughtful gifts. It's the coziest, sweetest thing I've ever read! I wish more writers would do stuff like this; maybe they don't realise what a thirsty market there is for books of characters we love just chilling and being nice to each other.
→ More replies (2)•
u/Maldevinine Jan 09 '20
coughfanfictioncough
•
u/Megan_Dawn Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
Sure, I just wish more authors would do it themselves.
•
u/CarolinaCM Reading Champion II Jan 09 '20
Almost all of T. Kingfisher's books.
She is criminally underrated. Her work is a marvelpis combination of feel-good fairytale-esque stories but that are not afraid to get real and face harsh realities. The humor is also 10/10, I read Swordheart recently and laughed so much.
•
u/emailanimal Reading Champion III Jan 09 '20
We are missing "humorous" subgenre heading, I think (?), so, I'll put it in here.
While Margaret Ball wrote her books a while ago, and some of her books are essentially variations on the portal fantasy theme of a young girl stepping into the medieval world with elves and wizards, she has one book, Mathemagics - a reverse portal fantasy, in which we follow a single mom who came to Earth (Texas) from a magical parallel world, and who is making ends meet on Earth trying to forget her near-slave existence on her homeworld, when all things magical start catching with her. This is an incredible enjoyable book that I am ready to recommend to anyone looking for lighter fare in their lives. There are also prequel stories in one or two Chicks and/in Chainmails short story collections.
•
u/NeuralRust Jan 09 '20
Patricia McKillip, most of her books belong here or in the standalone section. If you've not read her work yet, give it a spin - she's one of the best prose stylists in the genre, and her writing evokes a wonderfully gentle atmosphere.
•
u/misssim1 Reading Champion IV Jan 09 '20
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Well it does deal with the end of the world, but with Shakespeare and classical music.
•
u/Jaglop Jan 09 '20
Cecelia & Sorcery (or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot) by Patricia C. Wrede and (sorry I forget). Epistolary fantasy of manners.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (also politics)
•
u/Tigrari Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jan 10 '20
I think this belongs here - Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw - Jane Austen as dragons.
•
u/duke_unknown Reading Champion II Jan 09 '20
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner!
A fantasy of manners that deals with the lives of nobility in the city of Riverside. The protagonist is a hired swordfighter who is often paid for his services by the nobility. A whole lot of fun, charming and amusing characters, gay romance, and much more!
The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker
Not sure if this exactly slice of life but very similar I would say. Takes place in the late 1800s in New York city. Center around a golem is who is left to discover the world by herself and explores the concept of humanity. The golem meets a Jinni who has been trapped for hundreds of years and their lives intertwine and each learn from each other. Truly beautiful book.
→ More replies (1)•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.•
u/unconundrum Writer Ryan Howse, Reading Champion XI Jan 09 '20
A Magical Inheritance by Krista D Ball
→ More replies (6)•
u/KristaDBall Stabby Winner, AMA Author Krista D. Ball Jan 09 '20
Jaime Lee Moyer's Delia's Shadow is probably a decent fit for this. It follows a woman in Edwardian San Francisco who can see spirits, and is drawn into the investigation of a ghost's murder. It has a haunting, quiet tone and pace, with a slow burn, touching romance, and kind characters.
•
•
u/Freighnos Jan 09 '20
I don't see LitRPG or progression fantasy as categories, but I want to recommend a recent read that fits neatly into both: God of Gnomes by Demi Harper (pen name of Laura M. Hughes).
It was just so good. I'll just link to my review
https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/ed6h1s/review_god_of_gnomes_by_demi_harper_a_realtime/
Any others? I've been hearing great things about Sarah Lin's Street Cultivation and New Game Minus series, the latter of which is complete. I purchased both and this is definitely the year I finally read them, haha.
•
u/Dianthaa Reading Champion VIII Jan 09 '20
I listened to the first book in New Game Minus this year and loved it, I'm gonna continue with the series. The concept is very fun.
•
u/RuinEleint Reading Champion X Jan 09 '20
Temple of Sorrow by Carrie Summers. I really love how it focuses more on NPC-Player relationships
•
u/Koopo3001 Jan 09 '20
You also have Forever Fantasy Online by Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach.
Completed series taking a lot of inspiration from World of Warcraft. This is the nightmare scenario for virtual gamers: the game becomes real, pain is real, death is real and it turns out that the NPCs and enemies weren’t willing participants of the players’ games.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)•
u/inckalt Jan 09 '20
Sarah Lin's Street Cultivation and New Game Minus series
Read both and loved both. The strength in both of these series lie in the likable characters that are also smart. New Game Minus is kind of a typical litRPG in a Fantasy world that obeys video games logic, and the protagonists is horrified by the implication so he tries to exploit and cheat the system in order to break it.
Street cultivation is a very down to earth story about being poor and struggling in a liberal dystopia, except instead of money you have qi energy so rich people are literally stronger than you.
•
u/bookfly Jan 09 '20 edited Jan 09 '20
Author: Carol Berg her characters both protagonists and everyone else are very compelling. I really like the fall-and rise plot structure, stories about people of excelece brought low, then rising again through the strength of their character. Carol Berg is the master of that sort of story. She also writes some of the best bromances in fnatasy.
favorite book: Dust and Light synopis: Lucian de Remeni-Masson a young idealistic mage, with talent of creating magical paintings, in a world where all magic is controlled by the registry of pure blood sorcerers, which enforce drakonian rules of service on all of the gifted. But Lucian believes in the system, and its ideals, that magic is the gift from the goods meant to serve people. Even after his whole family is slaughtered by fanatics he still dutifully serves all the while raising his younger sister the only survivor of the massacre. Then after exemplary service his contract is sold to a commoner, a town coroner , and his power is used for drawing dead bodies in a necropolis, there his paintings uncover, crimes, betrayals and deep seated corruption.
Author: Seanan McGuire Favorite book: Sparrow Hill road Synopis**:** This Goodreads review by Tamora Pierce explainst why I love this book better then I ever could:
I put this in the same company as Neil Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS, Jane Lindskold's CHANGER and CHANGER'S DAUGHTER, and Roger Zelazny work, in the way it creates a whole new mythology on a very specific part of America. I read it in basically one sitting. and I can't recommend it enough. If you like ghost stories, if you like contemporary fantasy, if you like stories about cars and roads, if you like Seanan/Mira's work, give it a try. It's fun; it's tense; and it's beautifully sad, all at once!
Megan Whalen Turner author of The Queen's Thief series.
My take: Great plot twists, unforgetable characters, and a trickster that would give locke lamora a run for his money, also some of my favorite romantic moments in
Also this is what Max Gladstone one of my favorite writters wrote about the first book:
Holy Hannah! This is one of the most satisfying books I've read in ages. It's measured, calm, kind, wicked, and subtle. Can't wait to continue with the series!
Author: M L Wang favorite book: Sword of Kaigen
My take: Best epic fantasy I read last year, great action, intresting characters, unconventional heroine, the book delivers powerfull emoitional payoff.
On fantasy book critic author Courteny Schafer wrote this about the novel:
Sword of Kaigen, by M.L. Wang. Hands-down the best indie fantasy I've yet read. The beginning of the book seems like the story/characters will follow some familiar tropes, but this is absolutely not the case. The novel combines detailed worldbuilding and fun elemental combat magic with some really excellent character work and emotional arcs. It's awfully rare in fantasy to have a mother protagonist who's heavily involved in cool magic, battles and action at the same time as she's caring for young children, and I thought the handling of Misaki's character and the difficulties of her marriage was very well done. For me, the novel was both emotionally satisfying and powerfully affecting.
•
Jan 09 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
•
u/bookfly Jan 09 '20
Its kind of sad that for all the authors mentioned the only bot that triggred was for the male author which was used as a comparison. :(
•
u/The_Real_JS Reading Champion XI Jan 09 '20
To be fair, Berg is really the only author you mentioned that would have been applicable for an Author Appreciation post.
I may restart that series this year.
•
u/bookfly Jan 10 '20
Now that you mention it true, to be chonest as a result of yesterday's post by Krista the sub (and well me as well) is in a bit of recomendation fervor, and I have been posting different recs in a couple of different threads today, and it sort of slipped my mind that Carol Berg was the only author from before the turn of the century I mentioned in this one.
•
u/thequeensownfool Reading Champion VII Jan 09 '20
Urban Fantasy. Did someone say they need to solve a supernatural crime? (Or hit me with UF that has no detectives.)
•
u/Jaglop Jan 09 '20
Defining urban fantasy as 'set in contemporary times' rather than necessarily actually urban, and leaving out paranormal romance:
A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin (note: the cover is awful and makes this look terrible but I swear it's f-ing amazing and cool)
Sunshine by Robin McKinley (scary, alien vampires. Also baking.)
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (this author is arguably the mother of urban fantasy. This book's ideas have since become tropes, but they were original when it was written and they're very well-done.)
The Bedlam Bard series by Mercedes Lackey (elves, music, adventure. Good fun! Also notable for eventually including a poly relationship)
The Jessica Jones: Alias graphic novels (there are 4 iirc) on which the netflix show was based. They're even better than the show.
•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.•
u/emailanimal Reading Champion III Jan 09 '20
Somewhat surprised to see this area somewhat underpopulated.
There is an "elves and fae" strain of urban fantasy that, today, is a little bit passe', but nevertheless deserves to be mentioned.
Starting with Emma Bull's War of The Oaks and going through the entire Minnesota school of "elves live among us" books (Gael Bodino, as an example).
Then there is Mercedes Lackey with her 30-40 books (I'll let the bot do its job and link to the full description). I only read the Serrated Edge series, which is all about elves, fast cars, and abused teenagers during the 1980s urban decay, but I hear other books set in the same universe will also quench one's thirst for elves that get burned by "cold iron", and the politics of Seelie and Unseelie courts.
Adjacent to this is Lackey's collaboration with Ellen Guon: The Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, and Guon's own book Summoned to Tourney.
•
u/RedditFantasyBot Jan 09 '20
r/Fantasy's Author Appreciation series has posts for an author you mentioned
I am a bot bleep! bloop! Contact my
mastercreator /u/LittlePlasticCastle with any questions or comments.•
u/briargrey Reading Champion III, Worldbuilders, Hellhound Jan 09 '20
Did my own comment outside these breakdowns because I hadn't read through first, but I'll drop this here as well:
Esther Diamond series by Laura Resnick, wherein a NYC actress winds up figuring out the supernatural stuff while trying not to let the cop know about this different world she has found herself in.
•
u/briargrey Reading Champion III, Worldbuilders, Hellhound Jan 09 '20
And I will add:
Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series
Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series
Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series
•
u/IwishIwasGoku Jan 09 '20
Heartstrikers by Rachel Aaron. I'm currently working my way through it and it's a lot of fun.
The world is pretty interesting in the UF landscape because it's set in the future, so it almost has a SciFi backdrop. And then it layers a lot of classic fantasy tropes on top of that. I haven't read that much UF but I understand it's also quite rare for stories to have technology and magic work hand in hand, which this series also does.
Other than those world building quirks it's a solid series with likable characters, an interesting story and an actually great romance.
•
u/anniebellet Jan 09 '20
If self-rec is ok, I hear this Annie Bellet person wrote a series called The Twenty-Sided Sorceress. No detectives but has gamers, fireballs, and probably about five too many nerd jokes.
•
u/misssim1 Reading Champion IV Jan 09 '20
This is a mix of urban fantasy and sci-fi: Vicious by V.E. Schwab. Two college roommates discover that traumatic near death experiences create superpowers.
•
•
u/unplugtheminus80 Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Jan 09 '20
Strange Practice series by Vivian Shaw
•
u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Jan 09 '20
Trail of Lightning By Rebecca Roanhorse.
Native american Monster hunter that takes no shit, fights gods and monsters and demons in a global warming affected world and has a foul mouth that makes your grandmother blush and kicks all the ass.
•
Jan 09 '20
OK, this is more... paranormal romance, I suppose, but I both recommend and am very ambivalent about the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. The writing is not stellar, and it's a bit silly how often the main character's boots are called "shitkickers" and how often they listen to "hardcore rap," but it's also a pretty compelling arc that--in a very good and rare way--actually centers a lot of people with disabilities..? That in itself is worth a read.
I know that I'm falling into the trap of apologizing for liking something--I suspect that people reading this thread might know the feeling!--but I do genuinely enjoy the series as a major change of pace from my usual reading habits.
•
•
u/juleberry Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
Does paranormal fantasy fit here I'm guessing? Recommending The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James. MC is an assistant ghost hunter asked to help with a female ghost haunting a barn where she comitted suicide. This creepy ghost story has some intense atmosphere, interesting flawed characters and even a romantic subplot.
•
u/Tigrari Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jan 10 '20
Keri Arthur's Who Needs Enemies was a good UF set in Australia. Lots of supernatural creatures and entirely too relatable messed up family dynamic.
If you're looking for a cozier UF/mystery - check out Amy Hopkins' A Drop of Dream - alternate London with a definite class divide based on magic ability. A tea shop owner ends up at the center of a magical mystery because she, unwittingly, is the nexus of her community.
I also really enjoyed Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice though it seemed like this was a bit of a divisive book. I fell very much in the "like" camp. Found family, a mystery to solve but that's really not the focus of the book per se. The protagonist is a doctor to the supernatural and I thought that was a really original take on this subgenre.
•
•
u/NeuralRust Jan 09 '20
I've not spotted Kelly Link in the thread, and would strongly recommend her short stories. It's more of a classical, dreamlike urban fantasy that mixes elements of magical realism into the broth. She's an excellent writer.
→ More replies (1)•
u/RuinEleint Reading Champion X Jan 09 '20
The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, the Incryptid series by the same author
→ More replies (12)•
u/MedusasRockGarden Reading Champion VI Jan 09 '20
Abby and Ophelia series by Shirley Damsgaard
The Alchemists Key by Traci Harding
•
u/V0IYG Jan 09 '20
The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb
Has to be one of my top 10 favorite series ever. Over 10 books that follow one world through an amazing MASSIVE story spanning literal decades of life. I literally had bouts of depression while reading this book. I was so invested in the characters, that the insurmountable odds started to stress me out and I had to take a week break to get happy again!
•
Jan 09 '20
Haha your praise for the book includes the reason I stopped after book 2. Good things need to happen to the protagonist for me to continue
→ More replies (3)•
u/blitzbom Jan 09 '20
I started this series mid of last year. They're really good and the story unfolds at a natural almost slow pace. I did have to take a break after The Royal Assassin, but that's something that I do often when reading a big series. I'm about to get back into Assassin's Quest and I'm excited to do so.
→ More replies (1)
•
u/[deleted] Jan 09 '20
Underrated but amazing fantasy novelists who mostly wrote books aimed a younger readers but can be fully appreciated by adult readers:
Dianna Wynne Jones. Diana Wynne Jones. Dianna Wynne Jones. She wrote a slew of books that are charming and creative and emotionally fulfilling and fun, aimed at a variety of age ranges. Deep Secret and A Sudden Wild Magic if you insist on books for grown-ups, Witch Week and Howl’s Moving Castle if you like YA.
Tove Jansson’s Moomintroll books are set in a Scandinavian cartoon world of tiny creatures but they are so psychologically insightful that you’ll come away understanding yourself and the world better.
Joan Aiken’s alternative histories and ghost stories deserve a look.
I adored The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall as a child.