For good old-fashioned "Old school" fantasy, have you read "Jirel of Joiry", a collection of short stories about a woman warrior who rules her own kingdom/lands?
I love the ending, though- "But he who would rule does not squander his strength. So I think we'll leave Joiry alone."
Other old-school fantasy stories are, of course, Conan the Barbarian, who really has been flanderized to hell and back in movies and such, Red Sonya of Rogatino (another Robert Howard heroine) and Dark Agnes of Chatillion (again, a Robert Howard heroine). Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories (I devoured those like Candy in the late 80's.)
In more modern stories, there is Tiana of Reme by Andrew J. Offut, Red Sonja by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney (not the graphic novels, these were actual written books) (see here: http://www.blackgate.com/2013/04/09/red-sonja-the-novels/). There is also Tomoe Gozen, written about by Jessica Amanda Salmonson) Lynn Abbey's Rifkind (about a female warrior of a primitive desert tribe), There is also Dreamsnake, a novel by Vonda McIntyre, which is set in a post-apocalyptic world but can also be read as a primitive/dark ages-type world. She is a healer that uses snake venom to make potions. However, when her most rare and valuable snake, Grass, a dreamsnake, is injured by villagers whose son she is trying to help, she is distraught because Dreamsnakes are rare and the healers haven't been able to breed them, only occasionally clone them. And during the course of the novel, she ends up getting another snake and finds out how to breed them. It's a really wonderful story.
Then there was "Master of the Five Magics" and "Secret of the Sixth Magic", both by Lyndon Hardy. It's about a young man who sets out to Master the Five Schools of Magic so he can be recognized as a suitor for the Queen he has fallen in love with. Originally, he wants to master just one of the schools, but heis accomplishments keep being stolen from him by antagonists, and after he masters three of the magics, he discovers that the world is going to be invaded by Demons, and he's been manipulated onto his path to be the one who defeats them by past magicians. In the second book, a new school of Magic, metamagic is discovered and investigated by a young man named Jemidar.
I also read some very adult fantasy stories that were being published around that time. I remember one series with much ribald wordplay where the male hero's name was Fost and the woman he travels with and ends up marrying is Mariana. One of their companions was a ghost in a jar who was a noted philosopher who had advocted strict celibacy during his lifetime, but ended up completely changing his mind once he was dead. There was a scene where Fost and Mariana were about to attend some sort of formal event, and Fost had to wear this harness of leather straps and the ghost suggests it's perfect for making love with the comment about the hero can "Ram the good ship Mariana or set his pike to take on boarders..." It was a five or six book series, but I can't remember the titles or who wrote it. Which is a pity, as I'd love to see if it was as good/bad as I remember.
@LadyRhian I've been trying to remember the name of that last book for ages. Thanks for reminding me of the names of the courier and his female companion, the only other thing I could remember was that it was about a floating city (which when I googled it taught me a bit about Japanese culture but absolutely nothing about sexually frustrated phantoms).
@Dunbar Found it. "War of Powers". It was six books and originally published by Playboy Books (yes, THAT Playboy). The series is by Robert E. Vardeman and Victor Milan. And it was Moriana, not Mariana. Six books. "The Sundered Realm", "City in the Glacier", "The Destiny Stone","The Fallen Ones", "In the Shadow of Omizantrim", and "Demon of the Dark Ones".
There was also the "Atlan" series by Jane Gaskell that I remember reading waaaaay back when. It's about a young girl named Cija (pronounced Key-yah) who is the daughter of a female dictator. She's raised alone in a tower pretty much by herself, such as, at the start of the novel, she believes herself to be a goddess, and that all the men in the world have died off, leaving only women. Her mother decides to send her off to marry and kill a warlord named... um, Something starting with Z, I think, who is also half lizard person (he has green skin and some scales, so your guess is as good as mine). Cija travels around her world, serving in all sorts of roles, priestess, sex slave and so on, and the last book in the series is narrated by her daughter by the half-serpent guy. Needless to say, there is a lot of sex and mistreatment of Cija, but it's not quite as bad as John Norman's GOR series (which, I am sad to say, ran 26 Books. 26! Holy Crunknuts, Batman!)
I was a huge Conan consumer in my youth,i don't remember the the issue but Elric of Melnibone was a guest star in one of them,they even fought against each other,that ended in a draw,i was hooked .If the Elrics books are translated I'm going back to reading asap.I really need more time to do some research.
The first fantasy novel i read was Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, pretty sure that got me hooked on mythical worlds and strange beasts ever since. As a kid I also devoured all the Fighting Fantasy series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, kind of choose-your-own adventures books set in (mostly) a fantasy D&D type land.
@Dungeonnoob I don't know which is the language you want to read the books in, but I'd say they were translated to many languages by now (doesn't make the fact you can actually get them easily).
@Dunbar No problem. I want to reread them myself now- see if they are as good/bad as I remember. Also, this other series by a writer calling himself "Jarod Comstock". It was "These Lawless Worlds", about a rather sexy female judge and her alien bailiff who is some kind of shape changer. He recites a magical formula to change his shape, but he can also manipulate things with it as well (in one of the books, they travel to a water planet, and he changes some rocks into a weight belt for her- but it takes him several tries to satisfy her taste for the colors she wants). It is also full of sex- She and the Bailiff are lovers in an open relationship, and the books are about the lovers they both take during the course of her cases (she acts as an investigator as well as a judge).
The first book is called "The Sex Machine", and it's about a murder of astronauts on a spaceship by a robot. The robot went crazy, but the Judge has to figure out why. As I recall, the answer is that the astronauts "Modified" one of the robots so they could have an outlet for their, um, feelings, and when the rotation changed, the new guy did it without using a condom and short-circuited the robot, which went crazy and killed him.
The second book takes place on a water planet, and the judge is accompanied by a dolphin who can speak and is just as intelligent as humans. A murder has occurred and the judge must discover who done it among the merman-types who inhabit the planet. The aliens are telepaths as well, and there is an incident where there is an orgy involving the planet's prince and it somehow engulfs the entire earth. It's called "The Scales of Justice".
The Third book was called "Kingdom Come" (Why, no! No irony there!), and I can't say I remember anything about it.
@Booinyoureyes There are tons of filks based on fantasy novels as well. "Terminus Est", which I posted elsewhere, is based on Gene Wolf's "Book of the New Sun" series. C.J. Cherryh's novels have an entire album called "Finity's End" (try here:
Gordon Dickson's Dorsai Books also have an album called, appropriately enough, "Songs of the Dorsai" (I have the full version with people who can actually sing, but the only copy I can find on YouTube is from a later album retitled "Shai Dorsai", by people who apparently *cannot* sing, so I won't torture your ears with it here.)
Along with parody songs like "Conan the Vulgarian" by Roberta Rogow. And there are at least 6 or 7 albums of songs from Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, 2 from her "Vows and Honor" series (i.e. Tarma and Kethry), and she has written tons of filks on her own. Here is just one song, called "Leslac's Last Lament", about a wandering Bard from the Tarma and Kethry books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlyJ76TgMaQ And here is a song that shows why they didn't like him: The Leslac Version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEh8s3kCmHo And the REAL reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwM85N1ElVw @CaloNord, are you listening?
Curious, what author got you initially hooked into fantasy/scifi books?
Hard to say. Either Goosebumps (R.L. Stine) or Spooksville (Christopher Pike). Not sure which one I would have read first, though it was probably Goosebumps.
@booinyoureyes (and anyone else who might be interested).
I've just finished reading "Fated" by Benedict Jacka, "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher (Boo's recommendation) and "Rivers of London" by Ben Aaronovitch, all of which are urban fantasy books but each with a distinctly different take on the genre.
"Fated" - Set in London, the protagonist is a Diviner (I mention this specifically because, of the three books, this one is probably the most detailed about the technicalities of magic) who is on first name terms with an air elemental who has ADD. In this scenario the magic world exists almost unnoticed, flowing in and around everyday life. The plot of the first book takes place in the middle of a political power struggle between different alliances of mages and promises an interesting continuation of this in subsequent books. Of all of them this is the one most likely to have been written by someone who has experience of D&D (and incidentally the author's interpretation of divination provides the perfect excuse for using pre-knowledge in the game).
"Storm Front" - Set in Chicago, the magical world is overt and acknowledged, albeit with distrust and scepticism. The plot is a fairly classic whodunit featuring a down at heels magic-using P.I. surrounded by plenty of colourful and well written characters. This book is complete in itself and, though satisfying, didn't leave me wondering how the back-story was going to develop.
"Rivers of London" - Again, set in London, this is my favourite so far but that's possibly because it's so intrinsically English, drawing heavily on cultural mythology and using very dry, laconic humour. In this instance magic is not only acknowledged but openly recognized to the extent that there is a small (and weirdly gothic) magical investigations department in the Metropolitan Police (of which the protagonist is a newly-recruited Constable). Again, like "Fated", there is a deeper back story that promises much for the future books in the series.
Currently trying to get back into gardens of the moon by Steven Erikson. Its the second time i'm reading it but i need to reread it to move onto the sequels. so complicated and yet no plot line is forgotten
Currently reading the Game of Thrones books, which is a pain cus I'm only on book 2 and the entire world wants to spoil everything for me (thanks South Park for the Red Wedding. ) but they're very good imo.
Currently reading the Game of Thrones books, which is a pain cus I'm only on book 2 and the entire world wants to spoil everything for me (thanks South Park for the Red Wedding. ) but they're very good imo.
this guy who's really important dies of a heart attack
Those books are really pretty fantastic, except I got so bogged down by absolutely nothing happening in the first 500 or so pages of the fourth book I put it down for too long. Feel like I need to start the whole thing over again. Sometime when I have a few free months...
I've found a site called Bookbub that finds cheap ebooks on Amazon. I've read a few of the free ones (some people upload the first in a series for free so you can try them).
Of course, with free books, you get what you pay for. ;-) So far, the only one I've been really impressed with was Altdorf, by J.K. Swift. It's a historic fiction story set in 14th century Switzerland (when it was part of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled by the Hapsburgs - which, of course, doesn't affect my judgement in any way at all! ;-) ), and is about a group of Knights Hospitaller who return home after a crusade and find a major rebellion about to happen (and also basically do the whole William Tell thing...sort of!). I quite enjoyed it, and will probably read the rest.
The one before that was called The Viking, and is set in Scotland (full of people who wear Dark Ages kilts...yeah, not quite up on your clothing history there, author!), and is about a Norwegian youngster who gets stranded in Scotland after a Viking raid goes horribly wrong (because the Scottish are so awesome, naturally), and...well, I stopped reading about a quarter of the way through. The characters are dull, the concept is silly, and the author isn't very good at creating a scene, preferring to just write everything matter-of-factly.
The book I'm reading now is called Pentecost, and is about a Israeli girl who was in the Israeli army (best soldier in the world, obviously), then became an Oxford professor, and must now hunt for twelve stones supposedly carved from the rock that guarded Jesus' tomb, and they find them all within about two days, because she figures out every clue within five minutes, and she and her male partner (who totally isn't a love interest at all, honest) manage to steal these ancient relics from the secure vaults of ancient churches (including the Vatican itself!), in broad daylight, full of tourists, with very little effort, and no consequences. I'll probably finish it just to see how it ends (although I can probably take a wild stab in the dark), but I'm not keen. It's a good idea - it reminds me of The Da Vinci Code in some ways, and the history of the religion is very well researched (assuming it's all accurate), but it isn't executed very well, IMO.
I read a lot, though I'm not sure if that makes me a book geek. I have just about everything Franz Kafka ever wrote (or that's been printed at least). Also a big fan of Russian literature and have read most of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy's major works.
Right now I'm reading, Endymion by Dan Simmons, The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Ian Banks and The Claw of Conciliator by Gene Wolfe.
All good books, but I especially love The Book of the New Sun series. This is my third time rereading it.
Hmmm, I quite liked Kafka (and Camus, didn't like Sartre) but they all somehow led me to Hermann Hesse who I think wrote some seriously influential books including one of my 'must have' books, "Narziss and Goldmund" (now renamed Narcissus and Goldmund, thanks to the PC brigade).
Those books are really pretty fantastic, except I got so bogged down by absolutely nothing happening in the first 500 or so pages of the fourth book I put it down for too long. Feel like I need to start the whole thing over again. Sometime when I have a few free months...
That doesn't sound hopeful. I already thought Dany's arc in book 2 was sort of uneventful and could've been trimmed down. On to A Storm of Swords now. I think I'll just bite the bullet and watch the show too. Spoilers are too hard to avoid and a lot of the events on the show don't happen in the books or happen very differently anyways.
@TheElf that changes starting with the third book, there's nothing wrong with watching the series first but don't let anyone say there aren't spoilers or that the series is very different. also the books allow for certain surprises as not all characters know each other but watching the series you'll recognise them immediately
Wait what changes in the third book? Dany becomes more awesomer again? And I didn't mean they're all that different, just that there are enough differences in the show I know of that is sounds like it will still allow me to find new stuff in the books.
Honestly if you're prepared to wait I think you'll enjoy reading the books before watching the series as the books describe the world in better detail. Also the books can be very subtle about plot points which gives you a real sense of awesomeness if you can guess what George is hinting at, unfortunately they physically couldn't implement that level of subtlety in the series so they had to change things a bit. I can't give you a definite reason to read them first without spoiling things. If you're happy to take your time the books reveal things in a better way which adds to the intrigue and mystery of the plot. The third series starts to move away from the books a bit more as they can't follow the book's ways of revealing everything (also if it was exactly the same there'd be no point in reading and watching). And yes Dany does get WAY better in the third book/series (I think its the third anyway, its kind of hard to remember individual books and not just the grand scheme of things). Either way you go about it enjoy yourself as both the books and the series are brilliant
My favorite character is Tyrion Lanninster (even after reading through the last books)… I guess I'm saved hahahaha! [spoiler=Form the 4th book]Brienne of earth was my second favorite but she was killed.[/spoiler]
Comments
For good old-fashioned "Old school" fantasy, have you read "Jirel of Joiry", a collection of short stories about a woman warrior who rules her own kingdom/lands?
They even did a filk song about her (by Mercedes Lackey, sung by Leslie Fish):
I love the ending, though- "But he who would rule does not squander his strength. So I think we'll leave Joiry alone."
Other old-school fantasy stories are, of course, Conan the Barbarian, who really has been flanderized to hell and back in movies and such, Red Sonya of Rogatino (another Robert Howard heroine) and Dark Agnes of Chatillion (again, a Robert Howard heroine). Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories (I devoured those like Candy in the late 80's.)
In more modern stories, there is Tiana of Reme by Andrew J. Offut, Red Sonja by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney (not the graphic novels, these were actual written books) (see here: http://www.blackgate.com/2013/04/09/red-sonja-the-novels/). There is also Tomoe Gozen, written about by Jessica Amanda Salmonson) Lynn Abbey's Rifkind (about a female warrior of a primitive desert tribe), There is also Dreamsnake, a novel by Vonda McIntyre, which is set in a post-apocalyptic world but can also be read as a primitive/dark ages-type world. She is a healer that uses snake venom to make potions. However, when her most rare and valuable snake, Grass, a dreamsnake, is injured by villagers whose son she is trying to help, she is distraught because Dreamsnakes are rare and the healers haven't been able to breed them, only occasionally clone them. And during the course of the novel, she ends up getting another snake and finds out how to breed them. It's a really wonderful story.
Then there was "Master of the Five Magics" and "Secret of the Sixth Magic", both by Lyndon Hardy. It's about a young man who sets out to Master the Five Schools of Magic so he can be recognized as a suitor for the Queen he has fallen in love with. Originally, he wants to master just one of the schools, but heis accomplishments keep being stolen from him by antagonists, and after he masters three of the magics, he discovers that the world is going to be invaded by Demons, and he's been manipulated onto his path to be the one who defeats them by past magicians. In the second book, a new school of Magic, metamagic is discovered and investigated by a young man named Jemidar.
I also read some very adult fantasy stories that were being published around that time. I remember one series with much ribald wordplay where the male hero's name was Fost and the woman he travels with and ends up marrying is Mariana. One of their companions was a ghost in a jar who was a noted philosopher who had advocted strict celibacy during his lifetime, but ended up completely changing his mind once he was dead. There was a scene where Fost and Mariana were about to attend some sort of formal event, and Fost had to wear this harness of leather straps and the ghost suggests it's perfect for making love with the comment about the hero can "Ram the good ship Mariana or set his pike to take on boarders..." It was a five or six book series, but I can't remember the titles or who wrote it. Which is a pity, as I'd love to see if it was as good/bad as I remember.
There was also the "Atlan" series by Jane Gaskell that I remember reading waaaaay back when. It's about a young girl named Cija (pronounced Key-yah) who is the daughter of a female dictator. She's raised alone in a tower pretty much by herself, such as, at the start of the novel, she believes herself to be a goddess, and that all the men in the world have died off, leaving only women. Her mother decides to send her off to marry and kill a warlord named... um, Something starting with Z, I think, who is also half lizard person (he has green skin and some scales, so your guess is as good as mine). Cija travels around her world, serving in all sorts of roles, priestess, sex slave and so on, and the last book in the series is narrated by her daughter by the half-serpent guy. Needless to say, there is a lot of sex and mistreatment of Cija, but it's not quite as bad as John Norman's GOR series (which, I am sad to say, ran 26 Books. 26! Holy Crunknuts, Batman!)
youtube "Quest for Tanelorn"
The first book is called "The Sex Machine", and it's about a murder of astronauts on a spaceship by a robot. The robot went crazy, but the Judge has to figure out why. As I recall, the answer is that the astronauts "Modified" one of the robots so they could have an outlet for their, um, feelings, and when the rotation changed, the new guy did it without using a condom and short-circuited the robot, which went crazy and killed him.
The second book takes place on a water planet, and the judge is accompanied by a dolphin who can speak and is just as intelligent as humans. A murder has occurred and the judge must discover who done it among the merman-types who inhabit the planet. The aliens are telepaths as well, and there is an incident where there is an orgy involving the planet's prince and it somehow engulfs the entire earth. It's called "The Scales of Justice".
The Third book was called "Kingdom Come" (Why, no! No irony there!), and I can't say I remember anything about it.
"Fellowship Going South" is based on Lord of the Rings.
"Silver" is based on "Silver Metal Lover" by Tanith Lee
"Daddy's Little Girl" is based on Stephen King's "Firestarter"
(And I find it rather chilling, to be honest!)
There is even a song for "Flowers for Algernon".
"Storyteller" by Anne Harlan Prather are songs based on Anne McCaffrey's Pern books and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books
Gordon Dickson's Dorsai Books also have an album called, appropriately enough, "Songs of the Dorsai"
(I have the full version with people who can actually sing, but the only copy I can find on YouTube is from a later album retitled "Shai Dorsai", by people who apparently *cannot* sing, so I won't torture your ears with it here.)
Along with parody songs like "Conan the Vulgarian" by Roberta Rogow. And there are at least 6 or 7 albums of songs from Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, 2 from her "Vows and Honor" series (i.e. Tarma and Kethry), and she has written tons of filks on her own. Here is just one song, called "Leslac's Last Lament", about a wandering Bard from the Tarma and Kethry books.
And here is a song that shows why they didn't like him: The Leslac Version
And the REAL reason:
@CaloNord, are you listening?
I've just finished reading "Fated" by Benedict Jacka, "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher (Boo's recommendation) and "Rivers of London" by Ben Aaronovitch, all of which are urban fantasy books but each with a distinctly different take on the genre.
"Fated" - Set in London, the protagonist is a Diviner (I mention this specifically because, of the three books, this one is probably the most detailed about the technicalities of magic) who is on first name terms with an air elemental who has ADD. In this scenario the magic world exists almost unnoticed, flowing in and around everyday life. The plot of the first book takes place in the middle of a political power struggle between different alliances of mages and promises an interesting continuation of this in subsequent books. Of all of them this is the one most likely to have been written by someone who has experience of D&D (and incidentally the author's interpretation of divination provides the perfect excuse for using pre-knowledge in the game).
"Storm Front" - Set in Chicago, the magical world is overt and acknowledged, albeit with distrust and scepticism. The plot is a fairly classic whodunit featuring a down at heels magic-using P.I. surrounded by plenty of colourful and well written characters. This book is complete in itself and, though satisfying, didn't leave me wondering how the back-story was going to develop.
"Rivers of London" - Again, set in London, this is my favourite so far but that's possibly because it's so intrinsically English, drawing heavily on cultural mythology and using very dry, laconic humour. In this instance magic is not only acknowledged but openly recognized to the extent that there is a small (and weirdly gothic) magical investigations department in the Metropolitan Police (of which the protagonist is a newly-recruited Constable). Again, like "Fated", there is a deeper back story that promises much for the future books in the series.
so complicated and yet no plot line is forgotten
Of course, with free books, you get what you pay for. ;-) So far, the only one I've been really impressed with was Altdorf, by J.K. Swift. It's a historic fiction story set in 14th century Switzerland (when it was part of the Holy Roman Empire and ruled by the Hapsburgs - which, of course, doesn't affect my judgement in any way at all! ;-) ), and is about a group of Knights Hospitaller who return home after a crusade and find a major rebellion about to happen (and also basically do the whole William Tell thing...sort of!). I quite enjoyed it, and will probably read the rest.
The one before that was called The Viking, and is set in Scotland (full of people who wear Dark Ages kilts...yeah, not quite up on your clothing history there, author!), and is about a Norwegian youngster who gets stranded in Scotland after a Viking raid goes horribly wrong (because the Scottish are so awesome, naturally), and...well, I stopped reading about a quarter of the way through. The characters are dull, the concept is silly, and the author isn't very good at creating a scene, preferring to just write everything matter-of-factly.
The book I'm reading now is called Pentecost, and is about a Israeli girl who was in the Israeli army (best soldier in the world, obviously), then became an Oxford professor, and must now hunt for twelve stones supposedly carved from the rock that guarded Jesus' tomb, and they find them all within about two days, because she figures out every clue within five minutes, and she and her male partner (who totally isn't a love interest at all, honest) manage to steal these ancient relics from the secure vaults of ancient churches (including the Vatican itself!), in broad daylight, full of tourists, with very little effort, and no consequences. I'll probably finish it just to see how it ends (although I can probably take a wild stab in the dark), but I'm not keen. It's a good idea - it reminds me of The Da Vinci Code in some ways, and the history of the religion is very well researched (assuming it's all accurate), but it isn't executed very well, IMO.
Right now I'm reading, Endymion by Dan Simmons, The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Ian Banks and The Claw of Conciliator by Gene Wolfe.
All good books, but I especially love The Book of the New Sun series. This is my third time rereading it.
On to A Storm of Swords now. I think I'll just bite the bullet and watch the show too. Spoilers are too hard to avoid and a lot of the events on the show don't happen in the books or happen very differently anyways.
And I didn't mean they're all that different, just that there are enough differences in the show I know of that is sounds like it will still allow me to find new stuff in the books.
The third series starts to move away from the books a bit more as they can't follow the book's ways of revealing everything (also if it was exactly the same there'd be no point in reading and watching).
And yes Dany does get WAY better in the third book/series (I think its the third anyway, its kind of hard to remember individual books and not just the grand scheme of things).
Either way you go about it enjoy yourself as both the books and the series are brilliant