Fantasy Recommendations for the Unenlightened 2

[murphy]

First of all I would recommend War For the Oaks by Emma Bull. One of the first urban fantasies.

Then Charles de Lint's Newford books.

 

[j d worthington]

First of all I would recommend War For the Oaks by Emma Bull. One of the first urban fantasies.

Then Charles de Lint's Newford books.

I'd take serious issue with this being anywhere near one of the first. Urban fantasy as a marketable subgenre may be new, but urban fantasy itself dates back to the late nineteenth century (cf. "A Fragment of Life", by Arthur Machen, for instance), and Beaumont, Ellison, & Co. certainly predate War for the Oaks, as do many others....

 

[murphy]

I'd take serious issue with this being anywhere near one of the first. Urban fantasy as a marketable subgenre may be new, but urban fantasy itself dates back to the late nineteenth century (cf. "A Fragment of Life", by Arthur Machen, for instance), and Beaumont, Ellison, & Co. certainly predate War for the Oaks, as do many others....

I bow to your knowledge J.D. But it's still a good urban fantasy.

 

[j d worthington]

I bow to your knowledge J.D. But it's still a good urban fantasy.

And we can always use more of those... or, for that matter, any good story that helps to broaden the concept of fantasy, a very rich and fecund field that has had one portion a bit overtilled for a while....

 

[Connavar]

Eh? "Norton guy"? That's Andre Norton (real name: Alice Mary Norton), known chiefly for her series of Witch World tales (both novels and short stories) and for innumerable YA sf novels of remarkably good quality. She always referred to herself as a very staid sort of storyteller, almost stodgy; and, while it is true that she is very traditional in her approach to telling a tale, the tales she told were anything but staid or stodgy, but often very rich and thoughtful. Norton died in 2005, after a long and very fruitful career....

Andre Norton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Urban fantasy? Well... that's a rather broad genre, and you might want to dip into writers such as Charles Beaumont and Harlan Ellison (especially Deathbird Stories, Shatterday, Strange Wine... or just go for The Essential Ellison) for a look at some better examples....

What would you recommend of Norton? Witch world ?

About Urban Fantasy and Contemporay fantasy, i seem to find fantasy set in our world very easy to like.

Any kind of those stories dont matter as long as they are good of course.


I wouldnt mind any recommendation both classic works and newer works.

 

[j d worthington]

What would you recommend of Norton? Witch world ?

About Urban Fantasy and Contemporay fantasy, i seem to find fantasy set in our world very easy to like.

Any kind of those stories dont matter as long as they are good of course.


I wouldnt mind any recommendation both classic works and newer works.

Well, it all depends on what you are looking for with fantasy. This may seem like backpedaling, but it's not. If you're looking for the "usual" fantasy items, like elves, magic rings, dragons, swords, etc., only set in our modern world, then your definition of "urban fantasy" and mine are only slightly connected. Mine would include such, but is not limited to these. In fact, much of what has long been called "urban fantasy" (or a variant thereof) has little to do with this sort of thing, but it nonetheless a fantastic tale set in an urban setting. Hence my mention of Arthur Machen's "A Fragment of Life", which is a personal favorite -- though it might be far too slow-paced for some, as it seems to go on for page after page after page about the mundane details of this young Victorian couple, with only a few odd little seeming slips of the pen to give a hint of something else going on. It is a very carefully crafted piece where the fantastic slowly builds in their lives, reawakening the inner life that the outer, "worldly" life has forced them to relinquish. It's a very delicate tale, but has one of the best examples of pure fantasy I can think of.

I mentioned Charles Beaumont, whose work is chiefly known these days through adaptations on the original Twilight Zone, or scripts he wrote for the series. However, he wrote many fantasies set in a modern urban milieu, where the fanastic sometimes forms an invasion of something alien, and sometimes is so integrally mixed with our world in subtle ways that it is almost taken for granted:

Charles Beaumont - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Beaumont - Summary Bibliography

Ellison is a more contemporary, often abrasive voice, but one of the best writers of contemporary fantasy around. He is also enormously prolific, with something over 1700 short stories to his credit, not to mention a few thousand essays, reviews, etc., often concerned with the sff fields. However, the collections I cited earlier contain some of his best work. I'm reluctant to just go with The Essential Ellison, as not all of his best is there; it's more a representative selection of the various types -- and quality -- of his writing, but a huge book of over 1000 pages, and a very good single volume of his work, if one must be chosen. You can get Deathbird Stories, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (a somewhat uneven but often very powerful collection), and Shatterday, in a single volume edition titled Dreams with Sharp Teeth. I'd also suggest Strange Wine and Angry Candy. The following, while not quite up to date (iirc), is a helpful listing of his various works:

Harlan Ellison Webderland: Book List

Ellison almost always avoids the usual fantasy tropes, but even when he does use them, he makes them very much his own....

As for Andre Norton... jeez, where to begin? This'll show you what I mean:

ANDRE NORTON ORG: Books written by Andre Norton - alphabetical list

I mean, her first novel was published in 1934, and her last book was published about 2-3 years ago, I believe. That's a 70+ year career.... And yes, I'd suggest the Witch World books as a (possible) good place to start:

Bibliography of Andre Norton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Witch World - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can also dip into any number of her YA (juvenile) sf novels, and find that they're both entertaining and well-written.....

 

[Connavar]

I can read elves and stuff in a fantasy in our world but i prefer something more different.


Charles Beaumont type is what im looking for, something supernatural and fantasy like happening our very real and normal world.

Like Butcher's Dresden series. The fantasy world was hidden in the shadows of a modern Chicago, thats what i want. Sure in that series there were alot spells,charms,rings etc but thats the kind of magic i wanna see in urban and contempory fantasy. I dont wanna see Pug the great one type magic.

I can read both but you get dragons,swords,magic rings in other subgenres of fantasy very often.


I will look into the authors you mentioned Ellison,Charles Beaumont and co. Ellison and Charles Beaumont sounds almost exactly like what im looking for.

 

[j d worthington]

Well, if you're looking for that darker, grittier, more contemporary feel, then they're certainly high on the list.... I'll be very interested in hearing your response to them....

 

[GOLLUM]

Very nice post JD, I genereally agree with those authors you listed. As I've said, never read Witchworld and very little of Norton in fact, something a fellow fantasist like myself needs to look into I think!!

 

[j d worthington]

Very nice post JD, I genereally agree with those authors you listed. As I've said, never read Witchworld and very little of Norton in fact, something a fellow fantasist like myself needs to look into I think!!

Glad you approve, Mr. G. I'd be very interested in your take on these, as well, given some of the discussions we've had....

 

[GOLLUM]

Glad you approve, Mr. G. I'd be very interested in your take on these, as well, given some of the discussions we've had....

I will let you know. I've only got a single Norton book at the moment, sorry I can't remember the name but it is supposed to be a bit of a classic, maybe SF. Yet to read it though.

I've also seen a new omnibus collection of Holdstock's Mythago Wood cycle by VG. Have you seen those and have you read the entire series? I've only ever looked at Mythago Wood myself but is it worth getting the entire collection or does the quality go downhill???

On a side note VG also put out a new edition of MW stand-alone earlier this year. I reported this was the next Masterwork book to come out but I'm not sure if they're going to do that given what they're currently doing.

 

[j d worthington]

Actually, I've not read the entire set (in fact, one of them wasn't published here, though it's not in the direct line of the series, I understand) and I've not even read Mythago Wood since it first came out. I've been thinking about collecting the rest of them, though, and giving it a try....

 

[GOLLUM]

Actually, I've not read the entire set (in fact, one of them wasn't published here, though it's not in the direct line of the series, I understand) and I've not even read Mythago Wood since it first came out. I've been thinking about collecting the rest of them, though, and giving it a try....

In that case the VG collection may be worth looking into. They're TPB editions, so they're quite affordable.

Here's a link to them. Only the first 2 voulmes have come out so far. I think it's likely they'll be a 4 volume set.

Amazon.co.uk: The Mythago Cycle Volume 2: Ryhope Wood: 4: A Ryhope Wood Omnibus: v. 2 (Gollancz S.F.): Books: Robert Holdstock

Cheers...

 

[Connavar]

Well, if you're looking for that darker, grittier, more contemporary feel, then they're certainly high on the list.... I'll be very interested in hearing your response to them....

Had i put it that way you would have understood directly what i was looking for


I will get back to you on those authors as soon i can find them and read them.


Ever read Tim Powers fantasy by the way?

He is the reason i thought i should read more darker and more contemporary and urban fantasy. For example i loved His Drawing of The Dark. A dark,supernatural fantasy set so much in a city and our real world. Sure it was Austria and Italy in 1500's but still.

 

[Illithrim]

I like David Eddings books a lot. Also with Mecedes Lackey, she and James Mallory hit it big with the Obsidian Trilogy

 

[DeepThought]

Couldn't find any mention of the series in this thread so...if you like to read something classic in the same vein as C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, though obviously less known but every bit as good quite possibly, try Chronicles of Prydain (five volumes) by Lloyd Alexander which came out in the wake of J.R.R Tolkien's famous novels and similarly like The Hobbit it started off as a lightweight children's story (in this case; The Book of Three) which eventually progressed into full fledged fantasy tackling more mature, deeper and darker themes.

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King

You can get this in single volumes if you prefer...though here's a link to the five volume omnibus edition;

Amazon.com: The Prydain Chronicles: The Book of Three; The Black Cauldron; The Castle of Llyr; Taran Wanderer; The High King and The Foundling and other tales of Prydain: Lloyd Alexander: Books

Cheers, DeepThought

 

[j d worthington]

DeepThought: I'm not sure how those got overlooked... or perhaps they're mentioned in the original thread, rather than this second. At any rate, I'd heartily second on this suggestion. Wonderful books, and there's been at least one or two omnibus volumes which bring all the stories (including the shorter tales) together in quite a nice format that is also quite affordable....

 

[DeepThought]

...I'm not sure how those got overlooked... or perhaps they're mentioned in the original thread, rather than this second.

Ahh that could be it and if that's the case, sorry about the post.

Cheers, DeepThought

 

[j d worthington]

Ahh that could be it and if that's the case, sorry about the post.

Cheers, DeepThought

No apologies... please! I said "perhaps" I didn't track down the original thread and do a search, so I'm guessing there... essentially I'm just surprised that they hadn't been noted (I know they've been mentioned in one or two of the YA threads, for instance, at least, as well as a few other threads); so was just positing a possibility....

 

[Urlik]

Eric Van Lustbader is definitely worth a read
I love his Sunset Warrior trilogy (and there is a 4th book about one of the other characters from the SW trilogy, that takes place after those books)

some very interesting ideas in there