November 23rd, 2007
I’m doing my yearly appeal for help selecting some good fantasy fiction for my brother. He is in grade 12, quite smart and can read just about anything. He likes fantasy, but it’s not something I usually read so I don’t know what’s good. Can anyone recommend to me some quality fantasy, preferably newer to prevent buying him something he already has? Rory, I’m looking at you!
I’d also appreciate recommendations for good SF, same reasons.
By the way, last year’s suggestions were all major hits.
Not new, but “classic” that he may not have read: The “Elric” series is a must-read, as are the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stuff by Fritz Lieber.
Then there’s the Neil Gaiman stuff: “Stardust”, “American Gods”, “Anansi Boys”.
Other than that I’m more of a sci-fi guy. Everyone should read “Snow Crash”, “Ender’s Game”, and a new favorite series of mine — Richard Morgan’s “Altered Carbon”, “Broken Angels”, and “Woken Furies”.
Hmmm – Puck nailed some great titles up there, esp the classics.
Those Sci-fi Titles are a must as well.
Remind me what I recommended last year that he liked & I’ll try to give you some more suggestions…
Rory
The Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold are all very good. They’re a sci-fi series, but they can be read as standalone books.
Other very good sci-fi includes anything by Iain Banks. I would particularly recommend “Player of Games”. Stay away from his mainstream stuff, though, because some of it is pretty messed up.
As for fantasy, the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin are very good. I would also recommend anything by Terry Pratchett. Robin Hobb is another very good fantasy author that I would highly recommend.
I’ll agree with the Martin suggestion, although it may have been made last year, and Puck’s Gaiman and Ender’s suggestion, too.
I’ll also add in Guy Gavriel kay again, in case I didn’t mention him before. Favourites include Lions of Al-Rassan and Tigana, but anything he writes is good to excellent.
Sadly, small kids have limited my reading time, so I haven’t read anything new in a long time that isn’t in comic book or graphic novel form.
It’s more sci-fi than fantasy, but it’s very fantasy sci-fi – THE SIRENS OF TITAN by Vonnegut. Loved it. And I hate everything!