Fantasy/Sci-Fi Book Recommendations

[MyClipboardIsMyViolin]

So, after spending many years on the Great Spiritual Discernment Conquest of yore to defeat the Evil Bad Guys of Depression, Abuse, and Fear/Uncertainty, I have finally decided that my reading diet that sustained me through said conquest, namely Practical Non-Fiction and Works of Great Literature, is inadequate reading material for the road ahead.

If I’m going to be writing and revising my various fantasy and sci-fi works, the first place to start is some good inspiration. And yes, I already put the Wingfeather Saga on hold at the library, and yes, I should find my way back into the Orson Scott Card Pathfinder books.  But it seems that most fantasy is written for the younger set and tends to be shorter, so this topic is for posting books of that genre you think an adult may enjoy reading.

And by that, I mean Christian adult. I’m not stodgy – I read the Hunger Games, but I think the Game of Thrones may be too much content to not be worth my time. (Keep in mind that kids are still reading this topic, and you being younger doesn’t preclude you from posting here with your recommendation – I welcome ALL input.)

Go forth and recommend!

 

Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

[therealameliahoch]

@myclipboardismyviolin “massive inward breath” K.M. Shea, C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, Melanie Cellier, R.J. Larson’s Books of the Infinite, Steve Azasa, Sharon Hinck’s The Sword Of Lyric, Kathy Tyers’ The Annotated Firebird, Rachel Star Thomson’s The Seventh World Trilogy, and last but not least Julie Rollins’ Vadelah Chronicles “gasps”

"I'd wager that I have more illnesses than all of you!" She exclaimed.

[R.M. Archer]

The Truth series and Decoy Princess duology by Dawn Cook

Atlantis Rising by T.A. Barron

The Girl Who Could See by Kara Swanson (sci-fi fantasy)

The Shannara books and Landover books by Terry Brooks

the Wilderking trilogy by Jonathan Rogers (fantasy retelling of David)

Graceling by Kristin Cashore (there is one scene in this one that’s… not great)

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater

The Terebinth Tree Chronicles & Vengeance Hunter by Hannah Heath

Any of @hope-ann’s books

Swipe by Evan Angler

The Fire Rain Chronicles by Miranda Marie

The Lunar Chronicles (sci-fi) by Marissa Meyer

Echoes (mix of sci-fi and contemporary? Ish? I’m not 100% sure how to categorize it.) by Miranda Marie (and the sequel, Mirage, is coming out tomorrow, I believe.)

The Incarceron duology by Catherine Fisher

Women of Kern by Maris McKay (this one gets kind of descriptive too, but actually not as much as Graceling. Which is sad since Graceling is supposedly YA. XP)

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Tales of Starlight by Bryan Davis

Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne (I think… It’s been a while since I read it.)

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by R.M. Archer.

Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Worldbuilding enthusiast. Singer. Fan of classic literature.

[MyClipboardIsMyViolin]

Thank You both! Unfortunately @r-m-archer I have already read the Incarceron duology (it is totally awesome), but that is a good one for other readers of this topic.

I would recommend Obsidian Mirror by the same author, Catherine Fisher, as well.

Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

[R.M. Archer]

@myclipboardismyviolin

I’ll have to check that one out. 🙂

Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Worldbuilding enthusiast. Singer. Fan of classic literature.

[Chelsea R.H.]

@myclipboardismyviolin

I’m an adult (technically), but YA is still my favourite genre and the one I usually read. But I’ve got a few adult suggestions and/or YA that an adult might like.

Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead. I’ve just started these, which I think are probably leaning more toward historical than fantasy, but they’re retellings of King Arthur and involve a lot of mythology/psuedohistory.

Brandon Sanderson comes strongly recommended by some, though I’ve personally only read his sci fi trilogy The Reckoners.

The Staff and the Sword by Patrick Carr. Not really anything particularly original or mind blowing, but adult fiction, clean and entertaining.

Anything by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I haven’t finished this yet and its not entirely clean, with a lot of language, but still has really good prose, in my opinion.

Ursula le Guin is supposed to be good and I’ve heard a lot about her YA books, which are mostly sitting unread on my shelf.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. A YA debut and really good. At least, I really enjoyed it. African fantasy, which makes it out of the box and very fresh.

Fawkes, Romanov and the Out of Time series by Nadine Brandes. YA, but my mum enjoyed them (Romanov hasn’t released yet though).

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. I hope there’s at least a few there you haven’t read. 🙂

Ceud mile failte

[I, David]

@myclipboardismyviolin

I cannot stress this enough:

Brandon. Sanderson.

Easily one of the best Fantasy writers out there today. He has a good amount of YA stuff a lot of people know about, but his true greatest works are The Stormlight Chronicles–READ. THIS. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT PEAK FANTASY LOOKS LIKE, YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST READ THESE. He’s only written 3 out of 10 so far, but every one is astounding–Elantris (Easily my favorite book, sans the Bible, of all time.), Skyward, and Warbreaker.

Four
INFP
songwriter

[Veraza Winterknight]

@myclipboardismyviolin

Oracles of Fire, Dragons in our Midst, and Children of the Bard by Bryan Davis. For the record those are the names of three series that go together. They’re easily my favorite books besides the Bible. They’re about… well it’s kinda hard to explain but if you want me to I’ll try. Oh and they’re fantasy.

Another series I’d recommend would be Story Thieves. It breaks your brain and heart in half but then it fixes them. They’re… well they’re kinda several genres in one series depending on the book. It tends toward fantasy, though. They’re really well written and tie with the Bryan Davis books for being my favorite.

[Daeus Lamb]

@myclipboardismyviolin I’m trying to find some good ones myself. There aren’t many from my experience. 😛

As @i-david mentioned, Brandon Sanderson is the best of the best. He’s on a level with Tolkien.

Speaking of Tolkien, if you’ve only read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, The Silmarillion is a must.

Dreamlander by K.M.Weiland is also one of my all-time favorite spec-fic books. It’s her best book.

Oh, and this isn’t fantasy proper, but you should really read Till We Have Faces by C.S.Lewis.

[MyClipboardIsMyViolin]

Chelsea R.H. wrote:

@myclipboardismyviolin I’m an adult (technically), but YA is still my favourite genre and the one I usually read.

No worries, that was me for awhile. I still go back there for all of my old favorite authors like Garth Nix and Shannon Hale, but I have ran out of Garth Nix books to read: send help. 😛 Basically anything by those two authors is really good – I particularly like Across the Wall by Garth Nix and the Books of Bayern series for Shannon Hale. The Princess Academy series by Shannon Hale is good, but Bayern has better characters and more spiritual depth, so yeah.

Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead. I’ve just started these, which I think are probably leaning more toward historical than fantasy, but they’re retellings of King Arthur and involve a lot of mythology/psuedohistory.

I’m going to assume that this is different from the Stephen Lawhead who wrote Empyrion I and Empyrion II (hopefully that isn’t out of print, heh). I kinda remember that series name –  I remember considering in and rejecting it for some reason. Might be worth another look.

Also I remember another author who did a very good King Arthur retelling thing – I need to look that one up. I do like the Howard Pyle Version, but there’s another one I like…

Anything by J.R.R. Tolkien

Yes, I read that. 😛 I have not read the Simdrillion, however – I understand it to be a reading exercise on the order of Infinite Jest and Mason and Dixon, neither of which I have finished (i.e. Moby Dick).

Books need to emotionally engage me to push me through them, and if you have a long work with no engagement, what happens to me is that I stop every 5 pages and go do something else, and then I incur library fines for not finishing it and endless renewals and finally I get tired of it and give up, in which case that is the end. Beings who wish me to read the Simdrillion will have to make the case to me that this will not happen.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I haven’t finished this yet and its not entirely clean, with a lot of language, but still has really good prose, in my opinion.

This never bothered me, but I don’t write work with it – I find that those words have an emotional impact that isn’t what I want in my work. However, I have a high tolerance of it in the works of others. Very high.

Thank you very much all, I have plenty of new titles to investigate! I will be putting Brandon Sanderson on the list, @i-david @daeus-lamb

Daeus Lamb wrote:

@myclipboardismyviolin I’m trying to find some good ones myself. There aren’t many from my experience. <span style=”-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);”>:P</span> 

This topic is free, man. I shall not be offended if you steal some – I can’t stop you. 😛

Oh, and this isn’t fantasy proper, but you should really read Till We Have Faces by C.S.Lewis.

I have not read this book, but I have listened to the Red album based on it, Until We Have Faces. Does that count? 😛 (Okay, sure thing, I’ll go order it off Amazon, but I am not paying for rush shipping! Actually I have a hoard of CBD gift-card money that I might be able to use for that…)

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by MyClipboardIsMyViolin.

Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

[Taylor Clogston]

You’ve already ordered Till We Have Faces, so I’ll spare you that recommendation again =P But read all this stuff:

• The Hainish Cycle and the Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Children of Hurin, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald
• Redwall, Mattimeo, and Mossflower by Brian Jacques. (maybe read the others too, but at the very least these three)
• The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (and then if you can tolerate his writing, try The Stormlight Archives. I hate the first Stormlight book, but the next two are some of my favorite books ever)
• Hogfather and Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. (and the others, etc. but start here!)
• The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
• Sandman by Neil Gaiman (comics, but well worth the read)
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman (warning, lots of sex and pagan stuff)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Shining and Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (and a bunch of other stuff, etc. but this gives a great picture of King at his best)
• The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (if you like super formulaic stuff with a great ending)
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini (honestly, if you can stand them, the first 2-3 books are pretty decent, and the magic system’s one of the best you’ll read)
• The Artemis Fowl series and Airman by Eoin Colfer (they’re for kids, but they’re extremely entertaining and full of heart; just great storytelling)
• The Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett (if for some crazy reason you want to get into Warhamer 40K)

[R.M. Archer]

@taylorclogston

I almost mentioned both Dracula (which I just finished and enjoyed) and The Inheritance Cycle.

Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Worldbuilding enthusiast. Singer. Fan of classic literature.

[MyClipboardIsMyViolin]

Taylor Clogston wrote:

• Sandman by Neil Gaiman (comics, but well worth the read)
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman (warning, lots of sex and pagan stuff)

Sounds like something that my creative writing prof from two semesters ago would have liked. He was into both comics and…that stuff. I shall have to read this to properly recommend them to him.

And seriously, kids are reading this forum. 😛

• The Shining and Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (and a bunch of other stuff, etc. but this gives a great picture of King at his best)
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini (honestly, if you can stand them, the first 2-3 books are pretty decent, and the magic system’s one of the best you’ll read)
• The Artemis Fowl series and Airman by Eoin Colfer (they’re for kids, but they’re extremely entertaining and full of heart; just great storytelling)

Stephen King isn’t fantasy/sci-fi. *looks at topic title 😛 * After reading SK’s memoir On Writing…there’s a difference between gothic horror (Garth Nix and Kamelot) and just plain ugly horror. Gothic horror has style and form to its darkness – it gives horror definition and character and explains our fears so we can conquer them in God’s power and love. The other kind seems just adding more needless fear to my life.

I read the first book of the Eragon series – I didn’t like it. It was boring to me. I’ve read one of the Artemis books, I forget which one. Probably the first one. It was good, though the fairy characters felt 2-D.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by MyClipboardIsMyViolin.

Sarah, Miss S, Sierepica_Fuzzywalker

[Cassandra Hamm]

@therealameliahoch I LOVE THE BOOKS OF THE INFINITE! I don’t think I’ve ever found anyone else who loves them, though, until now! 😀

@r-m-archer I know exactly which scene you’re talking about 😛 it kinda ruined the book for me, tbh. Also, LUNAR CHRONICLES!!

@myclipboardismyviolin As for my own recommendations, I would highly recommend Karen Hancock. She has The Legends of the Guardian-King series (starts with The Light of Eidon–and don’t pay attention to the covers cuz they’re not the best) and the standalones Arena and The Enclave. The Enclave is sci-fi; the others are fantasy.

I would also recommend Mary Weber’s Storm Siren trilogy. Content–self-harm.

I love the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, but I will admit there is a bit in there that isn’t the greatest. The worldbuilding is fantastic, though. The main content that might be of concern is homosexuality (but there are three different couples, so this couple isn’t focused on all the time). I also love how she deals with sex slave trafficking.

I crush readers' souls like grapes.

[Cassandra Hamm]

@myclipboardismyviolin I thought of another one. Jill Williamson’s Blood of Kings trilogy is awesome! Also, her writing gets better throughout the books.

I crush readers' souls like grapes.

[Author]

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