Fantasy Fiction

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I've just recently read "A Great and Terrible Beauty" and its sequel, "Rebel Angels" by Libba Bray. While the plots are definitely a blend of cliches from just about every famous fantasy type book written, it's done well. And I think she got the characterization/relationships of the teenage girl protagonists down very well. I really enjoyed reading them.

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@ petals and dandesun:
I went to a talk by Terry Prachett and can confirm that there is a further book with Moist von Lipwig in the pipeline. It will be called "Making Money" and should be out next year or as soon as Terry can finish it. As he told us yesterday, at the moment he has too much fun with all the ideas he wants to put into it. He can see the end "over there", but unfortunately he is still "over here" quite a few yards away.
Some of the things he mentioned:

- Cabinet of Curiosity (singular): a ten- or possibly eleven-dimensional glass cabinet with drawers and drawers within drawers that can contain anything as long as it fits into a cube of 14.1.." inches and is not pink. Only HEX can make the calculations necessary to open any of the drawers.

- Necromancers who work for the renamed Department of Post-Mortem Communication. They have the saying "Old necromancers never die." That's it. The head of the department is in the unenviable position that his predecessors keep on meddling with current affairs.

- Oddest computer nerd ever invented. And that is saying something considering the standard.

- The death of Moist's predecessor as Govenor of the Royal Mint at age 87 in the arms of his 23 year old mistress and the subsequent discovery of a secret room full of costumes and equipment. One of the bits rolls out and is mistaken for a rubber bone by a small dog. The thing is about the size of a rubber bone, but round. The big difference is that it is clock-work operated, there being no electricity and thus no batteries on the Discworld.

Frankly I cannot wait for this.

The new Tiffany book, Wintersmith, should be out any day now. Terry has planned the Tiffany books to be a series of four books, so there should be one more. But he said for the "right price" he would be willing to write a fifth.

[petals]

Thank you so much, okolobaloba! That all sounds great--I just finished my last Pratchett novel and I am having withdrawals. So now I have something to look forward to!

I like his Tiffany novels, so I'm going to pick up the new one when it comes out. Love the Wee Free Men!

[dandesun]

Would it be wrong of me to squee at this Pratchett news? Because I really really want to.

[indygirl]

dandesun said:

Would it be wrong of me to squee at this Pratchett news? Because I really really want to.

In no way is this wrong.

Squeeeee!!!

See?

[Deleted]

Crivens!
My paperback of Thud actually has an excerpt from Wintersmith at the end. It sounds very interesting.

I also went to my bok cases to chaeck on other Fantasy Fiction and I realized most of them is the classic stuff: Robert E. Howard (I know, Conan), E.R. Eddison, James Branch Cabell (whose Jurgen is still a delight), Karl Eward Wagner (Kane) and, of course Moorcock. I loved the latter's Eternal Champion sequence, especially the books about Elric of Melniboné, mostly because he is the polar opposite to Conan and his type of he-man heroes so common in Sword and Sorcery.

[starskin]

As I said ages ago in the "Explain Your Username" thread, my name comes from a series of books co-authored by George Lucas and Chris Claremont (of Uncanny X-Men fame). They're collectively called The Chronicles of the Shadow War, and are sequels to Willow which take place 13 years after it. It's a pretty archetypal storyline with even more archetypal characters (half demon warriors, dragons, elves and whatnot), but they're fantastically written. Anyway, I've been a super-nerd for Lucas and Claremont seperately, so it was only natural that I became a super-nerd for this. These books ruled my life for like 5 years. I even made a t-shirt.

Ahem. Yeah. Anyway, that's my sci-fi/fantasy geek confession. *blush*

[petals]

Claremont! The Dark Phoenix Saga!

Now you are not alone in your geek confession, starskin.

[bee]

Another Pratchett / City Watch fan here, Sam Vimes is my hero. Or, well, one of them. And you really can read his books almost any way you want, my current preference is to read newest through to oldest in the clusters - Watch books, Witch books, etc.

And I'm still straining to keep up with Robert Jordan, but completely agree he's lost his plot somewhere about four books ago. Things have not been going anywhere and the readers have to suffer a zillion pages of nothing.

Old school David Eddings books are great for fantasy fans, most of my friends read him before Jordan. Plus, all his best stuff is already finished. And I'm a big fan of all Tamora Pierce's work - young adult but really, really good.

[LurkerNan]

Bumping this thread up because I think there is an interest in supernatural fiction, especially ones that involve vampire/werewolf/witch politics... usually with a mystery involved. It's such a large genre right now, but it's damn hard to classify.

We've also been needing a place to discuss the differences between the Southern Vampire books and the HBO series True Blood, without spoiling those who have not read the books. Shall we do it here, or start a "Vampire and other Supernatural Beasties" thread?

Each of the following authors has their own idea of how the politics of vampires/werewolves/witches/fairies would fit in with normal humans society. I can't be the only one who reads this stuff... right?

Here's some of the authors I mean

Kim Harrison
Rachel Caine
Charlaine Harris
Karne Chance
Jim Butcher
Yasmine Galenorn
Carrie Vaughn
Patricia Briggs
C.E. Murphy
Mary Janice Davidson

... even Laurel K Hamilton (who really doesn't deserve her own thread, IMO. Most of these other authors make her look sad. )