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| The King's Henchman, by N.C. Wyeth |
Take this list with a grain of salt. You've probably read some
of these books, but that doesn't mean they've entered the public conscience the
way Game of Thrones or Harry Potter have. Popular fantasy series, like Lord of
The Rings, have fan clubs and get all the licensing deals there are to offer. Sadly
other great stories slip through the cracks of mass cognizance (often stuck in
the Middle List) through no fault of the author or the publisher; sometimes it
just comes down to timing or luck.
Some of these books may not be available in e-reader formats or are actually
out of print. Don't let that stop you. Others are more current. So...here you
are...ready to challenge the list, compare it with your own literary hierarchy,
or just trying to find a good book. Just enjoy, and please share.
10) The Winter of The
World by Michael Scott Rohan (Avon Books)
The Anvil of Ice, TheForge In The Forest, The Hammer of The Sun (and more)
We enter a mythic ice age through the voice of one who has
seen and felt the past's ancient mysteries. In the shadow of the Great Ice, the
sinister Mylio the Mastersmith makes his young war prize, Alv, his apprentice,
but withholds the secrets of his art that would yield the boy true mastery.
Fearing for his life, the boy escapes in pursuit of the knowledge that he has
been denied.The lyrical prose is a steady contrast to the bleakness of his setting.
Nit Pick
The third book was not as good as the first two and the action toward the climax of the story seemed a bit drawn out and repetitive.
9) Throne of The
Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (DAW)
Throne of The Crescent Moon
The book is heavily Arabian without being heavily Islamic.
In fact, the Quoran is never mentioned and the almighty is referred to as God
instead of Allah, making it "safe" for even the most Conservative of
readers. Crescent Moon is a finely penned contemporary homage to original Arabian Nights stories.
Set in the fictional city of Dhamsawaat, which is
reminiscent of Baghdad or Istanbul at their apex, its unlikely hero, Doctor
Adoulla Makhslood is an experienced ghul (ghoul) fighter. "Unlikely"
because the man is well past his prime and his longtime friends have died. He's
a loner, the last practitioner of a dying tradition contemplating whether he
can even continue. A second wind arrives through pair of young upstarts that
befriend him, and, coincidentally, help him save the city from its monsters
(some of whom are quite human). Only one book so far, but this is a fun world
to get lost in. I eagerly await
the next novel. Nit Pick
The sidekicks fall in love a little too easily, despite not
having many words between them. The final conflict was short and didn't cost
the characters much, and as a result, the character arcs were flatter than in
most books of this caliber.
8) The Elric Saga by
Michael Moorcock (Ace Fantasy)
Elric of Melnibone, Sailor On The Seas of Fate, Weird of The White Wolf, The Vanishing Tower (and more)
Melnibone's melancholy king, a sickly emo albino sorcerer
who draws strength from a soul-eating sword, seems like the least likely
anti-hero of a fantasy series, but Moorcock does a masterful job of justifying
the emotional and intellectual pressures that make Elric who he is. The world
is a splendid place to adventure in, and Moorcock is one of the earliest
fantasy novelists to delve into alternate realities and time travel as a
regular part of the universe he's created. Although Moore never uses the word
"elf" in his books, it's assumed by true fans that Elric's race is
Elvin, and thought of as demons and resented by the humans of his world.
This was one of the most popular fantasy series of the
1970s. Games and graphic novels have been made of the character, and it
influenced Gary Gygax when he was creating D&D.Nit Pick
The writing style is not as dynamic as more current novels,
and its treatment of women is very limited by the era it was written in. Also, you
can't get the original novels on Kindle as of this writing and the hard copies
seem to be out of print. There are lots of used copies around, though.
7) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (Alfred A. Knopf)
The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
Golden Compass was actually a big budget Hollywood movie
with star power, but the story's atheist themes probably killed the momentum
for sequels; that, and the book was much better than the film.
In this universe, one's soul (called a daemon) exists
outside the body in the form of an animal avatar that you can speak to. Irony of ironies considering, Harry
Potter is all about witches and Warlocks and creatures from the ancient
myth...But then, none of JK Rowling's characters accused an old demented angel
of pretending to be a fraudulent God.
Nit Pick
The third book was not as good as the first two. It was a
little hard to follow what was going on at the end.
6) The Tales of Alvin Maker by Orson Scott Card
Seventh Son, RedProphet, Prentice Alvin, Alvin Journeyman, Heart Fire, The Crystal City
Alvin Miller realizes he's a Maker with incredible powers
for creating and shaping things around him. As a seventh son of a seventh son,
Alvin's is extra-crispy powerful. In this 19th-century alternate reality, the
United States as we know it does not exist, but historical figures do pop up (like
Ben Franklin, a rumored maker himself) or are mentioned at length. Cultures
develop their supernatural abilities differently; whites have
"knacks" or cultivated skills, Native Americans are aligned with the
rhythms of nature and use blood magic, and Africans create objects of power,
similar to voodoo.
Nit Pick
I did not find the last two books as engaging as the first
four. The Crystal City was a bit of a rambling mess. Also, these days you need
to consciously divorce yourself from Orson Scott Card's stated misgivings
against homosexuality, and his fiction writing. It's kind of like watching a
good Woody Allen movie and forgetting about Soon Yi Previn.
5) Guardians of Aandor by Edward Lazellari (Tor)
Awakenings, The LostPrince, Blood of Ten Kings
Fantasy medieval archetypes find
themselves in our modern world with amnesia. They have escaped their universe
to protect an infant prince from assassination. But the prince is lost in our
world's foster care system for thirteen years, and we only know this because assassins
eventually arrive from the other reality.
The books buck the traditional
fantasy template in favor of a more literary flow. The characters are more
shades of gray than simplistic black and white archetypes. There's more "real
life" in this series than the other books on this rankings list. It's
written as an ensemble piece with each chapter limited to one character's point
of view, so every reader has a different favorite character based on his or her
personal preferences, and the dialogue is loose and fresh compared with typical
fantasy dialogue. I have read an ARC of the book three, Blood of Ten Kings, and
this series has one of the most satisfying endings of any trilogy out there (and the main reason this series made it to No. 5 on this list).
Nit Pick
For a
modern series, book one is light in character diversity, but each subsequent
book gets better in this regard. The first half of Book 2 is slightly
overwritten, but has a great, tense second act to make up for it.
4) DragonLance Chronicles: Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Autumn of The Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning
On the eve of their reunion, a group of friends consisting
of Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff—who had previously separated
to pursue their own quests—discover that the village where they are meeting in
has been taken over by a religious order called the Seekers. They are
collaborating with the Dragon Highlords, who are preparing for the conquest of
Ansalon.
The Companions soon discover that the Seekers are searching
for a Blue Crystal Staff. When Goldmoon, a plainswoman in the same inn as the
companions, heals a Seeker with her staff, the Companions are confronted by
Highlord forces and are forced to flee the village.
If you are an avid reader between the ages of 40 and 60,
these novels probably ushered you into the world of fantasy fiction.
When TSR decided to branch out into books from their
Dungeons & Dragons properties, little did they realize the force that is
Weis and Hickman that they'd unleashed on the genre. These could very well have
been two-dimensional novels, the formulaic Harlequin Romance versions of
fantasy books. But they aren't. The first two series are amazing fantasy tales
that stand in their own right independent of Dungeons & Dragons. The
characters are well thought out and the world building fleshes out what TSR had
done with the games.
Nit Pick
The novel was written after the completion of the first
Dragonlance game modules, and after the authors played an adventure through it.
They felt it was constraining. You might feel the first series is very orderly
and neat, and you may love this about the series, but they did not do this with
the follow up series Legends (Time of The
Twins, War of The Twins, Test of The Twins).
3) Diskworld: City Watch by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)
Guards! Guards!, MenAt Arms; Feet of Clay, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud!
The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is the police force of the
fictional city of Ankh-Morpork. There are so many Diskworld stories, but I'm
partial to the City Watch series, which is satire at its best. Crisply written,
Prachett's wit, through the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork, applies to all nations
and eras, and amplifies man's folly with a dry humor that most writers would
sell their soul to wield. It's also darn good straight-forward fantasy.
Nit Pick
Some people like their fantasy stories deathly serious.
These read more like humorous procedurals. It helps if you enjoy or at least
understand Monty Python humor to get the message in these stories. This is as
much a comedy as it is a fantasy series. That said, the stakes are pretty
serious.
2) The Black Company by Glenn Cook (Tor)
The Black Company, Shadows Linger, The White Rose (and more)
One of the earliest and best Grimdark series around, Die-hard
fantasy fans over forty know The Black company. These are epics from the
grunts' perspective...we're talking henchmen and dog soldiers of big-time evil
sorcerers...the hired muscle.
Glenn Cook does a great job of fleshing out these characters
so that you feel for them and even like them. Among the villain's lackeys are
ethical men who know the way they eke their living costs the innocents their
lives and freedom. How this plays out in a world with sorcerers as powerful as
gods is part of the series' charm. The wizard battles are creative and original
and among the top in the whole fantasy genre. This is a dark, gritty series. The
bleakness of these soldiers' existence rarely lifts, though it makes the
positive moments so much more tender and sweet by comparison.
Nit Pick
You might have to slog through the first quarter of the
first book like a good grunt, but the reading eases up after that and stays
smooth as butter going forward. The
second book veers off from the main characters we know for a good chunk of it,
but the new town and characters are just as interesting.
1) The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (Avon Books)
Nine Princes In Amber,The Guns of Avalon, Sign of The Unicorn, The Hand of Oberon, The Courts ofChaos
I'm shocked at how many new fantasy fans don't know of Roger
Zelazny. He's inspired many of the top current writers today—successful authors
like Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin. So it's no surprise this tops the list
as the black diamond choice.
The story's told from the perspective of Corwin, who awakes
from a coma in New York with amnesia. He discovers that he's part of a royal
family that can wander among infinite parallel worlds (called shadows). Later
he is shown and walks "the Pattern," a labyrinth inscribed in the
dungeons of Castle Amber, which gives the multiverse its order.
Take a dysfunctional royal family, hell bent on killing each
other to acquire power, add the ability to traverse the multiple realities of
the universe as well as time and space, deem those other universes as shadows
of the two real universes, Amber and the Courts of Chaos, and you have yourself
a wicked good premise for a series.
Nit Pick
I like
the first series (First five books) better than the second. Both are good. The
combined chronicle edition has all ten novels.
Algernon Swift lives in New York and works for The Man. He occasionally blogs and tweets to let off his highly opinionated steam in order to stay sane.
3 comments:
If you haven't read any series by women and minorities that are as good as most of these - not the Terry Pratchett mind you, though I doubt he's under read - then you need to expand your fantasy menu. Try Kate Elliott. Or go back in time and try Patricia McKillip. Basically all women authors are under read. As for minorities, I'm not the one to inform you, but I bet you can find someone.
Sue H
Diana Wynne Jones!!!!!!
Actually, one of my favorite fantasy writers is JK Rowling, but she doesn't fit the category of "writers you're not reading." Everyone reads her. I also love Audrey Neffenegger (Time Traveler's Wife), and Ursula K. Leguin, Mary Shelley, and Anne Leckie. Their books also get plenty of play. I also love Jane Austin. So not intentional to leave off women or writers of color from list. A good story is a good story no matter the gender or race of the writer. Just did not have that aspect in mind when putting this top ten together. These lists are subjective, not canon. (BTW, Why does Ahmed Saladin not count as a minority?)
And I'm going to give Diana Wynne Jones a read some time soon. :-)
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