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Quick last minute need for book suggestions

Innisfree

By Innisfree,
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Innisfree

Innisfree

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Recipient is a young adult who is finishing the Pern series, and has previously enjoyed Harry Potter and similar fantasy series. She likes long series with well-developed worlds. Animals are a plus. I’ve tried to get her into Tolkien without success. Maybe the writing is too dense, or the story doesn’t move fast enough? Idk. Any ideas are welcome.

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Storygirl

Storygirl

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What about the Redwall series by Brian Jacques? All of the characters are animals, and it is a super long series.

You also might look into The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander and The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper (start with The Dark is Rising, which is technically book two, but the first book is a prequel that can be skipped, IMO). Two of my favorites.

The fantasy series by Brigid Kemmerer that begins with A Curse So Dark and Lonely is a play on Beauty and the Beast. The protagonist is 18, I think, so this series skews older than the other ones I mentioned.

I agree with Robin McKinley!

Also look at Tamora Pierce. She has several fantasy series, though animals are not a big presence, other than horses.

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Innisfree

Innisfree

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Thanks, everyone. 

I’ll look into Robin McKinley and the other Anne McCaffrey books. She’s looked at the Prydain and Dark is Rising books and not been interested, which disappointed me, because those are some of my favorites too. (It’s Midwinter Day, so time to reread The Dark is Rising!) Redwall never got any interest either. 🙁

Tamora Pierce has been a huge hit, especially the Terrier, Bloodhound, Mastiff trilogy. I think she’s pretty much finished the Tamora Pierce books, though.

Megan Whalen Turner, Brigid Kemmerer and Patricia Wrede are good ideas. Thank you!

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vonfirmath

vonfirmath

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4 hours ago, Harriet Vane said:

Robin McKinley is a fabulous fantasy writer. Perhaps start with The Hero and the Crown? 

Robin McKinley also wrote the fabulous book Dragonhaven -- about what if dragons existed in our world and the study of dragons and some politics (in that world) around them.

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Innisfree

Innisfree

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46 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Robin Hobb’s books are good and have dragons. Start with Assassin’s Apprentice. Longish series.

Another author I enjoyed. She probably would too… but I remember a lot of violence in them, and I can’t remember if they’re “adult” in other ways. Although I handed her the Pern books, which are hardly innocent, and which I read when I was younger than she is. 

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Tanaqui

Tanaqui

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You know, I usually would just make a carefully diverse booklist and then leave, but my mom died only a few months ago* and I'm really not feeling discretion. So instead I'm going to say what I rarely actually say: why the heck are you all only suggesting books by and about white people? Why is it *always* like this? Do you all only read books by and about (straight, ablebodied and NT, middle class, mostly nominally Christian**) white people? Do you realize how limiting that is?

So I'm going to go eat my dinner, and walk my dogs, and hope somebody else picks up the diverse books banner just one time, and then I'm going to come back and post a booklist and it is going to rock.

* My new year's resolution is going to be to stop saying that, but it's not 2023 yet, and anyway, it's true. Not feeling discretion, or holidays, or not saying what I mean, or this whole time of year. Also, Mommy would 100% endorse this sentiment.

** I know that Novik is Jewish, actually, but I'll note that the series suggested here centers a white male presumed-Christian protagonist. Spinning Silver has a Jewish protagonist, though I hesitate to suggest it because it also has potatoes in 1300s Europe, and that's just not right. Also, it has a few too many POV changes. I mean, I still read the heck out of it, but seriously.

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ScoutTN

ScoutTN

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2 hours ago, Innisfree said:

Another author I enjoyed. She probably would too… but I remember a lot of violence in them, and I can’t remember if they’re “adult” in other ways. Although I handed her the Pern books, which are hardly innocent, and which I read when I was younger than she is. 

Yes, a lot of violence. More adult than Pern, but no graphic s*x or anything like that. Grittier than Pern. But good world building.

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Lori D.

Lori D.

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3 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Robin Hobb’s books are good and have dragons. Start with Assassin’s Apprentice. Longish series.

Just an FYI: these are rather dark and fatalistic in worldwiew and brutal in plot events. Great world building, but for adults or mature older teens. YMMV.

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Lori D.

Lori D.

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2 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

... Spinning Silver has a Jewish protagonist, though I hesitate to suggest it because it also has potatoes in 1300s Europe, and that's just not right...

Gently... a book with Elves, a Fire Demon, and a human heroine who can turn silver into gold at a touch does not suggest that a book is going to recreate Medieval Europe factually, anymore than Harry Potter is going to be a faithful-to-reality of UK boarding schools. 😉

Spinning Silver is a fantasy, loosely based on Medieval European culture and European folk legend -- not a painstakingly researched historical fiction novel based on real people/events. 😉 

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vonfirmath

vonfirmath

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6 minutes ago, Robin M said:

So do I. 

Currently on my nightstand are Black author Namina Forma's The Gilded One  and African author Suyi Davies Okungbowa's Son of the Storm. 

All the books on this list sound so good. 

Amari and the Night Brothers (and the sequel that just came out) is the series that our middle school library cannot keep in stock right now.

 

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Robin M

Robin M

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11 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

Amari and the Night Brothers (and the sequel that just came out) is the series that our middle school library cannot keep in stock right now.

How could I have forgotten about Amari. Have it on my virtual nightstand as well.  

 

11 hours ago, JennyD said:

My DH and oldest two DSes (17 and 14) absolutely adore Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series.  I haven't read them myself -- I don't believe there are animals, but apparently the world-building is amazing.

I've been reading Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series which are just as good. 

 

Other epic fantasies I have enjoyed are Samantha Shannon's Priory of the Orange Tree.  Have gifted to several people.

Christopher Paolini's Inheritance series starting with Eragon. 

Going back to my 80's roots reading fantasy, there is Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon, Moonheart by Charles de Lint or anything else by de Lint, and Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.  

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Harriet Vane

Harriet Vane

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10 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

I wanted to like the Eragon series, but he stole so many elements straight from other, classic fantasy novels and the writing is do often clunky. By the end, he did have his own t storyline, but I could never really love his books.

Same.

I hated Brsinger with the fire of a thousand suns. I had enjoyed Eragon, felt that the second in the series got too bogged down in overly complicated storylines, and then I was absolutely done after the first chapter of Brsinger.

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Robin M

Robin M

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10 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

I wanted to like the Eragon series, but he stole so many elements straight from other, classic fantasy novels and the writing is do often clunky. By the end, he did have his own t storyline, but I could never really love his books.

 

20 minutes ago, Harriet Vane said:

Same.

I hated Brsinger with the fire of a thousand suns. I had enjoyed Eragon, felt that the second in the series got too bogged down in overly complicated storylines, and then I was absolutely done after the first chapter of Brsinger.

 

It's been a while so forgotten about that. Did remind me of a lord of the rings, hobbit, and a few others.  

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Tanaqui

Tanaqui

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So I did mean to do my usual, which is "google diverse fantasy/sci fi, pick out the titles I've personally read, call it a day", but the holidays womped me both harder and not as bad as I thought, which... it was a weird combo.

 

Also, I was a little embarrassed. Soooooooo... yeah. I stand by what I said, but I probably should have hit pause before submitting. So sorry. List may or may not be incoming.

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Innisfree

Innisfree

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1 hour ago, Tanaqui said:

So I did mean to do my usual, which is "google diverse fantasy/sci fi, pick out the titles I've personally read, call it a day", but the holidays womped me both harder and not as bad as I thought, which... it was a weird combo.

 

Also, I was a little embarrassed. Soooooooo... yeah. I stand by what I said, but I probably should have hit pause before submitting. So sorry. List may or may not be incoming.

No worries. Your point was valid. I tend to just try to remember books I’ve enjoyed, which means a bunch of them are a few decades old, and plot, setting, writing style, and so on were the reasons I chose them then. It’s good to be reminded that there are other good criteria to consider in selection. If you feel like offering some ideas I would be interested, but I do understand if you’re busy and tired, so no pressure.

Fwiw, I got Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education, which seems to have been a good selection. We’ll be picking up the rest of the trilogy. Series the author has already completed are golden here: more than one book in which to enjoy the setting, but no waiting around years to finish the story. 😉

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Tanaqui

Tanaqui

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Oh, I liked that trilogy, though there was some drama about representation back when that first one came out. I'm not weighing in - if it'll come across like "I'm a white woman defending this because I enjoyed it", well, that's because that's exactly what's going on.

You're lucky. When you get to the end of book 2, look around and say "I'm so glad I don't need to wait to see how this resolves!"

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Tanaqui

Tanaqui

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Gently... a book with Elves, a Fire Demon, and a human heroine who can turn silver into gold at a touch does not suggest that a book is going to recreate Medieval Europe factually, anymore than Harry Potter is going to be a faithful-to-reality of UK boarding schools. 😉

 

 

Potatoes are my number one pet peeve about literature set in the past, and I will absolutely die on that hill. 100%

Like, even more than the diversity front, which I think you know I feel strongly about.

Coincidentally, somebody linked me to something about potatoes just recently: https://daily-prompts.tumblr.com/post/704181338591330304/dduane-blueelectricangels-star-anise

 

tl:dr - potatoes actually have huge implications for how society is structured. You can't just toss potatoes into Medieval Afro-Eurasia and be like, lol, potatoes! because if peasants had had potatoes in pre-Columbian society, literally everything would be different.

(On the flip side, I'm always happy to see people be, like, "okay, so this is the 1960s, but whatever, nobody is homophobic and racism is not a thing, let's do this". What can I say? I contain multitudes.)

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