anybody have other suggestions?

Hey [cricket] –

I got your email from [your sister] and was hoping you could help with book recommendations. Specifically, I’m hoping for really good fantasy literature, both children’s and adult. I found a very good list (http://www.mythsoc.org/awards/fantasy/) but have read most of the things that were available on Kindle. Some of my favorites are the Earthsea Quartet, The Orphan’s Tales, the Bartimaeous and Abhorsen Trilogies, The Curse of Chalion, and Haroun and The Sea of Stories. If you haven’t read the Orphan’s Tales, they completely blew me away… I have to re-read them to see if they’re as good as I recall, but they were one of my favorite stories ever. I also enjoy lots of Robin McKinley (Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown are on the prior list of my favorites, and Sunshine was great but not quite the same calibre), Terry Pratchett (The Incredible Maurice was the best I read, followed by Nation and Hat Full of Sky), and pretty much anything by Diana Wynne Jones or Neil Gaiman. I also really enjoyed Summerland, by Michael Chabon. Any thoughts, first, on things that I definitely should read based on this and, then, on things that are really good but not essential? Thanks so much for the help!

[childhood friend]

Hey [childhood friend], how great to hear from you! I hope you’re doing well.

One book you should definitely check out if you haven’t already is Susanna Clarke’s doorstopper novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which I adored– if you want to sample her more lightly before jumping into the giganticness of that novel, she also has a book of short stories called The Ladies of Grace Adieu, and they’re both on Kindle. She has a very distinctive style– think Jane Austen crossed with Victor Hugo but writing a Neil Gaiman plot set in Charlotte Bronte’s world, with a touch of Terry Pratchett’s footnote fever. Love her stuff.

Another fantasy book I really liked (one of my top books of all time) is T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. I don’t know how interested you are in the Arthur legend, but if it’s even a little bit then that’s absolutely a must read.

On the young adult side of things, I would strongly recommend anything by Susan Cooper, especially the Dark Is Rising series. And a book called The Demon’s Lexicon by a new author named Sarah Rees Brennan– the sequel (The Demon’s Covenant) just came out but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. I really adored The Demon’s Lexicon– smart, sharp, funny, scary, and heartbreaking. Both on Kindle. Also for (somewhat younger) kids, there is this AMAZING fantasy series about Greek gods alive and well in America, the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan, beginning with The Lightning Thief– don’t judge them by the recent movie, they’re pure distilled awesome. He’s starting a new series now about the Egyptian gods. Can’t wait.

Another fantasy writer for young adults who I consider comparable to Diana Wynne Jones is Vivian Vande Velde. She mostly writes short stories but they’re hilarious and spooky and nice for a breather between more serious fare. Looks like she’s got a lot of stuff on Kindle too. I think you’d very much enjoy Patricia C. Wrede as a humorous fantasy writer, but she’s only got one book on Kindle and I haven’t read it. I’m sure it’s good though. And though he’s more sci-fi than fantasy really, I would be remiss if I did not recommend Scott Westerfeld. Pretty much can’t go wrong with any of his stuff.

Back to definitely adult work– I’m going to recommend George R. R. Martin with a bit of ambivalence– he is kind of bleak, doesn’t have nearly as much of a sense of humor as most of the things on your list or most of the stuff I’ve recommended, but he does a fantastically epic plot and millions of characters who are all distinct and interesting, and some CHILLING fantasy elements. Just be warned that unspeakably horrible things happen to everybody on an extremely regular basis in his work.

If you don’t mind younger, Victorian-era children’s fare, E. Nesbit comes highly recommended and you can get a lot of her stuff for free on Kindle because I guess it’s public domain. The Five Children and It series is great, especially the last one, The Story of the Amulet.

Right now I’m reading a book I’m LOVING that I got for free on Kindle as a temporary promotional thing (ages ago, sadly, it’s no longer free)– Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt. Modern, funny, edgy and weird. Like Robin McKinley but meaner. Haven’t finished it yet though, so the ending might be stupid.

Oh, Dan Simmons is awesome– bleak like Martin but awesome and spooky and epic. You might like Ilium. And have you ever checked out Stephen King’s Dark Tower series? I couldn’t really get into the first one– I read about half of it and obviously it’s still on my Kindle so I’ll try it again sometime– but (not to be sexist but) men really seem to like them. Like, every guy I know who’s tried them enjoys them. I didn’t test this out on Jeremy, but I think they’re sort of Guy Fiction. I really don’t mean to be stereotypical there, and obviously you don’t have Stereotypical Guy Taste (and actually I kind of do have Stereotypical Guy Taste in some ways– I love a good shoot ’em up blow ’em up Scarlett-Johanneson-kills-ten-men-with-her-kung-fu-ankles movie as much as anybody)– I don’t just mean they are action-packed and full of guns, although they are. I think they just resonate more with guys. Because of cultural baggage maybe, themes of masculinity and such. The main character is like John Wayne on magical steroids.

Another one that’s good but bleak is Lev Grossman’s recent The Magicians– sort of a postmodern adult kind of take on the “boy enters magical world and learns magic and goes on a quest” thing. Definitely an homage to Narnia (and to a certain extent the Harry Potter books), so if you’re interested in Narnia and its implications you might take a look. It’s kind of an odd book, and I was frustrated a lot while I was reading it– he doesn’t do timeline very well, he skips around a lot and skips important stuff and casually references it later and you’re like “whaaaat, when did, with the what now?” which, maybe it’s intentional, as part of the whole postmodernism I-am-too-cool-to-tell-a-story-straight thing– but I’m glad I read it, it was really interesting.

Jasper Fforde is very funny in the model of Terry Pratchett. Kind of light on plot, but heavy on silliness and fantasy. Fun light fare.

Also, have you read much Orson Scott Card? I bet you’d like Enchantment.

I suppose that’s probably enough to throw at you in one e-mail. I’ll poke around my collection and see if anything else jumps out at me. 🙂 Thanks for giving me a chance to recommend!

[cricket]