Of Fantasy Books and Worlds - an inquiry

[kriadydragon]

Question...

I bought Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars (a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland). I've been wanting to read that book for some time as I love fantasy books where the author doesn't go the usual Tolkein-like Sword and Sorcery route, but takes fantasy to whole new levels and directions. For example, Clive Barker's the Abarat, which is kind of like a modern day Alice in Wonderland, the His Dark Materials triology, and The Midnighters, of which I'm currently reading book two. Books where the author goes nuts with his or her own imagination, making up creatures rather than using what already exists in legend, or taking what already exists and reimagining them. don't get me wrong, I do love Sword and Sorcery, but I also love variety.

The thing is - and this could just be me - I haven't really seen similar stories done for adults. I've read sword and sorcery, and then there's modern day urban fantasy. I've also come across a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, but nothing quite as out there and wildly strange like Alice in Wonderland and the Abarat - stories that go as far as possible from the sword and sorcery norm.

Are there such books for adults and I just haven't come across them, yet?

The reason I ask is because I have several stories that are very untraditional fantasies: some for young adults, some not really age specific, and some more for adults since all the main characters are adults. I love not only making up unusual worlds, but unusual creatures as well.  I love worlds of magic with a hint of sci-fi, and sci-fi with a hint of magic. The wierder, the better. But, for the most part, the only place I can find such stories is in the young adult section at the book store. So it kind of has me concerned for my more "unusual" fantasies.

Comments

[sholio]

I love genre-mixing and unusual fantasy, and fantasy/sci-fi combos. There's actually quite a lot more than just Tolkein clones on the adult fantasy market, although you're right that it's a lot more common to see the D&D rip-offs. But there's lots of other stuff out there.

Stephen King's books are actually excellent examples -- magical, but not sword-and-sorcery in any way, and definitely for adults. Although some of them fall into the horror genre, many don't, even if they're marketed that way. The Dark Tower series are among the best examples of really good, unusual fantasy for adults that I can think of. (Well, the first four books. The first four books are among my favorite books of all time. The series goes downhill after that.) Exotic, fantastic and full of wonderful ideas.

Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman's Death Gate and Darksword series are wonderfully inventive and unusual. (Death Gate is one of my favorite h/c series of all time. I think I might've recommended it to you in the book post.)

There's Anne McCaffrey, of course, with her Dragonriders books and several series that involve a blend of high-tech and psychic powers.

Julian May is another one who mixes sci-fi with psychic powers and myth in her Pleistocene Exile series, which involves a bunch of people, some of whom having psychic powers, getting exiled into Pliestocene Europe, which turns out to have aliens, among other things.

Have you read CS Friedman's Coldfire books? Definitely fantasy, but really unusual, SF-based fantasy. (Colonists crash on a world that responds to humans' thoughts. This results, many generations later, in a really weird ecosystem populated by creatures from dreams and nightmares and imagination.)

Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels introduce dragons to Europe of 200 years ago. Very good!

CJ Cherryh's fantasies tend to be in this vein; I really loved "Rusalka", which takes place in a version of medieval Russia where folklore is real.

Roger Zelazny's Amber series is just wonderfully inventive. On the surface, it's got a lot of the sword-and-sorcery trappings: castles, princes, pseudo-European setting, etc. But the basic nature of their universe is that the main characters can pass between different realities, and as the series goes on, things get incredibly, wonderfully bizarre -- there's a sentient computer that can alter reality, a number of weird and chaotic planes of reality with stunningly weird creatures, main characters who can change shape, etc.

I have lots more examples. Many of the books on my bookshelf are of this nature. :)

So I think your books have an excellent shot. I am always happy to see more unusual fantasy and sci-fi out there.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

The last book sounds a lot like what I was trying to describe. I tried reading Death Gate but had a hard time getting past the first book. I really need to try and get through it one of these days as my dead said the rest of the books in the series were excellent.

Anways, as long as there is a market for unusual fantasies of any kind, that's all that matters. I think my tastes in books has gotten very precise over the years, keeping my personal library from growing any bigger. There are so many books I've tried to read that I could never get through, and very few books that grab me from the start and keep me hanging on to every word until the very end. So I don't often explore various authors and series.

[sholio]

In Death Gate, you might try skipping ahead to book 3. That's where the story really takes off -- the first two are pretty slow and have a LOT of subplots that wander around without advancing the main story. Book three is fast-moving, fun and has one of the best h/c scenes in the series.

One of the things these books have going for them is the fact that two of the main characters can heal themselves or others from a near-death state. This comes into play in several of the books. *g*

[ga-unicorn.livejournal.com]

You might check out Emma Bull. My all time favorite is her first book, War for the Oaks, but her others have not disappointed. Also Tom Deitz. I first stumbled across Windmaster's Bane and have eagerly awaited every new book. Both of these authors have an interesting take on the urban fantasy and magic-among-us genre.