What to Read While Waiting

[Kathy Li]

Oh, yes. McCaffrey and the Pern books. If you like those, there are at least three other series I know of that you may want to try.

Louise Marley: The Nevya Trilogy. Sing the Light, Sing the Warmth, and Receive the Gift, with the followup YA novel, Singer in the Snow. Oh-so-totally Harper Hall derived. The Cantors and Cantrixes of Nevya focus their psi ability through music to bring light and warmth to a world locked in winter. And boyoboy does Marley know her music, having been a professional concert and opera singer.

Sharon Shinn: Archangel. It's Dragonflight with angels instead of dragons. Seriously. The sequel books in the Samaria series aren't quite up to the same level, but are entertaining nonetheless.

Naomi Novik: The Temeraire series. A mix of Napoleonic naval fiction and dragons, most people are calling it O'Brian crossed with McCaffrey. I'm actually a little disappointed in how the dragons are often written more as aircraft than as beasts, (and there are some "Chinese" bits that just made me spit), but overall, one helluva fun series.

Hmmmm. Old Fantasy. Well, here's a few I love:

J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (obviously). This one you know.

Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy: Titus Groan is the first one. If you can make it through the first 100 pages, you're in. But this one isn't for everyone. Exceedingly weird and gothic and long-winded, this was a contemporary book to LotR, it gives you a wider view of what was out there at the time.

Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany. The King of Elfland's Daughter. From the generation before Tolkien. You could also include authors like James Branch Cabell ("Cabell's far and away my favourite forgotten American writer "--Neil Gaiman), Hope Mirrlees, Ernest Bramah (whom Dorothy L. Sayers loved enough to have Harriet quote some to Peter when they first meet, at which he instantly proclaims "And if you can quote Kai Lung, we should certainly get on together."), George Macdonald, and (DD's fave) E.R. Eddison in this list. Basically, just perusing the list of books from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series are likely to get you some good ones. Ballantine had published LotR; ended up with a runaway hit on their hands, and Lin Carter was then asked to find some more similar stuff. And he did.

Thorne Smith. Topper, Night Life of the Gods, and Stray Lamb are my faves. Usually about some kind of supernatural being taking some poor trapped stuffy little soul out and getting him boozed up and---whoops. Maybe more R-rated than I should be recommending here.

Peter S. Beagle. The Last Unicorn. I couldn't imagine being a fantasy fan without having read Peter S. Beagle, but that might just be me.

T.H. White's Once and Future King, again, you know this one.

I like reading old books. I'm with William Hazlitt on this one. "If I have not read a book before, it is, to all intents and purposes, new to me, whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago...."

chocolate101--you forgot the most important reason folks here would be interested in Wizards, Inc.--it's got DD's short story, "Theobroma" in it.

[Lazy Leopard]

Pern and, you know... Star Wars

...and, to be honest, a good chunk of other fantasy and SF. Eragon is chock full of pastiche from other stories. About the only other book I've read that borrowed so much from so many other stories is Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, and it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a parody.

...and talking of Terry Pratchett, as well as his Discworld stories (at least some of which have been mentioned above) there's also Diggers, Truckers and Wings which are a good laugh, and Nation, which is... different...

[Tsakaki]

O.o oh, wow...I really didn't expect this to get so many responses! I've tried starting threads like this before on other sites with no hits, then again, they were general community sites, and not full of people who love books.

Sorry I haven't been back since, life got hectic.

I appreciate all of the suggestions (though I haven't been through them all yet...that was a lot of posts.)

Hmm, I'm not a fan of VC Andrews, and I've heard of the Flowers in the Attic series before, I'm sure it's good, but from what I've heard, it's really not my thing.

Kathy Li: a lot of those sound great, I'll definitely have to check them out. Especially the older ones, I love older fantasy.
I know the Feline set of YW books seems logical, but I'm really not a big fan of animals as lead characters.

Wow, I don't think I can manage to reply to everyone, but I appreciate it greatly! And everyone else feel free to ask for recommendations too.

[Birdhead]

...and if, as you read them, you find yourself thinking that some bits seem a little familiar, and you've read Eragon, well then you'll know where Paulini got a few of his ideas...

Pern and, you know... Star Wars.

For the record, I would say that the whole Pern series is solidly readable by a teen audience (I went through the lot from about age 11-13 or so.) I might not recommend her Killashandra novels to youger readers but, on the other hand, they didn't do me any harm! The "Ship Who..." novels are also very readable by a younger audience along with the Pegasus sequence (my personal favourite McCaffrey sequence.) McCaffrey tends to have a very solid romance subplot, so if you're looking for genre fiction with a romantic edge you could definitely do worse than her. However, she is stylistically very different from DD and Gaiman and I'd be prepared to be the other authors listed by the OP. So... that's something to bear in mind.

[kk]

Kli: That's cool! I'll have to look up a lot of those books... now that I think of it, my library did have a copy of Merlin's Mistake, and I looked at it, but didn't check it out... I must do that, now.

I think I started reading Sherlock Holmes, because one of the short stories was in a Reader's Digest story book for young readers... I have different paperback copies of most of the stories, and some ebook copies from Project Gutenberg, and Manybooks.net. I adored the television series with Jeremy Brett (he played the character well, I thought). My library has all episodes of all seasons of that show available for download on their website, and I've been going through them like crazy recently.

[Sean L.]

If you liked Stardust, I do believe that Neverwhere is also an enjoyable romp through fantasy with a small slice of romance on the side.

I would also recommend Garth Nix's Shade's Children, which I found to be dark but extremely enjoyable, as well as Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch. Both have well developed teen (and adult) characters, though they're more science-fiction-y than 'paranormal'.

If you're looking for strict paranomality, I believe Scott Westerfeld falls pretty well into that realm, especially with his series The Midnighters.

[Lazy Leopard]

Another couple of books that might be worth a read are Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. Most of the Pern novels are aimed squarely at an adult audience, but these two are nearer YA territory. While they're about a fantasy (well, AM would say SF) world without actual magic, they do explore some of the same sorts of themes, and they're among my favourite stories.

...and if, as you read them, you find yourself thinking that some bits seem a little familiar, and you've read Eragon, well then you'll know where Paulini got a few of his ideas...

[chocolate101]

What book would I read? Let's see...

Dai stiho to all again at YW forums! Some may be wondering why I haven't been here but not to worry I am back! I had to catch up on some reading and begin enjoying the summer! Back to topic(for once I am actually on a computer and not my ipod, so now I am going to type in full words for once!)!

The books I would read to past the time:

Wizard's Inc.*
Avalon Series By Rachel Roberts*
Reread the YW series
Dragon Rider By Caroline Funke
Hatching Magic By Ann Downer*
A Dog's Life By Ann Martin*
Double Identity By Margaret Haddix*
Rules By Cynthia Lord
The Year of the Dog By Grace Lin
Life as We Knew It By Susan Pfeffer*
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life By Wendy Mass

Ok, so there was a few stars next to some of the books... Well this means I will give a short summary of each book!

Wizard's Inc.- This book is about(I think 11) 11 short stories that tell about Wizards and their jobs. It's suppose to sound kind of real in some of them, cuz some of them take place as an average day for an average human being/wizard!

Avalon Series By Rachel Roberts- This series is about 3 girls who find magical stones that allow them to control magic around them from nature and themselves. Each book in the series is in the mind and actions of one of the main girl characters. Emily, Adraine and Kara are the 3 girls. Each one very much different from the other must work together to stop and the evil Dark Sorceress and it's companions from taking over earth and Web of other worlds. But the Dark Sorceress's main goal is to control one place:Avalon the home of all Magic. Although it seems easy enough, no one knows where Avalon is. This is another task the girls must accomplish before the Dark Sorceress finds it first. It reminds me of YW series!

Hatching Magic By Ann Downer- This book is about a girl whose summer is ruined when her dad goes on an expedition and all of her friends leave for tropical and worthwhile getaways! She thinks this summer is going to be the worst, until a Wyvern card, an actual Wyvern dragon and wizard escape from their own time in the past to New York and become entangled with her destiny.

A Dog's Life By Ann Martin- A biography on a dog named Squirrel, who as a puppy is left alone with his brother, Bone, when their mom one day disappears. After this tragic event, the dogs must set off on a journey to find their mother and find a new home.
WARNING! For readers with light hearts and deep emotions, this book is a real heart-throbber.

Double Identity By Margaret Haddix- This book is about a girl who has to move to her aunts house who she never knew. Then weeks later, she gets a package in the mail from her father, inside is 10,000 dollars and 4 birth certificates of herself from 4 different hospitals.

Life as We Knew It By Susan Pfeffer- This book is about what happens when a meteor hits the earth(huge one) and life changes. No electricity, weather occurs abnormally and shortage in food changes life as we knew it.

[96bookworms]

Good books

Well, I know some of these books may seem childish, but they are still good reads. The Warriors series, about cats, starts with Into the Wild, By Erin Hunter.Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli, A classic-The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, an AMAZING author..... Tamora Pierce!!! Any book by her is AMAZINGespecially the Tortall Universe...Go Tamora Pierce!!Also, (obviously) the twilight series is good, but I'm not obsessed with it like my friends, but I still like it.Well, I hope you like some of them...

[chocolate101]

The first thing I would recommend (besides HP, which is an awesome series) would be the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L'Engle. They say it's a children's series, but I think a lot of children's authors are better writers than adult authors.

I'm not sure if you may be into this one because there isn't really a fantasy element, but I think it's extremely well written and has an awesome storyline. It's a series by VC Andrews that starts with Flowers in the Attic. Four kids get locked away in the attic and they escape. There's more to it than that, but I don't want to ruin it for you. After that one it's Petals on the Wind and If There Be Thorns. I haven't read it since middle school-ish.

Oh totally! I read that once when I was younger and it got complicated! A lot! Did you know the first page actually details about a war going on between the trees, wind and the moon?! It reminds me of the battle of the trees in the YW SERIES!

[Kathy Li]

kk, the funny thing for me is that I got into reading Sherlock Holmes through pastiches (aka fanfic by pros). I think the very first Sherlock Holmes-derived stories I read were Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus (it's the book the Disney animated feature, The Great Mouse Detective, is based on) and The Case of the Baker Street Irregular by Robert Newman (who, btw, wrote one of my fave YA fantasy novels ever, Merlin's Mistake, but which is probably way too dated for you guys).

Then, when I was an adult, I found Nicholas Meyer's The Seven Per Cent Solution (Holmes meets Sigmund Freud) and its two sequels. Meyer, btw, is probably most famous in fan circles for writing the screenplays for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

I don't think I actually got around to reading the original Conan Doyle stories and novels until the Granada television series with Jeremy Brett started running on Mystery (now Masterpiece: Mystery for some unknown reason) in the mid-'80s. But then I tore through all of them and had a blast. My favorite edition was a really cheap hardcover facsimile of the Strand issues, complete with all the Paget illustrations. A fellow Holmes enthusiast (his net handle was and is "Moriarty") actually preferred the annotated Holmes, but I usually find myself irritated to be interrupted with footnotes when I'm reading a story.

The biggest damn list of Holmes reference/pastiches I have EVER seen is Evelyn C. Leeper's monstrous "Sherlock Holmes Book List". For us SF geeks, the Solar Pons books by August Derleth, and Garrett Randall's Lord Darcy series are nearly always recommended. I need to go and find them sometime. Too many books, too little time.

[kk]

My suggestion isn't a fantasy series...exactly. But I've always adored these stories, and I've been going through them like crazy. I love all Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories, and though the way of speaking can be just a bit weird to get used to (well, not really that weird), they're really intriguing plotlines. I'm fascinated by them.

I've also been reading kids books... just for fun. The audiobook version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory read by Eric Idle (and the sequel too) are both really amazing... it makes me wish that Monty Python did their own version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; because Eric would have been an amazing Willy Wonka.

And what's wrong with YW fanfiction? ...Despite the fact that we can't post any on the forums...it's pretty good stuff, a lot of the time!

[Birdhead]

Kathy, it oughta be a requirement that everyone here reads what you rec. My head was doing the little bobble-headed dog thing with the nods! I highly second the recs of Diana Wynne Jones especially (and I also loved Temping Fates!)

If you like paranormal romances, etc, you might dig urban fantasy; I recommend Charles De Lint's The Blue Girl (YA) and The Onion Girl (adult), although neither of those are especially romantic. Emma Bull's War for the Oaks is a great urban fantasy/romance.

I very much enjoyed (just finished yesterday and actually read obsessively during the intermissions of Wicked, for pete's sake) Frances Hardinge's Fly By Night, which I recommend to anyone who likes young adult fiction and reading/words and rebellious preteen girls. (I like all of these things and I loved this book, anyway.) It is set in a kind of AU England but there are no fantasy aspects other than that.

If you liked The Hunger Games you might like N.M. Browne's Warriors sequence which starts with Warriors of Alavna. You also might like Malorie Blackman's really excellent Noughts and Crosses series which is very heavy on the romance (IMO) esp. in the first book.

A book I've seen compared to Graceling is Silver Phoenix ('ware spoilers at that link) by Cindy Pon.

[meteorite]

If you have not read Rick Riordan's series, The Olympians, do so NOW. Now. Now-now-now-now-now!!1! It is a now completed 5 volume series about one Percy (Perseus) Jackson, who find out the hard way that the Greek gods are still alive and well, and oh yeah, his father was one. It appears demigods are very crunchy and good with ketchup if you are a mythological monster, like a Hydra.

In the last volume there is a scene that is a direct descendant, if not outright snitched, from SYWTBAW. All I have to say is, "Mason's Word." 'Nuff said.

[Kathy Li]

For me the obvious reads to try and find if you're waiting for AWoM, and haven't found them, would be DD's other books.

Obviously, if you're a YW fan and you haven't found the two published Feline Wizard books, those are probably the first ones you need to find, since Kit & Nita have walk-ons in that series.

Her Star Trek novels are a lot of fun, particularly the Rihanssu novels.

There's the entirely free to download novel, A Wind From the South.

If you don't mind R-rated content, and you like high fantasy (y'know, swords and sorcery stuff), then you also want to see if you can hunt up DD's Tale of the Five (aka the "Door" books).

And of course, there's always [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Elf-Kings-Roses-Diane-Duane/dp/0446609838"]Stealing the Elf-King's Roses[/ame].

If you want to stick with YA fantasy, I'd recommend Diana Wynne Jones. The Dark Lord of Derkholm basically takes the mickey out of every high fantasy novel by every Tolkein wannabe ever, and its sequel, Year of the Griffin is much like what a Harry Potter novel would be like, if they went to uni. Diana Wynne Jones also wrote this incredibly fun take on sf conventions, Deep Secret where if you know Neil Gaiman, you can pretty much spot his cameos.

Another YA fantasy I've enjoyed recently is Esther Friesner's Temping Fate, where our teenage goth-dressing heroine is forced to find a summer job and winds up typing up death certificates for these there women who work in a textiles factory: one spins, one measures, one cuts....

A kids' fantasy that's very old (it's as old as me!) that I hear has recently come back into print is Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Black and Blue Magic. If you can't find that one, then The Egypt Game is always good for a borrow from the library and a re-read. Ditto Andre Norton's Dragon Magic (although that's not quite as old).

I'd also highly recommend Terry Pratchett's "Tiffany Aching" series of YA Discworld books, if you haven't found them yet. The Wee Free Men is the first book in that series, followed by A Hat Full of Sky, and Wintersmith. Pratchett once said that she gets one more, and then she'll be old enough to appear in the Discworld books proper.