Books

[Kathy Li]

Skitty, if you find you want another epic fantasy series after going through Tad Williams, you might wanna try George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series.

[Zgirl]

Does anyone here ever read anything else but fantasy books in there free time?! OK...has anyone here read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It's a really good book.
I need to get a present for my friend. She loves fantasy books. Anyone suggest a few good fantasy series!!!

The monkey made me do it!
~Z~

[Agent M]

[Kathy Li]

Yes, I read lots of stuff in my free time, but mostly people here have fantasy books in common, so that's where the discussion stays. If you wanna branch out to other areas, though, feel free. Most of us read a LOT.

For your friend, what kind of fantasy does she like? New? Old? Adult? YA? Urban? Tolkeinesque? Epic? Short? Dark/horror/Goth-tinged? Fairytale? Humorous? SF-mixed?

Assuming you mean newish YA fantasy adventure type books, I'd say look at YW (of course), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, anything in the YA section by Diana Wynne Jones, Daniel Pinkwater, and Terry Pratchett. Garth Nix's Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen series, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, Peter Beagle's Tamsin, and Michael Chabon's Summerland.

Of course, there's a lot more fantasy out there than just what shows up in the YA fantasy section. :-)

[Zgirl]

New, funny, Wizardly.

The monkey made me do it!
~Z~

[Kathy Li]

Ok, I'd probably go for Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men, Garth Nix's Sabriel, or Diana Wynne Jone's The Dark Lord of Derkholm. I'd assume that she's already hit Duane, Pullman, and Rowling. :-)

[papercrane]

M: Poe! Yayness! I've got all his works (or so the volume claims) and have a nasty habit of reading them late at night.
Z: This is a bit lower-grade, but has she tried Lloyd Alexander? I used to love those books...

The important thing about adventures, thought Mr Bunnsy, was that they shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes.
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents)

[Kathy Li]

ppc: have you ever seen the black and white short, "Vincent"? It's a lovely little stop-motion animation homage to Edgar Allen Poe and Vincent Price Hammer films that Tim Burton did before he was allowed to make feature movies. Every Poe fan should see it. And the Simpsons halloween episode, "Treehouse of Horror I."

Love Lloyd Alexander, but I haven't read much of his recent stuff. Are you talking the High King/Prydain, Westmark, or Vesper Holly books? (Or the single titles?)

[Agent M]

[Luthien_Tinuviel]

Patricia C. Wrede is good too, though some are a little lower-grade. All the ones other people have mentioned are good too.

[Kathy Li]

I've got both Iron Ring and Prince Jen sitting about and waiting, but I'm never quite in the mood. (sigh). Too many books, too little time.

LT: it's been ages since I've read a Wrede. I think the last one I read was probably Sorcery & Cecilia...! (btw, her last name's pronounced "REE-dee", if you should ever be lucky enough to meet her to say hello).

[papercrane]

kli, re 'Vincent': Nope. I hardly ever watch movies nowadays...
M: Yes! Ever tried the Prydain Chronicles? Incidentally, Disney made them cringe-worthy under the name of the second book. *glares at evil Disney people*
kli, re L.Alexander: They're both easy reads, but good for a quick snack.

The important thing about adventures, thought Mr Bunnsy, was that they shouldn't be so long as to make you miss mealtimes.
-- (Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents)

[Tanis]

I'm in the process of reading Sabril by Garth Nix but ihave read the PenDragon series it has four at the moment and they were really good but you have to read the first or your lost all the time. But all and all they very good by the way the author is: D.J. MacHale haven't read to much by him bust so far pretty good writing.

[Kathy Li]

PPC: y'know, Tim Burton was one of those evil Disney people. But he only did it under duress. You can probably find "Vincent" (and "Frankenweenie", now that I come to think of it) on the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD. Seeing it in theaters would only have happened if you're as old as me and were addicted to Mike & Spike's Festival of Animation.

And yeah, I know, but I've been more in a steak-and-potatoes frame of mind for reading.

Devin, sounds interesting.

Oh, a King Arthur-ish YA book that's back in print that I loved when I was a kid is Robert Newman's Merlin's Mistake. His Baker Street Irregular series was also lots of fun, if you feel like reading a mystery or two between fantasy novels.

[Tanis]

Yeah by the way I read a sereis about *Merlin's Lost Years* by T.A. Barran. They were intresing but sort of below reading level but all in all pretty good.

*Many have gone and many have stayed but one thing stays the sme: Love and Hate they never go away but they can be beaten- Devin