Fantasy/Adventue Book Recommendation Filter: Keeping track of whole new worlds is just too much work...

June 10, 2007 5:55 PM

Fantasy/Adventue Book Recommendation Filter: Keeping track of whole new worlds is just too much work...

I just cruised through all nine books of the dresden files and I need another read. I started trying to get into Butcher's furies books, but the more I read the more I feel I am looking for a book or a series based, well, on earth. Keeping track of whole new worlds is just taking too much out of me given the rest of my life. I love the whole sourcery, myth based, occult, adventure/mystery type thing (past, present or future). Even something along the lines of the movie the 9th gate. The Illuminatis Trilogy was one of my favorite books of all time, & I've considered some of the other books from Wilson, but I never find them in stores and am not sure what order i should approach them online. Despite the high density of them in the Dresden Files though I'm not so into the Vampire bit. Any thoughts?

posted by jeffe to writing & language (25 comments total)

I just got turned on to Tim Powers from another thread here (this one in case you're interested). It sounds like exactly the kind of thing you are looking for. Of the three I've read so far (three days to never, declare, last call) I like Last Call best, but they're all fantastic.
posted by advil at 6:04 PM on June 10, 2007

If I'm reading your question correctly, what you're looking for is called urban fantasy. (I'd definitely classify the Dresden Files as such.) Most of the urban fantasy I read is marketed to women -- the paranormal romance genre is just exploding -- but hopefully the term will help you narrow down your search if the romance section is not your cup of tea.

Have you read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere? I also really liked Scott Lynch's debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora, but it was definitely a big world to wrap my head around. You might have luck with Hal Duncan's Vellum, as well.
posted by sugarfish at 6:05 PM on June 10, 2007

Seconding Tim Powers, I'm in the middle of "Expiration Date", it's great.
posted by doctor_negative at 6:42 PM on June 10, 2007

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville is on my reading list.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 7:07 PM on June 10, 2007

Yeah, anything by China Mieville is a good bet, as is Jeff VanderMeer. Also, please consider Steve Erickson.

Let me also encourage you to check out the S.F. of my personal favorite, A.E. Van Vogt. Very, very far ahead of his time, criminally underappreciated, filled to the bursting point with interesting and forward-thinking ideas about life on Earth.
posted by jbickers at 7:15 PM on June 10, 2007

Mieville's Perdido Street Station and sequels are urban fantasy in the sense that they have an urban, industrialized setting, but they are not set on Earth as we know it.
posted by mbrubeck at 7:22 PM on June 10, 2007

Neverwhere, American Gods, and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:44 PM on June 10, 2007

Charles de Lint does very good, vaguely whimsical stuff that has to do with Celtic and Native American magic bleeding into this world; a lot of his stuff is set in the fictional town of Newford, Canada. The Little Country, which is set in Cornwall, England, is perhaps his best book, and is a very creepy fairy tale kind of thing set in modern times.

Tim Powers, as previously mentioned, is excellent. I think you'd particular enjoy his "Fault Lines" series, which starts off with Last Call, in which characters play a poker game with the Tarot cards as the deck and human souls as the currency.

As mentioned, Neal Gaiman is awesome. So is some of Clive Barker's stuff, if you haven't read him. I'd particularly recommend The Great and Secret Show and its sequel, Everville, as well as Imajica, which is set both in our world and an alternate one but has enough familiar earth-based stuff to keep you grounded (there's a lot of world-building, but the main character is from earth, so you get to discover the new world along with him, which helps a bit with the learning curve).

For stuff with more of a horror-oriented bent, Caitlin R. Kiernan is a reall good writer, if quite goth, and the "Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter" series by Laurell K. Hamilton is a sort of weird blend of hardboiled police procedural and erotic vampire fiction, like an even gorier Silence of the Lambs as done by Anne Rice. The only one of hers I've read is Obsidian Butterfly, which I confess to enjoying a great deal, but from what I've been told it was heavy on the guns and gore and uncharacteristically light on the vampire sex.
posted by infinitywaltz at 7:57 PM on June 10, 2007

War for the Oaks is a slightly older classic of urban fantasy.

And then there's always Little, Big. (just kidding. Kinda.)
posted by selfnoise at 8:12 PM on June 10, 2007

You mentioned "The 9th Gate," so what about Frank Peretti? They're supernatural thrillers with a religious twist. Demons vs. angels and the like. If you saw the "Prophecy" movies with Christopher Walken and enjoyed them, you'll probably enjoy Peretti.
posted by laskagirl at 8:19 PM on June 10, 2007

Just chiming in as a big fan of the Dresden series. Unique - never run across a series like it. Butcher is great.
posted by davidmsc at 8:20 PM on June 10, 2007

I've recently enjoyed:

The Necessary Beggar, by Susan Palwick. The story of some extra-dimensional refugees and how they deal with fitting into modern society.

Benighted, Kit Whitfield. The world is dominated by werewolves, humans are a persecuted minority. Much better than the premise sounds, but a very emotionally damaged book.

Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay. A sequel to the Fionavarr Tapestry, more or less, set in southern France, more or less. Not Kay at his best, but mediocre Kay is still worth the trouble.

9Tail Fox, Jon Courtnay Grimwood. Bobby Zha gets one more chance to prove that he wasn't a bent cop.

The Family Trade, by (mefi's own) Charles Stross. Amber without the supermen (but Written! By! Charles! Stross! Buy it Now!). His Atrocity Archives you may also find amusing.

Which reminds me: Resume With Monsters, by William Browning Spencer. A temp worker/failed novelist must save the world from the unimaginable shibboleths (and thier masters) who dominate corporate America.

And finally, it's not strictly within your parameters, but George Alec Effinger's trilogy: When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun; and Exile's Kiss is not to be missed. Crime and misdemeanors in a future Casablanca (or close enough).

That's enough for now, I think.
posted by bonehead at 8:22 PM on June 10, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I liked War for the Oaks (Emma Bull), too.

Patricia Briggs's Mercy series is (realistically) earth based. There are vampires and werewolves, but they're not what I think of as a typical vampire novels.

Mercedes Lackey did a couple of series about Earth-fantasy. Bibliography: everything between "Elves on the Road" and "Sacred Ground" is earth based. Sometimes her stuff is seen as: flakey, romancey, or watered down for the Boomer housewives. My two cents is that it's sort of like, say, bon-bons as opposed to a steak dinner...depends on what you're in the mood for...but anyway, you were warned.
posted by anaelith at 8:47 PM on June 10, 2007

Have you done Johnathon Strange & Mr. Norrell - faerie magic suddenly re-emerges in early 19th century Britain? If so, have you seen the short-story collection followup - The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which recounts previous otherworldly encounters in neat little period-appropriate writing styles?
posted by ormondsacker at 9:00 PM on June 10, 2007

I'm distraught that a MeFi thread turned you on to Tim Powers and I didn't get to chime in.

I'll second William Browning Spencer's Resume with Monsters, and also Neil Gaiman's ouevre in general, and his collaboration with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens, in particular. John Crowley's Little Big. Megan Lindholm's The Wizard of the Pigeons. Oh, and Gene Wolfe. Peace. There Will Be Doors. Many others.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 12:03 AM on June 11, 2007

All of William Browning Spencer's books are excellent, not just Resume With Monsters. Unfortunately they're out of print, but you can find them used through Amazon.

Tim Pratt (The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl) does fun urban fantasy.


BTW - bonehead, shibboleth does not mean what you think it means. I know it sounds like shoggoth, but it's really something else entirely.
posted by tdismukes at 2:36 AM on June 11, 2007

Addendum to infinitywaltz's mention of Laurel Hamilton's Anita Blake series:

The series actually starts out fairly comparable to the Harry Dresden series in content and style. It isn't until later in the series that she gets sidetracked into an extended wish-fufillment fantasy about having constant supernaturally amazing sex with a man-harem of supernaturally attractive studs. The last few books pretty much dispensed with the plot in order to better discuss the vampire/werewolf/wereleopard/necromancer boinkfest. My wife has just read Hamilton's latest release and reports that the orgies have been reduced sufficiently to allow for the return of an actual plot.
posted by tdismukes at 3:00 AM on June 11, 2007

I'm sticking with my recommendations from the previous thread. Moore, Lethem, and Powers 4 evah!

Also, if you like the Dresden Files, consider F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series. It starts to waver the more recent the stories get (Infernal sucked so much I refuse to buy Harbingers in hardcover), but the first clutch of books, The Tomb/The Last Rashoka, All the Rage, Conspiracies, The Haunted Air, etc are all fun, two-fisted avenger-vs-lurking-evil yarns.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:38 AM on June 11, 2007

Well, if you liked The Dresden Files then you will probably like Blood Ties by Tanya Huff. (Both have been turned into a tv series.) Also, I'm seconding Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman and Guy Gavriel Kay.

I would emphatically not recommend China Mieville. Frustrating is the word that comes to mind when I see that name. Really, I would argue that the emperor has no clothes.

If you ever feel like tackling off-world stories: definitely check out C.S. Friedman, C.J. Cherryh, Robin Hobb, and Karin Lowachee.
posted by who squared at 4:41 AM on June 11, 2007

If you like Tim Powers, you might also like James Blaylock, who has a somewhat similar approach to urban fantasy.

China Mieville is pretty much the opposite of what you're asking for. He's a great writer, but he dumps you down into the middle of a rich, complex, and deeply realized world without a word of explanation, leaving you to figure things out as the story progresses. It's sort of like being teleported into a foreign country you've never heard of without a tour guide or phrasebook.
posted by tdismukes at 8:13 AM on June 11, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

There's also a series called "News from the Edge" that spawned a short-lived SciFi series called "The Chronicle," the premise being that the supermarket tabloids report the truth. Fluff, but fun.

Emma Bull's "Finder" is semi-set in reality.

I'd suggest avoiding LK Hamilton lest you suffer a reader's version of the frog's fate by finding yourself reading complete garbage as the series starts to suck more and more as time passes. Kim Harrison's Rachael Morgan series (Dead Witch Walking is first) is less fluid-drenched and also doesn't feel like a Monty Haul D&D campaign - the characters seem to have actual limits to their powers.
posted by phearlez at 8:38 AM on June 11, 2007

Try Tad Williams' Otherland series.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:38 AM on June 11, 2007

If you're willing to check out some well-written comics / graphic novels, try Fables or Lucifer.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:46 AM on June 13, 2007

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is set in England, I believe. An wacky alternate history England. It purports to be a mystery, but I think it's more humorous fantasy.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:08 PM on June 13, 2007

I highly recommend the Outlander Books By Diana Gabaldon, 6 Books so far with a seventh on the way next year, this series has it all.
posted by chris4446 at 7:33 PM on November 29, 2007