Comments on: the art of magic in fiction

By: Sean May

Sean May — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:56:30 +0000

James Clemans is really good. A little dark and a bit gruesome at times, but the stories are excellent. Try The Banned and the Banished series: Wi’tch Fire, Wi’tch Storm, Wi’tch War, Wi’tch Gate and Wi’tch Star. (I don’t know what the apostrophes are about, but the names of the races are littered with them)

His second series: The Godslayer Chronicles is also very good and a bit lighter than the first. However, it’s been about three years since the last (ending on a cliff-hanger) and there’s still no news on when the next is coming out.

By: good theology | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen

good theology | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:09:40 +0000

[...] a while back I posted on the art of magic in fiction. I asked readers what they recommended for some good fantasy reads, and the result was a pretty long list of [...]

By: a

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:18:14 +0000

Jo Walton’s “The King’s Peace” is a good Arthurian book.

By: James

James — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:54:46 +0000

The second is even better. Indeed, the use of magic (although the system has not been altered) is better. Third one I have yet to read, but look forward to once there’s a big enough dent in this degree to warrant reading fiction…

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:00:05 +0000

James – that’s the only of the Bartimeus books I’ve read so far and it was a lot of fun…

By: James

James — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:27:23 +0000

Amulet of Samarkand.

By: eddi

eddi — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:57:30 +0000

Nothing has been recently better than The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Just wonderful.

By: a reading list for fantasy enthusiasts | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen

a reading list for fantasy enthusiasts | The League of Ordinary Gentlemen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:41:47 +0000

[...] original post is here – read the comments to get any additional footnotes included with these [...]

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:24:09 +0000

Thank you for the assessment of magic in fantasy literature. I also struggle to find good fantasy. I tried picking up Terry Goodkind’s “Wizard’s First Rule”. I made it to about page 300, telling myself along the way “Stick with it, it is bound to get better”, only to put it down because of trite plot, painful dialogue (all the characters sounded the same) and very, very shallow characters, The world was not engrossing and I found the villian to be completely cliche.
On the other hand, a few months ago I finished T.H. White’s “The Once And Future King”. One thing is for certain, many of the pop-fantasy authors springing up today cannot write like that!

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:05:48 +0000

Well – this has far exceeded my expectations. Thanks to everyone for the many, many suggestions. I hear a library and perhaps a used bookstore calling my name….

Neil Gaiman is very good, I agree. I’ve read a bit of Terry Pratchett, too (Sourcerer was funny) but not Good Omens. I’ve also read the first Bartimeus book, which I thought was wonderfully witty. But a lot of these I haven’t read, so that’s fantastic.

Now the trick is to stop reading so many blogs, news articles, and serious stuff and get back to basics…

;-)