Fantasy Recommendations for the Unenlightened 2

[Alan]

By the gods, there's years and years of reading in this thread alone!

Nice work.

[j. d. worthington]

Yup. Have you checked out the sf recommendations thread? Need an extra lifetime (or six)?

[Brys]

Thought it might be appropriate, just to make this as comprehensive as possible, to put in the links for some of the largest lists of best fantasy:
http://vanderworld.blogspot.com/2006...tasy-list.html
http://speculativereviews.blogspot.c...n-reading.html

I haven't even tried to see how many I've read of Jeff Vandermeer's one, but of the ultimate speculative fiction reading list, I've read about 130 - out of 660+. Admittedly, not all of those are fantasy, but that's still a lot of reading to do.

[Neal Asher]

I recommend you to all get hold of Alan Campbell's Scar Night. It's his first book and the best and most original fantasy I've read in quite some time. It's release in Britain in about a week's time and also, I believe, in America. His blogspot, if you want more gen, is here: http://anurbanfantasy.blogspot.com/

[Nesacat]

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes
Hughes was the UK's poet laureate from 1984. He died in 1998. this book begins with an iron giant toppling down a cliff and smashing into bits. The various parts pick themselves up and look for each other and put themselves together again. He eats metal and he makes friends with a boy called Hogarth. The people of Hogarth's town trap the Iron Man in a huge pit since he's out eating all the metal in sight. The earth is then invaded by a huge space-bat-angel-dragon and it is the Iron Man that saves them by battling the creature.

In the end it's a book about being able to live together and finding a way to do that so everyone has what they need, as opposed to want, without harming anyone or anything else.

Here's how the book ends:
And the space-bat-angel's singing had the most unexpected effect. Suddenly the world became wonderfully peaceful. ...The strange soft eerie space-music began to alter all the people of the world...All they wanted to do was to have peace to enjoy this strange, wild, blissful music from the giant singer in space.

The Iron Woman by Ted Hughes
This one is a sequel to The Iron Man and it's my favourite of the two. It's a cry against the pollution of the earth and a wonderful modern myth. The Iron Woman is born of the marshes. She comes in answer to the cries of all that are being destroyed by pollution; the creatures on the land and in the water, even the human children yet to be born.

And she destroys by dancing. A wild, primeval dance. She turns all the men who work at the waste disposal plant into water creatures leaving the women to deal with matters, while their husbands now reside in tubs and ponds and swimming pools. And she teaches everyone to listen to the song of the earth and the cries of pain of all that live on or in it.

"I am not a robot," it said. "I am the real thing."
And now the face was looking at her. The huge eyes, huge black pupils....The whole body was like a robot, but the face was somehow different. It was like some colossal metal statue's face, made of parts that slid over each other as they moved.

Both books are beautifully written and the words flow like water from page to page to page. I guess it comes from Hughes being a poet. It's impossibly to not feel a part of the book. You can see the animals write in pain, hear them screaming. You can feel the wild dance of the Iron Woman and hear the music of the spheres. In the end they books are filled with a great deal of hope.

[GOLLUM]

Nesacat I saw the cartoon film adaptation a few years back, the title being The Iron Giant and enjoyed it at the time. Sadly it's ony a loose adaptation of the book, so what else is new right?

For those interested in such things the Iron Man was first published back in 1968. Pete Townshend of The Who fame also wrote a rock opera in the late '80s based on The Iron Man, which eventualy sparked interest for a development into the film.

I've not read the book or its sequel, so thanks for the added incentive.

[BattleMage]

A new book that has recently been released and I think is worth every penny spent on it is Brandon Sanderson's Elantris book. It's a stand-alone novel as well as being the author's debut novel and I think it's excellent. It has alot of focus on his highly inventive magic but also combines other elements such as intrigue, romance, fighting, religious upheaval, mystery, and witticism. I recommend it to any lover of fantasy books.

Laura Resnick also has a great series of books called In Legend Born and continuing into In Fire Forged(two parts). A great book especially if you hate all the attention to descriptive detail other than for characters, as this author focuses on the characters and spends little time with scenery except where needed.

[Rosemary]

I would recommend Sara Douglass. Her 'Axis' Trilogy and the follow on 'Wayfarer Redemption' Trilogy are very well written. Her world building is great, as too the story line through both these trilogys.

Another Australian author not so widely read is Tony Shillitoe. I really enjoyed reading both "The Andrakis Trilogy' and 'The Ashuak Chronicles' (Lots of dragons in these!)

Fiona McIntosh has also written two good trilogys. 'Trinity' and then The Quickening'

[Nesacat]

Fudoki by Kij Johnson. I have to admit that I picked up the book because the cover illustration is of a Japanese warrior cat woman.

The story is set in a Japanese myth-influenced universe and revolves around Kagaya-hime. She may be a woman. She's sometimes a warrior or a philosopher or even a reluctant friend. She may truly be a cat or perhaps is a figment of the imagination of a dying princess.

The tale moves between the princess who might be making it up and writing it down in the twilight of her life; and Kagaya-hime, the cat woman.

She was a cat living with a clan. She had her own fudoki - an oral history of all the female cats in her clan. A fire kills all the cats so she loses her tale, her fudoki. And without a tale, she is no one. She cannot join another fudoki without losing herself so she chooses to walk along the Tokaido road because it, unlike her, knows where it's going. She only recognised that the Tokaido had a direction, a meaning, and this made it unlike her.

Along the way she meets the kami of Japan, Gods who in their curiosity about this creature new to Japan, give her a human shape. Not a cat but not quite a woman either. Her nature is that of a cat. Her eyes see further, her ears are sharper. She hunts and kills like a cat.

She does not understand the change or why it has happened, only that it has. So she journeys along the road and all the while the princess writes and breathes her life away. The end is perhaps the surprise and you get to decide how much of a choice we all really have in the vast scheme of the universe. Do we walk freely or are we sometimes nudged along paths because at the end of the path there is one waiting who has a great need for us. And we might not have chosen that path on our own.

Fudoki is a tale of two journeys perhaps. It's looking in the mirror of the Other and perhaps seeing onself truly. The prose is elegant. It's moves along the pages with a feline grace. There are sentences and paragraphs that strike chords deep inside and I think we will all see something of ourselves in the cat or the princess or both.

"What are these voices?"
"The gods," the kami said. "The eight million gods, speaking all at once."
"Are they all roads?"
"That would be a lot of roads. No. They are peace. War. Rice, barley. A thousand forges, ten thousand gates. This lake, that pond, the other river... A tree, all trees, a forest, all forests..."
"How can there be so many of you, and I have never met a god before this?"
"How would you know if you met one? You cats live in a cat-shaped world..."
"And now I am not even a cat," she said bitterly.
"You are no more and no less than you ever were," the kami said. "You lost nothing that was yours in the first place."

and in the end ...
"Who says you are on a different road than you were," the kami said. "There are a lot of roads, and they go everywhere. Some of them can't be seen. You are coming to the end of this one."
"But then what?" she said, her eyes filling with tears.
"You will settle down. make a new fudoki."
"Alone?"
...."When's the last time you wre alone? You tale is a thousand long already - men, women, horses...."

She opened her mouth to speak, but a thought came to her and she said nothing, her mouth gaping open, forgotten. "I never tried," she finally said. "I wept and complained and mourned, but I never thought... But why?
"You needed a home. Could a cat come a thousand miles?...."
"Did I come here or was I summoned?" ....

In the end I loved the book perhaps because of the cat or maybe it was the journey and the way it played out in the end. It's a book I see myself re-reading again and again.

[j. d. worthington]

You'd already intrigued me by your comments elsewhere on this one, Nesa, but this is simply a lovely review... I'm going to definitely have to look this one up and read it. It sounds very poignant and moving, and with that delicate touch of the fantastic that appeals to me so much from Dunsany, especially things like "The Kith of the Elf-Folk" or "The Highwayman", or "The Sorrow of Search"....

Thank you for bringing this to my attention in such a beautiful review.

[Nesacat]

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Nesacat I saw the cartoon film adaptation a few years back, the title being The Iron Giant and enjoyed it at the time. Sadly it's ony a loose adaptation of the book, so what else is new right?

I've seen the Iron Giant and really like it but you're right it's a very, very loose adaptation. I'm reading the books now and I really never made the connection until I read your comment. I am however, curious about the rock opera. Have you seen that?

[GOLLUM]

No never saw it as it was staged in the early '90s in the UK and I'm in OZ. However the Concept album by Townshend is called Iron Man:The Musical and was produced in '89 by Atlantic recrods. Never heard the record but here's a short summary of the track titles, I assume a collection of songs from various artists:

1. Blast Off - The Tyrones 2. Rockin' In Orbit - Jimmie Haskell 3. Kookies Mad Pad - Edd "Kookie" Byrnes 4. Salt And Peanuts - The Nutty Squirrels 5. Comin' Home Baby - Mel Torme 6. Cha-Hua-Hua - Eddie Platt 7. Let's Do The Cha-Cha - The Magnificents 8. Blues Walk - Lou Donaldson 9. I Got A Rocket In My Pocket - Jimmy Lloyd 10. Searchin' - The Coasters 11. Honeycomb - Jimmie Rodgers 12. Destination Moon - The Ames Brothers 13. You Can Be... - Michael Kamen 14. ...Who You Choose To Be - Michael Kamen

[GOLLUM]

I'm with JD Nesa, that's a nice review of Fudoki by Kij Johnson.


I've never read the book but it sounds interesting.

Sounds a little bit like Lian Hearn's Tales Of The Otori set in a medieval/feudal Samurai-style alternate Japan. You read that series? I've skimmed the books before but I received this is as a omnibus edition of all 3 novels in a beautiful HB presentation for my Birthday, still to read it though!

Cheers and keep up the good work with those reviews...

[Nesacat]

I do remember you mentioning having received Lian Hearn's books. Were you the one making the connection with Ladcadio Hearn

Yes I have read those and they are a beautiful read. Very oriental in style. Very eastern in its thinking. Am currently being envious of your hardbacks. Mine are all paperback. Tell me when you do read them please. And Dante's Club too.

I'm glad both you and j.d like the sound of Fudoki. It's just one of those books that finds it's way to your heart and stays. My heart anyway. It's the cat probably. That and the journey. Thank you for the list of tracks. I'll try and hunt them down.

[j. d. worthington]

Actually, Nesa, Gollum had mentioned Liam Hearn's books, and I'd asked if Liam was any relation to Lafcadio.... turns out the answer is no, but it's an interesting coincidence, nonetheless.