Fantasy Recommendations for the Unenlightened 2

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Nesacat

I just finished Never The Bride by Paul Magrs. I've never read anything by his before. Indeed I do not know if he has written anything else. I'll have to ask Google. I picked up this book because of the title and the cover. Usually when a cover says 'Never The Bride' it's got an almost pornographic cover and is found in the romance section.

Huh? you never come across this person before, I'm surprised... You could look up his short story collection Playing Out to get a good idea of the kind of stuff he produces. Some of it is quite controversial...

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by Nesacat

I just finished Never The Bride by Paul Magrs. I've never read anything by his before. Indeed I do not know if he has written anything else. I'll have to ask Google. I picked up this book because of the title and the cover. Usually when a cover says 'Never The Bride' it's got an almost pornographic cover and is found in the romance section.

This one had a creepy black and off white cover and was in the horror section. I certainly don't regret having brought the book home.

The tale is set in Whitby, where all those years ago Dracula first set foot in the UK. I've never been to Whitby but am now very, very curious. To Whitby then comes Brenda. She's bald, wears wigs, there's heavy make-up covering a network of scars. Her two feet don't match at all and she wears bright patterned blouses. She comes to roost in Whitby at the end of a very long life and takes over the running of a B&B, which she is onssesive over.

As her neighbour we have Effie who lives in a rambling pile that has belonged to her family for generations. Effie runs an antique store downstairs and lives upstairs. The store is filled with everything and anything including piles of books, which just might provide all the answers. You see, Efie is descended from a line of witches only she has no time for all this foolishness.

Then there's the Christmas Hotel run by the very sinister Mrs Claus, where it is Christmas all the year around whether you like it or not and elves go missing and pies may contain more than just the usual order of meat.

There's the Deadly Boutique which offers the women of the town makeovers that leave them looking 20, 30 years younger. There's 'mother' who needs to be kept alive. Dracula as you have never see him before is now working for the government.

And of course there is the Gate to Hell, which may or may not end up being shut permanently thereby barring any soul from escaping and returning to this world.

There's a myriad references to the horror classics and a slew of colourful characters and places. Read it for fun or read it to see how much of the Victorian horror you can spot and pin down. Either way, it's a fun read. It's probably not going to win any literary awards but it's fun nevertheless.

It sounds very interesting. Dracula working for the goverment only that makes it worth checking out

Also i have a big weakness for Urban fantasy.


On another note, i saw you read Vampire Hunter D books in some thread. Care to share what you think of the books you have read in the series and the author? There is a thread for the books in horror sektion. Wondering cause i enjoy reading the series.

[Eidurson]

Originally Posted by murphy

Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel Trilogy:

Kushiel's Dart
Kushiel's Chosen
Kushiel's Avatar

Here's a link to her website:

Thanks for that. I'll have a quick shufty.
Any others anyone?

[Lensfire]

Mild amazement that no one's mentioned Andre Norton's Witch World sequence. Of course, it can be argued that these are SF rather than fantasy, but I still think they fit in this company.

I'm delighted to see Mary Hoffman here - the Stravaganza novels have certainly kept my daughter hooked, and me along with her (reading at bedtime is dangerous - I read a chapter, and come back the next night to find she's three chapters further on!).

I heartily endorse the recommendation for the Kushiel trilogy (though they are a set I am NOT reading to my daughter!).

[murphy]

Originally Posted by Lensfire

Mild amazement that no one's mentioned Andre Norton's Witch World sequence. Of course, it can be argued that these are SF rather than fantasy, but I still think they fit in this company.

I'm delighted to see Mary Hoffman here - the Stravaganza novels have certainly kept my daughter hooked, and me along with her (reading at bedtime is dangerous - I read a chapter, and come back the next night to find she's three chapters further on!).

I heartily endorse the recommendation for the Kushiel trilogy (though they are a set I am NOT reading to my daughter!).

Not until she's 21 anyway.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by Lensfire

Mild amazement that no one's mentioned Andre Norton's Witch World sequence. Of course, it can be argued that these are SF rather than fantasy, but I still think they fit in this company.

Hmmm. I could have sworn they had been... but I don't see a reference when searching either this or the original thread; so I'll add to your recommendation there. Though I'd say they fit that hybrid form "science fantasy" (about which we've had some debate around here) in some ways, they do, as a series, fit more comfortably into the straight fantasy genre. Also, not all the books in the series are that good, though (considering the number of the things) a surprising amount of them are... and are often quite literate, old-fashioned story-telling with a solidity and thoughtfulness to them often lacking in the field, I find....

[Nesacat]

Connavar .... I've since read the sequel to Never the Bride and it's called Something Borrowed and it is as good as the first.

As for Vampire Hunter D ... I'll admit that I first began reading the books because of the artist. I have since come to like the books for themselves. I'll look for the thread in the horror section.

GOLLUM .... I've had to special order all of Magrs books thus far. They are not makig the store here at all. I'll try for the short stories.

I'm going to put this one here although it's a children's book although I feel you can read it at any age. It might just be my favourite book this year.

It's called The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber and it's illustrated by Nicola Bayley. The story is apparently based on the old Cornish legend of Tom Bawcock.

There's a tiny village on the coast called Mousehole because that's the size of the gap in the wall of the bay leading into the ocean. There's a little house with a sailor called Tom who's owned by a cat called Mowzer. Mowzer's son runs the pub and her daughter runs the village grocer.

One day the Great Storm Cat comes and although his great paws cannot reach through the mousehole gap to harm the ships, neither can they go out to fish. Christmas is coming and there is no food.

So Tom and Mowzer go out into the storm because both are alone and no longer have dependents unlike the other villagers.

And yes of course they come home with a boat full of fish because even the Great Storm Cat is after all a cat. So why is this a special tale?

Yes, there are cats. That is true. But that is not all. The writer here understands about cats and how things are with them.

"Mowzer had an old cottage with a window overlooking the harbour, an old rocking chair with patchwork cushions and an old fisherman named Tom...

... her own pet old Tom, was very well behaved. he never spilled the cream .... he rocked at just the right speed .... he knew the exact spot behind her left ear where she liked to be tickled...

And if you care not for cats then there are the illustrations which are simply perfect. The main pictures are framed with detailed borders featuring things of the sea. There's tiny details everywhere even down to the fur on the cats and the way they are posed and the expressions on their faces.

For example, the owner of the pub accidentally pours a pint on Mowzer's head and anyone who has a cat will immediately recognise the expression on her face and the way her ears are all flattened.

And here's an example of the art ... this is Mowzer in her tiny boat with the Great Storm Cat ...

[GOLLUM]

[quote=Nesacat]GOLLUM .... I've had to special order all of Magrs books thus far. They are not makig the store here at all. I'll try for the short stories. [/quote]Yes the short stories are the way to go. If you like them then you can seek out other titles.

[Nesacat]

Admittedly I bought this book because I liked the sound of the author's name and the cover was so old-fashioned. It's The Keeper of Ruins by Gesualdo Bufalino. It's been translated from the Italian by Patrick Creagh.

The book is a collection of short stories that tell some of the oddest tales. I'm now trying to find the other books by Bufalino.

Here are some of the stories.

In Being An Angel a realises that he is "no longer a man, but an angel, probably a seraph." He's a man that has until now been comfortable in his own skin and identity and with the vagaries of his very human body. Now "a stranger has taken me over, and from now it's a toss-up who 'I' may be". He finds wings sprouting from his back, his hair falls out and grows back. Only this time it's fine and blond. His mouth opens and words come out of them that he never planned to say. Finally, one day in church the voice inside breaks all boundaries and "I burst forth with an unmistakable blasphemy that drowned out singers and instruments alike, and hushed them on the instant." Taken away to an asylum he finally settles down to communing with that which is within him ... "keeping vigil, a finger on my lips, before the bedchambers of the dying; and at the dawn one day, with flaming brand, slaying the dragon."

This one entitled Eurydice's Homecoming is one of my favourites. There she sits at the door to the Underworld thinking about her husband. The one who turned back at the last instant trapping her forever in the land of Death. "Once again she saw the sequel: the upward scramble behind him on that thorny, stony path, hobbling on foot still throbbing with the venom of the asp. Glad at the sight of him, even if only his back; glad at the ban that would sweeten the delight of soon re-embracing him... But then he had turned. Why? And finally she understands why.

Trouser-peg's Revenge gives the role of postmen a whole new meaning. 'Nzulu, known as Trouser-peg was a "weedy, ugly, penniless fellow" who "had married the superbly curvaceous Aida. Of course everyone is shocked and scandalised. It was his "doglike look of inflexible servility" that had won her over. "As if every instant he were offering her his soul, his entire life, on a charger. Ready to jump out of the window, no questions asked." 'Nzulu is the postman and Aida has a habit of opening and reading some of the mail ... "just for fun and games, and the venomous pleasure of espionage." "Until the time when, strolling beneath the palm-trees ... she discovered a closer and more appetising .... the glad-eyes and mustachios of ... the minicipal policeman. And then ... "what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over." Or does it?

In After The Flood, Noah waits for the waters to recede. Every day for a 150 days he'd watch the rains fall. And in all those days all he saw was the water "how they roared and rolled, turbid and hostile... and never, never as far as the eye could see, glimpsing anything but a looming and crashing avalanche of leaden cataracts..." Finally the rain stops. The earth has been washed clean to start anew. The he sees a dove. His dove high in the sky ... Noah did not spy the hawk ....

There's many, many more tales in the book and as it says in the foreword ... Anyone who enjoys words must enjoy Bufalino; but above all he leaves the reader with his own particular, and particularly vivid, sense of infinite possibility. Anything might happen, anything might be true; throw a question at the Universe and back will come the answer "yes". He has written, "God is better than he seems; Creation doesn't do him justice."

[GOLLUM]

Thanks for the heads up, never heard of Bufalino before.

[Nesacat]

It's the first book of his that I have read GOLLUM but i don't think it will be the last. I like his ideas and the way he uses words. Other books available in English are:
The Plague Sower, translated by Stephen Sartarelli;
Blind Argus, translated by Patrick Creagh;
Night's Lies, translated by Patrick Creagh;

[Wybren]

I think Terry Pratchett has been mentioned here already, but Good Omens is one of my favourites and definitely worth the read.
Um...
The Bitterbynd Trilogy by Cecilia Dart Thornton is brilliant if you can get hold of it
they are
The Ill made Mute
the Lady of the sorrows
and Battle for evernight

Her Crowthistle chronicles are pretty good also

[ScottSF]

After the cold space of Alistair Reynolds and the melodramatic moral anguish of Orson Scott Card in the Sci-fi genre, I’m ready for some old fashioned pager turner fantasy. I’m looking for a really fat book I can sink into. Let’s narrow it down. I’d really like something in the GRRM vein. I’d like sword and sorcery but not pixies and unicorns. I’d like it to start and finish in the same world no time-travel, whisked away, lion-witch-and the portal dream land or cyber-virtual trolls. I’d like it to pretty much be medieval. There’s lots of stuff I like but I’m just not in the mood for. I like Erikson, Holdstock but they are a bit heavy and dark for what I’m craving. I like GG Kay but I’m looking for something a little more straight ahead. I Don’t like most fantasy authors named Terry. If GRRM or Rob. Jordan had another book out I’d be set but they don’t sooooooooooo. . . any help would be Shiny.

[murphy]

Charles Stross: The Merchant Princes series beginning with The Family Trade. Not very big books, but pretty good stories.

J.V. Jones Sword of Shadows Series beginning with Cavern of Black Ice.

Sherwood Smith: Inda and The Fox.

Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freer, Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic.

[ScottSF]

thanks I'll keep those in mind next time I'm book shopping. I think Inda has caught my eye a couple times, maybe it's time to check it out