New fantasy series worth trying...

[Ian Sales]

I'll admit here and now that I read more sf than fantasy. And when some of my favourite sf novelists write fantasy, I'll happily read it. But there's a vast amount of heartland fantasy out there, and I find it hard to distinguish the good stuff. Now, I've read the big ones - Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire - and tried one or two from some of the other popular series - Malazan Book of the Fallen, Terry Goodkind, Perdido Street Station, Amber, Viriconium... And even some of the less popular ones - RA MacAvoy, Ricardo Pinto...

But.

If I were try something more recent, what should I choose? What would you recommend?

[Graeme]

If you like to try fantasy, by sci-fi authors, then you might want to give Richard Morgan's 'The Steel Remains' a go when it comes out (in August, I think). It's got all the full on attitude of his sci-fi stuff but translated very well into a fantasy setting (which is maybe a little bit sci-fi at the same time...)
I'll also second the 'Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone' recommendation. The final book lets the story down, a bit, but overall it's one of my favourite series.

[Cheryl L]

I'll third the recommendation of J. V. Jones, but only the Sword of Shadows series. Her Book of Words trilogy was almost painfully cliched, IMO. I find it amazing how much I enjoy rereading the first three available books of SoS when I could barely finish the Book of Words' first reading.

There's a sort of link between the two series actually, the Book of Words comes first in the timeline, but you don't need to have read (or suffered...) it to enjoy SoS - it feels nicely epic all by itself. I only wish she didn't take so long to write each new novel. :(

[Nick]

I think it was put forward as YA, J.V.Jones' first trilogy, it was a journeyman work, even though it contains someone being raped while unconscious and another person being skinned alive, also while unconscious/drugged. Nice. She's great on character development and is one of the finest stylists in the field of Epic/Heroic/Traditional fantasy in my humble opinion. While her standalone, The Barbed Coil is spoken of very positively, although I've yet to read it. She pretty much keeps herself to herself though and had been off the scene for almost five years, no one quite seems to know why until the third Sword of Shadows book came out. It was supposed to be a trilogy and now is either going to run to four or five books, can't remember quite which.

That council sequence in the first of the series made me want to give up writing, the chapter was so well plotted and rounded off to perfection (as a reader you were never quite sure how events would turn out but by the end you had the unerring feeling with your deconstructionist hat on that she had structured the whole thing meticulously) I did for while think: oh sod it, with stuff of that quality out there, why bother?! It impressed and equally depressed the hell out of me!

[Cheryl L]

I had no idea it was intended as YA. That makes me see it in a different light. Thanks for the info! Come to think of it, I did enjoy the council plots quite a bit, they were indeed complex, and the relationship between the fat fella (whose name I have forgotten!) and his servant was extremely amusing. :)

Back on topic: I recently started Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books, and they're great. Wonderful characterisation.

[Satima Flavell]

I adore Jacqueline Carey, too, Cheryl. Normally I dislike erotica as so much of it is as gratuitous as to border on pornography, but with Carey it is so much a part of the plot and characterisations that the books simply wouldn't work without it.

[Nigel Quinlan]

Robert Holdstock's Merlin Codex trilogy is an amazing fusion of Greek and Celtic mythology.
Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch series. I've read the first, and it was great, as much for it's portrayal of modern Moscow and the moral stasis of the protagonists, which seems to capture the spirit of post Cold War Russia.

[Kari Sperring]

If you're interested in the sf/fantasy boundary, I'd suggest Steven Brust's Taltos series. Not that new -- he began writing them in the late 80s and is still going -- but they have a Zelazny-esque touch and are also a rational length.
Otherwise, Kate Elliott's new series -- beginning with Spirit Gate -- really worked for me. Very complex world building and addressing some serious political issues in an entertaining way.

[Maggie Brinkley]

Cassandra Clare's 'City of Bones' and 'Cities of Ashes' have kept me up until gone 1am for two nights running now. They're YA Urban Fantasy, I suppose. An ordinary teenage girl discovers that demons are preying on humans, and there are part-angelic humans called Shadowhunters who seek out and kill them. Vampires, werewolves and Fay also feature. So far, so cliche'd, you think? No, no. These are very well-written. The main character is not a Mary Sue - she makes mistakes, and she doesn't like the uber-sexy young Shadowhunter hero, who is not at all sympathetic.

These remind me of Diana Wynne Jones (who is a Living National Treasure) more than, say, Jim Butcher or Laurell -gag- Hamilton, as examples of Urban Fantasy. I think it's because the characters are more believable. Also, since they are YA, there's no blatant OTT sex (which I find either excruciatingly boring or extremely silly.)

Cassandra Clare also wrote 'The Very Secret Diaries of Aragorn son of Arathorn' and other diaries of TLotR characters, which are online and which are screamingly funny.

Another rec is Jessica Rydill: steam trains! Shamen! Original stories: remember, I've been reading fantasy for 40+years and I've seen a lot of tropes come round and round again. These are very different, and very good.

PS. R A MacAvoy is amazing. Perhaps I'm prejudiced, because 'Tea With The Black Dragon' was so new and so interesting in the desert of sub-Tolkien - nay, sub-Terry Brooks - titles that were published in the 70s and early 80s when I discovered her!

[Ian Sales]

I've read MacAvoy's Lens of the World, King of the Dead and Winter of the Wolf, and thought it very good. Definitely a superior fantasy.

I've seen reviews of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet that suggest it might appeal to me. Anyone here read it?

[Nick]

I haven't read it Ian, but Tor have been doing a promotion where they are offering free downloads of certain new releases etc and Abraham's A Shadow in Summer was one of them. If you find the Tor site and they are still running the promotion you may be able to download it yet. Kate Elliott's first in her new series was one of the books, too. But I have to say, I have yet to know anyone who has read an entire novel of 500-pages+ on a computer or laptop screen - those e-booky thingamys might be different, but unless you have the dosh to print the thing out on paper, I don't know of anyone! I simply cannot adjust myself to it yet.

[Ian Sales]

Ha. I signed up to that when it started, and I've been downloading the books as the emails were sent out. I'd forgotten the titles they were giving away. I can at least give it a try, and if it takes my fancy I'll get the paperback.

[Peadar Ó Guilín]

I've read the first two books and thought they were really good. His magic system and culture are wonderful.