What are some very well written fantasy novels?

I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of genre fiction, I prefer literary fiction instead. However, I have found some genre fiction novels I've liked.

I've tried asking for "good fantasy novels", but the suggestions I'd get were normie-tier literature (like Rothfuss or Harry Potter). I want less like that and more like Gormenghast, an example of a fantasy novel/series that read like a piece of literary fiction (in regards to characterization, prose, themes, etc). What are some fantasy novels or novel series that I could enjoy? Pic related, because I think I might like it.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion
youtube.com/watch?v=12sb5mPLBd8
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Idk maybe The Worm Ouroboros or The Vorrh

He doesn't have many novels but Lord Dunsany is the best fantasy writer I've ever read, in terms of literariness. Second is Clark Ashton Smith (who wrote no novels).

I got Storm Front free from Amazon, it's the series good?

>Lord Dunsany

I've never heard of this guy before and Ireland likes to talk up basically any remotely decent author we have so it's surprising.

The Book of the New Sun.
You won't find much better.

Yes The Dresden Files is good nigga.

The Gormeghast trilogy.

A lot of fantasy fiction before the 70s was good before they all started copying Tolkien (it got even worse in the 2000s when they started copying GRRM)

Michael Moorcock, John Crowley and Gene Wolfe are fantasy writers but take more influence from literary than genre fiction, try them

Malazan, Anything by Matthew Stover (even his Star Wars books), Wheel of Time, kinda (brilliant thematically, but subpar prose and characterization is of an inconsistent quality), The Dark Tower

Can someone explain what literary fiction is?

The Riyria Revelations/Chronicles
Author's a pretty good writer--really likeable guy--but now churning out like 2 books every year, haven't gotten there yet.
>Powder Mage series
>The Traitor Son Cycle.
>Angus Watson - Iron Age
>Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne
>The Chronicles of the Black Company
Joe Abercrombie, but he's popular, so that makes him bad.

R.A. Lafferty

Is there an easy way to search for stuff like this? I spent all of my formative years reading genreshit, and I'm tired of the cliches, but still really like fantastical elements as narrative devices. My current strategy is just restricting myself to early 20th century stuff, but I'd like to read something more modern

Here you go.
"fantastical elements" is my guilty pleasure

>Malazan
The first book isn't well written. I'd go so far as to say that it's poorly written, in fact, but Erikson improves so much throughout the series that by the end there were moments when I was genuinely taken by a passage which almost never happens when I read genre fiction.

the broken sword

From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Literary fiction is fiction that is regarded as having literary merit, as distinguished from most commercial or "genre" fiction."

Basically "serious literature", like Catcher in the Rye, Moby Dick, Shakespeare, or anything written by Leo Tolstoy or Fyodor Dostoyevski. Usually realistic and contemporary, contain sociopolitical commentary and philosophical themes, focus on the human condition, and usually have a rich prose.

I'm basically asking for fantasy novels written like those, since most I've come across are more focused on their own fantasy world than on anything I mentioned.

Wonderful. Many thanks, user.

The Eye of the World of the Wheel of Time is pretty good, 'specially if you just want a mindless chase story where Egwene doesn't get humped for god fucking ever. The supremacists even get her ropebound at one point, yet still no sodomy.

This. Be aware though, unless you have bug brains you should read about it after you have read it to understand what was happening. I'm a brainlet and 80% of it went over my head

Big*

Someone else mentioned John Crowley. Try "Little,Big" , it's beautiful.

actual fantasy that isn't Gormenghast or Book of the New Sun:

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - It's basically one big homage to Romantic/Victorian literature, but with fantasy on top.

China Mieville's books - He writes "new weird" fiction which is basically an extension of Lovecraft and friends.


magical realism:
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Xala
Midnight's Children
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Kafka on the Shore
Beloved
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Exit West

old shit:
Gulliver's Travels
Journey to the West
Le Morte d'Arthur
The Iliad
The Odyssey

Until We Have Faces

It's okay. Not well-written though.

Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark
Gene Wolfe
Later Terry Pratchett, especially I Shall Wear Midnight
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Night Circus

It is helpful when discussing Fantasy to learn the sub-genres. You'll get more useful recommendations. Perhaps the most important distinction is Science-Fantasy, in which you get recommendations like Vance, Smith, and Burroughs. If you want High Fantasy you'll be offered others. I avoid Urban Fantasy so I can't comment on Butcher, except to say this genre feels like the poorest cousin of all the sub-genres if literary feel is desirable.

Weird Fantasy is largely confined to the Urban setting, so it's got plenty to offer. More than High, in my opinion.

glen cook's work like garrett p.i.

The Amber series by Zelazny. You can skip the last 5 books if you want to

Gene Wolfe and UNSONG.

John Crowley, the Aegypt series and Little Big

Seconding this. Lafferty's the hidden master of sci-fi, and almost makes Wolfe look easy.

Poul Anderson is pretty underrated in general.

>well written fantasy novel
The Silmarillion

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion

youtube.com/watch?v=12sb5mPLBd8

Unironically “The Magicians” trilogy by Lev Grossman.

why lie tho

The Dark Tower is a pretty fantastic series of books, although IMHO they start to really bog down around 5-6. Admittedly I haven't made it past Song of Suzannah, but all of the books up through Wizard and Glass were very enjoyable reads.

This. It's probably because I'm autistic but after reading the Silmarillion I started seeing everything through the lense of its ideas. Like that whole concept about the world being in perpetual decay, where victory over evil is always temporary and at a terrible cost. Or Morgoth's whole arc about how spending your life wanting to possess things inevitably leads to spiritual degeneration.

i loved the broken sword so much my dude, i didn't get round to reading any of his other things, is there any other books of his that are similar?

It's not similar but I really enjoyed Three Hearts and Three Lions

Are you me?

Add Borges as he's the direct reference for much of the works listed here.

The Warhammer 40,000 books are pretty good.

I really love the Powder Mage series. It's a really neat take on magic in a gunpowder-era world and it's written well. I don't subscribe to the "Popular=Bad" school of thought.

Black Company was the shiznitt too.

I remember liking Eisenhorn when it first came out.

Vance is top tier. One of those rare authors who writes excellent prose without a load of superfluous guff. Sorry Wolfe.

Suprised no one has mentioned Bakker yet, too. The Second Apocalypse is definitely one of the better ongoing sagas at the moment.

So far I agree. First book was pretty poorly written, but I forced myself to start the second after that and the writing is already significantly better

The Warlord Chronicles is excellent.

Odd, I thought Veeky Forums would despise Malazan. Anyway, I’d agree with this one. The thing to keep in mind however, is that most of the background is stuff you’re going have to figure out yourself.

Though I haven’t read it myself, wasn’t there that old King Arthur-ish novel that tossed in more fantasy stuff? The Faerie Queen I think it’s called.

Once and Future King is more likely to end up on Veeky Forums lists in my experience

check out gene wolfe. i haven't read the book of the new sun but i read three other books by him (the wizard knight, latro in the mist, and soldier of sidon) and they were pretty good. but i haven't read much fantasy beyond the chronicles of narnia and lord of the rings, which i read when i was a child.

Wheel of time
Second only to Tolkien

If you actually believe this, I pity you

fuck, these books were so damn good
but yeah, i missed a TON of stuff reading through it the first time.

gonna make a second go soon

M. John Harrison is worth a look.

I love Gene Wolfe and BOTNS but I usually steer new people to either Book of the Long sun, or if they're slow, Wizard-Knight.

Recently ordered paperback of The knight from Loboe but it was kind of big, not very suitable for public transportation reading. I want to get into the book of the new sun books but can't find a decent size either. Anyone knows how to get a small paperback version that isn't overpriced as pic related?

If you want some super witty shit that doesn't take itself too seriously, read Discworld. I can't give this series enough praise. It's literally my Bible. 40 some odd stories, each one are a nice little 200-400 page read, funny as fuck yet the philosophy he teaches is right up my alley.

Here's an example of one of my favorite lines (paraphrased because I'm too lazy to look it up):

>Vimes thought that sex was a lot like food for people. Everyone loves it, people often fantasize about extravagant meals when they're really hungry, and sometimes they buy big expensive books to try out new things. But, at the end of the day, most people will be satisfied with an egg salad sandwich with a slice of tomato.

That's my suggestion at least

Purchase them individually used from amazon or ebay. I did about a year ago and each one was 6 burgerbucks or less shipped.

Stormlight Archive

How about this?

not really, some of the HH books I read were pretty meh
though the ciaphas cain saga was entertaining, but ultimately just that

Most of the garbage Black Library shits out isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Eisenhorn is excellent though, and if you want a fun series to read go for Gaunt's Ghosts, it's so infantry it hurts.

Ravenor is fairly good as well but not as good as Eisenhorn, imo.
The majority of the HH books are shit. I never could get into Ciaphas Cain.

I picked this up at a used book store. I got like 4 books on the go plus my language textbook... but this book is calling me

1993 calling, we want our forced meme back, thanks.

...

can't believe no one's mentioned some of my favorites

Dune by Frank Herbert
Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist
the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber

...

I prefer Robert Jordan's Conan pastiches

Your favorites are not very well written.

I have the first Gaunt's Ghost book, It's on my backlog right now

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hob doesn't get enough love. Her other trilogies are good too. They are all set in the same universe and loosely connected.

I'm going to warn you that the first book is rough, but the action is excellent. I'd suggest getting the Omnibus collections, there's like 11 books in the series. His writing does vastly improve though, it's neat to watch. The characters do gather more plot armor as the series progresses, people get fucked left and right in the first 3-4 books. Some of them will make you very angry.

Eisenhorn is still Dan Abnett's best series of books. Oozes atmosphere and gives a great amount of insight into something not really explored in the 40k universe. I cannot recommend it enough.