Fantasy Literature

No, really, change my mind. I'm in the mood for a good fantasy read.

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100 years of Solitude might not exactly be fantasy but its a lot better than Lord of the Rings

Gormenghast

>my rose tinted glasses feel GOOD and I REFUSE to take them off
Nice thread OP

Start with victorian depictions of religion.

This is where most fantasy comes from and holds some of the first originals of fantasy produced for 'entertainment' and not actual depictions of which is holy.

You're not wrong. This was more of a desperate cry for help on my part disguised by smugness - I've been desperately craving some epic fantasy for a while and I can only reread The Silmarillion so many times. I decided I trusted Veeky Forums more than the shills i'd get from a Google search.

It's not really fair to say one of the best works in the western canon is better than that children's book. Plenty of things are better than LotR, that's not the question.

Well ill tell you Malazan and you can take it or you can leave it

Try Elric of Melnibone or Book of the New Sun. They're not as good as Lord of the Rings but they get recommended here quite often when talking about fantasy books.

okay so what's the deal with the crowder meme? It is meant to be funny or is it a sneer?

I think it's pretty funny; do liberals use it to make fun of him?
Is it only a proto-meme?

It's a meme for anyone to use but when liberals use it it's not funny and annoying.

liberals trying to make memes like the right does is akin to DC trying to make movies like Marvel does

This.


Dantes inforno is a great comedy that should not be attatched to actual religion.
He self inserted to make this obvious.

Hyperion Cantos

The Cosmere as a whole by Brandon Sanderson. All of LotR takes place on the land known as middle earth, a single planet. All of Sanderson's books take place in the same UNIVERSE, on each PLANET a totally new magic system exists. Some characters have developed the ability to "world-hop" resulting in cameos that span galaxies. Stormlight Archive for example is by itself a contender for the next big epic fantasy with its magnificent world building.

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Nothing's better, but Gormenghast, Gene Wolfe's books, George MacDonald, and jonathan strange and mr norrell are all pretty good

BotNS is better written, though I admit Tolkein struck something purer in LotR.

I think the main reason for this is that he was one of the founding cornerstones of fantasy, and also that he had a major scholarly background in terms of knowledge of European myths and also languages.

You just need someone as rigorous to come along, with a half good sense of writing ability and a big imagination.

To start with fantasy is a shit genre. That said, given the limitations of the genre, this wasn't awful.

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Way of Kings

quads confirm! based! save mistborn for last and stormlight for first, because stormlight is great and mistborn fucking sucks

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John Crowley -- Little, Big or The Solitudes
Mervyn Peake -- Titus Groan
George MacDonald -- Lilith or At the Back of the North Wind
William Morris -- The Well at the World's End

and trips confirm sanderson yet again! very nice

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Mythago Wood
Anything by Gene Wolfe
Mists of Avalon
The Broken Sword

Trips and quads for The Way of Kings. Found your book op

lord of the rings is literally just a ripoff of der ring des nibelungen

Little, Big
Declare
Evangeline Waltons Mabinogion

This will sound pleb as fuck but I unironically think the belgariad series is better than Lotr

>thread full of Sanderfag shills trying to bring misery upon OP
did you honestly not read OP's earlier post?
>"I decided I trusted Veeky Forums more than the shills i'd get from a Google search."
have some respect, guys, please

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Lmao kid people here get their taste from goodreads recommendations and quick google searches. Just like /mu/, Veeky Forums is not as patrician as it thinks it is. Just look at the faggot who recommended the way of kings.

Yeah, I mean the guy invented fucking languages and he hadn't even finish his folklore by the time he died. Hard to beat that.

The only sff to surpass Tolkien

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Oh my god this series is fucking awful. What did you like about it?

Is this the defining meme of 2018?

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>Elric of Melnibone
Don't read this OP. It's pulpy boring trash. Botns is good.

Patrick Rothfuss's Name Of The Wind easily trumps LoTR, in prose, depth, meta-layers, themes, enjoyability, etc

you mean the cuck book? I'll pass!

Alan Garner?
But what counts as fantasy? A Christmas Carol? Gogol? Le Peau de Chagrin? Rabelais?

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wot is better than lotr don’t (you) me

Wot is good, if you can get through the slump in the middle

I dunno if I consider it better, but the Kingkiller chronicles is worth it.

most other things people are suggesting is unironically horrible disgusting trash (hyperion, elric, and asoiaf). try worm ouroborus, its the only thing that pops into my mind that can even approach Tolkien

book of the new sun is good but both nothing like tolkien and not on the same level as him either. or maybe just try good singles like the broken sword

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Nothing will surpass LotR

that being said try the shadow & claw by gene wolfe or whatever that series is called. I've yet to read it myself

So shitty washed out predictable memes filled with pretentious jokes?

Anarchist memes are the only true memes
>Inb4 how is this at all political
You just don't get it.

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Robert E. Howard is a fine constestant to the throne

What was Boromir supposed to represent? Most of the narrative unfolds fairly conventionally, with the forces of good overcoming the forces of evil. Most of the characters, while well-written and engaging, are also very clearly morally aligned. Boromir is an exception to all of this. He's a very conflicted individual and ends up being killed. I feel like it's meant to say something.

I think Tolkien just wanted to show to corrosive effect of the ring on lesser mortals (thereby justifying the fellowship not following frodo) and ended up writing a well rounded character by mistake

>akin to DC trying to make movies like Marvel does

So, what liberals are doing is akin to creating undying kino of unending brilliance, technically achieved, kino in an almost Joycean dialogue with the western literary and philosophical canon that came before it, inspired in a degree that it would make an atheist reconsider if only he could see the radiance of Snyderkino, whereas the right are creating fast-food garbage of no enduring merit, that is actively ruining western culture and will hopefully be forgotten by history as it has been forgotten by God?

it's not a children's book

It is fantasy. Magical Realism is a spook.

>Dante
>Victorian

Prince of Nothing

Fuck lit is GAY

fantasy is a spook

You may be the wrongest person ever to exist.

jack vance wrote fantasy? what the fuck?

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>no swords
>no dragons
>no hobbits

gey

>Anything by Gene Wolfe
Basically this

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>always shill worm ouroboros whenever i have the chance
>no anons ever reply or seem interested

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fine, what is it?

>The Worm Ouroboros is a heroic high fantasy novel by English writer Eric Rücker Eddison, first published in 1922. The book describes the protracted war between the domineering King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in an imaginary world that appears mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas

>The Worm Ouroboros is often compared with J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (which it predates by 32 years). Tolkien read The Worm Ouroboros, and praised it in print.

>Also, while The Lord of the Rings is written mostly in modern English, Eddison wrote The Worm Ouroboros largely in sixteenth-century English, making use of his experience translating Norse sagas and reading medieval and Renaissance poetry; a nearly unique approach among popular fantasy novels

>The tale's morality has also been described as uncommon in modern fantasy; in particular, it differs sharply from Tolkien's heroism of the common man in a fight against evil and C. S. Lewis's Christian allegory. The Demon lords hold to the Old Norse warrior ethic of loyalty and glory. The leaders of Witchland are regarded as noble and worthy opponents; in the final chapter, Goldry Bluszco compares them very favorably with the "uncivil races" of Impland.

>“But because day at her dawning hours hath so bewitched me, must I yet love her when glutted with triumph she settles to garish noon? . . . Who dares call me turncoat, who do but follow now as I have followed this rare wisdom all my days: to love the sunrise and the sundown and the morning and the evening star.”

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heh oops. meant to reply to

Too bad you didn’t read it or else you could've told us this yourself

what a weird thing to say and yes i did read it

Brian Catling - The Vorrh
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Buried Giant
Brian McNaughton - The Throne of Bones

These are four that I read and enjoyed immensely. Bear in mind that I am not a fan of contemporary genre fiction and based my recommendations on the following criteria: atmosphere, strangeness, strength of prose.

Little, big by Crowley

Eddison's later trilogy is subtler and in some ways more accomplished, but just as pure story, the Worm is hands down one of the best things I've ever read, and yeah, I'd agree LotR doesn't hold a candle to it.

It's high, high fantasy, that elevates violence and boyhood hijinks to an art form – bants and swagger and derring-do and dark magic, sacking castles, burning ships, throwing garbage at parley parties, climbing mountains, goring manticores, sleeping with ancient spirits, riding pegasi. Totally wild.

its the only book other than don quixote that i cried to at the end. don quixote doesnt count though because sir vantes cheated and tossed in a cheap shot right at the end of what i thought was just a wacky comedy of misfits knights

>tfw i will never die a warriors death but instead grow old and die in peaceful boredom

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Lol. This is the stupid shit that fantasy readers think makes a book better. It has a bigger world!!!! So much worldbuildng!!!! Grow up.

this doesnt sound like a good reason to read a book. also youre just describing magic the gathering planes and planeswalkers

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I mean you could have summarized it yourself instead of just lazily copy pasting wikipedia

Elric is awesome though. Not particularly good prose, but highly imaginative.

Dune is better than LOTR desu

try terry goodkind op you'll be probably think it's bad at first but just read every single thing he's written and then you'll like it probably i swear

Alright, Discworld's real focus is on comedy rather than fantasy, though the comedy sometimes comes from fantasy tropes. But I will still say: if you haven't read Terry Pratchett. He was the first author whose works I found particularly funny. You can read the books in any order - I first read the "Guards! Guards!" and the following series.

Also despite not focusing on fantasy, I think Pratchett's world is still, in all it's comicality, pretty well though out.

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I think LotR is better, but the Worm is marvelous. The wrestling scene was when I knew it was something excellent

David Gemmell
Joe Abercrombie

Thisssssss

I'm reading Mistress of Mistresses now and loving it.

>Must the Gods make haste, for Whom no night cometh?

I miss Pratchett senpai :(

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>Mistress of Mistresses
I've always liked Zimiamvia more than Worm Ouroboros but that could just be nostalgia and I read it first, still a pretty good introduction to Eddison regardless.

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How would you compare Eddison to Tolkien?

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>I want to know if I'm allowed to laugh, please tell me if this is compatible with my politics

If you're talking about the fantasy genre proper, that's absolutely correct. Absolutely. All other high/epic fantasy is simply derived from Tolkien.

When a quote intended to sell a book contains an expression of insecurity, you know you're dealing with a toxic genre.

Fuck yeah dude, ever read the wizard knight?

ITT: utter simps

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This post is reddit

yeah only complete autists get thru the drag of a first book

first it was a tabletop game then a movie script that he eventually lazily translated into a book

it's shit

I've read 7 Sanderson books, including Oathbringer and the others, and while they're largely entertaining they're definitely nothing *more* than entertaining. There are lots of other books with better worldbuilding, and the stuff you mention with plane hopping and shit is just juvenile.

You're trying too hard, gotta be more subtle. This isn't /b/

Karl Edward Wagner

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Why don't you read sci-fi instead, OP?

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>what's the deal with the crowder meme
Crowder would put up signs like "there are only two genders change my mind" and then argue with random people in the street for hours, he got a few of them to become uncucked however most of them remained libtard. Why did he do that? Because conservatives can no longer debate with liberals in a civilized manner in universities without some kind of organized attack from antifa larpers or without having their entire event canceled by the college staff, so they might as well argue unannounced in the street with randos like ancient Greek philosophers.

If that is the Arthurian one then yes it's great.

amazing series , i wish they would continue the comic adaption

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Speaking of Tolkien, what else should I read besides The Hobbit and LotR? I'm going through LotR now, but I'm interested in The Silmarillion afterwards.

Has anyone read The Child of Hurin or Beren and Luthien? My library has them and I was wondering if they're worth a read.

Berserk

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>The Child of Hurin or Beren and Luthien
They are both standalone stories so you can read then whenever.

Dropped Wheel of Time after 200 pages. Laughably boring read