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Fun, Crazy, Wild, and Over-the-Top Fantasy

GeekDavid

Auror
Oh. I get that. And in theory it would be the sort of thing I'd enjoy. I like Douglas Adams a lot, and in general the British sense of humor appeals. I was just bored stiff every time I tried to read one.

Oh, well. Diff'rent strokes and all that. :)
 

Scribble

Archmage
Yes, I've read all the Elric books. My personal recommendation is to start at the beginning, but they're all good.

I third that! I have read and re-read Elric a number of times. Outside the original saga, I would also recommend Revenge of the Rose& Fortress of the Pearl.

Moorcock's imagination is literally fantastic. He creates creatively unique situations for Elric to suffer and triumph in.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I've broadened my search to a Facebook group I frequent and I got some more responses. I'm wondering if any of you have heard of the following:

Simon R. Green
Christopher Moore
A. Lee Martinez
R.A. Lafferty
Neil Gaiman (not sure he fits in here, but people suggested him)
Tad Williams
Charles de Lint
A.A. Attansio
Robin Wayne Bailey
Lynn Abbey
Richard Kadrey (Sandman Slim series)
Stephen Blackmoore
Lee Battersby (The Rat-Corpse King)

If you know anything about some of these authors, please share!
 
I have read:

Shadows Fall by Simon R. Green. Overplays both the blood-and-guts card and the snarky humor card, and the world never felt entirely cohesive, but it had some nice character interactions. Worth a read just for the odd friendship between Bruin and the Sea Goat.

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. Unimpressed, but it's apparently one of his weakest novels. (With that said, I've heard he's absolutely terrible at ending stories, and that really came through in A Dirty Job.)

Monster by A. Lee Martinez. I don't think I ever quite got the style of humor it used, but some people really like it. It seems like the kind of thing a Douglas Adams fan might enjoy.

Otherworld by Tad Williams: Quite possibly a better exploration of virtual reality than The Matrix, and definitely has a more interesting cast. Slow in a methodical and purposeful way--be ready to devote a lot of time to this one. I do have one complaint: the social commentary is way too heavy-handed to take seriously.

Charles de Lint: I think I've read a couple of his books. They felt kind of airy-fairy, all sorts of magical things happening without a lot of emotional resonance, and hence without a lot of investment.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I've broadened my search to a Facebook group I frequent and I got some more responses. I'm wondering if any of you have heard of the following:

Simon R. Green
Christopher Moore
A. Lee Martinez
R.A. Lafferty
Neil Gaiman (not sure he fits in here, but people suggested him)
Tad Williams
Charles de Lint
A.A. Attansio
Robin Wayne Bailey
Lynn Abbey
Richard Kadrey (Sandman Slim series)
Stephen Blackmoore
Lee Battersby (The Rat-Corpse King)

If you know anything about some of these authors, please share!

Simons Green's Deathstalker series was fun. His urban fantasy not as much.

I like everything I've read by Neil Gaiman.

A. Lee Martinez's books are decent light, humor books.

Tad Williams I've liked, but I didn't make it through the whole Otherworld Series. War of the Roses is a nice one.

I like Charles de Lint for the most part. I probably prefer Emma Bull for this sort of thing.

A.A. Attanasio wrote a fantasy called Wyvern, that I really enjoyed. I also liked Radix. There is a lot by him I haven't read.

Lynn Abbey's Thieves' World stuff is fun.

Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim novels are a lot of fun to read.

I don't have an opinion on the others.
 

GeekDavid

Auror
I've broadened my search to a Facebook group I frequent and I got some more responses. I'm wondering if any of you have heard of the following:

Simon R. Green

If you know anything about some of these authors, please share!

My experience with Simon Green is that he likes to throw maximum weirdness at the story, even at the possible cost of the plot or any semblance of realism. The high-tech wizardry of his worlds (remembering Clarke's famous adage about any sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic) seems to have few or no hard-and-fast rules, just whatever new effect he seems to want at the time.
 
I just remembered a book I forgot to mention earlier. Pyramid Scheme by Eric Flint and David Freer has an incredibly zany approach to both Greek and Egyptian mythology, while still grounded in a believable and likable cast. (I've heard Flint is generally pretty zany, but Freer seems to rein him in a bit.)
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I may be in the minority, but I'm not a big stickler for magic rules. I want them to make sense, yes, but if they don't, it's not a deal breaker for me. I understand that it makes stories more believable and such, but if something is cool, I usually don't say "Wait a minute! That doesn't make sense!" I'll just say, "That's weird" and carry on. I tend to quit novels when they're dry, the pace is too slow, or I'm just not in the mood for them and want to pick them up again later.

Simon Green sounds interesting, so perhaps I'll give him a try. I'm glad most of the others mentioned have some good and bad about them. I like to hear that when looking for new books because I don't want someone to say, "This book is awesome!" and then I come away disappointed. If I know the flaws going into reading them, I may feel more comfortable giving them a shot. Like I said, slow, generic, uninspired writing is a turn-off for me, so if that's a bad point, I may shy away from it.
 
Definitely anime, and the manga they're usually based on. These love to push further, and sometimes leave all sense behind in the explosions or comedy, while sometimes they're hard-hitting drama. But at least 60% of the best adventures on film have to be anime, simply because there's so much of it.

The trick is learning which shows are going to go which way. This is a medium (I won't even say genre) where one show has a villain trapping someone in a dreamstate where they live a year in an instant believing they're being stabbed to death again and again. And then there's the show where this

NarutoCoverTankobon1.jpg


is how a ninja dresses.

--Oh, wait. Same show.
 

buyjupiter

Maester
Christopher Moore is great, especially his non-series stuff. I especially liked Lamb, but that is only for those who have an irreverent sense of humor and don't find non-religious approaches to Christianity blasphemous. The Island of Sequined Nuns is good, and Fool is King Lear told from the fool's POV, which was incredibly fun.

I've read almost of all of Gaiman's adult stuff and it can get strange. I'd recommend starting with Smoke and Mirrors, which is shorter fiction, and there should be something in there you can really enjoy. As far as novels go, I'd recommend Neverwhere. Stardust is really good, but Neverwhere was odd in a wonderful kind of way. Stardust is more of a "mainstream" story.

And Charles de Lint goes along with a bottle of whiskey, a pint of Ben & Jerry's, and a box of tissues. His novels, especially The Onion Girl and Widdershins deal with some really horrible child abuse stuff. It was quite rough to read.

Another thing that I loved for plain zany fun was Heroics for Beginners by John Moore. I think it's more on the YA side of things, and it's really short, but I found it to be a parody of just about every trope there is in the hero's journey.
 
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