Where should I start when reading fantasy?

As with science fiction, this is a tough question — for the same reason.  Fantasy worlds can be entirely different than our own, eerily similar, or a mash-up of the radically different and the every day.

Fantasy can be humorous (Anthony’s Xanth series or Terry Pratchett‘s works), character-driven (Alan Dean Foster’s Flinx series), epic (Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings), a mashup with science fiction (Anne McCaffrey’s Crystal Singer), fairy tales, portal fantasies, and much more.

Read on for the list.

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“If I want to start reading science fiction, where should I start?”

Tough question.

Science fiction encompasses a wide range of sub-genre, ranging from space opera to alternative reality, from military sf to time travel, from alien contact to apocalyptic thrillers.

So, here’s some of my recommendations:

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Recent read: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Antoinette Kowal.

I’ve enjoyed listening to Kowal’s advice via Writing Excuses and decided to give her books a try.  I liked the work, reminiscent of Jane Austen with a fantastical touch, and found it a bit unexpected — but I’m not sure why.

I’m looking forward to finding some of her short stories, especially “In Want of a Nail”.

Recent Books

• Turning to the fantasy genre, I read Deerskin by Robin McKinley, a nicely done story; then started a re-read of Raymond Feist’s Riftwar Cycle, a favorite of my youth.
• Re-read Crosstalk by Connie Willis
• The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson.  Mainstream fiction?  Chic lit?  However you define it, an excellent read with surprising depth.

Recent Articles

• Water in Space: What Happens? over on Medium
• 8 Awesome Steps To Revising Your Novel by Katherine O’Chee on Writer’s Edit

Merry Christmas!

A busy month, this October.  Here’s few that I liked:

• Ilona Andrews, Innkeeper Chronicles series.  Not bad for a supernatural-sf bridge.
• Sophie Kinsella, Can You Keep a Secret? I don’t know why I like these silly British romances.  I just do.  Don’t judge me.
• C.C. Payne, The Thing About Leftovers, a well-written YA with a 12 year-old protagonist who cooks.

I keep looking through the library and online for a good sf read, but so far I haven’t really liked anything.  Let me know by one of the thousand ways to contact me if you have a good read in any genre.

Well, no, not horror, I don’t read that.  Well, no, not erotica.  I don’t go there.  No, not that dark gruesome mystery or violent-filled thriller, either… I’m not a picky person, really.

I like books that cross genre lines in subtle ways.  Do you?

In that light, two recent reads I liked were The Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan, and I’ll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos.

My father was a fan of Agatha Christie.  Lying around my childhood home were almost every one of her mystery novels.

I devoured those books.  In turn, those books set my expectations to a rather high standard, so much that for years I could barely read a page or two into any other mystery.

Now, a personal renaissance has led me back to the genre.  Here are a few favorites:

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1. Grounded by Neta Jackson: a Christian novel quite a cut above the usual, and not the ubiquitous romance.
2. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: a literary read of contemporary life with a main thread of fantasy woven in expertly.  The end wasn’t as satisfying as I wanted.
3. Spin State, Chris Moriarty: I tried, I really tried to get into this recent sf work, but I couldn’t.

Some decent reads to mention:

• In fiction, Fredrik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry.
• In science fiction, a good re-read of a classic:  Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Vor Game
• A well-written young adult novel about a school shooting: Chop, Chop, by L.N. Crook

A few older and newer authors whose writing I enjoy:

• Louis L’Amour and Craig Johnson for westerns
• Thomas Davis Bunn for adventure and historical fiction with a Christian tone
• Steven Gould for science fiction adventure without spaceships and lasers
• Dominic Green for science fiction laughs — the books may be aimed for younger readers, but I find them funny in a dry sort of way
• Lois McMaster Bujold — character-driven, space adventure at its finest, with a solid foundation of morality and honor