Readers of Fantasy Books

[Cheetah]

Hey, so I'm just interested in what kind of fantasy books people like nowadays.

I know there's this whole Vampire spree going around (which I am not a particular fan of) but I was wondering what else people like to read.

Or, rather, I guess the real question is: what types of fantasy books would you want to see more of?

Personally, I'd like to see more books akin to the book Incarceron, or books like The Hunger Games. But what do you all think? You can be specific or just give a general type of fantasy/fiction books you like to read. I just want to know what people think!

[Owlstar]

I'd like to see some more Hunger Games books as well. I also like the Uglies series, Harry Potter, and Warriors.

[Dumezil]

I'm starting to get tired of all the vampire stuff as well. I don't like reading about magic unless it is Harry Potter or Eragon; otherwise it seems stupid with all the spell casting, wand waving, and potion stirring.

Currently, I am a huge fan of the Eragon books. I can't find any other good books. -grumps-
However, I have heard some good things about Hunger Games so I might try those.

[Ara (Crow)]

I'd love to see more dragon themed novels, as well as werewolf.

[Cheetah]

Yeah, I think I agree with the werewolf thing. I haven't seen many novels with just werewolves. There are too many with werewolves and vampires.

Jetta--the Hunger Games are pretty good and unique. They don't hold a candle to Harry Potter, but they're still really good.

[Ara (Crow)]

Nov 1, 2010 18:11:12 GMT -8 Cheetah said:

Yeah, I think I agree with the werewolf thing. I haven't seen many novels with just werewolves. There are too many with werewolves and vampires.

Seriously, I've only read two novels just with werewolves, both were very good. You see so many wolf books, but not so many werewolf books. It's wierd.

[Cheetah]

Nov 1, 2010 18:17:51 GMT -8 Ara (Crow) said:

Nov 1, 2010 18:11:12 GMT -8 Cheetah said:

Yeah, I think I agree with the werewolf thing. I haven't seen many novels with just werewolves. There are too many with werewolves and vampires.

Seriously, I've only read two novels just with werewolves, both were very good. You see so many wolf books, but not so many werewolf books. It's wierd.

What were those books called? I think Twilight might have ruined the ideas of werewolves for me, but I'd like to try one.

[Ara (Crow)]

Nov 1, 2010 18:19:13 GMT -8 Cheetah said:

Nov 1, 2010 18:17:51 GMT -8 Ara (Crow) said:

Seriously, I've only read two novels just with werewolves, both were very good. You see so many wolf books, but not so many werewolf books. It's wierd.

What were those books called? I think Twilight might have ruined the ideas of werewolves for me, but I'd like to try one.

Twilight has stupid laws on everything.

Can't remember the other at this late hour, but one was Blood & Chocolate. The movie for it was terrible but the book is good.

[Dumezil]

Blood and Chocolate was really good! It was only slightly the same as every other werewolf book out there. I enjoyed it, though.

Well I'll be checking out the Hunger Games, then. What are they about, kind of?

[Cheetah]

Well, they sound kind of dumb when I say the plot, but I'll say it anyway.

Basically, it's in the future, in a kind of ruined/rebuilt North America. There are 12 "districts", kind of like states in the US but much more divided. In fact, people arenot allowed to travel between teh districts or have anything to do with the other districts.

The ruling power is the Capital. To flaunt their power over the districts,the Capital forces each district to hold a drawing every year. Two kids, one girl and one boy, between the ages of 11 and 18 (i think) are chosen from each district and put into an arena (a really cool, futuristic one where the "Gamemakers" or people controlling the arena can make fires start and storms and all that ). So 24 kids. Basically, it's a fight to the death, and the winner gets to go home, live the rest of their life in luxury, and their district gets food for a whole year. Hidden cameras capture all of it, and the rest of the people in all the districts watch the Games.

So the story follows the main character, Katniss, as she's chosen and goes into the Hunger Games.

[Magic Mist]

I miss good magic fantasy books, nowadays the market is saturated with urban fantasy stuff, which doesn't interest me the slightest. I'm not really a huge fan of fantasy of super epic proportions either, just some fun easy read books would be very appreciated. Something on the lines of "The Black Magician" trilogy (the author is working on a sequel trilogy, but it just doesn't have the same spark as its predecessor). The newest gem I found a few months ago was "The Demon King" by Cinda Williams Chima. The story line (I should say lines, not line, since there are two intertwined ones) is interesting, the characters are likeable and while it may be a tad predictable (and what fantasy novels aren't?), but I'll be definitely buying the next books in the series. Anyway, I could on about fantasy books forever, but I'll hush now

[{ P e r e g r i n e }]

I'd like to see something that does not involve vampires fornicating everywhere and Legolas going to save the world on his dragon named Fluffy in the magical land of Awesometown. Seriously, originality and interesting language tone and I'm so there. Sadly, it seems like 99% of all fantasy books I pick up put me to sleep.

I liked:

Harry Potter
Percy Jackson
LOTR

And I picked up the first book in the "Ranger's Apprentice" series and the writing barely pulls me in, but I keep going back to it, which is something. But it's sad, as I love fantasy books.

I hated Eragon *ducks from potential flying rotten tomatoes and eggs*. I found it dry, humorless, boring and predictable. Yuck.

[Girl Dale]

Anything not related to vampires/werewolves or rip-offs in general...

[huskette]

Cheetah I recently read a book that was just werewolves, "Lonely Werewolf Girl". It's terribly written and the story isn't all that original, but it's a fun read (once you keep yourself from throwing the book at the wall because of the over simplified grammar), especially since the author has some really kooky characters. Her fashion-designer, urban, nature-hating werewolf was very funny and her fire-spirit queen was to die for. There were lines in that book, mostly between those two, that had me laughing out loud in the bus "What did I say about choosing the appropriate footwear for ritual sacrifice in the volcano?"

I'm a sucker for original, weird things. Despite the books being written more for a YA audience than someone my age, I adore anything by Garth Nix. He has a knack for building macabre, original worlds and he has amazing ideas. One of the books by him that I clearly remember even though I was only 8 or 9 when I read it was about a world where everyone over the age of 14 had disappeared overnight and all the remaining kids had been rounded up at put in these kinds of concentration camps. At age 14 they were killed and used for parts to build more of the machines that ruled that world. The book centered around a small group of children who had escaped, led by a very imperfect hologram named Shade. His Abhorsen trilogy, about a weird world that's split by a wall into the medieval "old kingdom" and the very modern Ancelstire (or something like that, I forget the exact name). Most of those stories happen "beyond the wall" in the old kingdom, following the story of a hereditary necromancer who's trying to prevent the destruction of the wall. Nix has quite a few books and most of them are very original and good. I wasn't too impressed by the Ragwitch, though. I'd love to see more authors follow his lead and just come up with bizarre, original ideas and worlds for us to enjoy instead of playing on the same old tired tropes.

George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series is amazing, too. The first book, I was really wondering why I was so engrossed by it. The characters are not the epic, cool heroes that we're used to in fantasy. In fact, most of them are really detestable. But his world is so real, the characters are so realistically flawed and things do not always go their way just because they're the hero, and not in the artificial "I must give them obstacles" way either. You think someone is becoming the main character and then... they die. Horribly. And you can't do anything but read on in shock. He keeps you guessing. And the whole political intrigue thing is cool too. The thing is there's a lot of this type of book, the whole epic medieval-fantasy civil war thing... But few are the authors who actually do it well.

The thing is, I find that it doesn't really matter what type of story is or paranormal element it has, what's important is the author's delivery of it. Vampire stories can be really interesting. Unfortunately very often they're written as paranormal romance novels, where the fact that the guy drinks blood totally doesn't get in the way of the heroine falling wildly in love for no real reason. Or you get the whole "chosen one" storyline, where the only resistance to the hero(ine) getting what (s)he wants is a few very contrived obstacles that are easily blown away. Those can be fun for a quick, light read, but they get pretty boring pretty fast. What I like is when the author has realistic characters, realistic challenges and a novel, interesting story to tell. Or at least an original way of telling it.

[Kami]

I love pretty much anything that falls into the high fantasy genre. Overall, I'm not a huge fan of vampire novels, or werewolves, etc (though I have to admit that I do love me some Anne Rice and Blue Bloods). Give me swords and magic and epic creatures, and I'm good. :3

I think the reason I liked Harry Potter, despite it being "modern" era and a hidden universe within our own (as opposed to a different world entirely, as is the definition of high fantasy), is the fact that whilst in the Wizarding World it takes on a very... archaic feeling, steeped in tradition and history (as opposed to being in the "now").

...if that made sense. xD

eta; I'd definitely like to see something more in the lines of specifically LOTR and the DragonLance series -- where entire worlds are built upon and expanded, with multiple novels and side novels and 'history' novels. :3