So with Citizen in the Wilds now in the revision process, I thought it might behoove me to take a look at some other fantasy literature, maybe examine what works and what doesn’t. Since most of what I’m doing involves the defiance of most fantasy conventions, I’m curious if anything I’m aiming at hasn’t already been hit on the mark by another, more prominent writer.
For example, floating cities aren’t anything new. Look no further than Dalaran in World of Warcraft. However, I don’t know how often the ‘ruling power’ in a given land has been one ruled by mages and defined by the use of magic – ‘magocracy’ is the term I’ve used previously. Everybody has elves in their stories, and most of the time they’re dying out, but I’m curious as to how often they’re shown as very upset at this state of affairs, rather than quietly accepting their fate and loading up on ships to sail into the West.
That said, I own most of Tolkein’s works, a full set of Narnia, and somewhere in this mess are my copies of A Wrinkle In Time, a collection of Conan stories and even Eragon. I’ve taken Tigana out of the library before and would do so again, mostly because I didn’t finish it before returning it. What else would you recommend me to read, oh wise Internets?
If you’re interested in worlds ruled by magic you could try checking out the first three Wheel of Time books and pretend the rest of the series never got written before you set yourself up for major disappointment. The same goes for the first Sword of Truth book.
Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy is quite a good read as well, and unlike most fantasy epics it doesn’t outlast its stay.
You can never go wrong with Discworld, although that series mostly just pokes fun at all conventions and doesn’t just stick to fantasy either. If you need any help with that series, try starting out with Mort, Small Gods or Guards! Guards!
It’s quite a big series and can be read as loose novels in a random order. Although I wouldn’t recommend that with the books about the Ankh-Morpork Watch as they’ll actually have the group grow and organize throughout the series.
Tigana. You know I was going to say it, but you need to finish it, it’s awesome.
Other than that, I don’t really know. Don’t read much fantasy myself.