Obscure Awesome Books For Christmas

[longlongwaytogo]

I'm looking for some books for Christmas. They don't need to be new. I've already read most of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Ben Elton and Jasper Fforde, but they represent the kind of thing I love. I also love things like Jeeves and Wooster and the 'Pagan' books by Catherine Jinks

Comments

[kattahj]

Anything by Diana Wynne Jones - if you want something for older readers, Hexwood and Fire and Hemlock are complete mindbenders, while Deep Secret is easier to understand but still completely awesome.

Nnedi Okorafor has written some really kick-ass fantasy novels as well, with Zahrah the Windseeker somewhat lighter than The Shadow Speaker.

Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday is another great one.

On a more historical-fantasy level, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell is a delightful read, as is Naomi Novik's Temeraire series (though the cliffhangers are starting to get to me).

[labellementeuse]

I was coming to say DWJ as well, and with longlongwaytogo's literary background, maybe try Dark Lord of Derkholm.

Seconding all your recs, fab taste.

[kattahj]

Thanks! And yes, Dark Lord of Derkholm is another fabulous one.

[bemkah]

YA - have you tried Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen by Garth Nix? Truly excellent fantasy books that Ive read over and over

[bennet_7]

The Legendsong of the Unykorn by Isobelle Carmody is an awesome fantasy trilogy, though we've been waiting for the final book for a very long time.

Good lordy, that's how it was for me with her Obernewtyn Chronicles (which, by the by longlongwaytogo is also quite good fantasy). I waited years for the last book but now that it's been published and I own it I can't muster up the enthusiasm to read it. The gap between books was just too much and I lost the love.

[bemkah]

The last Obernewtyn Chronicles book hasn't actually been published yet - last I heard, it was due out late 2011, but I've no idea really. They keep changing it. I've been waiting over 10 years.

[darkmanifest]

Seconding all the recs above, especially anything by Diane Wynn Jones and Holly Black, and "The Banned and the Banished. For zombies, somebody on my flist recced "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" in YA. I don't like zombies, so I haven't read it, but you could give it a shot.

"Graceling" and "Fire" in the Seven Kingdoms series by Kristin Cashore is good fantasy. The Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin is really good urban fantasy, IMO. "A Nameless Witch" by A. Lee Martinez is a great standalone, very funny fantasy ala Prachett-style. Anything by Maggie Stiefvater, including her werewolf trilogy (Wolves of Mercy Falls) and her faerie duology ("Lament" and "Ballad"). And of course the obligatory Jim Butcher "The Dresden Files" rec.

Oh, and I almost forgot. "A Thousand Words For Stranger" is great science fiction by Julie E. Czerneda - all the scifi by her, really, though some books are hard to find since they were written over a decade ago.

[darkmanifest]

Really? I thought it was better known. It was like my first introduction to high fantasy (I never heard of Tolkien until the movies, lol) and I loved it.

[rhiannon_s]

I would recommend Martin Millar's "Lonely Werewolf Girl" and its sequel "Curse Of the Wolfgirl". Very humorous modern urban fantasy that doesn't go all Twilight. There is also Simon R Green's Forest Kingdom books, and the Hawk and Fisher works which share the same world which are comic High Fantasy. And of course there is the Aldous Lexicon trilogy by Michael Lawrence which is a modern YA low fantasy that uses the multi-universe model to give your brain a good old bending..

[bennet_7]

One for the Morning Glory is very much in the vein of Pratchett and Fforde. It's a wonderfully clever novel that deconstructs the tropes of fantasy and fairy tales but never loses its heart.

It is obscure. Best chance is second hand on Amazon which is how I got my copy. But really, I can not recommend it enough.

Also? The Gentlemen Bastards Sequence by Scott Lynch, starting with The Lies of Locke Lamora. Basically, it's Ocean's Eleven set in a fantasy version of Venice. Really well written, densely plotted, and very funny. Should be easy to find in book stores along with the sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies.

Both of these are fantasy/historical but neither get bogged down conforming to genre conventions.