More Book Recommendations!

[bonny_kate]

One of my friends requesting book recommendations. Now, since I could give a very long list of book recommendations, I asked what genres, and she said urban fantasy and space opera. Here, then, are my recommendations if you want some excellent urban fantasy or space opera.

 

Space Opera

What I mean by space opera is if you took a really good action/adventure movie, and the setting happened to be space. Think of the novel equivalent of Star Wars or Indiana Jones in space. 

 

Trading in Danger (the first book in Vatta's War) - Elizabeth Moon - Ky Vatta is kicked out of the space military, starts trying to be a space merchant, has adventures, and also happen to be a woman. Some of the best space opera I've read. The Serrano Legacy series is also quite good.

 

The Human Division - John Scalzi - More excellent space opera, but this time centered around diplomats and told in a series of linked short stories, some serious, some amusing. 

 

Urban Fantasy

I am loosely defining urban fantasy as fantasy that happens in a modern, urban setting.

 

Little (Grrl) Lost - Charles DeLint - DeLint somehow manages to pull together all kinds of disparate elements and mythologies and make it work. Also, all of his novels have a wonderfully rich and complex backstory that is only hinted at.

 

Spiral Hunt - Margaret Ronald - I was blown away when I read this trilogy, and wish she'd written more. The author has very clear ideas about what her fantasy is (instead of throwing everything in), and it is Celtic with a decent dose of literary theory. I was also pleased to find that instead of a stock love triangle, it is about people trying to figure things out. The protagonist is a woman who freelances on the side as a private detective.

 

Discount Armageddon - Seanin McGuire - (the first Incryptid novel) This takes place in New York and presumes that all the urban legends of things like chupacabras and Bigfoot and such are true, and that they are living normal lives (except for that pesky secret order that tries to kill them). It also features the Aeslin mice, a group of intelligent mice that have their own rituals and wear squirrel skulls and say things like "Hail the taking out of the trash!" and are completely adorable. (Small warning that the author works as a waitress in a strip club, if that would bother you.)

(Joel also suggested Dresden, but I've heard such problematic things about it (from Charis and Sharon, who have excellent taste), and I've never been able to get into it myself, that I have trouble recommending it, and probably won't in the future.)

Comments

[cadenzamuse]

I actually love The Dresden Files, on the condition of 1: the character and the writer are sexist, and 2: the first 2 books are crap. Once the character starts realizing that he needs to ask for help and communicate what's going on, Dresden is one of my favorite examples of a long-running urban fantasy series in which people change as the events and times change them.

The thing about Dresden is it was kind of the Lord of the Rings of long-running, well-written gritty urban fantasy, and so even though it has some big problematic elements (and the first two books are worthless), it's kind of a touchstone for urban fantasy enthusiasts.

My go-to "gritty" urban fantasy series is T.A. Pratt's Marla Mason series, which has a similar solving-crime, fixing-problems, beating-people-up, doing-magic feel to Dresden, but the main character is a sarcastic, incredibly clever, powerful woman with a very skewed moral code.

Others in that detective-y urban fantasy mystery vein that I have tried:
-The Kitty Norville series, about a werewolf who DJs a late night talk radio show for magical creatures (and gets away with it because people think it's a hilarious hoax). These are on the lighter end, but the author discovers early on that a lot of werewolf and vampire tropes are really abusive when taken to their natural conclusion, and so highlights that and comes up with other more functional ways for these communities to work.
-Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels series, about a mercenary in a post-apocalyptic Atlanta that switches back and forth from magic to science functioning properly. The setting and characters are really interesting (although if you have ever lived in Atlanta you might have an aneurysm over the geography), but it suffers from no-one-ever-really-changes-itis.
-On the other end, Seanan McGuire's October Daye series has events that actually matter to characters and the world, and a nice quippy sarcastic sense of humor, but the main character feels kind of like a cardboard cutout.
-Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series, about a coyote-shapeshifting mechanic. This has Werewolf Society Problems, and Alpha Male Romantic Interest problems, but the main character and side characters are interesting and the world is fun. The mish-mash of "Native American" legends/mythos smashed together is gross and appropriative, though (although the author has back-pedaled some and done some more research.)
-Wen Spencer's Tinker (I couldn't get into the sequel, because the elves' POV nearly made me rage blackout)--Pittsburgh has been moved to another dimension, where there is magic and elves. An 18 year old girl mechanical genius, who is nevertheless surprisingly un-Mary-Sue-ish, ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time between the humans, the elves, and the enemies of the elves, and survives mostly by defying gender expectations and being stubborn as hell.

Did we already talk about how the first half of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold should be in space opera? Really, really good.

I loved Discount Armageddon and Midnight Blue-Light Special and I am so-so on DeLint (I like his books, but I find by the end that I have caught the thought patterns of the characters and their world and that they are poisonous), so I will happily check out the Margaret Ronald trilogy. :)

[bonny_kate]

I read pretty voraciously.

So, I liked Dead Reign quite a lot, but didn't like the other Marla Mason books quite as much.

Tried Kitty Norville, couldn't really get into it.

I've only read a short by Ilona Adrews, but I had a really negative reaction to it, so I probably wouldn't give it another try.

I've read Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, which I've mostly liked, but I didn't like it half as much as the Incryptid series (my reviews are on Goodreads).

Have you read Half-Off Ragnarok? It's the new Incryptid book and I just finished it. I quite enjoyed it (but the Aeslin mice were not featured enough).

I'm not sure if I've read Patricia Briggs or not. I'll have to look at that and Tinker.

For me, Charles DeLint tends to fall into the category of read once. I like his books, but they often seem to be lacking something. But Little (Grrl) Lost works for me.