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Hieronymous Alloy posted:If you accept 'good standalone books that then had sequels written" yeah I know it's as simplistic question, but i figured people who know a lot about fantasy would be aware of some ones that are just stand outs. although so far it seems like the standalone category is the real limiter because there's only been one actual standalone rec, which i'll probably start with. i suppose i'm just looking for a more primordial kind of fantasy where there's a concrete tale to be told, and a world where the parameters are limited while leaving a lot of room for my imagination to wander at the edges. probably not historical fantasy. i'm not that excited by fantasy politics or integrations with the real world. if there is science fiction i prefer it to be pretty grounded to reality/allegorical with only limited focus on the science part because tech talk doesn't interest me. mixing sci-fi with fantasy it a harder sell for me, they don't fit together in my head. books of short stories would be good, too. i only read about half of lies of locke lamora. I think it had to do with how lurid and grim it was, although i can only really remember one part - woman's corpse delivered in a barrel of horse piss. it annoyed me that was in there and i was in a lull with the book so i put it down, although i liked other parts of it. buffalo all day posted:Piranesi loved this, though. that's a good example of what i was talking about above. roomtone fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Feb 18, 2022 |
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Feb 18, 2022 17:53
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Good standalone fantasy is hard to find because success breeds repetition and authors like to get paid. Have you read Sabriel by Garth Nix? It has sequels that take place in the same world, but they're so unconnected that they might as well all be solo books.
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Feb 18, 2022 18:16
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buffalo all day posted:Little, Big by John Crowley saw that you liked Piranesi, a couple of good short story collections to consider in addition to the above Exhalation // Story of Your Life, both by Ted Chiang, mix of SF and Fantasy, all pretty grounded At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson Any of Zelazny's short story collections James Tiptree, Jr. short story collections (Her Smoke Rose Up Forever is the big one I think)
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Feb 18, 2022 18:18
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roomtone posted:what are the best standalone fantasy novels Most, if not all of the drenai novels from David gemmell, are stand alone. They share the same world but aren't really needed to be read in a particular order unless you wanna avoid knowing every single small detail in the world. Druss is great, and you can decide to roll from there if you wanna keep reading or just call it a day and move on. Pretty much any David gemmell book, honestly, except the rigante series or his last works, the troy series. Most of discworld is self contained, but there are a few that refer to each other. The Heart of Stone by Ben Galley is one of my favorites.
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Feb 18, 2022 18:26
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roomtone posted:what are the best standalone fantasy novels Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, it has a sequel and eventually other books in the same world but it totally works as a standalone.
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Feb 18, 2022 19:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:If you accept 'good standalone books that then had sequels written" I would second Lies of Locke Lamora and Lord of Light. Lies of Locke Lamora is more tightly paced but I think Lord of Light is better and hits harder. buffalo all day posted:Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Clarke A personal favorite but the style may be harder for some people to get into.
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Feb 18, 2022 19:25
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I think my favorite fantasy standalone novel is Ventus by Karl Schroeder. It's a cool genre fusion that looks fantasy at first, then slowly reveals that it's actually sci-fi with interesting transhuman tech and stuff. It feels epic in scope too, and I dearly wish it would net a movie or miniseries. The concept is, a sci-fi secret agent lady is sent to a planet to find a fleeing AI: she discovers that the AI has implanted a local mason with some weird tech, and soon they're off on adventure to catch the AI and solve the mysteries of the world. Or, to put it another way, a young mason has a witch whisk him away from his hometown, and she might help him solve the weird visions he's been having... It has a disconnected prequel that I still haven't read, and is standalone in its own right. HIGHLY recommended for a good time!
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Feb 18, 2022 19:33
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StrixNebulosa posted:I think my favorite fantasy standalone novel is Ventus by Karl Schroeder. It's a cool genre fusion that looks fantasy at first, then slowly reveals that it's actually sci-fi with interesting transhuman tech and stuff. It feels epic in scope too, and I dearly wish it would net a movie or miniseries. On that theme, one of my favorite short stories of all time is Semly’s Necklace aka The Gift of the Angyar by Ursula k le Guin in her collection The Wind’s Twelve Quarters. It’s about a woman who goes on a journey to the realm of the faeries to retrieve an heirloom and returns home to find they’ve stolen years of her life. It’s also about the relativistic effects of FTL travel.
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Feb 18, 2022 19:57
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Most of discworld is self contained, but there are a few that refer to each other. "There are a few that refer to each other" might be my favourite understatement in some time
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Feb 18, 2022 22:11
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All of Susannah Clarke - 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' has a few sort of sequel short stories in 'The Ladies of Grace Adieu' but TBH they all stand alone as does thread favourite 'Piranesi', basically I'm Nthing those recs. On a separate topic - Snow Crash is Amazon UK daily deal at £0.99 link.
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Feb 18, 2022 22:16
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The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087X6Z1GS/ Brief Cases (Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077WYGXPP/
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Feb 18, 2022 22:41
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Sunshine by Robin McKinley is a great standalone fantasy novel. It's a novel concerned with vampires, but came out in 2003 and predates the Twilight craze.
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Feb 18, 2022 22:42
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Danhenge posted:Sunshine by Robin McKinley is a great standalone fantasy novel. It's a novel concerned with vampires, but came out in 2003 and predates the Twilight craze. It’s mostly concerned with pastries tbh
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Feb 19, 2022 00:59
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Most, if not all of the drenai novels from David gemmell, are stand alone. They share the same world but aren't really needed to be read in a particular order unless you wanna avoid knowing every single small detail in the world. Druss is great, and you can decide to roll from there if you wanna keep reading or just call it a day and move on. Pretty much any David gemmell book, honestly, except the rigante series or his last works, the troy series. I don't know that I'd call any of the Drenai novels apart from Legend and possibly Waylander standalone from the OP's perspective of not needing worldbuilding and lore. Gemmell did like to start all his novels with a man riding through a forest because, as he said, he could have come from anywhere and be going anywhere. But you can't fully appreciate The King Beyond the Gate or Winter Warriors without having the context of Legend - particularly the heritage of Tenaka Khan and Scaler, and the history of the Earl of Bronze. The First Chronicles of Druss means a lot less if you don't know who Druss is, and Legend of Deathwalker absolutely requires having read Legend. All the other Drenai novels are sequels. Also none of the Sipstrassi novels stand alone apart from Wolf in Shadow and Ghost King. All the others are sequels to one of those two.
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Feb 19, 2022 01:48
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pseudorandom name posted:It’s mostly concerned with pastries tbh It's got a lot of pastries, but the only thing concerning about them is that they're very large and/or delicious (or explode in raspberry sauce in one case).
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Feb 19, 2022 01:52
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Heroes Die by Matthew Stover is first in a series and can be read standalone. It's 90s as gently caress and popcorn and dated in some respects but very fun.
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Feb 19, 2022 02:37
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no one in this thread knows what standalone means
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Feb 19, 2022 03:00
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wizzardstaff posted:Good standalone fantasy is hard to find because success breeds repetition and authors like to get paid. Having just finished Sabriel for the first time, without ever reading this as a child, I have to disagree. It's clearly a lead-in to a whole series, and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying if you assume it's a standalone. Seconding Hieronymous Alloy's Lord of Light, and adding The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins and Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon. The latter is technically historical fiction, but it's so divorced from actual historical events and in a setting so foreign to most western readers that it feels like fantasy.
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Feb 19, 2022 03:15
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moonmazed posted:no one in this thread knows what standalone means And you do?
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Feb 19, 2022 03:16
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i wouldn't consider "the first book of a series" to be standalone in almost any case
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Feb 19, 2022 03:20
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Ok here's a true standalone: To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts. If you like it, then you can get into her longer epics. Edit: Kestral posted:Having just finished Sabriel for the first time, without ever reading this as a child, I have to disagree. It's clearly a lead-in to a whole series, and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying if you assume it's a standalone. Counterpoint: Lirael and Abhorsen pick up like 18 years after the events of Sabriel. I read Lirael first, then Abhorsen and only then did I go back to read Sabriel and it read like a standalone prequel to me. Leng fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Feb 19, 2022 |
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Feb 19, 2022 03:26
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Kestral posted:Having just finished Sabriel for the first time, without ever reading this as a child, I have to disagree. It's clearly a lead-in to a whole series, and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying if you assume it's a standalone. To be honest if we're talking "unsatisfying", I found the sequels to be pretty underwhelming as follow-ups without addressing what I liked from the first book, so maybe that's why I think of it as standalone.
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Feb 19, 2022 03:34
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moonmazed posted:i wouldn't consider "the first book of a series" to be standalone in almost any case If it's complete in and of itself, it can be standalone.
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Feb 19, 2022 03:44
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roomtone posted:what are the best standalone fantasy novels
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Feb 19, 2022 04:05
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moonmazed posted:i wouldn't consider "the first book of a series" to be standalone in almost any case Ehhh there’s enough wiggle room in the request to give edge cases. And works where you can read exactly one book and get a satisfying ending with closure count imho. It’s also weirdly satisfying to read something and know that if I want more there is…or I could stop and still get a full experience. Some “true” standalones just make me sad at the end as they have no follow ups. (Neverending Story….)
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Feb 19, 2022 04:15
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in my mind "you can read this as a self-contained book" is different from "this is meant as a self-contained book," but my brain doesn't work right so who's to say
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Feb 19, 2022 04:31
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moonmazed posted:in my mind "you can read this as a self-contained book" is different from "this is meant as a self-contained book," but my brain doesn't work right so who's to say A lot of books are written as a one off and then the author decided they wanted to write more in the same setting. This is self contained imo
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Feb 19, 2022 04:37
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moonmazed posted:in my mind "you can read this as a self-contained book" is different from "this is meant as a self-contained book," but my brain doesn't work right so who's to say
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Feb 19, 2022 05:29
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moonmazed posted:in my mind "you can read this as a self-contained book" is different from "this is meant as a self-contained book," but my brain doesn't work right so who's to say SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:A lot of books are written as a one off and then the author decided they wanted to write more in the same setting. This is self contained imo I think both of these are fair. One of the criticisms I see a lot on Amazon/Goodreads reviews is that people don't like series because it feels like a "cash grab" or whatever, but like... aside from the fact that authors have a right to make a living as much as anyone else, if a book is successful, then obviously people liked its world or its characters or something in the recipe, so - even putting money aside - why wouldn't an author consider revisiting it?
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Feb 19, 2022 06:14
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I'm having a hard time thinking of a specific book example but I dunno. Sometimes a story is the type that poses a question and then answers it, and even if you like the characters and the setting, there isn't really anywhere to go from there with a direct sequel. The story has been told, but you can always reuse a setting and some of the characters I suppose. The one that sticks in my mind the most is probably Psychopass, which is an anime and not a book but whatever, you get my point I think. People would think it's loving weird if there was a LotR sequel where Frodo and friends stumble upon another hideously evil artifact that they have to dispose of halfway around the world, no matter how much they liked the characters.
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Feb 19, 2022 06:22
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moonmazed posted:no one in this thread knows what standalone means
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Feb 19, 2022 14:34
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Have you considered The March North by Graydon Saunders? gently caress, I was going to Rec this as a comedy option
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Feb 19, 2022 14:40
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moonmazed posted:in my mind "you can read this as a self-contained book" is different from "this is meant as a self-contained book," but my brain doesn't work right so who's to say Yeah there are a lot of books that were either originally intended to be stand-alones or which work as stand-alones, but which later got sequels when they were successful, or books which have sequels that nobody reads because the first book works by itself (Bridge of Birds being the classic example). Pretty much any successful book published in the past thirty years, if it was successful within a decade of getting published, they're gonna contract for a sequel afterwards. Folks gotta get paid and that's how the industry works. Doesn't mean the book doesn't stand on its own. Technically speaking there is a prequel to Peter Pan and a sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo. Nobody reads them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan_in_Kensington_Gardens https://www.amazon.com/Edmond-Dant%C3%A8s-Alexander-Celebrated-Classic/dp/1333098472 Larry Parrish posted:I'm having a hard time thinking of a specific book example but I dunno. Sometimes a story is the type that poses a question and then answers it, and even if you like the characters and the setting, there isn't really anywhere to go from there with a direct sequel. The story has been told, but you can always reuse a setting and some of the characters I suppose. The one that sticks in my mind the most is probably Psychopass, which is an anime and not a book but whatever, you get my point I think. People would think it's loving weird if there was a LotR sequel where Frodo and friends stumble upon another hideously evil artifact that they have to dispose of halfway around the world, no matter how much they liked the characters. Yeah there are a lot of lovely sequels but generally my take is you can ignore them so long as they weren't part of the original conceit of the original work. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Feb 19, 2022 |
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Feb 19, 2022 14:57
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Larry Parrish posted:I'm having a hard time thinking of a specific book example but I dunno. Sometimes a story is the type that poses a question and then answers it, and even if you like the characters and the setting, there isn't really anywhere to go from there with a direct sequel. The story has been told, but you can always reuse a setting and some of the characters I suppose. The one that sticks in my mind the most is probably Psychopass, which is an anime and not a book but whatever, you get my point I think. People would think it's loving weird if there was a LotR sequel where Frodo and friends stumble upon another hideously evil artifact that they have to dispose of halfway around the world, no matter how much they liked the characters. Literally every David Eddings series. Another reason not to read them.
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Feb 19, 2022 16:06
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Larry Parrish posted:I'm having a hard time thinking of a specific book example but I dunno. Sometimes a story is the type that poses a question and then answers it, and even if you like the characters and the setting, there isn't really anywhere to go from there with a direct sequel. The story has been told, but you can always reuse a setting and some of the characters I suppose. The one that sticks in my mind the most is probably Psychopass, which is an anime and not a book but whatever, you get my point I think. People would think it's loving weird if there was a LotR sequel where Frodo and friends stumble upon another hideously evil artifact that they have to dispose of halfway around the world, no matter how much they liked the characters. The Crow (either graphic novel or movie) is the same way. Or Taken or whatever. It’s over, it’s done, the world may still be there but the story is 100 finished.
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Feb 19, 2022 16:19
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Going to mention Starbook by Ben Okri again, though I think the requester might be looking for something a bit more literal, maybe.
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Feb 19, 2022 16:32
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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a great stand alone book but even that one is supposed to get a sequel at some point, the author just has a debilitating exhaustion health issue so hasn’t been able to work on it much.
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Feb 19, 2022 16:57
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Technically speaking there is a prequel to Peter Pan and a sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo. Nobody reads them. I own this, and it's not actually by Dumas (plus it came out 18 years after his death). For actual standalone books with no sequels checking my library I see: * Night in the Lonesome October (Zelazny) * Armor of Light (Scott&Barnett) * The Dubious Hills (Dean; disclaimer: book came out in 1994, but a sequel is being written) * The Sword and the Lion (Clay) * Touched by the Gods (Watt-Evans) * The Etched City (Bishop) * The Tower of Fear (Glen Cook) * The Queen's Necklace (Edgerton) * Summer King, Winter Fool (Goldstein) * Dark Cities Underground (Goldstein) * Nobody's Son (Stewart) * Ars Magica (Tarr) * City of Bones (Wells) * Wheel of the Infinite (Wells) * Celestial Matters (Garfinkle) Note that I've read all of these but for some it's been quite a few years so if the ravages of time have visited it's not my fault.
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Feb 19, 2022 17:11
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For standalone fantasy, no one's recommended Dunsany yet? The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Charwoman's Shadow are both good choices. There's also Lud-in-the-Mist, which was Book of the Month here a while ago.
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Feb 19, 2022 17:21
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Most of the standalone fantasy that's coming to mind for me is more like urban fantasy or magical realism, but for what it's worth: The City And The City and Kraken, both by China Mieville Imajica by Clive Barker The Old Drift by Nawali Serpell (one of the best books I read last year) The Power by Naomi Alderman Melmoth by Sarah Perry The House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune The Drowned World and The Crystal World, both by JG Ballard Beneath The World, A Sea by Chris Beckett (similar vibes to The Crystal World)
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Feb 19, 2022 17:49
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