Fantasy and SF Recommendations: Obscure books and series

[haLobEnder]

delete this

[murphy]

Jane Fancher's Dance of the Rings trilogy was pretty good:

Ring of Lightning

Ring of Intrigue

Ring of Destiny

[Grack21]

Jane Fancher's Dance of the Rings trilogy was pretty good:

Ring of Lightning

Ring of Intrigue

Ring of Destiny

I would second that, except she never finished them, and as far as I know has stopped writing.

Edit: I am proved happily wrong. Acording to a post on amazon about a month ago she has a new book in the series coming out soon.

[SecretSquirrel]

Wheel of Stars- Andre Norton

Vazkor, Son of Vazkor- Tanith Lee

The Lure of the Basilisk- Lawrence Watt-Evans

The Doomfarers of Coromond- Brian Daley

Jurgen- James Branch Cabell

[Samalander]

The Lure of the Basilisk- Lawrence Watt-Evans

The whole of The Lords of Dus can now be had in just one omnibus:

http://www.amazon.com/Lords-Dus-Lawrence-Watt-Evans/dp/1587156652/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302754621&sr=1-1

[Ealdorman Halasahr]

Nobody has mentioned Kij Johnson's The Fox Woman (1999), Catherynne M. Valente's Orphan's Tales books (In the Night Garden, 2006, and In the Cities of Coin and Spice, 2007), or K. J. Parker's Blue and Gold (2010).

Or, indeed, The Antelope Wife (1998) by Louise Erdrich (winner of a World Fantasy Award for best novel), Dusk (2006) and Dawn (2007) by Tim Lebbon, Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne in the Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack (2010), Alexey Pehov's Shadow Prowler (2010) and Shadow Chaser (2011), anything by Haruki Murakami, Wolfsangel (2010) by M. D. Lachlan, The Girl with Glass Feet (2009) by Ali Shaw, Gregory Frost's Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet (both 2008), Elizabeth Bear's All the Windwracked Stars (2008), By the Mountain Bound (2009), and The Sea Thy Mistress (2011) ... And so forth.

They might not be all that obscure, but they weren't on that list (se link below). I think (could've missed one or two, perhaps).

I actually put Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (1938) on the list above, but it was on this link - - so I "removed" it.

[BookWyrm]

Seriously?

Sorry to get on a soapbox but come on. If an author's been labelled "___________ Bestseller" then don't put them in this thread please. It's annoying to have to weed out the useless comments from the helpful. The Name of the Rose? Hasn't that sold over 50 million copies? Anything by Haruki Murakami? Could there be a more famous Japanese author? This isn't the "name as many authors as you can think of who isn't Tolkien thread". If you're not sure about a book or author, look it up in the search bar, I guarantee you'll find something.

That said, I recommend reading the horror novel, The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. It was sort of his response to Stoker's Dracula (another obscure novel for all you boarders).

[Ealdorman Halasahr]

BookWyrm wrote: Anything by Haruki Murakami? Could there be a more famous Japanese author? This isn't the "name as many authors as you can think of who isn't Tolkien thread". If you're not sure about a book or author, look it up in the search bar, I guarantee you'll find something.

Sorry to have ruined your day, Mr. Wyrm. Didn't mean to insult you by mentioning Murakami, but I simply followed the link and couldn't find Murakami's name there.

By the way, I really don't think this is a "name as many authors you can think of who isn't Tolkien thread". I just mentioned some of the ones I had read, that's all.

You don't have to be rude or anything. Again, sorry if I hurt your feelings in any way. OK?

[Larry.]

I've been hesitant to respond, but looking through the comments and seeing mostly non-obscure authors/books being listed, perhaps some of these books will fit the criteria a bit better. I'll list works, that while they might be praised by some, are mostly out-of-print or PoD:

Steve Erickson, Arc d'X; Zeroville

Brian Evenson, Altmann's Tongue

Ferenc Karinthy, Metropole

Michael Cisco, The Traitor; The Narrator

Salvador Plascencia, The People of Paper

Stepan Chapman, The Troika

Charles Finney, The Unholy City

Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory; Teatro Grottesco; Songs of a Dead Dreamer

Edward Whittemore, Quin's Shanghai Circus; the Jerusalem Quartet novels

I hope those are obscure enough for those wanting more than just 2007 midlisters being mentioned here ;)

[TheEvilKing]

Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore. Here's a pretty good review of it.

A challenging but rewarding read.

[BookWyrm]

Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory; Teatro Grottesco; Songs of a Dead Dreamer

Oh God yes! I just started Ligotti's Teatro Grottesco and it's fantastic. Have you read the comic adaptations of his work? I have one of them but am hesitant to read it after finishing a few actual Ligotti books.

[nickg]

I though The Traitor and The Narrator by Michael Cisco were both awesome. Should have remembered those myself.

[Larry.]

Oh God yes! I just started Ligotti's Teatro Grottesco and it's fantastic. Have you read the comic adaptations of his work? I have one of them but am hesitant to read it after finishing a few actual Ligotti books.

Yes. They are wonderful and some of the images are appropriately creepy to behold.

[Ealasaid]

William Morris' The Well at the World's End. Does anyone know that?

[Nukelavee]

Passage at Arms!

very good, and totally unknown, i have it and forgot the name, lol.

Bridge of Birds and Song of the Stone, by, ummm, Howarth? funny chinese fantasy mysteries.

Mick Farren isn't unknown, but he isn't widely known. Pretty well writen, shortish scifi/horror. Necron, Phaid teh Gambler, etc...

War Games, by Karl Hansen.

Havent seen him mentioned, so Sean McMullen, fronm Aus. GREAT scifi/fantasy, with a fun fun style and some pretty cool idea's.

[Jojen]

What about The Worm Ouroboros by Eric Rucker Eddison? I admit, I haven't read it, but I've rarely heard it mentioned.

Nor have I heard anyone mention E.T.A. Hoffman, who wrote the story that inspired "The Nutcracker Suite."

Also, I know she's not considered an "obscure" writer, but when I first read Judith Tarr's Hall of the Mountain King as a kid, I had no idea who she was, so she was obscure to me!

[arsonstar]

sounds a little like samurai jack

[bookworm445]

Two of my favorites are Frostworld and Dreamfire by John Morressy and All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman. Both are more sci/fi than fantasy, but they are really great reads! Someone already mentioned Pat Frank's Alas Babylon but it is another great one!

[Ahimsa]

Okay, so I'm a newbie here, so I'm not sure if my opinion is worth much(Do I need to be hazed?) But one of the finest series I've ever read was T.C. Rypel's Gonji series. They're extremely obscure(I got mine from my dad) and I think you can only find used copies on Amazon or Ebay. But they're great intelligent reads.

Basically Gonji is a samurai from the east who's traveling across 16th century Europe in search of a thing called the "death wind." Along the way he somehow manages to find himself in magic cities in the Carpathians, battles a strange magic king, gets targeted by the Spanish Inquisition, meets werewolves, and battles demons in France.

It's an odd series, mixing the real realities and different ethnic groups of Europe, with magic that's treated as an everyday thing(no matter how many people want to believe dragons don't exist) and a central character in Gonji(Who's pretty much always a stranger where ever he goes) that comes across as a great mix between Toshiro Mifune, Elric, and Conan.

They're just great well written books, with the same qualities I love in Martin's writing. At the end of the day? It's about character, and Rypel(who seems to be pretty much a ghost in terms of online information) sketches out casts of characters with a wonderful aplomb.

I will definitely add this to my "to read" list. Sounds amazing.

[bluetwilight]

William Morris' The Well at the World's End. Does anyone know that?

I read and enjoyed it. I like Morris. He was quite modern in certain respects, even as he looked backwards. Anyone read The Water of Wondrous Isles, News from Nowhere, or The Wood Beyond the World?