Speculative fiction books/series that deserve more attention

[Muwhahaha]

I wish authors would just use the same name.  I had no idea Rachel Bach and Rachel Aaron were one.  Loved the Paradox series and wanted more so I guess I'll try her Aaron stuff (where is a good place to start?).  Same goes for Kate Griffin/Claire North/Catherine Webb.  Also the Iain Banks/Iain M. Banks threw me off.

As to Peterbounds list,  really dug Marko Kloos's Frontline series and agree with a lot of your more on your list but I sure as hell wouldn't include Peter Clines on this board.  He's popular as hell and get's all kinds of attention.

Nightwise by Belcher is a great new Spec. Fiction book everyone should check out - yeah, Speculative Fiction cause I hate the term Urban Fantasy (even though that's what it technically is) and how the hell can you not like the term "Speculative Fiction" when that's exactly what I would call the Golgotha books.  How else would you define them?  New Weird? Fantasy Horror?  

[The Marquis de Leech]

I hate the term Urban Fantasy 

Agreed. The problem is that it is unclear if it refers to "fantasy that takes place in an urban environment" or "fantasy that takes place in the contemporary world." Something like The Dresden Files fits both fine - but what about Perdido Street Station (fits the first but not the second) or Harry Potter (fits the second but not the first)?

[peterbound]

Agreed. The problem is that it is unclear if it refers to "fantasy that takes place in an urban environment" or "fantasy that takes place in the contemporary world." Something like The Dresden Files fits both fine - but what about Perdido Street Station (fits the first but not the second) or Harry Potter (fits the second but not the first)?

PSS is steampunk. Done

Harry potter is YA fantasy. Done.

Butcher is UF. Done.

And you're going to argue definitions? Again. I know you think it's some umbrella term, but I've given examples time and again that would say otherwise.

[Rubies & Jade]

I hate having to answer the question of "what you like to read" with 8 or 10 different sub-genres. I'll keep using "fiction" or "speculative fiction" to answer that question. I think Spec Fic encompasses everything and more clearly (and easily!) gives an idea of what I like to read. I don't think its pretentious at all. 

but as for the the OP, I don't think I have anything to add but thanks for this thread! some good recs here... I just ordered a bunch of books! 

[MisterOJ]

 

Martin Scott:  Listen, if you haven't read the Thraxas books you need to get out there right now and pick them up.  They are all available for download, and you'll be happy you got them.  Wicked sense of humor, and a hero thats easy to hate, but hard to give up on. 

 

I just looked into this series, because you have pretty good taste and your description intrigued me. Can't do it. The ghetto book covers look too much like bargain basement cosplay porn. 

[SkynJay]

I just looked into this series, because you have pretty good taste and your description intrigued me. Can't do it. The ghetto book covers look too much like bargain basement cosplay porn. 

He self published them on the cheep a few years back.  I will second Peter on this, ignore the crappy covers.

[peterbound]

I just looked into this series, because you have pretty good taste and your description intrigued me. Can't do it. The ghetto book covers look too much like bargain basement cosplay porn. 

Ha, can't say I blame you (although the model on there is pretty damn good looking).  What's that old saying though?  Don't judge a book by it's cover, I think?  Something like that.  

 

Those are a digital re- release, so you don't have to worry about ripping the covers of like I had to with those fucking Lumley novels in the 90's.  That shit was atrocious. 

[Wilbur]

I second the Alex Blesdoe recommendation, especially the stories about Eddie Lacrosse.

[Wilbur]

Michael Shea came to my attention because he wrote the first sequel to Eyes of the Overworld with Vance's blessing.  It was called A Quest for Simbilis (1974), and although I have looked for a real paper copy for years, I never found it.

However, I did come up with a lot of Shea's other books, and I enjoyed them a lot, keeping in mind that I was reading an author who was inspired by The Dying Earth.  Without that knowledge, I might never have read them, or maybe not enjoyed them as much.  Sort of like enjoying a good 1940s or 1950s Leigh Brackett space opera by thinking of it being in the same vein as The Demon Princes or Planet of Adventure.

[Muwhahaha]

I've bought Thraxas but haven't read them yet.

I'd add The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox and Sean Russell's Initiate Brother duology.  Felix Gilman's Thunderer duology definitely needs more recognition as well cause it's great.  Again, I wouldn't know how to classify it.  It's kinda New Weird/Steampunk/Fantasy or, as I like to say......Speculative Fiction.  suck it.

[Astromech]

I've bought Thraxas but haven't read them yet.

I'd add The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox and Sean Russell's Initiate Brother duology.  Felix Gilman's Thunderer duology definitely needs more recognition as well cause it's great.  Again, I wouldn't know how to classify it.  It's kinda New Weird/Steampunk/Fantasy or, as I like to say......Speculative Fiction.  suck it.

I've only read Bridge of Birds but it was a fine novel. I'm keeping my eye out for the entire series in the bookstore, but may have to order it online.

I also really loved Little, Big by John Crowley. It was quite popular in the 80s when it was written, but I never see it talked about much.

[Puntificator]

Back to the op though:

 

 

Daniel Polanski: Really any of his books will do, but his LowTown shit is sublime. 

R.S. Belcher:  This guy needs..NEEDs to get out there more. His Golgotha books are fucking everything a fan boy/girl wants in a book. 

Harry Connoly:  Did some good fantasy work after a successful Kickstart campaign, that produced some quality work.  His twenty palaces books are great urban fantasy as well.  

Stephen Blackmoore:  Only two novels pumped out, but he's already got me hook.  More great UF. 

Alex Bledsoe: Outstanding fantasy/Noir.  That might not be some folks cup o' tea, but it's a really neat take on that sub-genre

 

It's Daniel Polansky (not Polanski) and Harry Connolly (not Connoly). Stephen Blackmoore has actually written four very good UF novels: City of the Lost; Dead Things; Broken Souls; and Mythbreaker—the first three are part of his "LA noir" series. [He's also written a stupid space opera and a couple of novellas not worth mentioning.] I concur with your recommendations re all of the above except for Connolly's kickstarter fantasy. And I liked Belcher's urban fantasy Nightwise at least as much as his Golgotha books.

 

[Puntificator]

Some fantasy books/series not already recommended (unless I missed them) in this thread that I believe deserve more recognition:

Elizabeth Bear's duology Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth; and also her Eternal Sky trilogy 

Jo Spurrier's Children of the Black Sun trilogy

Evie Manieri's The Shattered Kingdoms series

K.M. McKinley's The Iron Ship

Mark Alder's Son of the Morning

M.D. Lachlan's series: Wolfsangel; Fenrir; Lord of Slaughter; Valkyrie's Song [Lachlan and Alder are the same person]

Peter Roman's Book of Cross series 

M.H. Boroson's The Girl with Ghost Eyes

Cassandra Khaw's Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef

Michael R. Fletcher's Beyond Redemption

Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence books

Marc Turner's The Chronicle of the Exiles series

Suzanne Johnson's Sentinels of New Orleans UF series

James Enge's "Ambrose" books: Blood of Ambrose, This Crooked Way, The Wolf Age, and the A Tournament of Shadows trilogy

Ken Scholes's The Psalms of Isaak series

Rjurik Davidson's Unwrapped Sky "new weird" series

David Hair's The Moontide Quartet

Ben Peek's Children series

Chris Willrich's Gaunt and Bone novels

Laura Bickle's Dark Alchemy books

I'll stop here, but there are more.

[The Marquis de Leech]

PSS is steampunk. Done

On what basis do you call it Steampunk? 

I mean, the narrow definition of Steampunk is a pseudo-Victorian Britain (or at least pseudo pre-WWI Europe) where coal-powered technology has enabled greater technological development than occurred in real life. It's also heavily into cosmetic attributes such as airships, goggles, pistons, and leather coats, and likes to think of itself as reviving old-school science-fiction adventure stories of the pre-Golden Age type (in reality, H.G. Wells would have a hard time recognising the sub-genre, but I digress).

Perdido Street Station is very definitely secondary world, features demons and other alien critters, plus some deus ex machina in the form of Giant Spiders. It's also entirely urban. So why not call it urban fantasy instead? Or why not just call it Speculative Fiction, since it prevents these stupid classification arguments from arising in the first place. If you do call it Steampunk, does it belong to the Science-Fiction genre or the Fantasy genre, or is it outside them both (since you are so adamant that we cannot use an evil umbrella term to link these genres up).

[ljkeane]

For anyone who enjoys GRRM's work, one of his largest influences was Jack Vance.

Furthermore the planetary adventures of Planet of Adventure:

• City of the Chasch (author's preferred title: The Chasch. 1968)
• Servants of the Wankh (reissue title: The Wannek, 1969)

Wait, Jack Vance wrote a book called Servants of the Wankh?

[The Marquis de Leech]

Wait, Jack Vance wrote a book called Servants of the Wankh?

Yes, and the publisher changed the name (with his consent) after they figured out the meaning of wank in other versions of English.

It's a good book though, as is the whole Planet of Adventure tetralogy.

[The Marquis de Leech]

Harry potter is YA fantasy. Done.

So genre is a marketing term then? Calling something YA fantasy, rather than any other type of fantasy, doesn't say anything about what is actually in it. 

If genre is a marketing term, we can call things whatever we want.

[Darth Richard II]

Well, yeah, genre is basically marketing.

[peterbound]

Or why not just call it Speculative Fiction, since it prevents these stupid classification arguments from arising in the first place

Because it's steam punk?

[The Marquis de Leech]

Because it's steam punk?

But it lacks the key attributes of steampunk.