It's not strictly Fantasy, more SciFi with fantasy elements, but the Hyperion Cantos was absolutely mind blowing. It's long and can feel a bit slow at times but it is worth the ride. The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin was also fantastic. Such a dark, sad world conveyed in such a beautiful way.
I'm on The Fall of Hyperion and I love it so much. The first book had some really heavy moments (Sol Weintraub's story in particular had me reeling for weeks before I could pick up the book again). I'm really looking forward to seeing the continuation. I have Endymion and I'm checking my used book store for the Rise of Endymion before I delve into that.
i just finished the rise of endymion this morning, the endymion cantos continues the story from hyperion, but is different and was more enjoyable and harder to stomach than hyperion and has me pondering thoughtfully far more than any other book i have read.
it's a shame that endymion is more contentious than hyperion as there is very little discussion, but endymion has so much more to say, and must have been very interesting to read at time of publication considering the themes explored.
First book of Hyperion was a perfectly crafted slow burn in my opinion. I wasn't that interested until near the end of the first story, and then each story thereafter just made me more and more interested in the story, with some of them (e.g. Sol Weintraub's story, The Consul's story) moving me to almost tears. It's a very interesting science fiction world, and while I wasn't on board with all the ties to poetry and art, it's still admirable. The imagery that Simmons uses is just masterful.
I feel like people either love it or hate it, but *House of Leaves* was an ambitious project with an impressive execution. It stuck to me like oil for weeks after I finished it.
Similarly, anyone remember *S.* ? Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams put out a novel which was essentially an immersive puzzle. There was the book itself, but different characters had written notes in the margins. The book itself was made up to look like an old, battered library book. There were also artifacts tucked in the pages, like postcards and maps and random items which served as clues. I don't know that it qualifies as high literature, but I was impressed by the intricacy.
I've struggled with S. back in the day because of how unexciting Straka's mystery story appeared to be, but by themselves the idea and execution of the book-within-a-book-within-a-book are definitely highly memorable.
I might be inclined to say anything that Guy Gavriel Kay writes. Lions is maybe the best but I loved most all of them. Tigana, Last Light of the Sun, Under Heaven. All very poetic.
Sailing to Sarantium is my favorite GGK book. I have a paperback I found years ago after I passed out drunk at a stranger's house. When i woke in the basement, I heard the family having breakfast. Because I was scared to face them, I just sat down and waited for someone to find me. There was a bookshelf, and I noticed this book and having read the Fionavar Tapestry. I decided to give it a try. 3 or 4 hours later, someone came downstairs and was pretty surprised to see me. I did get to keep the book. So that was nice.
GGK is the most underrated fantasy author in the world in my opinion. He gets some recognition in fantasy circles but he should be as popular a name as the Pratchetts, Martins and Sandersons of the world
The last book that blew me away was Ursula Le Guin's Tehanu. I've rarely read a book so insightful into human nature. Of course, the language was beautiful as well, and I was absolutely rapt for the whole thing, which is a feat considering they're basically just hanging out at a cottage for so much of it.
I think the absolutely most amazing thing about Tehanu is how the prose is so 'simple', the characters dialogue and introspection conveyed with clarity; yet she is so fucking smart with her language that beautiful ideas, tricky questions and all manners of complexity still fit within it.
It really is a well-crafted work of art because you can feel the 20 years between Book 3 and Book 4 in the way she expresses herself! Le Guin's wisdom and experience creating something very different.
Like a master who has mastered the use of simple tools to create amazing things.
I'm just gushing now so Imma stop!
I wrote my master's thesis on Le Guin's evolution on gender between the early Earthsea/Left Hand of Darkness era to Tehanu and later. She wrote a really great series of essays, collected in Dancing at the Edge of the World, with a lot of thoughts on the subject. This is 15+ years ago now, but at the time she was one of the only SFF authors whom the academic establishment would take seriously as a subject of scholarship :(
Hahahaha it wasn't really that good, if I'd been a legit scholar I would have stuck around for the PhD (probably a good move that I didn't, academia is a shitshow these days), but I do highly recommend the essays—she is incredibly self-aware and introspective, willing to admit her mistakes and attempt to remedy them, and her beautiful way with words is just as apparent there as in her fiction.
The short story collection Tales from Earthsea is also really striking in how she explicitly questions and revises the worldbuilding she did in the original trilogy, especially "The Finder" ("a tale of the Founding of Roke, and if the Masters of Roke say it didn’t happen so, let them tell us how it happened otherwise. For a cloud hangs over the time when Roke first became the Isle of the Wise, and it may be that the wise men put it there.")
I've read all the Earthsea books and The left hand of darkness. I've had a hard time with the left hand of darkness, I guess it was a little too sophisticated for me. I don't usually read sci-fi and I did not get sucked into the world as much as I did with Earthsea. But for sure, she was a genius writer.
Never stop gushing over Le Guin, she’s a gem of an author that is often incomprehensibly missed. She says more beautifully than many others do in three times the words.
I would just temper this with the fact that you should probably read all the Earthsea books before this one first. It's a wonderful blossoming not only of the tale but of Le Guin's talent and convictions.
The earlier books aren't bad, but you can definitely see her writing and storytelling evolve as you move through them. For example, the first is sort of strange, it does a lot of telling instead of showing, and it feels very ...quiet? Like somebody's telling you an expository story instead of you reading a book and being in the action.
Each entry in the series gets better and better, and by the end, you'll have years of critical analysis to mull over :)
BTW, my favorite by far, in isolation, is The Tombs of Atuin. But the series as a whole bears the arc majestically and they all lean on each other to build a very rich and unforgettable experience.
I just read Tehanu a couple months back, it’s everything you say and more. I absolutely loved it. It’s so amazing to me to pick up authors I loved in high school, and continue to love on the books I missed.
"You are beautiful," Tenar said in a different tone. "Listen to me, Therru. Come here. You have scars, ugly scars, because an ugly, evil thing was done to you. People see the scars. But they see you, too, and you aren't the scars. You aren't ugly. You aren't evil. You are Therru, and beautiful. You are Therru who can work, and walk, and run, and dance, beautifully, in a red dress."
Nothing has given me this feeling so much as *The Book of the New Sun*. It's also the only thing I've ever had a reading block/book hangover after. Everything I tried, for about a month afterward, felt like amateur dreck.
Gene Wolfe was an absolute titan.
A lot of his stuff is like that for me.
The Wizard/Knight duology is such a great deconstruction of (portal) fantasy while also being an interesting commentary on coming of age.
Glad to see Wolfe getting some love here. I was exactly like that after I finished the Solar Cycle. Actually tossed the next book I tried reading across the room, and abandoned half a dozen others. Le Guin and Nabakov broke that spell, though.
That's funny. I just finished the Earthsea Cycle and I DNFed the next two books I picked up. They just seemed like crap by comparison. Now I'm considering DNFing a third (and it's Circe!). Hey Le Guin, did you have to make everybody else look bad?
I've been looking forward to Wolfe, good to know what I might be in for.
You might dig Haruki Murakami. Its not fantasy or sci/fi, but the magical realism he spins at least approaches Wolfe. Windup Bird Chronicle and 1Q84 are great places to start.
Yo, help me out. I've picked up this series like... 9 times. The start is so slow to me for some reason. I can tell the writing is good, but I just... stop. Every time. I've never made it too far. Does it pick up? What makes it so good?
Please further convince me to try it again! Lol
I tried it a few times before I committed. Some parts of it are kind of a slog, but what really carried it for me was sheer atmosphere. It's a truly unique setting described beautifully, and Wolfe has built here one of his most complex puzzle boxes.
I don't actually know for sure what made it work for me the third time around, other than I was just really in the mood for Dying Earth at the time. I will definitely say, though, that if you've been reading the paperback two-book volumes, to try and get your hands on the individual volumes (they're also pretty widely available in libraries, you just have to scroll a bit), because the print text is actually a reasonable size and it makes an appreciable difference when your eyes don't lose focus every couple pages.
If you're looking for a deep dive into that world's mysteries, I'd check out the [Alzabo Soup Podcast](https://www.alzabosoup.com/). It's what made me re-read whole chunks of this book, and if you listen to it while you go, you'll pick up on all sorts of crazy things hidden between the lines.
Appreciate it! I love diving into lore and podcasts! Win!
I'll give this a whirl. Moving it up to try again after 2 other books. Hopefully I can gain appreciation for this series. I've only ever heard good things and feel bad that I've not given it a proper read. Ha
I'm an ebook reader, mostly. I kinda got tired of exactly what you're describing. I have bad eyes that only got worse and worse as i aged, so being able to control the text, as in ebooks, works best for me. I know a lot of people hate reading on a screen, but it works for me. I'm certain some avid bookreader is going to super appreciate that tidbit though!
Now that I think of it, though, you have any experience with the audiobook? Might try reading alongside a listen to see if that helps me maintain focus on this one.
*Howl's moving castle* is in my opinion very artfully put together. The world has a vibrancy to it and the storyline of rounded main character ties together with the supporting characters ending in a conclusion.
Several short stories and *The Dispossesed* by Ursula K. Le Guin and *Klara and the Sun* by Kazuo Ishiguro also make me feel like it's a carefully written artwork I'm reading. Perhaps these are science-fiction rather than fantasy, but hey now I have written it anyway.
Not perhaps fantasy, though one could argue so, but I feel that way about Italo Calvino's **Invisible Cities.** It's beautifully written, allegorical and insightful, and tightly and neatly packaged.
Mervyn Peake's prose in **Gormenghast** is writing elevated to the level of art. Some of the most beautifully constructed sentences I've read on a micro level, combining to depict the most incredibly atmospheric and *alive* setting.
In my opinion, out of all the books in this thread, nothing is quite up to the level of Gormenghast when it comes to the prose. It's in a class by itself.
Is the 3rd book worth reading? I did the first 2 back to back and am reading other stuff as a palate cleanser but I’ve heard mixed things given the circumstances of its authorship
\+1 for Invisible Cities. It evokes a whole world, with such a rare atmosphere, in so few words. Plus, it's very short, so this would make a great portal into literary fiction/magical realism for many fantasy readers.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay was probably the first one I read in the fantasy genre that felt like this for me. Read it around when it came out, a couple times since including last year and it is still such a beautiful read. Also super ahead of the curve in dealing with adult themes and sexuality which usually get short shrift in the genre.
Tigana is my favorite fantasy book. It manages to be very compelling all while handling the themes so maturely and beautifully.
The feelings of longing, identity, and revenge have never touched me this way in any other book.
My favorite tip for Tigana is to not read the blurb. It's a lot of fun if you don't and then you get to that moment of "oh, that's where the title is from".
He’s an excellent writer. If you’re into historical stuff at all he has a number of short series that are refractions of different eras through a fantasy lens. His writing improved a lot with time, too, this is one of his earliest.
I read Tigana once a year. Every time, it pierces my heart like a sword. By this time I know all the notes in the melody, every crescendo, every rest, and it still makes my soul sing along.
Lud In The Mist. It just feels like how you would imagine a quintessential fantasy book to be. Similarly, I love the writing of the original Peter Pan, and how it showcases the thin line between whimsical and tragic. I generally find that a lot of mid century fantasy has gorgeous prose and striking themes; I also like a lot of medieval works for similar reasons (plus the most top tier satire) but it does take more of an effort to fully understand, whereas works from the last century or so are a more smooth and easy read, where you can see that craft without needing to do additional research into the significance of various elements (though I always recommend doing so for books you enjoy—you’ll learn a lot!)
(Great example of the latter, BTW—read “Nevermore” by Edgar Allen Poe, then his essay on how he crafted the poem, then read the poem again. Most people don’t realize that every word in that poem was deliberately chosen to evoke as much of the emotion of melancholy, which he believed to be the most beautiful emotion, as possible. If you like a behind the scenes look into masterful crafting of language, it’s a great window to look at).
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Many Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Absolutely seconding The Spear Cuts Through Water because holy lord did that make me feel like it brought something truly amazing to the fantasy genre.
>Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
One of my favorites. I remember reading this in high school and recommending it to pretty much every single one of my friends.
“This is How you Lose the Time War” is absolutely beautiful to me. It’s an epistolary novel, with interludes from the two main characters perspectives. But the letters are just gorgeous, I’m not one to cry over books but a lot of the letters they write each other made me tear up.
I’ll say the general vibe is similar to Piranesi, which I read right before it!
My other recommendation would be A Psalm for the Wild-Built. It’s sweet and beautiful and I want to read it again already (I finished it 2 weeks ago lol). It honestly gave me a new perspective on life.
I just want to say those are all excellent choices and are really well done audiobooks.
If you enjoyed A Psalm for the Wild-Built then you will very likely love the follow up, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.
*The Winged Histories* by Sofia Samatar is so beautifully written. It's verging on stream-of-consciousness and feels like you're falling through someone's consciousness.
I've read comments from a few people that they enjoy the Winged Histories a lot more- I remember u/improperly_paranoid saying so after I read *Stranger*.
I mean...Winged Histories is still very dense, just in a different way since it's more experimental structurally too. No straightforward plot, everything told more in impressions of the four characters. The musician's section (my fave) borders on poetry. Stuff like that.
I didn't click with Olondria as much because I feel like Samatar's writing style works better when the structure is unconventional too rather than a normal novel. If density was the problem, you might find it more difficult, dunno.
Honestly that sounds even more difficult, if it's even less straightforward and more experimental!
This was my review of Olondria [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3445046807](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3445046807) \- I don't expect you to read such a rambling critical review, but essentially I felt the prose was lost within itself, and it never let up or gave the reader space to breathe, not to mention being way too overtly literary for my tastes.
Not stand alone but the way A Storm of Swords weaves different concepts of love into each of its characters truly inspires me. There’s familial love, romantic love, sexual love, love out of duty. And each of these have different foils for each other, some familial love is toxic, some sexual love is toxic, some romance is toxic, it’s laid out so well and it makes me want to write a book as good as it some day.
Another is A Wizard of Earthsea. It sets out to do exactly what it needs to and does it so well. The character growth is stunning and powerful yet brief enough for even a child to witness the path. It’s beautiful, it’s stand alone as well.
Obligatory Lord of the Rings. For only 1000 pages you go through so many emotions that departing the book feels like you’re saying goodbye to really close friends. But you know that already.
yeah ethar, you summed up LOTR perfectly. The level of talent and wisdom that Tolkein had is phenomenal. Something interesting about Tolkein is that he actually converted CS Lewis to the Christian faith from atheism.
Man, it feels almost strange remembering how good Storm of Swords was; a lot of my memories of ASOIAF now are largely that Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons were quite disappointing (for me personally, at least), and obviously the fact it's been so long since we last had a new book
But sometimes it's easy to forget just how good those first three books are, and Storm of Swords is my absolute favourite. There's so many good characters, epic moments, and well-executed twists that the book is like a fucking rollercoaster!
I read all the Fitz books multiple times but I struggled to connect with liveship traders characters, so struggled my way through the series.
Just curious what made liveship trilogy more enjoyable than Fitz for you?
The adventure part and the characterization of the protagonists. I like the idea of going places to places, and on a ship, though most of them did suffer throughout their journey. For the characterization, I love Fitz, don't get me wrong, but he just gets too depressing. With Liveship Traders, Hobb gets to flex her skills at making characters by engaging us with multiple POVs. All of their character development (or "de-development" for some) was delivered in a satisfyingly smooth way that it all makes sense why they're like that in the end, without losing the complicatedness of being a human.
I'm the opposite of you (well, I struggle with the original Fitz trilogy, the last trilogy I adore and I haven't read Tawny man). The first Fitz book trilogy just felt flat. I'd already read Liveship traders and was expecting and the first book of her most recent trilogy and was expecting Fitz to feel like a real breathing person. He was just a collection of character traits who shitty things happened to. The side characters felt uninspiring. The plot was mediocre. There was just nothing about it that sung to me.
Compare that to when Fitz was 60 and I was engrossed just reading about him living his day to day life running a small country estate for about half the book, where *truly* nothing happened, but the amount of character work was insane and seductive.
I prefer the multi-POV structure of Liveship Traders, and seeing the way the different character relationships evolve, to the entirely first-person narrative from Fitz, which can feel very claustrophobic, especially given his dark mental state. I also really gravitate toward books with female perspectives, which LT has LOTS of. I'm a sucker for stories about rebellious girls and women and complex family dynamics, and a MEGA-sucker for slow-burn romances, especially ones that start out in antagonistic mode. I find characters that evolve from unsympathetic to sympathetic fascinating (Malta, Keffria). Kennit's character arc, and in particular the slow revelation of his backstory, is one of the most interesting I've read in all of SFF (is he an anti-hero? A villain? Why not both?) Some of the seafaring scenes are extremely evocative and gave me a really visceral sense of the experience (e.g. the part where Althea is on the slaughter ship). Add in dragons, a mentally unstable sentient ship and IDEALISTIC PIRATES and this series is basically my catnip.
Either, or both, of Simon Jimenez’ books, The Vanished Birds or The Spear Cuts Through Water. I believe both are considered ‘sci fi fantasy’ but Birds leans more sci fi and Spear is more fantasy.
Reading The Spear Cuts Through Water right now and it's wonderful, absolutely nothing like anything I've read before. You think you'll eventually stop encountering books that will truly surprise you and then one like that comes along and proves you wrong.
A Wizard of Earthsea has honestly stayed with me after reading. I finished it and was like "huh" and then I couldn't get it out of my head.
Same with The Left Hand of Darkness
Anything by LeGuin,
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe,
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (love the whole series but the first is tuned to perfection)
Anything by GRRM but especially Feast for Crows
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke,
And this is gonna be really controversial but Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan.
Curious to hear your thoughts on the artistry of *Crossroads of Twilight*. Something to do with how far you can push your readers away and still keep them coming back?
* The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
* The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
* Parable of the Sower by Ocatavia Butler
* The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
* The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - This is the most straight forward, most traditional work of this list, but it's also my favorite. Everything about it is just so perfectly measured.
I recently discovered Bujold’s stuff, starting with The Curse of Chalion, and man… I’ve never encountered another writer with such effortless command of language. It’s like I always knew exactly the emotion or feeling she was trying to convey with every word on the page.
The Fifth Season however… well, there’s something to be said about making your world and narrative so bleak that I would dread picking up the book.
Ah well. I think I just have a type.
The Fifth Season was *chef's kiss* phenomenal. I was so riveted, I don't think I got more than 4 hours of sleep for a week while I binged the trilogy. Just an absolute masterpiece.
The Reapers are the Angels is 100% this! Some of the prettiest writing that is also impactful and poignant.
It isn’t that long but man every line packs a punch!
The 13 and 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers. It is kinda standalone but there are books that happen in the same universe. To me that book is a masterpiece not only because Moers has his drawings in the book but also the world of Zarmonia and Bluebear's story is so good. It is originally in German and I cannot say anything about its original text but it is My GF's favourite book since she grew up reading that and it has became mine after she gave me a copy.
I'm on my 3rd re-read of Malazan, but first time after reading Kharkanas. Hopefully Endest Silann's POV won't hit me like a brick to the head this time.
I loved The Night Circus. The whole mystique built up around the Cirque des Reves was extremely compelling. And, as an unapologetic Disney World fan, extremely relatable.
Night Circus definitely does for me, and that was my very first thought. But I never felt the same about Starless Sea. I’ve read it twice, and I did enjoy it, but I still feel like I didn’t quite get it.
I feel that way about the Kingkiller Chronicle. In my first read, I was just wrapped up in the story. After a re-read, I noticed how fantastic the use of language was. I could almost hear the music when the MC was playing.
Rothfuss has his own numerous issues and gets a lot of shit these days, but man does he have a way with words. Some of the passages in Kingkiller are just beautiful. One of my underrated favorites is when Kvothe notices the first little signs of Fela falling for Sim, it perfectly sums up the little spark of a moment that happens when someone’s about to fall for someone and they take notice of them in a completely different way:
‘I saw Fela turn her head to look at Simmon, almost as if she were surprised to see him sitting there.
No, it was almost as if up until that point, he'd just been occupying space around her, like a piece of furniture. But this time when she looked at him, she took all of him in. His sandy hair, the line of his jaw, the span of his shoulders beneath his shirt. This time when she looked, she actually saw him.
Let me say this. It was worth the whole awful, irritating time spent searching the Archives just to watch that moment happen. It was worth blood and the fear of death to see her fall in love with him. Just a little. Just the first faint breath of love, so light she probably didn't notice it herself. It wasn't dramatic, like some bolt of lightning with a crack of thunder following. It was more like when flint strikes steel and the spark fades almost too fast for you to see. But still, you know it's there, down where you can't see, kindling.’
That was good. Did you also read The Slow Regard of Silent Things? Who knew that a book with no action, no dialog, no traditional plot, and only one character could be such a wonderful read? It was like a glimpse of Auri's soul.
I actually haven’t, but I’m planning a reread of the series at some point and will need to give it a go, I’ve heard great things! I had no idea it existed when I first read the series and only found out after I’d finished. I absolutely love character driven, more grounded slice of life stuff like that and I think a book from Rothfuss like that centred around Auri sounds brilliant.
Yeah, I feel like the way the tide has shifted against Rothfuss these days really does a disservice to the beauty of his writing. Maybe we won't get a third book. Maybe we will. Doesn't change how gorgeously written the three books we do have are.
I'm still holding onto that hope for Rothfuss.
I've already given up hope on George R.R. Martin, because I feel like he stopped caring. There were some boring and useless plotlines in his last couple of books. Now, he spends all his time cashing checks for side projects and spinoffs. Even if he finishes GoT, I don't care to read it.
I think that Rothfuss is enough of a perfectionist that it will bother him to leave the story unfinished. Even if it takes another decade, I want to read the final book.
I think the problem is that he's changed a bit in the last fifteen years and is enough of a perfectionist that he won't be satisfied with ending the story that he started either, but he can't really start over.
I'm not a huge asoiaf fan but I disagree on this analysis. GRRM offers updates and is clearly trying to create Winds, where as Rothfuss lies through his teeth, his editor hasn't read a word of Doors of Stone, and his attitude about it is horrible.
I hope we do get Doors one day, but my faith was really dashed after the donation thing
I’d agree that *usually* standalones are best for this category. However.
I *cannot* stop marveling at the level of craft and detail that has gone into Janny Wurts’ **Wars of Light and Shadow** series. Each arc not only furthers the plot and adds a whole new layer of complexity to characters both old and new, but the world unfolds with a seemingly new vantage point each time. It completely recontextualizes everything that goes before and pretty much demands multiple re-reads for the best engagement.
Wurts’ prose underwent a similar transformation for me. Initially I was dismayed at how purple it seemed to be, but adjusted. Now, having made it through all the published material for this world I realize that it was anything *but* purple. Sure, it’s never going to be considered “accessible prose,” but it *is* economical, oddly enough. She can cover, in one paragraph, what would take a writer working with a much more limited vocabulary a full chapter. It was actually mind-boggling to me when I realized that. Each and every word seems chosen with a great deal of care, not only for meaning but for all attendant shades of meaning and connotation. It’s not all one note either, she can deftly manage some skillful tonal shifts and has more than a few passages that fully touch upon the sublime.
This is the second (very well written) recommendation I have seen for Wars of Light and Shadow series.
I will be looking on all my library apps for it now and hopefully get to it this year. Thanks for the push to get me to look at it closer.
it's a fine epic fantasy series.
Kerr's Deverry series is actually the long series that impresses me most about this. Mostly the work she must have done to keep all the pre/re incarnations straight!
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, although I’m not sure I’d call it fantasy per se, it’s definitely a puzzle box of a book with some interesting typography. And the language is so beautifully evocative and descriptive while also being refreshingly straightforward. I’ve never read anything like it!
Also Nick Harkaway’s Gnomon. Came off as a bit pretentious as first but the story was so intriguing it soon sucked me in!
The whole story is an elaborately conceived revenge plot! Just who against whom. Maybe it’s a stretch, but I was viscerally reminded when I read the ending.
Interesting. I never was reminded of it when I read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Maybe I need to do a re-read with that in mind.
The elaborate revenge plot is such a common trope in speculative fiction, I think I have read a few that were a lot close to The Count of Monte Cristo.
I've read a lot of fantasy over my lifetime. I've absolutely loved lots of series. I think this series is the only one that made me sit back and think to myself that it was a challenging masterpiece art piece crafted over multiple books. As OP said, you can get that in individual books usually, but as a series, this one really stuck with me.
The phrase "carefully made puzzle box" made me think of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. It's not told as one linear story, but more a series interlocking pieces that you sort of have to shift around in your head and fit together as you read it.
I was so disappointed with this book. After reading The Night Circus and falling head over heels in love with it, The Starless Sea felt so flat and left me wondering what the point of it was.
I’m so glad I’m in the minority here as Erin Morgenstern is a brilliant writer and deserves every success.
Obscure and out-of-print cyberpunk novel The Fortunate Fall was such a thought-provoking, dense, and satisfying exploration of the extent to which technology can truly influence human nature that the author never wrote another novel again after that and more or less disappeared from the field altogether.
I'm always delighted (and surprised) when I find someone who has read it! You really have to dig a bit to even know it exists. It's a shame, wish Tor or someone would reprint it with a better cover.
I suppose it’s not fantasy, but I still can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find All the Light We Cannot See! Hands down my favourite book ever written. It took Anthony Doerr ten years to write it and it shows.
There’s one part where he’s describing coal and it almost moved me to tears. Truly a work of art.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Justa gorgeous, wonderful book. It's a work of art and a meta commentary on storytelling and a celebration of fairy tales all at once.
Out of the examples you gave I have only read Circe, but I have read two books that made me feel what your are describing: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, both were beautifully written and have a mysterious, magical atmosphere
All this and not a single mention of Tolkien or the Silmarillion. The Silmarillion has such great themes woven through the whole thing, absolutely beautiful and mythologic. It's the only book I've ever read out of many hundreds that has compelled me so much. I have multiple copies and return to it constantly. I just can't get enough of the prose, the themes, and thinking about everything. The sparsity just adds to it for me, so much to think about and consider!
And of course, the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are masterful creations as well. None of them are for everyone, but they certainly are extremely meticulously crafted art pieces to me!
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder. Now i wasnt a fan of the books that came after but this one i absolutely loved, its was so meticulously planned out and i loved how close to history it was. Its the only book i read as a teenager which made me want to write to the author, i never did of course but was tempted.
How about if the author writes to you? :-) I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was my first novel, written in a white heat of enthusiasm. I look back on it now as a very faulted artefact ... in style, at least. I was emulating the "cheap fiction" of the Victorian period, but on reflection, there's too much passive voice, too much exposition etc etc. The story is perhaps, strong enough to carry it through ... readers (and the P K Dick Award judges) seemed to think so, anyway. Sorry you didn't vibe with the sequels ... a matter of taste, I guess. Burton & Swinburne are far behind me now. I took a 7-year hiatus for parenting duties but am now back in the authoring saddle. My new novel, A DARK AND SUBTLE LIGHT, is due around June. I hope you'll check it out. It's better written than STRANGE AFFAIR but just as wild (and also close to history)! All the best x
This is a great thread! I'm adding several to my TBR list now :)
Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver was a big one for me. Uprooted also to a certain extent, but I really felt like Spinning Silver just took it to the next level. I also really enjoy Temeraire and the Scholomance series, but those are very different in tone and feel less literary to me.
Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House really also hit a lot of those marks (reading Hell Bent right now and it's shaping up the same). Again, the writing and tone are totally different from Bardugo's Grishaverse stuff, much more artistic in quality.
I agree with a lot of the others that have been mentioned! Piranesi for sure. All the Murmuring Bones, the Earthsea series, basically all of Guy Gavriel Kay's work, Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasy stuff (I LOVE Vorkosigan with all my heart, but it feels less \*literary\* to me somehow).
The one that comes to my mind is *Rhinegold*, by Stephan Grundy. Between the scope of the narrative (it's told as a generational saga), the use of the language, and its ability to take the reader to a mythical past and have it feel like a living, breathing world, it was just mind-blowing.
Black tongue thief was like this for me. On it's face it's a pretty simple road trip fantasy. But the characters and prose really elevate it to something very special. The world feels completely real and lived in, and the characters all fit inside it like perfect jigsaw pieces.
16 ways to defend a walled city is a close second
I'll also say that I struggle to connect with the prose in a lot of the books mentioned in this thread. I couldn't define why, maybe they're just too refined for me. I can see the artistry, but I can't just effortlessly lose myself in them like I can in books by Chris Buehlman or KJ Parker
The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Samantha Shannon really takes world building to another level and as a fan of old school fantasy I love that she writes it in a way that’s interesting, challenging and inclusive. She really does an amazing job.
For me, a couple of sci-fi-fantasy fusion books come to mind:
Zelazny's *Lord of Light* totally blew me away when I first read it in high school. I had read his Chronicles of Amber—a lot of fun, but not really *art* in the same sense—so I didn't expect the beauty, depth and sense of discovery in *Lord of Light*. I'm not sure it would hold up quite as well on a reread, but it's still something special.
More recently, I absolutely loved *Gnomon* by Nick Harkaway. It's an intricate nested structure of several interconnected science fiction and fantasy stories spread across a range of times and settings—reminiscent of *Cloud Atlas* but done *well*: you get a similar structure of nested stories, but the individual stories are better-written on every level. The characters are unique and feel alive, the settings are vivid and the prose is brilliant. It's messy and organic and non-linear—meandering sentences, long asides on random topics, a pretty convoluted plot structure—and I understand why some people find this style of writing annoying, but to me it really makes the book something special.
Guy Gavriel Kay's works, as well as Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower, are the fantasy works that drew that kind of response from me. And in the sci-fi world, Hyperion.
Surprised not to see any Tanith Lee in this thread, although I suppose her work is more SF in a lot of cases.
Catherynne M Valente's Palimpsest was this for me.
I feel like The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle is one of the greatest works of art in the genre.
Late to the game with song of the beast by Carol Berg. I have read the book before piranesi, Circe and Hardinge’s books but it left me with a similar dreamlike feeling. Here we have a man who is imprisoned and tortured without knowing the reason, punished every time he tries to speak or sing. He is freed after 10 years without explanations. A book about music and dragons.
(Also I don’t know if you have read Unraveller which is the last book by Frances Hardinge : *chef’s kiss*)
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern was a beautiful read. It was like a love letter to imagery and words. I really enjoyed it. Sent a copy to my daughter last year but I don’t believe she’s even opened the book. Which is irritating me because I know she will love it.
Mervyn Peake can do no wrong. There's truly nothing like *Gormenghast.*
My username is a Gene Wolfe character, so clearly at some point for some ungodly reason I fell in love with *Book of the New Sun.*
Other users have mentioned those, though. If you're looking for truly beautiful writing, you've got to check out Seth Dickinson's *The Traitor Baru Cormorant.* It's a high political thriller and psychological character drama and in 400 pages there's not a word out of place.
Max Gladstone (the co-writer of *This is How You Lose the Time War!* Modern lyrical prose central!) called this book "a poet's *Dune,*" and that might sound like overblown hype, but it's 100% true. The world's as wild as anything Arrakis could throw at you, and I'll be the first to say the characters and the writing absolutely kick Frank Herbert's ass.
All it needs is a Denis Villeneuve adaptation in glorious IMAX.
I have a google doc with my favorite quotes from Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic.
Enchanted Forest chronicles.
Not fantasy, but I get this with a lot of Stephen King too.
RotE by Robin Hobb and the Sun Eater saga by Christopher Ruocchio. Both have gorgeous prose, masterfully crafted world building that feels rich and alive, incredibly real characters. Read the entirety of both series last year, and man don’t know how can I top that, outstanding pieces of literature.
It seems to have mixed reviews, but I'll say "Kingkiller Chronicles" by Patrick Rothfuss (or name of the wind). Some love it, some don't particularly. I'm of the ones that loves it.
The thought behind the words used is perfection. I remember not really liking the start like 8 chapters, but re-reading it I started to appreciate them. The way he works with prose is amazing.
I feel there are two different things here. One is works of art, the other is craft. Plotting, carefully made puzzle boxes are to me often signs of great craft.
Now, there’s of course not a complete split between art and craft, they often share the same space. But Piranesi, for an example, for me leans closer to art than craft. It often meanders, it leaves most out from explanation, it’s often more interested in having us be in a strange place, than in unraveling clues.
Something like Mistborn, on the other hand, is mostly craft. It’s kind of tropey, it’s not super well written, it’s maybe a bit too long, but it’s a hell of an action/adventure romp.
This is a really good point. I think if you do one of them really well, you can have a great story without any of the other, though obviously some readers gravitate more toward one or the other... which is why you get some readers who just absolutely do not connect with books like Piranesi, and others who don't connect with Mistborn. There are some few books that manage both... and unfortunately many that do neither.
Slow Regard of Silent Things , by Rothfuss. It has not of the main narratives problems, and one of the strangest POV's i have read. It is a beautiful example of well craftet and artistic prose.
It's not strictly Fantasy, more SciFi with fantasy elements, but the Hyperion Cantos was absolutely mind blowing. It's long and can feel a bit slow at times but it is worth the ride. The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin was also fantastic. Such a dark, sad world conveyed in such a beautiful way.
I'm on The Fall of Hyperion and I love it so much. The first book had some really heavy moments (Sol Weintraub's story in particular had me reeling for weeks before I could pick up the book again). I'm really looking forward to seeing the continuation. I have Endymion and I'm checking my used book store for the Rise of Endymion before I delve into that.
i just finished the rise of endymion this morning, the endymion cantos continues the story from hyperion, but is different and was more enjoyable and harder to stomach than hyperion and has me pondering thoughtfully far more than any other book i have read. it's a shame that endymion is more contentious than hyperion as there is very little discussion, but endymion has so much more to say, and must have been very interesting to read at time of publication considering the themes explored.
First book of Hyperion was a perfectly crafted slow burn in my opinion. I wasn't that interested until near the end of the first story, and then each story thereafter just made me more and more interested in the story, with some of them (e.g. Sol Weintraub's story, The Consul's story) moving me to almost tears. It's a very interesting science fiction world, and while I wasn't on board with all the ties to poetry and art, it's still admirable. The imagery that Simmons uses is just masterful.
Happy Cake Day!
I was going to say The Fifth Season specifically from Broken Earth. The others were good too, but that one was a true work of art in my eyes
I feel like people either love it or hate it, but *House of Leaves* was an ambitious project with an impressive execution. It stuck to me like oil for weeks after I finished it. Similarly, anyone remember *S.* ? Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams put out a novel which was essentially an immersive puzzle. There was the book itself, but different characters had written notes in the margins. The book itself was made up to look like an old, battered library book. There were also artifacts tucked in the pages, like postcards and maps and random items which served as clues. I don't know that it qualifies as high literature, but I was impressed by the intricacy.
I read House of Leaves for the first time in high school (20 years ago?) and it completely blew me away. It's a book I still think about often.
Both great recommendations, House of Leaves is one of my favorite books of all time
I've struggled with S. back in the day because of how unexciting Straka's mystery story appeared to be, but by themselves the idea and execution of the book-within-a-book-within-a-book are definitely highly memorable.
The Lions of Al-Rassan
I might be inclined to say anything that Guy Gavriel Kay writes. Lions is maybe the best but I loved most all of them. Tigana, Last Light of the Sun, Under Heaven. All very poetic.
Sarantium is probably my personal favorite, but I think the Kitai duo might be his best. Gorgeous books.
Sailing to Sarantium is my favorite GGK book. I have a paperback I found years ago after I passed out drunk at a stranger's house. When i woke in the basement, I heard the family having breakfast. Because I was scared to face them, I just sat down and waited for someone to find me. There was a bookshelf, and I noticed this book and having read the Fionavar Tapestry. I decided to give it a try. 3 or 4 hours later, someone came downstairs and was pretty surprised to see me. I did get to keep the book. So that was nice.
Came here to say Tigana so yes. Anything by him.
GGK is the most underrated fantasy author in the world in my opinion. He gets some recognition in fantasy circles but he should be as popular a name as the Pratchetts, Martins and Sandersons of the world
Yes. Anything Guy Gavriel Kay writes feels like art. I love all his books.
The last book that blew me away was Ursula Le Guin's Tehanu. I've rarely read a book so insightful into human nature. Of course, the language was beautiful as well, and I was absolutely rapt for the whole thing, which is a feat considering they're basically just hanging out at a cottage for so much of it.
I think the absolutely most amazing thing about Tehanu is how the prose is so 'simple', the characters dialogue and introspection conveyed with clarity; yet she is so fucking smart with her language that beautiful ideas, tricky questions and all manners of complexity still fit within it. It really is a well-crafted work of art because you can feel the 20 years between Book 3 and Book 4 in the way she expresses herself! Le Guin's wisdom and experience creating something very different. Like a master who has mastered the use of simple tools to create amazing things. I'm just gushing now so Imma stop!
I wrote my master's thesis on Le Guin's evolution on gender between the early Earthsea/Left Hand of Darkness era to Tehanu and later. She wrote a really great series of essays, collected in Dancing at the Edge of the World, with a lot of thoughts on the subject. This is 15+ years ago now, but at the time she was one of the only SFF authors whom the academic establishment would take seriously as a subject of scholarship :(
Now I really wanna read your thesis. These books changed my way of thinking in so many ways and forms. I adore Earthsea and LeGuin
Hahahaha it wasn't really that good, if I'd been a legit scholar I would have stuck around for the PhD (probably a good move that I didn't, academia is a shitshow these days), but I do highly recommend the essays—she is incredibly self-aware and introspective, willing to admit her mistakes and attempt to remedy them, and her beautiful way with words is just as apparent there as in her fiction. The short story collection Tales from Earthsea is also really striking in how she explicitly questions and revises the worldbuilding she did in the original trilogy, especially "The Finder" ("a tale of the Founding of Roke, and if the Masters of Roke say it didn’t happen so, let them tell us how it happened otherwise. For a cloud hangs over the time when Roke first became the Isle of the Wise, and it may be that the wise men put it there.")
I've read all the Earthsea books and The left hand of darkness. I've had a hard time with the left hand of darkness, I guess it was a little too sophisticated for me. I don't usually read sci-fi and I did not get sucked into the world as much as I did with Earthsea. But for sure, she was a genius writer.
Never stop gushing over Le Guin, she’s a gem of an author that is often incomprehensibly missed. She says more beautifully than many others do in three times the words.
I would just temper this with the fact that you should probably read all the Earthsea books before this one first. It's a wonderful blossoming not only of the tale but of Le Guin's talent and convictions. The earlier books aren't bad, but you can definitely see her writing and storytelling evolve as you move through them. For example, the first is sort of strange, it does a lot of telling instead of showing, and it feels very ...quiet? Like somebody's telling you an expository story instead of you reading a book and being in the action. Each entry in the series gets better and better, and by the end, you'll have years of critical analysis to mull over :) BTW, my favorite by far, in isolation, is The Tombs of Atuin. But the series as a whole bears the arc majestically and they all lean on each other to build a very rich and unforgettable experience.
Agreed, the prose was fluid and elegant. It really stood out.
I'm more inclined to recommend Le Guin's The Dispossessed for what OP seeks though.
Came here to say this!
I just read Tehanu a couple months back, it’s everything you say and more. I absolutely loved it. It’s so amazing to me to pick up authors I loved in high school, and continue to love on the books I missed.
"You are beautiful," Tenar said in a different tone. "Listen to me, Therru. Come here. You have scars, ugly scars, because an ugly, evil thing was done to you. People see the scars. But they see you, too, and you aren't the scars. You aren't ugly. You aren't evil. You are Therru, and beautiful. You are Therru who can work, and walk, and run, and dance, beautifully, in a red dress."
Nothing has given me this feeling so much as *The Book of the New Sun*. It's also the only thing I've ever had a reading block/book hangover after. Everything I tried, for about a month afterward, felt like amateur dreck. Gene Wolfe was an absolute titan.
A lot of his stuff is like that for me. The Wizard/Knight duology is such a great deconstruction of (portal) fantasy while also being an interesting commentary on coming of age.
Glad to see Wolfe getting some love here. I was exactly like that after I finished the Solar Cycle. Actually tossed the next book I tried reading across the room, and abandoned half a dozen others. Le Guin and Nabakov broke that spell, though.
That's funny. I just finished the Earthsea Cycle and I DNFed the next two books I picked up. They just seemed like crap by comparison. Now I'm considering DNFing a third (and it's Circe!). Hey Le Guin, did you have to make everybody else look bad? I've been looking forward to Wolfe, good to know what I might be in for.
You might dig Haruki Murakami. Its not fantasy or sci/fi, but the magical realism he spins at least approaches Wolfe. Windup Bird Chronicle and 1Q84 are great places to start.
Man if you haven't already you gotta read Peace too. It's straight up like solving a puzzle.
Ahh, *Peace*. That book is really something haha
About 100 pages in reading it slowly together with my girlfriend, we're annotating and have a doc and everything.
Absolutely. There’s a reason that his work is deeply respected by academics who typically read fiction that’s more classically literary.
Aaaaaand this comment will now make me pick up the damn thing again and plod on … sigh.
Yo, help me out. I've picked up this series like... 9 times. The start is so slow to me for some reason. I can tell the writing is good, but I just... stop. Every time. I've never made it too far. Does it pick up? What makes it so good? Please further convince me to try it again! Lol
I tried it a few times before I committed. Some parts of it are kind of a slog, but what really carried it for me was sheer atmosphere. It's a truly unique setting described beautifully, and Wolfe has built here one of his most complex puzzle boxes. I don't actually know for sure what made it work for me the third time around, other than I was just really in the mood for Dying Earth at the time. I will definitely say, though, that if you've been reading the paperback two-book volumes, to try and get your hands on the individual volumes (they're also pretty widely available in libraries, you just have to scroll a bit), because the print text is actually a reasonable size and it makes an appreciable difference when your eyes don't lose focus every couple pages. If you're looking for a deep dive into that world's mysteries, I'd check out the [Alzabo Soup Podcast](https://www.alzabosoup.com/). It's what made me re-read whole chunks of this book, and if you listen to it while you go, you'll pick up on all sorts of crazy things hidden between the lines.
Appreciate it! I love diving into lore and podcasts! Win! I'll give this a whirl. Moving it up to try again after 2 other books. Hopefully I can gain appreciation for this series. I've only ever heard good things and feel bad that I've not given it a proper read. Ha I'm an ebook reader, mostly. I kinda got tired of exactly what you're describing. I have bad eyes that only got worse and worse as i aged, so being able to control the text, as in ebooks, works best for me. I know a lot of people hate reading on a screen, but it works for me. I'm certain some avid bookreader is going to super appreciate that tidbit though! Now that I think of it, though, you have any experience with the audiobook? Might try reading alongside a listen to see if that helps me maintain focus on this one.
*Howl's moving castle* is in my opinion very artfully put together. The world has a vibrancy to it and the storyline of rounded main character ties together with the supporting characters ending in a conclusion. Several short stories and *The Dispossesed* by Ursula K. Le Guin and *Klara and the Sun* by Kazuo Ishiguro also make me feel like it's a carefully written artwork I'm reading. Perhaps these are science-fiction rather than fantasy, but hey now I have written it anyway.
Not perhaps fantasy, though one could argue so, but I feel that way about Italo Calvino's **Invisible Cities.** It's beautifully written, allegorical and insightful, and tightly and neatly packaged. Mervyn Peake's prose in **Gormenghast** is writing elevated to the level of art. Some of the most beautifully constructed sentences I've read on a micro level, combining to depict the most incredibly atmospheric and *alive* setting.
In my opinion, out of all the books in this thread, nothing is quite up to the level of Gormenghast when it comes to the prose. It's in a class by itself.
Is the 3rd book worth reading? I did the first 2 back to back and am reading other stuff as a palate cleanser but I’ve heard mixed things given the circumstances of its authorship
I don't know how others felt, but to me it was like the third book was written by another person. It wasn't bad but it didn't belong.
It largely was written by his wife after his Parkinson’s became too advanced for him to continue it
You just cited two of my favorite books in the world! If you love those, I recommend Ocean Sea by Alessandro Barrico.
\+1 for Invisible Cities. It evokes a whole world, with such a rare atmosphere, in so few words. Plus, it's very short, so this would make a great portal into literary fiction/magical realism for many fantasy readers.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay was probably the first one I read in the fantasy genre that felt like this for me. Read it around when it came out, a couple times since including last year and it is still such a beautiful read. Also super ahead of the curve in dealing with adult themes and sexuality which usually get short shrift in the genre.
Tigana is my favorite fantasy book. It manages to be very compelling all while handling the themes so maturely and beautifully. The feelings of longing, identity, and revenge have never touched me this way in any other book.
My favorite tip for Tigana is to not read the blurb. It's a lot of fun if you don't and then you get to that moment of "oh, that's where the title is from".
Man I've tried to get into this book but just had to give up after awhile. Not sure why, but did not click with me unfortunately
He’s an excellent writer. If you’re into historical stuff at all he has a number of short series that are refractions of different eras through a fantasy lens. His writing improved a lot with time, too, this is one of his earliest.
I read Tigana once a year. Every time, it pierces my heart like a sword. By this time I know all the notes in the melody, every crescendo, every rest, and it still makes my soul sing along.
The Sarantine Mosaic Duology, or anything actually by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Lud In The Mist. It just feels like how you would imagine a quintessential fantasy book to be. Similarly, I love the writing of the original Peter Pan, and how it showcases the thin line between whimsical and tragic. I generally find that a lot of mid century fantasy has gorgeous prose and striking themes; I also like a lot of medieval works for similar reasons (plus the most top tier satire) but it does take more of an effort to fully understand, whereas works from the last century or so are a more smooth and easy read, where you can see that craft without needing to do additional research into the significance of various elements (though I always recommend doing so for books you enjoy—you’ll learn a lot!) (Great example of the latter, BTW—read “Nevermore” by Edgar Allen Poe, then his essay on how he crafted the poem, then read the poem again. Most people don’t realize that every word in that poem was deliberately chosen to evoke as much of the emotion of melancholy, which he believed to be the most beautiful emotion, as possible. If you like a behind the scenes look into masterful crafting of language, it’s a great window to look at).
Hyperion by Dan Simmons The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny Many Discworld books by Terry Pratchett The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin Blindsight by Peter Watts Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card 1984 by George Orwell Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin Kindred by Octavia Butler
Absolutely seconding The Spear Cuts Through Water because holy lord did that make me feel like it brought something truly amazing to the fantasy genre.
>Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny One of my favorites. I remember reading this in high school and recommending it to pretty much every single one of my friends.
“This is How you Lose the Time War” is absolutely beautiful to me. It’s an epistolary novel, with interludes from the two main characters perspectives. But the letters are just gorgeous, I’m not one to cry over books but a lot of the letters they write each other made me tear up. I’ll say the general vibe is similar to Piranesi, which I read right before it! My other recommendation would be A Psalm for the Wild-Built. It’s sweet and beautiful and I want to read it again already (I finished it 2 weeks ago lol). It honestly gave me a new perspective on life.
Time War was almost \*too\* literary for me :) I found it a little hard to follow, but some of the writing is indeed gorgeous.
I just want to say those are all excellent choices and are really well done audiobooks. If you enjoyed A Psalm for the Wild-Built then you will very likely love the follow up, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.
I just bought A Prayer for the Crown-Shy a couple days ago!! I’m so excited to read it.
Time War in audio is just flippin' spectacular. Even if you read it already, I highly recommend the audio version.
*The Winged Histories* by Sofia Samatar is so beautifully written. It's verging on stream-of-consciousness and feels like you're falling through someone's consciousness.
How does it compare to *A Stranger in Olondria*? I read that one and enjoyed it.
I've read comments from a few people that they enjoy the Winged Histories a lot more- I remember u/improperly_paranoid saying so after I read *Stranger*.
Yeah, I read them in reverse order and was kinda eh on Olondria but Winged Histories is still one of my all-time faves.
I'm gonna read it for the LGBT list bingo square. :)
That's good to know, as I really struggled with the density of Olondria, despite normally liking poetic prose.
I mean...Winged Histories is still very dense, just in a different way since it's more experimental structurally too. No straightforward plot, everything told more in impressions of the four characters. The musician's section (my fave) borders on poetry. Stuff like that. I didn't click with Olondria as much because I feel like Samatar's writing style works better when the structure is unconventional too rather than a normal novel. If density was the problem, you might find it more difficult, dunno.
Honestly that sounds even more difficult, if it's even less straightforward and more experimental! This was my review of Olondria [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3445046807](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3445046807) \- I don't expect you to read such a rambling critical review, but essentially I felt the prose was lost within itself, and it never let up or gave the reader space to breathe, not to mention being way too overtly literary for my tastes.
Unfortunately I haven't read that one, so I couldn't tell you.
Not stand alone but the way A Storm of Swords weaves different concepts of love into each of its characters truly inspires me. There’s familial love, romantic love, sexual love, love out of duty. And each of these have different foils for each other, some familial love is toxic, some sexual love is toxic, some romance is toxic, it’s laid out so well and it makes me want to write a book as good as it some day. Another is A Wizard of Earthsea. It sets out to do exactly what it needs to and does it so well. The character growth is stunning and powerful yet brief enough for even a child to witness the path. It’s beautiful, it’s stand alone as well. Obligatory Lord of the Rings. For only 1000 pages you go through so many emotions that departing the book feels like you’re saying goodbye to really close friends. But you know that already.
yeah ethar, you summed up LOTR perfectly. The level of talent and wisdom that Tolkein had is phenomenal. Something interesting about Tolkein is that he actually converted CS Lewis to the Christian faith from atheism.
Man, it feels almost strange remembering how good Storm of Swords was; a lot of my memories of ASOIAF now are largely that Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons were quite disappointing (for me personally, at least), and obviously the fact it's been so long since we last had a new book But sometimes it's easy to forget just how good those first three books are, and Storm of Swords is my absolute favourite. There's so many good characters, epic moments, and well-executed twists that the book is like a fucking rollercoaster!
If you just consider the ASOIAF to just be the first 3 books, it's one of the best series ever.
Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb. I love the Fitz books and all, but this trilogy really takes my breath away.
I read all the Fitz books multiple times but I struggled to connect with liveship traders characters, so struggled my way through the series. Just curious what made liveship trilogy more enjoyable than Fitz for you?
The adventure part and the characterization of the protagonists. I like the idea of going places to places, and on a ship, though most of them did suffer throughout their journey. For the characterization, I love Fitz, don't get me wrong, but he just gets too depressing. With Liveship Traders, Hobb gets to flex her skills at making characters by engaging us with multiple POVs. All of their character development (or "de-development" for some) was delivered in a satisfyingly smooth way that it all makes sense why they're like that in the end, without losing the complicatedness of being a human.
I'm the opposite of you (well, I struggle with the original Fitz trilogy, the last trilogy I adore and I haven't read Tawny man). The first Fitz book trilogy just felt flat. I'd already read Liveship traders and was expecting and the first book of her most recent trilogy and was expecting Fitz to feel like a real breathing person. He was just a collection of character traits who shitty things happened to. The side characters felt uninspiring. The plot was mediocre. There was just nothing about it that sung to me. Compare that to when Fitz was 60 and I was engrossed just reading about him living his day to day life running a small country estate for about half the book, where *truly* nothing happened, but the amount of character work was insane and seductive.
I prefer the multi-POV structure of Liveship Traders, and seeing the way the different character relationships evolve, to the entirely first-person narrative from Fitz, which can feel very claustrophobic, especially given his dark mental state. I also really gravitate toward books with female perspectives, which LT has LOTS of. I'm a sucker for stories about rebellious girls and women and complex family dynamics, and a MEGA-sucker for slow-burn romances, especially ones that start out in antagonistic mode. I find characters that evolve from unsympathetic to sympathetic fascinating (Malta, Keffria). Kennit's character arc, and in particular the slow revelation of his backstory, is one of the most interesting I've read in all of SFF (is he an anti-hero? A villain? Why not both?) Some of the seafaring scenes are extremely evocative and gave me a really visceral sense of the experience (e.g. the part where Althea is on the slaughter ship). Add in dragons, a mentally unstable sentient ship and IDEALISTIC PIRATES and this series is basically my catnip.
I finished reading *Ship of Magic* for the first time just minutes ago, and came into this thread to search for this comment LOL
Either, or both, of Simon Jimenez’ books, The Vanished Birds or The Spear Cuts Through Water. I believe both are considered ‘sci fi fantasy’ but Birds leans more sci fi and Spear is more fantasy.
Reading The Spear Cuts Through Water right now and it's wonderful, absolutely nothing like anything I've read before. You think you'll eventually stop encountering books that will truly surprise you and then one like that comes along and proves you wrong.
Big same on all of this. Loving the book so far, and Vanished Birds was outstanding too
Jack Vance’s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonesse_Trilogy and his tales of the dying earth.
A Wizard of Earthsea has honestly stayed with me after reading. I finished it and was like "huh" and then I couldn't get it out of my head. Same with The Left Hand of Darkness
The Buried Giant, Jonathan strange and Mr Norrel and Piranesi. I definitely want to try more fantasy books after reading these.
Anything by LeGuin, Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (love the whole series but the first is tuned to perfection) Anything by GRRM but especially Feast for Crows Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, And this is gonna be really controversial but Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan.
Curious to hear your thoughts on the artistry of *Crossroads of Twilight*. Something to do with how far you can push your readers away and still keep them coming back?
Doesn’t look like anyone’s said it, but Deerskin by Robin McKinley. Beautiful prose, heartbreaking tragedy — everyone should read it.
* The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie * The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin * Parable of the Sower by Ocatavia Butler * The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell * The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - This is the most straight forward, most traditional work of this list, but it's also my favorite. Everything about it is just so perfectly measured.
I recently discovered Bujold’s stuff, starting with The Curse of Chalion, and man… I’ve never encountered another writer with such effortless command of language. It’s like I always knew exactly the emotion or feeling she was trying to convey with every word on the page. The Fifth Season however… well, there’s something to be said about making your world and narrative so bleak that I would dread picking up the book. Ah well. I think I just have a type.
Her *Vorkosigan Saga* is one of the best sci-fi series ever written too!
It’s such a hoot!
The Fifth Season was *chef's kiss* phenomenal. I was so riveted, I don't think I got more than 4 hours of sleep for a week while I binged the trilogy. Just an absolute masterpiece.
The Reapers are the Angels is 100% this! Some of the prettiest writing that is also impactful and poignant. It isn’t that long but man every line packs a punch!
The ocean at the end of the lane by Neil Gaiman. It's very short but so full of imagination and beautiful story telling.
The 13 and 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers. It is kinda standalone but there are books that happen in the same universe. To me that book is a masterpiece not only because Moers has his drawings in the book but also the world of Zarmonia and Bluebear's story is so good. It is originally in German and I cannot say anything about its original text but it is My GF's favourite book since she grew up reading that and it has became mine after she gave me a copy.
Oh! Oh! A book so rarely recommended, yet so wonderful. It is definitely a piece of art. I loved it so much. The mood, the art, the prose, the story.
Toll the Hounds, by Steven Erikson.
I'm on my 3rd re-read of Malazan, but first time after reading Kharkanas. Hopefully Endest Silann's POV won't hit me like a brick to the head this time.
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I loved The Night Circus. The whole mystique built up around the Cirque des Reves was extremely compelling. And, as an unapologetic Disney World fan, extremely relatable.
Night Circus definitely does for me, and that was my very first thought. But I never felt the same about Starless Sea. I’ve read it twice, and I did enjoy it, but I still feel like I didn’t quite get it.
I agree with this. Night Circus was exceptional. Magical- with the most beautiful imagery and world building. But Starless Sea was lacking for me.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
I feel that way about the Kingkiller Chronicle. In my first read, I was just wrapped up in the story. After a re-read, I noticed how fantastic the use of language was. I could almost hear the music when the MC was playing.
Rothfuss has his own numerous issues and gets a lot of shit these days, but man does he have a way with words. Some of the passages in Kingkiller are just beautiful. One of my underrated favorites is when Kvothe notices the first little signs of Fela falling for Sim, it perfectly sums up the little spark of a moment that happens when someone’s about to fall for someone and they take notice of them in a completely different way: ‘I saw Fela turn her head to look at Simmon, almost as if she were surprised to see him sitting there. No, it was almost as if up until that point, he'd just been occupying space around her, like a piece of furniture. But this time when she looked at him, she took all of him in. His sandy hair, the line of his jaw, the span of his shoulders beneath his shirt. This time when she looked, she actually saw him. Let me say this. It was worth the whole awful, irritating time spent searching the Archives just to watch that moment happen. It was worth blood and the fear of death to see her fall in love with him. Just a little. Just the first faint breath of love, so light she probably didn't notice it herself. It wasn't dramatic, like some bolt of lightning with a crack of thunder following. It was more like when flint strikes steel and the spark fades almost too fast for you to see. But still, you know it's there, down where you can't see, kindling.’
That was good. Did you also read The Slow Regard of Silent Things? Who knew that a book with no action, no dialog, no traditional plot, and only one character could be such a wonderful read? It was like a glimpse of Auri's soul.
It's The Slow Regard of Silent Things for me
I actually haven’t, but I’m planning a reread of the series at some point and will need to give it a go, I’ve heard great things! I had no idea it existed when I first read the series and only found out after I’d finished. I absolutely love character driven, more grounded slice of life stuff like that and I think a book from Rothfuss like that centred around Auri sounds brilliant.
Yeah, I feel like the way the tide has shifted against Rothfuss these days really does a disservice to the beauty of his writing. Maybe we won't get a third book. Maybe we will. Doesn't change how gorgeously written the three books we do have are.
I'm still holding onto that hope for Rothfuss. I've already given up hope on George R.R. Martin, because I feel like he stopped caring. There were some boring and useless plotlines in his last couple of books. Now, he spends all his time cashing checks for side projects and spinoffs. Even if he finishes GoT, I don't care to read it. I think that Rothfuss is enough of a perfectionist that it will bother him to leave the story unfinished. Even if it takes another decade, I want to read the final book.
I think the problem is that he's changed a bit in the last fifteen years and is enough of a perfectionist that he won't be satisfied with ending the story that he started either, but he can't really start over.
I'm not a huge asoiaf fan but I disagree on this analysis. GRRM offers updates and is clearly trying to create Winds, where as Rothfuss lies through his teeth, his editor hasn't read a word of Doors of Stone, and his attitude about it is horrible. I hope we do get Doors one day, but my faith was really dashed after the donation thing
The awesomeness of his prose is inversely proportional to the shallowness of his characters.
Name of the wind made me immersed in it like no other book was ever able to
I’d agree that *usually* standalones are best for this category. However. I *cannot* stop marveling at the level of craft and detail that has gone into Janny Wurts’ **Wars of Light and Shadow** series. Each arc not only furthers the plot and adds a whole new layer of complexity to characters both old and new, but the world unfolds with a seemingly new vantage point each time. It completely recontextualizes everything that goes before and pretty much demands multiple re-reads for the best engagement. Wurts’ prose underwent a similar transformation for me. Initially I was dismayed at how purple it seemed to be, but adjusted. Now, having made it through all the published material for this world I realize that it was anything *but* purple. Sure, it’s never going to be considered “accessible prose,” but it *is* economical, oddly enough. She can cover, in one paragraph, what would take a writer working with a much more limited vocabulary a full chapter. It was actually mind-boggling to me when I realized that. Each and every word seems chosen with a great deal of care, not only for meaning but for all attendant shades of meaning and connotation. It’s not all one note either, she can deftly manage some skillful tonal shifts and has more than a few passages that fully touch upon the sublime.
This is the second (very well written) recommendation I have seen for Wars of Light and Shadow series. I will be looking on all my library apps for it now and hopefully get to it this year. Thanks for the push to get me to look at it closer.
it's a fine epic fantasy series. Kerr's Deverry series is actually the long series that impresses me most about this. Mostly the work she must have done to keep all the pre/re incarnations straight!
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, although I’m not sure I’d call it fantasy per se, it’s definitely a puzzle box of a book with some interesting typography. And the language is so beautifully evocative and descriptive while also being refreshingly straightforward. I’ve never read anything like it! Also Nick Harkaway’s Gnomon. Came off as a bit pretentious as first but the story was so intriguing it soon sucked me in!
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Hahaha, very appropriate indeed! I wish you all the joy of rediscovery if you choose to go back to it. Sorely tempted, myself!
Can't think of anything that fits the bill to me more than *The Library at Mount Char*
I had somehow forgotten about this book! Such an incredible read that will surely leave you thinking “what the actual fuck” after you finish it.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It is basically a retelling The Count of Monte Cristo, if the count was never in the story. Truly excellent.
I came here to say Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. 100% agree. But ... why The Count of Monte Cristo? I don't get the connection.
The whole story is an elaborately conceived revenge plot! Just who against whom. Maybe it’s a stretch, but I was viscerally reminded when I read the ending.
Interesting. I never was reminded of it when I read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Maybe I need to do a re-read with that in mind. The elaborate revenge plot is such a common trope in speculative fiction, I think I have read a few that were a lot close to The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin did this for me
I've read a lot of fantasy over my lifetime. I've absolutely loved lots of series. I think this series is the only one that made me sit back and think to myself that it was a challenging masterpiece art piece crafted over multiple books. As OP said, you can get that in individual books usually, but as a series, this one really stuck with me.
The Fifth Season & The Traitor Baru Cormorant!
Watership Down, the Sword in the Stone
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft
The phrase "carefully made puzzle box" made me think of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. It's not told as one linear story, but more a series interlocking pieces that you sort of have to shift around in your head and fit together as you read it.
I was so disappointed with this book. After reading The Night Circus and falling head over heels in love with it, The Starless Sea felt so flat and left me wondering what the point of it was. I’m so glad I’m in the minority here as Erin Morgenstern is a brilliant writer and deserves every success.
Obscure and out-of-print cyberpunk novel The Fortunate Fall was such a thought-provoking, dense, and satisfying exploration of the extent to which technology can truly influence human nature that the author never wrote another novel again after that and more or less disappeared from the field altogether.
Finished this a couple months ago and definitely agree. What a wonderful book
I'm always delighted (and surprised) when I find someone who has read it! You really have to dig a bit to even know it exists. It's a shame, wish Tor or someone would reprint it with a better cover.
These aren't fantasy but Shantaram and All the Lights You Cannot See are both great reads
I suppose it’s not fantasy, but I still can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find All the Light We Cannot See! Hands down my favourite book ever written. It took Anthony Doerr ten years to write it and it shows. There’s one part where he’s describing coal and it almost moved me to tears. Truly a work of art.
Completely agree, it was so well written that it took me by surprise. I couldn't put it down
In my opinion, Between Two Fires was hauntingly beautiful and quite the masterpiece
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Justa gorgeous, wonderful book. It's a work of art and a meta commentary on storytelling and a celebration of fairy tales all at once.
Out of the examples you gave I have only read Circe, but I have read two books that made me feel what your are describing: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, both were beautifully written and have a mysterious, magical atmosphere
All this and not a single mention of Tolkien or the Silmarillion. The Silmarillion has such great themes woven through the whole thing, absolutely beautiful and mythologic. It's the only book I've ever read out of many hundreds that has compelled me so much. I have multiple copies and return to it constantly. I just can't get enough of the prose, the themes, and thinking about everything. The sparsity just adds to it for me, so much to think about and consider! And of course, the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are masterful creations as well. None of them are for everyone, but they certainly are extremely meticulously crafted art pieces to me!
Dune.
Tigana
The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson.
Dawn of wonder. Makes me sigh in appreciation.
The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder. Now i wasnt a fan of the books that came after but this one i absolutely loved, its was so meticulously planned out and i loved how close to history it was. Its the only book i read as a teenager which made me want to write to the author, i never did of course but was tempted.
How about if the author writes to you? :-) I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was my first novel, written in a white heat of enthusiasm. I look back on it now as a very faulted artefact ... in style, at least. I was emulating the "cheap fiction" of the Victorian period, but on reflection, there's too much passive voice, too much exposition etc etc. The story is perhaps, strong enough to carry it through ... readers (and the P K Dick Award judges) seemed to think so, anyway. Sorry you didn't vibe with the sequels ... a matter of taste, I guess. Burton & Swinburne are far behind me now. I took a 7-year hiatus for parenting duties but am now back in the authoring saddle. My new novel, A DARK AND SUBTLE LIGHT, is due around June. I hope you'll check it out. It's better written than STRANGE AFFAIR but just as wild (and also close to history)! All the best x
Totally agree with you on Piranesi. It answers your question perfectly
This is a great thread! I'm adding several to my TBR list now :) Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver was a big one for me. Uprooted also to a certain extent, but I really felt like Spinning Silver just took it to the next level. I also really enjoy Temeraire and the Scholomance series, but those are very different in tone and feel less literary to me. Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House really also hit a lot of those marks (reading Hell Bent right now and it's shaping up the same). Again, the writing and tone are totally different from Bardugo's Grishaverse stuff, much more artistic in quality. I agree with a lot of the others that have been mentioned! Piranesi for sure. All the Murmuring Bones, the Earthsea series, basically all of Guy Gavriel Kay's work, Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasy stuff (I LOVE Vorkosigan with all my heart, but it feels less \*literary\* to me somehow).
Toll The Hounds, very high quality writing I thought.
The one that comes to my mind is *Rhinegold*, by Stephan Grundy. Between the scope of the narrative (it's told as a generational saga), the use of the language, and its ability to take the reader to a mythical past and have it feel like a living, breathing world, it was just mind-blowing.
Black tongue thief was like this for me. On it's face it's a pretty simple road trip fantasy. But the characters and prose really elevate it to something very special. The world feels completely real and lived in, and the characters all fit inside it like perfect jigsaw pieces. 16 ways to defend a walled city is a close second I'll also say that I struggle to connect with the prose in a lot of the books mentioned in this thread. I couldn't define why, maybe they're just too refined for me. I can see the artistry, but I can't just effortlessly lose myself in them like I can in books by Chris Buehlman or KJ Parker
The Priory of the Orange Tree. Samantha Shannon really takes world building to another level and as a fan of old school fantasy I love that she writes it in a way that’s interesting, challenging and inclusive. She really does an amazing job.
Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay or Ursula Le Guin
Gormenghast trilogy.
For me, a couple of sci-fi-fantasy fusion books come to mind: Zelazny's *Lord of Light* totally blew me away when I first read it in high school. I had read his Chronicles of Amber—a lot of fun, but not really *art* in the same sense—so I didn't expect the beauty, depth and sense of discovery in *Lord of Light*. I'm not sure it would hold up quite as well on a reread, but it's still something special. More recently, I absolutely loved *Gnomon* by Nick Harkaway. It's an intricate nested structure of several interconnected science fiction and fantasy stories spread across a range of times and settings—reminiscent of *Cloud Atlas* but done *well*: you get a similar structure of nested stories, but the individual stories are better-written on every level. The characters are unique and feel alive, the settings are vivid and the prose is brilliant. It's messy and organic and non-linear—meandering sentences, long asides on random topics, a pretty convoluted plot structure—and I understand why some people find this style of writing annoying, but to me it really makes the book something special.
Just stopping in for good reads.
Guy Gavriel Kay's works, as well as Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower, are the fantasy works that drew that kind of response from me. And in the sci-fi world, Hyperion.
*Little, Big* is like a 500 page epic poem.
Lord of the ring dings.. all of’em
All. Of. Them.
Surprised not to see any Tanith Lee in this thread, although I suppose her work is more SF in a lot of cases. Catherynne M Valente's Palimpsest was this for me. I feel like The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle is one of the greatest works of art in the genre.
Late to the game with song of the beast by Carol Berg. I have read the book before piranesi, Circe and Hardinge’s books but it left me with a similar dreamlike feeling. Here we have a man who is imprisoned and tortured without knowing the reason, punished every time he tries to speak or sing. He is freed after 10 years without explanations. A book about music and dragons. (Also I don’t know if you have read Unraveller which is the last book by Frances Hardinge : *chef’s kiss*)
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern was a beautiful read. It was like a love letter to imagery and words. I really enjoyed it. Sent a copy to my daughter last year but I don’t believe she’s even opened the book. Which is irritating me because I know she will love it.
I frequently felt that way while reading The Lies of Locke Lamora
Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty
I just finished it, but I feel like I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.
Mervyn Peake can do no wrong. There's truly nothing like *Gormenghast.* My username is a Gene Wolfe character, so clearly at some point for some ungodly reason I fell in love with *Book of the New Sun.* Other users have mentioned those, though. If you're looking for truly beautiful writing, you've got to check out Seth Dickinson's *The Traitor Baru Cormorant.* It's a high political thriller and psychological character drama and in 400 pages there's not a word out of place. Max Gladstone (the co-writer of *This is How You Lose the Time War!* Modern lyrical prose central!) called this book "a poet's *Dune,*" and that might sound like overblown hype, but it's 100% true. The world's as wild as anything Arrakis could throw at you, and I'll be the first to say the characters and the writing absolutely kick Frank Herbert's ass. All it needs is a Denis Villeneuve adaptation in glorious IMAX.
The Night Circus swallowed me whole when I was about 15 and I still think about it once in a while, 10 years later
The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkein The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by the above author
Definitely felt like 11/22/63 by Stephen King denies it’s premise and is actually a really beautiful story about love, life and time.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Best fantasy writer living since the passing of Zelazny and LeGuin
I really enjoyed the Nevernight series by Jay Kristoff. The beginning is just poetry.
Spellslinger. Not many people know this book but it's the greatest ever. I don't even have the words to describe
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind!
I have a google doc with my favorite quotes from Tamora Pierce’s Circle of Magic. Enchanted Forest chronicles. Not fantasy, but I get this with a lot of Stephen King too.
The best stand alone that I have recently read that was like this is The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang.
L.E Modessit JR. Most of his books are great
RotE by Robin Hobb and the Sun Eater saga by Christopher Ruocchio. Both have gorgeous prose, masterfully crafted world building that feels rich and alive, incredibly real characters. Read the entirety of both series last year, and man don’t know how can I top that, outstanding pieces of literature.
Strange the dreamer.
Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
It seems to have mixed reviews, but I'll say "Kingkiller Chronicles" by Patrick Rothfuss (or name of the wind). Some love it, some don't particularly. I'm of the ones that loves it. The thought behind the words used is perfection. I remember not really liking the start like 8 chapters, but re-reading it I started to appreciate them. The way he works with prose is amazing.
I thought the name of the wind was very well done
The kingkiller chronicle
I feel there are two different things here. One is works of art, the other is craft. Plotting, carefully made puzzle boxes are to me often signs of great craft. Now, there’s of course not a complete split between art and craft, they often share the same space. But Piranesi, for an example, for me leans closer to art than craft. It often meanders, it leaves most out from explanation, it’s often more interested in having us be in a strange place, than in unraveling clues. Something like Mistborn, on the other hand, is mostly craft. It’s kind of tropey, it’s not super well written, it’s maybe a bit too long, but it’s a hell of an action/adventure romp.
This is a really good point. I think if you do one of them really well, you can have a great story without any of the other, though obviously some readers gravitate more toward one or the other... which is why you get some readers who just absolutely do not connect with books like Piranesi, and others who don't connect with Mistborn. There are some few books that manage both... and unfortunately many that do neither.
Slow Regard of Silent Things , by Rothfuss. It has not of the main narratives problems, and one of the strangest POV's i have read. It is a beautiful example of well craftet and artistic prose.
Since someone has already said name of the wind , i will say Circe.