Recommend a fantasy book to a sceptic

[Tohron]

I'll add another voice for Song of Ice and Fire. Although the four books so far average 800-900 pages apiece, the writing is extremely good - most of the characters are morally grey, their behavior is believable, plot armor for main characters is relatively low (about 4-6+ have died so far), and the political and strategic scenarios are well thought-out and interesting.

Reading this series takes a while, but it's well worth it.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs is an excellent little novel about two elderly wizards which is in turns comical and quite frightening. It features little to nothing in the way of modern fantasy tropes and is about 200 pages long.

Howl's Moving castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a bit longer and features very entertaining and well developed characters. It is simultaneously humorous and dramatic.

If you want something longer, Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers is a little over 700 pages and truly excellent. It takes definite inspiration from Homer but mixes it with the kind of mad creativity which is supposed to be the point of fantasy but is often neglected in favor of ripping off Tolkein or re-imagining mythology for the umpteenth time. As an example, in one section near the beginning a hollow mountain inhabited by effete dinosaur poets in little hats and fur robes is besieged by an army of mercenaries disguised as publishing agents. The whole book is full of things like that, all taken 100% seriously.

None of them are anything like Lord of the Rings.

 

[2xDouble]

I'm British, so here it is the commonly accepted spelling of it. It's how its written in the Oxford English Dictionary. For the 50 million or so British people "skeptic" is referred to as an "Americanism", ie. an American variation on English, y'know, the language that we invented and have been using for a very long time.
It's not about being able to do "whatever I want with it". It's just a matter of different variations in the language between different countries.

Small but important point, the American spelling is in the minority of global English with only 350 million users, the pretty much rest of the world uses British spelling. I can really not believe that using the argument that the spell checker set to American English agrees with you with you. Try downloading the British English dictionary and see what happens.

Good job dropping it. Glad to see you listen as well as you make points. Hail Brittania! Dropping it again...

 

[elementaryjunta]

This thread has finally made me come out of my non-participatory hole. First post! Let me recommend some Australian fantasy authors: Sara Douglass and Ian Irvine. I read them first when I was in high school, and while like most fantasy authors, their later stuff isn't as good as their earlier books, they're still high on my list (Robin Hobb being at the top, man that woman can populate a world with characters you really feel for). If you want a standalone short book I'd recommend Douglass' Beyond the Hanging Wall, or start with Battleaxe, the first book of about 4 trilogies. Ian Irvine's Shadow on the Glass Quartet is hard to get into, but even harder to let go of. Both authors are quite atypical of traditional fantasy.

And look, while classics are....classic, they're not the be all and end all of literature. Just because they're old doesn't make them must reads, it just means they've been around longer to be praised. A little bit of innovation and fresh blood never hurt anything, least of all books. Not that you were saying otherwise

 

[RaveZ408]

I've only seen one person mention it on here but The Once and Future King by T H white is a fantastic read