Books!

[Adrai Thell]

...relatively recent, well written high fantasy/epic fantasy/heroic fantasy with a rather bright/optimistic/idealistic outlook? Basically I'm looking for the stark opposite of Game of Thrones... the setting itself doesn't really matter.

Hmm. I'd personally recommend the Stormlight Archives for this, even if it takes a little bit to get to the optimistic worldview. Also, they're huge - The Way of Kings (the first one) is 1280 pages, and it looks like they'll be ramping up from there. But I haven't read a fantasy series so compelling in a long time - I actually like them more then the Lord of the Rings (heresy, I know).

[Hrollo]

Mélusine > Well, this isn't necessary in high school, but this is stuff I have read, not necessarily in that order: at least 30 "Forgotten Realms" books, "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings", some stuff by Howard (Conan), a fair deal of Moorcock's "Elric the Necromancer" saga, Gaborit's "Chroniques des crépusculaires"… actually I don't remember much else, I think overall I read a lot more SF than fantasy, hmmm... I guess if you count comics you can add "Légendes des contrées oubliées" and "La quête de l'oiseau du temps", those were quite good (I also read "Les chroniques de la lune noire" but restrospectively that was much less interesting).

Adrai Thell > thanks, I'm noting those.

[Mélusine]

Ah, Gaborit His magic was very interesting.
When people talk about fantasy, I think to Eddings with The Belgariad and The Malloreon. Very "classical" (A chosen one, a sorcerer, a thief...) but it's not so recent. Same for The Death Gate Cycle by Weis & Hickmann I read just after when I was a teenager, and this one is not so optimistic when you begin to read... Maybe Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber ? (Corwin's cycle is better, to my mind, so the five first books.) But, again, I fear it's not exactly "bright/optimistic/idealistic", only Eddings hit this for this moment

[Hrollo]

Mélusine > Thank you for the recommendations.

[Sunflower]

The review of a new fantasy novel, "Cold Iron" by Stina Leicht, sounds intriguing.
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/12/418600253/cold-iron-asks-what-if-tolkien-had-been-american

It opens:

In the acknowledgements for Cold Iron, Stina Leicht writes that one of the questions at the core of her new Malorum Gates series is, "if Tolkien had been American, what would fantasy look like?" It's a fascinating question — and I don't intend to sound cynical or glib when I say that, according to Cold Iron, the answer is, at least partly, "more full of guns."

Cold Iron is very attentive to the nuances of early modern warfare, on both land and sea. It explores the clash between competing technologies and philosophies as magic-wielding Kainen (elves) and musket-firing Acrasians (humans) wage war on each other.

Rollo, not sure if this will fill your request, but it certainly sounds intriguing. 

So could you recommend to me some relatively recent, well written high fantasy/epic fantasy/heroic fantasy with a rather bright/optimistic/idealistic outlook? Basically I'm looking for the stark opposite of Game of Thrones... the setting itself doesn't really matter.

Here's my nomination:  "Bright and Shining Tiger" by Claudia Edwards.  It's the story of a wandering healer, Runa, who by apparent chance becomes a feudal ruler in a land where magic-wielding Mantics and warlike Margraves protect the peasantry. 

It's less epic in scope than Game of Thrones but is set in a vaguely medieval world with a carefully thought-out system of magic (or mental powers?) a bit like laran/The Overworld in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series. 

It's not the most sophisticated novel I've ever read, but I really enjoyed it.  Some strong points:
* Original setting, not based on Western Europe/England like a lot of fantasy.  The geography and ecology are very much like the U.S. Midwest.  At one point, Runa comes across a tribe of primitive desert-dwelling people similar to Australian Aborigines or African Bushmen. 
* A well-thought-out feudal economy and social milieu.  Runa is forcibly installed as Mantic in a long-abandoned castle, and is soon surprised to find a crowd of peasants hammering at the gate.... to lecture her about her obligations as their new protector and provider.  Runa's social conflicts and misunderstandings -- with the peasants, the snobbish local gentry, and the band of Viking-esque warriors she imports as her fighting force -- drive a lot of the plot. 
* Horses are very important in this novel, and Edwards knows her stuff.  No Automaton Horses here.  (YMMV -- I'm not a horsey type myself, but I respect accurate world-building.)
* Did I mention Vikings?  The barbarian warrior culture in this book draws heavily on Viking culture, including being fairly gender-neutral.  (The barbarian characters are all male, but they have no objections to women leaders and fighters, or to making their own clothes.)
* Strong female characters (no, not that kind) and a romance that's delicately paced and touching. 
* A happy ending (even if it doesn't tie up all the loose ends in the plot). 

On the down side, the plotting is kind of random in places.  Also, Runa sometimes comes close to sounding like a Lonely 30-Something Career Girl stereotype -- though not enough to spoil my enjoyment. 

[Hrollo]

Thanks for the recommendation, Sunflower!

[Nimphy]

Okay so as part of my Italian summer assignments I had to read a couple of books. The first was The Legend of Zorro by I. Allende, the second was The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, and it's the one I'm here to rant about.

So something called The Elegance of the Hedgehog sounded naturally interesting to me. It lost all of this interest when the first line I read was something along the lines of "Marx's work completely changed my view of the world!" shortly followed by something about how to truly understand Marx's work you had to read the German Ideology. I stopped paying attention at that point, deciding this would be boring.

Eeh, guilty of judging a book by its cover, yes.

Anyway, the overly complicated prose and at times repetive concepts were definitely not helping my idea of this book. Until, until the narrator changed.

The first narrator was an old concierge, for some reason hiding her knowledge of philosophy and literature. Nothing much to see or understand. The second narrator, who starts her part with "Deep Thoughts" is a self-defined super-genius twelve-year-old. She also attempts to hide this intelligence, but this is not her dfining characteristic: after spending a few pages talking about the "fish bowl" that is adult life, giving the illusion of knowing the meaning of life but endlessly wandering without a clue, she informs the reader that to avoid his destiny she will commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday, and give fire to the house to remind her parents that tragedy can strike them too.

Back to Renée, the concierge, I got to like her more as I learned more about her. She is an autodidact who hides her passion for literature, art, philosophy and the like to fall within the stereotypes that society wants, and the more is revealed, the more I get to appreciate her.

A particularly amusing scene is one where a Japanese man decides to transfer in the building: while they first meet, she cites Anna Karenina by telling an annoying lady that "All happy families are the same", and he completes by adding "All unhappy families have their own unhappiness". Her cat runs out, and Mr. Ozu asks for his name, which happens to be Lev. So Renée realizes she can't hide anymore. It's a rather funny scene which makes up for most of my squealing about this book.

So yeah, I'm enjoying this experience. I'd appreciate if it didn't go off on chapter-long tangents, but as this is a philosophy book I guess it's natural. It takes a good while to get into some kind of plot, but that's fine, because what's interesting here are the characters. So yeah, I'm done ranting and necroing. Carry on, possibly looking for this book in your local library.


Edit: ah yes, haven't finished it yet. As a matter of fact, I'm slightly past the middle.

[LooNEY_DAC]

So, several months ago, at the behest of some friends, I started listening to some of my old favorites in audiobook form, or at least the ones I could find in that format. While several of the readers make aesthetic or characterization choices that clash with my own imaginings, the experience has been a most positive one, taken as a whole.

That prefatory paragraph was written to explain why I'm currently enjoying Rest You Merry, a 1979 murder mystery by Charlotte MacLeod that sparked the Peter Shandy Mysteries. I've read most if not all of her books (as she passed in 2005, there are no new ones for me to discover) over and over through the years. She wrote four principal mystery series, two set in her native Canada (under the pen name Alisa Craig) and two in her adopted Massachusetts; the Peter Shandy series is one of the latter, set at an agricultural college and environs.

Re-reading a book after a long time, especially one you've almost memorized anyway, is like getting back together with an old friend, and perhaps doubly so in audiobook, where scanning or skipping ahead is a much more difficult proposition than with the dead tree copy. In this case, it's forcing me to drink in the author's marvelous prose, such that stopping the recording for any purpose becomes a bother.

It's a bit dismaying to realize part of my enjoyment of this book stems from having gone up what seems like several grade levels in English composition, vocabulary, and grammar from what I usually read today. Thirty-six years of decline might be said to be thus illustrated. Do not, however, let this deter you from seeking out any of Charlotte MacLeod's excellent mysteries, any more than it might deter you from Tolkien. Yes, I just made that comparison; as both were masters of their craft in their respective fields, it is apt.

[Unwary]

Ooh...
I have so many good books and series I could pass on.
First of all let's start with sci-fi.
Neal Asher is one of my all time favorites. He writes sci-fi in a style I would sum in one word as 'brutal'
It's both massively cinematic in scope, and cozy. The characters and setting feel extremely real, even as they deal with life in his vivid setting.
Some favorite quotes. (Both are from beginning of chapters, this not actual narrative.)
"A Contraterrene device is a bunker buster bomb resembling nothing so much as large thermos. However if you were open this one, you would find antimatter,briefly."
"With seven previously known civilizations with technological prowess beyond our knowledge, and with the inevitable march of Moore's laws past the atomic level, it almost certain we are surrounded by relics of aeons past. And that somewhere, on some once dead world, the machinery in a grain of dust will spring to life, charged by the heat of passing probe, and our world will change forever."
I can recommend Prador Moon as good first book.

Another good one is the Empress of Mars by Kage Baker.
A story about what happens when the colonization of Mars is abandoned as unprofitable, and the strange society that happens with the people left there, with no way to earn enough money to make it home. That situiation changes pretty quickly.
I must confess its a rather vague recomendation, but do read the  Years Best Science fiction and Fantasy. I find the short stories in there jaw dropping, and i kept having to think of actual novel length stories when i set out to make recommendations.
 
In terms of Fantasy, one of my all time favorites is Jane Lindskold, in particular her Firekeeper series.
The first book is "Through Wolve's Eyes." And though it doesn't have much outright magic in it, it is strong tale featuring a woman raised by wolves being thrust into the middle of politics as the realm teeters towards a war of succession. Later books have more magic and fantasy in them, but they are all really about the characters and plots between them instead of the rise of some dark lord or another.
A graphic series i can recommend is Linda Medley's Castle Waiting series. Beautiful woodcut style illustrations and a story about people, making ends meet. No obvious heroes or ancient quests, just people getting along as best they can. Includes Doctor Fell, an obscure character from a  nursery rhyme. Oh, and Beaky and Chess, one of my favorite duos.

Spoiler: An example page • show

[LadyRamkin]

I am a bit of a Terry Pratchett if you didn't notice.

[Unwary]

I am a bit of a Terry Pratchett if you didn't notice.

Any sets of characters in particular? Myself I'm way to fond of the watchmen, and the witches. I don't like the Unseen academicals as much, but they’re good in their own right.

[Mélusine]

Any sets of characters in particular? Myself I'm way to fond of the watchmen, and the witches. I don't like the Unseen academicals as much, but they’re good in their own right.

The witches are my favorites too (Actually I had discovered Pratchett with a novel with the witches ), but I still don't like a lot Cohen. Oh, and I love the Death. The first thing I was checking in the library by turning a few pages, when I was a teenager, was if it were capitals inside ^^

[loki]

book thread!?!?!?! hmmmmmmhmmmmmmmm YEA

i just really love the 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' series (it's a trilogy) by Laini Taylor, but not a lot of people have hear dof it...it's amazing ,her writing style is so rich and idk, savory?? that sounds weird but it's so gOOD,,, uh, i guess i'd call it urban fantasy? genre wise? whatever.  it's 1000/10 strongly recommend uwu  (probably more recommendations from me to come i am a major bookworm)

[Mélusine]

If you like Neil Gaiman, if you have read and loved Neverwhere, you have to read the short (58 pages) novel How The Marquis Got His Coat Back I was sure it was only on a new edition, but I found it for nearly nothing and read nearly all this evening in -4°C before someone came with the key of the place we're practicing sport.
Now I want to re-read Neverwhere, but in English this time. Why can't I buy one more book this month ?

[Yuuago]

I re-read Patchett's Reaper Man last night and I am still emotionally compromised. Some of the Discworld novels just have that way of knocking me off my feet. Death is such a brilliant character.

(Though overall Rincewind is still my favourite of Pratchett's characters.)

I started a Discworld re-read last year, though it's been slow going because I prefer not to read them without something by another author in between - otherwise they run together. Too much of a good thing.

...Still haven't read Shepherd's Crown. Part of me doesn't want to read it.