Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series. A Song of Ice and Fire(Ganr of Thrones). Lots of the Rings. The Hollows. RA Salcatore’s dark elf books. The Dresden Files. The Others. Anything by Sara Douglass. The Aeronaut’s Windlass started super slow but was worth that sad begininnig.
Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince series; Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (*definitely* not YA!!); Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series (this one has some of the most enjoyable in-depth, philosophical discussions that I’ve ever read!); heck, The Lord of the Rings is adult fantasy!
orcs by stan nicholls , elf sorrow by james barclay , binding of the blade series by L B graham , drizzt books by R A Salvatore , gotrek and felix dragon slayer , the arm pit of evil , NPCs , dragon lords fools gold.
What does that even mean though?? Young adult… You’re either an adult and capable of handling adult subject matter, or you’re too young for certain content. I don’t really recognize it as a category…
Anyone utter the name McCaffrey yet?? Anne. NOT Todd… And Piers Anthony has several works I’d consider heavy on the dark side of fantasy, careful there… He’s not for everyone, and it’s perfectly okay to enjoy some of his stuff and hate other of his “portfolio”… Maybe his Xanth series is what you’d call YA?? Terry Brooks Shanara, or if that’s not your thing, his Landover series. Jane Yolen’s Pit Dragons. Clifford D Simak wrote a good one called The Golden Talisman… Stand alone far as I can tell… Dune… Unless that’s too scifi to count as fantasy??
In my opinion, I’m not necessarily looking for something with more adult content in it but perhaps something that is not as light of a read. With YA books, I breeze straight through them and am done with them. Even if they are bigger, they till don’t take me as long. I noticed that with adult fiction, not only are they longer but also a bit most interesting and don’t use a lot of repetitive words. Some of the writing styles irritate me because some authors use the same words over and over again. The last YA Fantasy book I read was The hounds of the Morrigan. It was an ok story but the writing, in my opinion, was awful and the author used the word queer about 500 times when trying to explain has someone was weird or different. The diction was terrible. I guess you can say I’m looking for more of a challenge.
@Tara Then yeah…. Maybe Piers Anthony is for you. I hesitate to recommend him to just anyone, because even I can’t condone some of his concepts all the time. If you can ignore his books you don’t agree with, he really IS an accomplished wordsmith.
Definitely try McCaffrey though, Dragonflight and Dragonquest from her Pern series are KINDA on the light side, but if you push through, the planet opens up on the other side and tells you all kinds of stories.
Dune?? Still gonna recommend, if you don’t mind more scifi and less fantasy… Took me two reads to understand half of it (Maybe only one if I’d been older at the time) and another 2 trips through to decide if I really liked it. Now it’s one of my favorite series (but I haven’t read Brian’s stuff yet, so can only recommend the ones written by Frank)
@Tara You see those posts from time to time?? “If you could read one book for the first time again??” Mine is always Dune, simply because I always wondered if it would have been easier to read if I had been older the first time through 😉
@Tara Of course… What else is “teen” than the short version of teenager… Which is itself a corruption of “between ages” (Okay, not really. I made that bit up 😛 )
Really though. Yes. Young adult is like saying you’re grown up, but you’re still not capable of serious adult business. “You’re an adult, but a young one, so we don’t have to take you seriously” That’s what I think when I hear YA genre… It’s always felt condescending to me.
The Hollow Gods series by Rebecca Levene (The first one is Smiler’s Fair, then The Hunter’s Kind & the 3rd is The Sun’s Domain – I have read 1 and 2) or Patrick Rothfuss?
I’ll recommend a bit of a slow burn that builds and builds to an unbelievably intense and complex climax. Guy Gavriel Kay’s TIGANA. All of Kay’s books are like this, but this is one of his earliest major novels. I actually prefer some of his later work, but this book really did stun me when I first read it. I think I stared off into space for at least 10 minutes in a daze right after I finished.
Kay’s novels are generally classed as historical fantasy, but they aren’t true historical fantasy in that they don’t take place in our own real world at some past point. Instead, they take place in alternate worlds but where the setting is an analogue of some historical past from our history. In this way, he creates settings that resemble Renaissance Italy, or the Byzantine Empire, or mediaeval Britain, or 8th century China, or Moorish Spain, etc. I would say that his novels are 3/4 history with 1/4 magic, but where the magic is not obvious, always subtle and usually more enigmatic. No rule-bound wizardry in his books (well, in most of his books).
Kay’s protagonists are also not your typical members of nobility or warriors or other types of individuals who are somehow exceptional as most other authors would write them. He chooses more ordinary individuals as protagonists, and many of them are artists, artisans, musicians, performers. Even in those few books of his that do feature more typical protagonists (warriors, nobility), he always infuses an aura of the arts around them with those characters able to recite poetry, for example.
His stories are very psychological, and they are always about these individuals getting caught up n the changing political and social tides during turbulent times, how they deal with such situations, and how they come out of it.
TIGANA re-creates a setting that is nominally like the city-states or kingdom-states of Renaissance Italy. And this novel deals with a people struggling not just to reclaim their homeland, but to reclaim the very memory of their homeland that has been wiped away from the consciousness of all people in the peninsula except for those who originally came from it. It’s a beautiful and very affecting book, much rawer and more visceral than some of his later works which are constructed with greater sophistication whilst maintaining the high emotional resonance of TIGANA. But the very rawness of this early work is actually in its favour.
So, this is my one recommendation for quality adult fantasy. Beautifully written, but where the prose does not hide vacuous content (as in the case with something like IN THE NAME OF THE WIND by Rothfuss).
The Annals of the Western Shore trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Karen Marie moning fever
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (pretty much anything by her)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson also Warbreaker, The Way of Kings, and Elantris
I heard they might be making a movie of A Darker Shade of Magic.
@Donna yes! It’s currently in the works! I think they’re working on the script but not much has been finalized
Black Jewels Trilogy
Kushiels Dart series
Witches of Eileanan series
S.M. Stirling Emberverse aka The Change Series
Robin Hobb Realm of the Elderlings. Best books ever!!!
Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series. A Song of Ice and Fire(Ganr of Thrones). Lots of the Rings. The Hollows. RA Salcatore’s dark elf books. The Dresden Files. The Others. Anything by Sara Douglass. The Aeronaut’s Windlass started super slow but was worth that sad begininnig.
My boyfriend has read like, every book by Salvatore, one of his favorite authors. It’s a shame barely anybody, that I have seen, knows about him.
Driz’zt was my first book boyfriend. I love him so much.
Jarlaxle is my favorite character of all time.
I like Jarlaxle too. ?
I had a D&D character who’s father turned out to be Jarlaxle. Weird campaign, that one. Weird character. The DM shouldn’t have let me play her.
I’ve wanted to play D&D for SO long, but I don’t know anybody who plays. ? Sounds like it was a lot of fun!! The daughter of Jarlaxle, hoooo boy. XD
Magician by Raymond E. Feist ❤️
I love his books!
i need to start them all again I think ?
I like the sound of that plan @Candice. ?
Is…that a thing????
Yes!!! Fantasy *is* actually written *specifically* for adults!! We *need* it more than you kids….just wait… you’ll see!!! ????
I know!
Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince series; Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (*definitely* not YA!!); Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series (this one has some of the most enjoyable in-depth, philosophical discussions that I’ve ever read!); heck, The Lord of the Rings is adult fantasy!
Anything by VE Schwab and Jay Kristoff for starters, lol.
orcs by stan nicholls , elf sorrow by james barclay , binding of the blade series by L B graham , drizzt books by R A Salvatore , gotrek and felix dragon slayer , the arm pit of evil , NPCs , dragon lords fools gold.
The Orcs series by Stan Nicholls is *definitely* only for adults!
terry prachett’s disc world novels
the grey bastards by jonathan french.
The Dragon and the George is a great book. Of course, there’s the Shannara Series…and how can you forget the Hobbit and the LOTR books ?
This series.. ❤️
Yes amazing series
The Wheel of Time series
This series… ❤️
Tad Williams
The Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin.
Phantasties by George MacDonald.
That’s one I would like to read as well.
What does that even mean though?? Young adult… You’re either an adult and capable of handling adult subject matter, or you’re too young for certain content. I don’t really recognize it as a category…
Anyone utter the name McCaffrey yet?? Anne. NOT Todd… And Piers Anthony has several works I’d consider heavy on the dark side of fantasy, careful there… He’s not for everyone, and it’s perfectly okay to enjoy some of his stuff and hate other of his “portfolio”… Maybe his Xanth series is what you’d call YA?? Terry Brooks Shanara, or if that’s not your thing, his Landover series. Jane Yolen’s Pit Dragons. Clifford D Simak wrote a good one called The Golden Talisman… Stand alone far as I can tell… Dune… Unless that’s too scifi to count as fantasy??
In my opinion, I’m not necessarily looking for something with more adult content in it but perhaps something that is not as light of a read. With YA books, I breeze straight through them and am done with them. Even if they are bigger, they till don’t take me as long. I noticed that with adult fiction, not only are they longer but also a bit most interesting and don’t use a lot of repetitive words. Some of the writing styles irritate me because some authors use the same words over and over again. The last YA Fantasy book I read was The hounds of the Morrigan. It was an ok story but the writing, in my opinion, was awful and the author used the word queer about 500 times when trying to explain has someone was weird or different. The diction was terrible. I guess you can say I’m looking for more of a challenge.
@Tara Then yeah…. Maybe Piers Anthony is for you. I hesitate to recommend him to just anyone, because even I can’t condone some of his concepts all the time. If you can ignore his books you don’t agree with, he really IS an accomplished wordsmith.
Definitely try McCaffrey though, Dragonflight and Dragonquest from her Pern series are KINDA on the light side, but if you push through, the planet opens up on the other side and tells you all kinds of stories.
Dune?? Still gonna recommend, if you don’t mind more scifi and less fantasy… Took me two reads to understand half of it (Maybe only one if I’d been older at the time) and another 2 trips through to decide if I really liked it. Now it’s one of my favorite series (but I haven’t read Brian’s stuff yet, so can only recommend the ones written by Frank)
@Cindy I actually have Dune, it’s in my tbr pile. So, I will definitely give that a try.
@Tara You see those posts from time to time?? “If you could read one book for the first time again??” Mine is always Dune, simply because I always wondered if it would have been easier to read if I had been older the first time through 😉
Listen to @Cindy and read DUNE! One of the great classics of science fiction! it is absolutely epic!
And I totally agree with you…young-adult is the most useless category of fiction.
@Nirvan I don’t understand it… Are you young? or an adult? It’s almost quite literally, an oxymoron.
@Cindy Should they categorize it as teen then?
@Tara Of course… What else is “teen” than the short version of teenager… Which is itself a corruption of “between ages” (Okay, not really. I made that bit up 😛 )
Really though. Yes. Young adult is like saying you’re grown up, but you’re still not capable of serious adult business. “You’re an adult, but a young one, so we don’t have to take you seriously” That’s what I think when I hear YA genre… It’s always felt condescending to me.
As if people are saying “Of COURSE you’re a grown up… Look at you reading YOUNG ADULT like a real adult!!”
The Inheritance Trilogy by N,K, Jemisin is definitely for grown ups. Book one is called The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
The Hollow Gods series by Rebecca Levene (The first one is Smiler’s Fair, then The Hunter’s Kind & the 3rd is The Sun’s Domain – I have read 1 and 2) or Patrick Rothfuss?
Brandon Sanderson, Trudi Canavan, Terry Brooks and Stephen King for his Dark Tower series.
The Way of Kings
Yesssssss!
Following
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
Nora Roberts’ Guardians Trilogy.
Simon Green’s “ The Nightside “ series. Weird but wonderful.
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
A song of Ice and Fire
I’ll recommend a bit of a slow burn that builds and builds to an unbelievably intense and complex climax. Guy Gavriel Kay’s TIGANA. All of Kay’s books are like this, but this is one of his earliest major novels. I actually prefer some of his later work, but this book really did stun me when I first read it. I think I stared off into space for at least 10 minutes in a daze right after I finished.
Kay’s novels are generally classed as historical fantasy, but they aren’t true historical fantasy in that they don’t take place in our own real world at some past point. Instead, they take place in alternate worlds but where the setting is an analogue of some historical past from our history. In this way, he creates settings that resemble Renaissance Italy, or the Byzantine Empire, or mediaeval Britain, or 8th century China, or Moorish Spain, etc. I would say that his novels are 3/4 history with 1/4 magic, but where the magic is not obvious, always subtle and usually more enigmatic. No rule-bound wizardry in his books (well, in most of his books).
Kay’s protagonists are also not your typical members of nobility or warriors or other types of individuals who are somehow exceptional as most other authors would write them. He chooses more ordinary individuals as protagonists, and many of them are artists, artisans, musicians, performers. Even in those few books of his that do feature more typical protagonists (warriors, nobility), he always infuses an aura of the arts around them with those characters able to recite poetry, for example.
His stories are very psychological, and they are always about these individuals getting caught up n the changing political and social tides during turbulent times, how they deal with such situations, and how they come out of it.
TIGANA re-creates a setting that is nominally like the city-states or kingdom-states of Renaissance Italy. And this novel deals with a people struggling not just to reclaim their homeland, but to reclaim the very memory of their homeland that has been wiped away from the consciousness of all people in the peninsula except for those who originally came from it. It’s a beautiful and very affecting book, much rawer and more visceral than some of his later works which are constructed with greater sophistication whilst maintaining the high emotional resonance of TIGANA. But the very rawness of this early work is actually in its favour.
So, this is my one recommendation for quality adult fantasy. Beautifully written, but where the prose does not hide vacuous content (as in the case with something like IN THE NAME OF THE WIND by Rothfuss).
The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski
I have the first one! I thought it was great.
Brandon Sanderson, Brent weeks, to name a couple.