Weird Fantasy: A specific request.

[Das Platyvark]

So I'm looking for a work; a fantasy work. Thing is, I've got a couple of qualifiers.
I want something that is not in the Tolkien/Gygax vein—That is to say, none of your standard fare. Much as I love those two, I've little desire to read more of them.
Internal consistency is not the goal—it doesn't need to be a much planned or realistic conworld, but it does need to be an original one, and it does need to be different enough to be memorable.
Lastly, it needs to be good writing, or better, great writing.
Previous favorites include everything by China Miéville, The Dark Crystal, Morrowind, The Neverending Story, and Earthboy Jacobus.

[Fri]

Clive Barker's Abarat. It's a young adult fantasy series with a very unique setting and illustration that feels almost like a dream.

[Douglas]

Brandon Sanderson is really good at this. Going down the list of worlds he's created:
1) The bad guy already won. In fact, he won a thousand years ago (he's an immortal god-like being, so yes he's still around). Are the protagonists trying to overthrow him? Nope, they're planning to steal his treasury.
2) Regularly occurring truly ferocious storms make plant life as we know it nearly impossible. The plants that do grow all have ways to retract into the rock, lean all the way into the wind, or otherwise protect themselves from the weather. Oh, and if you leave a gemstone outside in one of these storms it gets imbued with magic. This is the basis of, among other things, the world's currency.
3) It's Earth - but everything is really run by a secret organization of librarians, most of what you learn in school is an elaborate lie, and the free portion of the world is led by a family who all have strange and powerful Talents. Talents such as being late, dancing poorly, getting impossible amounts of water on the floor when doing the dishes, really bad hair days, getting lost, speaking gibberish, and tripping and falling. Yes, every one of these is useful somehow.

#1 is the Mistborn series, #2 is The Way of Kings, and #3 is Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians. That last one is targeted for children, but has a bizarre mix of seriousness and comedy that remains entertaining for all ages.

His other books, Elantris and Warbreaker, are also very good, but I couldn't think of major elements of their worlds that shout "different". Each one has a unique magic system, but the setting other than that seems fairly conventional.

[Eldan]

Elantris is pretty generic but well written, yeah. Warbreaker not so much, I think.

Souls and colours are the basis of magic. You can sell your soul to someone else, who has then more magic. In exchange, you become colourless and grey. Nobles have large amounts of souls, while many peasants are soulless. The emperor has tens of thousands.
There are also "gods", those who have died but come back. They are physically changed to absolute perfection and immortality. They have the ability to die again, in exchange for doing a single miracle.

[Axolotl]

The first that comes to mind is Gormenghast, it's as far from Tolkien as you can get, there's no orcs or elves, no wizards, no grand quest just as giant castle filled with strange people trapped by a labyrinth of weird customs.

There's also various dying earth series, Jack Vance's being the most famous but The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe and Hothouse by Brian Aldiss are also pretty good.

[Man on Fire]

So I'm looking for a work; a fantasy work. Thing is, I've got a couple of qualifiers.
I want something that is not in the Tolkien/Gygax vein—That is to say, none of your standard fare. Much as I love those two, I've little desire to read more of them.
Internal consistency is not the goal—it doesn't need to be a much planned or realistic conworld, but it does need to be an original one, and it does need to be different enough to be memorable.
Lastly, it needs to be good writing, or better, great writing.
Previous favorites include everything by China Miéville, The Dark Crystal, Morrowind, The Neverending Story, and Earthboy Jacobus.

Well, if you like Miéville, then you should try good old New Weird.
* Most of things Neil Gaiman wrote: Neverwhere, America's Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, Graveyard Book, Stardust.
* Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
* Hal Duncan's The Book of All Hours.

and of course, going back way into the past of the genre, I strongly recommend you one of my favorite series of all times, if not the most favorite.
Roger Zelazny's The Chronolicles of Amber. His Jack of Shadows is also very good.

[Brewdude]

Neil Gaiman Stuff seems right up your alley.

Amber Chronicles by Zelazny

Dresden Files is modern fantasy

Neil Stephenson is rarely fantasy, but frequently awesome.

Honestly, it's easier just to list the stuff to avoid.
David Eddings
Terry Brooks
Jim Butcher's Codex Aleira
any D&D based book
Magician
Wheel of Time
Game of Thrones

[Yora]

Would City of Dreaming Books fit here? I think the next most similar thing would be Diskworld, though I never read those before myself.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

The first that comes to mind is Gormenghast, it's as far from Tolkien as you can get, there's no orcs or elves, no wizards, no grand quest just as giant castle filled with strange people trapped by a labyrinth of weird customs.

Ooh, seconding the Gormenghast trilogy. They contain one of the most hateable villains of all time. No need to bother with the third book though, IMO. Though I did read them like a million years ago so the last one may not be as bad as I'm remembering it.

[Aotrs Commander]

Ooh, seconding the Gormenghast trilogy. They contain one of the most hateable villains of all time. No need to bother with the third book though, IMO. Though I did read them like a million years ago so the last one may not be as bad as I'm remembering it.

Funnily enough, I found myself rooting for what'shisface the supposed bad guy, because he was the only character I found even distantly likable out of the whole sorry bunch.

I dimly recall the thrid book, if that was the one where the young dude whoeverhisnamewas left the castle and went into the outside world, to be really weird and a muddy mess narratively.

[Kitten Champion]

The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance and Viriconium omnibus by M. John Harrison. Well written the both of them, taking a weird blend of post-post-apocalyptic science fiction and fantasy -- and not in the dull Tolkienesque fashion of a Terry Brooks.

Viriconium is probably the better of the two series, the characterization is richer.

There`s also Lovecraft, although whether that`s well written is fairly subjective. It`s an interesting portrait he paints regardless, and partly the inspiration for the more grotesque aspects of Miéville.

[JoshL]

Another thread in which Josh recommends the works of Charles de Lint. "Dreams Underfoot" is the place to start with his Newford books, but if you want to try something more stand-alone, "Jack of Kinrowan" is pretty fun. You might also like Diana Wynne Jones The Chrestomanci series is pretty fun (more young adult fiction), but the Dalemark Quartet is definitely my favorite. Howl's Moving Castle is awesome too.

Seconding many of these suggestions, particularly Gaiman and Barker. Just finished Sanderson's Way of Kings, and I like his world, story and characters, but his actual writing isn't very good. Which is fine; I still enjoyed it, I just wish he would have taken another pass. Are his others better, or on par with this?

Peter S. Beagle also draws more from folklore and mythology than Tolkien, so his stuff might be up your alley too. Likewise Lloyd Alexander.

[erikun]

I definitely love Steven Brust, especially his Vlad Taltos books. Vlad is a human ("easterner") assassin living in a city full of dragon-kind humans ("humans"), dealing not only with the obvious legal problems but also rampant racism all around (including his own) and the general strangeness of the dragon-kinds. Definitely love the narrative, and I would highly recommend it.

Stephen R. Lawhead is a good writer, and has taken some classical stories (King Author, Robin Hood) and re-written them with his own characters and setting details. They're definitely worth looking at, although I'm not quite sure how you qualify "not Tolkien/Gygax" to non-magical semi-historical settings.

I am a big fan of Andre Norton and her fantasy settings, as she generally does a great job with the details and the senses. It's also worth checking out if you've never read any older fantasy books.

The Redwall series by Brian Jacques is fun, if simple and mostly the same story. (And it features mice protagonists.) Mouse Guard is a comic series that is similar, if a lot more gritty.

[Manga Shoggoth]

If you can get it, Tetrarch by Alex Comfort is an interesting one.

It is a fantasy based on (pseudo)psycology and philosophy, as a result YMMV.

[Weezer]

Brandon Sanderson is really good at this. Going down the list of worlds he's created:

I disagree with Sanderson, he's a fine author, but most of his stuff is "classic fantasy with a twist". The Mistborn Trilogy fits in with all of the fantasy tropes, with the only difference being that the bad guy is a bit more dominant than is normal. This becomes especially clear in the last book, much of which is your standard race against time quest for the important secret/villains hidden stash/magical macguffin to save the world. Not saying it's bad, but it's not particularly different.


The first that comes to mind is Gormenghast, it's as far from Tolkien as you can get, there's no orcs or elves, no wizards, no grand quest just as giant castle filled with strange people trapped by a labyrinth of weird customs.

There's also various dying earth series, Jack Vance's being the most famous but The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe and Hothouse by Brian Aldiss are also pretty good.

I'll second Gormenghast and the Book of the New Sun. Both are weird. Like super weird. Gormenghast is the epitome of the grotesque, not in the gross sense, but in the truly strange and twisted sense. One warning though, not much plot, more than anything else it's a study of a place, the titular Gormenghast.

Gene Wolfe is also a great suggestion, at his best I would say he is one of the most skilled writers of truly evocative prose in all of fantasy. He brings a depth to language that hardly anything in fantasy can approach, with the main competitor being M. John Harrison, discussed below.



The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance and Viriconium omnibus by M. John Harrison. Well written the both of them, taking a weird blend of post-post-apocalyptic science fiction and fantasy -- and not in the dull Tolkienesque fashion of a Terry Brooks.

Viriconium is probably the better of the two series, the characterization is richer..

Jack Vance is good, a bit "pulpy" at times, with decidedly mediocre prose and characterizations, but he's worth reading. Though fair warning, Gygax did steal a lot of stuff from Vance, so while it isn't particularly Tolkein-esque fantasy, it may be familiar if you've played a lot of D&D. Especially the magic system, D&D's magic isn't called Vancian for no reason.

I'm currently in the midst of the second Viriconium book, it's really good. The first is a bit more standard fantasy with ancient technology replacing magic (again, it fits into the classic quest for x mode), but incredibly well written. Harrison is one of the few fantasy authors who can truly transcend genre, I think that ability is shown more in his later works (especially in his recent SF trilogy), but it's still present in his early works. The second one novel is definitely more weird and I would say far better. Rather than, as he did in the first book, try to fit his own unique style into a Tolkien-esque mode, he goes purely in his own direction, and in my opinion for the fully comes into his own.


Now for some of my own suggestions:

Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series is in many ways a direct refutation of the Tolkien model of fantasy. It incorporates all the classic aspects of Tolkien, the growing ancient evil once thought destroyed, the unlikely hero pulled from his normal life, the ancient prophecy pertaining to the hero, there's even a magical ring of awesome power, the list goes on and on. However Donaldson inverts these tropes and thus destroys them, I won't go into details cause of spoilers, but suffice it to say that the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are essentially the anti-Tolkien, dressed in clothing taken directly from Tolkien.

And we can't forget Michael Moorcock's Elric series, the home of the original fantasy anti-hero. Moorcock is one of the largest voices in classic fantasy that stands opposed to Tolkien. To start with the bad, Moorcock's prose was pretty lacking, his characterizations outside of a few main characters can only be described as wooden, it's definitely pulp fantasy, and I'm not even going to get into the gender stereotypes. Despite all that, they're definitely good books and deal a lot with the law/chaos dichotomy, and follow one of the more interesting protagonists in fantasy the titular Elric.

Also, can't miss Gaiman, I'd say Neverwhere is his book that delves most into the weird, but all of his stuff is solid fantasy that avoids Tolkien almost completely.

[factotum]

I suggest Guy Gavriel Kay's later work (e.g. not the Fionavar trilogy, which is very Tolkienesque)--Tigana and A Song for Arbonne are two of my favourites, and nary an elf or dwarf to be seen in either!

[Eldan]

Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series is in many ways a direct refutation of the Tolkien model of fantasy. It incorporates all the classic aspects of Tolkien, the growing ancient evil once thought destroyed, the unlikely hero pulled from his normal life, the ancient prophecy pertaining to the hero, there's even a magical ring of awesome power, the list goes on and on. However Donaldson inverts these tropes and thus destroys them, I won't go into details cause of spoilers, but suffice it to say that the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are essentially the anti-Tolkien, dressed in clothing taken directly from Tolkien.

Warning: short rant.

I thought Thomas Covenant was an incredibly boring book. The plot is incredibly generic. The world is lifeless. The characters would be cardboard cut-outs, except that they are not two-dimensional, they are just not present, apart from Covenant himself. The villain is ineffective, non-threatening and almost entirely absent from the story. Nothing interesting whatsoever goes on for the entire book, except for the first and last chapter, before and after the "fantasy" part happens. This could have been interesting, if there had been anything for Thomas Covenant himself, who was intriguing in the beginning, to interact with, but there just isn't. He stumbles around, being angry at nothing, since there's nothing other than himself in the book.

[Hazzardevil]

Another series that isn't like your usual fantasy in the Codex Alera. I have only read the first book and found much of it rather boring but it's different and not horrible.

[Kitten Champion]

There are a couple of well written (generally) young adult works which are interesting and non-conventional fantasy.

The collective works of Diana Wynn Jones -- both Derkholm books, Archer's Goon, the Chrestomanci series, Hexwood, Howl's Moving Castle, The Game, The Enchanted Glass -- and many more. She loves taking traditional stories and tropes and playing with them in ways that feel so strange and novel. She's also an excellent story teller, one of the best to my mind.

The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix (I haven't read his other works yet personally). Personifying abstract concepts of reality into characters within an equally bizarre setting. It's one boy's unwilling quest to become a living god. It's an exciting story and the imagery is surreal... and memorable.

The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud. Bartimeus is a demon enslaved by an ambitious magician in an alternative 19th century England where such magicians rule tyrannically. He's one of the more witty authors that I've read, particularly his dialogue.

[Weezer]

Warning: short rant.

I thought Thomas Covenant was an incredibly boring book. The plot is incredibly generic. The world is lifeless. The characters would be cardboard cut-outs, except that they are not two-dimensional, they are just not present, apart from Covenant himself. The villain is ineffective, non-threatening and almost entirely absent from the story. Nothing interesting whatsoever goes on for the entire book, except for the first and last chapter, before and after the "fantasy" part happens. This could have been interesting, if there had been anything for Thomas Covenant himself, who was intriguing in the beginning, to interact with, but there just isn't. He stumbles around, being angry at nothing, since there's nothing other than himself in the book.

One thing about that trilogy, and one of its major flaws, is that the first book doesn't stand well on its own, and it really only serves to set the stage for the 2nd and 3rd books in the series. Without the later books Covenant is nothing more than, as you say, an angry guy who is a pretty major bastard, Foul isn't much of an threat and the plots pretty cliche. It's in the second and third book where more depth is found, and actual characters besides Covenant (including other PoVs), but that depth requires the foundation set by the first book. It's definitely a flaw that seriously damages the work as a whole. That being said, I feel that it is a really good series that works as an excellent counter-point to most fantasy. It's also (like most of Donaldson's work) an amazing examination of impotence, helplessness, victimization, manipulation and ultimately, apotheosis.

[Lost Demiurge]

If your tastes run to the gritty, the "First Law" series by Joe Abercrombie is a MUST. The "heroes" are nonstandard, the few things in the setting which seem Tolkienlike at first glance are quite subverted in short order, and nonhumans are either monsters or relics of a lost era.

And when you finally get to the big bad, well, you'll find one of the most horrible magnificent bastards you'll ever see in literature...

[Man on Fire]

There`s also Lovecraft, although whether that`s well written is fairly subjective. It`s an interesting portrait he paints regardless, and partly the inspiration for the more grotesque aspects of Miéville.

Yup, Lovecraft's Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath is brilliant piece of fantasy.


I suggest Guy Gavriel Kay's later work (e.g. not the Fionavar trilogy, which is very Tolkienesque)--Tigana and A Song for Arbonne are two of my favourites, and nary an elf or dwarf to be seen in either!

I finished recently his Sailing to Sarantium and it was pretty nice book too, very political and in not-so overexplored setting (strongly based on Eastern Roman Empire) as medival fantasy, with good dose of what was the best in Fionavar Tapestry - dwelling into the characters' personalities.

Through, to be fair, even his Fionavar is quite postmodernistic at places, with things like summoning
King Arthur in the second book.

Another good author to take a notice is Catherynne M. Valente. Her Palimpsest is pretty good book of New Weird genre, in spirit of Mievillee and others. I'm currently halfway though first book of The Ophran's Tales and it's also pretty original work.

[Trixie]

Sapkowski and Witcher series? :smallconfused:

Looks similar to standard fantasy, but it's anything but. Though, if you could read some language Narrenturm of this writer were translated to, it would be even better fit?

[Weezer]

Oh, I completely forgot, you should explore some russian fantasy. I've only read some but it's quite good. Lukyanenko's Night Watch series is really good urban fantasy that has almost no relation to Tolkien styling. It also heavily features mythology and folk tales, both western european and Russian so if that's something you're interested in, definitely give it a read.

[Aidan305]

I'm going to throw the Gentleman Bastards books by Scott Lynch out there. The series follows a group of con-men known as The Gentleman Bastards n a fantasy setting where alchemy is a commonplace practice.

[Weezer]

I'm going to throw the Gentleman Bastards books by Scott Lynch out there. The series follows a group of con-men known as The Gentleman Bastards n a fantasy setting where alchemy is a commonplace practice.

Ahh, those are quite enjoyable. Your quintessential "heist" story with some fantasy worked in in an interesting way. If you like fantasy and also enjoy movies like Usual Suspects, How to Steal a Million, the Italian Job or Ocean's Eleven, you need to read these books.

[endoperez]

I recommend Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell.

It's about two British magicians during the Napoleonic wars, but it's not about the war. Rather, it's about the characters.

As the story goes, there used to be magic, but people used it less and less. In the beginning the only magicians left did a lot of talking about magic, had lots of debates about magic, but couldn't actually use it. Except Norrell.

The weirdness comes in two parts. First, the magic is used in a very different way from normal fantasy. Second, the fairies are incredibly alien and different.

[Fri]

I feel like I must explain more why I think you'd like Abarat, but I really feel uninspired in way of words lately. I can only say that Clive Barker makes surrealistic settings and characters very well, you might know him more from his horror works, which are often pretty weird.

Abarat is about a girl from a very boring town called chickentown, who got involved in adventures in a parallel world called Abarat, an archipelago with 25 island, in which each island is set in time, with the 25th island being 'the 25th hour', filled with strange characters, like a man with seven brothers who live on his antlers. I think if you like un lun dun's surreal setting, you'll like this setting too.

I remember what had me interested in buying the book for the first time was the cover, so I'll link it here.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wAqWHnv1yh0/TS5q4ogdHrI/AAAAAAAABwI/ya1bf_KUPjw/s1600/abarat.jpg

[Gnoman]

You could try Turtledove's The Case of The Toxic Spell Dump or his Derlavian War (Also known as the Darkness series due to the theme naming.) The former is a mystery involving an EPA inspector investigating possible leakage from a magic dump, that involves the Aztec gods, guardian spirits from an Amerindian tribe, and babies being born without souls.

The latter is a fantasy retelling of WWII, with all of the technology being replaced with magical analogs, completely different racial issues, and some geopolitical differences.

Both are as far from Tolkien as you can get, and their chief weakness is only apparent if you read a lot of the author's other works. He has a tendency to reuse a few things, mostly jokes and descriptions. Toxic Spell Dump is probably the better choice to read first, as it's a self-contained book that is fairly light. It is, however, very punny.

He also has a few other fantasy series that I cannot reccomend, not having read them.

[erikun]

I recommend Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell.

It's about two British magicians during the Napoleonic wars, but it's not about the war. Rather, it's about the characters.

As the story goes, there used to be magic, but people used it less and less. In the beginning the only magicians left did a lot of talking about magic, had lots of debates about magic, but couldn't actually use it. Except Norrell.

The weirdness comes in two parts. First, the magic is used in a very different way from normal fantasy. Second, the fairies are incredibly alien and different.
I definitely enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It was a bit slow going at first, but the deals the characters work around and the whole fae interaction actually feeling fae makes it feel more gothic and fairytale.

[darkblade]

Eric Flint's 1630/Ring of Fire series: A small American town from 2000 is transported to 1632 Germany. How does their more advanced technology, democratic ideals and existing knowledge of history effect the course of the Thirty-years war? More sci-fi/alternate history but the steam/diselpunk-esque technology that results from the uptimers building down to a sustainable tech level mixed with seventeenth century warfare has a distinctive fantasy feel to it.

Isuna Hasekura's Spice and Wolf light novel series: A travelling merchant befriends a pagan wolf goddess. Together they travel across medieval kingdoms seeking to make a handsome profit and not get the goddess killed by the church. Low on magic aside from Holo (the wolf goddess) and lacking in any of the usual evil overlords or grand sweeping conflicts it takes a rather subdued look at medieval European fantasy. Be warned the English translations are usually shelved in the manga section of book stores due to them being Japanese light novels that had a popular anime adaptation that made it's way overseas first.

Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds: Actually part of a trilogy but I have not read the other two books so I am unable to vouch for them. An American attempt at producing a wuxia (Chinese historical fantasy) epic. There have been many debates on how true it is to that genre. It is very much not Tolkien-esque.

Peter V Brett's Demon Cycle series: A post-apocalyptic dark fantasy where every night the world is attacked by seemingly invincible demon hordes. These demons are barely contained by wards around city walls and country houses. Every year the human population dwindles as the demons continue their endless pursuit.

Gemma Files Hexslinger series: Post-Civil war hundreds of people across the young United States begin to manifest magical abilities. These people, called Hexes are driven to kill one another and absorb their powers. Until a fallen preacher Hex goes out to make a pact with a dead Mayan god to change things for him and his boyfriend.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds: Actually part of a trilogy but I have not read the other two books so I am unable to vouch for them. An American attempt at producing a wuxia (Chinese historical fantasy) epic. There have been many debates on how true it is to that genre. It is very much not Tolkien-esque.

Oh, so very seconded!

The sequels are Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. I actually read Story of the Stone first, then dug out Bridge of Birds. I had to get Eight Skilled Gentlemen via a special book search at Foyles.

Bridge of Birds and Story of the Stone are quite good. Eight Skilled Gentlemen is really only for people who liked the first two.

If you have difficulty finding them, Barry Hughart placed the original verion of the book(s) on his website for free download - the original story was a cross between the first two books, but (alas) without Number Ten Ox.

[Brewdude]

I'm going to have to disagree about Codex Alera. It's definitely in the same vein as "hero saves vaguely midaevil kingdom/setting, has a unique magic system, and a few non human races".

[Aidan305]

I appear to be on a roguish kick lately, so I'm also going to recommend the Eli Monpress series by Rachael Aaron. Magic system of the pokemon variety (Wizards use natural spirits to perform feats of magic) but with well-written characters, some of whom are rather dark. There's the occasional bit of world saving, but generally only as an aside to stealing whatever they're there to steal.

And speaking of dark, I'm also going to recommend Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Though initially it seems fantasy of the typical Tolkien variety, if you stick with it you'll learn that it is, in fact, very far from it. In particular once we get the reveal of the Big Bad.

[dehro]

anything by Walter Moers

[MikelaC1]

Robin Hobbs Liveship trilogy is interesting in that over half of it is written from the BBEG's point of view and you can follow his descent from being just a rather ruthless (but in his mind, completely reasonable) pirate to being totally despicable.

[Man on Fire]

I just finished econd volume of Catheynne M. Valente Orphan's Tales. Absolutely fantastic books.

[tbok1992]

I hate to toot my own horn {He said lying through his teeth}, but I'm writing one of these myself, and I've put some of it up here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260071) if ya wanna take a look at it.

And on a non-self-promoting note, though it's technically Sci-Fi, you might like John Dies At The End. Dr. McNinja's also good too, though it's a webcomic not a book.

[atomicpenguin]

I had a whole list, but the only one that hasn't been posted already is the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.

[Eldan]

How is Kingkiller weird? Very well written, but quite standard.

[Themrys]

I had a whole list, but the only one that hasn't been posted already is the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.

I don't think that qualifies as "weird". It's pretty much standard, just with a more exaggerated hero.


Jasper Fforde's "Shades of Grey", on the other hand, is really weird. Although it could be called SciFi, I think it's more fantasy - not enough technobabble to call it SciFi.
Features: The Last Rabbit, a society in which social status is defined by what colours you can see (everyone is colour-blind, some with exception of one colour, some completely), diseases that can be healed by giving people colour charts to look at, and colours as drugs.

[Weezer]

How is Kingkiller weird? Very well written, but quite standard.

I agree, it's only weird in the sense that it's a bit more self-aware of the fantasy stereotypes it fits into.

[Arbane]

It boggles my mind that I'm apparently the first person to recommend Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. How did THAT happen? (And no, they're really not much like D&D at all except that the hero's usually mainly in it for the money.)

Has anyone plugged Glen Cook's Black Company novels? I suppose they're _slightly_ Tolkeinian, in that there is an Evil Overlord threatening to conquer the world... but the main characters (a band of mercenaries) end up working for her in the very first book.

Also, I'd recommend Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth. Very weird fantasy that puts me in mind on Greek Myth - the main characters are often terrible, but they're also Great, and THAT'S what makes them heroes.

[Raz_Fox]

I just finished econd volume of Catheynne M. Valente Orphan's Tales. Absolutely fantastic books.

Yes yes yes I can't second this enough.

In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice. They're heavily inspired by the Arabian Nights, and told in a thickly interconnected style, in which a story begins in the middle of a story, and another story begins in the middle of that story, and in that story someone will tell a story, and so on and so forth. Everything comes back, in one fashion or another, and everything is so wonderfully weird and original that it's a thrill.

I didn't give these a chance for so long. I said to myself, pssssh, feminist postmodernist fantasy, sounds like dumb stuff. I regretted every word of it once I was a few chapters into In the Night Garden.

[Man on Fire]

Has anyone plugged Glen Cook's Black Company novels? I suppose they're _slightly_ Tolkeinian, in that there is an Evil Overlord threatening to conquer the world... but the main characters (a band of mercenaries) end up working for her in the very first book.

Nah, even author himself doesn't consider it that much revolutionary of wierd - as Cook said, he just had an idea to write standard fantasy from bad guys' perspective. Sure, this is very well-written and creative and inteligently tackes with cliches and fallings of the genre, and has best thought warfare I seen, and it is my second favorite book series of all time, bot I wouldn't call it wierd.

[bmosley45]

I always suggest Michael Moorcock's "Elric" series. Beautiful, depressing, and wild. At one point, Elric is fighting naked demon women with long red hair which is alive, and useable as a weapon. Elric uses his demonic sword to behead one of these demon women, and as her head is flying through the air, her hair wraps around Elric's throat and starts pulling her decapitated, still alive, head toward Elric in attempt to bite him with her razor sharp teeth.

Some main villain gets killed by a sorceress using her "Ring of Flesh" spell, which is a large wall of amorphous flesh that springs up around an opposing army and crushes everyone to death.

So bad ass.

If you're also open to science fiction, I would suggest Octavia Butler's "Xenogenesis" series. The human race dies out, aliens come to rescue and repopulate them using weird alien sex. The series also goes into the topic of racism and interracial relationships. At one point, the main character (who happens to be black) is paired with her most compatible match from Earth's survivors in terms of emotional availability, out look on life, etc - - the man she ends up with is an Asian man 20 or 30 years her senior, a man she would have never even paid attention to in her previous life on Earth before it's destruction. You never know who is really good for you, who can really love you for you, and you'd be surprised how much you are missing when you discriminate based on looks. Truly an inspiring and touching sentiment.

[Man on Fire]

Yes yes yes I can't second this enough.

In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice. They're heavily inspired by the Arabian Nights,

As well as Bible, Ramayana and japanese folklore. And that's only major inspirations.

new recommendation - Stalking The Unicorn. Detective gets hired to find stolen unicorn in fantastic Manhattan. So far I'm 100 fro mthe end and there are dozens of pretty strange and funny ideas.