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Thursday, May 28, 2020

Best Contemporary Fantasy Book (or Series) NOMINATIONS NEEDED.


UPDATE: The nominations on this poll are now closed. Please go vote!


What is the best Fantasy (book or series) written in 2009 or later?  

I'm getting back into the habit of writing, but I've been dropping a lot of my daily writing on my Facebook these last few days. (It's a public account, so you should be able to at least read stuff even if you're not on Facebook.) So we're a little off our update schedule, but at least the words are coming now.

Anyway, we have ONE MORE slot to fill in in the break up of sci-fi and fantasy into manageable chunks, and that is CONTEMPORARY FANTASY. So nominate the titles you'd like to see go on to a poll!


The Rules:

  1. There is a new category of nomination. It is NOT a nomination for the poll. It is an UNDERSUNG HERO nomination. Basically it is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, but maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. I will be listing these books along with the poll results. However, if you nominate a book it will not be considered for the undersung hero list and if you shout out something for an undersung hero, it will not be counted as a nomination. (Someone else can nominate it.)
  2. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate Ancillary Mercy as fantasy rather than science fiction, I'm not going to argue, but you have to convince others if you're going to get on the poll--nevermind win.
  3. Your book must be copyrighted 2009 or later. (It would have been ten years––or 2010––but I wanted this to match the timing of the Sci Fi version of the same contemporary poll.) If it is a series, the ENTIRE SERIES must be written after 2009.  Of course you can nominate the most recent novel in a series if you are trying to work around the rules, but not the series itself unless it's entirely published in the last ten years. No small number of shout outs to Discworld have included only the books from the appropriate time frame. Why should we stop now?
  4. You get to mention two (2) books or series. That's it. Two. You can do ONE nomination for the poll and ONE UNDERSUNG HERO.  Or you can do TWO nominations. Or you can do TWO undersung heroes. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more I will NOT take any nominations beyond the second that you suggest. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but I compile these polls myself and it's a pain when people drop a megalodon list every decent book they can remember of in the genre. It is up to you how to divy your two choices.
  5. You may (and absolutely should) second AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. THEY WILL NOT GET ONTO THE POLL WITHOUT SECONDS. You can agree with or cheer on the undersung heroes, but they won't "transform" into nominations unless someone else nominates them as "best" (and then they get a second). Also stop back in and see if anyone has put up something you want to see go onto the poll. 
  6. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
  7. You are nominating WRITTEN genre fiction, not their movie portrayals. If you thought the HBO series of Game of Thrones was great (*cough*), but you didn't really care for the Dance of Dragons by Martin, nominate something else.
  8. This is probably well known by vets of this blog by now, but there will be no more endless elimination rounds. I will take somewhere between 8-20 best performing titles and at MOST run a single semifinal round. So second the titles you want even if they already have one. (Yes, I guess that would make them thirds, fourths, etc...) The competition on THIS poll is going to be FIERCE so please come back and second, third, fourth, and twenty-fifth everything you want to see go on to the poll. You may have to get your friends involved. Buy them a pizza. Make it real. 

68 comments:

  1. UNDERSUNG HERO: The Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour. Started off self published and now has full book deals. The books start slow and very traditional fantasy, and the series evolves into an expansive pseudo scifi series that's huge in scope.

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  2. best fantasy series: Inheritance Trilogy, N. K. Jemisin I know she's one of the most celebrated writers right now, but there are some pretty good reasons for that. She builds such original and compelling worlds...

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  3. Circe, Madeline Miller. The style is simple, beautiful and well-researched (obviously). And the MC is so relatable (and I have a hard time relating to women in fiction).

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  4. Second the Inheritance Trilogy

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  5. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

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  6. My undersung hero is Brimestone Angels by Erin M Evans (fantastic, despite being tie in shared world) and my nomination (though only two of the three have been publiushed so far) is The Last King of Osten Ard trilogy by Tad Williams

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  8. 1. Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels series' Magic Rises
    2. Ilona Andrew's Innkeepers series for undersung hero!

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  9. Michael G Manning - The blacksmiths son and Embers of illeniel both series are fantastic

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  10. First Law by Joe Abercrombie - huge in scope, and so we written. Check out the crowd scenes where he jumps between 10 characters in one narrative. Spellbinding.

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  11. R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War/The Dragon Republic

    Undersung Hero: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

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  12. Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series - fantastic worldbuilding and a "magic" system that could actually be sci-fi.

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    1. And Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik for undersung hero.

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    2. Seconded spininng silver as well

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  13. Throne of Glass series with its incredible character development and deep themes of growth, healing, and love of all kinds

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  14. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Ilona Andrew's Innkeepers series for undersung hero.

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  15. The Strange Case of Finley Jayne!

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  16. The Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfuss.

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  17. Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) Feed, Deadline, Blackout are the individual titles. Fit right in with our pandemic and news situation. Plus zombies.

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  18. Outlander
    http://www.dianagabaldon.com/

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  19. Deborah Harkness Discovery of Witches trilogy (first book published in 2011).

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  21. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. The Invisible Library series for undersung hero.

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  22. The Stormlight Archive books are actually pretty great! They include a realistic depiction of depression (like anhedonia, numbness, and a bitter fear of hope instead of just someone being "glum"), a fun system of magic, and some REAL engaging characters.

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  23. Riyira Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan
    Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson
    I read these both on repeat, so good!!!

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  24. Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe

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  25. I still dream james smythe
    A city dreaming daniel polansky

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  26. The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin (part of the Broken Earth Trilogy). Easily the best book I've read in the last 5 years.

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  27. Warlock Holmes (series) by G.S. Denning. Sherlock Holmes, but with demons. It's super weird, macabre, absurd, and hilarious, endlessly clever at simultaneously parodying and worldbuilding off the Holmes canon.

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  28. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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  29. Mine would be The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and for the unsung hero Marrow Charm by Kristin Jacques

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  30. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. Great trilogy.

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  31. The Secret Commonwealth! Phillip Pulman. Probably not undersung but doesn't appear to have been mentioned yet.

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  32. Undersung: Winternight trilogy. A great response to russian folklore with a great character arc.

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  33. My editor wants The Innkeeper Chronicles Series and I'll second it.

    It's good to know the writer.

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  34. The Cradle series by Will Wight

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  35. The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French

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  36. Primary nomination goes to Book of the Ancestor Trilogy by Mark Lawrence

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  37. Undersung: The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron

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  38. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

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  39. Daevabad series by S.A. Chakraborty

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