Recommend a book please

I don't know anything about this story. Could you guys give me some more info? I'm also always on the lookout for some superior quality fantasy writing, and I'd hate to miss a good one.

Sukerkin: this same gritty trend is very prevalent in the Song of Fire and Ice. Check it out if you haven't. It is hands-down the very best fantasy that I have read in a very very long time. It is truly a breath of fresh air in a genre that is clogged with a whole lot of mediocre to downright poor writing.

The Deryni are humans with (discussed only in a companion text, not in the novels) a genetic mutation that gives them abilities we would often place in the realm of psychic powers; these powers can (and are) inherited from one or both parents. Certain Deryni with an extra mutation (also inherited) can heal most injuries. The novels in are set, as I said, in Gwynnedd, a pseudo-historical England, where the Deryni are considered a separate breed; in some places and times, they are a ruling class, while in others they are a derided underclass determined to be damned from birth. During the times when they are derided, they are determined by the Church to be damned from birth, and found by a potion that affects Deryni much more than pure humans. Because of this, the Deryni in Gwynnedd are persecuted in place of Jews and others of religions that the Church does not approve of - both because they are much easier to find, and because their ancestors usurped the throne of Gwynnedd and then were, in their turn, overthrown.

In addition to the inborn, almost instinctive "psychic" powers, the Deryni also have the potential to become ritual magic workers - expanding their abilities to things like scrying, taking the seeming of other people, lighting fires, using transporter-like devices fueled by magic to move between places, weather magic, and related events.

The characters in the series are people you'd want to - except for the ones you want to kill. As I said, the original trilogy (which is now in the middle of the timeline, as Kurtz wrote books that took place both before and after the original set) is a little rough, but the characters are wonderful, and her writing improved noticeably the more she wrote - I would suggest reading them in the chronological order in which they occur, rather than in publication order. The Wikipedia article is actually pretty good, and the related article on the novels gives the chronological sequence.

These novels were originally recommended to me over 20 years ago by a coworker, and I still have the original volumes I purchased, along with the additional ones that have been published since then. As Sukerkin said, characters will die who deserve to live, and vice versa - but it makes the stories more real, at least to me.
 
Whilst I think on it, The Many Coloured Land by Julian May is brilliant.

Donaldson's long twin series (with recent additions) of Thomas Covenant is a good (if frustrating at times) read. Be warned that you will in all likelyhood require a dictionary by the bed for these :D.

I didn't... and I started reading them in high school. :) But... my father is an English professor who started me on Tolkien when I was 12. :EG:

I also agree with everyone who recommended LeGuin - and I would recommend the Ekumen novels as much as the Earthsea novels. I especially enjoyed The Left Hand of Darkness - a truly interesting take on how an androgynous human society might develop, through the eyes of a single human ambassador sent down to experience the society, as a non-threatening way to introduce them to the rest of galactic society.

If you're interested in fantasy that crosses the fantasy/fiction line, I would also recommend Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed novels - there are only 2, Golden Witchbreedand Ancient Light, set on another planet, showing how the human ambassador (who, as in the LeGuin book above, comes alone - which is what made me think of them) learns about the ancient culture of the natives, who have a society that... well, if I tell you it'll ruin a major plot point. But they're very good books.
 
:sensei rei: Kacey.

Without undue modesty (setting aside my stereotypical Englishness for a moment) I have a better than average grasp of my native language and even I was forced to reach for the Oxford on occasion just to make sure that what I interpreted from context was correct ... and some words weren't even in there because he essentially concocted them from 'roots'.

For example, my best guess at what Unambergrised meant was 'unadorned' or 'unmarked' (in the context of a grave). Can you tell me if I was close with that (it's been about two decades and it still bothers me not to be certain :eek:)?
 
:sensei rei: Kacey.

Without undue modesty (setting aside my stereotypical Englishness for a moment) I have a better than average grasp of my native language and even I was forced to reach for the Oxford on occasion just to make sure that what I interpreted from context was correct ... and some words weren't even in there because he essentially concocted them from 'roots'.

For example, my best guess at what Unambergrised meant was 'unadorned' or 'unmarked' (in the context of a grave). Can you tell me if I was close with that (it's been about two decades and it still bothers me not to be certain :eek:)?
Close... ambergris is a substance harvested from whales, which is (or was) used as a perfume base - often used at funerals and in mortuaries to cover the scent of the decomposing bodies. So from the noun "ambergris" you move to the verb "to ambergris" - that is, to prepare a body for burial, generally with love and respect. After that, you move from the verb to the adjective "ambergrised" - meaning respectfully prepared for burial. So "unambergrised" would be the opposite - either unprepared, or prepared without respect.

I figured most of it out on my own - but I knew what ambergris was when I started, and confirmed much of the rest of it later on.
 
:D Many thanks! I too knew of ambergris (one of the advantages of reading Moby Dick and "Two Years Before the Mast" as a boy) but I didn't make the link with 'embalming' so to speak. The phrasing was "unambergrised grave" and that threw me off the scent (yeah! Linguistics-based pun attack :D).
 
:D Many thanks! I too knew of ambergris (one of the advantages of reading Moby Dick and "Two Years Before the Mast" as a boy) but I didn't make the link with 'embalming' so to speak. The phrasing was "unambergrised grave" and that threw me off the scent (yeah! Linguistics-based pun attack :D).

Ggggrooooaaaannnn..... :rolleyes:
 
I would recommend the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I know what your thinking, but its not horror.
check it out.
 
If you want to read somthing with a little Budo flavoring try " The Ninja" and " The Miko" by Eric Lustbaden..I enjoyed both
 
Back
Top