Fantasy Aficionados discussion

Please let us know about good indie fantasy you are reading. Post a link to the book and if it's legally free on ebook, post a link to where it can be found.

*Note: This thread is not for self-promotion.*

I finished Elves in the Meadow, Trolls in the Corn last night. It was pretty good, although a bit slow in parts.

It's about a woman who inherits farm property on which elves reside, and a troll wants to buy her land.

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Please let us know about good indie fantasy you are reading. Post a link to the book and if it's legally free on ebook, post a link to where it can be found.

*Note: This thread is not for self-pr..."

I'm not always sure if a book is indie or not ... are there some guidelines to follow?

The Black God's War by Moses Siregar III.

Very epic sort of fantasy. Clashing armies, gods interfering, et cetera.

A Highly Technickel Memoir by Shoshana Sumrall Frerking.

This is contemporary fantasy. I'd say "urban" except for the fact most of the action is in a factory in the boondocks of Nebraska rather than say in downtown Chicago. The middle act could use a bit of tightening, but I really liked the voice of the narrator.

Sharon, Indie books would be books under the radar, perhaps only out in limited printing, or by new authors in ebook format.

If it's doesn't seem to be getting a lot of buzz, I say post about it.

I think the Bad Ass Faerie collections would count. I love these books, but I don't hear a lot of folks talking about them.



And also the Murphy's Lore books. More stories with a folklore/mythology element, interconnected through a bar owned by a leprechaun.

Lovers and Beloveds by MeiLin Miranda - A coming-of-age story about the spoiled Prince Temmin's growth into adulthood, with intrigue, magic, and politics. I see this recommended to Jacqueline Carey fans a lot (which is how I found it) due to the presence of gods and sexuality - Anne Bishop fans would probably like it, too. What's interesting is that it originally started off as a serialized story on a website, but when the author said she couldn't continue, her fans chipped in money for her to complete it and make it into a book. The follow-up is being funded on Kickstarter now.

Nice topic - I love indie books because you never quite know what you're going to get! Here are some of my favourites:

Andrea K Host's Medair duology, starting with The Silence of Medair. A quirky, highly original story about a woman who sets off to find a magic artifact capable of stopping a war, only to wake up five hundred years later, long after the war ends.

Sue Rule's Shehaios trilogy, starting with Cloak of Magic. A nicely-done story of a culture with an unusual magic system under threat from a neighbouring empire, with one of the most fascinating and complex lead characters I've encountered, Kierce.

Tom Kepler's first-of-a-series The Stone Dragon. This is a coming of age story (sort of) about a dream mage, which raises some interesting questions about the nature of consciousness, and also features a garden gnome with a terrific sense of humour. Oh, and dragons.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Pauline wrote: "Nice topic - I love indie books because you never quite know what you're going to get! Here are some of my favourites:

Andrea K Host's Medair duology, starting with [book:The Silence of Medair|983..."

Thanks for the mention, Pauline. I'm almost done with three short stories I've set in the same reality. I had fun filling in the blank spaces on the reality's map: water nymphs, wyrm, and the Sisters of Hospitality. The e-book will be out in February.

I've recently read in e-book format River Daughter and Other Stories by Anne Bellet ($2.99). I thought the stories and style quite original. Her short story "River Daughter" actually inspired me to write my water nymph story, "River's Daughter." She also included a short story about smuggling illegal Hispanics across the border that gives the term "coyote" a whole new perspective.

I've not read a lot of self-published fantasy that I've enjoyed, but there are two that I have:

The Voyage of the Minotaur and The Troll Hunter

A Moth in Darkness by Frances Pauli is an indie fantasy I finished today. It's well edited, with a interesting look at faerie. I'd recommend it.

Best indie fantasy I've run across recently is Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. He's indie at the moment - but is signing with Ace - so get his book while still cheaply priced.

Ranting Dragon (a fantasy site) asked me to put together a list of 20 indie fantasy/scifi books that I think people should check out.

Here is the link

The List is:
1. My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking
2. Wool Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey
3. A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish
4. Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
5. Moon Dance by J.R. Rain
6. Amber Magic by B.V. Larson
7. Mageborn: The Blacksmith’s Son by Michael G. Manning
8. To Kill a Warlock by H.P. Mallory
9. Star Soldier by Vaughn Heppner
10. The Sword and the Dragon by M.R. Mathias
11. The Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation by Heather Killough-Walden
12. The Book of Deacon by Joseph Lallo
13. Taming Fire by Aaron Pogue
14. The Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker
15. First Contact by Michael R. Hicks
16. Blood of Requiem by Daniel Arenson
17. The Kinshield Legacy by K.C. May
18. Fated by Carolyn McCray
19. Last of the Chosen by Lawrence P. White
20. A Galaxy Unknown by Thomas DePrima

Michael wrote: "Ranting Dragon (a fantasy site) asked me to put together a list of 20 indie fantasy/scifi books that I think people should check out."

Interesting list, Michael. How did you select them - are they all Amazon bestsellers? And have you read them all? ;-) (I managed 3 on the list)

I guess that depends on what you all a "bestseller." A few of them have been in the Amazon Top 100. But most of them have not. I think all of them have been on one or more of the fantasy or science fiction lists (epic fantasy, fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction adventure, science fiction space opera, etc etc) because that is how they initially caught my attention.

I wanted to write a list that was diverse so a few of the titles I've only read "enough of" to know that they are of good quality. For instance I can't imagine making a self-published list without including Amanda Hocking as she has clearly earned a spot but I've not read her entire book because I'm not into paranormal romance. But even saying that some of the paranormal books (H.P. Mallory and J.R. Rain I did read all of). So all in all many things went into making the list. Sales record, good reviews, lots of reviews, opinions of others I trust, and my own reading.

I had literally 100's to choose from it was hard to pare them down to 20 but overall I think it is a fair representation of the genre as a whole.

Michael wrote: "I had literally 100's to choose from it was hard to pare them down to 20 but overall I think it is a fair representation of the genre as a whole. "

I agree. Excluding ones I've already read or that don't interest me (space opera, vampires and so forth), I found 7 that I've not read. I had a weekend of travelling so I loaded up the Kindle with samples (and one was free, so I got the whole book). I was impressed. There were 3 or maybe 4 that I would definitely buy (if I didn't already have 80+ waiting to be read), and the rest were readable, if not quite my thing.

One thing struck me about them - they tend to the simpler end of the spectrum, as in, a single protagonist, a more-or-less linear storyline, everything explained as you go along, so the reader's not struggling to understand, straightforward language, familiar plot devices. Not many signs of gritty realism, or Malazan-style complexity. Sweeping generalisation, of course, but I do think there's a huge market for fantasy simply as enjoyable entertainment rather than depressing blood and gore, or an intellectual challenge. I'm not convinced that mainstream publishers are catering to that market, but indie authors are. They're writing what they want to read - and finding that lots of other people want to read them too.

I'm not sure I agree with the generalizations about various styles but I will say that I think self-publishing can offer to the community types of books that might be overlooked by the publishers.

In my genre - epic fantasy the works have gone very "dark and gritty" with authors such as Martin, Abercrombie, Cook, Mark Lawrence, Brent Weeks, and on and on. So I think it perpetuates that more grim books are bought and published.

My epic fantasy is much "lighter and fun" and has a thread of optimism and characters that have sorted pasts but by in large can be counted on to rise to the occasion (or at least try to). There isn't much (any?) books like this being published right now (which is kinda good for me) but I often wonder if I hadn't made a success of them through self-publishing first...would they have been picked up?

That's what I like about discussions like this--a focus that comes from a deep-seated love of books and reading. I respect Pauline Ross's opinion, and not just because she liked my books. Her reviews that I've read are balanced and erudite.

Michael's list is a new source of reading for me, and that's exciting!

As for the comment regarding a more simple, straightforward style, although I do not consider my fantasy novel, The Stone Dragon, a YA novel, it was inspired in part by my having an "audience" of teenagers in my classroom. I wanted to write a novel about the relationship between consciousness and action, of how we structure our own reality. Magic and fantasy became the medium for that story.

Michael's last comment about how without success in self-publishing, would an uncommon angle in the genre be picked up by a traditional author is provocative. My decision to independently publish came because 1) my students wanted to read the book before they graduated, and 2) an agent to a major SF/F author wrote me a response note when I pitched my book, telling me that dragon stories were out of fashion.

This year I'm going to teach my students how to publish a book, so I'm glad to have gained a skill that I can pass on. I'm also putting together a book of essays from my blog about writing that I can use in my classroom as a teaching aid this year. None of these situations would have been possible if I hadn't decided to independently publish.

Anyway, thanks all for providing thoughts that help me clarify my position as a writer and teacher.

As a reader, I have to say that I'm absolutely delighted about the availability of new authors through self-publishing and 'freebies'.

I am a relative newcomer to Kindle and ebooks although I've been a reader all my life. For many years, the only books I actually bought new, as soon as they were published, were those by a handful of authors I knew in advance I would want to keep to re-read. Otherwise all of my 'new authors' were from the library or used paperbacks. In the 5 years before my Kindle, I added just two new authors to my 'auto buy' list.

In the 8 months I've had my Kindle I have added 5 new authors to my "must buy" list. All of them were free downloads for the first book and I think $2.99 or less for the second ... I'm now buying them as they come out and at least one of these authors is publishing in the $7.99 range. I'm not sure, but I think they were all indie authors as well.

I think there is a lot of "hidden" talent out there--authors who have great stories to tell and the talent to set them down on paper. But, because the traditional publishing industry is almost impossible to break into, they choose the self-publishing route instead. Without those big-name publishers behind them, it's a tough uphill battle to get themselves known. But, thanks to online sites like Goodreads, these authors are given the opportunity to promote themselves, and I think that's a great thing.

Since joining Goodreads, I've had the opportunity to discover a great many talented indie authors. Like Sharon, my book choices before Goodreads used to come from the authors I knew or saw in bookstores or libraries. Now, my choices are virtually unlimited.

Sure, there are many indie books out there that are poorly written with an appalling lack of editorial polishing and, frankly, are just plain garbage. But, so far, I've been very fortunate in choosing authors whose works, while sometimes lacking a bit in areas, have generally been very entertaining and worth the read.

Cheryl wrote: "Sure, there are many indie books out there that are poorly written with an appalling lack of editorial polishing and, frankly, are just plain garbage. But, so far, I've been very fortunate in choosing authors whose works, while sometimes lacking a bit in areas, have generally been very entertaining and worth the read. "

I'm one of those readers who has no qualms about putting down a book that I'm not interested in, which was one of my problems with living far enough away from a library that I had to plan a half-day trip to get there. I would check out a dozen books and of those, might not read more than half all the way through. Since I'm a fast reader, this means that I never had a 'to be read' pile for more than a few days.

Not a problem with Kindle! My percentage of DNFs may have risen overall with the free downloads but I don't know that I've had a higher number of books actually started that I didn't finish.

I do download any of the freebies that I find on a couple of lists I'm on, if they sound at all like something I might be interested in. Then, when I'm looking for something new, I go back to the book information, read the intro again and check the reviews. This is actually more helpful than the library 'spot check' as I have the reviews to look at and not just the book introduction. Many times I will simply delete then when I see things that I know will not work for me.

With that ability to 'screen' I don't think I end up with many more DNFs than I did when everything came from the library and for the first time in my life I actually have a significant 'to read' virtual stack.

Some of my personal favorites:

Scriber by Ben S. Dobson (great standalone, love it)

Loki by Mike Vasich (wonderful, creative retelling of Norse myths)

Cadman's Gambit (or the The Nameless Dwarf Omnibus) by D.P. Prior (great writer; the Dwarf books are lighter fare but still with deep language)

Eulogy by D.T. Conklin (deeper, more challenging, but ambitious in all the good ways)

Ray Nicholson, an Amazon reviewer I trust, recently wrote a fantastic review of Dawning by M.S. Verish.

p.s. Thanks J.A. for mentioning my book!

I finished The Dark Lord's Handbook over the weekend. It was a tongue-in-cheek subversion of fantasy tropes. I enjoyed it thoroughly.