Stacer, recommend a book to me

[fuzzyoctopus]

I'm going literature-stiri-crazy.  I need a good chick fantasy book to read.  Of course if Brenna or MoD has a suggestions, please let me know.  Young adult is fine, if it's not too young, and adult is fine.  Any good high fantasy aimed at a female audience.  Something in another world.

[stacer]

Well, let's see...

Have you read Orson Scott Card's Enchantment? Adult

Or Garth Nix's Sabriel? (and the two sequels) YA/Adult

Then there's Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which is Cinderella from the ugly stepsister's point of view. YA/Adult

Robin McKinley's newest (that I know of) is Spindle's End, a nice retelling of Sleeping Beauty. YA

Celia Rees, Witch Child, which is about a girl who gets sent to New England because she's thought to be a witch, and of course just jumps from the frying pan into the fire. It's more historical fiction than fantasy, but it is a fantasy. YA

Have you read Ella Enchanted? It's coming out as a movie soon. Really good book. It's middle grade, and a very quick read, but so good. Highly highly recommended. It's by Gail Carson Levine.

And Shannon Hale just came out with a nice retelling of Goose Girl. It's YA.

[stacer]

Also, you might find the following interesting:

Price, Susan. The Sterkarm Handshake. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. Time travel book. Not my favorite--I still haven't finished it, actually. American scientist travels back in time to study a Scottish border clan.

Napoli, Donna Jo. Beast. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
McKinley, Robin. Rose Daughter. New York: Greenwillow, 1997.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty. New York: HarperCollins, 1978.

Highly recommend Beast. It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the Beast's perspective. It's YA. Rose Daughter is an update of Beauty--same story, written 20 years apart.  Both pretty good.

Napoli, Donna Jo. Zel. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1996. Retelling of Rapunzel. YA. Very good. Told in present tense, as most of her stories are, and kind of annoying at first, simply because of that.

Jones, Diana Wynne. Fire and Hemlock. New York: HarperCollins, 1975.

Cynthia Voigt, Elske (1999)

Dickinson, Peter. The Ropemaker. New York: Delacorte, 2001.

Elizabeth Pope, The Perilous Gard (1974)


Billingsley, Franny. The Folk Keeper. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Really good. More middle grade than YA, so it's a quick read, but really enjoyable. Scottish legends are involved, but I can't tell you what or I'll give it away. WARNING: DO NOT read the Library of Congress description of the book. It gives away the whole suspense of the story.

[Brenna]

One of my favorite fantasy trilogies is by Janny Wurts and Raymond E. Feist.  They are "Daughter of the Empire," "Servant of the Empire," and "Mistress of the Empire."  I have all three if you're interested.  The main character, Mara, is a lot of fun.  She's a very strong protagonist.

The "Alanna" books are a quick, fun read.  The first one is my favorite.  This is YA.

Spindle's End and Enchantment are both worth reading.  

Ella Enchanted is a WONDERFUL book--I agree with Stacer.

The Midnighters isn't aimed just for females, but it's a fun read (also YA).  It's one of the books Chris reviewed for TLE.  It's worth reading.

Jennifer Roberson has some fun fantasy books.  The Cheysuli series is pretty good--long and convoluted, but pretty good.

Amy's Eyes is a YA book.  It's pretty long (as in about 500 pages or so), but lots of fun.  Amy's sailor doll comes to life, and there are many adventures with stuffed animals who've come to life and become sailors.


And, if you decide to read any of these, I have all the ones I've mentioned above.

I like most of the stories that Donna Jo Napoli has done, with all the rewritten fairy tales.  The present tense is kinda irritating at first, but you get used to it, and the stories are worth getting past it.

[fuzzyoctopus]

With the "daughter of the empire" trilogy, how strong are each of the books?  Only I often find with trilogies that the first book is great, and the 2nd or 3rd is good, but the other one is very weak.

It sounds good.  I must borrow them from you.

[42]

I have "Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister", I haven't read it, or I don't remember reading it anymore. I bought for that crappy GE English class I took. But you can borrow it if you like.

[fuzzyoctopus]

I wish I could un-remember books I've already read so that I could read them again for the first time.  *sigh*

[Brenna]

In my opinion, none of the books in the series are particularly weak--that's one of the reasons I like the books so much. I think the first book is my personal favorite, but the other two are very good as well.

You are welcome to borrow them--just let me know, and I'll bring them to TLE for you.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Have any of you read any of Diane Duane's fantasy?  She is, hands down, my favorite Star Trek author, but I've never read any of her own fiction, because I've learned the hard way with some other great ST authors. I guess just because these authors can write amazing novels with other people's characters, doesn't mean they can make up their own....

[Brenna]

Diane Duane wrote Star Trek novels?!

Her series, starting with So you want to be a wizard (I guess it's the "Young Wizard" series, or something like that), is *excellent*!  I loved those books!  I highly recommend them.  The magic is very interesting, and the world is a lot of fun.  Interesting exploration of good and evil too.  Her books are a lot of fun to read.  I've read the first three in her series (I think she's up to seven or so now), and I really need to get around to reading the rest.  

You should definitely read them.

[Entsuropi]

The liveships series, Robin Hobb, has lots of female characters. I think they might be of some interest. It is, however, situated halfway between two other series's with a male protagonist chronologically so it will give away some of the plot.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Fuzzy, with the Servant of Empire series, it follows the general rule that you should apply to all of Feist's novels. When he introduces a setting and a new set of characters, then he can write really well. Once he's established a setting, or builds on old characters or the children of those characters, his work is really lame.

The Riftwar Saga was pretty good, at least, the first couple books. Then they got well.... icky. Pirate's Buccaneer or whatever it was called... and more. Then he did Servant of the Empire with Janny Wurts. That was pretty good. It's still in the same universe as the Riftwar, but it's set in the world that invaded. So he still gets a lot of new setting. It was very interesting.

Then he did soem more medkimia crap. And crap it was.
But the Serpentwar Saga, which again introduced all new characters and sent them across an ocean to a new place, was again fairly interesting. The crown of his crap, however, was the last "Krondor" series, which is actually some of the worst tripe I've ever read.

[Entsuropi]

Ok, so the Krondor is not the worst - i have read crapper - but it is deeply average at best. When he says he is basing it off of a computer games plot, you know you are in trouble.

The serpent war series really was quite good. Not great, or good, but quite good. I think i prefer the Mallorean and the Belegariad in retrospect - they did not have such bog standard settings. I have heard that Midkemia started out as a D&D setting, which sounds about right.

[Fellfrosch]

You've probably already read her, Fuzzy, but how about Melanie Rawn? Her main protagonist in "Dragon Prince" (or whatever it's called) is a guy, but the books are definitely chick high fantasy.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

What about that trilogy thats based off of the Willow movie? I read the first two, liked them. Never got around to the third.

Shadowmoon, Shadowdawn, and Shadowstar. Thats what it is. The Shadow War Trilogy.