Best Fantasy Books Blog had a bit of a problem today. Since last night, the website has been down due to some hosting problems. I’ve put a backup of the website on my own host to keep the site running.

The forum will be down today, but everything should be fine and dandy tomorrow.

In addition to fixing the problems, I’ll be adding some new books to the Almost Top 25 section and posting a new fantasy article on the blog…so keep tuned!

How to tell what makes a good fantasy book good

In my last post, I gave some tips on how to find a good fantasy book. But how do you know what actually makes a good fantasy book, well, good? Read on to find out!

1: Fantasy Books Must Scream Originality

In this day and age, fantasy is so derivative, so cliché, that it’s an odious process to find compelling works of fantasy fiction. You literally have to dig through tons of mud to find a flake of gold.
I can’t tell you how many dark lords and village boy tales I’ve read, but it numbers in the hundreds at least. A good fantasy book these days must be original in some way – the definition of “original” is left up to the author, but the book must in some way differentiate itself from the pack. The story can use “cliché” fantasy conceits (village boys, dark lords, orcs, elves, fairies ,vampires, etc), but there better be some sort of twist on the conceit somewhere – the last thing someone wants to read is a re-write of the last book they read…

When you pick that novel up, pay close attention to the plot summary on the flap jacket (or back). Does the story scream originality? The greatest fantasy books will literally be oozing originality from the moment you pick it up. If you don’t get this impression, well, you may very well do best to move on to the next book.

2: Fantasy Books Must Draw You Into Their World
The whole premise of fantasy is to bring you draw you into an imaginary world where you can easily suspend your disbelief. The world drawn by the author must be interesting. Various fantasy subgenre’s have certain “tricks” to accomplish this. For example, Epic Fantasy authors usually create a vast world with conflicting people and cultures and mysterious places – something that keeps you, the reader, guessing what’s over the horizon. A good fantasy book will have a vividly realized world with internal rules that restrict rampant deus ex machina.

3: Fantasy Books Must Have a well-drawn, unique magic system
Some fantasy books are a lot of magic and others choose to minimize magic presence in favor of plot (George Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire for example). But fantasy books that do engage in rampant magic usage (such as Wheel of Time), must have a well-drawn, preferably unique, coherent magical system. I can only think of a couple books off the top of my head that actually have a unique magic system: Dave Farland’s The Runelords, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, and Dave Duncan’s Man of His Word books come to mind. Creating a unique magic system is one of the most challenging problems when writing a fantasy novel. While I realize it may not be possible for most authors create an entirely unique magical system, the system should at least be coherent and follow a stringent set of rules to eliminate dues ex machine. One of the most egregious mistakes and author can make is to give the protagonist superhuman abilities without some sort of counter check; readers are annoyed when characters solve impossible problems with the mere snap of a finger; a good story has the characters work themselves out of a situation with tools and knowledge at hand not intervention by the author or some magical solution that suddenly occurs to a character.

4: Fantasy Books must have strong characterization
One of the signs of a great novel is the strength of characterization. Fantasy and science fiction have a bit more leeway (especially science fiction) in this regard as some authors focus on presenting an idea or notion; the book then becomes a medium to express the author’s ideas. Isaac Asimov, famous science fiction author, did this with his Foundation Novels. Fantastic concept, fantastic fiction, bad characters – but the series is still a smashing success because of the strength of the concept.

A book with a good characterization will draw the author the reader more deeply into the story, make the reader care more about the story and characters. What do I mean by characterization? The characters should have realistic relationships with each other. Readers don’t want to read about cardboard characters interacting with each other on a two-dimensional plane. We want to read about real people with real conflicts and problems – issues that mirror our own reality.

A fantasy book can be set in some fantastical place not aligned with our own daily reality, but as long as the people in the book seem like real people with real relationships and a real connection to their world, it’s believable. Books that lack this better have a damn impressive concept or idea, otherwise the book is as boring as mowing the lawn.

So, now you know what makes a good fantasy book good. Now go out and find a good fantasy book to read!

If you have any more suggestions on how to tell what makes a fantasy book good, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section.

Sure-fire Tips for Quickly Finding a Good Fantasy Novel

Having bookstore-fantasy-finding blues? Looking for that next great fantasy novel but not sure how to get started? Then read this fantasy book finding guide for some sure-fire tips on how to choose a good fantasy book.

Ignore the Book Cover

Ignore the cover. Ignore the cover. Ignore the cover. Obvious but true. The cover is the first thing you look at and the means by which 95% of the people first judge the book. This is a big mistake. Some of the best fantasy books have bad covers and some of the worst fantasy books have good covers. The most common type of fantasy book cover is the cartoony looking fantasy world made popular by Jordan’s Wheel of Time book covers. Perhaps people are more likely to buy books with this type of cover because they associate the book with other popular books they have read, but whatever the case is, this type of cover screams “derivative” and “unoriginality” to me.

Now having said that, it has been my experience that more than one great fantasy book has had a unique style of book cover (example 1, example 2, and example 3). So, if the fantasy book cover is artistically or stylistically unique, this could prefigure an original fantasy story which is one of the biggest indications of a good fantasy novel. Publishers will often try and differentiate a book cover if they feel the novel will be a commercial success; if the publishers are confident enough to spend the money, this may indicate the novel is actually good. But again, play it by ear.

Ignore the Cover Blurbs – they lie

Cover blurbs are designed to do one thing: sell books.

If you want to be an unconscientious book buyer, then by all means ignore this advice. But here’s the dirty truth for the rest of you: Author blurbing is a complex web of traded favors — plug my book and I’ll plug your book. In fantasy world, you can bet your left pinky most published authors have some sort of personal relationship with one another. If you think there are six-degrees-of-separation between fantasy authors, think again: most fantasy authors meet each other at the small fantasy conventions. The blurber and blurbee may be friends, colleagues, or simply share the same publisher. All are united by the same purpose: to sell more books. Publisher and authors have figured out that blurbs = more sales; you can bet they are capitalizing on this fact.

But here’s one way you can use blurbs to help you find that good fantasy book: use them to weed out books you don’t want to read. For example, if I see any book plugged by the likes of Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Terry Goodkind, or R.A. Salvatore, I avoid it like the plague. Chances are, any book these authors endorse, however disingenuously that blurb may be, is a book that I want no part of.
If you want to read more on this subject, check out this article by the New York Times on the subject.

Read the First Couple of Pages

Try before you buy. It works as a sales pitch for infomercials, but it can also help you find that good fantasy book too!

All too many people select a book by the cover and book description – a big, big mistake. You should always read the first couple of pages first then look at the book summary. If the story – and prose – don’t capture your attention, there is a good chance you will lose interest later on. Good writers should be able to immerse you in their story after a couple pages – especially the first couple pages of the novel. In fact, the first couple pages of a novel are specifically aimed at convincing the reader to continue reading the rest of the story – if the author can’t pull this off in a section that is specifically made for this, it’s very likely that the rest of the story will be a bore.

If you want another good test, open the book to a random page and read it. If a random page of the author’s writing can garner your interest when you have no backstory in your brain, you can bet the rest of the book will too. Once you get a feel for the actual quality of the author’s writing then read the book description – you will have a more unbiased view of the book.

Read the Book Description– With a Grain of Salt

Don’t blindly trust the book description, like the blurbs and book covers, they are designed to help sell you the book, not present an honest opinion. Book descriptions are like movie trailers: they can make even the worst drivel seem compelling. We’ve all been burned by watching that cool ass movie trailer, only to feel terribly disappointed five minutes into the actual movie. Book descriptions are designed to sell you the best traits of a book, conveniently forgetting about the crappy writing, terrible characterization or the wandering plot. Yes, it’s one of the only ways you can get a feel for the book story, but don’t base your fantasy-book-buying tendencies only on the book description. Read the back description, but take it with a grain of salt. The back book description should scream originality – if it does, then you might have found something special. You should always read the first couple pages of book before reading the book description (when possible) to avoid buying into the hype that the book description is selling. As I like to say “show me proof and I’ll show you the money after.”

The Book Should Scream Originality

Fantasy these days is mostly derivative – so derivative that readers are hailing any fantasy book with any drop of originality at all as revolutionary and “a work of astounding fiction.” The bottom line: Readers are desperate for a good, original story. If something about the book (usually found in the book description –and it’s hard to trust those!) strikes you as original, you may want to consider the book.

Don’t Snub YA (Young Adult) Fantasy books

Don’t shy away from fantasy just because it’s written for a younger audience – you may be missing out on some of the best fantasy books out there. Authors often use books with children to tell a thoughtful and complex tale that simultaneously operates on two levels : one for the children and one for the adults. One of the most famous examples in the fantasy genre is Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy – on first glance it looks like another children’s fantasy series, but the level of depth and storytelling evinced in this spectacular saga is breathtaking. Some fantasy books transcend age barriers – and this is one of signs of one of the fantasy “greats.”

Old Books May be Good Books

All the hype surround some of the great modern fantasy books may cast a shadow over some of the older classics – but this doesn’t mean you should ignore them. Indeed some of these fantasy classics set the bar for what fantasy should be like or maybe even created an entire subgenre of fantasy. Some of the best books are a decade or even decades old! A good fantasy novel may be like wine: the flavor increases with age. Some classics that are a couple decades old are Ursula Le Guin’s Earthseanovels, Patricia A. McKillip’s Riddle-Master series, Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles. Then there is the ubiquitous Lord of the Rings which is clocking in at 5 decades old. If you delve even further back in time, you will find yourselves facing seminal works of fantasy such as The Worm Ouroboros.

Don’t Rely on Author Fame

Just because the author is well know, or the book is high profile like J.K. Rowling’s newest The Tales of Beedle the Bard, doesn’t mean the book will be good. I’ve read many books by high profile authors that just plain suck! If an author has found sucess, then yes, there is a reason why this may be the case. But sucessfull authors (cough, Terry Brooks) can write drivel too.

The bottom line: don’t dismiss a fantasy book just because of the publish date. Newer does not always mean better!

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting some criteria for what makes a good fantasy novel good, so keep tuned! I will eventually be adding this article to a “Beginners’ Guide to Fantasy ” section on the main site.