Fantasy Recommendations (Pt. 1 of ?)

@sparksnevada42​ was cool enough to write in and ask us the following:

Hey there. So what fantasy recommendations do you have? I know Lord Of The Rings, Game of Thrones, in terms of books/movies, Once Upon A Time in terms of adapting fairy tales, Second Shift in terms of podcasts. would love any other tv/book/podcast recommendations.

Aaaand our eyes lit up.

We’ll let Zach start it off, as he is probably the more voracious fantasy consumer of this partnership.

TV: The Magicians is a relatively recent novel / trilogy by Lev Grossman that was adapted for TV by SyFy. Season 1 just recently completed, and we’re waiting on Season 2. While I thought the novel was pretty good, the TV show is EXCELLENT. You can think of the plot as “a gritty dark reboot of Harry Potter crossed with Narnia”. Honestly one of the few franchises that I would recommend the TV show over the book. If you have time for both, by all means–but if you only have time for one, 100% go for the TV show. Warning–it is DARK, over the course of Season 1 it touches on stuff like drug/alcohol abuse, death / violence / suicide, consentual sex, non consentual sex, child abuse–so if you are sensitive to any of those, may want to skip it.

Otherwise, I’m not super huge on fantasy on TV (although I know there are some good ones). For SciFi, absolutely go for Firefly and Battlestar Galactica if you haven’t already.



Podcasts: Second Shift has for a long time been my gold standard. Wolf 359 (@wolf359radio) is wonderful. For my money, at least on par with Second Shift. Technically a SciFi sitcom-style audiodrama about the crew of a deep-space surveillance mission. What I love about it is the same thing I love about Battlestar Galactica (and if I may humbly say so, what TOAFN attempts to do)–SciFi is the setting, but the show is about the people and their interactions. You’ve got 4 people stuck together on a space mission–no other humans within light years, so they are forced to live in close quarters. The plot is a sit-com of how the crew reacts and interacts in that situation. The scifi is at most in the background. Very Funny.

Other one that I’m currently hooked on is Bright Sessions (@thebrightsessions). The initial premise is “recordings of the sessions of a psychologist who specializes in people with super powers” (X-Men / Heroes style). Obviously in this way the fantasy is more in the forefront, but it is still about the people.



Books: I could go on and on forever about this. Bar none, my three favorite authors are Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, and Scott Lynch, and all three are as different from each other as can be.

Sanderson is a pure storyteller. He tells a great plot-based story. I would recommend either starting with Warbreaker (which is available for free on his website) or the first novel in the Mistborn series. If you are into it, move into the Way of Kings series–but be warned that Way of Kings is Sanderson’s take on a Wheel of Time style epic epic epic series. Currently the first 2 novels are out, of what is supposed to be a 10-book series, and each one is 600+ pages. Fun fact about Sanderson–all of his novels secretly take place in the same universe (the way that Kevin Smith movies are all in the same “view askewniverse”). It’s very subtle, each book is entirely standalone, and you can enjoy it on it’s own and in any order you want. But if you are really into it, there are “easter eggs” hidden all over the place that give hints about how the worlds connect. Also he’s got some great short stories / novellas, I’d recommend Legion. Also a bunch of YA that I haven’t read as much of.

Patrick Rothfuss is a magician with written language. His prose is beautiful, nearly poetry. He’s much less prolific than Sanderson–Rothfuss only has 2 full novels out, and they are in the same series. Name of the Wind is the first one. His story does this amazing thing where it is “about” the most miniscule of tiny meaningless minutia of one person’s life, while at the same time feeling like it has such a huge global scope and high stakes. Let me just leave you with this quote (it’s on the back panel of the book, and is in the text of the book very early on, this is no spoilers).





My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as “quothe.” Names are important as they tell you a great deal about a person. I’ve had more names than anyone has a right to. The Adem call me Maedre. Which, depending on how it’s spoken, can mean The Flame, The Thunder, or The Broken Tree.



“The Flame” is obvious if you’ve ever seen me. I have red hair, bright. If I had been born a couple of hundred years ago I would probably have been burned as a demon. I keep it short but it’s unruly. When left to its own devices, it sticks up and makes me look as if I have been set afire.



“The Thunder” I attribute to a strong baritone and a great deal of stage training at an early age.



I’ve never thought of “The Broken Tree” as very significant. Although in retrospect, I suppose it could be considered at least partially prophetic.



My first mentor called me E'lir because I was clever and I knew it. My first real lover called me Dulator because she liked the sound of it. I have been called Shadicar, Lightfinger, and Six-String. I have been called Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. I have earned those names. Bought and paid for them.



But I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant “to know.”



I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned.



I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.



You may have heard of me.

Gorram I think that quote is wonderful. I can quote many passages nearly from memory, because they are beautiful. Name of the Wind also does a thing that I associate with the beginning of Dune. The story is not told completely linearly–you hear some parts of the story in the “present”, and then it jumps back to the “past”. Back and forth a few times. You see some of that in that quote. 90% of that is either foreshadowing or out-right telling you what is going to happen in the novel. But instead of spoiling things, it gives everything this weight of inevitability. I love this book. I would recommend it 10 times.

Scott Lynch has this cheeky irreverence that I find so fun. The name of his series is called The Gentlemen Bastards–which immediately conveys that irreverence. I can’t wax poetic about him for quite as long but his novels (the first is called Lies of Locke Lamora) are really top-notch. They are about a thieving / scamming crew–the “good guys” are objectively bad guys, except somehow they come across as genuinely good. It’s kind of like a Fantasy Ocean’s Eleven. Also, Scott Lynch has the most inventive, colorful, hilarious, and prolific set of swear words I’ve ever seen anywhere on this planet. Please don’t take the shortness of this blurb as a sign that I like the book less–this book is wonderful. It’s just much more straightforward, not much more I can say. It’s great, read it :-)

If you finish all of these, let me know I can find more to recommend. But start there :-) They are the best of the bunch anyway.



And now for Christian’s recs…

TV: Vikings is pretty cool - though the fantastical elements are implied and very peripheral, and the history is frequently fudged. But it’s refreshing to see a show of that sort focusing on a small group of close-knit people. As I hope is obvious from TOAFN, I love Game of Thrones but the enormous scope can be exhausting sometimes.

I also loved Season 1 of Amazon’s Man in the High Castle, and I can’t wait for Season 2. It’s based on a Philip K. Dick novel (which I’m told is not as good) about an alternate history where the Axis won WWII. It’s largely about how easily people will just go along with awful things, but is also a masterclass in robust but not in your face world-building. Realizing as I type this that I may not find this show quite so entertaining a few months from now…

Movies: It’s horror-ish (not actually very scary) rather than Fantasy, but Cabin in the Woods was a huge influence on me. That’s the tone I often aim for in TOAFN, where it’s a tongue-in-cheek satirical comment on the genre while also being an enjoyable instance of the genre.

I could write about movies a lot. I love movies. I work in movies to pay my rent. And Lord of the Rings was a big chunk of my adolescence. I still watch the Extended Editions every couple of months. But the non-Fantasy movies that had the biggest influence on TOAFN are probably The Breakfast Club and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

Podcasts: All of Zach’s recs will set you in a good direction.

I’m also really digging Archive 81 ( @archive81), which is also horror. It’s in that found-footage/mystery genre that’s very popular these days but it’s my favorite of that batch. I found out about because I have a friend of a friend who’s in it, so I went in with the kind of cautious “uh oh is this gonna be bad and then I have to pretend to like it?” attitude. But turns out it’s great!

And we’re both big fans of The Adventure Zone (@theadventurezone). The Brothers McElroy of My Brother My Brother and Me fame (among other shows) play D&D 5e with their dad. It’s so funny, and the story is really good. Brightens my week every time an episode drops.

Books: I’ve been trying to read more contemporary Fantasy, but the last Fantasy novel that really blew my mind was The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It’s a re-telling of the Arthur canon from the POV of the women and I think it’s a masterpiece. Though I think it’s only fair to warn people when I recommend this book - it now seems very likely that Bradley sexually abused her daughter and possibly other children. You can have smart thoughts and still be terrible person it seems. And all proceeds from the book now go to RAINN.

Also Stephen King’s Dark Tower series doesn’t feel like traditional Fantasy but will completely reshape what you think the genre is capable of. It’s overblown and bonkers at times but totally worth the ride. I loathed the ending until I thought about it for a few weeks and realized it was genius.

That all should tide you over until our Second Book comes out :) Enjoy!