Recommended reading - fantastical & other
www.kelleyarmstrong.com > Ms. Armstrong is an amazing horror/supernatural author, right here in Ontario. Years ago, she was the first author I'd seen with a first-person werewolf protagonist, and she hooked me on page one. Try any of her Otherworld series for adults or teens: anything's good. Like a giant, 24-hour, supernatural-filled buffet of good. I'll state for the record that her Darkest Powers (young adult) series should've gotten the big Hollywood studio treatment -- not that one with the sparkly weenie vamps. As icing on the cake, she does a huge number of public readings and signings and is more than gracious with her fans. (When the heck does she find time to write??) Her recent Cainesville series (Omens, Visions, Deceptions, Betrayals & the forthcoming Rituals) is an engrossing new world with characters that stick with you long after you've closed the cover.
www.jim-butcher.com > Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden is my hero - a hugely engaging mix of snark and power. I've been devouring these books for a couple of years now and they just keep getting better. The storylines are complex, the characters are smart and well-drawn, and the explorations of magic make me pretty sure I'm just a focus-of-will away from being able to do it myself. Not only that, the books keep calling back to earlier events to build an incredibly rich and complete world. The Aleran Codex series impressed me all over again with characterization, creative magics, battle scenes and realistic portrayal of complex plots, tactics and military concerns... particularly the day-to-day food and shelter considerations no one except a Tribune Logistica could fully appreciate. His newest series, a steampunk-inspired aerial adventure called The Aeronaut's Windlass, is a promising start to something brand new, with engaging characters and typically headlong pacing.
www.maggiestiefvater.com > A wonderfully mesmeric, lyrical find is Maggie Stiefvater. Like some of the other authors listed here, Ms. Stiefvater's work is classified as Young Adult (YA), but her characters often feel deeper, more mature, and more realistically conflicted than other YA heroes seem to be (heck, they're deeper than some of the characters I've endured in 'adult' writing lately). The writing flows quietly, musically, with great humour, and her stories are never dumbed down. Case in point: her werewolf series featured poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke, so you know you're in new territory here. I enjoyed the Books of Faerie (Lament & Ballad), with their musical landscapes and Celtic mythology, but the Raven Cycle series -- searching for dead Welsh kings in the Virginia wilds? yes, please -- is quite simply a masterpiece. Although the forthcoming All the Crooked Saints will help feed my addiction, I'll still be waiting with gleeful anticipation for the forthcoming Ronan series. Anyone who reads the Raven Cycle will know what I mean.
www.terrypratchettbooks.com > With Sir Terry's death in the spring of 2015, we lost the chance for more of the great talent and increasingly shadowed explorations of humanity (and monstrosity) he shared through his books. Humour and wordplay never go amiss, either: the man was a genius. The first one I read was selected at random from the middle of a series and still made me laugh like a fool -- out loud -- on a city bus. For a stand-alone book, just to dip your toe in the water, try Nation or Small Gods, or his recent quasi-historical Victorian London romp, Dodger.
www.neilgaiman.com > One of my favourite things about Neil Gaiman's work is its eerie beauty. His language is precise and vivid, and his imagery is haunting - even his children's books, such as Coraline, The Wolves in the Walls, or most recently, the amazing The Graveyard Book, are quietly unsettling in perfect ways. His adult books are equally fascinating - I began with Neverwhere and haven't missed one since. His usual illustrator, Dave McKean, has an appropriately jagged, off-kilter aesthetic that just works. The movie version of Mirrormask gives you a sense of the weirdness, but can't quite compete with the books.
www.chrismoore.com > Like Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore is somewhat difficult to classify; he's probably most found under fantasy and humour, because he does blend both those things, but I most enjoy his wordplay. A friend first recommended him to me for the vampire books Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck and Bite Me, but in fact I ended up enjoying A Dirty Job even more -- its bleak humour and suprising moments of pathos really worked well. Most recently I read Moore's Sacre Bleu, and was completely enamoured with Moore's blend of actual art history with darkly fantastical elements. I absolutely loved it, and I'm not even a fan of the Impressionists... quality indeed.
www.travissentell.com > Sometimes I have to shake off the eerie and read some quality work of the non-categorizable genre variety. Travis is where I can turn for a dose of rich, relatable prose with thought-provoking themes. His book with Tchicaya Missamou, In the Shadow of Freedom, was harrowing enough that I half-wished it was fiction, but it was absolutely worthwhile... and more recently, Travis and Coliloquy publishing have released Fluid, a brand-new work of fantastic scope and endearing characterization that takes e-publishing to a whole new level. Check out the series of promos on YouTube, then purchase and download the adventure for yourself.
... and when Caz gets her own website, that'll be here, too.
Other recommended titles:
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
World War Z by Max Brooks
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night and The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series & the Dirk Gently books, by Douglas Adams ... his TED talk is definitely worth a watch, too: classic blend of humour & passionately thoughtful environmentalism
Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone (aka The Lighthouse Duet) by Carol Berg
... and just to show I haven't completely lost my English-major roots...
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Feed by M. T. Anderson
Little Brother, Homeland and For the Win by Cory Doctorow
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead [play script] by Tom Stoppard (the movie's great too, if you can find it)
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
www.jim-butcher.com > Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden is my hero - a hugely engaging mix of snark and power. I've been devouring these books for a couple of years now and they just keep getting better. The storylines are complex, the characters are smart and well-drawn, and the explorations of magic make me pretty sure I'm just a focus-of-will away from being able to do it myself. Not only that, the books keep calling back to earlier events to build an incredibly rich and complete world. The Aleran Codex series impressed me all over again with characterization, creative magics, battle scenes and realistic portrayal of complex plots, tactics and military concerns... particularly the day-to-day food and shelter considerations no one except a Tribune Logistica could fully appreciate. His newest series, a steampunk-inspired aerial adventure called The Aeronaut's Windlass, is a promising start to something brand new, with engaging characters and typically headlong pacing.
www.maggiestiefvater.com > A wonderfully mesmeric, lyrical find is Maggie Stiefvater. Like some of the other authors listed here, Ms. Stiefvater's work is classified as Young Adult (YA), but her characters often feel deeper, more mature, and more realistically conflicted than other YA heroes seem to be (heck, they're deeper than some of the characters I've endured in 'adult' writing lately). The writing flows quietly, musically, with great humour, and her stories are never dumbed down. Case in point: her werewolf series featured poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke, so you know you're in new territory here. I enjoyed the Books of Faerie (Lament & Ballad), with their musical landscapes and Celtic mythology, but the Raven Cycle series -- searching for dead Welsh kings in the Virginia wilds? yes, please -- is quite simply a masterpiece. Although the forthcoming All the Crooked Saints will help feed my addiction, I'll still be waiting with gleeful anticipation for the forthcoming Ronan series. Anyone who reads the Raven Cycle will know what I mean.
www.terrypratchettbooks.com > With Sir Terry's death in the spring of 2015, we lost the chance for more of the great talent and increasingly shadowed explorations of humanity (and monstrosity) he shared through his books. Humour and wordplay never go amiss, either: the man was a genius. The first one I read was selected at random from the middle of a series and still made me laugh like a fool -- out loud -- on a city bus. For a stand-alone book, just to dip your toe in the water, try Nation or Small Gods, or his recent quasi-historical Victorian London romp, Dodger.
www.neilgaiman.com > One of my favourite things about Neil Gaiman's work is its eerie beauty. His language is precise and vivid, and his imagery is haunting - even his children's books, such as Coraline, The Wolves in the Walls, or most recently, the amazing The Graveyard Book, are quietly unsettling in perfect ways. His adult books are equally fascinating - I began with Neverwhere and haven't missed one since. His usual illustrator, Dave McKean, has an appropriately jagged, off-kilter aesthetic that just works. The movie version of Mirrormask gives you a sense of the weirdness, but can't quite compete with the books.
www.chrismoore.com > Like Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore is somewhat difficult to classify; he's probably most found under fantasy and humour, because he does blend both those things, but I most enjoy his wordplay. A friend first recommended him to me for the vampire books Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck and Bite Me, but in fact I ended up enjoying A Dirty Job even more -- its bleak humour and suprising moments of pathos really worked well. Most recently I read Moore's Sacre Bleu, and was completely enamoured with Moore's blend of actual art history with darkly fantastical elements. I absolutely loved it, and I'm not even a fan of the Impressionists... quality indeed.
www.travissentell.com > Sometimes I have to shake off the eerie and read some quality work of the non-categorizable genre variety. Travis is where I can turn for a dose of rich, relatable prose with thought-provoking themes. His book with Tchicaya Missamou, In the Shadow of Freedom, was harrowing enough that I half-wished it was fiction, but it was absolutely worthwhile... and more recently, Travis and Coliloquy publishing have released Fluid, a brand-new work of fantastic scope and endearing characterization that takes e-publishing to a whole new level. Check out the series of promos on YouTube, then purchase and download the adventure for yourself.
... and when Caz gets her own website, that'll be here, too.
Other recommended titles:
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
World War Z by Max Brooks
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night and The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series & the Dirk Gently books, by Douglas Adams ... his TED talk is definitely worth a watch, too: classic blend of humour & passionately thoughtful environmentalism
Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone (aka The Lighthouse Duet) by Carol Berg
... and just to show I haven't completely lost my English-major roots...
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Feed by M. T. Anderson
Little Brother, Homeland and For the Win by Cory Doctorow
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead [play script] by Tom Stoppard (the movie's great too, if you can find it)
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
