Fantasy Friday #15: Fantasy ‘Pick & Mix’

Fantasy Friday is my own feature, posted every other Friday. It’s pretty self-explanatory: I do a feature on something to do with the genre. Sometimes it will be a book recommendation, sometimes showcasing a book or series I’ve loved and other times it might be a discussion post. You’re more than welcome to join in with this feature, let me know if you make your own Fantasy Friday post!

Today I want to recommend fantasy novels, depending on what element you would like to read about.

I’ve chosen a selection of fantasy books, picked out some of the main themes or features of each, and then divided them accordingly. The idea is that you can pick one or more elements you’d like to read about, and pick a book from that category. Even better if a book crosses several different categories – which is where the ‘pick & mix’ comes in! When it comes to series I’ve generally only included the first book from each, unless the sequels contain elements that the previous books do not.

The categories are: Assassins, Dark, Dragons, Dwarves & Elves, Historical, Magic, Monsters, Political, Quest, Royalty and Thieves.

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Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas; Graceling (Graceling #1) by Kristin Cashore; The Way Of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks; Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire #1) by Mark Lawrence; Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by Robin LaFevers; Assassin’s Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy #1) by Robin Hobb; The Last Wish (The Witcher Saga #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski; Pyramids (Discworld #7) by Terry Pratchett.

Turning Off The TV #3: Supernatural

Welcome to my new Thursday feature, Turning off the TV! In this feature I’ll be recommending books similar to TV shows or films you may have enjoyed, both series and specific episodes.

The TV series this week is: Supernatural.

Two brothers follow their father’s footsteps as “hunters” fighting evil supernatural beings of many kinds including monsters, demons, and gods that roam the earth.

This is the second of this feature covering Supernatural, as I hope to be looking at this series in more detail. So many creatures and urban legends are featured that it opens up a choice of so many more books!

Enjoyed ‘Faith’ (Season One, Episode Twelve)?

Then how about Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, for a more light-hearted look at grim reapers? Or Croak by Gina Damico, about a young girl whose family business is reaping – her uncle is the Grim Reaper himself. And then there’s The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, narrated by Death. The film adaptation has been recently released/will soon be released, depending on where you live. This is one of my definite reads for 2014, perhaps even this month!

Enjoyed ‘The Benders’ (Season One, Episode Fifteen)?

This episode was particularly disturbing. It featured a hillbilly family, Deliverance style, with a taste for torturing humans and human flesh. Although it didn’t ever show cannibalism, it was pretty strongly implied. So if you fancy um, reading some books on cannibalism… here you are. Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun series features cannibalism as a ritualistic practice, used to obtain memories of the deceased. Or if you’re after some YA cannibal fiction (I feel someone is missing out on a niche here? In fact me and my best friend at uni were totally going to write a cannibal love story based off the success of teen paranormal romances like Twilight. I think it will be a major hit. It was also going to be a musical) then Peeps by Scott Westerfeld might be what you’re after: a parasite from a comet causes people to become cannibalistic, and repelled by that which they once loved. And how can we forget Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, that haunting tale of serial killer Hannibal Lecter, immortalised in film by Anthony Hopkins and more recently by Mads Mikkelsen?

Enjoyed ‘Something Wicked’ (Season One, Episode Eighteen)?

This episode features a Shtriga, a vampiric witch of traditional Albanian folklore who sucks the blood of infants as they sleep. I’ve only managed to find one book, or rather series, that features this creature: The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. It also happens to be the series that The Witcher video game series is based on.

Have you got any other recommendations based on these episodes? Are you a fan of Supernatural?