First off, 
how awesome would it be to title all of my Thoughtful Thursday posts with lines out of classic 80′s songs?
Secondly, thanks for all the well-wishes. I have a drug resistant form of strep so it’s been a tough week and a half. I’m finally starting to see some improvement. Hopefully, by this time next week I’ll be back to my (ab)normal self.
Third, on to today’s topic for discussion!
One of the benefits of the internet is it allows you to tap the minds of lots of people to make decisions. Information spreads quickly on the internet, and you never know what is going to be the next big hit that goes viral. Lots of big companies are taking advantage of this capability to do crowdsourcing. I want to use this capability to do a giant, on-line version of what I like to call The Bookstore Game.
Anyone who has worked in a bookstore has faced this situation: A customer walks in and says, “I just finished Hugely Popular Book and I loved it! What else do you have like it?” The fantasy genre has a lot of breadth, with at least a dozen different sub-genres. I want to see if we can add some depth to the pool.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is this: Pick a book, something that has come out in the last four or five years by one of the big names, and then recommend a book by a lesser known author that scratches the same literary itch for you. Let’s see if we can share our information, so the next time we walk into a bookstore, we can say, “A friend told me to read…”
I’ll start by saying, if you loved Charles de Lint’s The Mystery of Grace, you should read Terry Windling’s The Wood Wife.
Leave a comment and we’ll enter you into a drawing to win a copy of Kelly Meding’s Three Days to Dead. If you are not familiar with her work, Random House is serializing some of her short fiction, so go check that out here. Or, if that book doesn’t float your boat, we’ll let you sort through our stacks and choose something fun for yourself.
I’d say that if You like Mary Janice Davidson’s Quuen Betsy series you’ll like Molly Harper’s Jane Jameson series. The first book is Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs
Hey great topic! I’ve got a couple, seems like I have this conversation with somebody all the time:
If you like the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher you will more than likely enjoy Bleak History by John Shirley
If you liked Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served cold, you will probably enjoy Mark Chadbourn’s The Silver Skull.
I would say is you like the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage and Mark Zug then you would probably like the Tunnels series by Brian Williams and Roderick Gordon
If you like Jack Vance, try Matthew Hughes.
I would say if you like The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, you should try the Ravirn books (starting with WebMage) by Kelly McCullough.
And if you like Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, you should try The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (or vice versa).
If you like the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews you would enjoy Skinwalker by Faith Hunter.
If you like the Jaz Parks series Jennifer Rardin you would probably like the Darkwing Chronicles by Savannah Russe.
If you like the Cyn Craven series by Jenna Maclaine you will like the Dark Days series by Jocelynn Drake.
jackie b central texas
If you love Angie Fox biker witch you love Linda Wisdom’s Hex series.
If you love Dakota Cassidy’s book you absolutely love Shelly Laurenston book very funny and sexy. Warning do no drink and read at the same time.
Oh this is fun!
If you liked Robin Hobb’s the liveship traders series you’ll likeTransformation (Rai Kirah) by Carol Berg or The Barbed Coil by J. V. Jones. Great engaging characters.
If you liked Illona Andrew’s On the Edge you’ll probably like Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore, both have a similar sense f humor.
Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate) by Gail Carriger is very similar to Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody, Book 1) by Elizabeth Peters ( even though his one is technically a mystery) they both have powerful and fun heroines.
Archangel (Samaria, Book 1) by Sharon Shinn should appeal to those who like Daughter of the Forest (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 1) by Juliet Marillier and vice versa.
If you like Charlaine Harris’ sookie Sackhouse novels you might like Darkfever (Fever Series, Book 1) by Karen Marie Moning, but this could be a stretch….
Like Harry Potter? Try Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series.
Hey if you like Alane Ferguson books, you’ll love Kylie Brant’s Mindhunters series :)
Agree with Justin on Bleak Hitory by John Shirley. I really liked that novel, though it’s not as funny as Dresden Files. I also agree with sgiden. I think MJ Davidson and Molly Harper are both funny series about Young Single Supernaturals. Karen MacInerney tries a similar approach with a werewolf. And then Casey Daniels does the same thing with her ghost-seeing protagonist Pepper Martin. About to go on a long binge here so I’ll stop. S
How about this.
If you liked Twilight, try the Vampire Academy
And if you liked The Sookie Stackhouse books, try Jeaniene Frost’s Huntress series.
If you like Ilona Andrew’s Magic series, try Lisa Shearin’s Raine Benares series.
If you Don’t like Twilight series, try Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.