More book recommendations?

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

Yes, another post requesting book recommendations. I don't know why I'm even doing this; my "To Read" list on Amazon is four pages long....

Anyway, I've been diligently considering all of the book recommendations that folks have named here (hence the really long reading list), and although there are many books that I'm excited to read, there is one thing that is bothering me...

Trilogies. And series.

Don't get me wrong, obviously I love a good series such as (*cough cough*) The Queen's Thief, His Dark Materials, Abhorsen, Airborne, etc......but what ever happened to single, stand-alone books? Fantasy in particular seems to have this fetish with trilogies. It's kind of driving me crazy. Not to insult fantasy writers, but it often seems to me that writing a series is a cheap way to sell a bunch of books without having to go through the trouble of developing new characters. Just come up with one set of characters and settings, and then spread a plot over three books, and then readers are duped into buying three books instead of one. OBVIOUSLY, this doesn't apply to all series and trilogies.....but seriously, I get a little tired of the same main character after a few books. (Thank god that MWT's characters are so awesome)

For example, I haven't even touched Tamora Pierce since finishing The Lioness Quartet. I mean, Alanna was a fun character and everything, but FOUR books felt a bit stretched to me, and now there are companion series?? Just looking at the Tamora Pierce section of the bookstore makes me feel exhausted. *prepares to be lynched*

When I go to a library to pick out books, series drive me nuts because often a library doesn't have all of the books (or only the middle ones), so I end up not checking out any for fear that I won't end up reading the rest. *sigh* My To Read list is littered with unstarted trilogies and series that everyone has recommended, but I haven't been able to commit myself to read for fear that I won't be able to read all three straight through and I'll get side tracked and never finish the series. *SIGH*

So, fussing and complaining aside....

What are some STAND ALONE books that you'd recommend? I don't mean books in a series that CAN stand alone...I mean pure, simple this-is-the-only-book-with-these-characters stand alone books.

And is anyone else tired of trilogies?

Comments

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

try East by Edith Pattou :]

[ambyr.livejournal.com]

Sean Stewart's Nobody's Son ("what happens after the happily ever after" fantasy, character-focused, with a royal marriage that no one expects to work and yet, somehow, does)

Catherynne Valente's Palimpsest (dreamy, surrealistic fantasy about need, want, love, desire, and the differences between them)

Michael Marshall Smith's Only Forward (incredibly twisty science fiction with a narrator you can never, ever trust)

Patricia McKillip's The Changeling Sea (a little jewel of a story I love for the descriptions, the characters, and the ending, which manages to be satisfying while still leaving many threads untied)

Robin McKinley's Sunshine (a vampire novel that manages to make vampires both creepy and mesmeizing)

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

Oooo, yes. I have that on my bookshelf now. Thanks!

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

Sherryl Jordan's Winter of Fire. I loved this book for the plot and for the female main character, who is really strong.

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Most of Patricia McKillip's are stand-alones. My favorite is Ombria in Shadow; I see someone else mentioned The Changeling Sea.

Robin McKinley's aren't series, except for The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown.

[foxglove-chant.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I haven't read the previous recs, but in case these weren't mentioned, Brandon Sanderson (the author who was chosen to take over the Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan died) has two stand along novels which I, for one, think are excellent. They are titled Elantris and Warbreaker. He also has a trilogy which I LOVE, but ... it's a trilogy =p Anyway, I highly recommend his stand-alones too =)

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of these yet, except for Sunshine. I love Robin McKinley, but I wasn't a fan of this book. I'm not sure why. It felt like it took me forEVER to read, and I'm never excited for the style of narration where the main character tells you everything, rather than showing. "See, here in our town..." and "Oh yeah, did I mention the Voodoo Wars?" (not exact quotes)

But the others are getting added to my list. Thanks!

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I'm the only person I've met that didn't care for Sunshine I'm not trying to suggest no one else read it, I'm just saying. I couldn't even finish it, actually. That's not to say I thought it was bad or anything, I just got about half-way through and did not care about the characters or what they were doing at all. *shrug*

[readsintrees.livejournal.com]

Yes, I loved that book. I read in in middle school, and after I moved on to high school (where I go special permission to leave study hall and go BACK to the middle school library to check out more books there), that's one of the books I continued to check out.

[spellcoats.livejournal.com]

Hnnnnnngh it's been so long since I read a standalone novel.

Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

[veriloquently.livejournal.com]

I love anything by Frances Hardinge, especially because her books are all stand-alone reads (I too have been suffering from series frustration). I read Gullstruck Island (also titled The Lost Conspiracy in the US I think?) a month ago and *have* to recommend it, especially to QT fans. It has politics and a wily, underestimated protagonist, racism/colonialism in a fantasy setting, and fantastic world building. Don't want to spoil it, but the premise is that a young girl, Hathin, belonging to a marginalized people, has spent her whole life caring for her older sister, who may be one of the revered 'Lost.' Or, her sister may be intellectually disabled. In one fell swoop, all the island's Lost are murdered, except for her sister, and her people are blamed. Through a series of circumstances, it is up to Hathin to figure out who the murderer is, and why the murders happened. Anyways, giving a plot blurb always sells the book short, as I'm sure mine does. But if it sounds at all interesting, do check it out!

A couple of other goodies: Nation by Terry Pratchett, and Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

yay! let me know how that goes for you? It's one of my favs :]

[keestone.livejournal.com]

The majority of McKillip and McKinley's books stand alone. Since Sunshine has already been suggested for McKinley, Chalice.

Patricia McKillip -- In the Forests of Serre. Also, Winter Rose and Solstice Wood, which are technically companion books but have very different styles and characters and stand on their own very well.

Patricia Wrede -- Snow White and Rose Red, if you can find it.

Pamela Dean -- Tam Lin (This one did get mentioned recently.)

Elizabeth Marie Pope -- The Perilous Gard (As did this one.)

Lois McMaster Bujold -- The Spirit Ring (Yes, she actually has written a complete standalone, and it's brilliant too.)

Steven Brust and Emma Bull -- Freedom and Necessity.

Ursula K. LeGuin -- Lavinia

R. A. Macavoy --Tea With the Black Dragon. (I was looking all over for this one so I could add a favorite first line, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Gah!)

Peter S. Beagle -- A Fine and Private Place

Neil Gaiman -- The Graveyard Book (I think this is his best yet, and I'm so glad it won the Newbery!)

C. S. Lewis -- Till We Have Faces.

George MacDonald -- Phantastes. Also, "The Golden Key" and "The Light Princess."

That's a start at least.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Chalice by McKinley. Nation by Pratchett. Has anyone else (other than emmaco) read the True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex? And did you love it as much as I did?

I've just looked back at the books I've read over the past few years and so many of them are series! I tend to lose patience with many of them, too. Especially because if they aren't that great I still feel obligated to read them all, sometimes. Anal-retentive person that I am.

Edited to add: Three years ago we came up with a massive list of 100 recommended books. You can read it here (http://community.livejournal.com/sounis/76784.html#cutid1).

[keestone.livejournal.com]

Also, Steven Brust's Agyar. Don't read the blurb on the back, just read the book.

[inkasrain.livejournal.com]

This is a pet peeve of mine as well. It seems like every Joe Fantasy is turning what might be a decent stand-alone novel into a series or trilogy just for the heck of it. (And now, what with Eragon and Twilight setting the trend, "trilogy" has sometimes come to mean four books. I ask you.) If the quality is excellent and the story is truly best told in this medium, then great-- but quite a lot of what comes out seems to be mediocre stories stretched out over a number of books that it just doesn't need.

Warning: Rant Follows. (Feel free to skip.)
I actually read a book recently which still irritates me-- that might be why I'm so verbose on this topic. I had heard good things abut this book, but (I thought, and my sister agreed) it turned out really rather badly. I checked up online, and lo and behold, the story (which had come to a merciful only after a good deal of misery on the part of the characters and, more importantly, me!) was of course but the first installment in what seemed to me an entirely unnecesary trilogy. Hence, steamed Inky.

Anyway. Book suggestions!

- "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay is just amazing, though very long and intense.
- "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke, ditto.
- "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman-- if Gaiman is your style.
- "Bad Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett. Pure hilarity.

Or if you want something all but guaranteed to remain sequel-less, you can always go with Shakespeare! (Stay away from the Histories in that case, though ;-))

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, all of my favorite books are in series...I actually like more books if I enjoy the characters, but I know what you mean. Usually a trilogy will start out great and end terribly. I adore Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, but I strongly dislike the third book, The Child of the Prophecy, and Inkdeath (Inkheart trilogy) was sort of a disappointment. I'm having a hard time of thinking of stand alone books...if your a Robin Mckinley fan I'm sure I don't have to mention Chalice or anything else by her. Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier is a stand alone and very good. This is the billionth time I'm recommending this, but you should definitely read The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones...words cannot express how hilarious that book is, especially if your sick of typical fantasy trilogies and stuff like that.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I'm totally the opposite... I love sequels. Although obviously I don't like them when they're pointless/poorly done, and I don't like it when authors just stretch a series on and on with no end in sight.

Anyway, I recommend both of Elizabeth Marie Pope's novels: The Perilous Gard, and The Sherwood Ring. Both are stand-alone novels, both are awesome. Other stand-alones that are favourites of mine: anything by Jane Austen, 'The Moorchild' by Eloise McGraw, 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 'I Capture the Castle' by Dodie Smith, and 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I hated Sunshine. I hate to say it, because I know so many people love it, and I'm honestly glad that they could enjoy it even if I couldn't. But it is kind of nice to hear that I wasn't the only one who didn't care for it.

[ambyr.livejournal.com]

Hmm, based on that, I might advise you skip Palimpsest. I also think you may struggle through the beginning of Only Forward. I still support reading the other two, though!

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

GOOD OMENS. IT IS GOOD OMENS.

oh that was not angry capslock that was overly excited capslock. :-D

[inkasrain.livejournal.com]

Did you like "Chalice"? I like a lot of McKinkey's books, but for me, "Chalice" seemed a little stuffy.

Oh, and speaking of Diana Wynne Jones-- it's been a while since I've read them, but her "Dalemark Quartet" is great. It is a small series, but the first three books are really stand-alone. If I recall correctly, they don't even have to be read in sequence, they are that independent of each other. (The first, "Cart and Cwidder" was my favorite, but you can enjoy any of them without obligating yourself to reading four books.)

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Diana Wynne Jones: Deep Secret (my favorite of all her books) and its sort of sequel (although both are really stand-alones) The Merlin Conspiracy. Howl's Moving Castle (second favorite). Hexwood (third favorite).

Although its a quintet, if you haven't already you should read Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence. Fabulous.

Seconding the rec for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, especially if you're at all curious about very early 20th century New York City. A very, very affecting work which is quite underrated.

[main-titles.livejournal.com]

Standalone books? Those exist? ;)

- Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud
- Of Nightingales That Weep by Katherine Paterson
- The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E. Wein
- Nation by Terry Pratchett
- Princess Ben by Catherine Murdock
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman
- The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard
- The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison
- Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
- Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
- Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
- Airman by Eoin Colfer
- Beauty by Robin McKinley

Of various genres, though most are fantasy.

[main-titles.livejournal.com]

Oh, seconding Deep Secret! It's a very awesome book.