I just got done a reread of The Last Unicorn, one of my favourite novels, and before that I read Deerskin by Robin McKinley and found myself loving that, too. I realized I miss this sort of old-fashioned fantasy story. Specifically, I miss the combination of earnestness and the somewhat old-fashioned way of speaking the characters have, along with the prose matching them similarly.
There are many excellent modern fantasy series being written, but I've found the characters and prose tend to also be more modern-feeling, if that makes sense. I want something that scratches that "classic" dragons-and-fairy-tales sort of fantasy itch. I can find most actually-classic series myself, or know about them, although recommendations are still welcome, but I'm also quite interested to know if anyone is writing like that nowadays still, and if so what you'd recommend of theirs.
No trigger warnings required, but if the books recommended have a lot of the misogyny, casual exoticism of other races and so on that classic fantasy also tends towards, a small note about that would be appreciated alongside the recommendation.
by TheBetterStory
6 Comments
Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
Dalemark series by Diana Wynne Jones
The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik is the Napoleonic wars except with dragons and it’s written in the style of the Horatio Hornblower books.
The characters have a range of 19th century ideas. The narrative treats bigotry as wrong.
I’m not sure if it is really what you are looking for, but I’ve quite enjoyed some of the proto-fantasy stories of the Victorian era, such as George MacDonald’s *Phantastes* and *Lilith* (maybe a bit more ‘faerie’ than ‘fantasty,’ but definitely have the old-fashioned style and earnest tone)*,* Lord Dunsany’s *The King of Elfland’s Daughter*, William Morris’ *The Well at the World’s End* and *The Wood Beyond the World* (their vocabulary is quite old-fashioned), E.R. Eddison’s *The Worm Ouroboros*, and Hope Mirrlees’ *Lud-in-the-Mist*.
Perhaps you’re already familiar with those though, as you’ve mentioned you know about most classic series already, but I still thought I’d throw out the suggestions in case you weren’t! Happy reading 🙂
I know exactly what you mean! You might like “Tam Lin” by Pamela Dean, which is loosely based on the Scottish ballad. It’s set at a Midwestern college in the early 70s, and despite being mostly slice of life, it has the same kind of atmosphere you’d find with authors like Peter Beagle.
McKillip, Patricia especially :The Sorceress and the Cygnet, The Cygnet and the Firebird
The Changeling Sea, Song for the Basilisk, Ombria in Shadow, In the Forests of Serre
Sherwood Smith’s [Sartorias-deles universe!](https://sherwood-smith.com/other-writings/reading-order-of-the-sartorias-deles-series-what-s-the-reading-order-for) She wrote a bunch and they range from Fantasy Epic (Banner of the Dead) to for kids (CJ books) to mostly standalone romances, which are my personal favorites: The Trouble With Kings, Crown Duel, Sasharia en Garde.
No spice, lots of earnestness and old fashioned customs. The thing I super love about her plots is that her heroes all seek to AVOID war – no “the one true hero can prevail in a single battle with zero fallout” stuff.