I am delighted to share another video where I get to chat with Jon about D&D. This time we’re covering the top 5 novels that are fuel for your imagination – inspiring to your game. It was a fun conversation. I really look forward to our next chance to chat.
IF you don’t have the 50 minutes or so to watch, or if you’re at all interested I have put the notes I made up before we shot the video below here:
Top 5 fantasy books to read for inspiration (and why…)
I thought this was a great subject for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, reading anything is important. The further you reach, the greater the inspiration you’ll achieve. Reading a fantasy novel is what got me started along the path toward playing D&D.
Reading fantasy is a great way to pick up ideas, stretch your characters, expand your game world, learn new things about the real world AND sharing what you’ve read with others is a great way to connect with friends. There’s a lot of good that comes from digging into a book.
Why five? Because if we didn’t put a limit on this, the list would be boundless. There are hundreds of fantasy titles out there. You absolutely can find something you want to read. It will definitely help your game, but we don’t want to turn this into a book-cast.
This was not an easy list to compile. Not for lack of choices, but the shear number of things to pick through!
I’m going to eliminate 2 series right off the bat.
First – The Hobbit (and by association the LOTR trilogy). This is a tried and true “go to” for fantasy. It’s the starting point for so much that I don’t know how to take a fresh look at it. IF by some chance you’ve never read any Tolkien, it’s the basis for a huge amount of what we’re talking about.
Second – I’m not going to pander here. Any novel by our esteemed host is great inspiration for fantasy AND I absolutely recommend Blood and Iron for a setting that is not a traditional pseudo medieval fantasy look. I just think that “advertising” wasn’t necessarily the right way to go.
So – top 5 to read for inspiration – and why!
#1 – Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed. (DAW books, 2012)
This is a great book. Above and beyond that, the inspiration part is in the use of a non-traditional hero character, a middle-eastern background, a murder mystery AND considerations of religion (like we talked about in our last visit).
If you’re doing an adventure involving genies, shifting sands, flying carpets, anything along those lines this is a book you need to get!
#2 – The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt Evans (DEL REY 1985)
Empires at war. Wizards, warriors, miscast spells and curses. IF you want to see the sort of variety you can have with some of the traditional characters in a D&D setting this is a great one. This is great if you want to teach your players to be careful what they ask for!
#3 – Thieves World edited by Robert Asprin (ACE 1978)
Adventures featuring a party of sneaks, rouges, assassins and other double dealing sorts can be a huge amount of fun. The thieves’ world series is shared world. It’s the same setting with shared characters over a series of short stories. There is a lot to be gleaned from these pages AND there are stories by some of the fantasy greats in there (Poul Anderson, Joe Haldeman, Robert Asprin…)
#4 – His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (DEL REY 2006)
Dragons as weapons. Aerial combat. Navy ships. Kingdoms at war. This series really gives a lot of reasons to love it. Yes, it is outside the “traditional” swords and horses time frame. I don’t like to have pistols or cannons or modern weaponry mixed with my D&D campaign, but this book has a lot to get the creative juices flowing. Absolutely worth the read, even if you’re not using it for D&D.
#5 – The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (TOR 2010)
Massive, immersive, epic fantasy. Knights, wars, magic and myths all mixed together in a fat, meaty book. Ballpark 1200 pages. This has rich, detailed views into a fantasy world that any gamer or game master should be reading (and there’s a lot to read!) Sanderson’s style is easy to read and the pages really melt away – do not let the size of the book intimidate you!