Looking to Be Charmed

[rowyn]

Once upon a time, when I was a child, I was an avid gourmand of a reader. I'd read pretty much anything. Mostly I read sf, fantasy, and romances, but I'd read classics and the occasional contemporary fiction for fun, too.

When I went to college, I largely stopped reading for pleasure, and I've never really gotten back to doing so. I've been doing more leisure reading in the last few years than I did through my college and graduate years, but I find that my tastes have gotten narrower.

Most of my joy in reading comes from a very particular sort of novel nowadays, and the trouble is that it's not a genre of novel. I can't plop "science fiction" or "romance" or "fantasy" into a search engine and come up with what I want.

Because what I want most from novels is to be charmed.

I want books full of likeable, engaging, witty and preferably genteel characters. I want light-hearted, well-written stories with entertaining plots and happy endings. I majored in Literature with a capital L and I've read more tragedies than I ever wanted to. I've read hundreds of epic, sweeping novels about TEOTWAWKI or the prevention thereof; I even wrote one myself. And in the process, I've acquired a taste for small stories, stories about ordinary people with people-sized problems. Every struggle doesn't have to be life-or-death, and every life-or-death struggle doesn't have to involve the welfare of whole nations or worlds.

To list off the qualities I'm looking for:

- Likeable characters
- Witty dialogue
- Gentility *
- Happy endings
- Light-hearted
- Good-natured
- Humorous **
- Fantasy or sf setting
- Romance
- Problem resolution by wit rather than raw force or power

* "Gentility" is not the same as "nobility". By genteel, I mean "well-mannered and courteous". Jane Austen's characters are rarely if ever nobles, and the few who are noble often aren't genteel. So I'm not looking for books about princes and princesses; I'm looking for ones about people who are polite and well-spoken.
** Again, not the same as a comedy. The Harry Potter books have plenty of humor in them, but they're not written as comedies.

Examples of works that fall into my newly-created subgenre:

Jane Austen novels
Ms. Austen didn't write fantasy or sf, but otherwise almost all her novels hit all of the other qualities I'm looking for. Her books are about quite ordinary middle-class Britains struggling with quite ordinary middle-class problems. They are, nonetheless, lots of fun to read, and often an exercise in demonstrating just how much trouble an overabundance of gentility can create.

The Crown Jewels (and its two sequels) by Walter Jon Williams
Yes, Walter Jon Williams, the cyberpunk author. He wrote a trio of lighthearted sf novels that are quite charming and, sadly, long out of print. Lut has copies; I should dig them out and re-read them, as it's been a few years. Depending on the reader's preferences, these might be weak on the "likeable characters" count, since many of the characters have moral codes that are somewhat peculiar. But there's an endearing and usually humorous emphasis on good manners, and almost all problems are resolved by wit, not force.

Diana Wynne Jones novels

She has a much larger and more diverse body of work than Jane Austen, so it's not fair to say that all her books fit in here. Ms. Jones does have a penchant for plots of world- or universe-spanning impact, which isn't my first choice, and her characters don't tend to be especially genteel. Still, her protagonists are almost uniformly likeable, she writes with wit and humor, and nearly all her books have upbeat, happy endings.

The first three Harry Potter books, by J. K. Rowling

This series has gotten considerably darker over time, and while I enjoyed reading books 4 and 6 a great deal, they don't really fit in the "light-hearted, happy endings" genre. The earlier books lacked much in the way of "romance" and, as with Ms. Jones, there's no emphasis on the genteel, they do have an abundance of likeable characters, humor, and much of the problem-resolution was based on quick thinking

My main incentive in writing all this out was to solicit recommendations. There aren't many books that fit all the criteria I've listed, but perhaps some of you can recommend books that fit several of them. Any suggestions?

Comments

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Run, do not walk, to the nearest Jeeves book by P.G. Wodehouse.

Seriously.

-The Gneech

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Hey! Another fan of Drake Majistral!

You might also enjoy the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold, and her Chalion books as well.

[richardf8]

Have you explored Terry Pratchett's Discworld yet?

Here's a couple I read recently that fit:

[(Anonymous)]

1. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0765311771/104-0651793-9070305 . It is a breath of fresh air to the fantasy genre in my opinion. This one is original, self-contained (not the beginning of a seemingly endless epic series), and contains ALL of your mentioned points, except the whole thing isn't light-hearted, but a lot of it is. If you're a fantasy fan, this is one of those lesser-known gems you can't miss. I look forward to more by this new author. Here's a review I read by Orson Scott Card that convinced me to read it: http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2004-10-31.shtml


2. David Copperfield and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. These contain all of your points (in my non-lit-major-influenced opinion) except neither are Sci-Fi or Fantasy, I don't recall any romance in Oliver Twist, and there are parts in both that are not light-hearted, and can be kind of sad, but things get better. What can I say other than these are classics for good reason. But being a Lit student (note the capital L :-) ), you've probably already read them. The more Dickens I read, the more I like him. I also love A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities. Next on the list is Great Expectations.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

My stuff is at http://home.houston.rr.com/akitchen/

I write stories with the objective that I want to take the reader on an emotional rollercoaster ride. I want the reader to be excited, happy, sad, furious, frightened, all the biggies. To do that, I make characters that people can care about (love or hate) and stories that make the reader want to keep going.

[gil-liant.livejournal.com]

The "Liad" series by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee.

The "Talking With Dragons" YA series by Patricia Wrede. (In fact, practically all of Wrede's stuff.)

Several of the early works of Anne McCaffrey, including her YA "Harper" series. (Starting with "Dragonsong", I believe.)

The original "Belgariad" by David and Leigh Eddings.

I'll stop now. (Sorry.)

[sandratayler.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population and her collection of short stories called Phases.

Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain might suit.

I'll also add a second vote for Terry Pratchett, but with an emphasis on Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky. I think they'll fit all of the criteria.

And of course Lois MacMaster Bujold, but I suspect you've already read everything she's ever written.

Ha ha ur ugly

[(Anonymous)]

Ha ha you are really ugly! It's patchetic! Why are you even existing, ugliness gets you nowhere in life that's worth going! Ha ha!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Oh look, your first troll! Ironically they come across as the ugly one here.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Ummm... Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton comes to mind.

Summers at Castle Auburn, perhaps. Sharon Green? I don't remember the author offhand.

[garyamort.livejournal.com]

Lloyd Alexander, if you don't mind reading "childrens" books. In addition to the Prydain Chronicles(fantasy) there is also the...hmm, not sure what I'd call it, The Beggar Queen, Kestrel, and Westmark - they had dark overtones, but stayed just this side of light hearted. He also has a few other stories that I tended to find all good, all varied, all lighthearted.

Susan Cooper - The Dark Is Rising series, also childrens books

Elizabeth Moon - anything by her alone, not when she is writing for another party.

Alan Dean Foster - science fiction, pulpy, the Flinx books are nice up untill the last of the "old" ones, Bloodhype. The new ones are more dark.

Tanya Huff's keeper chronicles are amusing.

Elizabeth Haydon's Symphony of Ages series starts out fluffy, does get a little...gloomier as time goes on

Terry Goodkind's first 3 books in the Sword of Truth are nice. Then he sort of falls into a trap of only have one charector and everyone else is supporting case, so they lose their appeal(ie he starts off with a rich cast of charectors with their own identifies, but from book to book he focuses more on his main charector and the rest might as well be puppets for the main charector to interact with. That and he seems to get more and more political, more and more black and white as the books progress)

Jane Lindskold's Wolf series(starts at "Through Wolfs Eyes")

Diane duane's Young Wizard series is nice for the first 3 books, than can get bogged down in itself(sensing a pattern here of my liking the opening of series of books, but disliking the ongoing ones? It's not that I so much dislike them, as that the first few are amusing over and over and the rest are amusing once. Pratchett's discworld is like that, I like the first few books, and then it sort of skips around. Mainly they are entertaining when Pratchett take a new look at the world, like when Guards came out, but when he focuses on existing charectors in a repeat story they drag)

[shaterri.livejournal.com]

My recommendation of late has been Charles de Lint's short story collections, starting with Dreams Underfoot (which gives a sense of the setting); the others are The Ivory and The Horn, Moonlight and Vines, and Tapping the Dream Tree. de Lint works better in short form than long for me; given too much room his stories start to feel a little cliche'd, but his shorts strike just the right balance. They're not always light-hearted or happy, but they're fairly uplifting, they're hardly dense reading, with fantastic characters and great dialogue; and most of all, they're very much small stories, personal tales with a faint otherworldly touch to them. Wistful stories.

[ltwarhound.livejournal.com]

*takes a moment to dig through the disarray that is the library (the neat orderly library fell victim to the last household move) and pulls out 'Chess with a Dragon' (Gerrold) 'Expecting Someone Taller' (Holt) and 'The Warrior's Apprentice'.


The last time Rowan asked me for these sorts of books, I was hard pressed to come up with something other than the Drake Majistral books. My library isn't given to 'light' or 'happy'. Entirely too much Weber, Clayton, Cherryh, Glen Cook, Niven, Poul Anderson. Although, I'm not sure its possible to have too much of those.

Hello!

[shacia.livejournal.com]

Saw you off of Howard Taylor's lj(I'm a fan of his comic) and couldnt resist reccomending Terry Brooks "Magic Kindom of Landover" novels. They are everything you asked for.

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

I was going to reccommend Iain Banks' Culture books; they hit all your highlights except for being light on romance... They're some of my favorite novels ever. Very smart stuff. I couldn't find a good list of them other than one that think gives away the ending to one of them, so here:

Consider Phlebas (not as good)
The Player of Games (my favorite)
Use of Weapons (1st one I read)
The State of the Art
Excession
Inversions (kinda a Culture novel)
Look to Windward (haven't read it yet!)

There's a very fun article on The Culture here. It's the onlu utopia I've read about that I'd actually like to live in...

My mother reccommended Use of Weapons to me originally, and pressed Excession into my hands one X-Mas; she has great taste. She also recommended An Exchange of Hostages, in fact!

[neeuqdrazil.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you've read Jasper Fforde's Eyre Affair books. They are light-hearted, have some romance, are alternate universe (wouldn't quite call them fantasy, although there are fantasy elements), have zinging dialogue and likeable (real!) characters, and have happy endings.

(The first book is The Eyre Affair, and I can't remember the sequence of the rest of them.)

(Hi! uniquecrash5 pointed me thisaway - I'm an avid, nay, voracious and insatiable, reader.)