General Discussion

@Mythotix
Ubik by Phillip K. D (yeah his last name is gonna get censored lol) is one of my favorite books.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said and A Maze of Death are also good; Maze needs a second read-through to really be effective, though. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner) is good but I like some of PKD's less known works a bit better, but it is still required reading. Not a huge fan of his his alternate timeline stuff like The Man in the High Castle or A Scanner Darkly.

@Mythotix

The Last Dragon Chronicles Chris D'Lacey
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Too many. Most of what I read is YA since I rarely get to read for fun these days.

Un Lun Dun was fun, as was Momo.
Wingfeather Series by Andrew Peterson
Abarat Series by Clive Barker
Pendragon Series (though it gets a bit old in the end)
Pretty much anything by Scott Westerfeld
Zombies vs. Unicorns
Hold Me Closer Necromancer (is a series)
Scorpio Races and The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater

Some of the obvious-
Harry Potter
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

If you're into ridiculous especially go with the Wingfeather series, as well as Rampant by Peterfreund and the sequel to it. Also The Last Dragonslayer series by Jasper Fforde.

These are all off top of my head so no guarantees all the authors and things are spelled properly.

@xanswerxthatx (pinging myself for reference and i may come back(

I can totally recommend the Inheritance Cycle. It's definitely one of my favourites.

Other ones i like are everything by Rick Riordan.
Dustlands Trilogy by Moira Young (i really like these ones, the world she created is amazing)
Graceling by Kristin Chashore

@Mythotix

highly recommend the name of the wind by patrick rothfuss

also agree with @xanswerxthatx that zombies vs unicorns was awesome, and i actually named my (late) cat after a character in one of Scott Westerfeld's books :P and i know that a lot of the people i follow on tumblr have read the ravencycle

another series that ive just recently read is Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas, it was good, but not the kind of thing i would rave about like i do name of the wind :P (although still good enough for me to find and follow a dozen blogs about it lol)

I would also recommend stuff by Holly Black, I love her modern faerie stories :)

The zodiac novels by Romina Russel are good if you dont mind a love triangle (im not a huge fan of love triangles but the world and the plot were fascinating enough that i stuck around anyhow)

The waterfire saga by Jennifer Donnelly is a recent favourite of mine, ****** awesome mermaids, who could ask for more?

ummm... i would probably have another hundred or so recs, but most of my books are at home and im at school (like uni 6 hours away not like highschool) right now :P

I hope you find some books that you enjoy, whether or not they are ones i suggested! :)

ok i see that one of my words got censored. i forgot that one wouldnt be allowed, its basically just a stronger word for awesome that also implies that they beat the bad guys (at least i hope they do - i havent read the third book yet :P)

@Mythotix

I recommend The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany. A bit obscure since it's pretty old, but good.

I like most things by Patricia McKillip. She has a very fairy tale esthetic, without being at all pretentious. It's in no way her best work, but The Riddlemaster of Hed has a first chapter that left me gasping with laughter. My sense of humor is very Miss Manners though; I find her hilarious. Her Forgotten Beasts of Eld is beautiful.

If you like to think really hard, then try Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh for space opera. A number of her books are set in this universe; Downbelow and the Chanur series, which starts with Pride of Chanur, are both accessible and interesting. Cyteen also won a Hugo, but I just didn't find the plot as interesting. Her books typically have a very strong female protaganist with a male sidekick. I wouldn't really call her obscure, given her stature, but I think she's often overlooked.

For a less rigorous SF experience, I love Janet Kagan's Hellspark. I particularly love her concept of raising a baby robot AI. I forget the title of her book of short stories, but it was good too.

Jane Yolen has written some good SF/Fantasy. Cards of Grief and Sister Light/Sister Dark are my recommendations. She's also written a lot of children's books that I know little about.

He should in no way be obscure, but Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart is near perfect.

I'll second Name of the Wind by Rothfuss. It edges into pretentious now and again, and I find it a bit clunky; nicely snarky characters though.


Detective Inspector Chen's beat in Liz Williams' books covers Heaven and Hell. He is partnered by a demon from Hell's Vice Department. The first book is Snake Agent, where he has to find out who is criminally diverting the souls of young girls to Hell instead of Heaven.


War for the Oaks by Emma Bull is one of the early Urban Fantasy books, before it was really its own subgenre.


Err, Zelazny isn't obscure either, but most people recommend his excellent Amber series; I'd add Lord of Light instead. Beware though, his work is either very good or very bad (I'm looking at you Jack of Shadows).


@AloRenzSilver The Kushiel books are luscious, with some of the best world building I've read; but it should come with warnings about the prevalence of masochism and sadism in the later two books. Some people would find them very disturbing, though they are integral to the story.

Unwind. Unwind unwind unwind unwind

A very dark, twisted sci-fi stories that's basically about kids who aren't talented or loved enough getting 'dissected' and have their body parts traded to people who need them more. My favorite book. my smol dark child.