In need of Sci-fi/Fantasy Fiction

[NightgownQueen]

Ok, I love fantasy books and when I was a teenager I had no problem finding them. I have reached the age where I'm a little too old for the teen books and I'm looking for something else to chew on.

I can't seem to find any fantasy books outside the teen section that don't have a lot of sex in them! This is incredibly frustrating!

Can anybody suggest some good fantasy or sci-fi/fantasy books to read that aren't going to make me blush myself to infinity?

[One Bad Pig]

:hrm: I don't recall Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar books as having much at all in that vein. Same with Andre Norton or C J Cherryh in general (though you might want to avoid Cyteen by the latter).

Other authors: Glen Cook's Black Company series, Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series

[Darfius]

I presume you mean aside from the obligatory Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia.

In no particular order: Lilith, Phantastes, the Golden Key, At the Back of the North Wind (all 4 by George Macdonald), the space trilogy by C.S. Lewis beginning with Out of the Silent Planet, the Dragonlance series, Wheel of Time series (unfinished, author died), some Forgotten Realms, the Last Vampire series and the Night World series, for starters.

Technically, the last two are for "Young Adults", but a good book is a good book. Narnia and the Hobbit are "technically" for kids.

[One Bad Pig]

Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms is not good fantasy, though at times it rises to the level of passable. The Space Trilogy was a struggle for me to get through.

The Wheel of Time series is good, and is being finished based on notes Robert Jordan left behind; one book of a projected three (The Gathering Storm) has been published. There is some sex in the series, but it's pretty much all off-stage; not sure if that would meet satisfy NightGownQueen's "blush factor" or not, which is why I didn't bring it up myself.

I haven't read the other (non-obligatory) books you mention.

[Philosophickle]

I'm a George Martin fanboi.

[guacamole]

Any of Lord Dunsanay's Pegana cycle of short stories are good. Some of the Mythos, like the Book of Eibon, fiction from Chaosium straddles the line between supernatural horror and sword and sorcery type fantasy. Some of that stuff can be pretty hard to find, though.

I'll second the George Martin Song of Ice and Fire stuff. The Black Company might be a bit edgy, so long as you don't mind reading about ruthlessly amoral protagonists. I don't believe any of the Piers Anthony Xanth or Incarnation of Immortality contain graphic sex, though it is certainly alluded to. Fritz Lieber's Fahfred and Grey Mouser stories are good, but they do allude to sex in certain parts. I don't remember the Elric cycle well enough, but it seemed to be more swords vs. mosters, than sexual type stuff also. Again though, the main character is somewhat morally challenged.

As far as Tolkien goes, if you haven't read his short fiction, or the Silarillion, then you might want to give those a try.

I've also enjoyed Lawhead's historical fantasy books.

[One Bad Pig]

:hrm: Compared to Fritz Lieber and Michael Moorcock (Elric), the Black Company is rather tame IMO. Piers Anthony is a talentless (aside from a plenitude of puns) hack. :eww:

Lawhead is good.

[Zombie]

Dune series by Frank Herbet
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng-en
Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory : http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/malory/thomas/m25m/
The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

[Lotrfreak323]

I'm a George Martin fanboi.

If you're looking to read something without much sex, I would shy away from Martin.
I'd also second Dune, it's truly a great book. Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, from what I've read, is pretty much sex free; it can be a tough read at times though, but has a good payoff.

[zemmiphobiac]

:hrm: I don't recall Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar books as having much at all in that vein.
Agreed - the two Magician books (make sure you get the two-book version) don't have much, though Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon have a little more IIRC. After that series, it begins to get more frequent in Feist's books. In some, it seems like the main characters visit prostitutes every couple of pages making it very hard to respect them (for me at least).

Some David Gemmell books have little/no sex. If I remember this thread after my exams are over, I'll dig them out to see if I can recall which ones are the cleanest. In any case, Gemmell tends not to present prostitution in as much of a positive light as Feist, and he is more willing to present casual sex and/or promiscuity as a character flaw rather than a fun pastime.

Do you mind Star Wars novels? The few I've read can be rather cheesy, but some aren't too bad as long as you don't take them too seriously. From memory, I enjoyed I, Jedi (Michael A Stackpole) most, and can't recall much sex - although, it's written in first person, and the main character is badly tempted at one point.

[RBerman]

Any of Lord Dunsanay's Pegana cycle of short stories are good. Some of the Mythos, like the Book of Eibon, fiction from Chaosium straddles the line between supernatural horror and sword and sorcery type fantasy. Some of that stuff can be pretty hard to find, though.

I'll second the George Martin Song of Ice and Fire stuff. The Black Company might be a bit edgy, so long as you don't mind reading about ruthlessly amoral protagonists. I don't believe any of the Piers Anthony Xanth or Incarnation of Immortality contain graphic sex, though it is certainly alluded to. Fritz Lieber's Fahfred and Grey Mouser stories are good, but they do allude to sex in certain parts. I don't remember the Elric cycle well enough, but it seemed to be more swords vs. mosters, than sexual type stuff also. Again though, the main character is somewhat morally challenged.

As far as Tolkien goes, if you haven't read his short fiction, or the Silarillion, then you might want to give those a try.

I've also enjoyed Lawhead's historical fantasy books.

George Martin is loaded with sex. Every Piers Anthony novel I read in high school (a dozen or so) had a sex scene at about 80% through the book. Like clockwork. Moorcock's Elric books are not sexy but are extremely dark, with an evil hero, pagan sacrifices, etc.

Really what the OP is looking for is something like Brian Jacques' Redwall series, or Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga. Pretty much all fantasy and sci-fi series of the last forty years confuse "adult" with "sexual." Go back to golden age sci-fi like early Asimov and Heinlein if you want clean sci-fi. Asimov's Foundation books and Robot books. Heinlein's juveniles, maybe his big compendium "The Past Through Tomorrow." or a representative novel like "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."

[Pilgrim]

I just finished the first three books of Orsan Scott Card's "Ender Series." I rather liked them.

If you want passable fantasy that has very little sex, well, I've always been a big fan of Daveid Eddings. In particular the Belgariad.

[Sparko]

I won't ready any more Piers Anthony Books. I recently read the Fractal Mode series, and the first few books were OK, but seemed a bit off, with a 14 year old girl as the protagonist who seemed to get involved with an older man from another universe. But as the series went on, I started to see more and more pedophilia type themes in the story, and the last book was just sick. He described a few pedophilia sex scenes with a young girl in it that was just awful and tried to present it as normal or something. I suspect Anthony has some pedophiliac tendencies and tries to work them into his novels, most times in a subtle manner but in the last fractal mode book it was pretty blatant.

[One Bad Pig]

I just finished the first three books of Orsan Scott Card's "Ender Series." I rather liked them.

If you want passable fantasy that has very little sex, well, I've always been a big fan of Daveid Eddings. In particular the Belgariad.
Eddings? :eww:

[Pilgrim]

To each his own.

[RBerman]

If you want passable fantasy that has very little sex, well, I've always been a big fan of David Eddings. In particular the Belgariad.
What I liked about the Belgariad: It's a fun retelling of the classic "orphan boy who became a king" story. Low sexual quotient, as you noted. The "each country has its own member of the divine pantheon, and all its citizens reflect the character of that deity" conceit is contrived, but it helps on the "hero collects a band of stereotyped sidekicks" portion of the story. Silk is sly, Barak is bearlike, Mandorallen is a paladin, etc. The "I'll distract the armies while you sneak inside the evil country" ending was pure Tolkien. Overall an engaging and light read (I probably read it five times in high school), but not anything that provided a new direction for other authors to emulate.

"Ender's Game" isn't fantasy, but it comes closer to Tolkien in being about something meaningful (the complex but rewarding nature of filial love) than any of these other authors we've been discussing.

[Pilgrim]

Ender's Game is Sci Fi.