[Caelum's Scrapbook] Use Your Words.

[Mayra]

I don't have my entire bookshelf with me, but the first one I saw was this one. I got it at Barnes & Noble a few years ago, I still think it is a pretty good read.

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

"When Shai is caught replacing he Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos.

Shai is given an impossible task: to create--to Forge-- a new soul for the emperor in fewer than one hundred days. But he soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors, She is confined to a tiny, dirty chamber, guarded by a man who hates her, spied upon by politicians, and trapped behind a door sealed in her own blood. Shai's only possibly ally is the emperor's most loyal Councillor, Gaotona, who struggles to understand her true talent.

Time is running out for Shai. Forging, while deducing the motivations of her captors, she needs a perfect plan to escape..."

When you read the book, it might seem as if you have picked it out of a series, by how in depth the world is, but everything gets explained to you. It focuses on a girl who spent her life mastering this magic of forgery where she can basically change whatever she wants into whatever she wants. The book starts when she is captured by the kingdom for forging a very famous piece of art. In exchange for her life, she is supposed to forge a new should for the emperor who is brain-dead for some reason. There's a lot of political intrigue and stuff. I'm a crappy reviewer/summarizer, so I attached the blurb on the back and hope that helps. :/

[Sayana]

Title: Jherg (or other books in the Vlad Taltos series) Author: Steven Brust Themes: Assassins, magic (two main types), intrigue, conflict between factions, death Plot: Vlad Taltos is hired to assassinate a man who has spent years trying to pit two factions against each other -- and by sealing the start of the war with his own death. Vlad, with the help of his friends in powerful stations try to find an alternate way to end this using sorcery, witchcraft, some trickery, and even a little acting. It's a short book (maybe 200-300 pages) but very enjoyable. Each of his other books in the series are stand-alone reads but take place in the same world with the same characters. I read it when I was a young adult, but none of the characters are young adults so I don't think it fall into that category. As an aside, it has a very unique way of looking at death in this world. There is being killed normally (in which you can be revived if you have enough money or friends to help you with that process), and then there is a permanent way of being killed. Sometimes the former is used to send a message but if you're killed with a special type of blade it will destroy your soul. Edit: Oops, I didn't read the contemporary part. This is not of that genre.

[Ball]

Adult Fantasy Fiction? -points to George R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice Saga- =D Seriously. Its the Game of Throne series...

I can't really go into a brief description, but it is totally there. =D

[Caelum]

Thank you! I am, however, specifically looking for contemporary adult fantasy fiction. That is a genre with a world and society and time setting the same or similar to our/our current one. That's why things such as Martin, Tolkien, etc, aren't it. They are more high fantasy or epic fantasy genre. Sometimes contemporary are urban or mythic or alt universe but primarily set in our current one with the alternate ‘verse being more of a plot focus than it is a setting. An example would be Deborah Harkness and her All Souls trilogy. Some might frame that in romance genre and they wouldn't be wrong. But I'm looking for fence straddlers too. I just don't want recs for, say, erotica or YA but will take new adult or romance or steampunk or... Etc.

[Nephti]

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman? It's quite good, I don't know if that's what you're looking for though.
Don't have time for a description though, sorry!

[Caelum]

Neverwhere! Perfect. I should have thought of that.

[Orin Fenix]

I think you've read these already but The Magician's Trilogy by Lev Grossman might be worth a second look. It's definitely contemporary fantasy, best way I can describe it is like a darker more adult version of Harry Potter, the first one at least. Let me see what else I can come up with and if anything comes to mind I'll let you know.

Something that's probably both too high fantasy and maybe YA is Magic Kingdom of Landover. A disgruntled person from our world purchases the throne to a magic kingdom and is suddenly transported to a magical and dying realm. There is a bit of crossover with the real world throughout though.


Also now that I see Neil Gaiman gotta through Anansi Boys and American Gods in the mix

[Orin Fenix]

Oh, I don't know if the genre is quite right but there are tons of Urban Fantasy series out there. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs, The Hollows by Kim Harrison, Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews etc (there are too many to list here). Most of the early books resemble supernatural detective agency or mystery of the week type formats before getting into the larger mythology/story. If that would work there's lots to work from in those.

[Ball]

Contemporary? Sorry I didn't see that part... -goes to think about it some- My wife reads a bunch of that sorta stuff... I will have to look at some of her books

[Caelum]

Let them eat cake. It has been a crap morning. I received another medical bill and this one did not have the appropriate insurance deductions which means I will have to go into battle again. This is sort of a constant problem because I have been dealing with a large number of what they consider unusual procedures and medications for about a year and a half now. I think my insurance – which, thankfully, is spectacular compared to just about all the others – is trying to figure out wtf is going on and how much longer it’s going to last. I would damn near sell my soul to be able to tell them, but that’s proven impossible. (Surprisingly, my soul seems to be firmly attached to the rest of me.) The good news is that I have received an agency invitation. This is in addition to the ongoing writing gig I landed a few weeks ago. It means for the next six months I am going to be stupid busy writing All The Things in my free time between a full time office job and the next step in my medical program. It is not the best timing, but quite frankly I don’t care. I needed this and the opportunity for my on-going career is far too good to take a pass on. It was also a sort of desperately needed ego boost. I’ve been feeling a little frail in some departments and that was one of them. Don’t worry. I will still be Mizahar-ing. It’s my escape. I write by myself on everything else right now and it gets lonely. Soooo lonely. I am missing a few of my favorite thread partners, but the plots themselves have not slowed down much. I consider this to be a good sign. Finally, I have ordered cake. So. Much. Cake. Ordering cake is the best thing you can do. It instantly made me happy to sit on the phone with this nice man and talk about all of the different flavors and combinations of cake were at our disposal. I could even have ordered pie, and I almost did; but this cake is not for me. It’s for my mother whom I’m throwing a retirement party Friday. Mm, cake. I’m smiling just thinking about it. I ended up with two cakes. Don’t judge me. Thank God Mercury is finally out of fucking retrograde.