Clean Fantasy Suggestions

[MistbornAlpaca]

Thanks again! I've bookmarked this thread so when I need a book to read, I have one! 

Just a few more questions. I imagine if these were clean someone would have already mentioned them, but I thought I'd check anyway. Yes or no answers are great, my definition of clean is Warbreaker.

• The Martion, Andy Weir
• Imager Portfolio, L.E. Modessit
• Terry Pratchett Books, someone mentioned Color's Of Magic, how are his other ones?

[Sunbird]

@Master OoklaJack Although I haven't read The Martian myself, I saw the movie and that had a notable amount of foul language. People who have read the book tell me it has a lot of strong cursing, more than the film.

[Kari]

On 12/4/2017 at 9:21 PM, Master OoklaJack said:

Thanks again! I've bookmarked this thread so when I need a book to read, I have one! 

Just a few more questions. I imagine if these were clean someone would have already mentioned them, but I thought I'd check anyway. Yes or no answers are great, my definition of clean is Warbreaker.

• The Martion, Andy Weir
• Imager Portfolio, L.E. Modessit
• Terry Pratchett Books, someone mentioned Color's Of Magic, how are his other ones?

I read until about book 20 of Discworld and stopped there. The language worse depending on the sub series.Though I don't remember any sex scenes. There were multiple prostitute references and body part related language

[MistbornAlpaca]

1 hour ago, Ookla the Ornithophilic said:

@Master OoklaJack Although I haven't read The Martian myself, I saw the movie and that had a notable amount of foul language. People who have read the book tell me it has a lot of strong cursing, more than the film.

Ok, thanks! I'll keep that in mind if I decide to read it.

1 hour ago, Ookla the Hematist said:

I read until about book 20 of Discworld and stopped there. The language worse depending on the sub series.Though I don't remember any sex scenes. There were multiple prostitute references and body part related language

Thanks!

[Pestis the Spider]

On 06/12/2017 at 8:31 PM, Ookla the Hematist said:

body part related language

Sorry I will write a little off-topic, but what in the world is "body related language", and why would anyone need to be warned about it? I am seriously curious. Does that include words like "leg", "hand" or just words describing ehhh... taboo places? Or did I misunderstand it completely? Also is "body related language" actually a phrase used IRL, or was it just created for the purpose of this one post? 

[Steeldancer]

The Martian kind of tears me apart. It's so GOOD. And yet it's full of strong language. 

It is the perfect movie to use Vidangel on, if you've heard of it.

[Kari]

On 12/9/2017 at 5:29 AM, Pestis the Spider said:

Sorry I will write a little off-topic, but what in the world is "body related language", and why would anyone need to be warned about it? I am seriously curious. Does that include words like "leg", "hand" or just words describing ehhh... taboo places? Or did I misunderstand it completely? Also is "body related language" actually a phrase used IRL, or was it just created for the purpose of this one post? 

Turning body parts into cuss words. I draw the line there.

[Pestis the Spider]

13 hours ago, Ookla the Hematist said:

Turning body parts into cuss words. I draw the line there.

Oh, ok. I just put words like that in the same bag as other swears, so I got a little confused with the separate category here. Thx for clarifying. 

[MistbornAlpaca]

Sorry to ask again, just trying to compile a list of possible reads. So L.E Modessit, anyone read any of his stuff? If so, is it clean?

Edit: Sorry for the double post, I was having a hard time editing a quote into this, so there's my reason excuse 

Edited December 22, 2017 by MasterJack

[MistbornAlpaca]

On 11/7/2017 at 9:15 AM, Aon Ati said:

If your looking for a mystery book try Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None. This is the greatest mystery book I have every read! The ending is crazy, with the reader usually going: WHAT IS HAPPENING!! It is Christie's best selling mystery and if it wasn't for Orient Express, it would probably be her most famous. So, I highly recommend this to you. And it's clean (aside from the murders of course).

Just finished reading this, and Storms!!!!! It is amazing, thank you so much for recommending this @Aon Ati

[Aon Ati]

24 minutes ago, MasterJack said:

Just finished reading this, and Storms!!!!! It is amazing, thank you so much for recommending this @Aon Ati

Really glad you enjoyed it!

[Dragon Reborn]

On 11/4/2017 at 11:07 AM, Ammanas said:

@MasterJackGame of Thrones has a lot of sex in it so it might not be a series for you. Wheel of Time, if memory serves, has some implied stuff but nothing graphic. The first three Dune books were clean I think but can't say about the others.

I have read all of the Dune books 1-3 are pretty clean 4-6 are a little more sex filled especially number 5 Heritics Of Dune has a major sex scene in it.

[AnikoliNightmareVision]

On 6.12.2017. at 9:31 PM, The hematist said:

I read until about book 20 of Discworld and stopped there. The language worse depending on the sub series.Though I don't remember any sex scenes. There were multiple prostitute references and body part related language

I've read 19 Discworld novels, but not starting from the begining of the series. There are none sex scenes, you can hardly find kiss scenes. If we use Warbreaker as example of "clean" fantasy I would say that Discworld novels belong in that category too. But to tell the truth, there are some jokes that implies to sex but I'm not sure if you would count that as dirty jokes (probably depends of the poin of view). There are some Discworld books that belong to YA section, but from YA Discworld books I've read only one book called Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents. This book is veeeeeeeryyyyy good and has no such jokes that were mentioned above that some other Discworld books have, so I would highly recomed to you @MasterJack to read that one book. It's hilarious! It's about cat named Maurice and his gang of rats, along with stupid looking kid who may not be so stupid as they think at first. They're different from other normal animals because they can talk and they are inteligent. They've got that ability by eating garbige outside Unseen University (magical school, so the trash was left from some magical experiments), at least rats ate garbage.... Maurice ate something else that cats usually eat (guess what). It's very nice story, one of my favourite Discworld and even fantasy books.

[The One Who Connects]

On 11/3/2017 at 11:24 AM, MasterJack said:

Are there any recommendations you guys have on CLEAN Fantasy?

On the assumption that you haven't been tied down by the sheer number of suggestions you've been given, it'd be nice to know what types of fantasy topics you're interested in so the suggestions can hit their mark more often.

For example, I'm a fan of intrigue. I've started drifting back into Young Adult books, because they are usually in the right median between simplistic(children's stories) and over(whelming)ly complex(you've seen how rabbit hole theories on here go). To me, intrigue is at its best when it's an underlying component of character motivations, rather than the premise(like mystery novels).

---

I've also got a few more suggestions, now that I've read more of the books I've gotten recently.

I'll reiterate my personal recommendation of the Sweet Venom Trilogy by Tera Lynn Childs, mostly because I finally found&bought the third book. Now that I've finished the series, I can say for certain that it should fit your standards of clean. Nothing worse than kisses. (okay, there's a little blood, but no graphic descriptions or anything). If mythology is your thing, it's a fun read.

My next suggestion would be The Selection series by Kiera Cass. It has that same competition feel that Hunger Games had, but it takes place within a royal court-esque setting, with less violence and more intrigue(which is what drew me in). It's technically a 5 book series, but it's more like a trilogy and a duology set past the aftermath(similar to how WoA is dealing with the aftermath of the fall of the Lord Ruler, but a longer time-gap). Haven't read the duology yet, but I've finished the first 3 books, and the cleanliness level is fairly high so far. Minimal descriptions of violence, not much beyond kissing(that I remember).

I really wish I could recommend the Three Dark Crowns duology by Kendare Blake, but while the descriptions of things would meet your standards of clean, some of the actions themselves wouldn't. I'm mentioning it anyway because I loved it, so.. ya know. It's got that same Hunger Games-esque feel, but with a focus on multiple characters(rather than just Katniss), so you actually have stakes and uncertainties about who's gonna come out on top.

I'll hold off on recommending the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr until I've found time to read them, but if you are a fan of stories where the normal world meets the world of fae and magic around us(thinks like Fablehaven, Spiderwick, etc...), then it'll probably pique your interest.

I'll also toss in one more(because a recent post reminded me of them). The Bionicle books(2001-2010), by Greg Farshtey(and C.A. Hapka). The earlier series start out pretty simple(and somewhat "young reader" level), but the series seemed to grow up with the fanbase, getting more mature, serious and complex as it went. Another point in favor is that they are absolutely, 100% clean.

[+Hoiditthroughthegrapevine]

If you haven't read Robin Mckinley's Damar books you should do yourself a favor and pick them up now. Chronologically first (in world not publication order) is The Hero and the Crown, the story of Aeryn Dragonkiller. The atmosphere and pacing of this book is unlike any other book that I've ever read and it's absolutely amazing. The magic is mysterious and understated but truly epic too. 

The next book, The Blue Sword, is set hundreds of years in the future, at a point in time where the magical kingdom of Damar has been almost completely absorbed by a large Colonial power referred to as the Homeland. This is one of my 3 favorite fantasy novels of all times, the first 50 pages are a bit hard to get through but they are intentionally dull to provide a contrast to the slow build up of the magical reality of Damar.

If you want a mystery, though not a traditional detective style Mystery, one of the greatest ever written is The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. It functions superficially as an incredibly fun and interesting mystery, but it's actually a very clever extended allegory. Oh and did I mention it has the Devil tempting a Poet to become an anarchist during a garden party in London? This book is one of the funnest books you'll ever read.

If you want the more traditional style of Mysteries you should try the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. Nero Wolfe is an overweight super genius who takes cases to support his gourmet eating habits and to fund his exotic orchid collection.  He's basically a homebound Holmes and his associate Archie is like a hard boiled detective type with a good heart. These books are really good, and if you like Radio Dramas there are quite a few Nero Wolfe Old Time radio dramas you can listen to for free here: 

https://archive.org/details/Nero_Wolfe

 

[GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy)]

I noticed that no one got back to you about L. E. Modisitt; his Corean Chronicles and Recluse are cleaner than Warbreaker, and the Imager prequels are about Warbreaker level, perhaps slightly worse (however, the prequels are completely fine, and I think that they are his best books (though Recluse is rather unique for how it shows a story and magic system over time (and way too many books) with how it changes)).

About the Martian, the only thing in it is cursing, which is rather non-stop, and two separate sentences of innuendo in the middle of the book. ( Ijust edited them out of my ebook version (technically illegal under copyright laws, I know, but very easy to do and that is the only way I'm willing to read it.) But don't read his other book, Artemis, as you probably wouldn't consider it clean.

I'd also recommend Blake Charleton (Spellwright, a book about dyslexia when magic is language based), Charlie Holmberg (The Paper Magician, a rather a cute and short trilogy where magicians have to specialize in one kind of magic, and there weren't enough for paper... so the main character was chosen to be a paper magician), Diana Wynne Jones, rather old school fantasy but still good (especially howl's moving castle), Garth Nix's Seventh Tower (light/color magic) and Abhosen (anti-necromancer necromancers) series are pretty good, though I ignore his more recent add-ons to Abhosen, Jeramy Kraatz and Mark Walden both have fun serieses about, essentially, supervillains, Joelle Charbonneau's books are very, very similar to the Hunger Games, though slightly more plausible, P. B. Kerr has some cute djinn books, I definitely second the recommendation about the Eli Monpress books, they're lots of fun (Rachel Aaron). Picture a world where wizards talk to ordinary objects, like the door of a jail cell, and our hero is a con man/thief...

I've read all (and I mean all) of Pratchett, and his stuff is for the most part pretty clean, almost all other than the first two are far cleaner than Warbreaker, (and the first two are awful anyway, just skip them (Pratchett's reading order is rather unique, in that he has arcs across books but they don't have to be read in order, and probably shouldn't (his early books are rather horrible and might just put you off, and his last two/three were written when he had Alzheimers, so are almost as bad). If you're interested I can give a reading order recommendation, probably starting with Going Postal. Definitely don't start with Colors Of Magic, though.) While some of his other books have jokes or references, all are at about Warbreaker level or less, and will probably go over your head if you've managed to read just clean books till now (they went right over mine). If you like this kind of fantasy story/satire you might also like Tom Holt, who is has a similar style of humor, though is worldbuilding isn't as good, and all of his books that I've read are completely clean (I just have three left  )

I hope that this isn't too much in one shot, and if you want more clean recommendations just ask (this is one favor that I'm definitely trying to pay forward, and if anyone has any clean books to recommend for me I'd love it, as I've almost hit the end of my reading list (thanks, One Who Connects, for giving me my first new recommendation in a long while).

 

(I just noticed that I accidentally listed all of the books alphabetically by the authors first name... does this mean that I'm a candidate for the Knights Awkward?)

[SilverTiger]

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, Decision at Doona, and To Ride Pegasus are all clean and very good. More Sci-fi than fantasy, though (yes, even the dragons).

The Frostborn series by John Moeller is good. He has another series, called Demonsouled, that's also clean. The Frostborn series is based on the premise that King Arthur's grandson lead the remainder of Camelot through a magical portal to world of elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. A thousand years later, a mysterious evil race (the Frostborn) seems to be about to return after having been supposedly driven extinct centuries ago. But basically no one believes the omens (or the evil people who are claiming it's going to happen/preparing for it to happen) except a outcast (depressed and suicidal) ex-knight and the "idiots" (friends) who follow him: an amnesiac sorceress (long story), an orc warrior, a dwarf, and a few other he picks up along the way. The books have a good plot: it seems to be clear-cut good vs. evil, but the evil is real good at hiding- and there's not just one evil cult, sorcerer, demon, etc., there's a lot. There's a lot more understory/mystery than I expected when I first started the series. The author has another series too, Demonsouled, that's really good and clean. The only possible problem with his series though is that they have a strong religious theme, and the Catholic Church is around in the Frostborn series. It's more worldbuilding than plot device, though.

[Iarwainiel I]

@MasterJack - You've got plenty of suggestions already, but I can add a couple more.

The Monster Blood Tattoo series by D.M. Cornish is stupendous. It's borderline tween/YA, but the author's sheer creativity puts it a level above IMO. Even if you can guess where the story is going, it's enjoyable to see how it gets there. Plus, the author's day job is graphic design, and the books have wonderful illustrations! I just love this series & hope you will too.

Someone else suggested C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. He also has a "space trilogy," and the first two books (Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra) are really good. (Book 3 is very strongly tied to real historical events in the 1940s and isn't a great read today. It also has some more mature themes you'd probably want to avoid.)

It's been a while since I read them, but I don't recall anything offensive in the Ex-Heroes series by Peter Clines. Think zombie apocalypse + superheroes, with a little humor thrown in.  But I'm not 100% sure about this one - if you do try it, get it at the library so you can just take it back if it turns out not to your liking.

I'm pretty conservative re: language, and I didn't find the swearing in The Martian to be offensive. It felt realistic for what people like that would say. I very much appreciated how the author gave a key role to a character who was awkward (probably asperger's) - such a nice touch and, again, realistic.

I would also agree that Ready Player One is a great choice. I have not read anything else that Ernest Cline has written, so can't speak to Artemis.

I don't think anyone has mentioned the Hunger Games trilogy, but those were surprisingly good. (Not so with Divergent or Maze Runner, IMO - lame stories with those two.)

Finally, I wanted to mention that there are at least 2 older threads with this same question, so whenever you come to the end of these suggestions, you can always search for those. It's so great that we have this community where people respect each other's preferences and are always glad to help!!

* Addition: There are also several older threads re: "Is reading The Wheel of Time series worth it?" and the replies echo those in this thread. So if you need more info to decide, you can look there. IMO Book 1 was the high point & it went downhill from there, but as always YMMV.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Lump-wing
addition

[GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy)]

10 hours ago, Lump-wing said:

I'm pretty conservative re: language, and I didn't find the swearing in The Martian to be offensive. It felt realistic for what people like that would say. I very much appreciated how the author gave a key role to a character who was awkward (probably asperger's) - such a nice touch and, again, realistic.

I hear you on this, and I do agree to a certain degree that the MC's swearing didn't bother me that much because, let's face it' he thought that he was dead. However, Andy was way too foulmouthed for me, and it felt somewhat out of place to have her in NASA like that (although she did provide a nice contrast).

 

I looked for those old threads, and the only suggestions from there that I think are actually clean (other than just mostly clean, which is what those threads were aimed at) are Naomi Novak and Tamora Peirce.

[Hoid the Former Drifter]

On 11/3/2017 at 11:24 AM, MistbornAlpaca said:

As an LDS teenager, I love fantasy and basically any book I can get my hands on, but so many modern fantasy books are full of sex, pornography, and dirty jokes. Are there any recommendations you guys have on CLEAN  Fantasy?

beyonders, five kingdoms, fablehaven, dragonwatch, candy shop war: all by brandon mull.

septimus heap, todhunter moon

ready player one

charlie bone, chronicles of the red king

artemis fowl

 

[Condensation]

Define "clean". Because I think your definition might be different from mine.

There were some I stopped reading because they swore. Are you all right with swearing? What about vaguely hinting at things, the kind of thing that most people wouldn't get? Because I'm fairly certain I spotted some of those... but I'm not sure.

[The Ward's Guard]

I've heard that "Shadow of the Conqueror" By Shad is good, but I haven't gotten to it yet. So yeah.

[Guest Somebody from Scadrial]

Warbreaker is fine? I can get away with anything with that.

Harley Merlin series by Bella Forest, it's probably the only one of her series that fits your description, but it is a good one, and long.

Enora Online is treading the line in-between sci-fi and fantasy, but it's essentially a fantasy wrapped in a sci-fi package.

Those are probably the only Fantasy old YA that I have. I have quite a few young YA fantasy series.

The Magisterium by Holly Black and an author whose name I do not remember. It is elemental fantasy too.

The Wings of Fire series, this isn't a YA series until the sixth book, before that it is very young and best left until you know whether or not you like the series, plus, there's not much magic until the sixth book.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood]

The land of stories by Chris Colfer, it is a good series but it is very short to me, only about three hundred pages per book.

fairly true fairy tales by Leisel shurtliff, this is for a younger audience but it is still a good series.

Rangers apprentice by John Flanagan, this has a few bad words, not a lot though. it is a good series about saving the kingdom of Aurelaun and others nearby.

The Time Quintet by Maddeline Lengle, this is a five book series that isn't for everyone but I like it.

The Brotherband Chronicles by John Flanagan, this series is by the same author as RA and in the same universe.

well, this is a list of some books that I think are good.

[Quentamia]

I apologize for hijacking this thread (perhaps I should have created a new one?), but has anyone read any of Chris Fox's books (Magitech Chronicles, etc.)?

If so, where do they fall on the "clean fantasy" spectrum?

Edited July 15, 2021 by Quentamia