Use my code CAPTUREDINWORDS to get $5 off your delicious, high protein Magic Spoon cereal by clicking this link: sponsr.is/magicspoon_capturedinwords_0923 Let me know your favorite standalone fantasy!
I must say, you fill an amazing niche. I have really enjoyed your videos on the kingkiller chronicles, as well as your reviews and videos on the cosmere. Thanks for taking all that time to create such high quality content! (BTW : I discovered your channel when I had just finished WOT and wanted more by Brandon Saunderson) 😊
Favourite standalone fantasy ? Neil Gaiman comes to mind, with books like Stardust and The ocean at the end of the lane. Then there is It by Stephen King, along with The Stand. I guess these two are it, since standalone fantasy imo is one of the hardest genres to write well.
I don't think the Hobbit gets enough credit. Such a good book. It was my first step up from reading GOOSEBUMPS books as a kid and I've been hooked on fantasy and sci Fi ever since. I also try to read it every couple of years and I'm looking forward to sharing it with my kids
The Hobbit is fantastic. I don't know that anyone disputes that. It's at best a YA fantasy though. Really a middle grade book. So, I don't see it making lists limited to adult fiction. Glad to see it on his list.
Piranesi is so, so good. I also highly recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by the same author about 2 magicians in England during the Napoleonic Wars trying to bring back English magic, mixing urban fantasy and alternative history all wrapped up in a style that's a deliberate (and delightful) throwback to Victorian authors like Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. It's definitely a very slow read (one of the title characters doesn't even appear until like 150 pages in) but it is so fun and the world and characters are so interesting, it's an absolute blast.
M.L. Wang (Sword of Kaigen) just released another fantasy standalone called Blood Over Bright Haven which is brilliant and I haven't seen enough people talking about. Book of the year for me.
Guy Gavriel Kay is one of the most gifted authors I've ever read. "Under Heaven" was my introduction to him and it's simply sublime. The beautiful irony of Kay's writing is that he draws inspiration from real historical settings, but then his worlds somehow simultaneously become the most original creations you could imagine.
Solid list! I've read several and hope to read some of these others soon, including Tress and The Sword of Kaigen. I started reading GGK this year with The Lions of al-Rassan and was blown away. I'll definitely be reading more of him. Glad you didn't forget The Hobbit! :)
Discworld, my favourite cozy fantasy novels. ❤ Brilliant idea to read Small Gods as a stand alone. Terry Pratchett himself recommended not to start with the first one in the series. The first ones are not as good as the rest. My first one was Wyrd Sisters, I loved it! 😍 Piranesi was really good, it reminded me of The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss. The Hobbit is always a favourite. The Sword of Kaigen has been stuck in my TBR pile for months now, need to get round to it, hope it is as good as everyone says. Warbreaker is good, really like Elantris as well. Tress of the Emerald Sea was not a favourite. Prefer Neil Gaimans The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Neverwhere over Stardust. I think I prefer Uprooted over Spinning Silver as well but those two are Naomi Noviks best ones. Need to check out some of your other recommendations. Saw someone recommend The Neverending Story by Michael Ende in the comments. That is one lovely and imaginative YA book. ❤
I will totally echo Piranesi (appropriate verb!), the Princess Bride, Star Dust, and the Hobbit. Solid reads that don't take long. I will hopefully soon have read Night Circus, Sword of Kaigan and many more Neil Gaiman. And I will raise you: Peter Pan by J. M, Barrie, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness & Siobhan Dowd, and Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro & Cornella Funke. I love how powerful and concise these all are.
Peter Pan is one of my all time favorite classics! I definitely should have mentioned that one, whoops! A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is really great as well, been a while since I read it and it's time for a reread soon. I love the movies for The Last Unicorn and The neverending story as I grew up watching them, so I definitely need to give the books a read at some point. Thanks for the recs!
@@CapturedInWords Yes, dew it! The Last Unicorn movie is a good reflection of the book, since the same person wrote it, it's just so much deeper and invigorating and somber in prose form. I also love the Neverending Story movie (unlike Michael Ende), but it's a much morphed reflection, true in some areas and radically different in others, and then it keeps going deeper and deeper past the film ( _barely_ resembling the 2nd film at all) until reader's soul is turned inside out, in a good yet terrifying way...like "A Monster Calls" does to you, but much more drawn out. I think you'll love it.
M L Wang's new book Blood Over Bright Haven is another stellar standalone, I loved the Sword of Kaigen but I think I enjoyed Blood Over Bright Haven even more. The House in the Cerulean Sea and A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking are two great standalones as well!
Some great books on this list. Some of my favorite (older) standalone fantasy novels that I rarely see mentioned are The Face In the Frost by John Bellairs, The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany, and Watership Down by Richard Adams.
The Book of Lost Things was really great! I meant to include that one on this list but totally forgot. The others seem interesting, I'll need to get to them at some point!
Yes on the Lord Dunsany pick. Most readers, if they know Dunsany at all, would pick The King of Elfland's Daughter, but this for me is the better choice. His collections of short stories are great also. Not familiar with the Bellairs book so will have to look it up. I would add Beagle's The Last Unicorn, and going back a bit, writers such as Tanith Lee, Patricia A McKillip (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld my favorite) Poul Andersen (The Broken Sword) and George MacDonald. Happy reading!
If you like that, you should read the follow up books in the same world as the Goblin Emperor, but following Prelate of Ulis and Witness for the Dead Thara Celehar. There are two books; Witness for the Dead and Grief of Stones. He basically moves to the city of Amalo and starts up being an official Witness for the dead.
I got the book from the library and the character list at the beginning is so long. It was very daunting and the names are hard to pronounce so I return the book back to the library. Is it hard to read and understand? Thanks
To your credit you have a few older authors, but you continually ignore the legends like Howard, Leiber, Anderson, Vance, and Moorcock, just to name a few, who undeniably have better prose and storytelling ability than the vast majority of modern replicating authors. Maybe just a product of inexperience. Here’s hoping you discover the originators.
Yumi and Tress are lovely. Sword of Kaigen is AMAZING, but you have no idea which is even MORE AMAZING! HER NEXT BOOK - Blood Over Bright Haven. Please read it.. It's stunningly good! I still can't get myself to try Guy Gavrial Kay again. I love his prose style, but they stories are too slow with too much alt-historical context behind them. They are great from prose perspective, but stories lack a little bit oomph that Rothfuss gives to the readers. KKC fanboy out. Also subscribed. Been watching for months but lately the videos hit harder than ever. Great content!
Yumi and Tress are SO good! And wow I didn't know about Blood Over Bright Haven, I will definitely be reading that soon! I think that's understandable with Guy Gavriel Kay, while I do really enjoy his books I can see why many would not. And I agree that they lack a certain quality that Rothfuss delivers well. Thanks, I'm happy you're enjoying the content!
@@CapturedInWords I can second Blood Over Bright Haven. My favorite fantasy book of the year. Haven't read The Sword of Kaigen but most people seem to think Blood Over Bright Haven was even better.
I'm so happy you mentioned Perdido Street Station; it's SO good. Its sequels could never quite stand up to it, which was a bit of a shame. Still, I did like "King Rat" and "The City and The City" by Miéville and would recommend them both. As for Gaiman - my top favorite author - "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is quite possibly his greatest and most personal book, "one for the heads" as one might say. And you should check out his collections of short stories as well. He is, after all, a student of the Poe and Lovecraft legacies, and as such, a real master of the short form. There are a few of them, but "Fragile Things" is the best one. Love the channel :) Enjoy!
Oh, I enjoyed The Scar even more than Perdido Street Station. That massive city of cobbled-together ships and the cast of characters was so weird and interesting. I think it's my favorite of China Meiville's books.
I am once again recommending The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold! 😆 It's another of those books that is technically first in a series, but can absolutely be read as a standalone, since the other books in the series each follow different characters, so it's really more of a set of loosely linked stories set in the same world.
So happy to see The Hobbit on this list. Most of these are already on my TBR, so it was great to hear about them. I read the first part of Sword of Kaigen. It was quite good, but life got in the way. I hope to return to it and complete it. For some reason, I have been dragging my feet on Discworld. I would still like to give it a try someday, since I have heard such good things about it. Same with Neil Gaiman. Thanks for sharing!
I use to read a lot of books but after a while I became tire of reading things that weren't so exiting. So I am grateful for all your recommandations. Thank you
So sorry to hear you didn't get to experience being traumatized from reading Coraline as a child. Also, YOU LOVE PRATCHETT WHAT ARE YOU DOING READ GOOD OMENS!
Good Omens is a wonderful, hilarious, one of a kind story. Reading it made me actually laugh out loud in , of all places, the waiting room at the dentist! As a side note, Stardust is also a favourite, similar in style to, but not as much as The Princess Bride.
Recently finished Sword of Kaigen and loved it sooo much! I couldn't believe how much I loved it. Personally I liked the unique structure too, made the book hit that much harder.
Ive got The Gobin Emperor, Sword of Tigana and Tress of the Emerald Sea sitting on my nightstand waiting for me to read them. Now I just need to decide which one to start on first! 😅
Some interesting titles I haven't heard before. Didn't appreciate the promotion at the beginning- over 90 seconds long. It must be extra money for the viewers it is a pain and unwelcome.
I used to read a lot in the olden days, 10-15yrs ago, but two books i do remember loving a lot are Tigana and Perdido Street Station. Actually only last night i bought the kindle of Tigana, and also the lions of al-rassan, also by GGK. I actually probably do still have the books out in storage somewhere but for now Kindle is much easier. Hopefully I will get around to reading them again soon.
The Princess Bride is one of the only books I can think of that is worse than the movie. The movie is a classic while the book version just drags on. For a standalone, I always like going back to The Redemption of Althalaus by David Eddings.
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman was my introduction to him. My uncle gave me the book as a birthday present when I was a teenager, been a big fan ever since.
I'm gonna give a second recommendation to people for Warbreaker it is my favorite Cosmere book, and it has my second favorite Cosmere character in it, so I have to shout it out
The Wayward Children are great, dark takes on so-called children's "portal fantasies." I highly recommend them. I've tried a couple of McGuire's InCrypted series books and just could not get into them. For urban fantasy, I much preferred her October Daye series.
Favorite standalones from the last few years: The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E Cooney Even Through I Knew the End by C.L Polk Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth Siren Queen by Nghi Vo The Valley and The Flood by Rebecca Mahoney The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher Feeder by Patrick Weekes A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims And I'll stop there.
@@bolbsie629 love em,caught em on there first US tour with Dayseeker,Caskets and Thornhill then again when they came back with the plot in you and Thornhill again haha.
My recommendations from Ganman are going to be, perhaps, his most popular books: American Gods and Sandman. Those are at the top for him for a really good reason, they’re great. I read both in my late highschool/early college years and, despite never having read either again, I still think about them, all the damn time. They’re both incredible and, if you like American Gods, there’s a related novel, not a sequel or prequel exactly, called Amanda Boys that I even hear some people say is better than American Gods.
Oh, how could I forget Coraline! Such a great spooky story for kids. And if you like comics, try Marvel 1602! He wrote it just after 9/11 with the specific intent of doing something fun and less serious, so it has very little to do with normal Marvel. Basically, all the characters from the normal comics have appeared in 1602 America instead of modern day America and trying to unravel why that happened and seeing all these Colonial takes on their characters we know and love is super fun.
Small gods is incredible. You will definitely laugh out loud readings this gem. It has also my favorate curse: "May Your Genitals Sprout Wings and Fly Away."
Hi, congratulations on your video! This summer, I read four thriller books, but the one I liked the most was "Motion Detection," which I stumbled upon on Amz. It's a fantastic book. But I don't understand why nobody talks about it. Have you read it? I highly recommend it!
Small God's is my fav Discworld book! It's amazing, I to this day will still lean in towards my friend and whisper 'the turtle moves' haha. I think I will read Piranesi based on your description, sounds like it might be my cup of tea! My list would be: 1)The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany 2) Something Wicked this Way Comes - Bradbury 3) The Hobbit - The master himself. 4) The Neverending Story- Ende (Way better than the 1980s film!) 5) The Carpet People - Sir Terry 8) Wizard Knight - Wolfe (Technically a duology but all modern publications are a single volume) 7)Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brando 8) The Buried Giant - Ishiguro 9) Hart's Hope - Card (not for the faint of... ) 10) Echos of the Great Song - Gemmel 11)) The Monk - Lewis 12) The Swordbearer - Cook 13) The Lions of Al-Rassan - Kay 14) The Last Unicorn - Beagle 15) Tailchaser's Song - Williams
I really enjoyed The Graveyard Book from Gaiman. My favorite stand-alone from Kay is The Lions of Al-Rassan. Tigana was my favorite Kay until i read …Al-Rassan.
China Miéville is an amazing author! So underrated in this day and age! "Kraken" is also an absolute best! ("Perdido Street Station" is the first of a trilogy BTW)
Tigana is, unfortunately, one of the WORST books I've ever had the displeasure to read. I tried three times at, and at the last time I managed to get about 75% into it before I gave up completely. I can be an emotional guy and it doesn't normally take THAT much for me to feel something when I read. Tigana tries to be an emotional book. But it utterly fails. There are SO MANY scenes where something is allegedly sad, but the author just tells us instead of showing us. It felt like I was getting direct cues that "this is a sad part, please cry! I'm telling you it's SAD, look: the character is crying!". Meanwhile, I had zero sh|ts to give.
I think we were reading different books with Witch King. There was no hook, no personality, and a massive law dump without clear explanation. Really disappointing when Murderbot is so good. Also, have you not read any Terry P. before? All of the Discworld novels can be read as standalone.
I liked *Spinning Silver* also, and recently became aware (thank you, Merphy) of her *Temeraire* series that begins with *His Majesty's Dragon.* Like *Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell* it's set in Napoleonic Europe, but the tone is much lighter and there are DRAGONS. Each dragon carries a crew of between 6 and 20 people - gunners, signalmen, captain and first mate, the works. They treat the dragons like ships, and I love it.
"Piranesi" and "The Sword of Kaigen" are two of my favorite books of all times. I loved "The Emperor's Soul", but is the only one that I enjoyed from the author. "Perdido Street Station" is so underated. I think China Mieville is brilliant. If you'd like to try a even weirder than "Perdido" but one that does not have much plot then I would sugest "Tainaron. Mail From Another City"by Leena Krohn. It can be summarised like this: 30 letters from a women living in a city of insects...
I found Tigana very difficult to read The characters were very immature and petty Not even in a way where they become more developed characters, just miserable hypocrites
While technically part of a larger series, for me Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley was pretty perfect to me as a standalone and is in my top five books of all time.
Question! Would Mage of no renown by Kel Kade count as a standalone, despite the fact that it technically is a prequel to king's dark tidings? I'm just curious!
Pawn’s Dream by Eric S. Nylund is a fantastic stand-alone portal fantasy novel where a few people exist on two planes of existence. When they go to sleep in one world they wake up in the other. It follows a man who learns that what he has taken to be a lifelong dream of a fantasy world is actually real and is wrapped up in the political machinations of the families that live in both. It also has a fun magic system tied to opposing forces due to the dual nature of these select few. (Fire/Water, Truth/Lies, Life/Death).
So happy to finally see a list that includes Witch King! That book was a surprise hit for me in 2023 and it's phenomenal. The dual timelines are stunning and she tells an amazing story.
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - one of the classics. The Matter of Britain is the basis for a lot of high fantasy, and this is one of the best.
Use my code CAPTUREDINWORDS to get $5 off your delicious, high protein Magic Spoon cereal by clicking this link: sponsr.is/magicspoon_capturedinwords_0923
Let me know your favorite standalone fantasy!
I must say, you fill an amazing niche. I have really enjoyed your videos on the kingkiller chronicles, as well as your reviews and videos on the cosmere. Thanks for taking all that time to create such high quality content!
(BTW : I discovered your channel when I had just finished WOT and wanted more by Brandon Saunderson) 😊
Favourite standalone fantasy ? Neil Gaiman comes to mind, with books like Stardust and The ocean at the end of the lane.
Then there is It by Stephen King, along with The Stand.
I guess these two are it, since standalone fantasy imo is one of the hardest genres to write well.
@@Antichrist.318 Thanks so much! I'm happy to hear you enjoy all the content :D
@@Antichrist.318 I definitely need to read more Stephen King soon!
@@CapturedInWords please do, he is an amazing author. Thanks for taking the time to reply ☺️
I don't think the Hobbit gets enough credit. Such a good book. It was my first step up from reading GOOSEBUMPS books as a kid and I've been hooked on fantasy and sci Fi ever since. I also try to read it every couple of years and I'm looking forward to sharing it with my kids
It’s a fantastic read! So wholesome and satisfying !🐾💯🐾
Amazing book Bilbo beginings was amazing
I actually like that plot more than the LOTR. Which is a hot take. But that crew of dwarves along with gandolf and smaug is fantastic
Because it’s not exceptional
The Hobbit is fantastic. I don't know that anyone disputes that. It's at best a YA fantasy though. Really a middle grade book. So, I don't see it making lists limited to adult fiction. Glad to see it on his list.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is my favorite Gaiman book ever and I love all of his books!
agree!
Warbreaker is my favorite standalone fantasy book. Loved this list!
Same!! definitely in my top 10 standalone.
I just finished reading The graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was so good!
It was good but I don't know, I was just getting to know the characters and it just ended.😑Did you feel that too?
My favorite Gaiman book after Sandman! So good!
One of my favorites.
I enjoyed this also. DId you get a sense that it felt like it was written as a plot to a 1990s animated TV series. Charming and episodic
Do you think you’d do a top animal companion list or one for sentient objects?
Mat's horse Pits is Top 0. Fight me!
Piranesi is so, so good. I also highly recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by the same author about 2 magicians in England during the Napoleonic Wars trying to bring back English magic, mixing urban fantasy and alternative history all wrapped up in a style that's a deliberate (and delightful) throwback to Victorian authors like Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. It's definitely a very slow read (one of the title characters doesn't even appear until like 150 pages in) but it is so fun and the world and characters are so interesting, it's an absolute blast.
He appears in the notes, before that, as I recall.
M.L. Wang (Sword of Kaigen) just released another fantasy standalone called Blood Over Bright Haven which is brilliant and I haven't seen enough people talking about. Book of the year for me.
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. Amazing book that had me glued to every page. You even get to see Slavic pagan gods.
It’s a crime that he’s read so many Neil gaiman books but not American gods
Tbf it's not a standalone. There are 2 shorts and another full book 😁
Guy Gavriel Kay is one of the most gifted authors I've ever read. "Under Heaven" was my introduction to him and it's simply sublime. The beautiful irony of Kay's writing is that he draws inspiration from real historical settings, but then his worlds somehow simultaneously become the most original creations you could imagine.
Tigana is my absolute favorite of his. Gripping from start to finish. The ending is not to be missed!
With Gaiman, never read American Gods? And with the Susannah Clarke, have you read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell?
Warbreaker ❤ I like it even more than Mistborn
Warbreaker is SO good!
@@CapturedInWords Yes !!! I love Warbreaker too !!! :)
Solid list! I've read several and hope to read some of these others soon, including Tress and The Sword of Kaigen. I started reading GGK this year with The Lions of al-Rassan and was blown away. I'll definitely be reading more of him. Glad you didn't forget The Hobbit! :)
I absolutely loved Tress of the Emerald Sea.
Discworld, my favourite cozy fantasy novels. ❤ Brilliant idea to read Small Gods as a stand alone. Terry Pratchett himself recommended not to start with the first one in the series. The first ones are not as good as the rest. My first one was Wyrd Sisters, I loved it! 😍 Piranesi was really good, it reminded me of The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss. The Hobbit is always a favourite. The Sword of Kaigen has been stuck in my TBR pile for months now, need to get round to it, hope it is as good as everyone says. Warbreaker is good, really like Elantris as well. Tress of the Emerald Sea was not a favourite. Prefer Neil Gaimans The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Neverwhere over Stardust. I think I prefer Uprooted over Spinning Silver as well but those two are Naomi Noviks best ones. Need to check out some of your other recommendations. Saw someone recommend The Neverending Story by Michael Ende in the comments. That is one lovely and imaginative YA book. ❤
I will totally echo Piranesi (appropriate verb!), the Princess Bride, Star Dust, and the Hobbit. Solid reads that don't take long.
I will hopefully soon have read Night Circus, Sword of Kaigan and many more Neil Gaiman.
And I will raise you: Peter Pan by J. M, Barrie, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness & Siobhan Dowd, and Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro & Cornella Funke.
I love how powerful and concise these all are.
Peter Pan is one of my all time favorite classics! I definitely should have mentioned that one, whoops! A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is really great as well, been a while since I read it and it's time for a reread soon. I love the movies for The Last Unicorn and The neverending story as I grew up watching them, so I definitely need to give the books a read at some point. Thanks for the recs!
@@CapturedInWords Yes, dew it! The Last Unicorn movie is a good reflection of the book, since the same person wrote it, it's just so much deeper and invigorating and somber in prose form. I also love the Neverending Story movie (unlike Michael Ende), but it's a much morphed reflection, true in some areas and radically different in others, and then it keeps going deeper and deeper past the film ( _barely_ resembling the 2nd film at all) until reader's soul is turned inside out, in a good yet terrifying way...like "A Monster Calls" does to you, but much more drawn out. I think you'll love it.
M L Wang's new book Blood Over Bright Haven is another stellar standalone, I loved the Sword of Kaigen but I think I enjoyed Blood Over Bright Haven even more. The House in the Cerulean Sea and A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking are two great standalones as well!
Blood Over Bright Haven is my favorite book of the year and it's not getting enough attention.
Have you tried books by David gemmel great British fantasy author who passed away in 2006
Some great books on this list. Some of my favorite (older) standalone fantasy novels that I rarely see mentioned are
The Face In the Frost by John Bellairs,
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly,
The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany,
and Watership Down by Richard Adams.
The Book of Lost Things was really great! I meant to include that one on this list but totally forgot. The others seem interesting, I'll need to get to them at some point!
Watership Down is terrific
Yes on the Lord Dunsany pick. Most readers, if they know Dunsany at all, would pick The King of Elfland's Daughter, but this for me is the better choice. His collections of short stories are great also. Not familiar with the Bellairs book so will have to look it up. I would add Beagle's The Last Unicorn, and going back a bit, writers such as Tanith Lee, Patricia A McKillip (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld my favorite) Poul Andersen (The Broken Sword) and George MacDonald. Happy reading!
I love Lord Dunsany and Watership Down so I may need to read the other 2 as you appear to have impeccable taste Sir
I love Goblin Emperor so much! So happy to see a BookTuber mention it
If you like that, you should read the follow up books in the same world as the Goblin Emperor, but following Prelate of Ulis and Witness for the Dead Thara Celehar. There are two books; Witness for the Dead and Grief of Stones. He basically moves to the city of Amalo and starts up being an official Witness for the dead.
I got the book from the library and the character list at the beginning is so long. It was very daunting and the names are hard to pronounce so I return the book back to the library. Is it hard to read and understand? Thanks
To your credit you have a few older authors, but you continually ignore the legends like Howard, Leiber, Anderson, Vance, and Moorcock, just to name a few, who undeniably have better prose and storytelling ability than the vast majority of modern replicating authors. Maybe just a product of inexperience. Here’s hoping you discover the originators.
I often recommend Moorcock's Elric Saga on the channel, but there's definitely many classic legends that I still need to read and plan on getting to
The Ten Thousand Doors of January is another fantastic standalone. Very highly recommend!
I so agree! This was a fabulous book!! One of those that sticks with you for a while afterwards
Yumi and Tress are lovely.
Sword of Kaigen is AMAZING, but you have no idea which is even MORE AMAZING! HER NEXT BOOK - Blood Over Bright Haven. Please read it.. It's stunningly good!
I still can't get myself to try Guy Gavrial Kay again. I love his prose style, but they stories are too slow with too much alt-historical context behind them. They are great from prose perspective, but stories lack a little bit oomph that Rothfuss gives to the readers. KKC fanboy out.
Also subscribed. Been watching for months but lately the videos hit harder than ever. Great content!
Yumi and Tress are SO good! And wow I didn't know about Blood Over Bright Haven, I will definitely be reading that soon!
I think that's understandable with Guy Gavriel Kay, while I do really enjoy his books I can see why many would not. And I agree that they lack a certain quality that Rothfuss delivers well.
Thanks, I'm happy you're enjoying the content!
@@CapturedInWords I can second Blood Over Bright Haven. My favorite fantasy book of the year. Haven't read The Sword of Kaigen but most people seem to think Blood Over Bright Haven was even better.
Love this video!!!
Love that you included Stardust and The Hobbit♥️ Now go read American Gods Hahaha everyone deserves a good piece of literature!!
Video starts at 2:39
Farmer Giles of ham.
I'm so happy you mentioned Perdido Street Station; it's SO good. Its sequels could never quite stand up to it, which was a bit of a shame. Still, I did like "King Rat" and "The City and The City" by Miéville and would recommend them both. As for Gaiman - my top favorite author - "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is quite possibly his greatest and most personal book, "one for the heads" as one might say. And you should check out his collections of short stories as well. He is, after all, a student of the Poe and Lovecraft legacies, and as such, a real master of the short form. There are a few of them, but "Fragile Things" is the best one.
Love the channel :) Enjoy!
Oh, I enjoyed The Scar even more than Perdido Street Station. That massive city of cobbled-together ships and the cast of characters was so weird and interesting. I think it's my favorite of China Meiville's books.
I've recommended Ocean so many times to friends
I actually think Scar is even better lol
New Captured in Words drop! Best way to begin a Saturday. Just wanna thank you for the time and care you put into these vids, man.
I am once again recommending The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold! 😆 It's another of those books that is technically first in a series, but can absolutely be read as a standalone, since the other books in the series each follow different characters, so it's really more of a set of loosely linked stories set in the same world.
Shards of Honor is my (adult) step-son's favorite book, and he's been after me to read it for years!
@@jessezigg Love Shards of Honor! That whole series, really!
So happy to see The Hobbit on this list.
Most of these are already on my TBR, so it was great to hear about them. I read the first part of Sword of Kaigen. It was quite good, but life got in the way. I hope to return to it and complete it.
For some reason, I have been dragging my feet on Discworld. I would still like to give it a try someday, since I have heard such good things about it. Same with Neil Gaiman.
Thanks for sharing!
YES THE GOBLIN EMPEROR! It’s one of my favorites of all time!
IT'S SO GOOD! Such an underrated book
i love the sword of kaigen
IT'S SO GOOD!
@@CapturedInWords i want more from this world and characters. hope ml wang will come out with another book on this
This is good cuz i don't like long series
I use to read a lot of books but after a while I became tire of reading things that weren't so exiting. So I am grateful for all your recommandations. Thank you
So sorry to hear you didn't get to experience being traumatized from reading Coraline as a child. Also, YOU LOVE PRATCHETT WHAT ARE YOU DOING READ GOOD OMENS!
The Goblin Emperor is my favorite book!
I listen to the audiobook every year around Christmas time.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Good Omens is one of my favorite all-time books. Terry Pratchett + Neil Gaiman? There's nothing better. Make that one top of your list.
Great suggestion! I've wanted to read it for a while now, so I definitely need to read it ASAP
Good Omens is a wonderful, hilarious, one of a kind story. Reading it made me actually laugh out loud in , of all places, the waiting room at the dentist! As a side note, Stardust is also a favourite, similar in style to, but not as much as The Princess Bride.
Recently finished Sword of Kaigen and loved it sooo much! I couldn't believe how much I loved it. Personally I liked the unique structure too, made the book hit that much harder.
I totally agree! The book hits so hard, and really is a gem. It's one of my new favorite books for sure! Glad you enjoyed it as well!
DAMNED pyramids can be read stand alone talking about Pratchett;)
That was my first Discworld ❤
Very true! I actually haven't read that one yet but hope to get to it soon
Ive got The Gobin Emperor, Sword of Tigana and Tress of the Emerald Sea sitting on my nightstand waiting for me to read them. Now I just need to decide which one to start on first! 😅
Some interesting titles I haven't heard before. Didn't appreciate the promotion at the beginning- over 90 seconds long. It must be extra money for the viewers it is a pain and unwelcome.
I used to read a lot in the olden days, 10-15yrs ago, but two books i do remember loving a lot are Tigana and Perdido Street Station. Actually only last night i bought the kindle of Tigana, and also the lions of al-rassan, also by GGK. I actually probably do still have the books out in storage somewhere but for now Kindle is much easier. Hopefully I will get around to reading them again soon.
The Princess Bride is one of the only books I can think of that is worse than the movie. The movie is a classic while the book version just drags on.
For a standalone, I always like going back to The Redemption of Althalaus by David Eddings.
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman was my introduction to him. My uncle gave me the book as a birthday present when I was a teenager, been a big fan ever since.
I'm gonna give a second recommendation to people for Warbreaker it is my favorite Cosmere book, and it has my second favorite Cosmere character in it, so I have to shout it out
Does Imajica by Clive Barker qualify or does it have to have elves n shit?
In brazilian portuguese translation tigana is divided in two volumes...
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is one of the best fantasy books of all time. If you haven’t read it I suggest you do
for some lighter fair, check out Night Wars by Masterson!
Have you read anything by Seanan McGuire? The wayward children series and the incryptid series are fantastic. Also, Soulless by Gail carriger
I haven't read any of those, but I'll have to check them out! Thanks for the recs
The Wayward Children are great, dark takes on so-called children's "portal fantasies." I highly recommend them.
I've tried a couple of McGuire's InCrypted series books and just could not get into them. For urban fantasy, I much preferred her October Daye series.
The standalone novels have a better chance of becoming classics
Two top 15-s in a row?? ❤️❤️
To Reign in Hell, Steven Brust. An alternate look at the revolt in Heaven.
Favorite standalones from the last few years:
The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E Cooney
Even Through I Knew the End by C.L Polk
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
The Valley and The Flood by Rebecca Mahoney
The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher
Feeder by Patrick Weekes
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims
And I'll stop there.
Wow I've heard of almost none of these! I will definitely add them to my list of books to get to, thanks for the recs!
@CapturedInWords Hope you enjoy! They span several fantasy subgenres. I do think C.S.E Cooney should get a lot more love. She's a brilliant writer.
My favorite Gaiman book is Odd and the Frost Giants.
Love this and ur beginner video as I’m getting back into fantasy lately🤘🏻🖤
Holding Absence fan i see lol
@@bolbsie629 love em,caught em on there first US tour with Dayseeker,Caskets and Thornhill then again when they came back with the plot in you and Thornhill again haha.
These are your all time favorite 15 stand alone?
Thanks so much! I love your channel! Keep up the great work.
Piranesi , it’s such a beautiful book as far an object goes and can’t wait to actually read it
I hope magic spoon is a real cereal I could use a new one 😂😂
My recommendations from Ganman are going to be, perhaps, his most popular books: American Gods and Sandman. Those are at the top for him for a really good reason, they’re great. I read both in my late highschool/early college years and, despite never having read either again, I still think about them, all the damn time. They’re both incredible and, if you like American Gods, there’s a related novel, not a sequel or prequel exactly, called Amanda Boys that I even hear some people say is better than American Gods.
Oh, how could I forget Coraline! Such a great spooky story for kids. And if you like comics, try Marvel 1602! He wrote it just after 9/11 with the specific intent of doing something fun and less serious, so it has very little to do with normal Marvel. Basically, all the characters from the normal comics have appeared in 1602 America instead of modern day America and trying to unravel why that happened and seeing all these Colonial takes on their characters we know and love is super fun.
Small gods is incredible. You will definitely laugh out loud readings this gem. It has also my favorate curse: "May Your Genitals Sprout Wings and Fly Away."
Sounds dumb tbh
The goblin emporer has 2 sequels now
My favorite book is Little, Big by John Crowley
It's beautifully written, and a captivating story.
Absolutely wonderful book! My favorite book by far. Crowley’s Aegypt books are also very good.
@@johnedwards2433 I love them and am amazed that they *never* get mentioned by booktubers talking about fantasy series.
My favorite underrated stand alone fantasy novel is The Neverending Story by Micheal Ende
I just read The Neverending Story for the first time this year. The first half was awesome (pretty much the movie), but that second half was ROUGH.
Piranesi is hands down the worst book i have ever read
You should read light novel The Beginning After The End it is very good you will love it give it a chance❤
Second this.
Coraline is the only Gaiman book I like.
Tigana will be top priority for me next year. I highly recommend Ocean at the End of the Lane, and I think you’ll love Coraline.
Hope you enjoy Tigana! And I will definitely give those Gaiman books a read soon :)
So many great books to read! I wish I had more free time! Every day I feel gratitude for being able to read great Fantasy Literature in the original!
7:47 ''Tress'' of the Emeral Sea?
📚 The Hobbit ❤ & Good Omens ❤ 📚
Hi, congratulations on your video! This summer, I read four thriller books, but the one I liked the most was "Motion Detection," which I stumbled upon on Amz. It's a fantastic book. But I don't understand why nobody talks about it. Have you read it? I highly recommend it!
When wise man's fear deep dive
Small God's is my fav Discworld book! It's amazing, I to this day will still lean in towards my friend and whisper 'the turtle moves' haha.
I think I will read Piranesi based on your description, sounds like it might be my cup of tea!
My list would be:
1)The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany
2) Something Wicked this Way Comes - Bradbury
3) The Hobbit - The master himself.
4) The Neverending Story- Ende (Way better than the 1980s film!)
5) The Carpet People - Sir Terry
8) Wizard Knight - Wolfe (Technically a duology but all modern publications are a single volume)
7)Tress of the Emerald Sea - Brando
8) The Buried Giant - Ishiguro
9) Hart's Hope - Card (not for the faint of... )
10) Echos of the Great Song - Gemmel
11)) The Monk - Lewis
12) The Swordbearer - Cook
13) The Lions of Al-Rassan - Kay
14) The Last Unicorn - Beagle
15) Tailchaser's Song - Williams
I really enjoyed The Graveyard Book from Gaiman. My favorite stand-alone from Kay is The Lions of Al-Rassan. Tigana was my favorite Kay until i read …Al-Rassan.
China Miéville is an amazing author! So underrated in this day and age! "Kraken" is also an absolute best! ("Perdido Street Station" is the first of a trilogy BTW)
Tigana is, unfortunately, one of the WORST books I've ever had the displeasure to read. I tried three times at, and at the last time I managed to get about 75% into it before I gave up completely. I can be an emotional guy and it doesn't normally take THAT much for me to feel something when I read. Tigana tries to be an emotional book. But it utterly fails. There are SO MANY scenes where something is allegedly sad, but the author just tells us instead of showing us. It felt like I was getting direct cues that "this is a sad part, please cry! I'm telling you it's SAD, look: the character is crying!". Meanwhile, I had zero sh|ts to give.
I think we were reading different books with Witch King. There was no hook, no personality, and a massive law dump without clear explanation. Really disappointing when Murderbot is so good. Also, have you not read any Terry P. before? All of the Discworld novels can be read as standalone.
I liked *Spinning Silver* also, and recently became aware (thank you, Merphy) of her *Temeraire* series that begins with *His Majesty's Dragon.* Like *Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell* it's set in Napoleonic Europe, but the tone is much lighter and there are DRAGONS. Each dragon carries a crew of between 6 and 20 people - gunners, signalmen, captain and first mate, the works. They treat the dragons like ships, and I love it.
Guns of the dawn by Tchaikovsky, waiting for the barbarians by Coetzee, untethered sky by Fonda lee? Thought this was a fantasy standalone rec
Loved Sword of Kaigen! Goblin Emperor was good. But Witch King was bad. Not my taste at alll.
Been reading this book lately "Stars Aligned (Chronicles of the Celestial Kingdoms Book 1)" by Olivia Whitestone
I adored The Night Circus. Beautiful prose, memorable characters, and such a unique setting.
Thx for the list, definitely checking some out. But dude, reviling there’s a twist is spoilers, please keep that in mind.
"Piranesi" and "The Sword of Kaigen" are two of my favorite books of all times. I loved "The Emperor's Soul", but is the only one that I enjoyed from the author. "Perdido Street Station" is so underated. I think China Mieville is brilliant. If you'd like to try a even weirder than "Perdido" but one that does not have much plot then I would sugest "Tainaron. Mail From Another City"by Leena Krohn. It can be summarised like this: 30 letters from a women living in a city of insects...
I found Tigana very difficult to read
The characters were very immature and petty
Not even in a way where they become more developed characters, just miserable hypocrites
The Starless Sea !!!!!
sandman :)
While technically part of a larger series, for me Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley was pretty perfect to me as a standalone and is in my top five books of all time.
Found Pratchett hard to ready for some reason in particular small gods, just couldn’t finish it for some reason
Neil Gammon The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Both fantastic!
Love a stand alone, especially for vacations! My 'go-to' vacation book us David Eddings Redemption of Althalus. Will give some of these a try :)
Did Broken Sword made the previous list? If not then I recomend it very much.
Question! Would Mage of no renown by Kel Kade count as a standalone, despite the fact that it technically is a prequel to king's dark tidings? I'm just curious!
I’m still reading Neverwhere and felt a bit confused but not giving up!☔️💯☔️🐾
Pawn’s Dream by Eric S. Nylund is a fantastic stand-alone portal fantasy novel where a few people exist on two planes of existence. When they go to sleep in one world they wake up in the other. It follows a man who learns that what he has taken to be a lifelong dream of a fantasy world is actually real and is wrapped up in the political machinations of the families that live in both. It also has a fun magic system tied to opposing forces due to the dual nature of these select few. (Fire/Water, Truth/Lies, Life/Death).
So happy to finally see a list that includes Witch King! That book was a surprise hit for me in 2023 and it's phenomenal. The dual timelines are stunning and she tells an amazing story.
Recursion and Dark matter by Blake Crotch are 2 of my favorite stand alones.
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - one of the classics. The Matter of Britain is the basis for a lot of high fantasy, and this is one of the best.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle is my stand alone recommendation! Classic fantasy at its finest!
Perdido is one of the best books ever, but the new crobuzon cycle is 3 books, so i don't think it's a standalone