Recommend stand-alone books from the last ten years.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/1549 is a similar thread, but the last post there was more than a year ago, and I'd like to focus on the last ten years only.

Let's say stand-alone, no pre-/sequels, and also no other books in the same setting. No omnibus-collections, no re-releases of earlier works. One book, and one book only.

Personally, I'd prefer something with a good bit of action and adventure, but don't feel constrained by that.

Sci-Fi recommendations would also be welcome.

Thank you for your time.

EDIT: Expanded parameters in post #46

Have you read any Sheri S. Tepper? Maybe not strictly fantasy....might call them a mix of sf and fantasy, but all are standalone and very good. Emma Bull - War for the Oaks
Guy Gavriel Kay - Lions of Al-Rassan Lots of action and adventure.

Neither of those books was published in the last ten years, though. War for the Oaks is over twenty years old, and Lions of Al-Rassan fifteen.

This is difficult! I expected to find quite a few, but most of the ones I was thinking of are more than 10 years old.

Enchanted Glass is the most recent Diana Wynne Jones book; the setting has a lot of echoes of her other books, but is still different, so it's a stand-alone.

Stealing the Elf-King's Roses (2002) by Diane Duane is SF but on the edge of fantasy. The legal system the book revolves around is fascinating and quite unusual. I enjoyed this one, but never saw much buzz about it.

Agent to the Stars (2005) by John Scalzi is a very entertaining comic one-off SF novel.

Oh, I must admit I completely missed the 10 year deadline. Shoot. Have to think of some others.

However, there are other stand alone novels by Kay published in the last decade, including his most recent, Under Heaven.

Others:
Bear Daughter by Judith Berman
Wolfskin by Juliet Marillier

I enjoyed To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts.

The first thoughts I had were Tad Williams' The War of the Flowers, Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, and (also by Brandon Sanderson) Warbreaker

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia (Has to be read)
New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear (detective story, IIRC)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Soon I will be invincible by Austin Grossman
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson Does not fit your action criterion, but at least there's a lot of death.
The Etched City by K. J. Bishop (if it fits within 10 years, can't remember)

I am not aware that any of these has prequels or sequels; and they are all very good books on their own if they happen to have such. (Well, maybe not Soon I will be invincible, but that one is fun anyway)

Re: #6. I'm pretty sure that Marillier's Wolfskin was related to Foxmask.

Would you be willing to try Sharon Shinn? I loved her scifi book Wrapt in Crystal. It's a stand-alone. So is Summers at Castle Auburn.
A lot of Robin McKinley's books are stand alone, too. Sunshine and Rose Daughter are the first two that come to mind.

This is a harder request to fill than I would have thought. Connected books are clearly the order of the day. Hm.

Patricia A. McKillip continues to write mostly standalone works, of course.

Dan Simmons' Carrion Comfort
Tim Power's The Stress of Her Regard

Actually both of those were published in 1989 so they may be too old to qualify for the 10 year cut-off

Second War of the Flowers and The Stress of Her Regard. Actually, I think quite a few of Tim Powers' books are standalone.

There's also Ysabel by GKK; pretty sure it fits your timeline, and I guess it's technically YA but still very good.

I read a lot of series so that's the best I have right now.

Anything by A. Lee Martinez
The Demon's Librarian by Lilith Saintcrow
Steelflower by Lilith Saintcrow

Just browsing through my LT library:

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
Saturn's Children by Charles Stross
The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip
Halting State by Charles Stross
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand
Minds Eye by Paul McAuley
Frek and the Elixir by Rudy Rucker
Mathematicians in Love by Rudy Rucker
Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer

^Your library looks somewhat similar to my own, edgewood!

Here are a few more from my LT files:

The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe
Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth Bear
Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente
The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint
YA but good: Dragonhaven and Chalice, both by Robin McKinley but not otherwise related

Just a few...

Brother's Price by Wen Spencer
Bookman by Lavie Tidhar
Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
Interworld by Neil Gaiman
Tom Holt writes some stand-a-lones
So does Christopher Moore.

It really is amazing how books have related works, be they sequels, short stories, or works set in same universe. Keeping it to ten years made it even harder.

A Nameless Witch. Light-hearted adventure.

9: jhautefaye - pretty sure there was a sequel to New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear. Can't remember what it was called though.

Speaking of Elizabeth Bear - her A Companion to Wolves is stand alone. She wrote it with Sarah Monette.

Neil Gaiman has written a lot of stand alone fantasy. So has China Miéville.

^ #19: A Companion to Wolves is actually not a stand-alone; it's the first book in a series. There are currently at least 2 more planned, one of which is scheduled to be out in 2011. And I can't wait! :-D

Oh, and, the sequel to New Amsterdam is called Seven for a Secret and is NOT easy to get hold of! Plus, there's another sequel coming out called The White City.

20: kmaziarz - I had no idea!!!!! lol Probably because they are planned for next year. Good to know!!!! It is one of my current favorites.

Perhaps The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry although it's more urban fantasy I suppose...
YA but enjoyable The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

...I cannot think of a single book that fits these parameters that hasn't already been named! Apparently I need to read more.

#20 Thanks for the heads up on The White City by Elizabeth Bear. New Amsterdam is one of my favorite books. And, yes, Seven For A Secret is very expensive to come by.

You can pre-order The White City at Subterranean Press right now. Bear's books are THAT good.

I'm going to go with Dave Duncan's Ill Met in the Arena. One of the things I like about Duncan is just how many original worlds and magic systems he invents, and Ill Met is a good one, in my opinion; I truly hope he does other books in that setting, but so far, there's just the one.

Just an FYI for #'s 20 and 23 regarding the scarcity of Seven for a Secret. There are currently scads of copies available for sale if you search using bookfinder.com. Granted, most of these are "good" condition, ex-library copies, but if you just want to read it (and an actual library no longer has it), then you can get if for as little as $21.00, or so, including shipping, I believe. Even signed, fine/fine copies aren't outrageously expensive, starting at $58.00-$59.00.

By the way, thanks for mentioning Seven for a Secret in the first place, as I really liked New Amsterdam and had thought The White City to be next in the series.

Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip

I highly recommend Variable Star which was outlined by Robert Heinlein in 1955 but written by Spider Robinson and published in 2006. Witty and brimming with references--scientific, literary, pop culture and otherwise. This is a delightful read about a young man fleeing a stifling life by hopping on a colonizer's spaceship. Destination: 20 years away.

The Etched City is often mentioned as a wonderful stand-alone fantasy novel. I personally found it interminable, depressing and in some parts downright nasty. But don't let one person's opinion put it off. It is generally well regarded.

For stand-alone SF, you could try The Algebraist by Iain M Banks, as well as his Feersum Endjinn. Neither are linked to his well known "Culture" novels.

A wonderful, if rather challenging, "first contact" novel is Blindsight.

Wow, yeah, most of my 'last 10 years' books are in series!

The only one I have to offer up is Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, which is billed as YA, but I'm not sure why. I enjoyed this far more than I expected.

Graham Joyce's The Facts of Life and The Limits of Enchantment and Memoirs of a Master Forger. Yes, I know the touchstone says the last is by William Heaney but it is really Joyce - oh and it was called "How To Make Friends With Demons" in the US.

Declare by Tim Powers and Galveston by Sean Stewart both just sneak in the 10 year rule.
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford is also great.

SF is easier.

Ian McDonald Brasyl, River Of Gods and The Dervish House
Adam Roberts Yellow Blue Tibia and others
Alastair Reynolds Terminal World and House Of Suns
Laren Beukes Moxyland
James Morrow The Philosopher's Apprentice
Matt Ruff Bad Monkeys
Tricia Sullivan Maul
Justina Robson Natural History and Living Next Door to the God of Love
Ken Macleod Learning the World and The Execution Channel and The Night Sessions
Michael Flynn Eifelheim
Gwyneth Jones Spirit; Or The Princess Of Bois Dormant

and many more.

Whitechapel Gods by S. M. Peters

Kraken by China Miéville.

Omaca, I second your view on The Etched City. Ugh....I couldn't slog through it. Interminable, cruel, plodding...

Whitechapel Gods was excellent.

Also by China Mieville, I loved Un Lun Dun, a hyper-imaginative story that winks at Alice in Wonderland.

Memory and Dreams by Charles de Lint

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Salamander by Thomas Wharton

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

#24

The Prestige was 1995 so doesn't make the ten-year rule. You can have The Separation by Christopher Priest though.

Gah! I'm dating myself! I shall try The Separation, thanks!

A few more from my library:
Nation from Terry Pratchett
Perfect Circle from Sean Stewart
Tender Morsels from Margo Lanagan (I assume re-tellings of fairy tales are okay)
Scattering of Jades from Alexander Irvine
Tooth and Claw or Lifelode from Jo Walton
most Peter Beagle

Under sf:
Storyteller by Amy Thomson
Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Jazz by Melissa Scott (the main character's strength, internet hoaxing, still seems relevant)
Fledgling by Octavia Butler

if you allow short stories, Ted Chiang does wonderful one-shots.

New to Library Thing and somewhat stumbling around. I have only read fantasy from the past such as C.L. Dodgson, George MacDonald; the not so past such as CS Lewis, Charles Williams, Tolkein, Kafka. Hesitant but willing to step into the more recent fairy land, seems Neil Gaiman may offer up some fairy tales with a chilling flare; Coraline or the more magical Neverwhere.

As far as I know these are stand-alones:

The Princess Bride - William Goldman
The Dragon and the George - Gordon R. Dickson
A Fine and Private Place - Peter S Beagle
Sunshine - Robin McKinley
War for the Oaks - Emma Bull
The Demon's Librarian - Lilith Saintcrow

Some SF titles -
In the Company of Others - Julie R Czerneda
Undertow - Elizabeth Bear
Doorways in the Sand - Roger Zelazny
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

The Princess Bride is way older than 10 years.

As are A Fine and Private Place, War for the Oaks, The Dragon and the George (which also isn't a stand-alone!), Doorways in the Sand, and Snow Crash. Not that they aren't all good books, I'm sure. But not published within the last 10 years. :-)

I see someone mentioned The Sorcerer's House above. I just finished it and enjoyed it quite a bit.

lol - sorry- got caught up in trying to come up with non-series books and forgot about the recent part.

I was going to mention The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan but turns out its the first of a planned trilogy. On the SF side: Morgan's Market Forces and Thirteen (aka Black Man) are stand-alones. As is Neal Asher's Cowl. As are these (methinks): Sheri S Tepper's The Fresco, The Companions and John Scalzi's The Android's Dream, The God Engines. And Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving into the Wreck - nope, part of a series

The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford is a standalone World Fantasy Award winner. But published in 1997 I guess it fails the ten year test.

EDIT: Opps... Turns out The Physiognomy is actually the first in a trilogy! That's good news for me...

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I've read a few times now that publishers will strongly favor trilogies over single-volumes, especially from new authors.

So let's accept the trilogy as the new stand-alone, and update the parameters:
No more than three books. Not four or five, three it is. Two would be acceptable as well. No se-/pre-/or any other -quels.

Let's say completed works only. Since we've expanded the number of books, I'd say it's alright to expand the timeframe as well, to fifteen years or so.

What stands out in this category?

On my part, after getting over the urge to laugh every time the word "wetboy" came up, I really enjoyed Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy.

And while I have yet only read the first book, from what I've heard, and from other books I've read by Sanderson, I fully expect to enjoy the rest of the Mistborn trilogy as well.

KJ Parker's got a couple of trilogies, and I believe Dave Duncan has at least one that stops at 3 books.

It's relatively hard to find an author who has the imagination, guts and/or means to forego a series "gravy-train." Authors like Sanderson who'd written lots of unpublished novels before hitting the big-time are even more rare.

Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology by Karen Miller. Pretty sure it was published sometime this decade.

Kingmaker, Kingbreaker was a huge bait and switch for me.

I really liked the first book, but that all went away in the second book. I'm not sure I could place my finger on what exactly it is, but it quite soured me on the author.

ohhh have you tried other books by the same writer?

ohh there is also a black jewels duology by anne bishop. queen of shalador, I think.

No, I haven't. Then again, this is just personal taste. Something in the second book rubbed me the wrong way, and she has nothing else out that would interest me enough to give her a second chance.

Though I appreciated the two books format.

It is all good!

What about the Darkborn trilogy by Alison Sinclair? The third one, Shadowborn is due out in June next year so it is almost completed. Haven't read the second one, Lightborn, yet but the first one was pretty good!

I think Rachel Neumeier's Griffin Mage trilogy is done. Think it was one of those where a book is released every 2 or 3 months and I'm pretty sure the third book came out this month.

Within the revised fifteen year requirement: "Quickening" trilogy by Fiona McIntosh (1st book is "Myrren's Gift"), "Secret Texts" trilogy by Holly Lisle (1st book is "Diplomacy of Wolves"), "Wolfblade" trilogy by Jennifer Fallon (1st book is "Wolfblade"), "Mistborn" trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (1st book is "The Final Empire"), the "Tales of Lanen Kaelar" trilogy by Elizabeth Kerner (1st book is "Song in the Silence").

Stand-alones: "The Barbed Coil" by J.V. Jones, "Snare" by Katharine Kerr, any by Guy Gavriel Kay

Arise from the grave once more, old thread of mine.

It's been two years since the last post, have there been any relevant and recommendable releases in that time?
(Standalone, finished, three books maximum.)

I tend more towards older releases because I have several excellent used bookstores and libraries around, but some recent standalones that have been on my radar are Tanya Huff's The Silvered, Jo Walton's Lifelode, and Patricia McKillip's The Bards of Bone Plain. I did read and really liked Aliette de Bodard's On a Red Station, Drifting and Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects, both science fiction novellas (the latter is out of print in paper, but I was able to get a copy from my local library and it is still available in ebook).

As far as duologies go, I've enjoyed both Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful and Turning the Storm and Ginn Hale's Lord of the White Hell, and have Catherynne Valente's In the Night Garden and Cities of Coin and Spice, N.K. Jemisin's The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun, and A.M. Dellamonica's Indigo Springs and Blue Magic in my hope-to-read-soon lists.

For trilogies, perhaps again Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and sequels, Galen Beckett (aka Mark Anthony)'s The Magicians and Mrs Quent and sequels, and Martha Wells' Cloud Roads and sequels. I couldn't get into J.A. Pitts' Black Blade Blues trilogy, and I've seen David Anthony Durham's Acacia and sequels but don't know a lot about them.

Stand-Alones:

Butcher Bird by Richard Kadrey
To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust
Runemarks by Joanne Harris (YA) (per zjakkelien, below, this has a sequel)
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville (YA)

Trilogies:

The Magic of Reason by Justine Larbalestier (YA)
Withern Rise by Michael Lawrence (YA)

Runemarks is not a stand-alone, it has a sequel: Runelight.

An interesting stand-alone I read about a year and a half ago is Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw. If you don't like dragons, don't bother, because every character is one.

McKillip's Alphabet of Thorn is another stand-alone well worth reading. I love the lyricism of this author's style. McKillip has written plenty of stand-alones, though she's best known for the Riddle-Master Trilogy.

My first, and so far only, experience with Patricia Briggs has been a fine stand-alone, The Hob's Bargain. I liked it enough to want to explore more of her work; see below.

In terms of duologies, Briggs' non-urban, non-contemporary fantasies are high on my to-read list:
Masques and Wolfsbane
Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood
Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike

I've just started Martha Wells' The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, beginning with The Wizard Hunters. The pace is a bit slow early on, but the characters, particularly the female lead, are intriguing to me; the first book requires some patience, but I have faith that patience will be rewarded.

Thanks, zjakkelien! I had no idea about Runelight. I'll have to look for it. :)

Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight (2005) is a fantasy duology that tackles and twists around just about every knight-related trope ever.

For stand alones, I'd look to Pat Murphy. The City not long after was an excellent read. Since Fantasy writers are apparently poor at math, I find it a rare Trilogy that has only 3 books.

Duh ... Almost forgot, I just read an ER copy of a book called Vampcon which was a very good read, and a standalone fantasy about (you guessed it) vampires. Don't expect the vampires to fit the stereotype.

>59 extrajoker: Hope you like it, extrajoker! I checked it out because a friend was reading it.

>61 drichpi: Can you say a bit more about Vampcon, drichpi?

Tons of good stuff mentioned!

I don't remember seeing Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey.

Also, with the newer guidelines, you could just fit in Flesh and Gold by Phyllis Gotlieb. There are two follow-ups, but all could be read as standalones, and this one especially.

Both SF.

I sympathize with the standalone (or short set) search. I myself enjoy series if the quality holds up; but too often it doesn't (though I say that while three books into my second go-through of the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian )

I realized I was remiss in not having listed Tanith Lee's Biting the Sun duology, a science fantasy on my list of permanent favorites. Also good and science-fantasy (but more postapocalyptic) is Samuel Delaney's Fall of the Towers trilogy.

>58 kceccato: Wells' earlier books The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer are also set in Ile-Rien, but I believe separated by large enough periods of time that they stand alone and I don't think they have any common characters.

Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike are the only Briggs works I've read; from what I remember I liked them, though it's been quite a while since I read them.

Seconding McKillip as well, I especially liked her Cygnet duology.

>60 saltmanz: Pat Murphy's There and Back Again science fiction mashup/retelling of The Hobbit and The Hunting of the Snark is interesting too, there are two loosely related (in a sort of meta-textual way, where the protagonist of the third book is the "author" of this one?) other books but it stood alone well enough to me.

>63 rshart3: Santa Olivia has a sequel, doesn't it? Saints Astray. I have heard not-so-great things about it though.

Long series seem to have this weird thing where as they accumulate more books, less is covered in each book, and page count is instead more taken up with character reflection/introspection, as if authors become more focused on the characters' internal lives than on the overarching plot.

The Wheel of Time is of course the most notorious example (though Jordan seemed to just add more and more characters with their own subplots instead of elaborating on the relatively small cast he started out with), but Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books have this problem in spades, C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series suffer from this to some degree, and from your recent post in the Fantasyland topic I suspect P.C. Hodgell's Kencyrath series does as well.

I don't mind it overall, and some authors can pull it off well enough if they move from one crisis to the next crisis in an episodic fashion rather than putting up signposts and then playing Zeno's paradox with an apocalyptic ending (like Wheel of Time), but I get frustrated even with more episodic series when guns are placed over mantelpieces and not fired (an aspect of Vlad's background and certain talents he has because of it that were revealed way back in the first book of the series, Jhereg, comes to mind.)

Chime Franny Billigsley
The Testament of Jessie Lamb Jane Rogers
Night Circus Erin Morgenstein
Thief with No Shadow and The Laurentine Spy Very romantic by Emily Gee
Rachel Neumier is listed above for a trilogy, but her House of Shadows was out last year and an earlier one was The Floating Islands both very good, City in the lake is not so good as those two, but still ok.
An old one that hasn't been mentioned before Sarah Ash Moths To A Flame, she's done others too
Katherine Kerr Did one called Snare
Jo Graham has a interlinked series, in as much as it hints that they are the same spirits reincarnated in different time periods, but they can all be read alone Black Ships and Hand of Isis and Stealing Fire. Also not in the same series General's Mistress which is more of a historical
The poison Master by liz williams technically a SF but reads fantasy
Bloodrights and Master of None N Lee Woods

I've just got A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan - i have high hopes for that one and i'm fairly sure it's standalone
The Rithmatist By Brandon Sanderson, isn't due out until march but again high hopes as he is a good writer

One of my favorite books: Sharon Shinn's Troubled Waters. I'd love to read more books in this series - I loved the world - but she hasn't written any. Yet. I keep hoping.

Another one - a curios book by Wen Spencer - A Brother's Price. Absolutely stand-alone and yummy.

>66 olga_godim: You'll be pleased to know that there will be a sequel to Troubled Waters coming out in November of this year, called Royal Airs (no LT entries yet). There's a teaser page on the author's site here, though Troubled Waters book is still listed on her "stand-alones" page. No idea if more sequels will be forthcoming or not, though.

Also A Natural History of Dragons is the first of three if memory serves, but Marie Brennan has a pretty good duology consisting of Doppelganger and Warrior and Witch (currently in print, confusingly, with the first volume retitled as Warrior and the second retitled as Witch). Watch out because the summary/blurb of the second book contains spoilers for the ending of the first no matter which edition you see, though, because the quandry of which of the two protagonists will survive is resolved at the end of the first book and the fallout is dealt with in the second book.

66, 68> OMG so excited to hear that! I was just coming on here to post about Troubled Waters, it being one of the few standalones I recently read (and LOVED). I thought the world was fascinating as well, and really enjoyed the way she showed Zoe interacting with her element. It was perfect.

I just wished the book had had a slightly extended conclusion. It ended rather abruptly -- however, this is possibly because she was setting up sequels which is fine...