This is one of my all time favorite books. I had never read anything like it and while the narrative is winding it never really looses the reader because of just how alien the world feels. You read it for the characters and plot just as much as you read to learn a little more about the setting.
The face coming apart into spiderlike fingers at the end of The Prince of Nothing was why I kept reading the series... and my god does it get more demented from there. Especially the Inchoroi.
Anything by Kameron Hurley(except for The Lightbrigade.) Her books are the craziest, most imaginative stuff I've ever read in fantasy. Through strictly speaking, The Worldbreaker Saga is the only 100% fantasy series she's written. The rest is technically SF, but the kind that is pretty close to be fantasy.
Mandatory comment about the Malazan Book of the Fallen. There are ancient dragons, a mysterious magic system, dinosaurs on flying cities, undead neanderthals, elf-like beings, a huge landscape of different cultures. Conflict, death, tragedy and compassion with a sprinkle of hope.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is delightfully chaotic and completely bonkers. Take a look at the cover of book 4 and if that’s not crazy enough I don’t know what is.
I really hate to be the Malazan guy in this thread, but Malazan literally has a race of beings who are dinosaurs with swords for hands because lol why not
The Winnowing Flame is pretty off the wall and actually has a dragon with tentacles. Not crazy at all in terms of plot, very much so in terms of premise.
They are kind of mid range/quick airport reads series rather than epic, but the Invisible Library has a bunch of alternative worlds at different points of development and world building. If it’s run by the dragons, probably some versions of a historical society and orderly and pretty normal (albeit might not have people because they are too messy sometimes). If run by the fey, extremely chaotic and trope driven to the point where rule of cool and trope savviness may be how you survive. And you’d have a chance of running into literary characters or cyborg crocodiles or other shenanigans in the fey worlds.
Massive crab monsters called "chasmfiend" in Stormlight Archive are pretty insane. From coppermind wiki: "Chasmfiends are the largest known land animals on Roshar: at least twenty feet wide, six times the height of an adult man at their peak, and over twice as long.They are long and narrow, with a flattened, split tail reminescent of that of a crayfish.Like most of Rosharan fauna, they're crustaceans, with a carapace exoskeleton covering their entire body."
It's YA but it is one of my favorite YA series. The Beyonders by Brandon Mull. Book starts with a kid falling into the mouth of a hippo into another world to fight the last wizard. It is wild and weird but so much fun. I go back to it every now and then.
This is where JoJo's Bizzare Adventure has almost no competition. One Piece and Malazan also compare of course. Things that you would NEVER come up with yourself that lead to very serious and strategic conflicts. Reality breaking powers that require insane strategies to overcome. Or super "lame" abilities that just happen to be insanely difficult to deal with and become a very real threat.
It’s SF but I read Xixin Liu‘s collection of short stories called The Wandering Sun and it’s the weirdest shit I’ve ever read. One short story is about how ants and dinosaurs used to live together symbiotically and then (for reasons) the ants decided to kill all the dinos. It’s bonkers.
Magical Romantic Comedies by R.J. Blain, it's just weird, there are cindercorn (a black unicorn that breathes fire and eats napalm), all kinds of shapeshifters, headless angels, Lucifer, gorgons, and a bunch of other stuff
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Top Ten by Alan Moore. It's a comic trade paperback but given that it's Alan Moore, the writing is top notch, the art is cool, the setting is crazy and half the fun is analyzing the background to find the Easter eggs.
The Crimson Empire by Alex Marshall (aka Jesse Bullington). I don't even know where to begin to describe the bonkers stuff in these books, so to grab one element at random I'll say there are giant flying jellyfish being ridden by colonies of insects forming the shape of a warrior in spiky armor that are the soldiers of a group of undead superpowerful wizards that reside in a flesh cave on a (formerly) sunken island. Oh and virtually everyone is pansexual and super hornt up. Do you want a love triangle between a runaway imperial princess, her samurai-esque virtue guard, and a cat-eyed black barbarian of the frozen north? What if I told you that later this princess comes to save the day riding on the back of a giant war pangolin? Funny, dark, filthy, inventive, I love these books so much.
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. It had everything that I could possibly want in a book at the time of reading it: magicians engaging in small or large scale magic duels, various folklore and mythological entities interwoven into the world, and so many character POVs (excluding the main two, Sophie and Josh) that make your head spin. It's been a few years since I read all six books and I might reread them again after this post for the nostalgia.
Hxh has some pretty crazy shit with the chimera ants. And his dark materials has some really interesting stuff with the mulfea, and the land of the dead and how they work.
Storm light archive and mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson some of the best I’ve ever read. Don’t overlook the night angel trilogy or the light ringer series by Brent weeks!
Perdido street Station and sequels by China Mieville.
Currently reading and hard agree. People with whole bugs for heads? Cactus people? Other wilder things that are spoilers… has a lot of weird stuff
This is one of my all time favorite books. I had never read anything like it and while the narrative is winding it never really looses the reader because of just how alien the world feels. You read it for the characters and plot just as much as you read to learn a little more about the setting.
My first thought as well. Fucking Slake Moths.
Good choice
Bakker. That dude is fucked up.
The face coming apart into spiderlike fingers at the end of The Prince of Nothing was why I kept reading the series... and my god does it get more demented from there. Especially the Inchoroi.
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King gets at least an honorable mention
🤮
Saga by Brian K Vaughan, it’s a comic series but it’s definitely immensely creative and such a joy to read.
Seconding Saga as the answer. My pitch for it is it has everything magic, robots, intergalatic war, ghosts, conspiracies, sex, drugs
Transmetropolitan
Anything by Kameron Hurley(except for The Lightbrigade.) Her books are the craziest, most imaginative stuff I've ever read in fantasy. Through strictly speaking, The Worldbreaker Saga is the only 100% fantasy series she's written. The rest is technically SF, but the kind that is pretty close to be fantasy.
"Better fill up the jeep with bugs, we've got a long drive."
The Library at Mount Char is pretty wild IMO.
They had me at tutu-man.
Mandatory comment about the Malazan Book of the Fallen. There are ancient dragons, a mysterious magic system, dinosaurs on flying cities, undead neanderthals, elf-like beings, a huge landscape of different cultures. Conflict, death, tragedy and compassion with a sprinkle of hope.
Don't forget parasitic vagina creatures!
You forgot to mention those dinosaurs have swords for arms
How could you possibly forget the sappers when talking about crazy?
Also raptors with swords for arms.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is delightfully chaotic and completely bonkers. Take a look at the cover of book 4 and if that’s not crazy enough I don’t know what is.
Came here to say Dungeon Crawler Carl too lol it’s soo goofy
I really hate to be the Malazan guy in this thread, but Malazan literally has a race of beings who are dinosaurs with swords for hands because lol why not
Zombie dinosaurs with swords for hands.
Not all k'chain have surgically grafted sword arms, I think just the K'Ell
Perdido Street Station (the entire trilogy).
Seconding Chainsaw Man. That manga can be trippy af
For something completely different, Jasper Fforde's
The Winnowing Flame is pretty off the wall and actually has a dragon with tentacles. Not crazy at all in terms of plot, very much so in terms of premise.
I'm reading that right now! Halfway through The Bitter Twins.
Maybe Robert Rankin’s “Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse”?😁
Was going to post this (or the Armageddon Trilogy or any of the Brentford books)
Something like Undead dinosaurs with swords for arms?
Fucking love me some k'chain Che malle
Terry Pratchett's discworld
If you want to read manga, One Piece is by far the most out there, inventive, and crazy fantasy I’ve read that still remains excellent and epic.
Under the Pendulum Sun
The Zamonia Series!!! So many whacky critters in that.
https://adriantchaikovsky.com/children-of-time-series.html
Worth the Candle is pretty wild for a webnovel built on exploring the standard fantasy gaming tropes and cliches.
They are kind of mid range/quick airport reads series rather than epic, but the Invisible Library has a bunch of alternative worlds at different points of development and world building. If it’s run by the dragons, probably some versions of a historical society and orderly and pretty normal (albeit might not have people because they are too messy sometimes). If run by the fey, extremely chaotic and trope driven to the point where rule of cool and trope savviness may be how you survive. And you’d have a chance of running into literary characters or cyborg crocodiles or other shenanigans in the fey worlds.
Library at Mount Char
The Dinosaur Lords series has a bizarre premise. But SO cool. Check them out!
Dune
Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Army of Golems by L. G. Estrella
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey. It’s a Wild West story where the characters ride hippos instead of horses. SO MUCH FUN.
T Kingfishers Clockwork Boys and sequel
I second Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde. Pretty lighthearted for the most part but definitely cooky and random.
Hot and Badgered by Shelley Laurenston, and the other books in the series centred around honey badger shifters.
One Piece is this 100%
Massive crab monsters called "chasmfiend" in Stormlight Archive are pretty insane. From coppermind wiki: "Chasmfiends are the largest known land animals on Roshar: at least twenty feet wide, six times the height of an adult man at their peak, and over twice as long.They are long and narrow, with a flattened, split tail reminescent of that of a crayfish.Like most of Rosharan fauna, they're crustaceans, with a carapace exoskeleton covering their entire body."
Alcatraz versus the evil librarians from brandon sanderson ? I guess pratchett's stuff in discworld must be wild too.
Warhammer Fantasy is up there, along with its sequel, Age of Sigmar.
It's YA but it is one of my favorite YA series. The Beyonders by Brandon Mull. Book starts with a kid falling into the mouth of a hippo into another world to fight the last wizard. It is wild and weird but so much fun. I go back to it every now and then.
Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. Hugh Cook. It’s crazy awesome.
This is where JoJo's Bizzare Adventure has almost no competition. One Piece and Malazan also compare of course. Things that you would NEVER come up with yourself that lead to very serious and strategic conflicts. Reality breaking powers that require insane strategies to overcome. Or super "lame" abilities that just happen to be insanely difficult to deal with and become a very real threat.
It’s SF but I read Xixin Liu‘s collection of short stories called The Wandering Sun and it’s the weirdest shit I’ve ever read. One short story is about how ants and dinosaurs used to live together symbiotically and then (for reasons) the ants decided to kill all the dinos. It’s bonkers.
Magical Romantic Comedies by R.J. Blain, it's just weird, there are cindercorn (a black unicorn that breathes fire and eats napalm), all kinds of shapeshifters, headless angels, Lucifer, gorgons, and a bunch of other stuff
Doomsday Wonderland. You never know what happens next.
[удалено]
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Top Ten by Alan Moore. It's a comic trade paperback but given that it's Alan Moore, the writing is top notch, the art is cool, the setting is crazy and half the fun is analyzing the background to find the Easter eggs.
The Crimson Empire by Alex Marshall (aka Jesse Bullington). I don't even know where to begin to describe the bonkers stuff in these books, so to grab one element at random I'll say there are giant flying jellyfish being ridden by colonies of insects forming the shape of a warrior in spiky armor that are the soldiers of a group of undead superpowerful wizards that reside in a flesh cave on a (formerly) sunken island. Oh and virtually everyone is pansexual and super hornt up. Do you want a love triangle between a runaway imperial princess, her samurai-esque virtue guard, and a cat-eyed black barbarian of the frozen north? What if I told you that later this princess comes to save the day riding on the back of a giant war pangolin? Funny, dark, filthy, inventive, I love these books so much.
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. It had everything that I could possibly want in a book at the time of reading it: magicians engaging in small or large scale magic duels, various folklore and mythological entities interwoven into the world, and so many character POVs (excluding the main two, Sophie and Josh) that make your head spin. It's been a few years since I read all six books and I might reread them again after this post for the nostalgia.
not finished it yet, but “a peculiar peril” is absolutely crazy-
Hxh has some pretty crazy shit with the chimera ants. And his dark materials has some really interesting stuff with the mulfea, and the land of the dead and how they work.
Storm light archive and mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson some of the best I’ve ever read. Don’t overlook the night angel trilogy or the light ringer series by Brent weeks!
Doubt it reaches the status as craziest but
Dog Ningen - it's just weird in a funny good way.
Read some stuff by China Mieville. One of my favourite authors and his shit is wiiiild.