Anyone got some suggestions for pretty clean fantasy... no unnecessary romance scenes, no vulgar language, etc? I don't mind war and some violence, cuz most of fantasy is about that, but I just can't stand reading books with vulgar language or detailed romance scenes. Are there any authors who generally write clean? Thanks ahead of time!!

Maybe Stephen R. Lawhead?  I haven't read many of his books, but I think he might be what you're looking for. I haven't read any of his newer series, but I'll at elast vouch for Taliesin as being a clean book.

That's strange. I've never really noticed it in any fantasy books that I've read.

There's more innuendo than actual action and I don't recall any swearing. Maybe I just go right over it.

If I'm remembering correctly 

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewiis

The Sword of Shanarra by Terry Brooks

The Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey

The Pern books by Anne McCaffrey

The Ghatti's Tale by Gayle Greeno

I just finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and there was no romance and no swearing in the book - but there are some rather graphic war scenes.  Well I guess there is sort of a love interest - but they just briefly speak of their interest and never actually do anything.

It was a very good book  - I am reading Elantris by the same author while I wait for the next two in the Mistborn trilogy to be delivered. I'll update you after I read them.

Robin Hobb has very good books as well - mostly clean - I can't however guarantee no foul language - it's been a couple of years since I read them.  

R. A. Salvatore writes pretty cleanly, as does Christopher Paolini in the Eragon series. Good Luck. Let us know if you find any good ones.

Sharon Shinn has a very clean series.  They are her YA series, The Safe Keeper, Truth Teller and Dream something group.  They have a really nice fable feel to them.   I liked them.  Well written.  Great for very advanced very young readers. About kids, though.

The series by Patricia Wrende and Caroline Stevermer, starting with Sorcery and Cecelia.  This kinda Edwardian feel with dry humor.  For that matter, Caroline Stevermer's other books, A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics.

And, one of my faves, Nina Kiriki Hoffman.

The Dragon Keeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul. They are wonderful.

Most of Tamora Pierce - there may be some mention of sex (like saying they spent the night together) but I don't recall anything graphic.

Robin McKinley, Patricia Wrede, Patricia McKillip, James Owen, Christopher Paolini, Chris D'Lacey, William Nicholson (all of these could be considered YA authors)

If you are interested in the Christian fantasy genre, there are a lot of great books listed at www.wherethemapends.com

Thanks everyone... I'm looking into all those.

And, Bren, thank you for the website! That has ALOT of Christian fantasy books on it, I am excited! Thanks!

I just read the whole Wit'ch Fire series and that is pretty clean.  Not a lot of romance in it.  The last book has one short scene but other than that they are a great read.  They have there hangups of course but,  I give them two thumbs up.  Happy reading!

The Dealing with Dragon Series is clean.  Maybe too simple for your liking, but you could check it out.

---R. A. Salvatore writes pretty cleanly, ...

If you do try R. A. Salvatore, I recommend skipping 'The Spine of the World'.  It's almost completely an unnecessary romance side plot that has practically nothing to do with the rest of the series (as far as I can tell).

Mistborn (by Brandon Sanderson) was good, though the ending wasn't what I expected, but then again, neither was the ending of book 1, book 2, or Warbreaker. *shrug*  He's a good author, though.

I'll second Dragon Keeper Chronicles, they're downright amazing.  Also, Legends of the Guardian-king by Karen Hancock.  Excellent books, IMO.   You might also try the Pellinor series by Alison Croggon.  It starts with The Naming.  It's epic fantasy, and I really like it.  Book 4 is coming out later this year.   Auralia's Colors, book one in the Auralia Thread series, by Jeffrey Overstreet is another really good one.

That's about all I can think of at the moment.  Good luck!

-Rebekah

I'll second a lot of what's been said so far.  I'm also interested in finding more clean stuff.  I don't mind a little romantic interest in the story, but I'd rather not read explicit sex or language.

Brandon Sanderson's books are all clean - there's a little romance, but no sex scenes. 

Terry Brooks' books are all clean.  No sex or foul language.

Robin Hobb doesn't have explicit sex, but it is alluded to, and there is some language (PG rated words, like bastard, damn, etc)

What I've read of Salvatore is clean, though I didn't care for his books much.

Another clean author nobody has mentioned yet is David Eddings.  I loved his Belgariad and Mallorean series.

One popular fantasy author you might avoid is George RR Martin.  I read book one of his series and there's definitely sex and language in it.

I prefer clean writing too - I don't mind an occasional swear word if it fits the character's personality and in extremely tense situations, but otherwise, no thanks.  In my own writing I follow that same guideline.  If I am ever published some day, I want parents to be able to see their kids reading my stories and know it's OK.

I'd add Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles to the list.  Granted, they are YA books, so no harsh language or sex is a given, but they're fun fantasy reads.  The books in the series are:

The Book of Three

The Black Cauldron

The Castle of Llyr

Taran Wanderer

The High King

The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain

Ha! I read the first two of George Martin's series, and I was about to recomend it because it did not have any sex or bad language whatsoever that I remember.! But maybe our definitions differ....Other than the paranormal, with contemporary vampires, I do not recall sex being a big part of hardly any fantasy.

Ha, yeah, Martin's stuff has a LOT of quite descriptive sex and gore.  (Remember the twincest?)  Still some of the best characterization I've ever read though.  One of my top two favorite fantasy authors.

Terry Goodkind is another author to avoid...he seriously made up an entire subset of characters just to have an excuse to include multiple chapters of BDSM in "Wizard's First Rule".

Kathi - I don't know that I'd recommend Anne McCaffrey as "clean"...I like her works quite a bit, but there is definitely sex mentioned, if in more flowery, romance-y sort of language than Martin or Goodkind.  (Dragonriders hook up whenever their dragons do, with whomever is the rider of the dragon that their dragon is mating with.)

Interesting how we remember certain things and forget others.  I found the scenes in Martin's book too explicit and disturbing, yet I don't remember Wizard's First Rule having anything explicit.

Martin's book 1 - A Game of Thrones definitely does have explicit sex scenes.  As mentioned earlier, the incest scene that the kid saw through the window before he fell and lost his memory was quite descriptive, as were the scenes with the gladiator king/general whose name I can't remember and his sex slave girl.  Maybe it's the more violent nature of Martin's sex scenes that I find more disturbing, and therefore harder to forget...

Nicole - Now I'll be thinking about "twincest" every time I read those books. Thanks a lot. Great word! 

( Re; Martin's first book)  See, I would not consider the twins' activity (which the kid saw before getting thrown down) graphic in the least. Yes, they were kissing and groping, but that's nowhere even close to what I would call a graphic sex scene.....it was suprising to see the twincest, but that was common in ancient days, and it was such a sideline to everything that was happening I did not think too much about it. Just goes to show.....!

Try Terry Pratchett's books.  No swearing or sex at all, but great books with a lot of humor.

I just finished The Book Dragon by Donn Kushner.  It's very clean.

Loved Robin Hobb's Assasion's Trilogy... alluded to sex but nothing overly explicit. In fact, I'd recomend any books by Robin Hobb...I loved The Ship of Destiny so much I reread it as soon as I finished!

E. R. Eddison

Young Adult fantasy may be right for you.....

Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy is quite good and nothing offensive

and

(not youth)

Elizabeth Moon's Deeds of Paxinarion (probably spelled wrong). A strong fantasy triolgy with nothing objectionable

I definitely second David Eddings - I read these in 6th grade and there's discussion about romance/love/relationships, but absolutely no graphic descriptions.  There are two series of 5 books each - the first series is the Belgariad and the second is the Mallorean.  The story begins with a young boy who is growing up on a farm with his Aunt when he becomes wrapped up in a quest to find a stolen magical item.  Eddings' world is great and the magic is really cool.  This was my first long, "adult" (not YA or children's) fantasy and I have read the series through at least twice!

I'd also recommend The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud.  The first book is <u>The Amulet of Samarkand</u>.  It's also YA.  I think the demon might swear a bit but it wasn't anything that stood out to me.  The books are set in a modern London where magicians rule the country and are pretty corrupt.  All their magic is obtained by trapping demons and using their magic.  It follows a young magician who wants to become really powerful and work in the government, but it's told from the point of view of the demon (Bartimaeus) that he captures.  Pretty unique series, I think.