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I have been on a fantasy kick lately but I'm getting a bit tired of every single series book I feel like reading is some 1000 page trilogy at best(bonus points for not even being finished). I just want some one shot stories that are enjoyable. I can find plenty of these in Sci-fi but in Fantasy everyone seems to want to write a zillion long books and sometimes I don't want to commit to some big series in order to enjoy some fantasy.

I'd be interested to see what people recommend here. You are right, its easy to find enjoyable, short sci-fi novels. Especially if you go back and pick up old school, 'pulp' sci-fi books. Are there analogous fantasy novels?

The Abhorsen series! It's a series but each individual book is small and the world is very unique and fascinating. Any individual Terry Pratchett is tiny. The Princess Bride. That's it from me.

I'm sure their are more but two off the top of my head are:

Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy
The Earthsea Trilogy

Check out Jan Siegel's Fern Capel series which begins with Prospero's Children. It is a trilogy and I think the page count of the whole series is probaby around 700 pages.

There's Fevre Dream by GRRM, only 334 pgs - Vamps and steamboats on the Mississippi.
Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams - Feline-sized "mini-epic" fantasy.
The Laurentine Spy which is a bit on the light and fluffy side, think it shares a world with her other books in case you like it, but stands alone in case you don't.

Then a book I stuck under fantasy because it didn't quite belong anywhere else, even though it doesn't really share much with traditional fantasy, or urban fantasy: Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls. It's odd, it's not for everyone, but at 288 pgs, it's a very short time investment, I'd say worth a gamble.

David & Leigh Eddings' The Elenium trilogy is a favorite of mine and its page count is 912 pages.

Brandon Sanderson has a few standalones that I've enjoyed � you can download Warbreaker for free on his website:

It's maybe 600 pages or so? Not sure if that's short enough for you, but a great read. He's also got a few novellas that are also great, especially the Hugo-award-winning The Emperor's Soul

I imagine you'll also get some Guy Gavriel Kay recommendations - he always shows up in these threads. My personal favorite is A Song for Arbonne, but almost all are good.

And of course there's Gaiman � The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a great little book.

China Mieville also does some mind bend-y standalones, my favorite is The Scar.

Okay, I'm going to stop now.

The Chronicles of Amber, a 5 book series where each book is well under 300 pages. (The first book in the series Nine Princes in Amber is 175 pages long.)

For a modern fantasy book, I'd recommend Three Parts Dead, which at 336 pages is short for a modern fantasy.

If you're willing to read urban fantasy rather than high fantasy, a lot of them are shorter. For example, the Dresden Files is fun and I don't think any one book is all that long.

eta - looking at your bookshelf, you're already all over Jim Butcher so never mind about Dresden. But, it looks like you haven't tried Zelazny yet. If you end up liking Nine Princes in Amber, he has a lot of fantasy and semi-fantasy novels that are stand-alones.

Fevre Dream is pretty awesome, seconding that.

For more recent works, Kate Danley's The Woodcutter is an interesting take on fairy tales. Then, if you like lighthearted vampire hunting fiction, her Maggie For Hire series is fun.

Lud-in-the-Mist was a good read. Funny and interesting. Very good especially for something written 90 years ago.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods is stand alone, though there's technically one other book set in that world. His Stardust is also good. In fact, it owes a lot to Lud in the Mist, and, if I remember correctly, Gaiman was responsible for bringing Mirrlees's book back into print.

Another of my favorites, The Prestige, is also one of the very few examples of a great book-to-film adaptation. Both are great because they both try to be their own thing.

Gene Wolfe is probably best known for his series, but he's got some great stand-alones set in more contemporary settings. Pirate Freedom is an unexplained/fantasy time travel story that sends a modern man back a few hundred years where he becomes a pirate. The Sorcerer's House has a modern man inheriting a mysterious old mansion where things get a bit strange. He's got a few more I'll mention quickly: The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a short trilogy of linked novellas; Peace is a modern literary gothic horror novel. Obviously I'm a Wolfe fan. One last link on him, though. If you decide to read his stuff, is a fun read.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series is three books long, but the books are only loosely tied together and, as with her Vorkosigan books, work well as stand-alones. I started with Paladin of Souls when I was reading all the novels which have won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. This book is the most typical fantasy on my list.

Mythago Wood is a great portal fantasy published in the 80s. It deals with myth and has a fun mysterious feel to it. Technically it's the beginning of the series, but I've only ever read the first book, and it works quite well as a stand-alone.

Fred Saberhagen Swords trilogy - The First Book of Swords is the first.

Mercedes Lackey first Valdemar trilogy - Arrows of the Queen is the first - a bit YA though.

Katherine Kurtz first Deryni trilogy - 1st book Deryni Rising

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

The Hero and the Crown or anything else by Robin McKinley

Louise Cooper her Time Master trilogy if you can find them - 1st book is The Initiate Time Master Trilogy Book 1

Michael Scott Rohan blacksmith trilogy - 1st book is The Anvil of Ice

I'll second "The Hero and the Crown"
I used to love Elizabeth Boyer and she has pretty short quick reads.
Raymond Feist has mostly trilogies but his books rarely ever hit 350 pages.
Earthsea books are pretty short

Alan wrote: "The Chronicles of Amber, a 5 book series where each book is well under 300 pages. (The first book in the series Nine Princes in Amber is 175 pages long.)

For a modern fantasy book, ..."

I have Nine Princes on my bookshelf right now it's up next in my big series read.

But yeah notice how almost all of these are still a series/trilogies instead of standalones. Regardless I'm seeing some new recommendations other then the normal ones so tons of things getting added.

Aaron wrote: "... But yeah notice how almost all of these are still a series/trilogies instead of standalones...."

They're still a good counter to heavy as bricks fantasy books. That said, he also had some great standalone books (e.g. Jack of Shadows, Lord of Light).

But I just realized - have you tried any Jack Vance?

How about The Broken Sword or Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson? Fantasy classics by a master of SF. They're both stand-alones and both very different from one another.

There's also The Iron Dragon's Daughter, which has some SF elements, but which I believe is more fantasy than SF.

Tim Powers always seems to write stand-alones. I've read On Stranger Tides, The Drawing of the Dark, and The Anubis Gates, and they were all really good.

I'll third Fevre Dream.

Not sure how you feel about some of the more literary fantasy out there, but you could always try Little, Big, Grendel, or Something Wicked This Way Comes. All three were excellent, in my opinion.

Also, don't discount some of the older serialized fantasy simply because it's part of a larger body of work. A lot of it stands on its own, without the need to read all of the works in any sort of order. I'm thinking of the original Robert E. Howard-penned Conan stories, or Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd And The Grey Mouser saga, or any of the original six Elric books by Michael Moorcock. Good, classic sword & sorcery.

Isle of the Dead by Julia Gray
The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance
The Last Light of the Sun, Tigana, or A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay
Gilgamesh the King by Robert Silverberg
Enchantment or Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card
The Magic Goes Away by Larry Niven
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy
Fool or A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Pratchett and Gaiman
The Last Unicorn or A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Most of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion books. They're from that 1960s-1980s era where a lot of science fiction and fantasy was published as short (~200 page) paperbacks, or as shorter works later compiled into books. The only character whose saga probably exceeds 1,000 pages is Elric, but while his story has Those Who Hunt the Night a beginning (Elric of Melnibone), ending Stormbringer), and a fairly significant middle chapter (The Weird of the White Wolf), Elric spends most of the time between those important chapters just wandering around having adventures, and most of those stories can be enjoyed as standalones.

Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night: someone or something is killing vampires throughout 19th century Europe, so one of them recruits (or rather coerces) a retired British spy to find out who or what. Meanwhile, the spy's new bride, a physician, is pursuing her own line of investigation. This book has one or two sequels out there that I haven't read, but it works perfectly well as a standalone story.

Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar books: they're technically a series, but more like Pratchett's Discworld where it's a bunch of standalone novels that share a setting and occasionally have the same characters cross over in different books. I've only read the first one, The Misenchanted Sword. It's the kind of fantasy hero I like: the main character isn't a prince or a Chosen One, but a fairly regular guy who gets caught up in situations much bigger than he is.

Brandon Sanderson has two stand alones that might fit what you're looking for: Elantris and Warbreaker.

If you're amenable to shorter (and older) stories there's also Robert E. Howard -- the original, unadulterated Conan stories (The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, for example) or Kull: Exile of Atlantis, Bran Mak Morn: The Last King or The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane.

Or you can find most of his work online for free, or at least for cheap. But I like those Del Rey editions -- they're about as close to authoritative as we're likely to get.

Aaron wrote: "I have been on a fantasy kick lately but I'm getting a bit tired of every single series book I feel like reading is some 1000 page trilogy at best(bonus points for not even being finished). I just..."

I kinda see your point but I don't think you need to commit. For example, R.A. Salvatore has a very long series about Drizzt...but you can stop at any point after a book completes and not feel cheated.

Is that what you're going for? To finish and not feel cheated?

Joseph wrote: "But I like those Del Rey editions -- they're about as close to authoritative as we're likely to get. "

They are also gorgeously illustrated with period looking pen and ink work.

Where's My Cow? probably makes more of an impact if you've read the Guards series in Terry Pratchett.

The Thing Beneath the Bed was...memorable. Oops, it's part of a series.

AndrewP wrote: "Joseph wrote: "But I like those Del Rey editions -- they're about as close to authoritative as we're likely to get. "

They are also gorgeously illustrated with period looking pen and ink work."

Also very true.