Reddit mentions: The best fantasy anthologies

I’ll come back and add links tonight

Lord Dunsany. Especially the King of Elfland’s Daughter. But the last book of wonders, and the gods of pegana are great too. Both JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis named him the greatest living influence on their own work.

The Deed of Paksennarion. Unbelievably good story, great military, great mythology, great personal development and awesome paladins. The dark elves are the best I’ve seen since drow have been ruined through overuse.

The Empire of the East. High fantasy post apocalypse setting. Amazing metaphysics, great characters, fun epic story that doesn’t go where you expect. Som the Dead inspired a lot of my NPC antagonists.

The Vlad Taltosh books by Stephen Brust. Autobiography of a human assasin in an elven kingdom. Love his pet Loiosh. My favorite scene was when he asks an elf lord “why can I leave but you can’t?” “Because you aren’t a person.” Then they get into a discussion of an elf could leave if they had the blood of a god and Vlad asks if that is literally or figuratively and the difference actually matters.

The Liftsal War by Alexandra Moody. Short and fast read about a scifi future earth meeting a high magic culture. Doesn’t live up to its potential but has lots of good ideas, the brakys are a fun monsterous enemy, and I enjoyed it. There is a lot of good description, locations, magic items, monsters, etc to inspire you.

The Fourth Element Trilogy by Kat Ross. Love the necromancers. Some cheesy cliches you will see a mile away, but metaphysics were enjoyable, and the djinn were cool as both heroes and villains, but again best and most unique necromancers I’ve seen in more than a decade.

It has been many ages it seems since I last pressed upon you all to buy my book. To be sure there are many newcomers to the fold who have yet to hear of its existence. By now you are no doubt asking if I really talk like this.

Well, no, but it got your attention right? LOL


Talindor's Guest is my first fantasy book, and is the first book set in my multiverse called Novyra (streams/currents of existence)

The story follows a mysterious being who travels the currents for purposes later revealed in the book. He happens on a world made desolate by the great and powerful Talindor.

After happening upon Talindor's lair, the traveler must regale his host with tales of his travels, or risk becoming Talindor's next meal.

If you enjoy world hopping, storytelling romps through the imagination of crazy authors like myself, then this book is for you. Convinced yet? Awesome! I hope you enjoy. As always, don't forget to help an author out with an honest review. #takesabow

Hello! Hello! And a hearty AAAALLLLLLLOOOOOO!!!

Happy new year! I'm back kids. That's right, /r/fantasy's once and future king of shameless self-promotion has returned to reclaim his title.

It's been a busy week for me. Heck, all around 2016 was a busy year for me, though I don't really have all that much to show for it in the way of written work I've put onto the market because a lot of this was for grad school.
However, just yesterday, I launched the next two volumes in my Stopwatch Stories collections of flash fiction.

• Stopwatch Stories Vol. 5
  
• Stopwatch Stories Vol. 6
  
  Here are some nice things people have said about Stopwatch Stories:
  
  
• "...a master of the post-modern quip."
  
• "Every page brims with imagination and heart. Gallowglas is one of the finest storytellers around!"
  
• "The beauty of these stories is not their brevity, but the massive, unbelievable worlds they suggest. Finely crafted prose only a master could tame."
  
• "More fun than supermarket tabloids.
  
  As a special "New Year's" treat, get Stopwatch stories Vol. 1 free with coupon code: AV77M. I'm particularly fond of "The Goblin King is Dead."
  
  pssst... did you know that all six volumes of Stopwatch Stories are eligible for Stabbies, as well as the stories in them?
  
  Enough about flash fiction...
  
  Onto my PATREON page.
  
  If you're not familiar with Patreon, it's like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, except that instead of funding a particular project, patrons support a content creator. I'm posting short stories, essays, and chapters of my epic urban fantasy, SPELLPUNK.
  
  
• SPELLPUNK - Introduction
  
• SPELLPUNK - Chapter One
  
  A while back, author James Rollins aka James Clemens took a look at an early draft and said, "This could be the Neuromancer of urban fantasy, a game changer."
  

There's a lot of good ideas for landscapes and conflicts in the Sword and Sorcery genre of literature, pulp though it may be. Think "Conan the Barbarian". There's a whole genre of similar literature, and there's a pretty good digest of it that I use for inspiration.

Also, you'd be amazed at how ripe the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft is for crafting fantasy worlds. Most people only know of him vaguely as the Cthulhu creator, but his Dream Cycle is a pretty good dark fantasy setting, and even has a map associated with it. Here's one of my favorite tales.


The lore of the Dark Tower saga by Stephen King can't be overstated as a goldmine for fantasy and sci fi worlds. I've drawn heavily from it in my own world building.

Finally, I have always been deeply in love with The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, because of their depictions of an alien landscape and lamentations over a long-vanished race, which is something that transfers well into a DnD world. I'd definitely recommend giving those stories a read.

Congrats on finishing! WoT really is a wild ride, no other series has left me with a feeling even close to what I felt when I put down AMOL for the last time...

As for your reread, I just want to let you know there are some other books and stories that can help expand your reread. New Spring is an awesome prequel book to the series, I would recommend starting the reread with that first!

Also, if you want to get alllll the info you can on Randland, the WoT Companion book is an awesome encyclopedia of it all while The world of RJ's WoT is almost like a mini textbook describing much of the land and nations. Lastly, there is a very very short story about Bao the Wyld, it's basically a deleted scene. I'm not sure of the ways to access it besides getting the Unfettered anthology though that one is pretty cheap and has a lot of other very good stories from varying authors.

Either way, enjoy the reread! I'm doing my first reread now and I'm having a blast catching all the foreshadowing and hidden gems :)

Some classic fantasy is short-story based, especially in Sword and Sorcery. They tend to be collected now and often arranged in longer series, but Howard's Conan, Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser and Moore's Jirel of Joiry all feature in short stories, and even Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone emerged from a short story, and the collected series is quite episodic in nature. Delaney's Neveryon is a bit like this as well.

More recently, there a plenty of collections out there, for example I just pre-ordered Journeys which has an excellent lineup. There are some great periodic magazines (often online) with excellent stories as well. Many of the magazines mix sci-fi and fantasy content, but a lot of the stories are free as well.

It does make sense. :)

It's high fantasy in very specific terms, as it has high fantasy tropes, but it's... not as heavy as a lot of them tend to be. It's a very fun series, it's not too difficult prose-wise, it's not overly complicated, and I ended up just living in my chair for 3 days gobbling it up. One of the few books that I have read and then listened to the audio of because I loved it so much. (Also, the narrator for the audiobooks is amazing. Just throwing that out there).

However, if you want very specific high fantasy that is more along the lines of Lord of the Rings or Dragonlance or Wheel of Time, than this is a bit more 'modern' feeling than any of those are. I'm not sure how I can explain what that means.

It feels fresher? Lol this isn't working.

If you'd like a sample of it without committing money to it, here's a sampler of some short stories from the same universe: The Sampler

This is only marginally self-promoting, because it's a charity anthology, but I'm in it, so there you go.

Y'all should check out the Geeky Giving anthology, with stories by Mary Robinette Kowal, Jeff Somers, A.C. Wise, K.B. Spangler and a whole bunch of other talented writers.

Oh, and me. My novelette "Mind Flight" is my first straight-up milSF story, and I think it's one of my better ones.

Proceeds benefit the Barrow Neurological Institute, one of the foremost research and treatment centers for neurology in the world. So you get a bunch of great stories AND you get serious karma in the bargain. ALL THE KARMA.

Well, I think it's worth reading - but I may be biased ;-). Seriously though I have a number of free short stories. If you try one or several of them, and like what you find, then the chances are good that you'll enjoy the larger novels. Here are some Amazon links:

• The Viscount and the Witch
  
  
• The Riyria Sampler
  
  
• Del Rey 2016 Sampler - contains the first chapter of Age of Myth
  
  
• The Crown Tower Sampler - first 5 chapters
  
  If you prefer audio books, I have two shorts on audible.com that you might like.
  
  
• Professional Integrity
  
• The Jester

http://www.amazon.com/The-Throne-Bones-Brian-McNaughton/dp/1587151987#mediaMatrix_secondary_view_div_1450102158416

The author is deceased sadly but he created this masterpiece before he passed.

It is very dark yet funny and witty. It won the world fantasy award for best collection (it is collection of dark fantasy stories set in the same world with a cycle revolving around ghouls). It is not for the squeamish.

Edit: it is available as a $2.99 ebook. If you like this sort of stuff it is a steal at that price.

There's technically a short story called "How Old Holly Came to Be" in the Unfettered anthology, but don't worry about it. If there are other things in the anthology that interest you then go for it, but Rothfuss's contribution isn't super substantial (10 pages, lots of repetition and line breaks for a poetic kind of effect; ends up around 1700 words). It also doesn't seem super connected to the Kingkiller Chronicles (at least not yet) other than allegedly taking place in the same world. It seemed like it might be another one of Temerant's legends, maybe.

Anyways, like I said: if you're interested in other stuff in Unfettered, go for it. If not, a super-short Patrick Rothfuss story probably isn't worth the money. Plus I'm sure it'll be republished at some point (I think there was talk about work on an anthology of shorter stories set in Temerant--I imagine TSRoST, The Lightning Tree, and Old Holly are all good contenders to appear in it).

The Strike at Shayol Ghul details Lews Therins attempt to shut the bore.

Speaking of the Strike at Shayol Ghul, there is The World of Robert Jordan's a Wheel of Time also known affectionetly as the Big White Book (BWB) or Big Book of Bad Art (BBBA). It delves into a lot about cultures, features write ups of each forsaken, pokes fun at the covers and includes the entire text of Strike.

There was a short story called New Spring included in Robert Silverberg's Legends, this was later expanded into the novella New Spring

The short story about Bao is not considered connanical and is included in the short story collection Unfettered

Eye of the world was re-released for a YA market in two parts with a new prologue Ravens

The Interview Database, just click a topic that looks intresting and prepare to lose a day or two

The Wheel of Time FAQ back in the mists of time (late 90's early aughts) this was the best resource for all things WoT related. It hasn't been significantly updated since about book 10 (i mean, yes there were updates, but nothing on the scale and detail that it used to get). Gives great insight into what the fandom was pulling its hair out about during the two years+ between books. Also, some of the info is evergreen like historical references etc.

There was a terrible video game that has almost zero to do with the series.

There was a d20 based D&D rule set released and a adventure that explained how Taim got to Rand in time to rescue himat Dumai's Wells. RJ later came out and said that this was completely made up by the authors of the module and had nothing to do with the series, which was a BIG clue about Taim's allegiance.

I feel like im missing something, but I can't put my finger on it, so I will leave you with a random fact that you should know

Tar Valon is a vagina

I was fortunate enough to have my novelette, "The Red-rimmed Eyes of Tóu Mǎ," published in Shawn Speakman's anthology among r/fantasy favourites such as Brandon Sanderson, Janny Wurts, Jim Butcher, and Michael Sullivan. I've now made that story available as a standalone eBook on Kindle. It's just a buck.

It also has a Goodreads page.

About the story

>To save his friend, Farid Sulayk, the Patchwork Priest, needs to get to O’oa Tsetse before the next full moon. But between here and there are highways crawling with rebels, and a range of sky-scraping mountains riddled with blood ghosts, kō-dan, and worse. Ethereal Tóu Mǎ offers Farid passage through the mountains, but at a cost: defeat the warlock Wu-jiu, who holds the village of Tt’Hsiung in her blood-soaked fist.

>Accompanied by Tóu Mǎ, a mischievous fire djinn, and his growing doubts, Farid races to reach O’oa Tsetse before it’s too late; but first he must defeat the deadly warlock and her ghostly Yoo-in. As secrets are revealed and blood is spilled, will Farid’s battle-hardened mechanical arm and djinn magic be enough to see them through alive?

Cover Art

The cover illustration was done by a tremendously talented Indian artist named Ayan Nag. I highly recommend checking out the rest of his gallery.

Thanks for all the support, r/fantasy. Enjoy!

I can't answer that but as a fan of Writing Excuses I recommend their book Shadows Beneath in which each of the podcast's hosts brainstorms, writes, and revises their stories with input from the group as well as their own commentary. It's pretty inward-facing compared to the majority of their episodes.

I'd recommend branching out into weird fiction generally more than following "Mythos" stories in particular; the former are more likely to be meaningfully "Lovecraftian," while the latter are mostly Derlethian.

Arthur Machen, Robert W. Chambers and Lord Dunsany were all significant and visible influences on Lovecraft. For Machen, look into "The White People" and "The Great God Pan;" for Chambers, The King in Yellow collection; for Dunsany, The Book of Wonder. Of the three, Machen is closest to Lovecraft's pessimistic science fiction and Dunsany closest to Lovecraft's romantic dream stories. S.T. Joshi writes outstanding nonfiction and literary criticism of weird fiction; pilfering his sources is always a good idea.

For more modern authors, Thomas Ligotti is worth checking out; particularly Grimscribe or Noctuary. "The Tsalal" is my favorite, of his, and shows a Lovecraftian influence but very much goes in its own direction. Junji Ito is also significant--especially Uzumaki. Peter Watts is, along with Lovecraft, one of the only authors to have shown any comprehension of what "aliens" mean; Blindsight is wonderful. I've heard good things about this collection. Laird Barron and John Langan should be on your radar, too.

Also, worth noting: I'm a bit of a snob. I think the Derlethian "Mythos," "big weird monsters in a continuous world a la a madder, bleaker Tolkien" thing is fun, but I much prefer the nihilistic, cosmicist vein that Lovecraft's own work fit into. So, no eldritch Cthulhoids here; just yawning voids echoing mankind's ultimate irrelevance.

Okay but that isn't the point. It just sounded funny. The title would fit better if it was

I'm 50 years old and just getting back into reading.


See the difference? Just a little(apparently very little) humor.


But BOOKS!

World War Z

Worthing Saga


Thats about all I can recommend.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi are both amazing, deep, engrossing books with worlds of their own. I cannot recommend them enough.

Also, China Mieville's books are pretty awesome, though more urban fantasy than SciFi. Still worth a read.

And to you, good circle jerking, sir!

Funny. I did not mention Occultation because I haven't read it, either. It, along with most of my books, sits crammed in bankers boxes in a storage unit while I travel. If it isn't digital, I can't read it. At least it isn't dread that prevents me from reading it...

You may also enjoy Michael Cisco's The Tyrant or his other works. I'm sure you are familiar with Thomas Ligotti... Ligotti led me to Cisco.

And to share one of the most neglected books I've found in recent years, Brian McNaughton's Throne of Bones mixes horror and dark fantasy in an immensely powerful manner.

I believe I picked up the Imago sequence while perusing Nightshade's catalog, upon purchasing some Hodgson and Clark Ashton. If you have any other recommendations, given your impeccable standards, I'd be glad to have them.

Not sure if it's every year. I think it's the first time that it's happened. Quite a few of them seem to be collections of blog posts.

PWYW Tier:

• Drawing on the Power of Resonance... 98 pages. 4.5 stars across 37 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• Million Dollar Productivity... 86 pages. 4.5 stars across 6 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows... 128 pages. 4.5 stars across 7 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• The Pursuit of Perfection... 62 pages. 5 stars across 1 Amazon review.
  
  
• Million Dollar Professionalism... 78 pages. 5 stars across 1 Amazon review.
  
  
• Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology 502 pages. 4.5 stars across 16 Amazon reviews.
  
  
  $15 Tier:
  
  
• Million Dollar Outlines... 270 pages. 4.5 stars across 78 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• 21 Days to a Novel... 114 pages. 3.5 stars across 3 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• Charisma +1... 96 pages. 5 stars across 4 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• The Freelancer's Survival Guide 582 pages. 5 stars across 12 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• 500 Ways to Write Harder 216 pages. 4.5 stars across 16 Amazon reviews.
  
  
• The Non-User-Friendly Guide For Aspiring TV Writers... 327 pages. No Amazon reviews.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

The Lost Lore anthology is free as a Kindle eBook, and has lots of great stories in it.

The new anthology from Woodbridge Press, Journeys, is up for pre-order across all Amazon sites. With an official release date of 15th Feb, Journeys features brand new stories by Adrian Tchaikovsky, John Gwynne, Gail Z Martin, Julia Knight, Juliet E McKenna and many more (including me).

There's a special preorder price - 99p on UK Amazon at the moment! - so go do that clicky thing!

Amazon US

Amazon CA

Amazon AUS

Cheers!

This is the cover art to The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Awesome book. The book is not Deiselpunk, more post-peak energy Sci-Fi.

If you'd like to read another somewhat Arab fantasy book, check out "The Book on Fire" by Keith Miller. It's a really cool, fantastical alternate history based mostly around the library of Alexandria.

Nook Book link

Non-mobile Amazon link

Really looking forward to this, the list of authors on here is amazing.

I just tried searching amazon for this (never heard of it) and all I found was this: http://www.amazon.com/Unfettered-Terry-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00DJJIR6S/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1409916955&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=river+of+souls+brandon+sanderson


is it the same thing? I'm really interested in finding this!

FYI, Benedict Patrick wrote a short story set in this area for the Lost Lore anthology. It was the first Yarnsworld story I read and convinced me to pick up the collection.

Maybe. It could be that the artist I linked stole the artwork, or made it years ago and only uploaded it for the competition.

Or maybe there was a very similar artwork which both of you saw and which inspired her to make this picture.

I just recognised the artwork and the artist and wanted give people the information.

EDIT: Just looked through the comments on the artwork and somebody mentioned it beeing used as the cover for this book. Is that by any chance your book?

The Worthing Saga. Great book even if it's not the one you're looking for. OR it could be Treason- actually maybe more likely Treason, I think I was confusing the two. But both are excellent!

Number 16 is the coverart of Shadows Beneath, an anthology of short stories. Most of which have little to do with ocean monsters, but it's a good visual metaphor.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

You've probably read it, but I highly recommend Gene Wolfe's classic, 'The Book of the New Sun'

This was a really good book by the way!

It's called Shadows Beneath. And it's a short story anthology written for writers because it includes the first drafts and planning stages.

https://www.amazon.ca/Shadows-Beneath-Writing-Excuses-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00LDOM8A2

It doesn't have anything to do with deep sea monsters.

The Writing Excuses anthology, Shadows Beneath, contains four original short stories with first drafts and revisions in most cases. The stories are by Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells from the Writing Excuses podcast.

Reminds me of one of my very favorite books, The Worthing Saga.

Ah, yes. You mean the "In Favour with their Stars" story in the Unfettered collection, I think.

https://www.amazon.com/Unfettered-Terry-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00DJJIR6S/

Haven't read that one yet, though I might have $3 for the eBook. I hadn't expected more than a whimsical Temeraire dream about flying around in space. So I'm surprised by your description.

"She didn't go in to the particulars of how dragons did (or did not) reshape history extensively by their presence."

I can understand that. I suspect that is why she ended the series where she did, historical points were about to start diverting greatly and without a team of historians, she'd would be spending far more time figuring out how each dragon shaped ripple changed the future and the series isn't popular enough to justify spending that much time on it.

"it actually became hugely maladaptive to be a heavyweight or even middleweight dragon, as they were expensive to feed and mechanical work was more easily accomplished by machines."

That was my outlook as well, though I suspect Novik was a bit optimistic/kind in her view. I can imagine the matter becoming quite nasty with rationing and taxes being levied on dragons as well as population control.

And I could also see anti-mechanical racialists on the dragons side who destroy any machines that could replace them. We've seen how taxi drivers panicked when Uber came out. How are dragons going to feel when the only things they can do is being replaced by machines. Dragons will feel the same about machines in the 1900's as humans do about about robots today.

And what happens when dragons start rioting?

You guys have probably all seen this, but I thought I'd share. It's a bit more Robert Jordan writing in randland but from a different character view. Not much, but something.

http://www.amazon.com/Unfettered-Terry-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00DJJIR6S

Here are the first few pages for those interested.

http://www.amazon.com/reader/1597801577?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sib_books_pg&qid=1266531814&query=the%20windup%20girl#reader-page

You may be interested in this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00LDOM8A2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486427946&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=writing+excuses&dpPl=1&dpID=51NYIGvfXFL&ref=plSrch

Popping back in to check the list of books (some good stuff in here!) and surprised not to see The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. He also wrote Pump Six (short stories, some very good), Ship Breaker (aimed at juveniles, but still fun) and The Alchemist (ok, I guess).

Fight Like a Girl, edited by Joanne Hall and Roz Clarke

you may like this novel, then.

It's part of the short-story collection Unfettered II (Shawn Speakman, editor), now on sale at Amazon (and possibly other places as well).

Amazon link here.

For those curious as to the [book] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MTQMK2A/ref=pd_aw_sim_351_2/152-7638915-0019261?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1CH14GCZZXXB0J43YRDN)

Spoiler alert, the sky is carnivorous.

Understood. But...there's a copy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0984713638/ref=tmm_hrd_collectible_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=collectible&qid=&sr=.

The Worthing Saga, by Orson Scott Card

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi might be what you're looking for.

On a side note, The book "Windup Girl" goes into the premise of a world run by "calorie companies" that control food supplies.

Edit: can't wright this morning need more coffee.

It is part of the book "unfettered" which can be had on Kindle for a few $

https://www.amazon.com.au/Unfettered-Terry-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00DJJIR6S

Link in post is for .ca, if it doesn't work try the .com: https://www.amazon.com/Nourishment-One-Shot-Anthology-Speculative-speculative-ebook/dp/B07YF1P4GW/

Shadows Beneath by Writing Excuses

I left out where the story was in my first comment but I guess I could have posted a link too http://www.amazon.com/Unfettered-Terry-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00DJJIR6S

The short story River of Souls came out in the summer:
http://www.amazon.ca/Unfettered-Terry-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00DJJIR6S

This.

Everyone's right. This is the most recently printed book that the story is found in, I think.

Have you read the short story about him in the Unfettered short story book? It gives a little bit more insight into what he was doing, or how he came about to achieving what he did, and maybe who that girl was in relation to him.

Paging /u/whydobabiesstareatme about the short story too.

I suggest you read The Worthing Saga

Here's a link to the book on Amazon

The Windup Girl is different kind of apocalyptic tale, won the hugo and nebulla awards. Hard sci fi with a very human touch.

The source comes from the Creator. Hahahahaha, but seriously, here's the Kindle, and Nook versions of Unfettered. It's an anothology, so you'll be getting more that just River of Souls (Demandred's tale).

• The Windup Girl
  
• The Quantum Thief
  
• A Fire Upon The Deep

The Hope of Elantris can be found on Brandon's website.

Sixth of the Dusk is in Brandon's Writing Excuses anthology Shadows Beneath.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is also in an anthology called Dangerous Women.

I think she's mixing three books/worlds

While Dune had the Bene Gesserit breeding program (to make the Kwisatch Haderach/Messiah), I don't remember them even being red heads...

Heinlein did have some damn randy redheads in his world, but it wasn't so much a breeding program, as they liked to fuck, a lot. (and alots, if they existed)


Worthing Saga by OSC seems to be the closest match though... Quick and dirty synopsis is strangers come to a rurual village and stay at the inn to hire the inkeepers son to record their story. Part of the story involves a "gifted" human (called a "Slide", IIRC) who can sense surface throughts. He was sent away, with the intention of starting a new colony. Things went wrong (as they are wont to do) and he put himself into suspended animation for a very long time. While he was sleeping, his initial offspring on the new planet (which carried the gift) were interbreeding with the rest of the populace causing the "gifted" humans to eventually populate the entire planet, which they unite two warring factions in marriage. They MAY have been redheads, but I don't have the book handy to check.

Ask her if she remembers the animal that ate the ass cheek. :D