Recommended Reading?(Fantasy)

[Shyrtandros]

I have been wanting to start getting back into reading a little more like I used to, expecially whily flying for 14+ hours for my trip .

I like to read fantasy books that most commonly fall under the LOTR Genre... dragons, magic, swords and boards, mystical creatures, dwarfs, elfs, ect.. ect.. my favorite series is the Legend of Drizzt anything that falls into similar reading to that I will probably enjoy.

I also enjoyed Eragon, and The Abhorson Series, Harry Potter(1-4) (Unfortunately I can't recall the name of at least a dozen great books / series i've read) I read a few chapters of a "Artemis Fowl" book in a library once and it seemed okay, never did buy / check it out.

Any suggestions ?!

[Snake-Aes]

Finish Harry Potter. Volumes 5, 6 and 7 are bounds ahead of the previous 4.

[fuzzygeek]

Finish Harry Potter. Volumes 5, 6 and 7 are bounds ahead of the previous 4.

I would disagree; Goblet was my favorite, before the series became gobsmackingly stupid, but Your Mileage May Vary.

Are you looking for pulp fantasy or srs bsns?

David Edding's Belgariad and Mallorean series are cotton candy (each sequence is 5 books) with some fun characters. The old Dragonlance sequence is decent, with the second Legends sequence being much better than the first trilogy.

Pratchett's Discworld novels are fun if you like quirky British humor in your fantasy. Some novels are better than others.

C.S. Friedman's Black Sun trilogy was pretty good too, come to think.
Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga and related universes are pretty good.

Recent Epic Fantasy that's popular would be Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (several thousand pages long, final novel due out shortly(tm)), George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones (as yet unfinished), and Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronices (also unfinished).

My favorite series of all time is Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, but it might be a bit old-school for your tastes.

I tend to gravitate towards series of books because I enjoy longer narratives.

I'm curious to see what other people recommend as well; I'm about to inhale a huge platter of Diana Wynne Jones after Neil Gaiman wrote a bit about her on his blog (she passed away just a few weeks ago), but not sure where I'll go after that.

[Snake-Aes]

It dies at opinion then. I liked 5 and 7 the most, followed by 6 and 4.
Just how much "fantastic" you want?

If you know Portuguese(don't think these were ever translated), don't miss on the Tormenta trilogy(O Inimigo Do Mundo, O Crânio e o Corvo, O Terceiro Deus; in order). The first is about a group of adventurers who accidentally set loose an entire reality of eldritch abominations onto the world, while the other two are about the guys who have to handle the consequences as things quickly escalate into deistic levels, part of the story is from the point of view of the gods involved in the whole mess too.

Another good one (though sci-fi above anything else) is Espada da Galáxia. It's about two alien species with each a couple members stranded on earth and making a ruckus as one takes over bodies of influent people to reinvent the tech needed to get out and the other tries to stop his planet from initiating a crusade-like purge on the earth because one of their own died there(and the first kinda wants to take over the second's body too). Comes with laserbeams, space whales, silicon-based life forms and antimatter/matter explosions.
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I heard about Ender's game a dozen times but couldn't get around to reading it yet.
The His Dark Materials trilogy is another good one. Don't bother comparing the first book with the movie (the golden compass), there only worthy similarity is SAPIENT ARMORED SPEAKING POLAR BEARS.
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For something pretty much nonmagical, Cornwell has some pretty good stuff(Arthur Chronicles, Grail Quest, Saxon Stories).
The Count of Monte Cristo is a great one too, but I had one hell of a boring trip for the first chapters(it got good after the protagonist is sent to jail)




That's what comes to mind at the moment.

[Hrobertgar]

I remember the Riftwar saga when it came out years ago, and I did enjoy it too.

I also enjoyed the Belgarion saga.

I am currently re-reading the Wheel of Time series in preparation for the final book, and just completed Book5. (I did purchase the latest one, but have not yet read it either, hopefully the final one will come out shortly after I finish the series). I rarely re-read series, but I started reading Wheel of Time when it came out in 1987 and wanted a little refresher. I'm pretty excited that the new guy will finally finish the thing. And actually, I have heard some decent things about Sanderson (the guy who is finishing Wheel of Time), so I bought one of his trilogies as well.

I have read one book of the Ringworld saga, and am probably going to read some more of those as well.

I would also add: C. S. Cheryh (sp?) has a couple trilogies out about some alien assassin mathematicians. I enjoyed the first trilogy, and thought the second was ok, but I have not read the 3rd one.

[tinalt]

The above posts mentioned the wheel of time, so I won't go into it. But I would highly recommend some of the other books written by Sanderson (the guy that is finishing WoT). Each of them is distinctly different from his other material, they all have their own form of magic, but they are all somehow connected.

Elantris is a good stand alone book about zombies, religous zealots, and a princess

Warbreaker is a good stand alone book about a country ruled by gods, their king, war with neighbors

Mistborn is a good book that gives you a view of what the world would be like if the bad guy won (trilogy, but i haven't read 2 & 3)

And finally, The way of kings is an awesome book that is Sandersons begining of his epic saga. I think the series will eventually be around 10 books.

[Torquemada]

Prachett's Discworld novels are, IMO, the best comedic fantasy ever. It's like the Hitchhiker's Guide, only each book has a cohesive plot in addition to the sillyness. Death is quite possible my favorite literary character. Period.

Agree with the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is a fairly good series. It has gotten far too long and muddled around too much during the middle novels(We're up to 13 with one to go at this point). By far the most epic series I've read in scope, though he focuses too much on men and women not understanding each other and having 300 minor characters and subplots during the middle novels before starting to tightening it up at the end. I feel the Brandon Sanderson has been nothing but good for the series, as he writes almost as well as Jordan but is actually able to establish a structure and stick with it.

Agree with the comments on Sanderson. He's great. I'm a rather big fan of Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy and Elantris. My wife read his Way of Kings, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

After Legend of the Seeker came out on TV, I was determined to read Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books. They're ok, definitely better than the show, though nearly every strong female character ends up in a state of near rape at least once, having to be saved by a strong male character. Plus he tends to throw his capitalist/conservative/libertarian agenda into his writing a bit too strongly. I even agree with that philosophy and I feel he's laying it on entirely too thick.

My favorite guilty pleasure is the Gotrex and Felix novels by William King and Nathan Long. They're set in the Warhammer universe and chronicle the adventures of a Trollslayer sworn to seek his death in battle to atone for his sins and his human companion sworn to chronicle the dwarf's death. Very dark, but quite a bit of humor at times too. Snorri is a favorite of mine up until the last 2 or so books when Long altered his story arc.

I also liked most of R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books. I'd suggest starting chronologically in the stores with Homeland, rather than chronologically according to when the books were writen with The Crystal Shard. I gave up on the series after finishing the Hunter's Blades trilogy, and from what I've seen online the Transitions trilogy kills off just about every character I loved in the wake of the Spellplague that WotC is currently ruining Forgotten Realms with.

[Melathys]

Shardik and Maia by Richard Adams (author of Watership Down)...my favorite books of all time. I'll add Watership Down, if you haven't read it, do so now!

[Gerunna]

Some good recommendations have already been made. Although it is decidedly outside the Tolkien mold, I'd also add Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch tetralogy. As far as some good airline brain candy goes, Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books are a ton of fun to read.

[Brekkie]

Chronicles of Pern by Ann McCaffrey
Start with "Dragonflight".

[Melathys]

now that I think of it, if you're looking specifically for tolkienish type fantasy, Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon was really good. I may not dig horrorish type novels all that much, but I think we can all agree that Stephen King is one of the greatest story tellers of our era.

I know some people don't like to read popular authors, but sometimes someone is popular because they are just that damn good.

My above mentioned Shardik actually makes a (kinda) guest appearance in King's Gunslinger series. Speaking of which, there is a series I need to get to reading myself...

*edit

Oh, and the Merlin trilogy by Mary Stewart. The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and the Last Enchantment. (and the fourth book, though its stylistically different, The Wicked Day) ...oohhhshit. There's a fifth book that I haven't read yet...off to amazon I go...

and now that the last book is out, I might have to get to reading the clan of the cave bear series.

[Fivelives]

I stopped liking Stephen King when he got so prolific that all of his books became formulaic. He'd replace the character and place names and basically tell the same story over and over.

For comedic fantasy, the MYTH Inc. books (by Robert Asprin - hell, anything written by Asprin) are good, as are the Christopher Stasheff Warlock in Spite of Himself novels.

Space Opera, try Margaret Weiss' Star of the Guardians series

High fantasy: Mercedes Lackey is excellent (her non-Valdemar novels in particular, although Valdemar is great), Fred Saberhagen and The Book of Swords series (9 short novels), Ursula K. LeGuin if you like your philosophy/social commentary with a side of fantasy, Juliet E McKenna's Tales of Einarinn are incredible, as are the LE Modessitt, Jr novels of Recluce (and pretty much everything else he does, although there's a pretty soapbox-y feel to some of it). CJ Cherryh's Tiger & Del series (Sword Dancer et al) is amazing, as is her Chronicles of the Cheysuli - another author I can't really recommend highly enough. Karen Miller wrote an amazing trilogy, but I can't find the name of it outside the individual novel names. Oh, and if you like your fantasy with a little less magic and a LOT MORE FUCKING, Jacquelyn Carey is also an amazing read.

Wow, that was a bit longer than I thought it would be so I'll end that one there.

Historical fantasy: W. Michael Gear and his wife Kathleen O'Neal Gear wrote an amazing series on native american mythology and culture couched as historical fantasy, look for the "People of (the Fire, the Earth, etc)" novels, and for Australian historical fantasies, The Australians series by William Stuart Long is still one of my favorites.

Sci-fi, Asimov's Foundation trilogy, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Shadows series, and Bradbury's Martian Chronicles are the only ones on the list by authors not already named - LE Modessitt Jr dips into sci-fi a lot, and does it very well - The Parafaith War and The Ethos Effect are two that have prominent spots on my bookshelf.

I'm a voracious reader and I read fast. I just re-read the entire Wheel of Time series in 2 weeks at around 3 hours/day of reading.

[Angelarc6570]

Has anyone read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss? I havnt heard much about it, but I have wanted to read it.

[Arnock]

Both "Wheel of time" and "Song of Ice and Fire" have come highly recommended to me by friends, but I have yet been unable to find the time to read either of the series. (Perhaps I should find an audiobook to listen to at work...)


Although it's sci-fi, the "Chronicles of Solace" is a really good series, though the last book's pace is a tad slow.


Although book 6 of harry potter isn't all that good IMO, 5 and 7 are really good, and I'd say that it would be worth finishing.

When is this trip? The final eragon book will be coming out sometime this fall.

*glances over bookshelf*


I was really into the pendragon series a few years ago, haven't gotten around to finishing it though.

Narnia is a really good series.

Other than that, can't think of too much else.

[fuzzygeek]

Speaking of JRR Tolkein type fantasy, I'd forgotten about McKiernan's Iron Tower trilogy, which is so much of a homage to The Lord of the Rings that it's basically a ripoff of it.

I've read a few of his other books, and they were better. Not recommended if you don't like bittersweet endings.