Recommend me some good Fantasy books.

bonkey

Ancient1 wrote:

ixoy's right. I've just finished reading the 5th book and it's the most mind-blowing, uplifting and addictive series of books I've ever read.

Just wait till you read Bonehunters.

Oh, and there's also Night of Knives by Esselmont - the co-creator of the Malazan world. Its basically set

in Malaz the night Kellanved & Dancer are assassinated and Surly assumes the throne[/spoiler.

Still looking to pick it up myself, but apparently its worth the read.

There's also Blood Follows and Healthy Dead if you want to complete Erikson's Malazan writings to date.

jc

NeoSlicerZ

Aside from the ones already mentionned, I'd recommend "A Shadow on the Glass" by Ian Irvine, it's quite exceptional, it's part of a 4 part series though.

Karl Hungus

Ok, well today I got Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, so I'll have that and The Subtle Knife to keep me interested for a while, and then I'll nab part 3 whenever I'm finished with them. Also picked up Terry Pratchett's Pyramids, and Men At Arms. I've been reading all the discworld novels in sequence as of a few weeks ago, so I needed to fill in the gaps I've had. And here's me saying I didn't want to start a series?

Well, I think I've got a good few now to last me for a while. After that, I might try and get hold of some other books. The Black Magician trilogy looks very good indeed, so I might look into that, and the Malazan series, is it? Sure why not.

Tar.Aldarion

Good choices. His Dark Materials. *Swoon*
I really want the tenth year annivery addition that costs 55e.
The next fantasy book I'm picking up is the new one by Trudi Canivan, the Author of The Black Magician Trilogy.
You can get them all hardback for a tenner each in Dubrays.

ixoy

What's the deal with this Trudi Canivan appearing all of a sudden anyway? What sort of style is it - more simplistic fare, in the mould of Feist, or is it more "hardcore" in the vein of Erikson?

Is it a detailed world or thinly sketched? Character-based or more "power gaming"?Or did Trudi get a lucky undeserved break?

Certainly the blurb doesn't make them seem anything special or original, so I'm wondering if voracious fantasy readers here - who've absorbed multiple authors in the field - can give me some input...

!_Brian_!

I'd defo recommend Trudi Canavan. Wasnt 100% into it at the start but she came up with the goods. Really good plot, great characters, very enjoyable read. Its pretty easy going but dont let that put you off. I really enjoyed her work. I think she'll go far. And at the end of the day, its only a trilogy, if you dont like it, you havnt lost out on much time!


Ian Irvine I have recently found out is a god! Picked up his first one about a month or 2 ago and have finished all 8 of his books now. Set in 2 quartets he has a different appraoch as in his characters arent blacksmiths of shepards that suddenly have some kind of calling and go off to battle the dark one or one of his many manifestations. Its more regular people, getting pulled into unfortunate events and simply surviving. They have all the flaws or real people, pettyness, jealousy, insecurity, vainity etc but they manage (just about) to overcome these and survive their adventures. His fantasy world isnt medieval either which is a nice change. Very advanced technolodgy and scientifically minded culture based in a fantasy world. Really and exceptional read. The first set of books are great, the second set of books are amazing, the man just keeps getting better and better. Highly recommended!


JV Jones is definatly worth a mention also. Picked up and copy of the bakers boy the other day cause the bookshop didnt have what I was looking for and would take a week to get it in. Anyway, its been about 8 years since I read her stuff and I'd forgotton how good she was! Check out the Book of Words trilogy. She also has a stand alone book called The Barbed Coil which is well worth reading which might be of more interest.


Aside from that, try out the usual suspects, Raymond E Feist (one of the best ever), Robin Hobb (espically the Liveship Traders series), Terry Goodkind is pretty good entry level stuff but later on the series begins to get a bit ****. Robert Jordan is a master but ****, he's after getting long winded! Kate Elliott is really good if I remember rightly, been years since I read any of her books.

Gorge RR Martin I didnt think was all that good. Again its been a really really long time since I read any of his stuff and I cant really remember it but I remember not being as impressed as everyone else seamed to be. Maybe it was just me. Might give him another go after I get trhough these JV Jones phase!


Just to recap, if you read nothing else, start reading Ian Irvine. You wont regret it!

Tar.Aldarion

!_Brian_! wrote:

I'd defo recommend Trudi Canavan. Wasnt 100% into it at the start but she came up with the goods. Really good plot, great characters, very enjoyable read. Its pretty easy going but dont let that put you off. I really enjoyed her work. I think she'll go far. And at the end of the day, its only a trilogy, if you dont like it, you havnt lost out on much time!

Aye, I got the trilogy and had it read within two days. Fell in love with the characters completely.
Very enjoyable. D'ont be expecting a hard read or anything. Think I'll start on em again tonight...
!

Karl Hungus

I just noticed that I had bought Terry Pratchett's Men At Arms, when it was Guards! Guards! that I should've bought. Oh well.

Tar.Aldarion

Ah well, they are all great. Last one I got of his was...hmm. carpe jugulem. Vampire action!

Baggly

alot of good suggestions in this thread, but the ones i would concur with are

anything by david eddings
anthing by david gemmell
anything by robin hobb
anything by steph swainston (although she only has two)
and a little know series i enjoyed by mark chadburn.


these authors get progressively.....emmm....serious/dark as u go along. that word serious might be wrong. anyone is free to contradict me if they think otherwise.

if you dont like that farmboy grows up to be a hero stuff steer clear of david eddings. if you like the opposite go for Gemmell

IMO

growler

petermonaghan wrote:

if you dont like that farmboy grows up to be a hero stuff steer clear of david eddings. if you like the opposite go for Gemmell

IMO

hero grows up to be farm boy ?

secret_squirrel

growler wrote:

hero grows up to be farm boy ?

Well generally in Gemmelland in goes like this.

Hero does heroic stuff, retires to be farmer/monk/hunter.

Just as he's growing old gracefully along comes bad guy with link to the past.

Bad guy kills/steals/shags favourite Wife/Daughter/Sheep.

Farm boy/god boy/forest boy turns back into heroic killing machine with a dark side.

Fights bad guy - usually loosing Wife/Daughter/Sheep in process.

Kingdom is saved - Hero fakes death/is transported to another dimension/Dies heroically.

Baggly

*and is referenced two books later

secret_squirrel

In fairness though noone does heroic fantasy better than Gemmel. As long as you realise what you are getting you will be happy. My high points would be Waylander (and sequels) Knights of Dark Renown and Jon Shannow series.

Vokes

I concur. The epilogue in Waylander 3 is suitably heroic

Sarky

Here's another vote for the Malazan series by Erikson. I'm a hundred pages off the end of Deadhouse Gates (book 2), and it's... Wonderful. Just wonderful. That Coltaine, eh? Eh? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about... You have to pay attention though, a LOT happens. Hell, I'm only two books in and I'm swamped with omens and interesting ideas on what's going on...

If you've read some/all of it so far, be on the lookout for Night Of Knives by Ian Cameron Esslemont. It's about Kellanved and Dancer's last 24 hours, and it is good.

bonkey

ixoy wrote:

What's the deal with this Trudi Canivan appearing all of a sudden anyway?

Its what the kids Harry Potter was originally written for might move on to when they want to move slightly up in the world.

To put it in context, I went to buy the books in hardback since it was actually cheaper than (or the same price as) the paperbacks. I could only see one of the three vols in hardback, so I asked at the desk. "Ah yes," came the reply "the hardback editions are in the childrens section". Granted it was the "young adult" section, but that should give you an idea where its aimed at.

What sort of style is it - more simplistic fare, in the mould of Feist, or is it more "hardcore" in the vein of Erikson?

I'd consider Feist to be far deeper than Canavan, but similar in (lack of) tone. Its not all happiness and smiles, but "dark" isn't something it ever really gets a grip on.

Is it a detailed world or thinly sketched? Character-based or more "power gaming"?

Fair mix.

Or did Trudi get a lucky undeserved break?

Lucky - sure. All breaks are lucky.
Undeserved....wouldn't say so.

Personally, I enjoyed the stuff, and I'll read it again, like I do Feist, the Potter books, Narnia chronicles. But they're the kinda authors I'd rank it against.

If I want dark, I'll re-read about the oh-so-charming Thomas Covenant (S. Donaldson), the Malazan Empire (S.Erikson), the world of the Farseers (R.Hobb) or some good ol' fatalastic characters courtesy of KJ Parker.

jc

growler

secret_squirrel wrote:

Well generally in Gemmelland in goes like this.

Hero does heroic stuff, retires to be farmer/monk/hunter.

Just as he's growing old gracefully along comes bad guy with link to the past.

Bad guy kills/steals/shags favourite Wife/Daughter/Sheep.

Farm boy/god boy/forest boy turns back into heroic killing machine with a dark side.

Fights bad guy - usually loosing Wife/Daughter/Sheep in process.

Kingdom is saved - Hero fakes death/is transported to another dimension/Dies heroically.

Sheep should be commended for the important role they play in fantasy literature.


Strange to see how tastes differ here, I've tried Erickson, Gemmell and Eddings and found them all to be very predictable, poorly written or childish, no slight intended on fans of the above, just an observation.

Baggly

growler wrote:

Strange to see how tastes differ here, I've tried Erickson, Gemmell and Eddings and found them all to be very predictable, poorly written or childish, no slight intended on fans of the above, just an observation.

that is true, but those are generally the most popular kind of books. sure it translates into all facets of culture: comics, star wars, star trek, the books as u mentioned, oodles of other tv shows.

people like the predictability i guess.

but to be honest ive grown out of eddings and have only started on gemmill, but i can see what you mean.

im still a prodigy at eddings trivia

ixoy

I cannot believe anyone could honestly predict Erickson. Eddings - yes. It's one of the reasons I stopped reading. But Erickson? No.

growler

ixoy wrote:

I cannot believe anyone could honestly predict Erickson. Eddings - yes. It's one of the reasons I stopped reading. But Erickson? No.

perhaps I should have said they are either childish, poorly written or predictable.

You're right, Erickson probably isn't blatantly obvious, but I didn't like his style of writing at all.

Each to his / her own I guess.

There aren't many authors that can actually break significantly from the mould in fantasy, Hobb, early Feist, Pullman, King (dark tower), Kerr, Kenneally all did to some extent usually through their creation and descriptions of unique "magical" realms, I get bored to tears of the "hero teams up with dwarf, giant, magician, monk, mysterious man with bow, elf, feisty totty...acquires and loses some important magical implement, finds it, kills trolls, goblins that are very stupid, fancies some warrior tartess, and , just about, slays evil queen / emperor in the nick of time" books.

ixoy

growler wrote:

There aren't many authors that can actually break significantly from the mould in fantasy, Hobb, early Feist, Pullman, King (dark tower), Kerr, Kenneally all did to some extent usually through their creation and descriptions of unique "magical" realms, I get bored to tears of the "hero teams up with dwarf, giant, magician, monk, mysterious man with bow, elf, feisty totty...acquires and some important magical implement, finds it, kills trolls, goblins that are very stupid, fancies some warrior tartess, and , just about, slays evil queen / emperor in the nick of time" books.

Oh I agree. Most are very poor and I think that the second half of the Dark Tower series is horribly derivative - ripping off other sources blatantly (Wizard of Oz, etc) and not really putting much of an interesting twist on it the way say Tad William's Otherland series did.

I'm nearly finished Book 1 of the the "Prince of Nothing" series and it's quite decent - some interesting philosophical elements in it and a decent plot although the world isn't as original (yet) as it perhaps could be. David Zindell's "Ea Cycle" has some interesting philosophical musings too and characterisation although you may find the plot a tad unoriginal.

If you really want to try something very different in flavour, check out China Mieville's work - "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar" and others. It's more steampunk than trad. fantasy but it's quite unique and the writing is excellent.

secret_squirrel

ixoy wrote:

Tad William's Otherland series did.

There's someone who's never written a bad book. Avoided the Otherland series for years before kicking myself when I finally got round to them.

Would also echo the comment about China Mievielle too, although his books can sometimes be hard to get into. Very rewarding when you make the effort though.

I would argue that you would read Gemmel exactly because he is predictable, its not literature by a long way, but his best books make damn fine reading. Most of his more recent stuff is filler though.

Baggly

growler wrote:

perhaps I should have said they are either childish, poorly written or predictable.

You're right, Erickson probably isn't blatantly obvious, but I didn't like his style of writing at all.

Each to his / her own I guess.

There aren't many authors that can actually break significantly from the mould in fantasy, Hobb, early Feist, Pullman, King (dark tower), Kerr, Kenneally all did to some extent usually through their creation and descriptions of unique "magical" realms, I get bored to tears of the "hero teams up with dwarf, giant, magician, monk, mysterious man with bow, elf, feisty totty...acquires and loses some important magical implement, finds it, kills trolls, goblins that are very stupid, fancies some warrior tartess, and , just about, slays evil queen / emperor in the nick of time" books.

but come on, authors write what they are good at and eddings is the best at the type of fantasy above.

it has its place. that place imo, is early teenage fantasy. such a coincidence that thats when i first read all his books

bonkey

secret_squirrel wrote:

There's someone who's never written a bad book. Avoided the Otherland series for years before kicking myself when I finally got round to them.

If you haven't read War of the Flowers yet.....go do so. Quickly sir. Quickly.

Having said that, I was seriously underwhelmed by Shadowmarch (I need to read it again though, and I'll still buy vol.2 ), and stuff like Caliban's Hour and Tailchaser's Song never did much for me.

jc

secret_squirrel

bonkey wrote:

If you haven't read War of the Flowers yet.....go do so. Quickly sir. Quickly.

Seconded!

Baggly

say what you will about gemmill, but you cant argue with druss

ixoy

secret_squirrel wrote:

Seconded!

Thirded. And yes, I also couldn't really get into "Shadowmarch" in the same way but "War of the Flowers" is one of the best stand alone fantasy novels I've read in ages (even if the genre doesn't produce many standalone works - it's still good!). Also the only fantasy book that I know of with its own 9/11 warning...

Karl Hungus

Ok, I'm half way through Northern Lights, and I must say, fantastic stuff so far.

Tar.Aldarion

Great choice man, my second favourite set of books.