Recommend me some good Fantasy books.

marius

LOTP wrote:

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

Legend

If you are looking for a relaxing enjoyable read that does not require a whole lot of thought then Gemmill is the man. It is predictable etc but still thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable.

Loved all of Erikson's stuff, just finished the last one a while ago and cant wait for the next.

Don't start Robert Jordan - he is a pain in the a$$ - series has deteriorated drastically since book 6 - have not read the last 2 myself and dont intend to.

Early Feist (Magician still up there as an all time great) stuff.

Not Fantasy but as mentioned before a lot of Ian M Banks stuff is very good - particularly liked Player Of Games.

Also - have a look at Orson Scott Card - Maker series (and on the sci-fi side, one of the best sci-fi books ever written - Enders Game)

You could always just read LOTR again;)

EDIT: If you have not read it you must go out and buy Stephen Pressfields Gates of Fire - it is more history then Fantasy but I guarintee that anyone who enjoys fantasy will absolutely love this book

growler

bonkey wrote:

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

.

jc

bought it today so you'd better be right bonkey

Karl Hungus

Well, I think there's more recommendations here than I could possibly read in a lifetime. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to read much of the Discworld novels in sequence, but I've managed so far up to Sourcery, and Philip Pullman's work is thoroughly gripping me right now. I'll probably tackle Waylander after that, or return to more Pratchett.

Malazan and the Trudi Canavan books are on the to do list anywho.

marius wrote:

You could always just read LOTR again;)

No, I figure I've got another 3 or 4 reads before it disintigrates entirely.

chamlis

Iain M. Bank and Raymond E. Feist ftw.

If you just want action get Gemmell. But I'd def check out Feist. Start with Magician, obviously.

nesf

ixoy wrote:

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?

Here's my problem with her:

She is a good short story writer who just got her break into novels. This is her achilles heel imho. She seems to still be writing within the narrow focus on plot, character development and number of protagonists that you need to be a good short story writer. Her trilogy for me was more like reading an anthology of short stories than a series of novels. This might suit some people's tastes but tbh there is far too little meat in her books for me (good travel fiction though).

Did she deserve her break? Yeah, she worked up from the short story world and I can respect that. Time will tell if she's capable of the transformation from short story writer to novelist though.

SorGan

madrab wrote:

The chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson are a good read

CORECTION
they are a great read prob the best writer ive ever read, new one last year and 2 more on the way, total of 9. kick ass:D

Dagaba Mundi

Most are series, but in this genre there are not many books that are stand alone:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew/The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe/The Horse and His Boy/Prince Caspian/Voyage of the Dawn Treader/The Silver Chair/The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis



A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1 ) By George R.R. Martin

'A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2)'

'A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)'



'Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Vol. 1)' by Steven Erikson

'Deadhouse Gates: Book Two of The Malazan Book of the Fallen (Malazan Book of the Fallen)'

'Memories of Ice (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 3)'




'The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1)' by R. Scott Baker

'The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, Book 2)'



'The Briar King (The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 1)' by Keyes

'The Charnel Prince (The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 2)'



The Demon Inside: The Zone War Trilogy, Book 1 by Terry Cloutier



Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar Saga) by Raymond Feist

ifumust82

Hi all,just flicking through the thread and I see no one has mentioned Freda Warrington.
I think she is a great writer of fantasy but can write in other genres too,like she wrote a follow up book to Bram Stokers Dracula at the request of Penguin.She has also wrote books that deal with the subject of wicca/paganism.
Have a look at her site http://www.fredawarrington.com/

DarkMuse

Karl Hungus wrote:

Ah, I've already bought Waylander today.

I've also got The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman as a present, but that's the second part of a trilogy, so I might get the first part at some stage. Didn't see it in town today.

Ive read them and while His Dark Materials is a good trilogy,I enjoyed it a lot myself, I feel its more for the young adult section...........of which I happen to fit right into so go me:D


EDIT:Althought now that I think of it it did have its darker moments so perhaps.........worth a read either way anway.

secret_squirrel

DarkMuse wrote:

.........worth a read either way anway.

Definately - far superiour to say Mr Potter. Generally darker too. Slightly more adult in tone as well.

chris_23

sara douglass - the axis trilogy is a good read

Sarky

Just finished reading Bonehunters, the latest Malazan book. OMFG, frankly. Still cracking stuff.

And I read The Healthy Dead as an aside. Hilarious.

mcgovern

SorGan wrote:

CORECTION
they are a great read prob the best writer ive ever read, new one last year and 2 more on the way, total of 9. kick ass:D

Here's hoping, have the 1st three Thomas Covenant books (in one) and 1st book in Stephen Kings Gunslinger waiting for me to start once I finish the Algebraist by Ian M Bainks and should really finish off The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil too, but only in the non-fiction mood occasionally.

deman

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Neil Gaiman, the best fantasy writing that I've ever read. So far I've read three of his books, American Gods, Stardust and Anansi Boys, and watched the Neverwhere series. Been looking for the rest of the books to no avail. Guess I'm gonna have to get them on Amazon.

secret_squirrel

chris_23 wrote:

sara douglass - the axis trilogy is a good read

Meh. she's okay. Axis is alright, nothing special. Wayfarer Redemption (the sequel series) is just plain silly.

Her crucible series (A war of Angels and Demons in Medaevil Europe) is probably her best.

bonkey

SorGan wrote:

CORECTION
they are a great read prob the best writer ive ever read, new one last year and 2 more on the way, total of 9. kick ass:D

It may or may not be even more cheering to know that you're wrong.

There are *3* more on the way. The Last Chronicles are planned as a quartet.

In other good news, the second draft of Book 2 (Fatal Revenant) was handed to the editors on the 18th of this month, ahead of schedule. So a release sometime next year looks good.

secret_squirrel

bonkey wrote:

It may or may not be even more cheering to know that you're wrong.

There are *3* more on the way. The Last Chronicles are planned as a quartet.

Hmmm more Donaldson good, but not a trilogy seems like heresy somehow.

Im sure I'll get over it

No chance of an Xmas publication I spose?

bonkey

I took my news from Donaldson's own site. His version, which I would tend to put some weight behind, is that he has no idea when it will be out.

Other interesting tidbit (good or bad, not sure) from that page is that someone is obviously trying to get a Covenant movie up n running.....something I'd still have serious misgivings about.

secret_squirrel

bonkey wrote:

...something I'd still have serious misgivings about.

Me too, not sure it would translate well to film. I'd only trust Peter Jackson with that one!

PErsonally I'd like another book/series set in the Gap Universe.

bonkey

secret_squirrel wrote:

I'd only trust Peter Jackson with that one!

If he hadn't already proven himself as an unknown making LOTR, you probably wouldn't be saying that. So why not just consider that LOTR was done by a virtual nobody and trust anyone who meets that criteria?

I like the guy's work, but I would never give him a monopoly on non-kids fantasy just cause he did a good job with LOTR.

The major problem I have is how they could deal with

the rape of Lena

as it is utterly central to so many aspects of the story, but unbelievably Hollywood unfriendly....especially as something the "hero" would be involved in.