looking for some recommendations...

mariebeth

Hi guys, I'm new to the world of sci fi & fantasy. Up til this summer the most fantasy I'd read was Harry Potter, Twilight & True Blood.

I got hooked on Game of Thrones after seeing the show and I read all the books over the summer. And I've just finished the Hunger Games Trilogy, which I loved.

I'd love some recommendations for more good reads, I prefer books that focus on the story and leave out the excessive descriptions that books such as LOTR have, which to be honest turned me off the genre. So a few recommendations to get started would be much appreciated

Zapp Brannigan

Joe Abercrombie's "The First Law" series.

Decoda

Try Raymond E Feist?

Start with "The Magician". First sci fi / fantasy book i read as a kid :P and I have to say i've been hooked on the genre ever since.

DC

mariebeth

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll check them out

OwaynOTT

Anything by terry pratchett. Oh and wheel of time series, very little descriptive text in it.

ixoy

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Anything by terry pratchett. Oh and wheel of time series, very little descriptive text in it.

Except for Jordan's obsession with describing embroidery...

OwaynOTT

ixoy wrote: »

Except for Jordan's obsession with describing embroidery...

Essential to the plot.

..Brian..

Going from the OP, I'd suggest Trudi Canavans The Black Magician trilogy. After that I'd echo Raymond Feists Magician and subsequent Riftwar Saga. Try also David Gemmell's Legend

me-skywalker

Terry Pratchett. Read Nightwatch. Intelligent, engaging, obeservational, witty, some genuine laugh out loud moments and a backdrop of surreal mind boggling sets, characters and events.

Trojan

I'd echo "Magician" by Feist, as well as the next 4-5 books in the series if you like it.

The Farseer Trilogy (which starts with "Assassin's Apprentice") by Robin Hobb would be a very good place to start too.

"The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch could be good too, don't think it's overly prosaic, but recommend the above two before that as slightly "lighter".

Edit: and "The Name of the Wind" by Rothfuss, of course!

mariebeth

Thanks for all the great recommendations everyone. Have just started Feist's 'Magician' and I'm really enjoying it after only a chapter!

..Brian..

Feists early work is amazing. The Riftwar series and more so for me, the Serpent War saga ... fantastic reading. If your still hooked after the first few books make sure you have a go a his collaboration with Janny Wurts in the Empire Trilogy, highly recommended!

Unfortunately Feists later stuff, will let you down. It's sadly lacking compared to his earlier works. While i've still read them all and enjoyed a few of them, it seems to me his just banging out anything to meet contractual obligations with publishers and the overall caliber of his working has slipped

OwaynOTT

..Brian.. wrote: »

Feists early work is amazing. The Riftwar series and more so for me, the Serpent War saga ... fantastic reading. If your still hooked after the first few books make sure you have a go a his collaboration with Janny Wurts in the Empire Trilogy, highly recommended!

Unfortunately Feists later stuff, will let you down. It's sadly lacking compared to his earlier works. While i've still read them all and enjoyed a few of them, it seems to me his just banging out anything to meet contractual obligations with publishers and the overall caliber of his working has slipped

Is his later stuff really that bad?

I think its more a case of your age when you read Magician. Its a great book when you are starting out reading fantasy stuff but after reading GRRM, Abercrombie, Lynch and all the others, it just seems rather bland and boring.


Ive never finished the book but I did read some of his later stuff, the serpent war saga stuff I think, when I started reading fantasy stuff and I thought they were great.

I tried to read Magician this year after reading so much positive feedback about it and I couldn't finish it. The same with Dragonbone Chair.

Sarky

R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series really grabbed me, I thought it was an easy read like A Song Of Ice And Fire.

Playboy

Sarky wrote: »

R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series really grabbed me, I thought it was an easy read like A Song Of Ice And Fire.

The first part of the second triolgy is out and it was great!

ixoy

Playboy wrote: »

The first part of the second triolgy is out and it was great!

As is the second part ("The White-Luck Warrior"), which was also great.

Tym

Can't go wrong with Robbin Hobb. Personally I'd recommend The Liveship Traders trilogy. Some disturbing aspects to it though, but definetly the best fantasy the book I read.

gufnork

Mistborn trilogy. You just have to read Mistborn. I'm a couple of hundred pages into the second one and it's even better than the first.

Best fantasy author i've read, bar none.

ixoy

gufnork wrote: »

Mistborn trilogy. You just have to read Mistborn. I'm a couple of hundred pages into the second one and it's even better than the first.

Wouldn't go that far but it is very enjoyable - 10% of the way through book three, which I'm reading currently.

gufnork

ixoy wrote: »

gufnork wrote: »

Mistborn trilogy. You just have to read Mistborn. I'm a couple of hundred pages into the second one and it's even better than the first.

Wouldn't go that far but it is very enjoyable - 10% of the way through book three, which I'm reading currently.

Of course I'm biased, since I'm deeply in love with Vin(she reminds me of my wife). Hope she doesn't die in the end. Oh cr@p. I really hope she doesn't die in the end!

..Brian..

The Mistborn trilogy is excellent alright, Brandon Sanderson is a fantastic writer and his concepts are very fresh and engaging. Defo worth reading!

shockwave

Just read The Painted Man & its sequel The Desert Spear by Peter V Brett and thought they were very good and original, well worth a look.

Cant wait for the next one to come out (worst thing about new fantasy series is the wait for the next one lol)

mariebeth

Thanks for all the recommendations guys I'm on Book 3 of Feists Magician's series, although now I'm in to my final semester of uni, I might have to give up (:eek:) reading for pleasure for awhile...or at least reduce the amount that I'm doing. I don't think I can actually give up totally...I'd go insane!

astonaidan

I think the fact that no one mentioned LOTR is criminal, Ye all should be ashamed, Anyone who calls them a Fantasy fan must read this:mad:

ixoy

astonaidan wrote: »

I think the fact that no one mentioned LOTR is criminal, Ye all should be ashamed, Anyone who calls them a Fantasy fan must read this:mad:

Probably because everybody - even non-genre readers - know about this one. It was a multi-billion dollar movie franchise, one of the biggest ever, so we kind of assume people are aware of it. This thread is for those titles they mightn't know.

astonaidan

ixoy wrote: »

Probably because everybody - even non-genre readers - know about this one. It was a multi-billion dollar movie franchise, one of the biggest ever, so we kind of assume people are aware of it. This thread is for those titles they mightn't know.

Im aware of this, But op mentioned she/he read Harry Potter, Does the fact it was a movie mean we stop telling people they should read it?? Will we stop saying F&I now because its on tv? or Sword of Truth:pac:

Sleepy

And tbh, there's quite a few fantasy readers who don't rate LOTR. I find the writing ponderous and the story's just not good enough for me to trawl through chapters of singing trees...

OP, since you loved ASOIAF and are short on time, have you looked into GRRM's Dunk & Egg tales? Three novellas following Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg set in Westeros about a hundred years before the time of A Game of Thrones... They're a little light on plot compared to ASOIAF as one might expect from a novella but they paint a great picture of life in Westeros under the rule of the Targaryen's and some bits feed directly into the events of the later books (particularly Dance).

OwaynOTT

astonaidan wrote: »

Im aware of this, But op mentioned she/he read Harry Potter, Does the fact it was a movie mean we stop telling people they should read it?? Will we stop saying F&I now because its on tv? or Sword of Truth:pac:

Sword of Truth should not even be mentioned as a joke. Wizards First Rule was one of my first fantasy reads and its actually okay but the series after that is wrong on so many levels.

I remember something about a chicken...

astonaidan

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Sword of Truth should not even be mentioned as a joke. Wizards First Rule was one of my first fantasy reads and its actually okay but the series after that is wrong on so many levels.

I remember something about a chicken...

Wasnt joking about the books, I enjoyed them thought they seem to be rambling abit now, It was the tv series i was refering to

shockwave

The tv series was terrible in fairness but then again so were the books, the first couple were good but he really dragged them out and the story suffered badly.

Tym

I think Lord of the Ring's is okay. The male characters are very, very good but the female characters are pretty awful. And the plot is awesome, but there's a few things off with the pacing and various other things.

Some would argue that the problems are because the book came from a different generation, but that doesn't mean that we should ignore them and say that it has to stay the best book for all time.

Oh kind of random but I saw Neil Gamons American God's in my school Library today. Hope that means that's a book that will be studied:P