Fantasy Books

RandyMan

Long time lurker,first time poster......:p
I'd just like to recommend the following books to anybody out there, while at the same time I'm going to see if there are any fantasy lovers out there:D
The Wheel of Timeseries by Robert Jordan
A Song of Ice and Fireseries by George R.R. Martin
Thet Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
Can't remember the series name/is is Gates of somethin.......... anyway it's by Steven Erikson
I've got plenty more but I don't wanna look like a duphous and get an authors name wrong so I'll just post them later;):p

WhiteWashMan

seek no further, your quest is at an end.
you have conquererd, good has won out at last over evil.
and snargle the flangemaster has at last thrust his might rod and the two golden balls deep into the chasm of the vage.

go forth and read more, so that you may come back to battle worthy foes another day.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37468

Dr. Loon

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan
snargle the flangemaster has at last thrust his might rod and the two golden balls deep into the chasm of the vage.

nutter!!

I think there was another thread on this awhile ago.....

Anyway, can't be arséd searching for it, but my recommendation would be The Sword Of Truth series by Terry Goodkind... excellent books IMO
http://www.terrygoodkind.com/

Niallmac

Favourite authors are Raymond E Feist, David Gemmel, David Eddings, Tolkien ( of course ), Terry Brooks. Like Eddings alot for a couple of series but it is like reading John Grisham in that they all have a very similar formula and you have a pretty good idea what will happen next.

Krusty_Clown

More Science-fiction than fantasy, but Orson Scott Card's 'Ender' series of books comes highly recommended (by me!).

Anything at all by David Gemell...
Anything by David Eddings...

Blitzkrieger

I really like Feist. The Riftwar Saga was excellent. I don't know the names of the other series, but the Empire series (Daughter of the Empire, etc.) was also good. As was the of a series (Rise of a Merchant Prince, Rage of a Demon King, etc.). The newest series (anything that starts with Krondor) is utter ****e.

DrunkLeprachaun

I really like Northern lights by Phillip Pullman. It's got a pair of sequels, but they're not as good.

RandyMan

I've just finished reading David Eddings,...nothing special:p

eclectichoney

The robert jordan's seem good - not that iv read them myself but i guy bought two in the bookshop where i work and came back the next day for the rest because he had finished them both!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Tad williams Otherland , and "memory, sorrow & thorn" series are very, very good IMO.

Otherland is more science fiction, with fantasy elements, whereas MS&T is pure class fantasy excellent series, pretty long too, which is good.

scipio_major

From reading the above I can't help but wonder has there ever been a completely once off fantasy book? Just one book not part of a series, not set in the same world as any of the author's other works? Off the top of my head I can think of any.

Oh yeah Robin Hobb writes some great stuff, (Assassin's Trilogy especially see what I mean about serieses). She's so good I bought her latest in hardback, it was good, very good.

E&OA
Scipio_major

Clinical Waste

Guys, you forgot the best of the lot:

"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever.
By Stephen R. Donaldson"

There are no one-offs.
This one is 6 books.

Not for wimps, but so worth the read.

sceptre

Originally posted by scipio_major
From reading the above I can't help but wonder has there ever been a completely once off fantasy book? Just one book not part of a series, not set in the same world as any of the author's other works? Off the top of my head I can think of any.

I'd say "The Talisman" (don't know if it qualifies 100%) but then there was a sequel out b4 CHristmas

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by Clinical Waste
Guys, you forgot the best of the lot:

"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever.
By Stephen R. Donaldson"

There are no one-offs.
This one is 6 books.

Not for wimps, but so worth the read.

if you like being depressed

Krusty_Clown

L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth was a complete once off..

Damn fine book too!

Pity about the movies...

che

mmmmmmm you lot all seem to be forgetting Robin Hobb. she has 3 complete trilogys already (the farseer trilogy and the liveship trilogy) and she has just released the first book in a new trilogy. if you like fantasy and you aint read these yet you are in for a treat. completley original, completly refreshing. i rate them up there with martin . which in fairness is pretty god damn highly
che

Pugwash

discworld series is a great read

Pratchet's work has all the imagination of Tolkin and jokes that leave you in stitches.

The exprence stays with you as he satires everyday annoyances even though the books are set in a very different world to our own.

Great craic, would highly recommend them.

Clinical Waste

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan


if you like being depressed

or Suicidal..........
,
but then [cue Gospel choir]
we have boards.ie to help keep us happy and or the path of rightousness.

The Clown Man

Eddings is great, purely for the joy of reading his lighthearted novels. The storys are fairly similar but I don't mind. I just love the ease at which you can read them.

Pratchet sucks. Not even all that funny. If you want a funny fantasy/sci-fi novel read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Very amusing. Read the rest of them too.

Donaldson is so incredibly depressing but still a great read.

Feist is good enough but his novels are scattered and it is very hard to see which one comes next. (At least too hard while searching through the multitudes of them in Hodgis Figgis ) Pug is also a crap name.

Gemmell was quite good but a little dull.

I liked the hobbit a lot but felt a little cheated by LOTR. It's so longwinded that it is sometimes very difficult not to skip an odd page/paragraph to get to the interesting bits.

And Robert Jordan, although I thought slow to start, is a great read. I just wish he'd hurry up and finish the bloody series. 9 books later and I'm still dying to see what happens. When does it end does anyone know?

I read a novel to amuse myself btw, I rate a novel on how amused I was reading it and how I enjoyed reading it. "Literary geniuses" tend to bore me if it is not a good story or if it requires more brainpower than your average dishwasher. (Which is a bit in all fairness). Eg. Dickens - he sucked. Assimov - he sucked.

scipio_major

I don't know what Prattchet books you were reading Clown Man? If it was The Bromilliad (Truckers, Doggers, Wings) then I can understand why: They are childrens books. The Truth is poissibly his best so far, I dare ya to keep a straight face while reading it.

Speaking of funny SF/F does anyone know when the new Hiitchhikers is coming out? The one D. Adams finished a week before he died.

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Scipio_major

Saruman

scipio_major do tell... i have not heard of this new HHGTTG... i read most of his books, though never got round to Starship Titanic.. any good? A new Hitchhiker would be great.. will probably read the others first again.. agh so many books to read.. I have a shelf of Eddings i have yet to start on.. went to a second hand book stall and cleared the poor woman out of all her Eddings.. i just need to borrow/buy the first of Belgariad (think thats the spelling) then im away.

LOTR is my fave once cimbined with Silmarillon! Only read one Gemmell (Lion of Macedon) that was good..

never read Terry PRATchett...

Brooks and Feist.. read all of theirs.. Feist is great.. Brooks is a bastard! If anyone is reading the latest series (Voyage of Jerle Shannara) you know what i mean.. last one left me hanging at the end and i must wait till September for the next one.. damn him to hell.. hehe

scipio_major

From douglasadams.com:

In May of 2002, Harmony (US) and Macmillan HB (UK) will publish posthumously the final book by Douglas Adams, the revered creator of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, and numerous other bestselling novels. Titled THE SALMON OF DOUBT: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time, this new work is a compilation of writings recovered from the hard drive of Adams’s beloved MacIntosh computer. Included are short stories, essays, lectures, and articles, many published for the first time in book form, and the crown jewel: ten never-before-published chapters of Adams’s longtime work-in-progress, THE SALMON OF DOUBT

This is all I could find on the matter. This isn't what I was talking about though. I was under the impression that he had written an all new book. I can remember reading when he died that he had ironically died exactly a week after finishing a new Hitchhikers Book. If the above is that book I suspect it isn't because, it's merely a compliation of earlier works not a brand new book IMHO. Still I'll buy it anyway.

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Scipio_major

Cake Fiend

I do likes a bit of Terrance P. Good Omens (TP and Neil Gaiman) is very probably my favourite book.

The_Scary_Man

I've got to say I think Gemmels books are a great read I usually end up reading them in one or two sessions.

Wheel of Time I enjoyed the first few but I am completely sick of them now, Jordan is the biggest f*cking conman in the fantasy genre less and less happens in each new book. I mean what was the point of the last one. Bollox I say, Bollox!

I'm reading "The Book Of The New Sun" by Gene Wolfe at the moment. Pure Class! A bit heavy going at the beginning but once you get used to the style you'll get completely caught up in it, it's beautifully written.

I've read a couple of Feist's Shadow of a Dark Queen and Rise of a Merchant Prince and they were pretty good so I think I'll go back to those next.

RandyMan

I can't stand the Shanara series,there is no originality and is a total carbon copy of LotR!!!!!
I'm still re-reading Steven Eriksons work and I have to say I'm even more impressed the second time round!!!
Robert Jordan is my favourite fantasy author at the moment but Eriksons work is just so intricate,detailed and damn original!!!!
I've also read Feist,Hobb,Gemmel,JV Jones and many more whose names I can't even remember,oh yeah and I readedings but his work has no real or cool twists you know???