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Fantasy Books

seayakin

Graduate Poster
seayakin
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
1,437
Any one have any recommendations?

I have already read Tolkien's Books many times, Harry Potter, Tales of Narnia, etc. However, most others I have grabbed I have found less than stellar.
 
George RR Martin. Don't let the size of the books intimidate you-- they're a fast read, because you get caught up in it. A Game of Thrones is the first in the series. They kick ass.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is fantasy as well as humor, and very good.

I've also gotten into Juliet McKenna and JV Jones recently, both are okay, nothing great, but worth reading.
 
Oh, and I was forgetting the older guys. Lord Dunsany sort of invented the modern fantasy. Many fantasy writers credit Dunsany with influencing them.

His short stories are his best. Try to find a copy with the Syme illustrations.
 
Well, in an entirely different direction from your list: if you feel you might like some shorter books in the genre, maybe try one of:

Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series or
Karl Edward Wagner's Kane series

I found both series to be fun fantasy, and mostly pretty entertaining without relying on vastness of story or vapid fictitious historical detail (like Tolkein) that made me skip pages and yawn more than I wanted to.

At least if you don't like them, the $1.50 and 2 hours reading time won't make you feel like you invested a lot of time or money on them.
 
Phillybee, you beat me to Fritz Lieber. Wonderful stuff.

I'm very fond of E.R.R. Eddison's The Worm Oroborous. It's a great fantasy adventure, though the opening and the setting is a little odd, you quickly get over it.
And the language....

The fantasy stories of Jack Vance are great fun as well. Mazirian the Magician, Cudgel, and others. Always a sly sense of humor, and clever commentary on modern society.

Poul Anderson has written some fine stuff as well, often with a nod to traditional myths Three Hearts and Three Lions was excellent. And The High Crusade....Hehe.

Aliens invade during one of the Crusades, expecting a quick victory. The doughty knights defeat the aliens, and proceed to borrow the spaceship for a counter-attack. Great stuff.
 
Thanks all, this should help me add some things to my reading list.
 
I'm admittedly not the fantasy expert, so I asked my brother, who reads volumes of it. He likes:

George RR Martin: mentioned above, A Game of Thrones

Roger Zelazny: Amber series ( I read these a long time ago, can't remember anything about them now), and other Zelazny books.

Michael Moorcock: I reread the Elric stuff not too long ago and I liked it; he recommends Dancers at the Edge of Time and the Hawkmoon series

I think I'm gonna pick up the George RR Martin one.
 
George RR Martin is great. Really--just absolutely fantastic stuff.

I'm also a big RA Salvatore fan--even if you don't like the D&D/Forgotten Realms thing, the guy is really a skilled writer.

I've recently gotten into Raymond E. Feist, particularly the Serpentwar books. His approach to characterization and plot is very atypical; hard to describe, and hard to put down.

One series I happened upon by accident is Elizabeth Moon's "Deed of Paksenarrion" trilogy. Short, but very inventive and worth reading. A lot of fun, there.

A couple I'm not so fond of:

Robert Jordan. The first few books of his famous "Wheel of Time" series are great, but they quickly get very repetitive and don't really seem to go anywhere.

Terry Goodkind. Bleccccch. Goodkind has a genuine knack for storytelling and character, and some of his concepts are incredibly original. The first 2-3 books in his "Sword of Truth" series are a lot of fun. But somewhere along the line Goodkind decided he was Ayn Rand Come Again. He interrupts the storyline with length monologues (and even question/answer sessions) about Great Political and Philosophical Truths, rambles incessantly, doesn't bother to portray opposing opinions even remotely accurately, and basically only bothers keeping enough plotline to thinly veil his manifesto with a fantasy story. It's not his politics that bug me--though, obviously, I'm not a fan in that department--I read Heinlein all the time. But at least Heinlein could put his politics into his story reasonably well. By his fourth book, Goodkind took all of his talent and chucked it out the window.

(Sorry, Goodkind's a bit of a sore point with me. I spent way too much time reading that crap.)
 
Second the Leiber and the Zelazny series...also Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai books if you don't mind a few space suits in the plot.
 
If you like quests try Tad Williams’ “The Dragonbone Chair” (but avoid “Otherland” like the plague the world's second most tedious book, the first of course being "The Wandering Jew") and Stephen Donaldson's “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever”.


For quality I would recommend Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series (the first three are juveniles but still very good) and of course any work by the best fantasy (and science fiction ) writer Gene Wolfe.


(Edited for words, pictures and few bits and bobs.)
 
Cleon said:

Terry Goodkind. Bleccccch. Goodkind has a genuine knack for storytelling and character, and some of his concepts are incredibly original. The first 2-3 books in his "Sword of Truth" series are a lot of fun. But somewhere along the line Goodkind decided he was Ayn Rand Come Again. He interrupts the storyline with length monologues (and even question/answer sessions) about Great Political and Philosophical Truths, rambles incessantly, doesn't bother to portray opposing opinions even remotely accurately, and basically only bothers keeping enough plotline to thinly veil his manifesto with a fantasy story. It's not his politics that bug me--though, obviously, I'm not a fan in that department--I read Heinlein all the time. But at least Heinlein could put his politics into his story reasonably well. By his fourth book, Goodkind took all of his talent and chucked it out the window.

(Sorry, Goodkind's a bit of a sore point with me. I spent way too much time reading that crap.)
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I never made it to the fourth book, or even the third. The first two were just too repetitive and nowhere near exciting, in my opinion. It seemed an endless stream of "Here's this thing no-one can possibly do. Well, our hero does it! Here's another thing no-one can do. Our hero does it, too!" on and on and on and...
 
Marquis de Carabas said:
I never made it to the fourth book, or even the third. The first two were just too repetitive and nowhere near exciting, in my opinion. It seemed an endless stream of "Here's this thing no-one can possibly do. Well, our hero does it! Here's another thing no-one can do. Our hero does it, too!" on and on and on and...
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Fair enough. I took that stuff in the context of an unfolding mystery (of Richard's full identity), so I cut him a bit of slack. After a while, it does seem to mold into the ubermensch thing. (Again, Ayn Rand Come Again.)
 
I very seldom read fantasy material, but I did enjoy Frank Herbert's Dune novels. What intrigued me was the premise that humans were a unique form of life and they populated a Universe that was full of life, versus Aliens coming to earth to destroy, eat or kidnap the humans.

Also, while I was perusing a local library selling off their "Politically Incorrect Books", I discovered an original copy of Robert Heinlein's novel "Stranger in a Strange Land". I stole it for 50 cents. Very strange read indeed!
 
One of the really neat fantasey series of late have been the reports of the Pentagon regarding the war in Iraq...

Sorry, cheap shot, couldn't help myself...:o
 
Darat said:
If you like quests try Tad Williams’ “The Dragonbone Chair” (but avoid “Otherland” like the plague the world's second most tedious book, the first of course being "The Wandering Jew") and Stephen Donaldson's “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever”.

*snip*
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Everybody, please avoid "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" like the plague. It is easily the dullest trilogy I ever read. Covenant does nothing but whine, whine, whine all through three books (and probably through the next three, which I didn´t bother to read). And whoever translated it into German should be thrust head-first into an anthill.

"The Dragonbone Chair" is pretty good, if a bit long-winded at times.

I can´t believe I´m the first to recommend the works of David Eddings. The quality of his novels varies - the latest series is terribly lame, but his earlier works are really good. I´d rate the Belgariad series with a straight A, all the other novels involving Belgarion and those with Sparhawk with a B, and "Redemption of Althalus" is somewhere between B and C.
 
I'm going to throw C.S. Friedman's name into the ring. She is really more on the sci-fi side, but her books also include elements of fantasy, and she writes deep, convincing characters.
 
May I also recommend Andrzej Sapkowski's books, The Saga of Geralt of Rivia. They have a central-eastern European feel that makes them quite refreshing, some great characters, and a style both gripping and profound. Some very nice suprises along the way in these books. I can't find the second but I couldn't wait and read up to the fourth.
 
seayakin said:
Any one have any recommendations?

I have already read Tolkien's Books many times, Harry Potter, Tales of Narnia, etc. However, most others I have grabbed I have found less than stellar.
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I think you've read all the good fantasy at this point. You might want to try stuff by Chretien de Troyes or Robert de Boron ;).
 
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