looking to read some top notch fantasy books. any recomendations?

[geoffd]

i just started re-reading the dragonlance trilogy (it's been about 10 years since i last read them) and was wondering what other fantasy books (i'm talking AD&D, swords and sorcery type stuff) are worth reading? maybe a couple top ten lists, what are you favorites?
my brain is hungry
thanks

[Bloodstone]

How about "Harlock better get his butt to FEWS or the Saturday sketch group" by R.L. Sausagedogs

[AnarchyAo2]

I think that Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is real good. Its got all of the magic stuff your looking for. George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series is okay. In my opinion, they get kinda boring sometimes because it seems more like a political soap opra then a book about war.

I'm currently reading 2 books by Stephen King, IT and the Dark Tower series. I'm on the 2nd book in the Dark Tower series. The first book, "The Gunslinger" is a fantasy western, and its kinda boring because hes just following some guy around but once he catches up to him, it gets interesting. The 2nd one is a lot better then the 1st. I don't wanna spoil anything for the people who are reading (or gonna read) it. But, I'll just say theres a lot more shoot-outs.

If your looking for more opinions, or different series. You should go check out a book called "Legends". Its got a bunch introductions to the best written fantasy series and some short stories that go along with the series. Hope it helps. Later.

[MrMojo]

Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel Servantes


Chivarly, maidens, wizards....

[oglzogl]

I just finished book two of the Renshai trilogy. So far, one of the best series I have ever read. Here is a link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0886775035/qid=1069002308/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&n=507846) to the first book. You might also enjoy Legend of Nightfall (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0886775876/qid=1069003058/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books) too.. also written by Mickey Zucker Reichert .

Also, you'll probably enjoy Fafherd and the Grey Mouser. Here is a link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1565048741/qid=1069002451/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books) to Lankhmar.

Another good series is A Song of Fire and Ice (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055357342X/qid=1069002550/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books)

Other great fantasy books would include Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312890176/qid=1069002740/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books)

.. and C S Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0886775272/qid=1069002822/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books)

I would also recommend anything by C. J. Cherryh.. but a good place to start getting aquainted with her fantasy might be The Goblin Mirror (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345372786/qid=1069003295/sr=1-48/ref=sr_1_48/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books)

.. and finally, a series I read a while back and really liked was the The Banned and the Banished (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345417062/qid=1069003402/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books).

Another that is not quite the classic D&D style fantasy but still a great read is Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0440238137/qid=1069003494/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-7908014-9156920?v=glance&s=books) trilogy. I love this series.

[mos667]

I read the "Chronicles of Amber" about a year or so back, and I absolutely love it. Roger Zelazny (the author) is amazing in that book. It may be a little below one's level, and a little long (ranking at an amazing 1200 pages), but quality over content, right? ;)

Right now I'm reading a book by Neal Stephenson (author of Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, etc, etc.) called Quicksilver. It's set in the past, and I'm still not that sure of what's actually going on. Really interesting stuff. And if you want some kick ass science fiction stuff, read Snow Crash and Diamond age ;).

mos.

I heart Books.

[oglzogl]

Snow Crash was nice :)

.. I need to read more by him.

[geoffd]

wow, nice responses! thanks a lot. i'm writing these down now and will be hitting the bookstore soon. hey, how about some of the old conan books. are they worth reading or are they nice cause of the frazetta covers? :D

[bRyaN]

Well..being that i own approximately 85 Dragonlance novels, i suggest you read the new trilogy of books of Weiss and Hickman..Dragons of a Fallen Sun, Dragons of a Lost Star and Dragons of a Vanished Moon...

[Fipse]

Try some of the REAl classics:
Homers´ Illias and Odyssee
Vergils´ Aeneas
Dantes´"Divine comedy"
Malorys´ Mort d´Arthur
Shakespeares´ works
Cervantes´ Don Quijote
Jonathan Swift´s Gulliver (the real one, not the children version you normally see)
Lewis Carrols´ Alice
One of my alltime Favourites that too few people know:
"The biographies of Dom Manuel from J.B. Cabell - a more complex and "adult" world than most of the puberal fantasy you normally read. Best one of this cycle is immho "Jurgen". Read this (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/1460/mundus.html)
Bram Stokers Dracula - all the modern vampire myth base on this one. Forget Anne Rice!
Classics like Conan (the original stuff from Howard not his weak epigones), Eddisons novels, Jules Vernes, Lord Dunsany, Lovecraft etc. pp.

If you´re through this classics you may see why I personally think that most modern Fantasy literature is unoriginal, just copying itself, revisionistic and puberal.

Fipse

[Forge]

what about anne mc caffrey's books ? they are all goods to me but try the Pern saga i u don't know you'll not regret...

[jelanen]

Anything by Robin Hobbs or Guy Kay.

[Skank]

im assuming you havent read an of RA Salvatore's forgotten realms books?
start with the dark elf trilogy
Homeland
Exile
Sojourn

then the icewind dale trilogy

The Crystal Shard
Streams of Silver
The Halfling's Gem

theres many more after that but it will get you started :chug: :beer:

[.cfb]

Terry Pratchett - Small Gods

[jester]

Tad Williams, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.

Jester

[AnarchyAo2]

Fipse: You think that most modern fanstasy books are unoriginal. Thats probably because they were inspired by the classics. But, that doesn't make them bad books. And, I have a feeling that you just like classic books because they are "classic". If that makes sense to you. But, how are we going to accept books from our generation as "classics" if we dismis them just because they arn't classics?

[Fipse]

Hi Anarchy,

I personally think that there is good Fantasy today, too. E.G. what I heard Tad Williams seems to be good and there are others (beside my beloved Terry Pratchett ;)). Unfortunately it´s not always easy to find good ones beyond the mass of trivial stuff that is produced since the mid-80s. It´s always the same with fashions (and Fantasy became in this time fashion because of the popularity of RPG´s and movies) that they produce some good stuff and masses of mediocre and bad epigones.

Fantasy - let´s talk about classical Fantasy (LOTR, High Fantasy etc.) - has the "problem" that it often reduces the genre to simple themes (good against evil, questing stuff etc.) that - if not handled properly - easily can get to triviality and even - due to often popularized feudalism - revvisionistic. There are imho too many saviours around :D. Talking about puberal there are of course "classics", too. I personally don´t like the Gor-stuff not at all ... Good counterexamples (do you say so in english?) are imo E.R. Eddisons "The worm Ouroboros" or Tanith Lees Stories about Cyrion.

I think knowing your classics makes it easier to evaluate the new stuff - this is not just true for Fantasy but for any other genre. I think evaluating literature of any kind needs some kind of toolbox that has to be developed. I´ve had the luck - or unluck ;) - to have had a teacher in literature that gave me good tools to detect triviality and evaluate language.
Beside detecting weaknesses and blatant copies in the stories the classics can show you how powerful language can be.

Maybe see it as some drawing here on CA. There are thousands of Warriors, Elven-Mages, Dragons and whatever that are reproduced over and over never getting out of the forms built long ago. But still there are some people around that can even make this boring stuff into some wonderful new concepts.

I´m not shunning modern Fantasy, I know there are talented artists around as there are here talented drawers. I maybe sounded somehow harsh and I have to admit I wanted to achieve this effect to make people think. But I think knowing the "anatomies" of literature is helping you developing some sense for it as normal anatomy helps you to critizise and value a drawing. And as we´re learning here from Loomis and Hogarth (or in my german case Bammes) it´s good to learn the Tolkiens, Swifts and Shakespeares.

I hope I made sense with my limited english.

Fipse

[Mr. Teatime]

TERRY PRATCHETT!!


Terry pratchett's Discworld series is the best fantasy I've read, becaus its also very funny. Lot's of elements, like 30 books with different stories and charachters. The best one in my opinion is "Thief of Time," but to get all of the humor and satire you need to read some of the other ones.
Best ones-

Thief of Time
Hogfather (santa, or the "hogfather" is assassinated and must be brought back)
Reaper Man (Death gets some time off)
Witches Abroad
Small Gods
Soul Music (all about rock'n'roll beginning and had is very funny in that regard)


Also read Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series

[Pencil Soldier]

Loyd Alexander definetly.

Terry Pratchet for sure.My favorites from the Discworld seris are all the books aobut the Watchmen, starting with Man at Arms.


And...the Alvin Maker seris by Orson Scott Card. (the first book is called Seventh Son). The intrestign thing about this seris is ita an alternite history of the beginings of America with fantasy thrown in. Its very good and very unique. :p )

Midsummer Nights Dream, by William Shakespear.(heard of him?;) )

[infinitipo]

Pretty much all my suggestions have been said already, lol. I'm working on a fantasy novel at the moment--been trying my best to avoid too many cliches, almost finished. It's called the Skies of Infinity: Sails Unfurled, book one in a series. I'll let you know if anything becomes of it...

[Mr. Teatime]

whoa.. an author who's even younger than me.. Well, only a couple of months, but still! Man...

If I see it I'll read it, no garunties (sp)

My favorite terry pratchett ones are the ones with Night Watch, the wizard ones, and especially the ones withe Death in them!

[ummo]

Has no one read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series?
Maybe its not exactly D&D style fantasy but maybe more like LOTR. Top notch story I'll tell you.
From what i've read it ranks just below LOTR as the second best fantasy story. Give it a try.

[Mr. Teatime]

its great until #10. that one pisses me off. a thousand pages of nothing happening after so much anticipation!

The earlier ones are awesome though. I saw a heron mark sword in a mueseum replicas magazine (or maybe bud k)
its awesomes

[Mr. Teatime]

Also a note about Alvin Maker

They are based on early Mormon history. I'm mormon so i know, it loosely based on the life of Joseph Smith (the founder). It's cause Orson Scott Card is lds too. He used mormon religion as a basis for some of his other stories. Its kind of interesting when you look into it, how he ripped off the Book of Mormon.

[EmilyROAR]

Sabriel by Garth Nix
Lirael by Garth Nix
Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Its a series :P and yes, I put it in order.

[cybercyst]

Terry Pratchett and R.A. Salvatore are my boyfriend's all-time favorite authors...but I absolutely LOOOVE Paul Kidd's Greyhawk trilogy: White Plume Mountain (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786914246/qid=1070707881/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/002-7585226-6059207?v=glance&s=books), Descent into the Depths of the Earth (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786916354/qid=1070707939/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-7585226-6059207?v=glance&s=books), and Queen of the Demonweb Pits (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786919035/qid=1070707985/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7585226-6059207?v=glance&s=books). It's a great read even if you're not into Dungeons & Dragons...the characters are colorful and appealing, and it leaves you wanting more.:)

[Sapphire]

Fipse, I absolutely agree with everything you've said. Couldn't have have stated my feelings better myself, right on.

The Wheel of Time book I did read felt pretty cliche... it was all right, but it annoyed me a bit. I think my favorite fantasy book, and this would be because it was so strange, was Clive Barker's Weaveworld. Has anybody else read it?

-Sapph

[jester]

Sapphire, yeah, I read Clive Barkers Weaveworld about 15 years ago. I remember it as a unique reading but I didn't feel comfortable when reading it.

Jester

[Sapphire]

No, I didn't either... I think that was the whole idea, though. Had to read it about three times before I just accepted the weirdnesses of the book. I've read some other books by Clive Barker which were even weirder... some strange ideas in that guy's head.