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On March 23 2012 02:16 HaXXspetten wrote:Show nested quote +On March 22 2012 23:48 NihilisticGod wrote:
Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastard series is win... start with Lies of Locke Lamora. Best series ever written imo
On March 23 2012 02:10 Requizen wrote:
I can't say this enough, Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. 13 books in the series so far, short stories galore, and even comics if you're into that thing. My favorite book series. I'm sure it's been in this thread somewhere, but more people must know!
OMG ONE AFTER ANOTHER. My favorite fucking books ever.
I've read Lies of Locke Lamora like 8 times and every time I still laugh.
edit: dafuq... i just checked, Republic of Thieves fall 2013... T.T
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I don't have any suggestions, since I'm "new" to reading.. on heretics of dune right now. .thinking about a song of ice and fire, since i've seen the show.
Also going to read Jurassic Park again.. haha.
XD
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The Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Great read, very well written even though I'm not a fan of fantasy books.
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On March 23 2012 07:25 Newbistic wrote:
The Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Great read, very well written even though I'm not a fan of fantasy books.
This man speaks the truth. Amazing series.
Some other things to consider:
a) Series
- Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan, pretty decent, light reading
- The Tamuli by David Eddings, simply amazing
- Horus Heresy by various authors, epic tale set in WH40K universe
b) Single books
- Genesis by Bernard Beckett
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons, I know it's a series but the first one is a masterpiece and I didn't really like the continuations
- Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Edit: I posted it ages ago too... Fail.
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Lord of the Rings if you haven't already read it.
Its one of the few fantasy books that you can call literature.
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On March 23 2012 07:11 [cF]TridenT wrote:Show nested quote +On March 23 2012 02:10 Requizen wrote:
I can't say this enough, Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. 13 books in the series so far, short stories galore, and even comics if you're into that thing. My favorite book series. I'm sure it's been in this thread somewhere, but more people must know! I have read most of the Dresden files and enjoyed them greatly. Jim Butcher also wrote a series called the Codex Alera which in my mind is twice as good as the Dresden files and you should totally check it out  Totally on board with the King Killers Chronicles and Riftwar saga as well
I got halfway through the first Alera book, didn't really enjoy it :\ A bit dry and slow, and I prefer the modern setting that Dresden brings to "high fantasy".
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The most badass series that I've ever read is by Ted Dekker, and it's called the Circle Series.
The first book is called Black. It has religious (Christian) undertone and I still love the series even though I am 100% an atheist and loathe religion.
Here a description from the publisher:Black. The Birth of Evil.
While fleeing a hit man through the deserted alleys of Denver, a bullet clips Thomas Hunter's head. He escapes with his life, but later passes out from his wounds . . . and his world is swallowed by black.
From the dark comes an amazing reality of another world-a world where evil is contained. A world where Thomas is in love with a beautiful woman. A world that stands on the brink of annihilation.
Where does the dream end and reality begin? Every time he falls asleep in one world, he awakens in the other-each facing unimaginable evil, an each with a fate unknowingly tied to the other.
Some say the world hangs in the balance of every choice we make. Now the fate of two worlds hangs in the balance of one man's choice.
That is, if he can live to see the end of the day.
It's such a badass series, basically the world he wakes up in is actually the future of the world he was always living in, and there is another catasrophe that he must overcome in the future world AND in the past world. All while falling in love with a woman etc etc etc just it's an awesome series I highly recommend it to anyone.
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Canada11439 Posts
On March 23 2012 06:58 Dr_Strange wrote:Show nested quote +On March 23 2012 06:28 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
I don't see how people manage to read the entire LOTR books. I mean I loved the movies but jeez the hobbits start singing every other page. It was mind numbing. Yeah LotRs are pretty bad. The hobbit is acceptable. The thing with books is people think they are good because they have never experienced anything better. Good is relative and since most people don't more than 1-2 series/books their opinions should be taken very lightly.
And there I"ll have to disagree with you. I've read quite a few fantasy books and I've yet to come across one that I like more than LotRs (Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales included.) I think in the end, I don't really enjoy fantasy. I enjoy historical fiction and to me LotR's reads like a historical place. The frame stories help in keeping a very specific perspective of the histories as well as the series maintain a strong understanding of how stories change over time. Other fantasies have tried, but all of them feel like once you open up the hood, the world's history is actually pretty sparse.
Also, far too many fantasies of DnD/ Harry Potter rule based magic where it's used to solve problems. I prefer the much subtler, mysterious magic that is almost always more harmful than helpful.
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+ Show Spoiler +On October 26 2004 20:53 [vital]Myth wrote:
the Xanth series by Piers Anthony was good to me. So was the Adept series, by the same author. You might also check out the Chronicles of Amber (from which my parents got my first two names :D) by Roger Zelazny.
+ Show Spoiler +On December 20 2009 08:37 exeprime wrote:
Holy shit, can't believe nobody mentioned Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. Incredibly captivating, a totally original universe (nothing with generic elves and dwarves and stuff) and some of the most amazing writing ever. Zelazny's got style.
At least check out the first book of the series, Nine Princes in Amber - it's not very long and it'll leave you hungry for more.
My favourite fantasy ever, and i read stuff like LotR, Dune, some Terry Pratchett, aaa... and more, i guess. The Amber books are my favs by far.
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny is the series that I would have to recommend. The story avoids the typical tropes found in fantasy, and you won't be reading about teenagers with wise mentors that are tasked with saving the world. The characters are rich, and as the second quote says - the world itself is unique. The 10 books total to only 1200 pages, but in my mind the story is deeper and broader than the better known modern day fantasy behemoths such as WoT.
If you are looking for something to read, click the link below and start reading. I recommend that potential readers avoid doing ANY research. The wikipedia page has spoilers in the overview, and the titles of the some books themselves are huge spoilers. The writing and the pacing are both phenomenal, and the book grabs you from the very beginning.
http://arthursbookshelf.com/sci-fi/zelazny/amber 01 - nine princes in amber.pdf
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I recommend the Dragonlance books with Raistlin in them. Best fantasy character ever IMO. Otherwise the Dragonlance characters aren't too interesting IMO, and I've read almost all of those books. Also the Kang's Regiment books (2) could be highlighted. Don't know why I liked that story a lot.
From Weis & Hickman I'd also recommend the Sovereing Stone trilogy, really cool, a bit darker story and world altogether.
Can't say I'm the biggest fan of LotR. Otherwise the setting is pretty good but I hate that there's like 2 grey characters ( Boromir, Gollum) and all the rest are either saints or the devil, lol. Also the telling isn't always most fluent IMO.
I'm also pretty surprised that Wheel of Time has so many fans, You'd think the 2000ish pages of boredom in the middle would turn some people away. I need to catch up on that though sometime in the future.
The Redemption of Althalus by the Eddings(aswell as malloreon and belgarad ofc) was really good, I read it in one day when it came out. I just checked the english language name and realized I was 11 back then xD, old fart.
R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books are pretty good, especially the first 6, then some more boring books mixed in the stream of goodiness, books with Jarlaxle and Entreri were pretty exciting though.+ Show Spoiler + IMO it feels like he had a hard time killing off some older characters ( happens often to fantasy authors) and I'm pretty excited now that he has finally done it.
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On March 23 2012 06:03 Nesto wrote:Show nested quote +On March 23 2012 04:27 ThaZenith wrote:On March 22 2012 20:03 Vindicare605 wrote:It has to have been mentioned already but, The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is one of my all time favorite fantasy series. There's a lot of them too so they'll keep you entertained for a while. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uwDfA.jpg) The only series I've read more than once. (3x now) So good.  god, no idea how you managed to sit through those books more than once, they are awful - well it starts out okay'ish but it goes steadily downhill from there :[ what makes it even worse is that Goodkind always acts like he is the second coming of Tolkien (just better ofc).. what a jerk.. Show nested quote +On March 22 2012 15:47 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:These books any good, any TL'ers read them? ![[image loading]](http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/148130000/148131839.JPG) I kind of liked way of kings, and it's my hope that the series will some day become the new ASoIaF or Wheel of Time - bascially a fantasy series of epic proportions. The story seems cool so far and the world Sanderson built is very promising. Just make sure you know what you are in for, Sanderson has planed the series for 10 books and it will probably take him at least a decade to finish it.
I've never recommended this series to anyone and got back negative feedback. You're the first person I've ever seen that's said anything like this.
So, clearly it's you that has the problem not the author, not because you don't like the series, that's normal because you can't ever please anyone but because rather than say you simply didn't like it you call it awful and start bashing it.
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Can anyone recommend some decent sci fi series to read? Nothing to crazy out there, but just a good story inolving space/aliens/war/exploration/whatever is cool.
Im typically a big reader of historical fiction... Wilbur Smith, Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden, Simon Scarrow, and dozens of others.
Im not a big fantasy fan, although a good story always catches me. I love LOTR, and a few other fantasy series. Someone recommended that Malazan series and frankly I read the first one, and got about 50 pages into the second one before i got so bored I couldnt stand it.
SciFi that I've read include "Asimov's Foundation series" which was enjoyable, "Enders Game series" which I also enjoyed, but still thought it was a little overatted, Loved "Saga of the seven suns" by Kevin J Anderson.
Preferably a series of books around the same character/characters, but Im not sticky.
Thought I'd Ask here instead of starting a new thread
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On April 05 2012 12:43 Darpa wrote:
Can anyone recommend some decent sci fi series to read? Nothing to crazy out there, but just a good story inolving space/aliens/war/exploration/whatever is cool.
The Dune books by Frank Herbert are an excellent classic sci-fi series. Just stay well away from the prequels and other muck written by his son, which are some of the worst books ever published.
If you're after decent general space opera with plenty of aliens, I'd also suggest the Uplift trilogy by David Brin.
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On April 05 2012 12:57 Jumbled wrote:Show nested quote +On April 05 2012 12:43 Darpa wrote:
Can anyone recommend some decent sci fi series to read? Nothing to crazy out there, but just a good story inolving space/aliens/war/exploration/whatever is cool. The Dune books by Frank Herbert are an excellent classic sci-fi series. Just stay well away from the prequels and other muck written by his son, which are some of the worst books ever published. If you're after decent general space opera with plenty of aliens, I'd also suggest the Uplift trilogy by David Brin.
I actually enjoyed some of his son's work-- the prequels were not too bad.
I just read the first 4 books of a Song of Ice and Fire in the last 4 days-- went HAM on reading. Not bad, not bad at all.
I guess Redwall is kind of a kiddy book, but good god I loved that series so much. Brian Jacques <3
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I'm surprised this thread is still up when there's another thread called books your currently reading or something along those lines. I remember reading Ender's Game. I started sometime in the afternoon and stayed up all night to finish it and found out from a friend that the sequel takes place 1000 years later or something and decided not to continue it because it just felt weird as a sequel.
For fantasy, I'd recommend Name of the wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Both are good and the second book is a sequel out of the trilogy.
Not sure if this book counts as non-fiction or fantasy but American Gods by Neil Gaiman had an interesting idea but I feel like it fell short in the actual plot. Others may feel different though. Now that I think about it, it's definitely a fantasy. I haven't really read a book since last summer when I read A Song of Ice and Fire series and its been even longer since I last touched a non-fiction book so I totally forgot the definition of a non-fiction lol.
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I was also terribly disappointed with Nel Gaiman's American Gods. I just felt like it didn't work/wasn't satisfying after finishing it. Interesting idea, just not done particularly well imo.
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On April 05 2012 12:57 Jumbled wrote:Show nested quote +On April 05 2012 12:43 Darpa wrote:
Can anyone recommend some decent sci fi series to read? Nothing to crazy out there, but just a good story inolving space/aliens/war/exploration/whatever is cool. The Dune books by Frank Herbert are an excellent classic sci-fi series. Just stay well away from the prequels and other muck written by his son, which are some of the worst books ever published. If you're after decent general space opera with plenty of aliens, I'd also suggest the Uplift trilogy by David Brin.
Thanks Ill give the uplift trilogy a shot. Never been a big fan of Dune, but it was a long time ago when I read it, so i might give it another shot.
If anyone has any other decent scifi's let me know! <3
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Besides the obvious Ender's Game series classics, Orson Scott Card has some pretty cool other series. I just read Pathfinder (dunno if it's been mentioned yet), and it's really interesting/trippy in dealing with time warping (the science is a bit off, but it's part fantasy/fiction so w/e).
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On March 22 2012 20:07 HwangjaeTerran wrote:![[image loading]](http://furiousfanboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/books_09.jpg) Death Gate Cycle is my favourite sci-fi/fantasy series, although it's been over 10 years since I read it. I should do it again.
Great to see I'm not the only one who holds this series at such a high regard! I read it like 4 or 5 times and I want to read it again, but I've read it so many times already that I kinda remember everything on almost every page!
The best part about it is the depiction of evil. Normally you would expect the two main factions in the conflict, one to be evil and other to be bad. However in this book, evil is a different faction, it has its own faction almost, and neither of the other two factions are good nor evil. Also, the descriptions and depictions of magic in this series is just amazing, some books have short, almost academically written articles on how the magic works in the series (by the wizards in the story btw!) It's so awesome! In my opinion Fire Sea was the best book in the series, last 100 pages or so was just heart pounding!
Oh, and Hugh the Hand is the best character ever. Ever.
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On March 23 2012 20:47 Vindicare605 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 23 2012 06:03 Nesto wrote:On March 23 2012 04:27 ThaZenith wrote:On March 22 2012 20:03 Vindicare605 wrote:It has to have been mentioned already but, The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is one of my all time favorite fantasy series. There's a lot of them too so they'll keep you entertained for a while. The only series I've read more than once. (3x now) So good. god, no idea how you managed to sit through those books more than once, they are awful - well it starts out okay'ish but it goes steadily downhill from there :[ what makes it even worse is that Goodkind always acts like he is the second coming of Tolkien (just better ofc).. what a jerk.. I've never recommended this series to anyone and got back negative feedback. You're the first person I've ever seen that's said anything like this. So, clearly it's you that has the problem not the author, not because you don't like the series, that's normal because you can't ever please anyone but because rather than say you simply didn't like it you call it awful and start bashing it.
Welcome to the internet. Goodkind and Sword of Truth is mocked pretty much all over. Series like Sword of Truth, Belgariad, Salvatore's Drizzt books, Shannara, etc, doesn't really have a high status if you're older than 16.
Just use this site: Top 25 fantasy books for fantasy recommendations.
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EPT
