EPTBrent Weeks:
The Black Prism
Way of Shadows ( Trilogy )
Trudi Canavan:
The Black Magician ( Series )
And as others have said ; The Wheel of Time is a great series as well.
[Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books - Page 17
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shinyA
United States473 Posts
Brent Weeks: The Black Prism Way of Shadows ( Trilogy ) Trudi Canavan: The Black Magician ( Series ) And as others have said ; The Wheel of Time is a great series as well. | ||
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Ficetool
Germany165 Posts
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. Saga of the seven suns was quite nice to read in my opinion...the end is a little disappointing, but till you get there it's quite cool I think. And at least it got some kind of SC references:D 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. Lol, I totally disliked these :D The last book completely ruins the whose series imo On March 23 2012 20:47 Vindicare605 wrote: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. I hate those books too. I actually think the first few ones are cool and fun to read, but after the hundreth time of them both doubting their love cuz of some weird random thing happening and then eventually finding each other again I was kinda annoyed...The end for me was when + Show Spoiler + the main character gets kidnapped and instead of being killed he is shown the great, wonderful and almighty "dream empire" (no idea of the actual name tbh)...and he gets explained why he needs to stop fighting and rather join it..are you kidding me? I can read communist propaganda and get more information out of it than this... While its a great story at the start it ends up in being "MY COMMUNISMS IS BETTER ZAN YOU CAPITALISMS".... It was the first series I never read through...like, the first EVER! And another thing I couldn't stand at all was the fact that the seeker never learns anything about his magic (in the first like 5 books)...and + Show Spoiler + when he does he becomes almighty and needs to forget everything again cuz otherwise he'd be imba and the story would be even more broken... | ||
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Bloodghast
Canada5 Posts
1) Stephen R. Donaldson Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever at the top, the first series has possibly the best characters of all time in a series, the contrast of Thomas Covenant as a hero is excellent, along with the enemy Lord Foul, who is literally the personification of evil in the Land. Lord Mhoram stands opposite Lord Foul as hope. 2) Tolkien as a close second (my opinion, refrain from raging in lieu of trying to make this a productive thread) Personally preferred the Silmarillion story-line better than the Lord of the Rings. Prepare for 100 pages of grinding though. 3) George Martin with A song of fire and ice (although very good, he's starting to get carried away with the deaths.) After these 3 there are a ton of other series that are very good Anything in the Dragonlance series that Margeret Weis has a hand in, Wayfarer's Redemption, The Death Gate Cycle, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Abhorsen Trilogy, Wheel of Time. I'm currently re-reading the George Martin books so i can come into the 5th book with a fresh mind, I know I know i need to get into Steven Erikson's work as well. Also Lovecraft's novels looks interesting, i'm not your man for that though. | ||
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elt
Thailand1092 Posts
On April 05 2012 12:57 Jumbled wrote: 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'll also suggest Old Man's War by John Scalzi. You could also check out Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, it's a mix of both fantasy and sci-fi really... Well ok the proper term is 'Dying Earth'. I see this thread has turned a little into Goodkind bashing. Good to know that opinion is pretty much universal wherever you go. I made it through until the opening of Naked Empire and couldn't take it anymore. There are better fantasy series out there IMO which tries less harder to shove morality down your throat. | ||
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Telcontar
United Kingdom16710 Posts
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redviper
Pakistan2333 Posts
While its a great story at the start it ends up in being "MY COMMUNISMS IS BETTER ZAN YOU CAPITALISMS".... The funny thing is that Goodkind is super anti communist. He is a follow of Ayn Rand, so he is a believer in a crazy sort of super libertarinism that teaches you how to be a dick to everyone who you feel is inferior to you. I hate Goodkind and I really detest book 4 onwards of the entire retarded series but calling his work pro-commie is seriously mistaken. Also I would never recommend this series to anyone over 18. It is utter crap. Each book past book 3 is a rehash of the same theme, same concepts, same ridiculousness over and over and over again. In the theme of recommending somewhat unknown serieses, I recommend the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (and the rest of the inheritors trilogy) by NK Jemisin. Also the Dreamblood series by her. 2 of her books have already been Hugo finalists. Sometimes her writing is a little disjointed but the story is really compelling and the characters are very realistic in portrayal. Also I would highly recommend The Warded Man and the Desert Spear by Peter Brett. Great books. Very nicely told also. And my favorite series of all time, the Prince of Nothing by Scott Bakker. Hard to read at times and occasionally the introspection goes overboard but incredible story, the greatest fantasy character of all time, and absolutely no "evil" as we would know it. Its amazing how rational the people are in this series. and Le Guin's writing is generally pretty flat. You have to be shitting me right? Le Guinn is one of the top 5 greatest SciFi writers of our times. If you don't weep at the end of Left Hand of Darkness you have no soul. | ||
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anomalopidae
Slovenia549 Posts
when you go fantasy the standard ones that were already mentioned and also The Kingkiller Chronicles, tbh that series is so far my favourite cause it is just so polished | ||
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Martyrc
217 Posts
the last writer I'd recommend is Brent Weeks, his night angel trilogy and the Black Prism are amazing though I find the plot to be a little... Weird at times. | ||
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Ficetool
Germany165 Posts
On May 26 2012 19:56 redviper wrote: The funny thing is that Goodkind is super anti communist. He is a follow of Ayn Rand, so he is a believer in a crazy sort of super libertarinism that teaches you how to be a dick to everyone who you feel is inferior to you. I think I didn't express myself really well. I was referring to the poinf of + Show Spoiler + the kidnapping, where the emperor tries to convince the seeker that communism sytle is good....but as he is the evil, of course coummunism will fail So Goodkind is anti communist by making the evil guy a communist...I hope its easier to understand now, how I actually ment it. Greetings | ||
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Juggernaut477
United States379 Posts
On March 23 2012 08:32 HwangjaeTerran wrote: 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. Yeah I just started reading the chronicals,almost done with Book 2,only really care about the Rastlin character but he so good it makes the book enjoyable,Flint is pretty cool too. Have the first two books in the Drizzt series,gonna read them after Song of Ice and fire. | ||
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Microchaton
France342 Posts
As many people, Ursula LeGuin's books... I don't know how to say it without sounding like an asshole, but it shows that it's written by a woman. It's very tame, very "emotional", and overall not very innovative nor interesting in my opinion. The writing is good, I just dislike it. In comparison, Patrick Rothfuss' kingkiller chronicles (The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear) are absolutely fantastic. Great idea, great delivery, genius writing, great pace, I love just about everything about it, except the fact that the protagonist keeps bumping randomly on another person, which is mildly annoying / sigh-worthy. I'm surprised Glen Cook's Black Company chronicles aren't more mentionned. It's very original, dark mercenaries story, with very good characterization and very fun all around. Cook's Garrett detective stories are also fun. I won't go into GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones) as you pretty much have to read at least the first 3 books no matter what, they're that good. 4th book divided the fanbase, it's much slower. 5th book is more liked but similar in pacing, the writing is so much better than the other books it doesn't seem written by the same author though. Most of GRRM's short stories and novels are also very cool. As far as typical fantasy, Feist is great (all of his books are pretty much a unique series ). It's very accessible from any age, because it is quite tame and straightforward, but it is great fantasy, a great universe with extremly charismatic characters, lots of fun and bright colours. It's a great author to have kids start fantasy, and still is a great read for older people. I'm with "The Internet" on the Goodkind series. When I was much younger I read up to the 8th book or something, quite tediously, then I just dropped the series because it became straight up insufferable. Honestly don't even bother picking it up, there's no point, the writing is bad and most everything is stolen from the Wheel of Time series (a slightly overrated classic, still very good but annoying for quite a few reasons). Other good reads (cba developping on everything) : Jim Butcher's books are good fun, Chronicles of Amber of Zelazny quite interesting and original series with powerful characters, Pratchett's discworld is the most fucking hilarious thing there is, and there's a crapton of books too. Moorcock's books are alright, didn't get into it too much, it's pretty weird and grand. R A Salvatore, Eddings are mostly kid books, but they can be enjoyable (same for Piers Anthony's Xanth series) shamelessly. I read most of Robin Hobb's work, but I wouldn't recommend it. I liked it when I read it, but it's not particularly good or well written, and very whiny (good characters tho). Stan Nicholls' Orcs is good fun. Pisses me off that people kept naming SF books. It's a Fantasy topic, not SF. Really need to buy myself some of Malazan's series apparently. Some french names, I have no idea how good the translations are if they're even translated : Alain Damasio is AMAZING, easily in my top 5, "La Horde du Contrevent" is straight up fantastic. Unbelievably original and powerful book. If you read french don't miss that. Pierre Grimbert's books are pretty good, not particularly great but a nice magic system. Mathieu Gaborit's series are alright. Fabrice Colin's "Vengeance" book is probably the book I've reread the most. It's incredibly powerful dark fantasy, quite Conan-ish. | ||
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Bloodghast
Canada5 Posts
On March 23 2012 08:32 HwangjaeTerran wrote: 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. If you liked Raistlin you should read the Thomas Covenant series. Thomas Covenant is a very deep, twisted character who symbolizes as much of human nature that Raistlin does. He is very dark, also holds the same ridiculous power, but instead he does not want to wield it. Instead of being power hungry, he is afraid of power and responsibility. The series in general has quite a darker edge to it than the normal theme of dragonlance. The giants being the epitome of despair, while also holding hope within them. Also if you like Weis and Hickman i'd recommend the Death Gate cycle. You will like Haplo. | ||
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Klyberess
Sweden345 Posts
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Taekwon
United States8155 Posts
Love to kick start reading this type of genre with a solid, affable bang. | ||
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tronix
United States95 Posts
On May 29 2012 10:38 Taekwon wrote: Are any of the listed books at all similar to any of the Final Fantasy series? Love to kick start reading this type of genre with a solid, affable bang. That is quite the request. The Final Fantasy series is pretty broad in themes, motifs, and character development. I recommend you think of the pieces of the series you enjoyed in a general sense. For example: -Young boy journeys and ages into a hero. -Unique magic system. (lots of magic, barely any magic, detailed explanation, etc) -Young love defying all, or grueling relationships. -Lots of combat, death, gore, etc. -Single viewpoint, or a cast of characters giving perspective. If anything, give other names of games or books you have enjoyed. Edit: I've found that bestfantasybooks.com is a pretty good extensive list. The blogger also explains different genres and their respective hits. | ||
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
![[image loading]](http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781844164684_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG) | ||
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NumberFive
Belgium36 Posts
In general, Forgotten realms I read Dragonlance and the Star Wars series back in the day. Also, the Warcraft lore is pretty good. | ||
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Syn Harvest
United States191 Posts
On December 15 2012 04:05 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: Is this series any good/worth reading? I only read the first chapter whilst at Barnes and Noble but I recall it being written very poorly. The writer obviously has technique issues and overuses adverbs a bit much. If you want new Fantasy I recommend the Kingkiller Chronicles. Book 1 "The Name of the Wind" is fantastic one of the best fantasy book of the past decade. Book 2 isn't quite as good but it is still pretty strong. The third book is yet to be released and I believe due for release sometime next year. There are plenty of other great fantasy reads as well. ASOIF, Malazan, The Black Company, The Prince of Nothing, Dune, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, The First Law, The Way of Kings, Monarchies of God, etc... There are plenty of others. The best way to find good fantasy is here http://bestfantasybooks.com/ Another key is stay away form Glen Brooks his books are fucking awful | ||
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{ToT}ColmA
Japan3260 Posts
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Martyrc
217 Posts
On December 15 2012 04:19 Syn Harvest wrote: I only read the first chapter whilst at Barnes and Noble but I recall it being written very poorly. The writer obviously has technique issues and overuses adverbs a bit much. If you want new Fantasy I recommend the Kingkiller Chronicles. Book 1 "The Name of the Wind" is fantastic one of the best fantasy book of the past decade. Book 2 isn't quite as good but it is still pretty strong. The third book is yet to be released and I believe due for release sometime next year. There are plenty of other great fantasy reads as well. ASOIF, Malazan, The Black Company, The Prince of Nothing, Dune, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, The First Law, The Way of Kings, Monarchies of God, etc... There are plenty of others. The best way to find good fantasy is here http://bestfantasybooks.com/ Another key is stay away form Glen Brooks his books are fucking awful This guy knows his shit ^^. Also, if you're in for an easy read, and you're getting kinda tired of epic fantasy and the likes, read the Dreseen Files by Jim Butcher. It's urban fantasy, and it's fantastic. Really worth the read. That aside, ASoIaF, Malazan book of the fallen, anything by Abercrombie, almost anything by Brandon Sanderson, the Kingkiller chronicles (best fantasy to come out since Y2K at least). Do NOT, and I mean this, do NOT touch anything by Terry Brooks. Stay away, in fact, burn every book from that writer that you can get your hands on. Thoroughly wash your hands after and try not to breathe the fumes. My hipster recommendation: The Lies Of Locke Lamora, and Red Seas Under Red Skies. Both in the same series, both great books, pretty funny. Great and upcoming author, though he seems to be a slow writer. | ||
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