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On April 08 2011 11:46 keithioapc wrote:Anyone who liked the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" novels should read "The Black Company" novels by Glen Cook ^^ As someone who has read every novel mentioned in this thread as well as probably all novels which will be mentioned later, I have to say that my favorite fantasy series of all time is "A Song of Ice and Fire". It is simply the most well written, very dramatic and many other good things 
I actually convinced my friend to buy the first Black Company after seeing it in another thread, he said it was somewhat weird, but then again he's not entirely into the hardcore fantasy.
Song of Ice and fire is actually next on my list to read after I finish Erikson's work =D
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For humerous fantasy in comic form, Looking For Group is quite excellent imo.
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On April 08 2011 13:20 BisuDagger wrote:
The Shannara Series and anything else by Terry Brooks!
Having read all of the Shannara books up to an including the one after Tanequil (forget the name) I have to say they're incredibly cliche. I enjoyed them back in the day but they're somewhat lost their appeal now. There are a few gems in the series but at the moment I find it unappealing.
+ Show Spoiler +All of the books pretty much revolve around the main character embarking on an epic quest and in the end, he prevails and gets the girl.
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On April 08 2011 13:33 TheYukoner wrote:Show nested quote +On April 08 2011 11:46 keithioapc wrote:Anyone who liked the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" novels should read "The Black Company" novels by Glen Cook ^^ As someone who has read every novel mentioned in this thread as well as probably all novels which will be mentioned later, I have to say that my favorite fantasy series of all time is "A Song of Ice and Fire". It is simply the most well written, very dramatic and many other good things I actually convinced my friend to buy the first Black Company after seeing it in another thread, he said it was somewhat weird, but then again he's not entirely into the hardcore fantasy. Song of Ice and fire is actually next on my list to read after I finish Erikson's work =D
DO IT!
Just as a side note anyone who really likes Song of Ice and Fire you are required to think about reading Prince of Nothing trilogy by R. Scott Bakker.
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I'm not 100% sure what the series is called, but I think it's called The Gentleman Bastards or something along those lines. The author is Scott Lynch and the first two books are The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies. The stories have a really interesting chronological structure, bouncing between flashbacks, the present, and you get really attached to the main characters as their friendship is developed. The characters get into really absurd situations and end up on fast-paced adventures. Lynch also tries for the most part to make his fiction a "logical fiction" as the OP put it, doing his best to explain most of the aspects of the world in a more realistic sense.
Also George R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series is incredible.
And Harry Potter too. 
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Fave Sci- Fi:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich - Phillip K Dick
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S Lewis
VALIS - Phillip K Dick
Enjoy!!! I think I'm gonna re-read them now!
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On April 08 2011 13:09 sc14s wrote:Show nested quote +On April 08 2011 13:02 Deadlyhazard wrote:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is great. Don't think of it as omgloljapanesemanga. It's not a typical...overexpressive piece. It's very beautiful, richly detailed, and the story is deeper than 'lets fight a big bad guy.' There really are no true villains. It's not black and white. Just shades of grey and beautiful storytelling that only a master like Miyazaki could weave into a story. Best fantasy piece of literature ever, IMO.
Also, Tales from Earthsea. AWESOME series. I will say before I start that I do like manga (and anime for that matter) but books are too different to truly compare, just like it is hard to truly make a good movie from a well made book. The thing that I like about books it that really it uses your own imagination (and mine goes crazy when I read) with anything that is illustrated (or acted or what have you) is that you dont use your imagination, so somehow making up the story in your head always feels much more epic, awesome and cool compared to however its illustrated. Again i'm not saying Nausicaa is bad in fact I've watched the movie.. which was okay but as with movies - books im sure it wasnt translated the same. But from what i've seen it is a good story afaik.
The movie is crap compared to the manga. Srsly.
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I haven't really read all too much fantasy, barely started on the Wheel of Time and hadn't heard much about the majority of the books mentioned before. However I really want to recommend all of the fantasy series that David Eddings has written.
The Belgarion and The Malloreon are two five book series that primarily focus on the adventures of Garion. The first series is what I'd consider to be a fairly standard fantasy setting. That is to say: A young boy leaves his farm and takes an epic journey which ends in an entertaining clash between good and evil. The second series isn't all that unorthodox either, but that one starts when he is a grown man which must take a second stab at evil.
The Ellenium and The Tamuli are two three book series that focus on Sparhawk. In the first series Sparhawk is a a fairly war hardened soldier but after coming home from exile takes on a truly legendary quest to save his queen and exact vengeance upon his various enemies. I feel like I might be spoiling too much if I tried to reveal what the second series was about. The divinities in this series are really quite entertaining and one is closely linked to Sparhawk.
The Dreamers series is a four book series where the main characters are gods who fight to keep their land from being taken over by a malevolent bug god. Their primary means of defense are mercenaries that they hire from distant lands. There are three types of soldiers that features prevalently in the books: Imperial soldiers, pirates and ruffians of sorts and finally native warriors (basically Indians). These factions are all working together to fight back the land and the interaction between them and the gods are quite entertaining.
These books feature quite a bit of romance and humour when compared to the Wheel of Time series. And an interesting outlook on the romance part due to the fact that he had a lot of help from his wife Leigh Eddings.
Personally I'm not sure whether I'd go so far as to say that they are better than the Wheel of Time but I'd say that the Elenium/Tamuli series very well might be and Belgariad/Malloreon have a fair shot at breaking even with it. In my experience the Dreamers books are lacking a bit behind the other ones, probably due to the fact that the last book had a fairly disappointing ending.
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Read almost everything mentioned in here. But my favourite book by far is Tales of a Dying Earth by Jack Vance. He is a legend in the fantasy/Sci-Fi world but I had never heard of him before GRRM co-authored a tribute to him. I don't want to go into too much detail but Cugel the Clever is the most entertaining character I have ever read. Seriously go read it.
Some of the ones mentioned here I wouldn't recommend. Sword of Shannara I read years ago when I was 15 or 16, but it is very cliche and EXTREMELY similar to LotR. David Eddings is ok for teenagers but gets a bit cliche and formulaic the older you get. All his series have very similar storylines and even VERY similar characters, Sparhawk series is superior to the rest IMO. Also not a big Sword of Truth fan, but haven't read the whole series so take that as you will.
Malazan, ASoIaF, WoT and Dune are probably my favorites, but haven't got around to reading The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Brandan Sanderson's books (although his WoT stuff has been amazing) but have heard great things about them. Haven't read a fantasy book in over a year now, life is too busy 
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On April 08 2011 10:17 IronFenix wrote:
I'll have to agree with all of your suggestions. I also highly enjoyed the Night Angel Trilogy from Brent weeks.
From Wikipedia "The Night Angel Trilogy is a fantasy series written by Brent Weeks. The story follows the life of Azoth (later Kylar Stern) as he struggles as a guild rat to become the ultimate wetboy (an assassin with slight magical talent, such as the ability to muffle sound, or to block an attack with your mind), then tries to leave it all behind and finally becomes the avatar of retribution: the Night Angel."
I have to second the Night Angel trilogy, I'm surprised this isn't more popular. I've read it twice now and it's one of my favorite trilogies.
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So this is purely for fantasy novel suggestions? I can't suggest Sci-Fi I guess? If I can you really can't go past the Dune series. Very cerebral, very cool message laced within each book, especially the first one.
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I couldn't find anyone mentioning "The Name of the Wind" and its sequel "The Wise Man's Fear" so far, so I'm definitely going to mention that. They're by Patrick Rothfuss, and absolutely fantastic.
I agree once more with Robin Hobb, she's a pretty good writer (she's also known as Meghan Lindholm). Brandan Sanderson is also pretty good.
Edit: The guy beneath me is right, the Black Magician Trilogy was amazing (I liked the other books by Trudi Caravan[?] too, the Priestess of the White series probably more than the Black Magician Trilogy).
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I like a lot of the books that are mentioned, I don't like the aSoIaF series, because I don't like it when too many main characters die. Also, I loved the sword of truth, but after you've read some other fantasy, it gets worse. A great series to get into fantasy though.
Great series no-one mentioned:
The Ender Saga (yeah first book is mentioned by the OP but the rest is great too)
The Coldfire Trilogy (A vampire and a priest have to work together)
The Mistborn Saga (A unique style of magic and pretty interesting story)
The books about Vlad Taltos from Stephen Brust. Really funny series about an assassin. The main characters are really good.
Pretty good series no-one mentioned:
The Black Magician trilogy
Riftwar Saga (starts great but gets worse)
Books that have been mentioned but earn a re mentioning:
The Dune saga (only the original 6)
The First Law trilogy (some of the best characters I know, but according to other people Abercrombie uses the same characters in every series of him)
Night Angel trilogy
Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (don't read them all at once, the style can get stale)
edit: How did I forget the Wheel of Time series.
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On April 08 2011 17:27 Aequos wrote:
I couldn't find anyone mentioning "The Name of the Wind" and its sequel "The Wise Man's Fear" so far, so I'm definitely going to mention that. They're by Patrick Rothfuss, and absolutely fantastic.
Mentioned in the first post, actually. But they are both absolutely fantastic!
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On April 08 2011 17:39 Wesso wrote:
I like a lot of the books that are mentioned, I don't like the aSoIaF series, because I don't like it when too many main characters die. Also, I loved the sword of truth, but after you've read some other fantasy, it gets worse. A great series to get into fantasy though.
Great series no-one mentioned:
The Ender Saga (yeah first book is mentioned by the OP but the rest is great too)
The Coldfire Trilogy (A vampire and a priest have to work together)
The Mistborn Saga (A unique style of magic and pretty interesting story)
The books about Vlad Taltos from Stephen Brust. Really funny series about an assassin. The main characters are really good.
Pretty good series no-one mentioned:
The Black Magician trilogy
Riftwar Saga (starts great but gets worse)
Books that have been mentioned but earn a re mentioning:
The Dune saga (only the original 6)
The First Law trilogy (some of the best characters I know, but according to other people Abercrombie uses the same characters in every series of him)
Night Angel trilogy
Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (don't read them all at once, the style can get stale)
edit: How did I forget the Wheel of Time series.
OP here. I can't believe I spaced on Coldfire trilogy, that's also one of my all time favorites. In fact I own every single book of C.S Friedman lol. Don't forget fae.. pretty awesome idea behind it, the human power of belief itself literally shapes things from your imagination. Her new trilogy is on the 2nd book and it certainly has my interest piqued as well.
The whole enders saga is a bit hit and miss for me for the Ender side of the story Engers game was great then after that I sort of didn't like each book he came out with after it.. then when he came out with Ender's shadow my mind was blown it (imo obviously) is a better series than the one he wrote earlier. I love Bean... and peter was alright after he grew up I guess too 
Also of note is his Homecoming earth series which some people might like here, silly oversoul you can't last forever.
Edit: saw I had some terrible spelling and such (pain in the ass to type this on my phone idk why I'm doing it this way..
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I recommend "Son of Suns"... it's the first in a 4book pack and if you like it the second is also quite good. INterestingly realistic as well, more like sci-fantasy
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i need a TL bookmark for this thread :D.
yes i can do it in my browser too but thats already bloated as hell >.>
I <3 the farseer trilogy more than wheel of time. Wheel of time was a blast early on, but it got too convoluted and dragged out. Farseer managed to weave magic into daily life, but still keep it "real". Plus i love the way events play out in the end, it feels the most lifelike of all other fantasy i've read.
That said, will ahve to check out The King Killer Chronicle and Song of Ice/Fire
To add:
Imo Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead deserve a mention. I think those two books serve as the goalpost marker's of the author's width of writing. The rest of the saga is interesting if you like his style, but those two stood out the most. Pardon me if the thread is only dedicated to Fantasy and doesn't include space stuff.
Edding's books are nice and standard, but it lacks the depth of other fantasy novels. Loved his books as a kid, but his series never stood out ontop of the other sci fi's i've read.
The Underdark drizzit/dragon lance stuff is also good backbone/standard stuff. But, like Edding's, I'd have to say its rather lackluster when put against other fantasy epics. It would be like watching a 4000 Zerg play on ladder/TL stream, and then watching Jaedong. The ladder zerg is good and solid, but Jaedong makes you jawdrop.
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I don't think anyone has mentioned The Rune Lords yet:
The Runelords is a fantasy series by author David Farland. In the universe of The Runelords, there exists a unique magical system which relies on the existence of distinct bodily attributes, such as brawn, grace, and wit. These attributes can be transferred from one individual (or animal) to another in a process known as "giving an endowment". Lords who have taken many endowments become extremely powerful, almost superhuman, and are known as Runelords.
The series can't compete with WoT or SoIaF, but the rune system is interesting and refreshing. I enjoyed it quite a bit 5 or 6 years ago when I first read it, not sure how it has stood the test of time.
Also..... A Dance with Dragons will be released on July 12, 2011 [hopefully!].
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On April 08 2011 19:36 sjh wrote:
Also..... A Dance with Dragons will be released on July 12, 2011 [hopefully!].
Oh my god, you just made my day.
:D :D :D :D
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On the fantasy site I love Terry Pratchett when I need a laugh. Fun and entertaining fantasy satire. Just love it. My favorite sci-fi piece is the (original) Dune novels. It good it's own unique style to it.
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EPT
