Favourite Fantasy Books

Ronagig

My top series are:
David Eddings Series based on Belgarion (loved the round up books based on Polgara & Belgaraths points of view)
Katherine Kerrs series based on Nevyn and the reincarnated lives of others Great read.
Tolkien makes it to the list (of course ) but I really liked reading the Silmarillion & Tom Bombadil always tweaked my interest.
Stephen Donaldson - The Chronicals of thomas Covenant
Have tried to read the Dark Tower Series by Stephen king, just can't seem to get my teeth into it, must try again.
The awakeners - Sheri S Tepper

What's your top fantasy reads?

jamezy

I thought Brandon Sanderson's "The Way of Kings" was a cracking read. Loved his Mistborn books too.

Love (almost) all the Wheel of Time books too.

keane2097

Malazan Book of the Fallen is superb, as is Glen Cook's Black Company.

Temptamperu

Malazan Book of the Fallen.
The Way of Kings.
the Wheel of Time.
A song of fire and ice.
The Dark Tower.

Ronagig

Thanks everyone, there are some books here I'll be chasing up to read!!!

Katharine Kerr
Kate Elliott
Robin Hobb
^ any of their books
Wheel of time
Love Sanderson's own stuff
Name of the Wind is brilliant as well
Magician

Hacuna Matata

The Deathstalker series.

Swampy

Magician
All the rift war saga really.

Raif Severance

Ronagig wrote: »

My top series are:
David Eddings Series based on Belgarion (loved the round up books based on Polgara & Belgaraths points of view)
Katherine Kerrs series based on Nevyn and the reincarnated lives of others Great read.
Tolkien makes it to the list (of course ) but I really liked reading the Silmarillion & Tom Bombadil always tweaked my interest.
Stephen Donaldson - The Chronicals of thomas Covenant
Have tried to read the Dark Tower Series by Stephen king, just can't seem to get my teeth into it, must try again.
The awakeners - Sheri S Tepper

What's your top fantasy reads?

You like Eddings? Then you'll take to Modesitt, just fine. So go here!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056795927

Same readability and spirit of adventure you'd find in Eddings' work, you'll find them in Modesitt's. I recommend reading The Recluce Saga, The Imager Portfolio, and The Corean Chronicles.

If you miss the easy banter and wit of Eddings' characters then I suggest you try Lois McMaster Bujold's The Vorkosigan Saga. Miles and his twin brother Mark will remind you of Silk and Belgarath. Yes, this series is actually Sci-fi, but it's campy and action-packed.

And as someone who cut his teeth into Eddings, I'll reiterate Swampy's recommendation about Feist's Riftwar Saga. It was the next series I consumed after Tamuli.

pagete2

I loved the Death Gate Cycle by Weiss and Hickman, they're really enjoyable and entertaining. Also, A Song of Ice and Fire is brilliant, just for the amazing character development alone! I agree with Ronagig, I didn't enjoy Stephen King's Dark Tower books, he's much better at the horror stuff imo!

mrwhimwham

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks is another cracker of a fantasy novel. A fresh new concept at the fantasy genre in my opinion

Wabbit Ears

Yea, I liked the two prism books so far and will be getting the rest as they come out.

gufnork

'The Chronicles of Gor' by John Norman. I'll never look at Mrs gufnork in quite the same way again. Your a God to me Mr Norman, a God, d'you hear? ;0D

WindmillWarrior

Read ASOI&F and really loved it.
Read the first one and a half books of the Malazan series and had to stop. Enjoyed parts of it but there was just way too much heavy magic and deus ex machina for my liking. They are pretty much the only 2 fantasy series I've tried. Any recommendations on Fantasy series that are a bit more real (if thats a word you can use in this subject!) like ASOI&F?

Raif Severance

WindmillWarrior wrote: »

Read ASOI&F and really loved it.
Read the first one and a half books of the Malazan series and had to stop. Enjoyed parts of it but there was just way too much heavy magic and deus ex machina for my liking. They are pretty much the only 2 fantasy series I've tried. Any recommendations on Fantasy series that are a bit more real (if thats a word you can use in this subject!) like ASOI&F?

Sword of Shadows Novels by JV Jones. The closest thing to ASOI&F out there.

Drenai Series by David Gemmell. Heroic Fantasy with very little Magic.

Durand Col Series by David Keck. You know John McClane, the protagonist of the Die Hard Movies? Well, Durand Col is his Fantasy Counterpart. Non-stop Action starring a Hero that seems to be powered by the Energizer Bunny.

But if you want Real as in really, really, REAL. Then try any of KJ PARKER's Novels. It's hard to describe her works. The only thing that can be called Fantasy in her books are the Settings. Everything else is as real as you can get. Be warned though, KJ Parker tends to be prosy and too detailed in her description, so her books are not easy to read. And I must say, some of her works can be classified as DISTURBING. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but if you like reading books where nothing is black and white and the only way you can tell one is good when he/she has less dirt in them, then KJ's are the ones for you.


Guy Gavriel Kay is another Fantasy Writer whose novels are based on their real-life equivalents.
Tigana- Sublime and Powerful. Though there is Magic here, the application is not as heavy-handed as in Erikson's. Set in a Fantasy version of Medieval Italy.
A Song for Arbonne- Think Albigensian Crusade.
The Lions of Al-Rassan- Spanish Christians vs the Moors.
The Sarantine Mosaic- Constantinopole in its last days
The Last Light of the Sun- Vikings

WindmillWarrior

Wow, plenty to be going on with there!

Thanks very much

Martonio

I liked David Eddings books. Great story.
I started reading a few Gemmel books but to be honest they're all the same. Nothing exciting. They're books to take on holiday and forget when you finish it except for the Rigante series. They were pretty good.
When I was younger I loved the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist, such a great series of books. Pug rocks.
A song of Ice and Fire without a doubt. I agree about the dark tower, it is a series that I'd love to get into and I have read the first 2 or 3 books but gave up. So many books so little time.
Tolkien will never make it on my list of favourite authors. Bloody terrible books, great movies though.

Peetrik

Empire Trilogy - Feist
Wheel of time series - Jordan
Dark tower series - King
Otherland series - Williams
Night angel series -Weeks
The Stand - King

+1 on the Black Prism by Weeks. Great read, very original. Also loved 'the passage' by Cronin although it's more post apocalyptic fantasy than heroic fantasy.

Branoic

Brent Week's Night Angel trilogy (written before the 'prism' books) is also fantastic and I prefer it to the prism books. Durzo Blint is a great character.

Thargor

Any point in starting the Black Prism series with 2 more books to come or do they stand on their own?

ZiabR

99% or Raymond E Feist books. Amazing.

astonaidan

Lord Of The Rings would be my favourite, re-read them once a year

Besides them

• Wheel Of Time (I understand why its not for everyone)
• King Killer Chronicles (Come on third book :mad:)
• A Song Of Ice & Fire
• Harry Potter

Sephiroth_dude

astonaidan wrote: »

[*]King Killer Chronicles (Come on third book :mad:)

+1 nearly finished book 2,any idea when book 3 will come out?

EGriff

WindmillWarrior wrote: »

Read the first one and a half books of the Malazan series and had to stop. Enjoyed parts of it but there was just way too much heavy magic and deus ex machina for my liking.

I loved that about these books, the heavy magic, mysterious alien races, not knowing what the hell was going on half the time. What I didn't like was the long treks with (way too many) fairly boring soldier characters.

They are heavy going though and ten long books is a bit much, quality dipped a bit too towards the end of the series. Overall I though it was a bit better than Wheel of Time which I loved the first 3 or 4 books of but the dip in quality was much worse, until it picked up again for an ok ending.

iPink

Ah my favourite topic!

Anything by JRR Tolkien
Anything by Feist & other riftwar stuff (daughter of the empire etc)
The Wheel of Time series - actually just finished the last book & cried. .. felt like I'd lost a good friend... What now? !
Song of Fire & Ice... hard going & so many characters to remember but loved them
I loved all the Belgariad books etc when I was younger as The Chronicles of Narnia
His Dark Materials was excellent
The Painted Man etc but still waiting for the next one
Loved The Gun Slinger etc series but can understand is hard to get into & understand! !
Loved Thomas Covenant years ago but tried to re read & couldn't!
The Avalon series

So many more I can't remember now! !

iPink

Ah my favourite topic!

Anything by JRR Tolkien
Anything by Feist & other riftwar stuff (daughter of the empire etc)
The Wheel of Time series - actually just finished the last book & cried. .. felt like I'd lost a good friend... What now? !
Song of Fire & Ice... hard going & so many characters to remember but loved them
I loved all the Belgariad books etc when I was younger as The Chronicles of Narnia
His Dark Materials was excellent
The Painted Man etc but still waiting for the next one
Loved The Gun Slinger etc series but can understand is hard to get into & understand! !
Loved Thomas Covenant years ago but tried to re read & couldn't!
The Avalon series

So many more I can't remember now! !

WillyFXP

Alanons Beard! No one has mentioned Terry Brooks!
Shannara books are excellent.

Also Brian Lumley, Necroscope series, not mentioned either!

Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz also worth a read.

Conall Cernach

No discussion about fantasy books is complete without mentioning Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, particularly The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga. His use of language and dialogue is second to none.
"The creature displayed the qualities reminiscent of both coelenterate and echinoderm. A terrene nudibranch? A mollusc deprived of its shell? More importantly, was the creature edible?"

Vance's magic system was lifted for Dungeon's & Dragons which in itself propagated a boom in fantasy literature.

Other essentials include Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun and Julian May's Saga of the Exiles. Both of these mix fantasy and sci-fi to great effect. Wolfe's Urth is a far distant Earth where technology has regressed to a medieval type society for most of the people with a small elite retaining energy weapons, flying machines etc. May's Many Coloured Land is an Earth 6 million years in the past where 22nd century time travellers find themselves face to face with exiled aliens who eschew technology in favour of a battle religion and psionic powers.

I would also recommend Robert E Howard's Conan series though it is very much of it's time (1930s) and some of Howard's racial ideas jar somewhat. Add to the list Michael Moorcock's Elric books but I really only enjoy the early stuff from the 50s, 60s and early 70s. If you are a fan of Eddings, but even if you are not, I would also recommend Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain which are about an assistant pig keeper. They are an easy read and mix myth and fast paced story telling very well.

FanMahBrow

I second Conall's recommendation of Jack Vance (his writing career spanned from 1945 right up to a few years ago... the Dying Earth series is outstanding and I remember falling out of bed laughing at Cugel's Saga.) Pure Fantasy buffs will enjoy the Lyonesse trilogy (winner of World Fantasy Award), SciFi heads the Demon Princes or Alastor series.

While I'm here, let me mention Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates and The Drawing of the Dark are excellent.
Another forgotten author worth looking up is John Wyndham (Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes, Chrysalids - all more SF than fantasy, all published before 1955.) I thought they'd be dated when I re-read them recently, but they were still as enjoyable as when I first read them 30 - or more - years ago.

Some SF/Fantasy stuff I've read recently whose authors I'll definitely be looking out for:

Culture series by the late Iain M. Banks
Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding
Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch

Could we interest you in J.G. Ballard at all? Try The Terminal Beach short story collection (1964), I really enjoyed it.

Hmm, some of my recommendations might appear a bit old-skool, but they're worth a look anyway!

mitosis

Book of Swords series - Fred Saberhagen
Riverworld Series and the World of Tiers by Farmer
The Elric, Hawkmoon and Corum books of Moorcock
Lovecraft
Incarnations of Immortality series - Piers Anthony