Recommend me some fantasy...

Squall Leonhart

Borrowing a title from another thread and tweaking it a bit, can anybody recommend me some fantasy?

I've read and (mostly) enjoyed books by

-David Gemmell (mostly the Druss books, easy reading but entertaining, but also a good few other titles by him)
-Terry Brooks (dipped in and out of the Shannara series)
-Terry Goodkind (have read full Sword of Truth series, last few were a bit tiresome but overall series wasn't bad)
-Tolkien (LoTR, Children of Hurin, Hobbit)

Have my kindle up and running and hoping to get into a good book or two.
Open to all suggestions, can people maybe give a quick synopsis (without spoilers obv!) with their suggestions?

Nody

Well Belgarion series (12 books) and Sparhaw (six books) by Eddings would come to mind for completed series at the level of Gemmell and far less political than Goodkind but offer good standard fantasy that is positive; if you want to go dark side of fantasy you have The Prince Of Thorns or The Nightwatch series. For ongoing series and taking plot twists to the next level there's Game of Thrones, The name of the wind and Lies Of Locke Lamora but none of the series are complete yet so you'd have to wait for books.

ForstalDave

Raymond E Feistt first book magician good book start of a series but works on its own.

Brandon Sanderson Mistoborn/Storm light archive are excellent series and he has many short and stand alone stories i have enjoyed everything iv read of his even the young adult stuff

Kirsten Britain Green Rider series Female hero story is good gets a bit teeny at times but the story is good enough that you wont mind

Anthony Ryan Blood Song is the first book in the trilogy excelent book trilogy suffers for it though as they other two while good dont compare to the first


I suck at synopsis so il forgo subjecting you to my poor writing

Squall Leonhart

Thanks guys, will refer back to your suggestions as I go on over time!

Quick question Nody, what in your view is "standard fantasy that is positive" and "dark side of fantasy"? i.e., what kind of subject matters are we talking about here and are there recurring elements in one versus the other etc?

Nody

Squall Leonhart wrote: »

Quick question Nody, what in your view is "standard fantasy that is positive" and "dark side of fantasy"? i.e., what kind of subject matters are we talking about here and are there recurring elements in one versus the other etc?

Positive in this case would be similar to Goodkind or Tolkien, yes there are losses but the ending overall is a positive note, the world survived along with the main heroes who get their due reward and the hero is a just person who's doing the right things because they are right with some jokes thrown in there. Think of Richard in Goodkind; always doing the right thing no matter the cost and of course the ending of it all...

Now talking dark fantasy the main character may be sadistic or a rapist or having no issues with doing a low blow hit on the enemy to get an advantage (think the stabbing in Gladiator before the final fight). The world itself is not going to end on a positive note of "and the lived happily ever after" so to speak as the hero often is an anti hero such as Malus Darkblade if using Warhammer world as a reference and often will kill friends around them.

shrapnel222

Neil Gaiman: american gods (modern fantasy, ie set in our world)

Patrick Rothfuss: the name of the wind

Roger Zelazny: Amber series

Guy Gavriel Kay: writes some brilliant fantasy. They're all pretty much stand alone or 2 volumes. Start with Tigana

Squall Leonhart

Nody wrote: »

Think of Richard in Goodkind; always doing the right thing no matter the cost and of course the ending of it all...

This is something that actually began to grate on me with the SoT series, Richard felt very one dimensional. A character that was 'doing the right thing' personified. Some of the political stuff was fine at first as well but got very repetitive over the 12 books.

I downloaded Prince of Tears last night and will give it a shot!

Squall Leonhart

shrapnel222 wrote: »

Neil Gaiman: american gods (modern fantasy, ie set in our world)

Patrick Rothfuss: the name of the wind

Roger Zelazny: Amber series

Guy Gavriel Kay: writes some brilliant fantasy. They're all pretty much stand alone or 2 volumes. Start with Tigana

Thanks Shrapnel.

Question about "modern fantasy", what differentiates it from Sci-Fi?

shrapnel222

Squall Leonhart wrote: »

Thanks Shrapnel.

Question about "modern fantasy", what differentiates it from Sci-Fi?

gods, mythical creatures, magic, etc.

Squall Leonhart

Cool, I (wrongly!) always associate things set in modern world with science fiction.

nuttyboy79

All that have been mentioned that I've read are well worth a go (Feist, Eddings, Gaiman). I'd throw Robin Hobbs Farseer series into the mix. Good characters you can really connect with, the main one Fitz is similar to Richard in SoT, but the books don't feel as laboured towards the end.

Nody

Squall Leonhart wrote: »

This is something that actually began to grate on me with the SoT series, Richard felt very one dimensional. A character that was 'doing the right thing' personified. Some of the political stuff was fine at first as well but got very repetitive over the 12 books.

I downloaded Prince of Tears last night and will give it a shot!

Well Richard is an extreme case later because the author became a tad unhinged by the 911 event (which shows in his books writing trying to prove that capitalism is always right) but even looking back at the first two books and you get the general idea. A positive fantasy novel has a hero who does the right things; a bad guy who does evil things in general and you can quite easily identify them.

seagull

Add LE Modesitt into the mix as well, except avoid the Soprano Sorceress series.

Give Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay a try

Fian

Noone has mentioned the glaringly obvious:

A song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin. You are unlikely to have more than 10 years to wait for the conclusion of the series at this point.

Aside from that I would just echo the recommendations for Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson. Throw in some Joe Abercrombie as well.

then is you want some more heavy/dense fantasy - Steven Erikson (Malazan)

Nody

Fian wrote: »

Noone has mentioned the glaringly obvious:

A song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin. You are unlikely to have more than 10 years to wait for the conclusion of the series at this point.

Nody wrote: »

For ongoing series and taking plot twists to the next level there's Game of Thrones, The name of the wind and Lies Of Locke Lamora but none of the series are complete yet so you'd have to wait for books.

Adventagious

Have to echo Raymond E Feist as a recommendation...he has a huge catalogue and pretty much all of it is worth reading, if you can do it in chronological order all the better.

It's a cut above your standard meat-and-potatoes fantasy, that bit smarter and the world is well fleshed out. Gets dark regularly but it's easy to get behind the heroes/heroines and their motivations.

I'd choose the Riftwar Saga and Serpentwar Saga for a start if you're not ready to commit to buying about 30 books straight up.

Same for Neil Gaiman, very inventive and an excellent author.

Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastard series is smart and lot of fun too.

Seen a few people mention Ursula Le Guin on this forum too, her Earthsea series is classic.

Oh and everything Terry Pratchett ever wrote. Read multiple times.

keane2097

Definitely don't buy 30 Feist books. The two series mentioned above are good but have aged pretty badly. There are some major issues with them on re-reading. Definitely give Riftwar a spin and dip your toe in the rest if you like that.

For me, Erikson is the master of the genre but a lot of people find him a bit of a slog. If you want a lighter introduction to the sort of style he employs (no spoonfeeding of exposition, you need to pay attention), try some of the Black Company books by Glen Cook which are great.

As Shrap mentioned above, the Amber series is just tops. It's almost like a hardboiled noir detective novel at the start that evolves into something on a much grander scale. The main character, Corwin, is one of my all time favourites. Some great lines in it too.

Also an honourable mention for China Mieville. Not your typical fantasy but anything I've read by him has been very interesting. I thought Perdido Street Station was great.

Adventagious

keane2097 wrote: »

Definitely don't buy 30 Feist books. The two series mentioned above are good but have aged pretty badly. There are some major issues with them on re-reading. Definitely give Riftwar a spin and dip your toe in the rest if you like that.

Fair point, has been about 10 years since i read Feist and i may have rose-tinted glasses on.

shrapnel222

keane2097 wrote: »

Definitely don't buy 30 Feist books. The two series mentioned above are good but have aged pretty badly. There are some major issues with them on re-reading. Definitely give Riftwar a spin and dip your toe in the rest if you like that.

For me, Erikson is the master of the genre but a lot of people find him a bit of a slog. If you want a lighter introduction to the sort of style he employs (no spoonfeeding of exposition, you need to pay attention), try some of the Black Company books by Glen Cook which are great.

As Shrap mentioned above, the Amber series is just tops. It's almost like a hardboiled noir detective novel at the start that evolves into something on a much grander scale. The main character, Corwin, is one of my all time favourites. Some great lines in it too.

Also an honourable mention for China Mieville. Not your typical fantasy but anything I've read by him has been very interesting. I thought Perdido Street Station was great.

re Feist, i recently reread the daughter of the empire trilogy which he co wrote with Wurtz and takes place on Kelewan on the other side of the rift, and it was still a gread read tbh.

Magician is a fantastic book, but it does go down from there imo. The first trilogy is worth the read. stop there.

ForstalDave

shrapnel222 wrote: »

re Feist, i recently reread the daughter of the empire trilogy which he co wrote with Wurtz and takes place on Kelewan on the other side of the rift, and it was still a gread read tbh.

Magician is a fantastic book, but it does go down from there imo. The first trilogy is worth the read. stop there.

Magician was the first book i ever read(im dyslexic so was difficult) and the story is still strong but he really did get worse as he went on,I hate saying it but his last book was trash he should have stopped long ago

seagull

My favourite sub-series by Feist was the Daughter/Mistress/Servant of the empire, but you needed to have read Magician to fully understand the background. I was disappointed with the last few books.

I'd say start off with Magician, Silverthorn, and Darkness at Sethanon, and then read the Daughter trilogy, and then decide if you want to keep going.

Kiith

Any new fantasy novels/series worth reading? I'll have a 2 hour commute every day starting soon, and want to get a few books for the kindle that will keep me entertained. Will be finishing off the Wheel of Time, Malazan and Fitz series, but would like some new ones as well.

Nody

Kiith wrote: »

Any new fantasy novels/series worth reading? I'll have a 2 hour commute every day starting soon, and want to get a few books for the kindle that will keep me entertained. Will be finishing off the Wheel of Time, Malazan and Fitz series, but would like some new ones as well.

How about going old school with Dune and the newer books (not as good but helps build up the world further)? That's the route I've taken with reading all the prequal books and then into Dune from start to finish again.

Kiith

Kiith wrote: »

Any new fantasy novels/series worth reading? I'll have a 2 hour commute every day starting soon, and want to get a few books for the kindle that will keep me entertained. Will be finishing off the Wheel of Time, Malazan and Fitz series, but would like some new ones as well.

Brent Weeks lightbringer series
the Nightblade ones by ryan kirk aren't bad
I liked the paper magician series for light reading and the ideas in it were wonderful though it tended to get very drawn out
Kingfountain series


I don't know how *new* they are but some are still in progress anyway

fizzypish

Kiith wrote: »

Any new fantasy novels/series worth reading? I'll have a 2 hour commute every day starting soon, and want to get a few books for the kindle that will keep me entertained. Will be finishing off the Wheel of Time, Malazan and Fitz series, but would like some new ones as well.

Ok, I'm bumping an ancient post but how in the name of Jesus are you reading 3 series simultaneously (did you achieve it?)? Don't know Fitz series but the other 2 require attention or you start forgetting characters and plots? Are you some kind of savant?

Need to find myself a new read too. I am not starting another epic series. Maybe a 3 booker at most. Read the malazan series followed by WoT back to back. Took the bones of 2 years (probably more).

ForstalDave

Try Raven's Shadow series by Anthony Ryan, first book is great the others are not as good but still worth reading the trilogy

smacl

fizzypish wrote: »

Need to find myself a new read too. I am not starting another epic series. Maybe a 3 booker at most.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and love most of NK Jemisins stuff. China Mieville's Bas Lag books are also excellent (Perdido street station, The scar, Iron Council) though more steampunk than conventional fantasy.