Best Fantasy Trilogy/series/Book?

jongore

O.K. my top 3
Magician/Rift War trilology - Feist (Best books ever)
Guards series - Pratchett (Side splitting)
Belgariad - Eddings (It was my first series and got me interested in the genre)

Although LOTR was O.K a lot of it was doggeral (I won't call it poetry) and the story had either huge gaps or too much discription.

And as for Jordan and the WOT, the first few books were good but the last few are cr@p and have tarnished the whole collection.:mad:

Scruff

Originally posted by Cable
For those of you who love a great read and think lotr was the best fantasy trilogy ever try reading Robert Jordans Wheel of Time colllection spanning i think 11 books.....
its an amazing read
the critics describe it as :

"Jordan opens us up to the world Tolken started"

No its not.

Critics also describe it as:
"Unlike Tolkein, Jordan doesnt actually manage to finish his story, or have it progress in any logical manner that maintains the stories monentum while keeping the reader glued to the pages. What startes out so magnificantly has become the literary equivalent of urban sprawl that surrounds a vibrant, original city center but which eventually petters out and gets lots in the wilderness that is mediocrity."

im telling ye, pick up a copy. the first chapter is though to get into, but once you get into it you'l just wnat to know what happens next

The first 6 or seven books are great it the rest after that that are tough to get through cause they're crap. DOnt start this series if you want to be bitterly disappointed.

jonjore, you've obviously never read A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
:horned:

jongore

Originally posted by Scruff

jonjore, you've obviously never read A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.
:horned:

True, but that is something I intend to rectify in the near future, I am currently logging on to Amazon and purchasing the first 3 after reading all the positive press for the books here:D

If they deserve it I will amend my list after I read them (Give me a week or two.:horned: )

Sarky

Recently finished the Dark Elf trilogy, hunting down the Icewind Dale trilogy.

Good books. I wouldn't call them great epics, because the writing style is a little simple, but it reads very well, and the battles are described in excellent detail. Good action book, and the Drow themselves are spot on. Delightfully evil.:)

jongore

Originally posted by jongore
True, but that is something I intend to rectify in the near future, I am currently logging on to Amazon and purchasing the first 3 after reading all the positive press for the books here:D

If they deserve it I will amend my list after I read them (Give me a week or two.:horned: )

O.K. I've read the first two and have started the third, the series is very good and I'm enjoying it but my top 3 remains the same (Sorry Scruff):D

avatar

The Dark Tower books by stephen King. Especially The Gunslinger. They've got this weird spaghetti western/sorcery LOTR meets TG, TB & TU that's just f*king awesome.... does anyone know if the 5th one's out yet?

ixoy

Book 5 - "Wolves of the Calla" - is out 4th of November - i.e. Tuesday! The Dark Tower series is the only thing I can stand by King anymore. It's quite interesting to see how he uses it to interconnect all his works. Some are more overt - "Insomnia" is CLEARLY linked, as is "Salem's Lot" and "The Stand" - but how others are meant to link in too (the idea being there are a series of alternative Americas, which are his books. At the end of "Salem's Lot" the priest wanders into the Waste Lands. "The Talisam" FWIW is another alternative earth).
I'll prolly end up getting book 5 - and check out Amazon who have 50% off on the hardcover.

Commissar

50% off sounds sweet. I don't often buy books over the internet but after seeing book 5 for E33 I think I'll make an exception. I just bought book 4 and can't wait to start it.

There's quite a few people talking about Stephen Donaldson and his Thomas Covenant series but has anybody read his Mordant's Need books: Mirror of her Dreams and A Man Rides Through. It's been a while but I remember them as being brilliant.

sweep_101

Lord of the rings number one
Magician Trilogy by Raymond E. Feist...just fantastic though the conclve of shadows could rival it

Ameirgin

Trilogy - LOTR , Mercedes Lackey's "Last herald Mage" or Feists "Riftwar Saga"

Series - Julian May's "Saga of the Pliocene Exiles"

WoT would have been here, but it wandered sooo far off the point it's not funny. Ah well.........

greglo23

imho the best fantasy series is The Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster. In sci-fi anything by Robert A Heinlein

fozzle

The Wheel of Time was the first fantasy I ever read so I do have a soft spot for it. Loved the first half dozen books, then it slowed a bit, but I didn't mind, I was waiting for the build up to the finale. Got Book 9 in hardback and was dissapointed, but I thought he'd do better next time round. He didn't. I was stupid enough to get book 10 in hardback too and I can tell you, he won't get that kind of money out of me again. I just don't see how he's going to finish the series in less than two books, at a push. I still read the early ones though.

Magician was definately the best fantasy book I've read though, even without Silverthorn and A Darkness At Sethanon. Incidentaly, I have a copy of Magician:Apprentice from when it was split in two has anyone seen a copy of Magician:Master anywhere in the country, as I've tried every second-hand shop I can find in Waterford, Galway, Cork, Kilkenny and Toronto.

Kiith

Malazan books of the Fallen by Steven Erikkson. Absolutly brilliant. Book One and two were excellent, but book 3, Memories of Ice, was without a doubt the best book i've ever read. Book 4 was also great and book 5 is coming out in march. can't wait.

ixoy

Originally posted by Kiith
Malazan books of the Fallen by Steven Erikkson. Absolutly brilliant. Book One and two were excellent, but book 3, Memories of Ice, was without a doubt the best book i've ever read. Book 4 was also great and book 5 is coming out in march. can't wait.

*Hugs you* FINALLY someone else reads them! They rock! Anomander Rake - I want that sword, Dragnipur. And don't get me started on Quick Ben...

Apparently, the books aren't going to be released in the States 'coz they're too complicated for them

Kiith

ixoy, go to www.malazan.com and look at all the stuff you missed in the books. i've read them three times now and still missed loads of it.

and yes Rake is the coolest character ever. except for maybe Icarium, of Fiddler, or Paran, The Rope, Quick Ben, The hounds of shadow...well i'm off to read them again.

moridin

Meh, paran sux0rs, I'll stick with quick ben or rake thanks

or Tool.

or Icarum or Coltaine.

Agh, there are just too many brilliant characters to mention.

ixoy

Originally posted by moridin
Meh, paran sux0rs, I'll stick with quick ben or rake thanks

or Tool.

or Icarum or Coltaine.

Agh, there are just too many brilliant characters to mention.

Indeedy. Coltaine: Hard as fcuking NAILS.

ionapaul

Wow, what a great thread! Reminding me of all the amazing adventures I had in my head while I was a teenager - although I don't really read any fantasy or sci-fi anymore (now mainly popular science or modern classics), I have all the old books hanging around and will definitely have to read some of them again!

My favourites:
1: Williams' Dragonbone Chair Series - really excellent stuff. Though the middle book is the weak link in my opinion, the final book was probably my favourite fantasy read of all time. William's Otherland series is great too, and he seems a really cool guy, I emailed him once and got a reply the next day! Sweet.
2: Feist & Wurts' Empire Series - I remember forcing myself to only read one chapter a night in secondary school, so as to prolong the pleasure! So hard to put down these books as the story got more exciting.
3: Feist's Magician Series - brilliant, but again the middle book was the weak link the chain.
4: Jordan's Wheel of Time Series - like everyone else, have to qualify my choice here - it was wonderful UNTIL about the 7th book...it is so sad that even die-hard fans are out there (on websites and such) screaming 'PLEASE END IT SOON! KILL OFF EVERYONE!' I remember the sinking feeling when (book 4? 5?) when some of the big bad guys Rand killed off CAME BACK TO LIFE in different forms!!!! WTF! I knew it would never end at that point. Man, I could rant on this for ages.
5: Gemmell's Drenai Series - great stuff again, he knows how to write an exciting story! All of my Gemmell books have disappeared That is why I don't loan out my books anymore...
6: Wies & Hickman's Deathsgate Series - I don't think many have read this 7-book series, but it is great! Easy enough to get into with a great world/s and story. Plus everyone loved the Dragonlance books, as someone earlier said about Raistlin, he was the original 'badass nerd' and was always a god to me!
7: LOTR and all Tolkien work - what can you say, everyone loves Tolkien I think. The Silmarillion means a lot to me.

Never could get into Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow, read the 1st, got the 2nd as a present and have never read it Read one of Gemmell's Alexander books (the 2nd I think) and was very impressed. Read the Elenium but wasn't too impressed. My brother has the Gormenghast trilogy and I would love to read it sometime. As far as sci-fi goes, I enjoyed the Dune Series as much as any fantasy series I think, but only read the first 6 by Frank and nothing at all by his son or the other dude. Will have to pick up those Philip Pullman books, as they look great.

NeoSlicerZ

The Well of Echoes series by Ian Irvine, fantastic
Peter F. Hambilton, Feist, Gemmell, James Barclay, J.V. Jones, Robin Hobb, K.J Parker.. are all very very good writers imho.

bahairy

for short sories.... last defender of camelot by rodger zelazny

murdoc8

one of the best books i ever read has to be michael moorcock's von bek(the tale of
the eternal champion). also i have just got a book by valerio massimo manfredi
called the last legion. it sounds good

RuggieBear

Well my absolute favourite trilogy is Salvatore's darkelf trilogy....homeland, exile and sojurn:) ....actually really like all his earlier stuff...icewind dale and the like.

Been reading the hunter's blade stuff recently and am seriously unimpressed:(

p

hostyle

China Mieville's - though they are not a trilogy as such, more three seperate stories - King Rat, Perdido Street Station and The Scar.

Boro

Originally posted by Kiith
ixoy, go to www.malazan.com and look at all the stuff you missed in the books. i've read them three times now and still missed loads of it.

and yes Rake is the coolest character ever. except for maybe Icarium, of Fiddler, or Paran, The Rope, Quick Ben, The hounds of shadow...well i'm off to read them again.

Hardest char is definitely Karsa Orlong (house of chains). You just gotta love that guy. "May you slay a thousand children". One awesome character.

You know the way that the letter E is the most commonly used letter in the english alphabet, well im betting that 'Pathos' definitely has to be the most used word in the Malazan universe! Its everywhere, pathos here, pathos there....

It just bugs me! Still, apart from that little flaw (ooh.. leaves an opening there for exploitation!) the books are fantastic.

ixoy

Originally posted by Boro
It just bugs me! Still, apart from that little flaw (ooh.. leaves an opening there for exploitation!) the books are fantastic.

Bugs you or BUGGs you I'm already looking forward to "The Bonehunters", whenver it gets released (nevermind the rest like "Toll of the Hounds" and so on). It'll be interesting to see how they incorporate the events of "Midnight Tides" into the insansely massive epic.
I'll agree that Karsa is well hard, given his treatment of

his people's Gods

but he still doesn't have Dragnipur. Now that's a weapon you don't want ever to get on the wrong side of, if you know what I mean.

moridin

Woah woah woah...

There's a reason for Karsa's rejection of the "gods" of the Teblor... that they're not actually gods at all, just renegade t'lan imass spirits that pretended to be gods and by doing so deceived generations of Teblor.

Also, now that Vengence is in the hands of Traveller (Daseem Ultor I bet) given the prophecies about the clash between Vengence and Dragnipur, Rake could be in trouble.

Oh and I hope Korlat's great grandmother makes more of an appearance

Kiith

***Spoilers***


well, we know that Paran is going to have to shatter dragnupir, to release Draconis, so i can't see Daseem/Traveller fighting Rake.

Korlat's grandmother??? who's that. what i really want to see is Kallor(you'll pay you bastard) getting his ass kicked by anyone, more of Paran, a return of icarium, and anything with the rope. or the hounds of shadows. or the remaining five hounds of darkness going after Karsa. that would be cool.

i also like Karsa, but only at the end of house of cahins. he was to much of an angry conanat the start.

finally, the most common word in the malazan books isn't Pathos. it's obviously Chains.

moridin

Answer to korlat question:

When the Crimson Guardsmen go into the warren in Edurland to escape from Trate, they meet a Tiste Andii wraith who shows them the way to go... and in exchange they throw something into the sea for her. The wraith is Sandrukorlat or something, and she says that one of her descendants drank the blood of Tiam after Anomander.

Korlat is soletaken and can veer into a dragon, and the names match

FireFly

Lord of the Rings of course

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

I like the Xanth series by Piers Anthony..maybe a bit redundant at times...but really great books

Circle of Friends and the Circle Opens and The Immortals by Tamora Pierce

Gunslinger series by Stephen King

And for some reason I have an addiction to the Harry Potter books by Jk Rowling

Some books that aren't a series or trilogy but are still good fantasy novels are The eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King and Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Theres probably more but thats mostly my favorites list

dedoublya

Jordan's first books were great because he had a great story. After Book 6, Lord of Chaos it all started going downhill. I think he decided to try and become a better writer, notice that while he has a good story he isn't really that great of a writer. So he thinks if he spends 3 pages describing Aviendha's facial expressions that it'll make him a better writer. But its just not so, i'm afraid. He should have stuck with the old format. He has said that he never took any kind of formal training to become a writer. Its like a student learning descriptive writing for the first time, trying to fit in as many descriptive words as possible, even though it may disrupt the flow of writing.
He's also admitted that starting each story in book 10, Crossroads of Twilight, on the same day was a mistake, as it makes the story very slow. The first few books covered about 2 years, the last 3 or 4 books cover at best 2 months. If you look at a timeline, these books also overlap a great deal. Twilight starts before Winter's Heart even ends. And what the deal with not even discussing the removal of the taint, no one seems to care!
It also seems to run in 3s, Dragon Reborn was great, as was Chaos and to a lesser degree; Winter's Heart. I only hop we don't have to read book 11, only as a means to 12.

Anyway, other stuff, Magician was great, i like Gemmel's stuff, but haven't read the swords of night and day yet, and of course Tolkien, particularly Silmarillion. Were there only 4 Earthsea stories? I read the Quartet and was really dissapointed that it was so short, i'd love to know if there's anything else to it that i can read.