Recommend Fantasy books

[Edcculus]

Thanks for all of the suggestions guys! I think I'm going to pick up the first of the books in Scot Lynch's "Gentlemen Bastards" series called The Lies of Locke Lamora". Sounds like a fun series. Con artists, fantasy...what could be better?

 

[Landri]

Dune... the whole saga..

 

[CptBlueBear]

Most of my fantasy and science fiction went a few years ago in a massive clean out of ratty old paperbacks. Your list is a good start. I'll add:

Terry Pratchett: the other half that wrote Good Omens. If you like comedy with a touch of social commentary, start on his Discworld series. He was cranking them out at the rate of two a year at one point, but they are still funny and original. Don't be put off by the 30-odd titles, most are completely stand alone stories just set in the same world.

Roger Zelazny: one of the grand old men of the genre. Pick up the Amber series, I believe its been collected in a single volume, otherwise the individual paperbacks can be had very cheap second hand.

Robert Holdstock: Mythago Wood and all its spinoffs, plus the Merlin Codex

Jack Vance: another grand old man, try Lyonesse.

Tim Powers: The Drawing of the Dark, The Anubis Gates, Last Call and it's sequels. He has some interesting left field takes on folk law and history.

Michael Scott Rown: Winter of the World series.

I'm sure I'll think of more later...

 

[Arcadies]

Well, skipping what you've listed you already read I can recommend...

Series - Author

Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
The Death Gate Cycle - Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman
The Dark Tower - Stephen King (many consider #1 a boring read but the rest are great)
Xanth Series - Piers Anthony (silly as hell but fun)
Chronicles of the Shadow War - Chris Claremont/George Lucas (excellent continuation of the Willow storyline)
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

I can go on and on but I'll leave it at that.

 

[oldtree]

Dennis L. McKiernan is about as close to J.R.R. Tolken as it gets, any of his books are good.

 

[acesn8s]

+1 on Terry Goodking - Sword of Truth .. I guess this is out coz you said no huge series .. But I must say I LOVED EM (I've also read the Robert Jordan's - Wheel of time - and there was a talk that one is a copy cat to the other .. but If that's the case almost every fantasy is copy to another (magic dragons etc .. and I did prefer Terry's writing to Robert's (he got me almost dropping the books at times))

I remember when Jordan accused Goodkind of plagiarizing The Wheel of Time series. That was a nice little InterWebz flame war.

 

[auk1124]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, Book 1 of the Malazan series. So far I'm finding it difficult to stay focused. A bazillion characters, all vaguely in conflict with one another, all vaguely aligned with one or more factions within factions within factions, far too many of them with very vaguely defined and described magical superpowers.

Seriously, every other character in this opening volume is some sort of semi-omnipotent godling or super-wizard, and the bulk of the book seems to be nothing more than a desciption of the utterly exhausting political/military intrigue between all of these uber-powerful figures.

So far the book kinda reminds me of going to a Star Wars movie expecting to see light saber fights, and instead getting two hours of political maneuvering in the Galactic Senate.

 

[Thu'umhammer]

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

 

[Hunter]

Dune... the whole saga..

I love Dune, though some of the later books that he wrote were hard to get through, namely God Emperor of Dune...

 

[acesn8s]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, Book 1 of the Malazan series. So far I'm finding it difficult to stay focused. A bazillion characters, all vaguely in conflict with one another, all vaguely aligned with one or more factions within factions within factions, far too many of them with very vaguely defined and described magical superpowers.

Seriously, every other character in this opening volume is some sort of semi-omnipotent godling or super-wizard, and the bulk of the book seems to be nothing more than a desciption of the utterly exhausting political/military intrigue between all of these uber-powerful figures.

So far the book kinda reminds me of going to a Star Wars movie expecting to see light saber fights, and instead getting two hours of political maneuvering in the Galactic Senate.

Malazan Book of the Fallen (MBotF) is a challenging read. Tons of characters, no defined pecking order (i.e., you don't really know who is best at what), and the author slow plays his info dumps about the world. It's more of a steak dinner for the mind than lite brain candy. If you can stick with it you will be rewarded with an epic plot and some of the best world building you have ever read. Use the glossary and list of characters in the beginning of the books to help keep track of what is going on. Check out the Malazan Empire forums for some in depth discussion on the books.

 

[rider4life]

I agree with most of the books posted above (and have read the majority of them as well). Here are a few that you may enjoy based on what you've previously read:

Pure Fantasy -

R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden series. Start with Homeland and call me in 10 years when you've caught up. I *think* he's sitting at 30+ books written over a like amount of years. It's been an amazing journey seeing him grow as an author and personally growing with his characters. Plus he's an awesome guy and always willing to give advice if you just ask. Salvatore is the first author to ever make me cry. And I don't mean just get misty, I mean I genuinely BAWLED LIKE A CHILD. He's actually done that to me four times now - twice in the Drizzt series, once in the Clerical Quintet (this one wasn't a real bawling, more misty with a couple loose tears) and once in his Star Wars book. That last one made me want to hate him. I couldn't believe what he'd done and actually held a grudge against him for a while. When I finally got to meet him with the intent of asking him *** someone beat me to the punch and he explained what happened. Then I just felt like an *** and actually felt bad for him. Anyone who has read the book knows the part I'm referring to and just in case you didn't know LucasArts told him that was the point of his book. He could do it whatever way he wanted but it HAD to happen. They chose him specifically for the task as they thought he could handle the negativity that would be associated with it.

New Fantasy -

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy. I picked this up as I heard he had been given the task of completing the WoT series. I wanted to see how good of an author he actually was before allowing myself to buy any more WoT books. I was shocked and impressed. I won't say anything else here as it will give spoilers.

Brent Weeks' The Night Angel Trilogy. The first book is a bit difficult at times as there are some chapters that are all of a sudden in the future. Thankfully he doesn't go backward in time at all, just jumps forward in leaps. Once through those slightly rough spots it's a great read and again, this is only in the first book that the time-jumps happen.

Heroic Fantasy -

David Gemmell's Druss books. Start with the first one, Legend. The best thing about Gemmell's books is that his characters are real, flawed, relatable people. Druss is a perfect example - he's an old drunk. Gemmell also wrote this book to honour his father and his battle with cancer. Druss is his father and the cancer he dealt with is the invading army. I found this out afterward and had read a bunch of other books by this time. I went back and re-read Legend (I had enjoyed it the first time and do enjoy re-reading my books) and knowing the symbolism and the meaning behind things actually brought a whole new level of connection with his characters, both the protagonists and even the antagonists. Definitely a very strong read.

High Fantasy -

George R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series. I know it's been recommended already but I felt like I needed to reiterate that it is a fantastic read. Just don't get attached to any characters...

I have lots more books, both fantasy and sci-fi, if you need more recommendations. I have over 1000 physical books (no that's not an exaggeration) and probably close to 2000 e-books. I read a LOT, typically a book every couple days. I've been known to finish a 400-600page book in a little under 8 hrs...

Good luck with your reading!

Cheers,

M.

 

[Landri]

I love Dune, though some of the later books that he wrote were hard to get through, namely God Emperor of Dune...

True.. also the last books written by Frank Hebert's son are not so good.
Another author to look up is Jorge Luis Borges.

 

[auk1124]

Malazan Book of the Fallen (MBotF) is a challenging read. Tons of characters, no defined pecking order (i.e., you don't really know who is best at what), and the author slow plays his info dumps about the world. It's more of a steak dinner for the mind than lite brain candy. If you can stick with it you will be rewarded with an epic plot and some of the best world building you have ever read. Use the glossary and list of characters in the beginning of the books to help keep track of what is going on. Check out the Malazan Empire forums for some in depth discussion on the books.

Well, I stuck it out. Last 100 pages or so of Book 1 were good enough to make me take a chance on Book 2, which I thought was great. Now I'm on Book 3. So for now anyway it looks like I'm hooked.

Most of the time these multi-volume fantasy series start strong and then weaken. Erikson's series is unusual, it starts out weak but seems to get much better pretty quickly.
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[acesn8s]

Well, I stuck it out. Last 100 pages or so of Book 1 were good enough to make me take a chance on Book 2, which I thought was great. Now I'm on Book 3. So for now anyway it looks like I'm hooked.

Most of the time these multi-volume fantasy series start strong and then weaken. Erikson's series is unusual, it starts out weak but seems to get much better pretty quickly.
.

I loved Coltaine.

Memories of Ice's takes place at the same time as Deadhouse Gates. It's a pretty good story too.

I loved Midnight Tides. I think it was during that book that I really got an idea how deep the rabbit hole was.