Fantasy Recommendations for the Unenlightened 2

[The Procrastinator]

Adding another wonderful series that doesn't seem to have been mentioned (in this thread) :
The Winter of the World trilogy, by Michael Scott Rohan.
1. The Anvil of Ice, 2. The Forge in the Forest, 3. The Hammer of the Sun

Fantastic series, set in a pre-prehistoric America, about the struggle of the ancient peoples of the west coast (Scandinavian/Asian), the mysterious subterranean dwergar, and their eternal foe, the implacable Ice. Marvellous combination of the mythic, the magic of metal, and the reality of human nature. Follows the adventures and travels of Elof, greatest of the Mastersmiths of the North, as he hammers and forges his heart and soul not only into the works of his hands, but also into his destiny. Gripping, imaginative and creative stuff.

 

[Aniri]

I'm reading The War of the Flowers, by Tad Williams, and I AM LOVING IT...oh my gosh! I wish it were a made into a movie.

 

[GOLLUM]

Adding another wonderful series that doesn't seem to have been mentioned (in this thread) :
The Winter of the World trilogy, by Michael Scott Rohan.
1. The Anvil of Ice, 2. The Forge in the Forest, 3. The Hammer of the Sun

Fantastic series, set in a pre-prehistoric America, about the struggle of the ancient peoples of the west coast (Scandinavian/Asian), the mysterious subterranean dwergar, and their eternal foe, the implacable Ice. Marvellous combination of the mythic, the magic of metal, and the reality of human nature. Follows the adventures and travels of Elof, greatest of the Mastersmiths of the North, as he hammers and forges his heart and soul not only into the works of his hands, but also into his destiny. Gripping, imaginative and creative stuff.

I agree, it's one of the best EPIC series I've come across and the way the ice is described is just great!

Don't forget that's the original trilogy, there's several other books in the series, I assume you are aware of that too?

BTW welcome, don't think I've seen you around before.

 

[The Procrastinator]

Thank you, my Precious. Yes, I'm a newbie, fellow Ozralite, and I finally seem to have found a forum that encompasses several of my interests at once (well done the Chrons).

I have gotten hold of one of the other "Winter of the World" books and loved it, but there's at least two more I know of but don't yet have. Will one day! In the meantime I thought the original trilogy well worth a mention - a superior read, I reckons.

I would also like to recommend Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly. This is not exactly "epic", as Hambly seems to excel at taking what would certainly become so at the hands of most authors, and then nailing its feet firmly to the ground. She creates fantastic, magical worlds and then populates them with people like you or I, people you can actually imagine knowing and being friends with, people with the foibles and follies we know so well. No epic heroes here, but if you're looking for something a bit more mud between the toes, then look no further.

 

[GOLLUM]

I'll check it out.

That looks like old Winnie on your avatar. I recently bought the 80th Anniversary edition with original illustrations as part of my ever-growing library collection.

 

[The Procrastinator]

It is indeed old Winnie, he's my darling. I love the original illustrations, they suit the stories perfectly. I managed to pick up some huge omnibus edition with those several years ago - not an anniversary edition, but with lovely full colour pictures by the lovely E.H. Shepherd. I share with Winnie a proclivity for wandering aimlessly and being very easily distracted, and sitting about glancing at the clock to see if its Hunny O'Clock yet. (Substitute all manner of things for Hunny - I'm less exclusive in my tastes than Pooh ).

I don't know if it counts as Fantasy but all good libraries should have a copy of what Pooh got up to - adults don't realise how amusing and refreshing he is. (Disney need not apply).

 

[Connavar]

I'm reading The War of the Flowers, by Tad Williams, and I AM LOVING IT...oh my gosh! I wish it were a made into a movie.

I wish more there were a sequal or similar story by TW than the usual shallow hollywood version.

 

[murphy]

Thank you, my Precious. Yes, I'm a newbie, fellow Ozralite, and I finally seem to have found a forum that encompasses several of my interests at once (well done the Chrons).

I have gotten hold of one of the other "Winter of the World" books and loved it, but there's at least two more I know of but don't yet have. Will one day! In the meantime I thought the original trilogy well worth a mention - a superior read, I reckons.

I would also like to recommend Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly. This is not exactly "epic", as Hambly seems to excel at taking what would certainly become so at the hands of most authors, and then nailing its feet firmly to the ground. She creates fantastic, magical worlds and then populates them with people like you or I, people you can actually imagine knowing and being friends with, people with the foibles and follies we know so well. No epic heroes here, but if you're looking for something a bit more mud between the toes, then look no further.

Loved Dragonsbane, but then I like Hambly whatever she writes. There are three other books in that series, by the way: Dragonshadow, The Knight of the Demon Queen and Dragonstar.

 

[hammerhead]

i did not see these authors mentioned but if they were forgive me.
Angus wells the kingdom series very good in my opinion and the gods war trilogy by him is also well done.
Michael A. Stackpole the Dragoncrown war cycle and once a hero i throughly enjoyed.
Mel Odem the librarian series is cool also
Lorna Freeman the borderlands novels
Gail Z.Martin the chronicles of the necromancer thou new are very well written and worth the pleasure of staying up late a few nights

 

[Switchback]

Just finished Mistborn, and thought it was GREAT. Looking forward to the second one...

 

[Goosey54]

Hello, im new here so i dont know if its the right place to post, but here goes!

The Belgariad - David Eddings
A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
Dragonlance
Dark Elf trilogy by R.A. Salvatore
twillight reign - Tom lloyd
Paul Kearney - Sea beggers.


These are the books ive read with the Twillight Reign being my favourite, can anyone recommend anything that might suit my taste?

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Robin Hobbs! You'll love it! The Assassin's Apprentice is the first book.

Also you should give Raymond E Feist Magician a try, if you haven't already read it, and Cecilia Dart-Thornton if you can find her, and not just coz she's Aussie like I. The Ill-Made Mute is the book you'll want there.

Also also, welcome! Go chuck a post in Introductions, tell us a little about yourself!

 

[alexx]

This thread is so long that I hope nobody minds if I ask if The Books of Elita have been mentioned. The author is Kate Jacoby, although I'm pretty sure that's a pen name. She's just written the one series of 5 books as far as I know, but they're some of the best fantasy I've read. There's only one library copy of each in my city and you can't take them home, but if anyone can get their hands on copies I'd highly recommend them.

 

[murphy]

This thread is so long that I hope nobody minds if I ask if The Books of Elita have been mentioned. The author is Kate Jacoby, although I'm pretty sure that's a pen name. She's just written the one series of 5 books as far as I know, but they're some of the best fantasy I've read. There's only one library copy of each in my city and you can't take them home, but if anyone can get their hands on copies I'd highly recommend them.

I did some fast research and these books look interesting. You can get the first and last book of the series fairly easily, but the middle three can cost you.

 

[j d worthington]

This thread is so long that I hope nobody minds if I ask if The Books of Elita have been mentioned. The author is Kate Jacoby, although I'm pretty sure that's a pen name. She's just written the one series of 5 books as far as I know, but they're some of the best fantasy I've read. There's only one library copy of each in my city and you can't take them home, but if anyone can get their hands on copies I'd highly recommend them.

I don't think anyone minds you mentioning them again, no. However, if you're interested in finding out whether a particular writer or book has been mentioned, just use the search button for the thread, and it should be able to call them up for you. In this case, I found the following two mentioned her work... though in one case, she's in amongst so many others she is (for all intents and purposes) swallowed up!

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/186209-post2.html

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/foru...ons-for-the-unenlightened-2-a.html#post186720

 

[alexx]

Oh thanks a lot j. d.! Should've though of that...and murphy, if you are trying to look for them, I got most of them on amazon.com or co.uk, the three in the middle I did have to get used. When I read them though, I could only find the last one and then I got them in a very strange order (5,1,4,2,3). If you have only have the last one it's still a fantastic read, you don't feel like you're missing anything because she prologues Trial of Fire. Once you read the last one, even though you know the end, you might end up becoming obssessed with finding the other four like me, haha.

 

[Tansy]

Just ordered Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erikson), The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch), HP & the Deathly Hallows (JK Rowling)

After I finish Wishsong (Terry Brooks) I plan on reading The Blade Itself (Joe ABercrombie) and The Darkness that Comes Before (R Scott Bakker). I have also got to finish Shadowmarch (Tad WIlliams)

 

[Taltos]

OMG - nobody has mentioned Steven Brust Vlad Taltos serie here - I guess it's my job to promote him
Second author I couldn't find is Simon R. Green Forrest Kingdom, Shadows Fall, Hawk and Fisher and Nightside - are at least worth a mentioning.
Third author worth mentioning is Andrzej Sapkowski - who has been mentioned here and has written some very interesting fairy-tales with twists.

 

[theophanides]

it would take too long for me to read all these threads so here are some really good authors that i recomend:stephenie meyer,sergei lukyanenko,christopher paoline,michelle paver,robert jordan,wilbur smith,ian irvine,trudi canavan,terry brooks,william nicholson,sarah zettel,alison croggon,carol wilkinson,katherine langrish,gabrielle zevin,julie bertagna,cornelia funke,zizou corder,darren shan,jonathan stroud,piers anthony,catherine fisher,eva ibbotson,beth webb,mary janice davidson,robin jarvis,terry deary,marie louise jensen,helen dunmore,elizabeth knox,garth nix,philip pulman,a.j.lake,james patterson.

there are probably more ill remember later but those are some of the good ones that i really enjoyed.tell me what you think if any of you have heard of them.

 

[j d worthington]

it would take too long for me to read all these threads so here are some really good authors that i recomend:stephenie meyer,sergei lukyanenko,christopher paoline,michelle paver,robert jordan,wilbur smith,ian irvine,trudi canavan,terry brooks,william nicholson,sarah zettel,alison croggon,carol wilkinson,katherine langrish,gabrielle zevin,julie bertagna,cornelia funke,zizou corder,darren shan,jonathan stroud,piers anthony,catherine fisher,eva ibbotson,beth webb,mary janice davidson,robin jarvis,terry deary,marie louise jensen,helen dunmore,elizabeth knox,garth nix,philip pulman,a.j.lake,james patterson.

there are probably more ill remember later but those are some of the good ones that i really enjoyed.tell me what you think if any of you have heard of them.

Nice list there, theophanides. I'd suggest, however, putting spaces between the commas and the following name, as lack of such space makes reading such a list rather hard on the eyes; hence is likely to be skipped by many who might benefit from your effort....