Your Favorite Fantasy Book(s)

[nixie]

I'm going to add Gary Wassner's Gem Quest series
although olnly the first three have been published and theres no dates for the next two yet.
Rune, I notice you mentioned James Herbet's Once,if you enjoyed that you may like his Magic Cottage.

 

[Jay]

George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords is the single greatest work of imaginative fiction that I have ever read.

At certain points, this book actually caused my heart to race alarmingly... brilliant. If GRRM keeps up this level for the rest of his series, this will be hailed as the greatest epic fantasy ever written... right alongside LOTR.

From a certain perspective I agree with this statement. IMHO A Storm of Swords is without a doubt the best novel I have ever read that was part of a epic fantasy series, and I really don't think it's close. I do think there are dozen upon dozens of better fanatsy novels however outside of the epic category.

 

[rune]

I'm going to add Gary Wassner's Gem Quest series
although olnly the first three have been published and theres no dates for the next two yet.
Rune, I notice you mentioned James Herbet's Once,if you enjoyed that you may like his Magic Cottage.

When I read only horror I read all of Herbert's stuff and did enjoy the Magic Cottage. Personally I think he's the best horror author around, much better than King

 

[nixie]

When I read only horror I read all of Herbert's stuff and did enjoy the Magic Cottage. Personally I think he's the best horror author around, much better than King

Snap, Rats,lair and The domain gave me nightmares

 

[pop-up-pirate]

Hello everyone. I wanting to start reading books from the fantasy genre and I was was wondering if everone would mind helpping me out. Besides the Lord of the Rings and Earthsea books, what are your favorite fantasy book or series. The kind of a book I would like to start with would have adventure, romance, wizards, elfs, and also would be part of a series. Also if it would help I'm 29. Thanks in advance.

~SilentEagle

Most of Moorcock's true fantasy [eternal champion novels] are amazing, especially if you're just getting started. More recently his Silverheart novel, a colaboration with Storm Constantine. Have you read any Gemmell? The best there is.

 

[rune]

Snap, Rats,lair and The domain gave me nightmares

I read most of Herbert's books in my late teens and really enjoyed them. I dont read horror specifically now, and prefer dark fantasy. So was pleased to see Herbert dabbling in fantasy as he writes a very good dark fantasy tale

 

[GOLLUM]

When I read only horror I read all of Herbert's stuff and did enjoy the Magic Cottage. Personally I think he's the best horror author around, much better than King

I've just finished reading the collected works of Edgar Alan Poe and thought some of his stories were pretty scary..

 

[Leto]

He's not an horror old master for nothing...

 

[GOLLUM]

He's not an horror old master for nothing...

You got that right.. My favs are The Premature Burial, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall Of The House Of Usher. I also enjoyed his crime stories, which are the first modern detetive stories written and feature Auguste Dupin in classics like The Murders In The Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter.

 

[Leto]

Personnaly it's the Black Cat and The Raven.

Strangely, he's the only author I prefer to read translated in French. Mostly because he was translated by a famous poet Charles Baudelaire.

The Purloined Letter is very useful. The tip included works very well, used it a lot as a teen with my parents

 

[GOLLUM]

Personnaly it's the Black Cat and The Raven.

Strangely, he's the only author I prefer to read translated in French. Mostly because he was translated by a famous poet Charles Baudelaire.

The Purloined Letter is very useful. The tip included works very well, used it a lot as a teen with my parents

Darn it I forgot The Raven, yep it's included in my book and a classic to boot.

Yes that is a nice tip HE HE...

 

[marv335]

i'm amazed that no-one has mentioned "the saga of recluce" by L. E. Modesit jr.
an exellent series, or "the tales of alvin maker" by orson scott card.
both are worth a read.

 

[Novocaine]

Eragon is a good bet, there are elves or something along that line, I cannot remember. However, there is a romance that is beggining to sprout in the first book of the series. It includes everything you asked for, it is the first of the Eldest series, contains love, adventure, somebody wizard-like, and so forth. I recommend this novel deeply, it will not let you down. I have yet to find somebody that dislikes this novel. It is LOTRish but very unique, it is by far one of the best novels I've read.

The Sea of Trolls is quite interesting as well. Nancy Farmer is quite the eloquent author. Although that book is empty of romance it is a great book to read.

Garth Nix's Sabriel is also extremely engrossing. It has a thick love theme developed late in the book, and just has a great, developed, and intricate plotline.

The Lord of The Rings also has many books devoted to it's story, aside from The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. There are dozens of them, I will even post a page listing the many books related to The Lord of The Rings.
http://www.mines.edu/stu_archive/jchuhta/tolkien.html
There more than 10 novels just on the history of middle-earth including many wars not described in Tolkiens main novels. Luckily, Christopher Tolkien revived many of his brother's unfinished and unpublished works. Explore Tolkien's other works, there is much more to his great saga than you would expect.

 

[Brys]

Of the Tolkienesque style, I would recommend Feist's Riftwar Saga - Magician, Silverthorn, Darkness at Sethanon (though I think the less Tolkienesque style series, the Empire series, is better).
But I think that the best fantasy book has to be Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson. One of the most moving books ever written, though Deadhouse Gates comes close. China Mieville's New Crobuzon books and George RR Martin's ASOIAF books are also very good.

 

[Brys]

Thanks for the vote of confidence . I admit I am a terrible addict of fantasy reading and of horror/fantasy mix which gets described as Dark Fantasy (and getting a reputation too by the sounds )

Well SilentEagle, I'll give you recommendations of series I like or liked depending on if I've finished them

Completed Series -

Banned and the Bannished - by James Clemens - all the books published. Has elves, some imagitive magic, interesting (quite different characters). It follows a young girl who develops witch magic. Dont be fooled into thinking it may be immature, this is very gritty at times.



Riftwar Saga - Raymond Fiest - all the books are published. I am sure lots of members will mention this series. It's got magic, wizards, strange creatures, wars. A brilliant series, and another of the older greats. I personally think Fiest wrote his best with this and hasnt done anything as well since.

The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy - Robin Hobb - all the books for both series are published. Someone has already mentioned these, and I can 2nd that recommendation. The Tawny Man trilogy is better I feel than The Farseer trilogy. But you need to read Farseer Trilogy first to be able to understand the Tawny Man It's a series about a boy who finds he can bond with animals and his relationship with his wolf is just brilliant. It's touching, exciting and imagative.


New Crobuzon - China Mieville - 3 books published so far. I can't rave on enough about this author. He has a visual writing style that I've never seen any other author surpass. His imagation will blow you away, it's astonishing. I will say though his worlds are very complex, but if you can stick with his books they are like nothing else you've probably read before. Forget elves, wizards etc. The creatures this author has created are very unique and some of his character's are fasinating. He touches on all kinds of subjects and some can make you cringe. The books are wonderful. He tends to write across genres so there is fantasy, sci-fi and horror in this series


There are few others that I quite good, but these are my favourites. And before you ask, No I dont have a life

I'm surprised - you've read and enjoyed Mieville, yet you still list the Wit'ch books as a favourite. IMO they are on completely different levels. Mieville is a far superior author in every way to Clemens, and while the first was enjoyable, it wasn't amazing, and the others were pretty poor. I also disagree that it could be called "dark" or "gritty". It is derivative, predictable and has some of the poorest characterisation I've ever read. The fact that he can't even do a grey character is pretty disappointing, as he fails at every step with the character Er'ril, who seems to have been attempted as a grey character, but Clemens couldn't actually pull that off so just leaves him acting completely out of character. It wasn't so much an issue in the first book, but in the later books it really stood out. The clear copying (rock'goblin really isn't different to goblin, and el'vin doesn't really fool anyone) is also annoying and the incredibly predictable plot means that I didn't see much point in continuing the series after Wit'ch War. I knew almost exactly what would happen for the last 100 - 150 pages of that, and he has continually failed to surprise me. "Dark" and "Gritty" to me mean something more along the lines of Martin, Erikson or Mieville, not Clemens.
The Riftwar Saga and New Crobuzon books are excellent though.
The Farseer trilogy was pretty good, except the whole quest for dragons wasn't very good and as a result it was by far the worst in the series. If she hadn't made it a trilogy and left it at only 2 books I would still regard her as one of my favourite authors. A shame that the last book failed to live up to the standard set by the first two, but definitely worth reading.

Hello Gollum!
600 pages into Deadhouse Gates. Like I said - I AM liking it. I just liked Gardens better so far. Duiker's story rattles on a little for my taste. I have now bought Book 3 so I can accelerate the reading. I hate to finish a book when I don't have the next one ready to go. Guess that's going to happen eventually with this series though!

Once you've read the last Duiker scene of the book, there is no way you'll prefer GotM. That was the most moving scene I've ever read. But you say 600 pages in - has the Vathar crossing occured yet? That was a pretty good scene. The end of the Chain of Dogs though is really what makes the book stand out, not the beginning. As always with Erikson, he starts slightly slower and you think it's very good, but maybe not a best, but by the end of the book you realise you've just read a masterpiece.

 

[Moonhead]

I don't know if anyone mentioned yet, but i like the Drenai Books by David Gemmell. No elves, a bit of romance, not that much in the way of magic, but good story telling. Legend is the first in the series.

 

[Connavar]

I don't know if anyone mentioned yet, but i like the Drenai Books by David Gemmell. No elves, a bit of romance, not that much in the way of magic, but good story telling. Legend is the first in the series.

Legend is the only drenai i have read so far. And its my fav of all fantasy that it isnt even close. I love that book to pieces.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Eragon is a good bet, there are elves or something along that line, I cannot remember. However, there is a romance that is beggining to sprout in the first book of the series. It includes everything you asked for, it is the first of the Eldest series, contains love, adventure, somebody wizard-like, and so forth. I recommend this novel deeply, it will not let you down. I have yet to find somebody that dislikes this novel. It is LOTRish but very unique, it is by far one of the best novels I've read.

The Sea of Trolls is quite interesting as well. Nancy Farmer is quite the eloquent author. Although that book is empty of romance it is a great book to read.

Garth Nix's Sabriel is also extremely engrossing. It has a thick love theme developed late in the book, and just has a great, developed, and intricate plotline.

The Lord of The Rings also has many books devoted to it's story, aside from The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. There are dozens of them, I will even post a page listing the many books related to The Lord of The Rings.
A Concise Listing of Tolkien Books
There more than 10 novels just on the history of middle-earth including many wars not described in Tolkiens main novels. Luckily, Christopher Tolkien revived many of his brother's unfinished and unpublished works. Explore Tolkien's other works, there is much more to his great saga than you would expect.

Tooth drugie that font colour is a bit glaring and garish almost had to put the shades on to read it

 

[Pyan]

I agree - I had to highlight it (white on dark blue) to make it out at all - only to discover I disagree violently with the first paragraph!

 

[Jason_Taverner]

yeah but we wrote that 2 years ago,