Need a new book to read...any recommendations?

[oneredfrog]

G'day,

Would greatly appreciate it if anyone could recommend a great fantasy book, series, author. I have just finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and loved it and want more. Spewing its only one book. Prior to that I read the Mistborn series and loved it too. Have Warbreaker on order..

Have also read and loved the following so you can get the idea of what I'm into, though willing to branch out into other types. Just want a good story with good characters. A book to get lost in. Nothing like the old good vs evil with good triumphing in the end (I grew up on Westerns and its just gotta end well).

Started to read Stephen Donaldson which was recommended to me many years ago and when the main hero of the book rapes the rock creatures daughter, that was it. Book was bined! Only book I've ever done that to.

Anyway, books I have already read and loved...
The Hobbit (got me into fantasy)
LOTR (the Ultimate....have a JRRT tattoo)
Robert Jordan - Wheel of time
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, Thorn
Terry Goodkind - Wizards First Rule series
Terry Brooks - Shanarararar series...a little repeative
Tony Shilitoe - The Last Wizard (great series but a disappointing ending)
Brandon Sanderson of course...

Many many Thanks

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Welcome to the Chronicles, oneredfrog.

I've moved your thread from Book Search to General Book Discussion, because it's likely you'll get more recommendations here. Book Search is there for those who want help identifying a particular book they've already read (usually many years ago) and would like to find again.

This is the place for general questions like yours, which usually bring in plenty of recommendations.

 

[j d worthington]

You might want to take a look at this thread, along with any others of the Recommendations threads dealing with fantasy (due to some recent technical shifts, you'll need to do a bit of looking along the index of this subforum, as the Search function is still having some bugs worked out, it appears):

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/10103-fantasy-recommendations-for-the-unenlightened-2-a.html

Some of the other threads would be:

Pre-Tolkien Fantasy
The Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library
The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series
etc., etc., etc.

 

[ValerieJLong]

G'day, oneredfrog,
you might check:
Elizabeth Haydon's Rhapsody series
Jennifer Fallon's Demon Child trilogy
Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon saga (perhaps starting with Belgarath the Sorcerer)
Those are quite epic and will keep you busy reading for a while.
Cheers
Valerie

 

[Moggle]

Try

Night Angel by Brent Weeks
Warded Man by Peter Brett
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone by JK Rowling
Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan

 

[nixie]

There is also Raymond E Feist's series starting with the Rift War.

David Gemmel and James Barclay are another 2 you may enjoy

 

[Beamer]

Mercedes Lackey has several fantasy series many in the same world. A large number are in a world called Valdemar. Too many to mention titles look her up on the FantasticFiction website it gives a good listing of her works.

Barbara Hambly also has a few fantasy sets I would probably start with the Unschooled Wizard books.

Katherine Kurtz, Deryni books especially the original trilogy, Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate, and High Deryni.

 

[oneredfrog]

Thanks heaps guys. Thank JD for that list of Fantasy Recommendations for the unenlightened. A monster of a list.

Maybe I'll give Raymond E Fiest a go. Have always seen his books about but for no paticular reason thought they would crap. Maybe coz his name sounds evil. Who knows. Always had bad feelings about David Eddings books too, again without basis. Funny the predudices we develop.

Moggle, interesting you recommended the Warded Man. Read the blurp on it and had it on my 'potentials' list. Thanks. Love the Supernatural TV series and any Angel vs Demon demon type movies (Stigmata, Constantine, Gabriel), thats why that one had piqued my interest.

Steven Erikson’s Malazan Empire series is also on my 'potentials' list. Maybe I'll start there first. Seems to have quite a few rapturous endorsements for it.

Thanks heaps everyone. Just discovering online forums and loving it. AFL and now Fantasy...whoo hooo!

 

[oneredfrog]

Ok, thanks for the kickstart.

Have ordered -
The Warded Man by Peter V Brett
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
and for something different and because I like Firefly
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

This site is so cool.

Keep the recommendations coming if you think of anything else brilliant.

Cheers

 

[Aoratos]

Moggle has already said it, but The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss is a must!

I'd also try The Eyes of God by John Marco.

 

[Clansman]

Ok, thanks for the kickstart.

Have ordered -
The Warded Man by Peter V Brett
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
and for something different and because I like Firefly
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

This site is so cool.

Keep the recommendations coming if you think of anything else brilliant.

Cheers

oneredfrog, a word of caution about Erikson: he throws you into the deep end. Make sure that you get a newer edition, which contains his own foreword, which explains why he wrote Gardens of the Moon the way that he did. Don't get me wrong, it is a great book, and a fantastic series, but he throws you into a story that is already in progress! He does not spoon-feed his readers at all, and you have to rely on slow revelations of some of the back story over the first three books before you can figure out what is actually going on in the history of the Malazan world. The third book, Memories of Ice, is absolutely key to the beginning of understanding.

If you know this going in, your patience with the story might be stronger, which is good, because it is worth sticking with the series (I'm on book 4).

I would also recommend many of the others listed above, especially Feist and Rothfuss, plus the conspicuous-by-its-absence A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin, which starts with A Game of Thrones (which itself is about to be made into an HBO series of the same name). It is currently at four books, with the fifth the currently most-anticipated book in fantasy (and it has been for the last 5 years!).

My personal favourite is Janny Wurts' The Wars of Light and Shadow, a series that is at 8 books now, with the ninth about to be published (manuscript is in edit now), starting with Curse of the Mistwraith.

With Erikson, Martin, and Wurts, you have a lot to chew on. These are big, complex stories, and they are not fluff. They make you think, and you are challenged by style, plot, intense characterization, and a lack of backstory (which is to say, they don't infodump in these books).

 

[oneredfrog]

Thanks Aoratos And Clansman. Appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks for the headsup on Erikson Clansman, had noticed several different copies of Gardens of the Moon, one with an older cover which was a little cheaper (which I went for), but its not too late to change so I'll switch to the newer version for the foreward.

Thanks Guys
Cheers

 

[ValerieJLong]

Thinking about it again, there's Mary Gentle's Ash, A Secret History. It is far off the beaten tracks, that's what I liked about it.

Cheers
Val

 

[soulsinging]

I would also recommend many of the others listed above, especially Feist and Rothfuss, plus the conspicuous-by-its-absence A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin, which starts with A Game of Thrones (which itself is about to be made into an HBO series of the same name). It is currently at four books, with the fifth the currently most-anticipated book in fantasy (and it has been for the last 5 years!).

Isn't that kind of the opposite of the good vs evil preference he stated? Not that they aren't excellent, but given the fact that they were apparently turned off by a rape scene in another novel, I'm not sure if Martin's gritty world is going to be up their alley...

Then again, I could be completely off. Just got the impression the OP might be a bit conservative.