Judging by the other thread, polling our favorite genres, we have alot of fantasy buffs here. What better to do then to talk about our favorite series, author, hero etc? Discuss the books we've read, and introduce others to the books we like!

I'll start. Some of my favorite fantasy books include: George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt, and Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. The shortest of these is four books long, and the longest (not in terms of volumes, but sheer pages) is a whooping 11 books and counting - I'm speaking of the Wheel of Time.

Amongst my selection, I think ASOIAF and the Book of the New Sun may not be as well known. Both are very good series, but quite different from your standard sword and sorcery adventures. ASOIAF has a more medieval theme to it - knights, warring states, political intrigue. Its been compared to the war of the roses in fact. Magic does exist in the universe, but its a lost art and seldom factor into the story. Definitely something you should read if you're looking for fantasy beyond the norm.

The Book of the New Sun on the other hand, is as much fantasy as it is sci-fi. Instead of being set in the past, it explores a future where technology has regressed, and humanity once again exist in a dark ages settings. Remaining artifacts of technology are often treated like magic, but our hero, Severian, carries but a two handed sword called Terminus Est. Its important to mention that Severian is a hero unlike any other. He is an executioner and a torturer, not a noble knight or mage.

Well, these are my favorites and recommendation. What's everybody's?

The Silmarillion...obviously...
compared to the rest...that book is the best i've read...2nd to none!!!
even Durin himself would had said so...

I started out reading David Eddings's books, and I liked them very much, except for the lame endings. Took me 5 attempts before i could finish LOTR (would zzz 5 mins in, hehehe). Dunno why, the next time I read LOTR it wasn't as nice anymore...

Robert Jordan's first series, forgot the name was quite good as well. HAven't had the chance to try Michael Moorcock's books which I heard was quite good.

Has Wheel of Time ended? I read in the papers that the author passed away before finishing the last book and it would be written by someone else instead...



This post has been edited by bruised: Feb 4 2009, 11:21 AM

Yeah, the book will indeed be written by one Brandon Sanderson, based on the notes prepared by Jordan. Wiki has an entry on this here.

Oh, Fantasy is one of my favourite genres!

The only problem is the price. Usually the series come in 3's or more. A bit tough on my pocket to buy one shot like RM100.

I like the Shannara series a lot by Terry Brooks. Not too imaginative yet has an interesting storyline and plot and good style of writing.

The Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman is good too. The Goldan Compass movie was actually good relative to the book. I'm looking forward to the next movie if they were to make one.

Heh, I always considered the Book of the New Sun to SF rather than Fantasy, but it does straddle the barrier. I actively dislike Terry Brooks & Terry Goodkind (both are un-original, and worse BAD writers). Not too fond of David Eddings for the same reason, but I will say that he is good if you want to get a kid to start reading fantasy. The Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium & Tamuli are the books that got me into Fantasy way back in Form 2. Once I finished them, I was finally able to finish the Hobbit & the Lord of the Rings.


Series I'm currently reading:

Wheel of Time - Author Robert Jordan. Started this when I was in form 3. Hear that Brandon Sanderson is a pretty good fit to finish RJ's series, which honestly was dragging the last few books. Can't really recommend it to any newcomer.

A Song of Ice and Fire - Author George R.R. Martin. An excellent series, but I'm getting a bit concerned at the delay between books and the slowly increasing number of books, so I can't really recommend it in good faith. Wait until it finishes.

The Black Company - Actually an old series by Glen Cook, but they're re-releasing it as a set of collected editions. first 2 collections (The Chronicles of the Black Company & The Books of the South) have been released. Very gritty, military type of fantasy. No destined farmboys or plucky heroes here, just grizzled army vets kicking ass. Really recommended.

The Gentleman B*stard Sequence - Author Scott Lynch. Probably the newest series in this list. 2 books out of a planned 7 have been released. The main characters are thieves, so it's very much like Ocean's 11 meets fantasy. Very amusing, serious & well written. Recommended.

Discworld- Author Sir Terry Pratchett. More a loosely connected satire series than a standard fantasy series, but plays well off the usual rules of the genre (ie, million-to-one odds happen 9 times out of 10...). Hillarious, well-written and makes you think. Very Highly recommended.

And the best:

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Author Steven Erikson. If the Black Company books are gritty, these are insanely so. 8 out of 10 books have been released, and the series is EXCELLENT. Well written, tightly paced, interesting & ridiculously powerful characters and it packs an incredible emotional punch. It isn't really for people who are new to Fantasy, but if you're a fan of fantasy books, this is a must-read series.

Very nice to see a fan of the fantasy genre as well, especially one who has read George R.R. Martin and Gene Wolfe. Your comments on the Wheel of Time and ASOIAF rings true - WoT was honestly going nowhere plotwise for the last 3 or 4 books, and Mr. Martin really needs to pick up the pace of writing. I remember A Dance of Dragons was supposed to be half done at the time of A Feast for Crows publishing, and set to be completed within 6 months. 2 years have passed and still no sign of the book.

Discworld is a series of books I truly want to collect, but am intimidated by the sheer number of volumes already available. If I were to collect them all I would be a poor poor man. I resort to friends and libraries for this series, and have read whatever I could get my hands on. Deliciously funny stuff really.

There was a series of books I never mentioned in my first post: The Book of Swords, by Fred Saberhagen. Ever read those?

As for Malazan, I'll wiki it and see if I can pick it up.

hey! someone mentioned terry pratchet's works. Despite the huge amount of titles, they focus on different aspects of his fantasy world, and you can collect/read only those you like - personally i like those relating to the Ankh Morpork (pardon my spelling - it's been a while, i really need to start reading again ) and DEATH.

wheel of time. Currently waiting for the last book to be released. A very long story indeed.

I will say The Silmarillion.
Definitely awesome.
I've read LOTR , but this one is way better I think.

I am not sure if anyone of you has heard of Guin Saga (Kaoru Kurimoto, English translation by Alexander O. Smith). The Japanese version is still currently in writing (vol 128 if I'm not mistaken). English has 7 books translated as of now (only the first 5 is available in Kinokuniya).

I find it rather interesting, not too much on sorcery (for now), but there's good adventure with brawls & swords. This series is very popular in Japan, comparable to LOTR there.

I've only read until book 2 for now so I'll reserve commenting too much about it.

This post has been edited by feyhime: Feb 17 2009, 09:42 AM

Heheh, after years on LYN, I finally noticed this forum

My favourite genre is fantasy of course and just to share what I've read and been reading lately:

Series completed that I especially liked:
1. The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, plus the The Silmarillion; and related but not exactly novels: Unfinished Tales, Book of Lost Tales 1 & 2
- this was the very first fantasy fiction I ever read, and it just blew me away and made me a lifetime fan of the genre. I guess I'm lucky to have such a great intro to fantasy.
2. Dragonlance Chronicles and Dragonlance Legends by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
- considering I was an avid AD&D player and DM at the time, it was just perfect.
3. Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
- I really liked the conflict between the two major races, I found the concept quite unconventional at the time (first 4 books set on 4 seperate worlds, and events there leads to the last 3 books).
4. The first Shannara trilogy (Sword of Shannara, etc) by Terry Brooks
- I liked it then, but later stories couldn't sustain my interest.
5. The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings
- Loved it when I started out but eventually lost interest in DE's work.
6. The Elenium and The Tamuli by David Eddings
- Same as #5
7. Book of Words by JV Jones
8. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams
- Liked the story. He even wrote an adventure/fantasy with a cat as the main character (Tailchaser's Song - I liked it).
9. The Coldfire trilogy by Celia Friedman - my avatar is from the first book's cover (Black Sun Rising)!
- I bought the book because of the cool cover, and was hooked

Series in Progress:
1. Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
- One of my 3 current favourites, been reading since 14 years ago; now anxiously awaiting Brandon Sanderson's finishing of the series. I have to say I was lucky enough to meet RJ in person and have 3 of his books autographed by him
- I just love how the earlier books are so descriptive of the scenery. I kept reading The Eye of the World again and again.. the words are so descriptive I could imagine the scene in my mine so realistically.
- Loved it so much, I am now buying the unabridged audio CDs (audiobooks) to the series (from Amazon US), so I can have it on my iPod wherever I go. At about 20 CDs or so per book, it's a slow and steady effort.
- Re-read it many times and I still can't figure out who killed Asmodean!
2. Malazan Books of the Fallen - Steven Erikson (and related books by Ian Esslemont)
- Simply amazing! One of my 3 current favourites. Extremely complex storyline. I get lost sometimes but it's worth it!
3. Song of Ice and Fire - George RR Martin
- One of my 3 current favourites. I find his potrayal of characters to be so "realistic" that everything is in shades of grey.
4. Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
- I started only because he is finishing RJ's work on Wheel of Time, but so far I am enjoying his style.
5. Sword of Shadows - JV Jones
- on pause after the first book, too many to read
6. Shadowmarch - Tad Williams
- on pause after the first book, too many to read

Currently reading:
1. Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
- Brandon's first book IIRC. Unconventional to say the least. Pretty interesting so far.


Books in the queue: - the Malazan books get their turn next
1. Return of the Crimson Guard - Ian Esslemont
2. Toll the Hounds - Steven Erikson

Series in the queue:
1. Otherland - Tad Williams (already bought all the books)
2. Boreal Moon Tale - Julian May (already bought the first 3 books, don't know if there's more coz I didn't read them yet)

As you can see there's a lot of books I haven't read yet... been trying to go through my list but the stack of unread books keeps getting higher
I sometimes read 2-3 novels at a time (one at home - the main book; one in my car - when I am stuck somewhere coz of jam, I can stop for a drink and read; one in my travelling bag - for when I travel for work/holiday, I have something to read on the plane or at the airport).


dishwasher:
A Dance of Dragons is due out Sept this year... I've been waiting for ages for it, since I've pre-ordered it at Amazon (till they canceled it coz the book didn't get published last year as expected).
I've read 2 of Fred Saberhagen's work. My favourite was Empire of the East, and the other was a Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula novel.

Terry Goodkind's work - I started on the novels with Wizard's First Rule but after the 3rd book, I lost interest. Also read a bunch of other authors, mostly in past years when I was desperate for reading material coz I had read everything already published (at the time) by RJ, Steven Erikson and George RR Martin - Angus Wells (ok-la), Melanie Rawn, Dennis McKiernan (ugh... don't bother), Raymond Feist (the Riftwar books were good, but lost interest later – blame it on Steven Erikson for writing so good!).

In the past when I needed a break from fantasy I read espionage/sci-fi thrillers (Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, Craig Thomas), but these days I mostly read historical fiction (Dan Brown, Steve Berry, Valerio Manfredi, Raymond Khoury).

I have read almost every Discworld publication , thanks in part to the John Medley library in Monash Clayton. I still think it's one of the wittiest and funniest fantasy collections yet. I do prefer reading about the Witches, Rincewind and the City Watch, AND DEATH HIMSELF.

I've also gone through some of Larry Niven's books, Ringworld. It's a really fantastic journey.

Somehow I find that there is a real lack of bookstores and libraries when I go back to Malaysia.

I'm also a follower of the Wheel of Time series. Been on this since Form5. Waiting for the last book.

While waiting now into Forgotten Realms (Drizzt's collection, Elminster's saga, Shandril's trilogy (ending kinda letdown), Undead Trilogy (not bad, searching for book2 and book3), Avatar series (kinda slow, 3 to go), etc...
Problem with Forgotten Realms is there are so many different writers and stories that it's hard to know what's good to read.

Also read Ursula Le'Guin Earthsea Quartet which is very nice (borrowed from friend, still looking to buy my own to re-read it ever since)

Oh yeah of course read the LOTR and Hobbit, both are good. Might try the Silmarillion since you guys are recommending it.
Narnia is also nice but is really a children book.

They're showing an anime adaption of Guin Saga this season. Just so you know, assuming you don't.

Wow, didn't realise there's a thread for fantasy lovers here

I'm surprised no one mentioned Raymond E Feist and his Riftwar Saga....I got hooked onto fantasy from his books and slowly got snared by Eddings, Tolkien, and Pratchett

I'm seriously trying to hunt down Steven Erikson's Malazan series, but the local book rental store doesn't have em

I have Magician, Silverthorn and Sethanon, but not the rest of his books. I liked the Magician series a lot, but I never got down to getting the rest of the Riftwar saga, and nowadays, after reading Martin and Erikson, Feist just doesn't measure up anymore.

I doubt you'll find the Malazan books in rental stores. They aren't that famous methinks. I got mine (1-7) from Kinokuniya, cost me a total in the vicinity of 200 bucks or so. Strangely enough, the TOR versions are around 30 bucks, while the other version was 40. Guess which I got.

hehe I still find Feist interesting and I'm really waiting to see how he finishes up the entire Riftwar saga

I did find the Malazan (1-6 i think) at a rental store, but I did the mistake of NOT grabbing it and the next time I went...it was gone!!

I must say , author Raymond E Fiest has a good collection of books. Krondors.

Yes the Riftwar Saga is far the best
another fantasy author that I like is Garth Nix like Old Kingdom Series and Keys to Kingdom