I started with David Eddings. Loved the characters in The Belgariad and Mallorean. Then I went on to Salvatore when I start playing DnD. But I'll never forgive Salvatore for killing Chewbacca (sorry, but I digress). I went on to read Tracy Hickman and Magaret Wies' Dragonlance series. I also tried Ed Greenwood's Elminister series.

I also read the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind and the Riftwar saga by E. Fiest.

I guess Fantasy is the only genre that never bores me...

I recommend 2 series
The Sarantine Mosaic by Guy Gavriel Kay
Liveship Trader by Robin Hobb
100% satisfaction guranteed or else, i give you a dragon egg.

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Added on September 5, 2009, 11:22 pmalso everyone welcome to join us in
The Why-Isn't-There-An-SFF-Bookclub Bookclub
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8056546802

Basic Info
Name:
The Why-Isn't-There-An-SFF-Bookclub Bookclub
Category:
Entertainment & Arts - Books & Literature
Description:
A book club for people who dig Science Fiction & Fantasy, based in Petaling Jaya. Geeks unite!

Check out our blog here: http://speculatorspeculator.blogspot.com/

--

We will be reading a science fiction book, a fantasy book and a comic book in a three-month cycle.

Please feel free to suggest more books! Books should preferably not be part of a series, unless it is possible to read them as a standalone. They should be of a length that busy yuppies -- I mean, uh, working professionals would be able to finish within a month. It doesn't matter if we can't shoehorn a book into a particular category, so long as it is speculative fiction. They should of course be available at all good bookshops.

TIP: when looking for SFF, it's often worthwhile to check out Payless or other secondhand bookshops.
Contact Info
Location:
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8056546802

This post has been edited by tender: Sep 5 2009, 11:22 PM

Hmmm, sound like an idea. Let's see if we can pad the membership some...

thanks.
BTW, Snowcrash used to be my favourite fav book, till Diamond Age, till his next book, and his next. Neal Stephenson outdoes himself all the time! anyway Snowcrash is still one of the coolest book in the world!

This post has been edited by tender: Sep 6 2009, 11:47 AM

Heh, how can anyone not love a book where the main char's surname is Protagonist?

BTW, there's Sci-fi thread here as well, in case you're doing a general genre/ spec. fic invites.

BTW, I know there are quite a few Wheel of Time readers here, in case you're in anticipation of the next book coming out in the next month or two, Tor Publishing's community blog has a Wheel of Time chapter by chapter re-read going on here. It's really helpful for catching up on all the minutiae of the world. If anyone knows of any similar re-read project for the Malazan Books of the Fallen as well as A Song of Ice and Fire, I'd appreciate a heads up as well.

This post has been edited by snowcrash: Sep 6 2009, 12:43 PM

thanks, i read till book 11 of WOT and stopped. will sure pick it up again someday...

Inheritance cycle. Got hooked on the 1st book and can't wait for the ending
LOTR. After watching the movie, I kinda interested in the universe.
Forgotten Realms. It's based on game. My criteria of choosing books.
Warcraft. Based on game again.

Now I mostly buy books that have connection with games.

Now I'm just waiting for Guild Wars novels~

Er.. Chewbacca?? You mean the "pech" in underdark right?

I'm been reading a lot of Forgotten Realms lately, just finished Neversfall, Blackstaff, Bloodwalk and Swords of Eveningstar, which is about a group of young friends that went adventuring and eventually becoming the famed Knights of Myth Drannor.
Now looking for Swords of Dragonfire which continues the story in Eveningstar.

i recommend

the Dune series by frank herbert
Tales of the Earthsea by Urusula Le Guinn

If you love good character development, I'd recommend Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy followed by the Tawny Man Trilogy.

Yeah, Farseer and its sequal got superb character, plot, world and idea and everything but....... i like Liveship Trader more, Farseer is too gritty and ultra-realistic and self-torturing, for my type of 'fantasy'. lol.

Hello everyone! First time posting here in LYN.

I am inspired by the recommendations here in this thread. I have looked them up and will definitely keep my eye out for the books!

My first encounter with fantasy genre, at least as far as I can recall is David Edding's Elenium series (I had skipped Belgariad ...!) But the first one that left the most impression till today was the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends. Raistlin - the introduction to my world of an evil character that one can't help but to root for. I could prattle on and on about it but don't think I want to bore people this early

Am crunching through my first Warhammer 40k omnibuses. I got hold of them after remembering my friend waxing lyrical about Dan Abnett. And she is right! Fantastic stuff. Just skimmed through the Darkblade omnibus. Will probably read again after awhile as the action is too much to take on one shot.

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Added on October 12, 2009, 11:27 pmToday I committed a crime to my wallet. I walked into Mid Valley ....... and came back with 2 books I definitely have to regain some self control.

It is all the fault of a book called Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I ordered it at Times Bangsar and it didnt come. Well, I guess not my luck. Then a few outings to several bookstore different times and even idle searches turn out zilch. Onwards it stuck in my brain and I HAVE TO HAVE IT. It even infected my friend. Does anyone have this kind of experience before, or is it my cuckoo mind?

I walked into MPH and tada! It's there. Grab.

Walked into Borders to get to Starbucks (the other Sbks has pipe bocor) ......and walked past the Mark Charbourn's Age of Misrule Omnibus. Couldn't believe my eyes. I havent seen a Fantasy Omnibus for a long time, it's a title in my huntlist and it's a cheap RM 56.90 for 3-in-1. Dither a bit. should i or should i not. Borders say this is last copy. Grab.

So many books, so little resources....

Have anyone read the above 2 books? Hoped they are worth my money. Perdido's world building sounds very interesting.

This post has been edited by Persephone: Oct 12 2009, 11:27 PM

Yeah, read Perdido Street Station. Most people tend to appreciate China Mieville more after they read 1000+ fat fantasy trilogy by the likes of Eddings, Feist, Brooks, and Tolkien clones, got tired of dragon, elves and elves and elves again. need a breath of fresh air by China Mieville to remind them that fantasy is about imagination and not only about dragon, dwarf, elf aka sword and sorcery.

That's the same reason that i highly recommend Guy Gavrial Kay's books. Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors (The Sarantine Mosaic Duology), 2 very thin fantasy that hardly touch sword and magic, the only time the protagonist touched a sword, he dropped it clumsily. yet they are 2 of the most satisfying fantasy i have ever read.

and yes, i once must buy a book so much i ordered it from amazon (they out of print), waited until it got in print. cost me RM 13x.xx

wow tender, rm 130+ for a book. I admire your tenacity
What book was tat?

Hey, as I said earlier, I got inspired by this forum's recommendations and Guy G. Kay was one of the authors I looked up. I am now proud owner of Lord of Emperors and now hunting for Book 1.

Why Book 2? Due to books being dastardly expensive, I usually purchased during warehouse sales especially for untried authors. These last few weekends, I went nuts at the Pearson warehouse sale and spent more that RM 1K, that's where I found Book 2. I dread my credit card bill.

I don't mind the usual elves sorcery etc. It is the story weaving and what did the author do with the characters that will get me hooked. But you are right too as in there are a lot of authors with the formulaic Tolkien-esque story. Blur boy/girl with secret, got swept up in events where he/she has no idea what is going on, why-me phase, a old wizard dude came along and teach the way of the Force, suddenly boy/girl turns out to be extremely powerful and is reluctantly (but successfully) saving the world from The Evil One. Some of them are extremely boring (Brisinger) while some are fantastic.

For fantasy slightly different, have you tried :
- Jasper Fforde's books. Most classified him as fiction because it has contemporary setting but I think you can call it fantasy too. Genre line getting blurred.
- Kushiel's Dart - about a woman who likes pain. So-so veering to the nice side.
- Feist's Daughter of Empire Series. My introduction to political intrigue-based story. I reread it 3 times,that's how much I like them. For some reason, I never really like his Magician series (*dodge brickbats*), never understood its popularity.
-W40k Darkblade's books. My most recent read. Elf but an evil one, much more evil than Spider Queen Salvatore-style. I won't mention here the kind of things he did.
- Lies of Locke Lamora. Ok, I read Bk2 Under the Red Skies but not Bk1 (bad habit). About thieves. No dragons or elves so far. More of adventure type, not a good-vs-evil-apocalypse story.

Mmm, once i thought more, will post them on. I got a lot like Ash by Mary Gentle, Jonathan Norell by Susanne Clarke, the Malazans etc that I havent read.

I noticed you earlier heaped praise on Neal S. I was tempted by Quicksilver but it looks like it require a lot of free time and concentration. something I lacked now. Which of his books should I start with?

That was Pauline Kael's For Keeps not SF.

Glad to hear that, and hope you like it. they are still good as stand alones.

Yeah, i get you. actually i am not even a fan of Perdido Street Station or China Mieville. Just that he is one of those guy who champion breaking the formula and i admire him for it. Of course story weaving is the most important aspect of it all. i have come across some Star Wars/Trek, Dragonlance, D&D, Forgotten Realms, RPG Franchise and many such comercially milkable SF books that are surprisingly good reads. and i really don't mind reading another sword & socery, they are so easy to get into, ,quick and easy to finish reading.
my view is that, if its our first 50 fantasies, R A Salvatore, David Eddings, Terry Goodkind, Dragonlance (1st and 2nd Trilogy), Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey and such will blow you away. later on, depending on our taste, Robert Jordan, Stephen Donaldson, George R R Martin, Steven Erikson and many more are all super solid. but after reading them all, there have to be a few that we love most. for me, they are Robin Hobb, Gene Wolfe (Book of the New Sun), Guy Gavriel Kay and a few others.

like Dan Simmons said in an interview, "In a larger sense though, even my "series" such as the four Hyperion novels and the Ilium\Olympos two-volume tale are "stand alones" in the sense that I will finish the story and then never dilute it by tacking on my own sequels or sharecropping them out to other authors. I truly hate that whole idea. This is made relevant only by the fact that I probably could have spent the rest of my life and writing career writing "sequels" to the very popular Hyperion novels -- and probably would have been paid very well to do so -- but even the idea of being stuck in such a rut appalls me.
I like what I once heard Harlan Elison say to a group -- "I'd be satisfied if my literary obituary starts -- 'He never popped out of the same hole twice.'" That would satisfy me as well. "
Most respectable writers will want to write something new. tho not 100% true, but thats a rough guide to choose good writers and good books. after all, exciting new world (world building) is one of the reason why we love fantasy. tho the urge for fans to revisit the same old world is understandable.

haven read him yet, i tend to be slower to read contemporary or literary works (or works by writers who dont think they are writing SF), like those by Margaret Atwood. heard Fforde's good. will try him someday.

Uhm, thanks for the recommendation, i will propably-definitely read it, if only for the, errr so very different sex scene.

i never understood its popularity too. tho his world building is solid and his magic system is one of the best. i never like riftwar saga and such. heard Daughter of Empire was superb very long ago, but after many Feist's solid but not really my type book, i am slow to read him again.

Wikied it. sounds like the thing i like, will definitely read it soon. many books i start from bk2 or 3 too, pretty good way to tell if a series is good or not.

Ash: A Secret History, is one of those (among many other fantasy) very complex, mighty well written books that i tried to read but couldn't finish. they are just not my cup of tea. i got Jonathan Norell but haven't read it too. Malazan Book of the Fallen is super hardcore fantasy that i really liked. read till book 3 but left it for so long that i forgot the plot -- which was more complex than particle physics. which is lots better than Wheel of Time, read till book 10 but i forgot the plot and its exasperating to reread the whole thing. if you haven't read any book of Neal S., Snow Crash or Diamond Age are great to start with. both easy read and super cool. if you like him, then move on to his other books.

This post has been edited by tender: Oct 18 2009, 12:22 AM

Yeah, I tend to view authors like Eddings, Weis & Hickman, Salvatore, Brooks, Feist & even Tolkien as your 'Starter" types. They introduce you to the basics (elves, dragons, farmboys with DESTINY written all over them).

Then you have authors like Jordan, Cook, Le Guin, Lynch, Wolfe & Martin who put a twist to their tales, or bring elements of other genres to the fantasy setting - ie, grittiness, realism, sex, etc.

Finally, you've got you Mieville, Brust, Sanderson, Clarke, Erikson & Morgans, who come in from a completely different approach and lead up to a completely different tone, setting & outcome.

The latter two are certainly more interesting & engaging than the first group, but they share the same problem as all post-modern takes - you have to know the original elements. Frex, the Malazan books are still to me one of the finest works of epic fiction written, but it wouldn't be half as good if I hadn't read a lot of stuff in in the first category.

On Mieville, Perdido Street Station is insanely awesome, though I think it's more SF than Fantasy. Scar is similarly impressive, while the Iron Council doesn't meet expectations. Mind you, it's still better than most stuff by other authors. I just picked up the latest book, The City & The City in S'pore & can't wait to start it, though it's 3 books away on my reading list.

Just a warning though, he's incapable of writing a happy ending.

For Neal Stephenson, reading order is Snow Crash->Diamond Age->Cryptonomicon->*->Anathem

* = You can read The System of the World trilogy here, but only if your knowledge of 17th & 18th century European history is quite solid. Otherwise just go straight to Anathem.

Hehe - I tried a few pages of Perdido just to check out the style of the author. And within a few pages, the hero is having sex with his bug girlfriend. No no , no hamsap stuff, all done tastefully. But taken out of the context (I haven't start the book, am saving it) it did raise my eyebrows! But I am very intrigued by the description of the world building (*wrench book away as it is still very far away in the reading list, I gotta finish those I have started!*)

And the kinky stuff in Kushiel's Dart are all tastefully done too

Ok noted on the "no happy ending" for Mieville. No prob. As I mentioned earlier, I liked Raistlin

I am slowly growing my collection, all those authors mentioned in this thread will be on my radar (I can hear my wallet & bookshelf groan)

I just thought of something. I just visited the pinned thread on how to improve bookclub. But nobody seems to be using this lounge to discuss a book specifically. So I am going to do one. Think of it as a bookclub online, albeit slow. Problem is , when it comes to a book that we can discuss a lot on, i can only think of one : The Wheel of Time. Just in time for launch of Part 1 Book 12.

Other than recommendations, we can post short reviews too.

My Favs:

1. Malazan Series, including those by Ian Esselmont - Great story, well constructed world, witty humor (can't help admire Tehol) and need i add Gods & Ascendants duking it out.

2. Wheel of Time - Used to be 1st but kept dragging and a bit repetitive and detailed. I believe all the details and descriptions of action and surroundings help readers to get themselves absorb into the WOT world since there are gaps almost 2 years between books. But for those rereading the books ( i have reread them all like 3 times, when the 11 book came out, i read everything again from book 1) well it is safe to skip them. Still very interesting and fun to read, especially since the new book is coming out. (eagerly awaiting "The Gathering Storm to hit malaysian shores. does anybody know when?)

3. The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, by writer Greg Keyes - a bit light, not famous, but the story and characters are superb.

Of course I have also read LOTR, hobbit, a bit of Terry Pratchett.

ASoIaF is an OK read, but I read it after reading a lot of Malazans books so it made ASoIaF a bit to real and mundane. Too little fantasy stuff. Hopefully with the dragons appearing and the 'thing'(i forgot who they are, its been 2 years since the last book & I haven't touch them since) outside the wall stirring, the fantasy will pick up.

A few on waitng list and considerng : -
The mistborm series - yes it is becuase Sanderson is helping in finishing WOT.

The Black company - I guess I like gritty soldiers and magics used in warfare. (am i anticipating correctly)

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever - Quite a long series, have anybody read them. any recommendations, pro & cons?

I'm currently reading Unseen Academicals (latest Discworld book).

Fave series are the Discworld series (especially those centering around Sir Samuel Vimes or Moist von Lipwig), A Song of Ice and Fire, and stuff by Neil Gaiman that isn't really all that long (A Graveyard Book, Stardust).



EDIT: About ASoiF, it's not really much on the fantasy part. Sure, it's set in a fantasy themed place, but the story really revolves around the (miserable) lives that the (unfortunate) main characters lead in them, and has been so since the start. I wouldn't really recommend this series to anyone who's looking for MAGIC, ADVENTURE, GODS AND GODDESSES.



Also, I did read the Wheel of Time. I don't know why, I got sick of it by the eighth book. Oh well, I might's well finish the damn thing.

This post has been edited by Darkstalker: Oct 29 2009, 06:37 PM

lol. i felt the same about ASoIaF. but i always felt its my own weakness rather this ambitious and epic book didn't draw me in with pain and realism. i am glad you felt the same.

i tried to read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, but its pretty dark and painful too. not 'gritty soldiers' type of dark but some deep wrongness in the protagonist's phyche kind. all i can say is, its is an acquired taste. love it or hate it. if you like to read about disfigured and deform hero, i would recommend the more upbeat, warm and humour of Miles Vorkosigan series anytime. tho thats is SF not F. according to your taste, my advice is try The Black company, then Mistborm then Thomas Covenant.

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Added on October 31, 2009, 10:37 pmlol. felt the same here. fantasy cater to all types. some like to fantasize about torture and misery. call me shallow, but i would rather not read about getting crippled and plunge deep into incest and all that stuff. if i want torture, i would get my personal dungeon mistress to sort me out.

This post has been edited by tender: Oct 31 2009, 10:41 PM