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.

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

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

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.

Heh, maybe everyone's getting bogged down by their reading lists.... I just finished Dust of Dreams, Gathering Storm & Unseen Academicals, I still have The City & The City, Return of the Crimson Guard, Bauchelain & Korbal Broach: The Collected Stories, as well as Matter on the SF side lying around untouched & unread.....

Book 1 of Malazan is very confusing, & if at all possible I would tell people to avoid it & go straight to Book 2, one of the strongest in the series. Apparently Erikson wrote Book 1 something like 10 years before any of the other books, & you can see how unpolished he was as an author for it.

I left a mini review of tGS on the Robert Jordan thread, I'll quote it here:

Black Company - I've got & read the first 2 collections, and yeah, it is very gritty while at the same time being more standard classic fantasy fare then aSoI&F or Malazan.

Thoma Covenant - Ugh. Just ugh. It's a well written book, & certainly a true classic, but once I read it I never wanted to re-read it again. The word for the main character is odious. Every time he thought or said something I either wanted to throttle him or take a bath to wash his memory off.

BTW, anyone here read the Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels? They're not classic fantasy either (best description: Horatio Hornblower, but with dragons!), but they're very good light reading.

Read the entire series couple of years ago. Re-read it recently as I some free time. It's a pretty well realized pastiche of urban & low fantasy, with a lot of characters & organizations in play. As to the tone... if you like the TV series House, you'll probably like Dresden. He's not as smart, but he's gott a similar attitude. Also amazing is just how much he gets beaten up in each of the books, he's not your typical high fantasy uber-badass type hero - he's just stubborn & gets described (even by himself) as basically a thug.

Contains high levels of snark

Just finished this, after seeing a millyun recomendations. Has it's moments, and certainly has potential but the story goes nowhere. I'm kind of unhappy as this made me break my rule about not getting involved in unfinished series....

Hopefully, my next series that i'm gonna start on (Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin) is better. Supposed to work as a standalone novel & has gotten praise from some reliable reviewers....

Also just finishes Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Excellent disposable read, but not as good (or as intrigung a magic system) as in Elantris.

Holy crap is it better.

It's an excellent standalone book, & quite surprisingly original. The tone of voice is different to almost anything I've ever read before. Very highly recommended. You can read the sample chapters on the authors website to get a better idea.

This post has been edited by snowcrash: Apr 14 2010, 01:14 PM

Just finished Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy based on a recommendatory here. Very bloody, quite decently written. A bit too much to the "grim & gritty" end of things, especially with the reveal at the end.

It's odd though. It has all the trappings of one, but I cannot honestly consider it epic fantasy. It's viewpoint is just too.... small.

The news has been making the rounds the last couple of weeks, but GRR Martin has more or less confirmed that A Dance with Dragons will be coming out this year, date given : TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011

http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts...785-dragon-time
http://grrm.livejournal.com/199836.html

Fingers crossed, this date will happen!

Finished Drance With Dragons yesterday. Man, it was massive.... still processing everything.... will have comment when my brain working again.