Good Fantasy Books

[ryukasagi]

Hey i'm looking for some good fantasy books anyone got any ideas?

[tallgeese]

A favorite topic of mine, I aplolgize if I cover ground that you've already explored...

Of course, any list would be imcomplete with out Tolkein's books. Don't stop and Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. The Silmarillion is probibly my favorite book of all time. Right up there is The Children of Hurin. Both are tales of the first age of middle earth. The Silmarillion will take a while to get started in, but is well worth the trip once you're done. The Unfinished Tales, Lays, Shaping of 1 and 2 and the Lost Road are pretty much only for hardcore fans and not really on my "reccommended" list. It's alot of developmental stuff that you'll see better versions of in Silmarillion.

The Narnia books, are good. Very classc.

A favorite set that I like are by Glen Cook and are the Black Company books. There are sevral, they start with the Books of the North (a triliogy) and go to the Books of the South (two) and a novel called The Silver Spike. There are more that I'm working thru now, I'll let you know how they are. The first two sets are fantastic though.

There are quite a few collections out there of Howard's Conan books. I enjoy them quite a bit as well. They are older and more of the sword and sorcery genera, but should't be overlooked. A few by Jordan are good as well.

While we're on collections, I'd read some of H P Lovecrafts short stories. I know, he's a horror writer, this is true. But he treads on some ground that to me always read more like modern era fantasy than horror or sci fi.

As far as fun adventure reads and not important works go, I'd check out the first Dragonlance saga. I think it's Dragonlance Chronicles. Dragons of Autumn Twilight, ect. There are very few flawed fantasy heros I enjoy more than Tanis Half-Elven. The rest of the series in this label become increasingly unreadable in my opinion. The second series, Legends, is really as far as you want to go.

Also in the "fun for a weekend" read catagory are the first couple of triliogys by R A Salvatore in reference to his "Drizzt" novels. Again, we have a fun hero and some swashbuckling action. They are almost cloned from Tolkein at times, but they are fun. Try the Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and Halflings Gem. They are the best. There's a prequal series that's very readable, the best being Homeland. After that, they become a bit preachy and rehashed. They do catch their breath a bit towards the more recent ones and Salvatore definatly becomes a better writer. I still prefer the early three.

Robert Jordan has some fine work in his Wheel of Time series. The first 4-5 books are amazing. There are a couple of good ones later, but you could pretty much stop reading at 5. The probem is, you're so sucked in you feel like you have to keep going. His cast list just gets out of hand and he starts to get bogged down in details after a time. I finally stopped caring what happend. So, there is some great fantasy there no doubt. Just be prepared to either stop early or sludge thru a bunch of charaters that you really don't care about to see how it ends. I'm waiting for the cliffs notes. However, the first few were so good I don't begrudge reading them.

I'll stop now, that's probibly more than you wanted anyway. Good luck finding some you like.

[JohnC]

I"d offer that Fantasy is a pretty big field. For example there's a big difference between Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Butcher's Dresden Files but both are essentially 'sword and sorcery'. Can you narrow it down a bit?

[ryukasagi]

Thanks for the Books Tallgeese i've read a few of them including the Drizzt books and LOTR, havn't read the Simarilian yet though.

JohnC i prefer sword and sorcery books in fantasy but just put on any good book and i'll give it a shot.

[JohnC]

You might try Raymond Feist's stuff starting with Magician: Apprentice through A Darkness at Sethanon (4 books). This is his early stuff and, although the entire series (15+ books) is OK, personally I found that the later books became less good. The story lines run for 3 - 5 books each and then time jump to a new segment of the saga.

I really enjoy Jim Butcher's Dresden Files as modern day sword and sorcery. I don't much care for his other series. SciFi had a TV series based upon the books that gives a fair approximation but, in my opinion, the books are significantly better.

Mary Stewart's handling of the Arthurian legend is the best I've ever read (The Crystal Cave through The Last Enchantment), seriously good writing that happens to be fantasy.

Just a few thoughts. Hope they help.

[KarateEd]

David Eddings has a few good series. The Belgariad followed by The Malloreon are fun, easy reading with a decent sized cast of characters that makes for some interesting subplots. Both series consist of five books. He wrote another unrelated three-book series called The Elenium, but I didn't care for it as much.

[tallgeese]

I have to second for Mary Stewart's stuff. The Crystal Cave redefinded my conceptions of the Arthurian legend. Great stuff.

[bushido_man96]

Of course, any list would be imcomplete with out Tolkein's books. Don't stop and Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. The Silmarillion is probibly my favorite book of all time. Right up there is The Children of Hurin. Both are tales of the first age of middle earth. The Silmarillion will take a while to get started in, but is well worth the trip once you're done.

These are good books, and gets you into the history of things really nicely. Gives you some background on the LOR stuff, too.

Robert Jordan has some fine work in his Wheel of Time series. The first 4-5 books are amazing. There are a couple of good ones later, but you could pretty much stop reading at 5. The probem is, you're so sucked in you feel like you have to keep going. His cast list just gets out of hand and he starts to get bogged down in details after a time. I finally stopped caring what happend. So, there is some great fantasy there no doubt. Just be prepared to either stop early or sludge thru a bunch of charaters that you really don't care about to see how it ends. I'm waiting for the cliffs notes. However, the first few were so good I don't begrudge reading them.

I had heard that he had passed on. Is that the case? Did he finish out the series?

I am a big fan of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. It has kind of a Rated-R LOR feel to it, but the rich history seems to come in a simpler fashion. Good books, and the series develops characters very nicely.

[bushido_man96]

Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle is fun, too.

[ryukasagi]

Cool, has anyone read Elantris or Mistborn from Brandon Sanderson, i'm thinking about getting them, but know nothing about them