Next! ... Fantasy Book Must Reads
polycounter lvl 18
Ok, I just finished the Hedge Knight Novellas (prequel stories for A Song of Ice and Fire) after reading A Dance With Dragons and am still hungry for more!!!!
So what should I check out next to keep me occupied until the 6th Book of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series comes out?
Fantasy Books/Series I've read and really enjoyed:
- A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin (Favorite books of all time)
- The Hedge Knight Novellas by George RR Martin
- Fevre Dream by George RR Martin (a great Vampire story)
- A wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (such a long read but good)
- His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (my least favorite of the bunch)
I'm also not apposed to a really good Young Reader series!
Young Reader Books/Series I've read and really enjoyed:
- Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
- The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler
- The Land of Elyon by Patrick Carman
- The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
I was recently recommended The Rune Lords by David Farland. Has anyone read it? What did you think?
- BoBo
So what should I check out next to keep me occupied until the 6th Book of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series comes out?
Fantasy Books/Series I've read and really enjoyed:
- A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin (Favorite books of all time)
- The Hedge Knight Novellas by George RR Martin
- Fevre Dream by George RR Martin (a great Vampire story)
- A wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (such a long read but good)
- His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (my least favorite of the bunch)
I'm also not apposed to a really good Young Reader series!
Young Reader Books/Series I've read and really enjoyed:
- Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
- The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler
- The Land of Elyon by Patrick Carman
- The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
I was recently recommended The Rune Lords by David Farland. Has anyone read it? What did you think?
- BoBo
Replies
-- A really good story mostly made for the younger crowd.
The Shannara Series
-- Very Good, more mature series.
Kind of jumbled in timeframe, but the best order is to read them as such:
The Original Shannara Trilogy
The Sword of Shannara
The Elfstones of Shannara
The Wishsong of Shannara
A Shannara Short Story
Indomitable An epilogue to The Wishsong of Shannara
A Shannara Graphic Novel
Dark Wraith of Shannara
The Heritage of Shannara
The Scions of Shannara
The Druid of Shannara
The Elf Queen of Shannara
The Talismans of Shannara
A Shannara Prequel
First King of Shannara
The Word/Void Trilogy
Running with the Demon
A Knight of the Word
Angel Fire East
The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara
Ilse Witch
Antrax
Morgawr
High Druid of Shannara
Jarka Ruus
Tanequil
Straken
Genesis of Shannara Trilogy
Armageddon's Children
The Elves of Cintra
The Gypsy Morph
But since they are so jumbled, its really easy to read out of order/as you can find them. I'd really recommend these.
Havent heard of rune lords tho.:)
fantasy con artists trying to pull of a big heist.
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313908056&sr=8-1[/ame]
it was brilliant!
-_-
I liked the first 5 Wheel of Time books.
The First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks is good.
Not much I've read in the way of high fantasy past that. But I love all Neil Gaiman's novels. Especially 'American Gods', and 'Anansi Boys', And Stardust.
(Especially if you loved 'the Sandman' comics).
I thought the first book was the best of the trilogy, but they're all great reads with convincing characters in a more mature setting.
And coincidentally, I just noticed that Robin Hobb wrote a glowing review of the book that Catstyle just recommended on Amazon! I'm gonna check out The Name of the Wind now too...
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_14?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=china+mieville&x=0&y=0&sprefix=china+mieville[/ame]
Also, anything from Terry Pratchett really (especially this [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Nation-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0061433039/ref=sr_1_17?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313916213&sr=1-17[/ame] ). Love his writing style.
and the Empire book by janny Wurts great if you like Asian cultural influences
Also Lian Hearn if you are eager for a ninja fix!
Anything by Terry Prachett
Painted man + Desert Spear by Peter Brett
Elizabeth Moon - Paladin series
Night Angle Trilogy - Brent Weeks
Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn Series - Brandon Sanderson
The Book of Swords
The Book of Lost Swords
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Swords-Comprising-First-Second/dp/1568650094[/ame]
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Fouls-Chronicles-Thomas-Covenant-Unbeliever/dp/0345348656[/ame]
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Dragonbone-Chair-Memory-Sorrow-Thorn/dp/0886773849[/ame]
The Chronicles of Prydain *
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Book-Three-Prydain-Chronicles/dp/0440407028[/ame]
Have more will post later.
*Don't go by Disneys horror of an adaption, "The Black Cauldron" which effectively closed Disney Animation Studios for 15 years.
Much more Sci-Fi favs, but thats a different thread.
Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is also fantastic, though more literary and a little more self-indulgent.
Even though this is a thread about books but I wanted to mention that Discworld series have some awesome games too. I like Mortality Bytes! best.
Mistborn book one - brandon sanderson
I highly recommend these books!
The Enginner Trilogy (Devices and Desires, Evil for Evil, The Escapement) by KJ Parker.
I don't agree with all the underlying ideas in the series, but it's a nice ready, quite dark though.
The Curse of Chalion by Lois Mcmaster Bujold is nice, I didn't like the rest of her fantasy as much (But her Vorkosigan saga is great, it's more sci-fi though).
Robin Hobb's stuff is nice enough, even if she tends to repeat herself, and often has kind of whiny main characters. I feel her Liveship Traders trilogy is what's she's done best (but haven't read her newest series).
Recently I've been reading the Temeraire books, by Naomi Novik, wasn't really interested at first cause I don't much care for dragon-stuff, but it's actually quite nice and easy to get into.
Plenty of other great stuff has been mentioned already (Rothfuss, Martin, China Mieville, etc...)
awesome adventures following the Dwarven Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson and the Poet Felix Jaeger who is bound by a blood oath to follow the slayer and record his heroic exploits and ultimately his death. Easily read book that takes place whitin the Warhammer fantasy universe and features some really cool and fun antagonists.
Gotrek and Felix - William King.
If your not afraid of a bit of Sci-Fi then I would highly recommend:
*[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reality-Dysfunction-Nights-Dawn-Trilogy/dp/0330340328/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313945662&sr=1-2"]the nights dawn trilogy, by Peter f Hamilton[/ame].
I loved the Riftwar saga back in the day, but its pretty predictable, good always prevails, evil is transparently EVIL. dont get me wrong they're really well written and great books but after George R they might not entertain.
- the original Robert E. Howard Conan series
Researching the books posted so far, I think I'm going to try "The Name of the Wind" next.
Please keep them coming and don't hesitate to praise a book/series already posted!
- BoBo
By Tad Williams:
The Dragonbone Chair
The Stone of Farewell
Siege to Green Angle Tower
(obviously its a trilogy)
It's a 10 book series that finished this year. Spans an entire globe and has an incredible sense of depth and history to it. Probably my favorite series [ used to be R R Martin].
Glen Cook - The Black Company: The Books of the North
Very very good 'black fantasy' series of books. Reminds me of R R Martin's stuff, in that it's very down-in-the-dirt and gritty. After reading these, you start to see how they've influenced a lot of modern writers.
Michael Moorcock - Elric: Song of the Black Sword.
A must read. Not reading Elric is like having never played Zelda. It's just something you need to do. Fantastic homage to pulp fantasy, and if you really get into it there are plenty of books to read. This is the badass original The Witcher rips off.
Where did you find the Hedge Knight novellas? I've been having a hard time finding them.
C.J.Cherryh. Morgaine series is very dark, partly sci-fi. The only female writer I've gotten along with.
At least some Moorcock and Howard are must reads for anyone interested in fantasy, I think most would be very surprised how lucid the Conan stories are.
Alan Garner for Young Reader stuff. Heavily Celtic/Pagan based.
Mouse back button hasn't been very kind today.
Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover.
It's one of the crudest, most violent fantasy stories out there, but it's also exceptionally clever and well written. It's kind of a mix of an MMO, a standard fantasy story, and Running Man...which sounds weird, but it's infinitely better than it has any right to be. It's a pretty quick read too, compared to any of the Martin or Jordan books.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Black-Company-Glen-Cook/dp/0765319233/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313941242&sr=8-2"]black company[/ame]
More for teens, still liked it a lot. First in a trilogy.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Sabriel-Abhorsen-Garth-Nix/dp/0061474355/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313941159&sr=8-1"]sabriel[/ame]
Think I'm going to be reading Name of the Wind next too. Looks good.
If you like some Sci-Fi as wel, I'd recommend ALL books by Robert Heinlein, my favourite author period. Start with "Stranger in a Strange Land", [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441790348a[/ame] book upon which a religion in California was actually based :P. It's about a guy who grew up on mars, and then comes back to Earth and is marvelled by the strange dealings of mankind.
I just finished the series a couple weeks ago. I'd put it up there with Harry Potter and I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Don't judge the books based on the movie. They're a great combination of adventure and Greek myth.
There are five books (The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian) in the series then it continues in the Heroes of Olympus series. The first book of the Heroes of Olympus, The Lost Hero, is out now with the second, The Son of Neptune, on out at the beginning of October.
*edit fixed amazon link
Also for sci fi, Peter F Hamilton. Start with Reality Dysfunction before reading the next series in the commonwealth universe (Pandora's star & the Void trilogy)
No, but it does have a cheesy nigh invulnerable uber barbarian with a magical sword slaying gods. Karsa Orlong 4TW!
MUST READS:
Pat Rothfuss. Name of the Wind is exceptional, Wise Man's Fear is pretty good.
Joe Abercrombie. First Law trilogy is excellent, stand alone novels are solid.
Stephen Erikson. First four Malazan books are epic, but it got kinda messy at the end. House of Chains is an absolute masterpiece.
Scott Lynch. Both of his Locke Lamora novels are fantastic.
PRETTY GOOD:
Peter Brett. Warded Man series has a goofy concept, but it's well written.
Brian Ruckley. Winterbirth trilogy is grim and compelling.
Brent Weeks. Night Angel trilogy is cheesy, sort of a fantasy ninja thing, but pretty fun.
David Eddings. Older series, but his Belgariad series is classic fantasy. Mind you, this series actually does feature an orphan with a magic sword slaying a god
Glen Cook. The Black Company books are mostly good, if a bit uneven. Great if you like fantasy war stories.
YMMV:
China Mieville. Odd fantasy stuff, good but not what you expect. I prefer his contemporary setting stuff.
Robin Hobb. The Assassin's Apprentice stories didn't work for me, felt like I'd read it before.
NOT TYPICAL FANTASY:
Jim Butcher. His Harry Dresden series is a ton of fun, about a wizard PI in modern Chicago. Very highly recommended.
Matthew Stover. Caine series is fantasy plus sci-fi plus reality TV. Good stuff, really visceral.
Rothfuss' Name of the Wind is the single best book on my list, and one of the greatest first fantasy novels ever. If you're starting with that, you won't be disappointed.
The Wayfarer Redemption
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Wayfarer-Redemption-Axis-Trilogy-Bk/dp/0765341301[/ame]
The best for last.. This is sorta a fantasy/sci-fi mix. Metaphysical Multiverse story.
The Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060[/ame]
David Gemmell has some great books. Obvious ones would be Druss the legend/ drenai tales.
And if you are into so fun, not so serious fantasy, Piers Anthony's Xanth books are very good reads
Its more or less a continuation of a prior trilogy that focuses more on 2 main characters rather than huge forces battling but it has a pretty good payoff.
pretty much anything by GRRM
Windhaven - GRRM / Lisa Tuttle (I admit I loved the setting more than the story. but a good read anyway).
Andrzej Sapkowski - The guy who's behind the Witcher. The Witcher books are okay, but I can really recommend Lux Perpetua and Narrenturm (there's a third book too). Unfortunately only in German and Polish at the moment. Still for those of you who understand the language, highly recommended.
Ash - a secret History by Mary Gentle. Interesting story and very well researched.
And of course the classic Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Not fantasy but it's still fiction
Spares, Only Forward, One of Us - by Michael Marshall Smith. They're just hilariously written and very exciting Sci Fi novels. Probably my favorites. I can read them again and again and again.
Slow at first, but a fantastic story if you persevere.
If you're not opposed to "modern fantasy" then I really can't recommend enough American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Stunning book, up there with His Dark Materials in my eyes.
Super cool thread, btw, can't wait to check all these books out
jakelear - I was lucky enough to get the materials loaned to me by a friend at work. blankslatejoe has a link above to the actual material though I read the first two Hedge Knight stories in Graphic Novel form.
Thanks again everyone. Really nice list to work from!
- BoBo
As for fantasy:
Neil Gaiman - American Gods and Anansi Boys (really fun well written books)
Gene Wolfe - Book of the new sun (really different compared to your run of the mill fantasy)
if you do like just straight up cheese fantasy then check out:
R.A.Salvatore - Drizzdt books
Michael Moorcock - Elric Saga (juvenile Dark Fantasy sword and sorcery stuff)
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Deathgate cycle (or actually just about anything they've written, its about as comfortable cliche ridden paperback stuff you can find, I always find that sort of stuff very comforting)
Robert E Howard - conan, ofcourse. I got that Frazetta illustrated book of short stories and that was badass.
Warriors anothology by GRRM, its the book with the latest Hedge Knight story (Mystery Knight), I'm assuming you have it, but its a pretty sweet book nonetheless.
Next up on my list are:
Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series
Mervyn Peak - Gormenghast series
I've read that it was good. I want a sequel, it hinted at things that need to be expanded on.
A few that I've read, and thought were good.
Keeping it Real by Justina Robson.
The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson.
The Stranger by Max Frei.
You can get the complete collected works for $3 on the Kindle btw...
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Conan-Cimmerian-Complete-Trilogus-ebook/dp/B004KSR2H2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1314040324&sr=1-1[/ame]
YES! So good!
And I definitely enjoy the books by Terry Pratchett (more on the funny side) and Neil Gaiman.
And as far as sci-fi goes: Ender's Game. One of the best books I know, especially from a game-design view.
Cheerio
"The Saxon Chronicles" by Bernard Cornwell
more history than fantasy though
also
"The Arthus Books" by Bernhard Cornwell
again only slightly fantasy, i mean the whole merlin stuff is somewhat fantasy but its not the kind of fantasy with orcs and trolls
"The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
ow awesome i just see that the second book is out
what i cannot recommend is the series of fantasy books of Trudy Canavan, maybe it was just the first book, but besides some nice ideas which could be awesome in a game, the book "The Magician's Apprentice" was pretty boring, but i guess that would be art of a different thread ^^