Fantasy novels

[irocfan]

since we have one for scifi I thought I'd see if there were any similar takers for fantasy. I guess that the one problem fantasy has is that it's seen as "Tolkien 'n' st" whereas even outside of the generic pulp novels and novellas there is a huge range of well written stuff out there.

On the pulp side (and still enjoyable) you have the likes of R E Howard and Conan/Kull for example
Heroic fantasy David Gemmell for me is a stand out
Time travel fantasy David Webber & Eric Flint with their 1633 series (or Harry Turtledove - though this can and does cross over into sci-fi)
Urban fantasy Jim Butcher and his Harry Dresden series

A new author I've stumbled across is Brian G Turner and his Chronicles of Empire series ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M2UHXR8/ref=as_li_s... ) which I have high hopes for


Let's have some recommendations (or indeed tell me I'm wrong and that Gemmell is st - though you'd be mistaken <grin>)

[Wobbegong]

Raymond Feist - Riftwar Saga is good

Currently on the Magician (first book). I read a few of the series when I was younger so decided to read them in order

[grumbledoak]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brentford_Trilog...
"The Brentford Trilogy is a series of nine novels by writer Robert Rankin. They humorously chronicle the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who confront the forces of darkness in the environs of West London, usually with the assistance of large quantities of beer from their favourite public house, The Flying Swan."

[plasticpig]

A few authors I like are Michael Moorcock (Elric, Corum, Runestaff etc), Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles Of Amber and Glen Cook's Black Company series.

[RogueTrooper]

Wobbegong said:

Raymond Feist - Riftwar Saga is good

Currently on the Magician (first book). I read a few of the series when I was younger so decided to read them in order

The first three books are noticeably better than the many later offerings, IMHO.

[RogueTrooper]

The Earthsea Cycle (starting with A Wizard Of Earthsea) by Ursula Le Guin is good.

The Lankhmar stories by Fritz Leiber and starring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are excellent.

[silverthorn2151]

I have read a lot of fantasy in my time.

David Eddings really stands out for me with The Belgariad series being a highlight of my reading yoof.

Did anyone else watch the recent Andrew Marr documentaries on 3 forms of fiction. One was fantasy and it was a nice easy and interesting watch.

On iplayer for a few days more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p040pw15/sleu...

[Gnits]

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.

I read these before Lord of The Rings. Ended up being disappointed with Tolkeins books as Donaldson writes a v rich and full universe.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

Wobbegong said:

Raymond Feist - Riftwar Saga is good

Currently on the Magician (first book). I read a few of the series when I was younger so decided to read them in order

I have read all of Feist Riftwar books - my advice would be to stop after book3 (A Darkness at Sethanon) after that there is a noticeable drop in quality. Some of the later books are ok but there are a lot of very poor quality books where it felt like Feist was simply churning out books for the sake of it.

I can highly recommend Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen which was recommended to me as something to read whilst waiting for GRRMs The Winds of Winter. Since reading Malazan I feel it has ruined fantasy for me because any other fantasy books feel simple and slow by comparison.

As a series people either love or hate, and the first book is very hard to get into, throwing the reader into the middle of a vast battle with a complex magic system. The story is truly epic covering many races and continents and mainly told form the P.O.V. of the soldiers and ordinary citizens in the different factions as the Malazan Empire seeks to expand, meeting fierce resistance and other sinister threats. There are 100s of POV characters, with many different seemingly unconnected story threads taking place on different continents. The author really tries to give every factions reasoning for the conflicts and heavily uses the "unreliable narrator/perspective", forcing the reader to think about what is going on.

Be warned - the series is "high fantasy" with a lot of magic, gods & religions; it is not a light read and can be very heavy going. I initially found the first book a struggle but having read the complete series I think it is well worth effort.

[irocfan]

as a much younger person than I am now I did enjoy the Dragonlance series of novels (and indeed some of the Ravenloft ones too). the problem is that in the expanded D&D novels universe the writing can be a little 'patchy'

A great series to read is The Kingslayer Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss (book one is The Name of The Wind which weighs in at 662 pages)

[jet_noise]

Discworld anyone?
I concur with Roger Zelazny's Amber series and Robert Rankin's Brentford stuff.
Terry Brooks has a number of themes on Shannara.
Robin Hobb. Farseer trilogy my favourite but there are several others which come close.
Robert Silverberg Majipoor trilogy+1!
Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern series.
Trudi Canavan.
Kate Elliott Crown of Stars series, Spiritwalker trilogy.
Sara Douglass Wayfarer/Axis
Not a dragon or a sword in sight (but the odd Dodo and literary characters aplenty) in Jasper Ffordes amusing Thursday Next stuff. Fantastic or sci fi?

there may be more
regards,
Jet

[mizx]

irocfan said:

as a much younger person than I am now I did enjoy the Dragonlance series of novels (and indeed some of the Ravenloft ones too). the problem is that in the expanded D&D novels universe the writing can be a little 'patchy'

It can be yes. You really need to have good search around reading reviews etc. you soon get an idea which authors to avoid though most are at least 'good'. There's occasionally a skippable book in the odd series.

I invested myself into Forgotten Realms and have little experience with Fantasy outside of that. I usually read and/or listen to them, pretty much everything is on Audible though checking the narrator samples is important!! Being able to learn and get to know the world is part of it for me, I guess it's escapism. I like that it often doesn't screw around with depicting violence and killing characters off. On the other hand some books have a character who isn't some legendary adventurer getting into 'yeah right!' territory with regularity.

R.A Salvatore is the better known choice for good reason, but lots of the other novels are excellent. Some authors you are unlikely to go far wrong with:

Richard Lee Byers - Brotherhood of the Griffon, The Haunted Lands. I'm currently reading Year of Rogue Dragons, readable but perhaps his weakest.
Richard Baker - The Last Mythal
Elaine Cunningham - Evermeet: Island of Elves, Songs & Swords, Starlight & Shadows
Paul Kemp - Erevis Cale books (chronologically starts in book one of Sembia: Gateway to the Realms)
Thomas M. Reid
Douglas Niles

Edited by mizx on Sunday 20th November 21:33

[SnapShot]

Ive been enjoying the Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series lately. Read them all over the past couple of months.

[Dukeboy749r]

This brought back some memories - for books read in the late '80s/early 90's.

May have to revisit a few of the better sagas - I've since moved into Medieval Mystery via C J Sansom, Paul Doherty and Susanna Gregory, amongst many others

[handpaper]

It's worth looking at the beginning: E.R.Eddison's 'The Worm Ouroborous'

[Nuclearsquash]

I'm enjoying the Copper Cat trilogy (Copper Promise, Iron Ghost, Silver Tide) by Jen Williams, it's a light fantasy series but enjoyable none the less.

[Fastchas]

Marquis de Sade
Might be a different kind of fantasy though...

[Equilibrium25]

silverthorn2151 said:

David Eddings really stands out for me with The Belgariad series being a highlight of my reading yoof.

Excellent, yes. I just sold the entire 5-book series, along with the follow-on The Mallorean. Dropped the whole lot at the Post Office at lunchtime, having not read them since 199x. Both very good series.

The Magician series, as mentioned above, is brilliant. Feist really hit his stride with one of the follow-up sagas (Servant of the Empire, Daughter of the Empire, and one other) and then some of the further series set around Krondor. Can't remember the names of the latter, but some great books there for anyone that enjoys Magician etc.

[Piersman2]

Gnits said:

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.

I read these before Lord of The Rings. Ended up being disappointed with Tolkeins books as Donaldson writes a v rich and full universe.

I would second this choice. Probably pretty much the earliest series of books I read when but a teen'. They hooked me into the genre and I avidly read every fantasy novel I could get my hands on for about 10 years.

David Gemmell is another author that stands out for me, the Druss the legends book(s) being particularly emotive.

[RizzoTheRat]

The late great Sir Terry Pratchett wins this one for me.

Neil Gaimen

Brandon Sanderson's Final Empire series

Robin Hobb's Fitz and Fool trilogy, which leads in to to a couple more trilogies

Anne McCafferys Pern books.

grumbledoak said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brentford_Trilog...
"The Brentford Trilogy is a series of nine novels by writer Robert Rankin. They humorously chronicle the lives of a couple of drunken middle-aged layabouts, Jim Pooley and John Omally, who confront the forces of darkness in the environs of West London, usually with the assistance of large quantities of beer from their favourite public house, The Flying Swan."

And a sprout...

Gnits said:

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.

I read these before Lord of The Rings. Ended up being disappointed with Tolkeins books as Donaldson writes a v rich and full universe.

I reread these recently having originally read them when I was about 15-16. To be honest I was disappointing, very predictable one dimensional characters.