Recommend me a fantasy book/series

[Jon Miller]

soldier ask not was good

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

crap still too many

why don't others just postbooks and I will chime in what I think aoutthiem

jon Miller

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I mean scifi and fantasy

I probably should just maybe put down my favorites

the doomsday book is very good (from the above very short list)

Jon Miller

Was Doomsday Book hard for you to get into?

I've tried to read it several times and haven't been able to get into it.

ACK!

[Jon Miller]

a little

not too bad though

I have found that I read fast enough taht it is easy for me to get into books tohugh


JNon Miller

[Tingkai]

I strongly recommend The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. The overall plot is compelling and the writing is superb. He's probably one of the best fantasy prose writers around.

[ajbera]

Someone (Wraith, I think) suggested Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, and I concur. It's got four volumes, only two of which are connected. The common thing about the volumes are the setting - Earth at the end of it's life, when the sun is bloated and red and magic has returned. the four books of the series are The Dying Earth, a collection of stories, Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga, which are parts one and two of a long tale, and Rhialto the Marvellous, which discusses the wizards of the era. Eyes of the Overworld is my favorite of the bunch, and one of my favorite books EVER (rather dark, but brilliant).

Vance also produced a trilogy called Lyonesse. The first book is Suldrun's Garden, the second is The Green Pearl, and the third is Madouc. Like all Vance, the series is absolutely wonderful.

[monolith94]

Check out american gods, it's an amazing ride with a killer ending. Great characters too.

And if you call me a pseudo-intellectual, GP, I'm going to make you wish you learned camo-training.

[VetLegion]

GP thinks Elftor is pseudo-intellectual too so don't you worry

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by DarkCloud

I am led to beleive- still haven't got my hands on Crossroads of Dust... or whatever it's called )

It is Crossroads of Twilight, DarkCloud.

Asmodean

[Arrian]

I'd definitely recommend the Deathsgate Cycle by Weiss & Hickman.

I liked the Belgariad (Eddings), and even though it's kinda predictable, I liked the characters enough to read the Mallorean too. I'd say check out the Belgariad and only go on to the Mallorean if you really liked it.

Tad Williams was good. Not all that memorable, but I do recall enjoying it.

Robin Hobb is good too. There's the Assassins series (and I think she's starting up another set of those), and also the Liveship Traders series. Kinda different, which is of course, good.

Steven (sp?) Brust is good too. I like his sense of humor.

A could not agree more about R. Jordan. I fart in his general direction.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

Oh, yeah, I remember that one (didn't he write another one, too?). Pretty good.

-Arrian

[Rogan Josh]

Just in case you missed my lonely little post:

Read Transformation by Carol Berg

http://www.sff.net/people/carolberg/

Seriously, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time (it is the first of 3). Check it out.

Seyonne is a man waiting to die. He has been a slave for sixteen years, almost half his life, and has lost everything of meaning to him: his dignity, the people and homeland he loves, and the Warden's power he used to defend an unsuspecting world from the ravages of demons. Seyonne has made peace with his fate. With strict self-discipline he forces himself to exist only in the present moment and to avoid the pain of hope or caring about anyone. But from the moment he is sold to the arrogant, careless Prince Aleksander, the heir to the Derzhi Empire, Seyonne's uneasy peace begins to crumble. And when he discovers a demon lurking in the Derzhi court, he must find hope and strength in a most unlikely place...

[CerberusIV]

I have to start by confessing I haven't found a Fantasy author I like in at least the last ten years, so any comments are on more "classic" works.

R E Howard - excellent for a rainy Sunday afternoon. The Conan stories are amongst his best work but some of the collections of short stories are also very good. He packs more into a short story than many authors can manage in a trilogy.

Tolkein - "The Silmarillion" is worth a read if you can accept the style. It does help make sense of LoTR and reading LoTR again afterwards was richer for it.

Gemmell - The early books are the best. Legend and Waylander, possibly Morningstar. After that he drifted into repetition and pointless sequels with too much detail and not enough action.

Michael Moorcock - I have always liked his writings. The Elric and the Eternal Champion series are the best. I particularly liked "The Wierd of the White Wolf" volume (possibly published with a different title in the USA)

Not a series but a classic - "The Worm Ouroboros" by Eddison. Heavy going at first but worth it.

If you are into fantasy writing I would also suggest reading translations of one or two of the norse sagas (published in the UK as Penguin Classics). Egil's Saga is particularly easy to read and gives a flavour of what living a fantasy novel might really be like. My favourite book and the one I would take if stranded on a desert island!

Final suggestion - more horror than fantasy but the works of William Hope Hodgson are interesting. The Carnacki ghost stories are good for evoking an uneasy sense of fear (best not read after dark if you are of a nervous disposition). The House on the Borderland is interesting because you can follow his development as an author in just that one volume.

My two pence worth.

[LDiCesare]

Oh, yeah, I remember that one (didn't he write another one, too?). Pretty good.

Kay wrote other books indeed. I named two in my above post: Tigana is Italy where Al-Rassan was Spain (or, better said, Al Andalus), and A Song for Arbonne is Provence. There is also the Mosaics of Sarance (not sure of the exact title) which refers to Byzantium and is a little jewel.
He also wrote a series called Fionnavar's something (tapisserie in French, don't know the original title: carpet?) which is more classical fantasy.

[Arrian]

Oh, it was Tigana I was thinking of. I must have missed it in your post.

Mosaics of Sarance, eh? I may have to go looking for that one.

He also wrote a series called Fionnavar's something (tapisserie in French, don't know the original title: carpet?) which is more classical fantasy.

Tapestry. Come to think of it, I believe I read that too.

-Arrian