Recommend me a fantasy book/series

[Wraith]

Some stuff that's already been mentioned, worth mentioning again:

The A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber
The Black Company series by Glen Cook
The Earthsea series by Ursula K LeGuin
The Magician series by Raymond E Fiest
The Compleat Enchanter series by Pratt and DeCamp


--"Have you read the Belgariad or The Mallorean series (both connected) by David and Leigh Edding? "

They're okay, but he seems to be writing the same trilogy over and over again...

Some other titles to consider:
The Wars of Light and Shadow series by Janny Wurts (may be too epic for you, since you don't seem to want long series)
The Adventures of Master Li and Number Ten Ox series by Barry Hughart
The Lord Darcy series by Randall Garrett
The Coldfire trilogy by C. S. Friedman
The Book of Swords series by Fred Saberhagen (another long one)
The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance
The Castle Periolous series by John DeChancie
The Chronicles and Legends series from the Dragonlance books (although you should skip the fourth Chronicles book), following up with Soulforge if you like Raistlin.

That ought to keep you busy for a while.

Wraith
Fantasy isn't our crutch -- its arcane

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
mirror of her dreams is really really good (if it is what I am thinking it is, 2 books one entitled a man rides through?)

singles there is stuff like the paladin by cherryh and many many more

Jon Miller

Yes thats the one I'm talking about.

That sets you apart from most of humanity then

What can I say?

[LDiCesare]

paladin by cherryh

Good one indeed.

If you like pseudo-historical stuff with only a little magic in it, you can try Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana, A Song for Arbonne...).

[Richard Bruns]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
These days I have accepted Fantasy as light-touch fun, and read it purely for entertainment purposes. To that end I keep going back to Robert E Howard's utterly classic Conan series of short stories/novellas, which is just blood and swords and giant jewels and loincloths but at the same time musty, earthy and incredibly well paced. Strong "1930s racist" warning, but if you can see past that it's chock-full of chuckle-at--vividly-described-giant-spider fun. All of them are collected in two editions in the Fantasy Masterworks series.

I second this. If you want pure fun without any pretension, then the old pulp authors are the way to go. Don't forget the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. (Tarzan, John Carter, etc.)

[TCO]

Originally posted by st_swithin
"The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis.

Particularly the 7th book: "The Boy and His Horse"
and the 1st book: "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"

The seventh book is the Last Battle.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed

Does Neil Gaiman count as fantasy? If so go buy American Gods NOW.

American Gods is a pretentious, wordy, boring, you-can-see-where-its going overly long book. Go read the rips on Amazon. Only pseudosophisticates find it deep. it is kaka from the ass. And the dude, doesn't know **** about America or about travelling around. There are so many better road novels than this wrt America.

Huckleberry Finn
The Grapes of Wrath
Walking Across America
Travels with Charlie
I See by My Outfit: Cross country on a motor scooter*
On the Road
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance


*This is by Peter Beagle who also wrote The Last Unicorn and who is a Tolkein advocate big time.

------------------

Boris read The Last Unicorn

[TCO]

reply with quoted when I meant to edit.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by self biased
anything written by larry niven is worth it's weight in gold. yes, he's primarily a hard SF writer, but one has to read anything from his "the magic goes away" series and be in awe of his fantastical skill as well.

I'd also like to recommend the rather different Perdido Street Station and The Scar books by China Mieville.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
Feet Of Clay and the lovely Hogfather.

Feet of Clay -- Great
Hogfather - Sucks

[TCO]

Commonality is that several of us recomend Ursela LeGuin.

[Jon Miller]

sh eis good

I actually ahven;t read all of earth sea

Jon Miller

[TCO]

There are only 3 right? Seemed as if someone alluded to more...

[Jon Miller]

I think there ended up being 5

I have read the last one and some of the others

I might have read them all, but if so it has been a while

Jon Miller

[mrmitchell]

The Berenstain Bears First Time Readers

great classics

[Menlas]

I'm surprised that nobody mentionned the excellent Deathgate cycle, by Weis&Hickman.
The first book is called Dragon Wing.
The most amazing thing about this cycle is that the books are better and better (the last ones are fabulous).
One of the best fantasy books I've ever read