Best Fantasy Novels

[Kaak]

Round 1: nominations.

What is the best fantasy novel or series in your opinion?
I'll start it off with The wheel of time

I thought destiny's road was good too...

[LDiCesare]

Tad Williams' Memory Sorrow and Thorn.
I also liked Moorcock's Corum series a lot. The French series Agone by M.Gaborit (actually Chronique des Crepusculaires) is also very good. I am afraid it may not have been translated, though a game based on it has been.

[trickey]

lotr is the best seris

[Moral Hazard]

R.A. Salvatore's Drow series can remember the name.

Terry Brooks's original Shannara series. (Sword, Elfstones, Wishsong)

But then again those and Lord of the Rings are the only fantasy series I liked that I read. Every thing else was kind of crap, various AD&D books, Piers Anthony, Brooks's Landover series (actually that wasn't to bad).

A read part of wheel of time but they generally got worse after the first book, besides he really needs to end it. Oh the second Shannara series (scions etc.) was alright but the last book was poor.

If I can only nominate one it would be the Shannara series.

Edit: Misspelled shannara; I'm a real big fan uh.

[Buck Birdseed]

Hour of the Dragon by Robert E Howard. Plus most of his short stories.

[Ming]

The Wheel of Time

While I will admit to still following this snore fest, I would appreciate it a little more if the next book actually had SOMETHING happen in it. This "twice around the characters" and then call it a book stuff has to stop.

Oh... LOTR.
Is there any doubt

[Kaak]

Not to be a pain, but if you guys could underline the book titles, it will make the tallying and poll making a lot easier! Thanks!

[Kaak]

And ming, It is kind of slow, but i still liked it. Probably because the series lasted me a whole summer. I hate it when i'm reading a series and I have to wait a year for the next book...9,000 pages helped me not die of boredom after my knee surgery...

[nationalist]

LOTR is the greatest fantasy series by far.

The Wheel of Time was interesting, but by the end of the 9th book I had forgotten 85% of what had happened, and there is no way that I will re-read that series.

Sword of Truth Series: Terry Goodkinds seems to Rip off Robert Jordan pretty badly. "Wizard's First Rule" was a good book, though.

Shannara: Pretty good books. Th first was the best. The series is a bit too simplistic for my taste.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Ach, God. No! "The Sword of Shannara" is the single worst book I've ever read.

I go for stuff that owes nothing to Tolkien. Top is the incredible "Mythago Wood" novels by Robert Holdstock, for being brutal and mind-blowing. Second is Ursula Le Guin's Eartsea quartet.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I've read most of the above. I find it peculiar no one mentioned the David Eddings books particularly the

Belgariad Series

LOTR still sets the standard.

WOT - great first 3 books now needs to move along a wrap things up. I agree with Nationalist I've forgottenmost of the characters and subplots by the time I get the next WOT book. At a minimum there should be a synopsis of what has happened previously to refresh your memory.

[ranskaldan]

David Eddings' Belgariad was very good, but as it dragged on into the Malloreon, it became really dry and uninspired.
The two Trilogies, Elenium and Tamuli (both by Eddings) were much better than the Malloreon imo. All other works by Eddings were incredibly mediocre.

I've read a lot of the Chinese equivalent of fantasy, that is martial arts novels (no it's nothing like what occurs in Hollywood). But I don't think a lot of people here have read those.

[reds4ever]

the best ='Swords' series by Fritz Lieber

the worst = the guy with leprosy (appalling, i forget the name of the books)

[Moral Hazard]

Yeah, Shannara is simplistic and in the case of Sword highly derived but they were fun to read. Wishsong is the best by the way. Of course with my lack of fantasy knowledge they all might be derivatives.

Damn I forgot the Earthsea books, but I only read the first two. (Wizard and Tombs of Antuan)

[Buck Birdseed]

Oh gawd Shannara was bloody awful. If you didn't like the sword of..., be happy you never set about reading the rest of the series... Geez I was a stupid teenager.

Back when I still read High Fantasy (Restricting myself to light (Howard) and comic (Pratchett) Fantasy these days), my favourites used to be very non-tolkien as well. Katherine Kerr's celtic-based disjointed stuff was cool, and I did like Meredith Anne Brook's The Dark Angel which was rather trippy but certainly interesting.