Best Fantasy Novels

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Book 2 had a cat hung with blood pouring down.

Mrs. Norris?? Naw, she was merely turned to stone. There were some seriously messed up roosters tho.

[Ramo]

Oh and Ming I know you're a fan of Poul Anderson, I've read a lot of his short stories and loved the Polesitechnic (SP!) League ones but didn't much care for the handful of his novels I've read, are there any really good ones I've missed?

A Boat of a Million Years. One of the best historical fiction novels I've read...

[Mr. President]

The Lord of the Rings is still very cool, after all these years; in some ways, though, I liked The Silmarillion better because Sam Gamgee annoys me. I read the Belgariad and Malloreon, but then made the mistake of reading the Elenium and Tamuli which showed me that Eddings really has only one idea.

I think my favorite, though, is The Once and Future King by T. H. White. It has for me everything you expect from a fantasy, plus some intangible qualities that set it above the rest.

For more recent fantasy, which is generally much less sophisticated and less well-written than older works, I enjoy most of David Gemmell's work, and the Magic: The Gathering novel The Brothers' War. The latter is by far my favorite from its franchise, and doesn't resort to the gratuitous grossness and gimmicks of its comrades.

[redbaron]

LOTR - Tolkein
Tea with the Black Dragon - RA MacAvoy
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
The Morgaine Trilogy - CJ Cherryh
Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock
Tales of the Dying Earth - Jack Vance
Towing Jehovah - James Morrow
Gloriana - Michael Moorcock
The Lankhmar stories of Fritz Leiber
The Compleat Enchanter - De Camp/Pratt
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

[Ethelred]

Re: Best Fantasy Novels

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Kaak

The one I am now rereading for the Umpteenth time.

Roger Zelazny's first Amber Series. Consisting of

Nine Princes in Amber
The Guns of Avalon
The Sign of the Unicorn
The Hand of Oberon
The Courts of Chaos


For a single novel

Roger Zelazny's The Lord of Light.


There are LOTS of really good fantasy novels but those ones stand out on many fronts. Even Piers Anthony managed to write one good Xanth novel. The first one. They went downhill fast after that.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Wraith


--"The Amber series (first) by Zelanzie"

Those are pretty good. Haven't read them in a while. I think I'll have to agree that the first series is better than the second.

All indications are that he had his first bought with cancer during the Merlin series. I thought the first two of those were very good. He was going to write a third.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by reds4ever
the best ='Swords' series by Fritz Lieber

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

I agree on both accounts. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are two of my favorite characters of all time. An interesting series of books, and quite possibly the funniest as well.

I read the first book of that leprosy rapist dude's series. Thomas something? I can't remember much about it, except that when it was finished I knew I would never want to read another one.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Zhu Yuanzhang


And Eddings likes his heroes waaay too much, the poor bad guys never stand a chance.

Not to mention that he only has one story to tell, he told it in the Belgariad/Mallorean. After that it´s a snore-fest of gigantic proportions. I had some hope for "The redemption of Althalus", but it turned out to be tha same crap that he´s been writing for the last 10 years...

Decent, but the length of the third book got pretty insane...

Tad Williams has MASSIVE problems with finishing his series. The ending of "Memory, sorrow and thorn" is, as you say, insane. And he does no better in the "Otherland" series. I read these books with immense joy up to the third book, where it should´ve ended. But no, Mr I-can´t-be-arsed-to-finish-my-books-in-a-timely-fashion has to write another 920 pages long brick that essentially bore the reader to kingdom come. By mid-book I was only wishing for the story to end. It really did ruin one of the best series I´ve read in years

What's it like? I'm a 150 pages from the end of Tigara now by Kay and its pretty decent.

It´s epic fantasy of the highest mark, but there´s a slight tendency for the characters to overact the tragedy in some parts of the book. Also it isn´t a bit original, it´s standard fantasy model 1 A. But since it is his first attempts at fantasy, and since it is fairly well written I´d give it my unconditional recommendations. If you like Tigana, you´ll like this one just as much. The other two books by Kay that I read (A song for Arbonne and The lions of Al-Rassan) aren´t nearly as good. But I haven´t read them more than once so...

[Simon Darkshade]

I do love the LOTR and its various Middle Earth associates.

I did not mind the Wheel of Time at all, and enjoyed it very, very much.

I have loved the Shannara series from the time when I first purchased the original trilogy on a ferry going from Vancouver to Victoria in Canada in 1992.
The Forgotten Realms novels are quite good, if not on the level of Tolkien, but in their own way, they are great (Icewind Dale, Drizzt, Moonshae, Empires, Maztica, Avatars, Pools, Harpers, etc.)

The Dragonlance series is very much a personal favourite, though I do not like the way they utterly changed the world in the recent books.

Fritz Leiber, Robert Howard and L. Sprague De Camp all wrote excellent and entertaining novels that I do like a lot.

Robert Adams Horseclans series is not well known, but very interesting.

Also good are Simon R. Green's 'Hawk and Fisher' series.

And then there is David Gemmell. One of my two favourite authors, his books are truly great, full of gritty detail and soaring breadth. The Jerusalem Man trilogy stands out as a personal favourite.

[Sikander]

Firstly, I am pleasantly surprised that so many people here have read and enjoyed Fritz Lieber's Fafrhd and the Grey Mouser series. These are excellent books, full of slapstick and cynical humor without really being comedies. The description of the Street of the Gods alone makes the series worth reading. Lieber is very good at giving each book proper pacing (he wrote the series over 40 years IIRC) and planting time capsules in the older books whose meaning only becomes completely clear tangentially in a later book. A very high quality series.

For a single novel I have to say that Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light is my all time favorite. It is very well-organized for Zelazny, its characters are very interesting, but it's oustanding quality is the world it describes and the way that Zelazny unfolds that world. Even after you finish reading it new angles bring themselves to your mind. The book allegorically touches on technology, colonialism, religion, philosophy etc. in their modern contexts without in any way impeding your enjoyment of the story.

I am a big Zelazny fan all around, but for someone with so much talent in creating interesting heroes and completely fascinating worlds for them to inhabit Zelazny's most famous work (the Amber series) is disappointing. It is really disorganized, to the extent where he changes styles in order to compensate halfway through the first series. It is still interesting however, and worth reading.

There are a lot of Zelazny books that I like better than the Amber series. Creatures of Light and Darkness was written on the heels of Lord of Light, and shares some of it's style and substance. It is a good deal funnier however, less organized, more poetic and a romping good read. Another good series (two books) by Zelazny is Dilvish the Damned and it's sequel The Changing Land. The first is more or less a collection of related short stories featuring Dilvish, and the second a complete novel length treatment wrapping up the saga. Humor and yet another fascinating world make this series a good one. Finally, an incomplete (only two books) series Wizard World and Madwand is pretty good too, and the obvious fact that a sequel was planned and never written leaves me wondering how good this series could have been had it been completed.

Much of my fantasy reading has been of Arthurian fare. Bernard Cornwell's recent trilogy is very good, as of course is Mary Stuart's masterful series on Merlin. I loved The Once and Future King, but it has been years since I read that, and I wonder if I still would like it as much. Bradley's feminist treatment of the saga was interesting intellectually, but failed to really grab me.

Was it Piers Anthony who wrote Operation Chaos? I enjoyed that book immensely, though it was pretty pulpy read and forget stuff. I swear I can't remember that much of 90% of the fantasy titles I have read for this reason.

[Ethelred]

Was it Piers Anthony who wrote Operation Chaos? I enjoyed that book immensely, though it was pretty pulpy read and forget stuff. I swear I can't remember that much of 90% of the fantasy titles I have read for this reason.

If its the one with a werewolf and his, I think witch, wife thats Poul Anderson. Not a single novel but a collection of novellas. I only read it once a long time ago so I am not sure.

[Athene Miranda]

LOTR... and the Silmarillion, you can find so much meaning in their depths.

Discworld FOREVER! But why do you all think it's funny? I do laugh at them, but it's the bits between the jokes I love the most.

Mccaffrey is good, but way too soap-opera.

Lackey's LHM is a very special book, I've rarely seen more emotion in a text than that and the cast just leap off the page and hit you in the head. But it's so raw and primal... Of all the books I've ever read that's the one I would have most liked to edit. Plus, it's the greatest piece of "june" fantasy fic to come out of the West, well, ever.

(oh, yeah. I edit a LOT. Never take money. Will accept any project. Am an experienced Auditor of Unreality. Consider this an Ad.)

HP sucks. Badly. It has no emotional complexity or any relevance beyond escapism.

MUST read WoT this summer!

Don't forget Gormenghast. Beautiful books and little known these days, masterful in sheer imagination.

Anne Rice. The film of Queen of the Damned, I heard, was a ****-up.

And James Barclay's Raven series. He's new on the block but god is he wonderful!

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Tuberski


How old are you? I'm 33 and can't imagine even reading one of them!
However, if my kids want the video they will get it......and I'll watch it too.

Tuberski: We´re the same age, and I bought the first book to see what all the fuss was about. It´s not utter crap, but I´m not impressed either. But then again It´s not written for someone who has read sf/fantasy since the late ´70s...

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov

However, I do like the argument that Potter subliminally encourages elitism and racism. It's rather fascististic in its outlook. Probably not intentionally so.

I got my ass whipped on this subject a while ago, I found an article that stated exactly that. Imran and others tore my argumentation to shreds

I don´t think you will have any success defending that position...

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Ethelred

If its the one with a werewolf and his, I think witch, wife thats Poul Anderson. Not a single novel but a collection of novellas. I only read it once a long time ago so I am not sure.

Yea, that's it. There was another collection of 7 short stories by him, in which was a short story called Details. Very funny.