The best fantasy books?

by **BlueSalamander** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:29 pm

Hello and welcome to the forums!

These are my favourite fantasy books, what are yours?? If you like Dungeons & Dragons modules I'd also be interested in knowing which one is your favourite!

George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series: a great story of war, betrayal and power-hungry individuals. Hated to read about the demise of Robb Stark. Unfortunately Martin seems to have a hard time finishing the series.

Joe Abercrombie's The First Law series: another great story. Very similar to Ice and Fire. Inquisitor Glokta reminds me of Tyrion Lannister.

Ian Watson's Queenmagic, Kingmagic: an entertaining book. A metaphor of how many worlds can coexist, each with its own rules and purpose.

Robert E. Howard's Conan (Delrey edition): very entertaining short stories and very good illustrations too.

Steve Jackson's Sorcery! gamebook series: the most interesting gamebooks I've ever read, and I've read a lot. Very good treatment of magic spells. Apart from the first Sorcery! book, the difficulty of the series is quite high. You can read more on this there.

Jack Vance's The Eyes of the Overworld: the hilarious story of Cugel the Clever. Outstanding. Many of Vance's books are well worth reading.

by **Squirrelborg** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:37 am

Ok, here's some of my favorites:

The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams: Most people give up on it halfway through the first book, and admittedly that first part is a bit on the dry side, but its definitely worth sticking it out. I wouldn't recommend any of Mr. William's other novels however.

Assassin's Apprenticeby Robin Hobb: An interesting and well written story. The rest of the series went a bit downhill, but fortunately it works as a stand-alone book.

The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist: Eh, it has undead ninja-like assassins in the second book. And pirates. Oh yeah, and some plot type stuff involving betrayal, war, magic, parallel worlds and such, but who cares about that?

by **BlueSalamander** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 4:28 pm

I've read the Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer trilogy book 1) and indeed it was good. Didn't particularly like the way the story was told ("I am an old man now and I remember this and that...") and it didn't push me to read the other 2 in the series.

I also read about Pug in the first Riftwar book - long ago, I can't remember it much.

Another rather nice series is the Wheel of Time, especially the first few books. Rand al'Thor!

Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule wasn't half-bad either!

by **Crowleyhammer** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:08 pm

Felix and Gotrek Series of warhammer books is interesting to read, some of the evil characters are really funny and well rounded, also the 2 protagonists have some quality sidekicks join their cause for various reasons.

by **MonkeyLancer** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:28 am

I don't feel I'm in a great position to provide a review as I've only just started the second book. However, the Malazan Book of the Fallen is so far proving to be a very good high fantasy series. The fact it is based on the author's own GURPs campaign is great, and the fact he's a Canadian like myself is pretty cool.

by **ErrrorWayz** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:57 pm

Wheel of Time was good but started to drag a bit toward the end. Unfortunately, the chap who wrote them died, I think, so someone else is stepping into the breach.

by **doncorazon** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:07 am

I am (still) a big fan of George RR Martin but I think he has been displaced for me by Steven Erikson and his Malazan series. It's complex and painful in places, but well worth the effort.

by **Pod** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 9:40 am

Brandon Sanderson, a new author in the fantasy world, produces some fantastic books. I've read all of his [none teenage fiction] works so far, and all of it is great. I especially recommend the Mistborn series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson

by **ErrrorWayz** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 5:02 pm

Pod wrote:Brandon Sanderson, a new author in the fantasy world, produces some fantastic books. I've read all of his [none teenage fiction] works so far, and all of it is great. I especially recommend the Mistborn series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson

As, so this is the bloke I referred to above. Interesting. The three book split is a scam.

by **Pod** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:32 pm

ErrrorWayz wrote:
Pod wrote:Brandon Sanderson, a new author in the fantasy world, produces some fantastic books. I've read all of his [none teenage fiction] works so far, and all of it is great. I especially recommend the Mistborn series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson

As, so this is the bloke I referred to above. Interesting. The three book split is a scam.

The thing is, each of his three books is meant to be the same size as one of the original books. I've only read the first WOT book, so I don't know if I can compare styles adn that.

But Sanderson's original books are great