Your Top 3 Fantasy Series?

I'll chime into this:

1. The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King--My favorite book series of all time, and it isn't even close. I was thrilled to see a couple other mentions of it. Fantasy book fans who haven't read it sometimes roll their eyes at me, since ya know King is a horror writer and all that. But really, I think his best books aren't really horrors at all. People forget that he wrote The Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, The Green Mile...and that The Stand isn't really a horror at all. Dark Tower series is so imaginative--a constant mind-twist. And, for my money, few modern writers write description quite like King.

2. Harry Potter series, by JK Rowling--I don't care what Lemax says about it , I love this series. So innovative with a great deal of charm.

3. Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis--Hmmm, now two of my three are YAs. That's...peculiar. Well, could be that I have a bias for Lewis' series because it's what got me into fantasy in the first place.

 

Otherland series by Tad Williams - I don't like much fantasy, but Otherland blew my mind. It has all the fantastical elements in it you could want but it's still grounded in reality.

The Dark Tower by the King - best book series ever yo. I liked it so much I got a tattoo of it.

Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan - it might take the rest of your life to read it but it would be an awesome way to spend it.

 

1) The
2) Dresden
3) Files

OK, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are good too, but Harry Dresden is magnificent

Plots: the villains are truly memorable, their plans and schemes are never boring, and Harry Dresden's creativity is the stuff of legends among creatures who are the stuff of legends:

• A dark wizard once conjured a circle of energy to protect him from magical attacks while he strengthened the demon that he'd summoned. Dresden threw an empty Cola can into the force-field so that the energy of the circle would blow up in the dark wizard's face
• Another dark wizard once tried to achieve immortality by surrounding himself with a mystical vortex that mortals could not penetrate safely without being surrounded by necromantic energy, and the courts of the wizards' community would execute Dresden if he committed human necromancy (even to save the world). Dresden then charged into battle atop a zombified fossil Tyrannosaurus in a stunt that even the villains of later books speak of with amazement
• Dresden once had to evacuate a boatful of hostages who were in the middle of Lake (Michigan?). Does he conjure an ice sheet across the lake using ice magic so that the hostages can walk to shore? Of course not, he conjured an ice bridge using fire magic.

Characterization: Harry Dresden is a fantastically sarcastic first-person narrator, and the books are very clear on his personal flaws.

Apparently, amateur writers often use "excessive loyalty towards friends and paranoia towards authority" as ways of claiming the character is flawed without actually hindering him/her (as these traits are Shown to be good despite our being Told they are bad). In Dresden's case, these same traits legitimately cloud his judgement to the point of creating extra problems that he has to clean up while simultaneously dealing with the main threat from the original villain.

Setting: Starts extremely down-to-earth, but the threats grow from "Dark Wizards and Vampire Lords Bent on Taking Over Chicago" to "Eldritch Abominations From Between Universes" so gradually you don't realize that anything is changing until it's too late

 

Steven Erikson's Malazan series

R Scott Bakker The Prince of nothing series

George R R Martin Song of Ice and Fire series

(cheating but Joe Abercrombie is great too)

 

Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne
Vlad Taltos Series by Steven Brust
Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny

 

The Dark Tower Series - Epic, gruesome at times, and trippy to the end.

Metro - It's a great, introspective adventure.

I haven't read any other fantasy series, but this thread has some swell recommends. Off to the bookstore

 

1. The Lord of the Rings (I've read it in English, but actually I cherish the Finnish translation I got from my dad and consider it my favorite)
2. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King (everything before the Wolves of Kalla is so good it made this list)
3. The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie (so entertaining!)

I have some vague memory of trying to read this series many, many years ago... Was there a lot of torturing men? Like mangling testicles and shit? 'Cause it might have been that or the writing or aggressive feminist brain-fisting it gave me that made me go "no thanks," I just can't -- for the life of me -- remember what it was. Usually I like a bit of role reversal and showing the men's side of being submitted to prostitution and sexual slavery and how it fucks them up for an effing change instead of the perpetual, trope-ish victimization of women, but I think this series was from a female character's PoV?

ETA: Holy shit, I think it's the same series. I just read about it on Amazon and checked the preview. I must have been in a different mindset back then because even though the writing is still pretty so-and-so, the author seems to have the right idea about Hell: every taboo thrown into the same vile pot. I have to tip my hat to Bishop and actually consider purchasing the omnibus. I like to support authors who don't make compromises and still get published.