I've read a lot of books but one genre I've neglected has been fantasy. I was wondering what everyone's favorite fantasy books where and if you would recommend them to someone looking to explore the fantasy genre.
Terry Books' Shannara series. Great stories with characters involved in sacrifice and a good journey. My only qualm is sometimes he describes them too much. You have paragraphs of their thoughts. But worth reading. Avoid Dave Duncan. Writing is bland and unexciting. Stephen Lawhead's Song of Albion/Silverhand series! Harry Turtledove has four books about a world at war. If you like many characters from different lands, check him out. Terry Goodkind, Robin Hobb, Tolkien (LOTR), George Martin
Some favorites: Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey Shadow of a Dark Queen by Raymond Feist Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman the Everworld series by K.A. Applegate It gets made fun of but I also really enjoyed the Eragon books by Christopher Paolini, especially his last one.
I'm reading Carol Berg's "Rai-Kirah" series at the moment, and it's ZOMGBBQ. Also, try the Elric series.
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is a must. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson is the best fantasy novel I've read in years, and his Mistborn trilogy is also excellent. Finally, The Prince of Nothing and The Aspect Emperor by R. Scott Bakker. Possibly the darkest fantasy novels I've read, and featuring one of the best protagonists, and the best antagonist I've seen in Fantasy. Beyond that, its treatment of philosophy and religion far surpasses anything else I've read in the genre. It is intelligent, well written, and frankly quite disturbing.
My favorites have to be the Hobbit/LoTR series, and Mists of Avalon and the other books in that series. Stephen King's Dragon Eye wasn't bad either.
I enjoyed both the "Uglies" trilogy and the "Midnighters" trilogy, by Scott Westerfeld. It's YA Lit, but still a good read.
people you're forgetting, Robert Jordan's the wheel of time good to read if you've got a year to spare... My personal favourite.
I wouldn't exactly say "forgetting"... It's hard to forget something of which you have never heard...
Top books I’ve read. However, I highlighted the ones I think would be a good introduction to modern fantasy. #1 the Hobbit, LotR #2 The Grand Design by John Marco #3 Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind #4 The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan #5 The Eyes of God by John Marco #6 The Last of the Renshai by Mickey Zucker Reichert #7 Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson #8 The scions of Shannara by Terry Brooks #9 The Gunslinger by Stephen King #10 Bitterwood by James Maxey
The Edge Chronicles, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell The Discworld series and anything else by Terry Pratchett I know these are YA but I enjoyed them and I'm sadly no longer YA (except in spirit...)
I'd recommend: The Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson Terry
I guess none of the posters liked Harry Potter I like the Inheritance Cycle too. And Feist's stuff is great for anyone trying to get into fantasy.
Has no one read John Marco? If someone will read The Eyes of God or The Grand Design, I’ll read any book they want me to
I personally did not find Terry Goodkind's series to be all that good. I gave up after the fourth book. Just not my cup of tea, sorry. Dragonlance is a huge series with some fantastic books. Most of the older stuff is better, so I'd stick with that. Forgotten Realm's also has some awesome books and some great characters. Shannara yeah is pretty good, and I liked the Coldfire books, though if you find some of the stuff meandering I can understand. I couldn't get into the LotR's (even though I loved the movies) but you should probably give them more patience than I have.
The hobbit/ the lord of the rings – Tolkein Conan – Robert E Howard Mervyn Peake – Mervyn Peake Dune – Frank Herbert (Yes I know its sci-fi but it read like fantasy to me) Memory Sorrow and Thorn – Tad Williams A Song of Ice and Fire – George RR Martin His Dark Materials – Phillip Pullman
I must second or third George Martin's Ice and Fire series... It is brilliant. The BEST fantasy books I've read hands down. Other than that, Guy Gavriel Kay writes some good stuff. Neil Gaiman has some that is more new-age fantasy and very cool and interesting. Garth Nix has a great series called Sabriel that is more YA oriented but really enjoyable to read. Feist is good, I find his writing to be a little bit too 'vanilla' for my taste but overall you can't question that the man knows what he is doing. He is a good writer to learn from. If you want to read Tolkien obviously The Lord of the Rings comes to mind but the Hobbit, in my opinion, is a lot more interesting. The wheel of time is okay, just read book 1-3, the last hundred pages of books 4-10, and the last 50% of book 11. That's called the Destin Wheel of Time condensed version. Well, that should keep you busy for a while.
I'm a big fan of David Gemmell and his series of Drenai books and books on Druss the Legend. Well worth checking out if your looking to get into heroic fantasy.
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan is a good one. You can read the first chapter on her site.
Thanks to everyone for posting! I wrote a list down of twenty-some. I'll be off to the bookstore in about 10 mins. Thanks again!
