NinerDownUnder
Footballguy
IMO, the genre startys and ends with Feist's brilliant Riftwar Saga. "Magician" is still my favourite fantasy book ever.I'll throw out L.E DeModestti Jr (Saga Of Recluce series)
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Fantasy genre authors? (1 Viewer)
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scoobygang
Footballguy
I'll throw one contemporary fantasist out for consideration.
Phillip Pullman- He wrote the His Dark Materials trilogy, which I suppose is considered "Young Adult" reading, but is certainly every bit as much for grown-ups as most of the fantasy stuff I've read. I think the trilogy is a mixed bag and some of Pullman's more fantastical creations work better than others (daemons = genius, evolved motorcycle creatures, not so much), but it's a series with grand ambitions.
Very religous readers should skip it, as Pullman's atheism can be grating even for those who are sympathetic to it. For lit geeks, however, Pullman does some fun stuff recasting Paradise Lost for teenagers.
Phillip Pullman- He wrote the His Dark Materials trilogy, which I suppose is considered "Young Adult" reading, but is certainly every bit as much for grown-ups as most of the fantasy stuff I've read. I think the trilogy is a mixed bag and some of Pullman's more fantastical creations work better than others (daemons = genius, evolved motorcycle creatures, not so much), but it's a series with grand ambitions.
Very religous readers should skip it, as Pullman's atheism can be grating even for those who are sympathetic to it. For lit geeks, however, Pullman does some fun stuff recasting Paradise Lost for teenagers.
Pick
Footballguy
Just finished Wurts' 5-volumn series (Alliance of Light). I wouldn't recommend it to a novice but any fantasy reader would appreciate her style in this series.I think I'm going to read some Conan the Barbarian books for a bit. Always good to mix those in every now and then.I haven't kept up on any recent publishings. Any word on Jordan? Martin? Others?
Twilight
Footballguy
Jordan has been delayed until Fall of next year. Martin is eventually. If awards mean anything to anybody here, The Paladin of Light, sequel to The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold, just won the Hugo for best Novel.As for my reading, a pretty good thumbs up to the Harry Dresden Files (6 books, the latest just came out) by Jim Butcher. Psuedo Noir Detective stories set in modern Chicago. Main Character is a Wizard, the only one listed in the Chicago Phone Book taking on Wizard Serial killers, Werewolves, Vampires, etc.
Vivian Darkbloom
Footballguy
We're in a golden era of Canadian fantasy for some weird reason.Guy Gavriel Kay has been joined by epic fantasists R. Scott Bakker (Prince of Nothing series) and Steven Erikson (Malazan Books of the Fallen). The last two are both writing multi-volume series that bend and extend the boundaries of the fantasy genre. Both are several books long in Canada, but just now being released in the US. So you can more or less get on at the ground floor. (Or, if you're impatient, you can order from amazon.ca.)
Since most contemporary fantasy continues to suck out loud (a pox on Jordan, Feist, and all their ******* ilk), the fact that Canada has three working fantasists who are pretty near ####ing brilliant is really saying something.
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Vivian Darkbloom
Footballguy
Gave these a second look, and was pretty impressed. There's a slew of YoungAdult work out there these days that rivals the best mainstream stuff. The H.P. books, this series, and all of Gaiman's YA stuff all take traditional children's story forms and plots and spin them in most unexpected ways. Stuff like this is so far advanced compared to Eddings and Feist and other cookie-cutter fantasy writers who work with children's story simplicity, but market it to the adult reader.
babydemon90
Footballguy
scoobygang
Footballguy
Hey, Viv. Have you read about Susanna Clarke's Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell yet?I'm just starting it, but Clarke has the literary voice of the period just before the Romantics down. It's looking to be a weird blend of literary pastiche and fantasy novel. Me rikey so far.
Gave these a second look, and was pretty impressed. There's a slew of Young
Adult work out there these days that rivals the best mainstream stuff. The H.P. books, this series, and all of Gaiman's YA stuff all take traditional children's story forms and plots and spin them in most unexpected ways. Stuff like this is so far advanced compared to Eddings and Feist and other cookie-cutter fantasy writers who work with children's story simplicity, but market it to the adult reader.
Apes with Guns
Footballguy
Wildcards comes highly recommended. Superhero stories, but they are real people. You should check it out.Random thoughts (reading the entire thread again)
-Eddings and the Belgariad are a great starting point for a younger fantasy reader. Yes there are flaws, and the story can be corny, but it has a little of everything and the story just flows very well.
-On the subject of Dragonlance...none of the books come close to the original series. The new stuff is sort of cool, but the plot lines are VERY twisted now and I found them to be very confusing.
-George RR Martin is greatness!
-Couldn't finish the last Jordan book. I'm not sure if I ever will. I have too much to read and don't know when I'll have a chance to reread the whole series. But damn was it good early on!
-Katherine Kerr started out well. I tried to read the 4th book, but got bogged down. I'd appreciate any input on that series.
-Farland's Runelords series is being made into a movie. God I hope it isn't a ####brick.
-For Arthurian legend (with a twist) I recommend AA Attanasio. I really enjoyed his books.
-Robert Newcombe may be the worst fantasy author that I've ever read. Seriously.
-Second and third re: Terry Pratchett. If you like dry humor, give the first book (The Light Fantastic) a whirl.
-I also enjoy William Gibson. Yes, it's Sci-Fi, but I wanted to recommend it because his work is a pleasure to read.
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babydemon90
Footballguy
Yes...and
You really should give it another go.A personaly favorite of mine... Harry Turtledove, if you like the alternate history angle. I'm reading his series now following the adventures of the US after letting the South win the Civil War. Not fantasy technically...no wizards and such, but still a great read.
Rustoleum
Footballguy
Another nod for Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books, and the plain silliness of Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. Inc. books.Some more old-school stuff that deserves mention:Alan Dean Foster had some excellent books: Spellsinger I think was the first one. Paths of the Perambulator was like the 3rd or 4th.Katherine Kurtz's books about the Dernyi/St. Camber of Culdi were also favorites of mine.and finally for wayyy oldschool short stories, the Thieve's World books have never been topped.If you can wade through some of the AD&D tripe out there, there were a few good reads in the Forgotten Realms series (Harpers?), the initial Dragonlance ones were good, then they pumped out a bunch I didn't read, and I haven't caught up to this latest installment that somebody talked about earlier.:rant on: Avoid Dennis McKeirnon if you can help it. I can't believe the Tolkien estate hasn't destroyed this hack yet. :rant off:For the young ones: The Black Cauldron books were pretty good until Disney got ahold of them. Do not watch the movie first.
Vivian Darkbloom
Footballguy
Have been reading about that sucker forEVER.Don't own my copy yet, but you can be sure that I will soon. Been waiting. It's scheduled to arrive locally tomorrow AM. Will be purchasing shortly thereafter, and it jumps immediately to the front of the "to read" queue. Everything I've heard about this thing since rumors started leaking ages ago has put me edge-of-seat.Hey, Viv. Have you read about Susanna Clarke's Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell yet?I'm just starting it, but Clarke has the literary voice of the period just before the Romantics down. It's looking to be a weird blend of literary pastiche and fantasy novel. Me rikey so far.
Gave these a second look, and was pretty impressed. There's a slew of Young
Adult work out there these days that rivals the best mainstream stuff. The H.P. books, this series, and all of Gaiman's YA stuff all take traditional children's story forms and plots and spin them in most unexpected ways. Stuff like this is so far advanced compared to Eddings and Feist and other cookie-cutter fantasy writers who work with children's story simplicity, but market it to the adult reader.
Can't wait.
Anyone ever played the "A Game Of Thrones" board game? I own it, it's a very good strategy game. It plays 3-5 players, you can play one of five houses (Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Greyjoy or Tyrell) and compete for control of Westeros. Good fun! They just released an expansion to the game called (naturally) "A Clash Of Kings" which (among other things) adds House Martell for a possible 6-player game.
Twilight
Footballguy
Zippy, I'm another one who bounced off of Game of Thrones. I read it through, and bought the second to eventually read, but I found the characters to be generally uninteresting and the plot intricate, but not really going anywhere. It is well written though, and I like Martin, especially his stories in the Wildcard series, so I will eventually hit the next book and hope I'll start getting into it.
As for Thomas Covenant, look for The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1) to be hitting next month. I've got to dig out my copies for a reread, which won't be fun because, while it was fantastically written, it, quite possibly, is one of the most depressing series I've ever read.
As for Thomas Covenant, look for The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 1) to be hitting next month. I've got to dig out my copies for a reread, which won't be fun because, while it was fantastically written, it, quite possibly, is one of the most depressing series I've ever read.
kupcho1
Footballguy
I've ordered the first 2 in the series.On another note (and I may have already mentioned it in this thread, but don't feel like reading through it and anyway, it is probably worth mentioning again), has anyone read the Necroscope series by Brian Lumley?It is sort of a paranormal secret agent saga (at least at the start). From the first in the series "Necroscope":"DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying. In the Balkan mountains of Rumania, a terrible evil is growing. Long buried in hallowed ground, bound by earth and silver, the master vampire schemes and plots. Trapped in unlife, neither dead nor living, Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and revenge. The vampire's human tool is Boris Dragosani, part of a super-secret Soviet spy agency. Dragosani is an avid pupil, eager to plumb the depthless evil of the vampire's mind. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the awful skills of the necromancer, gives him the ability to rip secrets from the mind and bodies of the dead. Dragosani works not for Ferenczy's freedom but world domination. He will rule world with the knowledge raped from the dead. His only opponent: Harry Keogh, champion of the dead and the living."
Apes with Guns
Footballguy
I enjoyed the first book Lawhead's Celtic Crusades series. Unfortunately, the rest of the series is buried in my "to read" pile.
Drifter
Footballguy
Never could stomach these books.
Funny that in a thread where the Conan books are mentioned that someone calls Thieves World "Wayy old school"
Conan is wayy old school - I'd still put Thieves world in the modern era of fantasy.
Loved these books. Read them in about 3rd/4th grade and they played a very large part in turning me on to the fantasy genre.
How the hell can this thread be 1.5 years old and NOT A SINGLE MENTION of The Chronicles of Narnia?
[shuke]
Seriously.
[/shuke]
Someone earlier mentioned that they didn't particularly like American Gods by Neil Gaiman. If you were looking for Fantasy, this book isn't it. You would probably prefer Neverwhere or Stardust by Gaiman. Stardust is truly fantasy, and Neverwhere takes place in modern times.
Speaking of Guilty Pleasures...there is a book of this exact name by Laurell K. Hamilton. It is the first book of the Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter series. Light, fluffy, but fun. If you can handle the fact that a 3-year-old edited it.
Hamilton also has a fantasy series called Merry Gently, but it is basically soft core elf porn.
[shuke]
Seriously.
[/shuke]
Someone earlier mentioned that they didn't particularly like American Gods by Neil Gaiman. If you were looking for Fantasy, this book isn't it. You would probably prefer Neverwhere or Stardust by Gaiman. Stardust is truly fantasy, and Neverwhere takes place in modern times.
Speaking of Guilty Pleasures...there is a book of this exact name by Laurell K. Hamilton. It is the first book of the Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter series. Light, fluffy, but fun. If you can handle the fact that a 3-year-old edited it.
Hamilton also has a fantasy series called Merry Gently, but it is basically soft core elf porn.
Men-in-Cleats
Footballguy
Just wanted to mention in here that I a little while back found all of Michael Moorcock's Elric books at a used book store and read through the first book. The series got good reviews here but I must say that I was sorely disappointed and don't think I'll be picking up the rest of the books in the series. I hated how the entire book is written to where it is as if the events are being described by an outsider as opposed to as if you were in the middle of the action. It was extremely slow reading and even though there were quite a few descriptions of the characters I found as if they weren't develloped at all and I didn't find myself drawn to a single character in the book. At the same bookstore I found a few of Vivian's recommendations in a Guy Gavriel Kay book (the second in a series though so I still have to find the first book to begin reading it), a Tim Powers book "Drawing of the Dark", and a Terry Pratchett book ("Guards, Guards!") and I must say that I enjoyed the Powers book even though I've heard its not one of his best works and I am really enjoying the humor in the Pratchett book as I'm most of the way through it. As I'm flying to Minneapolis this weekend by way of Houston I'm sure that book will be finished and I'll be well into another by the time I get there. Haven't decided which of my next "to be read pile" books will be packed along on the flight with me.
Vivian Darkbloom
Footballguy
Sweet! It just works my nards up into a lather to hear book recommendations finding satisfied readers.On Moorcock: I don't dig him. I do respect what he's doing, though. That distance you mention is quite intentional, from what interviews I've read with the guy. He wants to present his whatever-it's-called, the Eternal Champion?, in the form of literary legend. I suppose if it's your thing, it's your thing.
On Powers: One of the great talents in speculative fiction, and grossly underappreciated. Drawing probably sits on the cusp of his top five, but Anubis Gates and Last Call are the go-to titles, if you can dig them up. (I've got them sitting on a shelf rotting, if you want to work out a LABS book exchange.)
On Pratchett: Uniformly good, solid, funny stuff out of him every time he writes. His best aren't brilliant, his worst aren't bad, but he's a seriously funny mother ######. Can't go wrong with anything in his library.
On Kay: It sounds like you found either Lord of Emperors (second of two parts, and a pretty good series), or the second book of the Fionavar Tapestry. The latter is when he was young, and still cutting his teeth as an author. The story is a bit cliche, but he does it better than anyone else anyway. Still, look for Tigana and Lions of Al-Rassan, which are his best stuff by far.
On Martin: It seriously befuddles me to hear anyone say they couldn't get into the story because of the characters. I can understand any number of criticisms, but this is about the only guy working in genre fiction whose characterization talents stand up to the best of the literary writers. His characters are deep, original, and multi-faceted. Some of his plot is borrowed. Sometimes his prose doesn't exactly call Shakespeare to mind. But his characters? Tyrion Lannister alone is worth 100 Thomas Covenants. Still, if it ain't your thing, it ain't your thing, I guess.
On Lumley: I thought the first Necroscope book was so original and cool that I'd recommend it to just about anybody looking for something different. But the series bogs down as it goes (through the 3 books I made it through, anyway), as Lumley isn't compelling enough a writer to carry it off on his own once his brave new world becomes old hat. I see it as sort of necromancy's answer to Ender's Game.
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George RR Martin has been mentioned alot, The Fire and Ice books are probably my favorite fantasy literature ever. Someone mentioned they stopped through the first book, I almost did too because it was so slow, but it was worth sticking around, their is alot of pages to be read over this series and it does give alot of information, but the last couple books started bringing everything together and was really interesting. He used to write for Soaps, so that kind of explains his weaving of webs with all of these characters.I don't know if anyone mentioned David Gemmell, but I really enjoy his books, which is where I got my screen name from. Really fun books to read, easy reads too.Some others I enjoy, C.S. Friedman, RA Salvatore, Robin Hobb, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. Among most of the others that have been mentioned.
babydemon90
Footballguy
Gemmell books are good for some easy reading. You're not going to get a terribly deep story, but for light reading I do enjopy it.
Men-in-Cleats
Footballguy
The Kay book I got was the "Lord of Emperors" one. I haven't been able to find the first book in any of the local stores so I'll probably have to get around to ordering it. I've seen the Fionavar Tapestry books around but I remembered that you didn't give it as strong of a recommendation as you did Tigana, Lions of Al-Rassan, or the Sarantine Mosaic books. I'll give some more of your recommendations a try eventually as it seems that I have appreciation for a lot of the same things in books of this genre, but I haven't had a ton of time to read in the last couple of months so I'm getting through the books I already own fairly slowly.I couldn't agree more on Martin's characters. Tyrion Lannister is an excellent example as are many others. He's a scoundrel yet I find that he's one of my favorite characters in this book along with Arya Stark and the gal with the dragons (been a while since I finished the 3rd book and I don't want to butcher the spelling on her name). Zippy needs to finish the first book and start the second as there is a lot more action in the next two books and he'll end up waiting anxiously for the 4th book like the rest of us fans.
Fiddles.
Towel Waver
Viv have you read Mieville's Iron Council? Didn't enjoy it as much as Perdido or The Scar. Wondered what you thought.Picked up Tigana haven't started it yet. I'm a fan of powers also. Although none of his novels after Anubis were up to par. I highly recommend David Brin's Uplift Saga. Hugely imaginative. Also haven't seen Jeff Noon mentioned here. Cyberhallucinogenicraziness.
Apes with Guns
Footballguy
She is one of my favorites. She would make her grandfather proud.Did you read The Hedgeknight? Good stuff, there. They made a comic book mini-series of it.
Ohhh, errr... SPOILERS for Song of Ice and Fire below... sorry.
No, that's Jaime, the Kingslayer, Lord Commander of the Kingguard. Tyrion is his brother, the Imp, who is a central character through all three books (and, I hope, the fourth as well).
No, that was Gregor Clegane, his brother, the Mountain that Rides, poisoned by Oberyn Martell in a trial by combat for Tyrion's life.Sandor was known as The Hound and fled from King's Landing during the assault by Stannis and later reappeared to kidnap Arya Stark before dying of a festering infection beneath a tree somewhere between Riverrun and the Aerie.
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Apes with Guns
Footballguy
gman8343 has Daleks.EXTERMINATE!! EXTERMINATE!
Sundays Rule
Footballguy
Reading Tigana now....definately darker fantasy....homosexuality and incest are just two topics touched upon so far as well some pretty gruesome imagery of death. It reads very much like a soap opera....lots of plot twists thrown your way that leave ur jaw hanging but great characters and a plot thats very subtle and moves along pretty well. The one part on Dianora dragged a tad but picked up near the end. A damn good read.
shining path
:prettyplease:
Has anyone here ever read a book called In Yana, the touch of undying? I have to say it was written in one of the more unique styles I've ever read.