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I'm looking for a new fantasy novel/series to pick up and am looking for some suggestions. I haven't been reading fantasy novels for very long, but here are some of the ones I really loved: The early Drizzt novels, The Way of Kings, Warhammer 40k novels (most aren't great but I love the lore). I tried the Wheel of Time, but blasphemy aside, I just couldn't get into it.
I'm looking forward to your suggestions!
Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Discworld series - Terry Prachett
Live Ship Traders Trilogy - Robin Hobb
Name of the Wind/Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss
The First Law series - Joe Ambercrombie
A Song of Ice and Fire series - GRRM
Malazan Book of the Fallen series - Steven Erikson
Alex Versus - Benedict Jaka
Wild Cards (anything really) - GRRM
Dark Tower series - Stephen King
The Dirty Streets of Heaven - Tad Williams
Johannas Cabal series - Jonathan Howard
I'ma stop there or this could get really, really long lol
» Edited on: 2014-07-22 08:54:09
Was the reason you couldn't get into the WoT books because it was a big long-winded and overly descriptive? I know that some of those WH40K books are pretty fast reads too and action packed to say the least lol.
If so then you might like Brent Weeks - Night Angel Trilogy. Michael Sullivan's Riyria Chronicles are a pretty fast read too. The list above by Soren is also excellent too. For more traditional epic fantasy I liked Tad William's Dragonbone Chair trilogy and Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy. And finally you might like Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles which has a cool mix of traditional fantasy with a bit of scifi too.
I'm currently reading through Michael J Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series which started with The Crown Tower: The Riyria Chronicles. It was a little slow at first but then the series gets better and better the further you read. I like The Dresden files as well and I was about half way through the series when I got The Crown Tower. I figured I would just read the first chapter of The Crown Tower, just to get a feel for the book, then go back and finish The Dresden Files...... lol now a month later I have yet to make it back to The Dresden files. Totally hooked on The Riyria Chronicles. First book is completely about building the base for the series. Waddle through it as best you can. The second book The Rose and The Thorn is when the series really hooks you.... in my humble opinion any ways.
Thanks for the recommendations guys, I'll just make a list of these and work my way down.
@Bentmer, yes, "big long-winded and overly descriptive" is a perfect description. I feel like when authors overly describe characters and scenes, it leaves little to my imagination.
On another note, do any of you know a novel featuring a Paladin type? The closest character I can think of is Sturm from Dragonlance.
Paladin’s Legacy series -> Elizabeth Moon
Night of Wolves -> David Dalglish (its like a 6 or 7 book epic series call the Paladin's)
:)
Thanks Soren. I was thinking of playing a Paladin soon in a P&P game and wanted to get in the mood.
Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series
Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet
Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series...and pretty much anything and everything else he has written, can never go wrong.
Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series...amazing books
Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy
Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series (only 2 so far...currently ongoing)
Let me know if you need more... :D
Hmm Ravenloft series .
Darksun .
icewind dale triology
Dragonbone chair series .
Dragonlance books Raistlin etc series .
I'll echo some of the other suggestions and add new.
Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber (if you like I do have copies of the short stories long out of print that finish these off).
Jim Butcher - Dresdan Files, and Codex Alera
George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones
Barb Hendee, J. C. Hendee - Noble Dead
Tony Gonzales - Empyrian Age, and Templar One (EVE Online - has a very Warhammer 40k feel to them)
Simon R. Green - Nightside Series (you will eventually need to pick up Secret History's)
Neil Gaiman - American Gods
Deathgate Cycle (7 books) - Weis and Hickman
Hollows Series - starts with Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
or a website that lists a bunch
http://www.bestfantasybooks.com/
My Frequent Reads:
Some of these suggestions I haven't even read myself, but of the ones I read in the suggestions, I'll agree.
Another author I have that I liked was Melanie Rawn. I have her Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies along with a couple other books she has done on her own or coauthored.
You definitely can't go wrong with Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms stories. I never really got into the Greyhawk world due to something about it just not clicking with me. =)
I actually slogged through the Wheel of Time series and to be honest I think the guy that helped finish it up did a better job than the original author. I actually got laughing when they though they could finish it with one book but the notes made it take 3. Anyway, book 5 of that series is the one that about killed me, but since I had all the books I was gonna get through it this time. Took me most of last year. LOL!
I'm a much quicker and different bent of fantasy/sci fi now with rereading some Piers Anthony books I've read like 2 decades ago or more! Rereading my libarary and getting rid of things now and then to the library for their book sales. I think I'm their primary fantasy/sci fi supplier for books to sell. LOL! I gave them 100 books early last year and I still have like 300 or more books in my sci-fi/fantasy library. 50 or so of them are D&D related.
BTW, I did not see anyone mention Tokien in here. Or did I miss that? ::chuckles:: I can blame him for my love of fantasy due to reading the Hobbit. The same year I learned about D&D when a neighbor got it for Christmas. The rest is now 35 years of history. HA HA!
I suppose I did not list Tolkien because his books are less likely to not be known about. They're a standard classic, especially with the games and movies to draw attention back to them. Also, if WoT was difficult to get through, Tolkien's writing can be as well.
Patrick Rothfuss: The Name of the Wind
Garth Nix: the Abhorsen trilogy
Also, if anyone needs some young adult novels, anything by Tamora Pierce is grand (The Circle of Magic quartet + sequel quartet + two additional as well as the Tortall quartets).
Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials books) are good, though I prefer the first two over the third.
I recommend The Lies of Lock Lamora, a rollicking debut novel by Scott Lynch. The Gentleman Bastards are a group of very young elite con artists settled in a Lankhmar-esque fantasy version of Venice. It's one part The Sting, one part Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and one part Ocean's Eleven. A perfect quick read for fans of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
my recomendations are as follows
Terry Pratchet : Discworld books but anything by him i challenge you not too laugh your guts out
Raymond E Fiest : Riftwar series
Janny Wurts : any
thats my 2 cents worth
Sanderson also has a Stormlight Archives series. I liked the Archives Series much more than the Time series, even though both tend to be wordy.
If you don't mind Sci Fi, I like both Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl Series (Young Adult), and Alastair Reynolds "The Prefect" and Revelation Space (these are space opera ish).
I see a lot of suggestions above that I agree with wholeheartedly, especially Patrick Rothfuss. The Rothfuss books seem to me to be a fresh breath into an old genre.
Of course, Tolkien, although I am biased as my parents gave me my IRL middle name from the Hobbit.
I also enjoy Orson Scott Card's books, such as Seventh Son (series), The Gate Thief (YA series that is Mordern Fantasy that includes a twist on the Loki Myth) and, of course, Ender's Game.
A couple of suggestions from a long time ago, David Eddings has a number of books available that are of a sword and sorcery type. Harry Turtledove has quite a few as well, focusing on alternative pasts. The Turtledove books I recall are those in the Videssos Cycle, where a Roman Legion and a Celtic Army are moved to another planet.
I have found goodreads.com to be decent at making suggestions, although it does take a bit of work to get started.
Yeah, Turtledove is cool. The ones I managed to read were the ones with the Civil War army that got moved into an alternate realm, though. I think that was because my ex was the one to grab those books at some point. =) He liked the Civil War era a lot, but was a fantasy buff like me too.
I do have David Eddings on my shelf as part of my rereead before I do another clean up to get rid of more books. I didn't mention him because I honestly can't remember what I read in those books when I did read them like 20 years ago or so! LOL!
Jack Chalker's Dancing Gods series is a bit older, but I thought it was great.
Glen Cook had two series I would recommend...The Black Companies and Garrett PI (fantasy detective).
Moe
I'm going to second the following suggestions:
Dresden Files & Codex Alera - Jim Butcher
Discworld series - Terry Prachett
Name of the Wind/Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss
The First Law series (and the other books in this world) - Joe Ambercrombie
The Dirty Streets of Heaven (Otherland Series also) - Tad Williams
The Deeds of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon
Mistborn series - Brandon Sanderson
Then Add:
The Night Angel Trilogy - Brent Weeks
The Expanse Series (Sci-Fi, but very readable) - James S. A Corey
If you are interested in more light-hearted series I enjoyed the Myth books by Robert Asprin
I'm so glad this thread is here, now I have a couple authors to check out myself! I see a lot of great suggestions here as I've read most of them. Still waiting for Harry Dresden to mature a bit after 14 books, but I keep going back for more. LOL. With WoT I sort of speed read through the repetitive descriptions, loved the story though!
There are 2 short series that stand out for me, sorry if they're repeats from other suggestions.
Brandon Sanderson - the MISTBORN TRILOGY
Patrick Rothfuss - the KINGKILLER CHRONICLES
Some of the fun ones I've read:
Anything by Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern series (skip the ones written by her son), Crystal Singer, etc)
The Darkover books by Marion Zimmer Bradley
I second and third the recommendation of the Dresden Files--such a fun series
The Stainless Steel Rat series for a fun romp
I loved the first two books in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series and generally enjoyed the rest. As long as you don't mind the later books in the series getting overly preachy about the Objectivist philosophy (I skim over those parts now), they're terrific.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
I want to concur with the above I've read:
Discworld - Prachett
Amber Chronicles - Zelazny
Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Anything by C.S. Lewis
If you like Tolkien, you might like the Shannara Series by Terry Brooks. His first effort was more or less LoTR, well mostly more. I enjoyed the rest of the series.
Thanks for all the suggestions. The cold Iowa winter should be long enough to try at least Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms.
~Joey
Do yourself a favor... More Sanderson (Mistborn, Stealheart and WarBreaker are good. I also enjoyed Elantris.) or some other great ones are The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss) and The Warded Man (Peter v Brett). Also for a great ride and a little humor check out Ready Player One (Earnest Cline) Fuzzy Nation or Redshirts (John Scalzi). I am a huge Wheel of Time fan and I am sad you did not get into it, but not surprised. It literally (no joke) took me 3 months to get past the first few chapters, but at some point, something clicked and I have now read the whole thing once and listened to it 2 more times via audiobook. It is may favorite book series now. I never would have thought that possible in the beginning because it was just not interesting to me. I also think Brandon Sanderson did an amazing job finishing the series after Robert Jordan passed away. If you like audiobooks, All the above have great voice talent (including WoT) with the exception of Warbreaker unfortunately. I strongly dislike the audiobook for that one.
I would suggest Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss the here is the first book.
Name of The Wind http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/186074.The_Name_of_the_Wind
» Edited on: 2015-08-05 13:09:23
» Edited on: 2015-08-05 13:11:29
» Edited on: 2015-08-05 13:12:18
Definitely Brent Weeks series:
Night Angel trilogy
Lightbringer Series
read both series (lightbringer has one last book left to release) and they are top notch.
I recommend many of these but would also recommend Jennifer Fallon.
Second Sons Trilogy, Medlaon series.....great stuff.
other authors i recommend are
Julian May - The many colored land series
Kristen Britain - Green Rider and First Rider's Call
Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone series.
I'm going to steal my wife's recommendation before she has a chance to give it out lol. I'd recommend a series called " The Mortal Instruments". Very good story line and it had a terrible movie made for it but so did Congo and that was a very good book just a terrible movie.
Surprised no one has mentioned Bernard Cornwell
He has three fantasy/medieval series:
Winter King (Arthurian story set in the dark ages)
The Archer series (sometimes called the grail series) a quest for the grail set in a realistic Hundred Years war
The last Kingdom series (Vikings & Saxons during Alfred the Great's reign) Also now a series on BBC America
All are great reads with fun twists to the stories.
I recommend "The Curse of Chalon" by Lois McMaster Bujold. It isn't expressly about a Paladin, but I think it could be taken in that vein (let's call him a holy knight, fighting to save the royal family). It is set in a fantasy world that is modeled on Medieval Spain.
Happy reading!
~ JJB
Hmmm... Someone mentioned my favorite suggestion, David Eddings. However if you want a Pally TYPE (not necessarily a Paladin) I would recommend The Diamond Throne, book 1 of The Elenium.
Also, for seriers I suggest;
Terry Goodkind, The Sword of Truth, book one is Wizard's First Rule. This one may be a bit slow to start but, <shrugs>.
Tad Williams, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, The Dragonbone Chair (Book One). Does not mention any other the other works he has done.
As a hilarious aside I liked, Grunts by Mary Gentle. This one had me rolling. I would like to suggest that you do NOT pick this one if you plan on getting up early the next day.
OMG talk about bringing back memories
Elric of melnibone, stainless steel rat, amber chronicles and the golden torc books by jullian may
:)
I would like to add, Brian Staveley's series, Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne.
There is a new author "Luke Scull" his book "The Grimm Company" is really good. Its not that new 2013 but its good and I am watching for more.
I'm going to post some lesser known works. And if anybody wants to friend me on goodreads send me a PM :)
the Imperial Radch series by Anne Leckie - Scifi
Nexus by Namaan Raam - soon in the future scifi
I absolutely second:
George RR Martin
The Elric Novels by Michael Morcock
Amber Chronicles Roger Zelany
Pern Anne McCaffrey
Anything Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mercedes Lackey
Golden Torc series awesome
David Eddings
For oldies there
I would recommend Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords series
Hubby says the Chicks in Chainmail series edited by Eric Friesner (comedy fantasy)
Elizabeth Hayden Symphony of the Ages
Anything by Andre Norton
L.E Modesitt, Jr. Relcuse Series and Imager Series
Robert Asprin Phule Series (Comedy Sci Fi)
Frank Herbert - Dune Series
I will stop before I take over!! I have never read a lot of the suggestions above so will have to research them.
Okay, shhhhh, hubby isnt looking over my shoulder LOL..
i like Jack Whytes Camulod Chronicles.... Hubby doesnt think they are true enough to the story.... I enjoy them for the writing even if they are a wee historical inaccurate in his opion. Hmmm I think I started reading them before I married him ! ????
Won't repeat many of the excellent recommendations already offered but will second Elizabeth Hayden, Symphony of the Ages is now complete at 7 good sized novels and is an excellent read)
Two I've read recently that I don't see mentioned:
Jeff Wheeler has a number of trilogies good for a quick, fast paced read (and free on kindle unlimited! :) )
Anthony Ryan - Raven's Shadow Trilogy (not free but was worth it)
I'm reading Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. This isn't your typical grand fantasy like say, Lord of the Rings, but it is definitely Fantasy. It's so well written, truly a joy to read. Check it out!
I'll echo previous recommendations for Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Chronicles and Riyria Revelations... such a great read! I also recommend the Powder Mage Trilogy by Brian McClellan - a fast-paced action-filled read!
I love love all of Terry Brooks Shannara series, I have read everything he wrote, I have read some 3 times, my fav series is Magic Kingdom for sale SOLD, its fantasy with some comedic moments, Word and Void series was so good I read them all in a couple days. Bazel Broketail series by Christopher Rowley was a great read. Terry Goodkind, there are soo many, of course Tolkien.
I loved Terry Goodkind Sword of truth, so now reading his new series Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles.
I haven't read the other replies but here is my top 5 pick:
Dresden Files
The Iron druid chronicles
Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews
Mercy Thompson By Patricia Briggs
and Terry Pratchett Discworld series ( I particularly love the Tiffany Aching books)
Will write a little of the books or series without giving away the plot. The David Eddings series I even recommended to my DAD who was 55 at the time and he couldn't put the books down. He never read a fantasy book before. The first book was written around 1997 but is fun and easy to read. I mentioned audible because I travel a lot because of my job and can be in the car for hours driving from one location to another.
My Favorites of All Time
David Eddings- 1st series(5 Books) "The Belgariad"-Read 15 times and have on Audible
Books about Garion, a young hero who grew up in the kitchen and goes on epic quest and receives his birthright.
David Eddings- 2nd of series (5 Books) "The Malloreon"-Read 15 times and have on Audible
Books about Garion as an adult and goes on another epic quest to save his kingdom and allies
David Eddings- 1st Trilogy "The Elenium" - Reead 5 Times and have on Audible: Some like it and some don't. My dad didn't like the series of knights.
About a knight named Sparhawk who comes out of exile to save his princess
David Eddings- 2nd Trilogy "The Tamuli" - Read 5 Times and have on audible but do not like how the person read the books
Sparhawk continues a new adventure with some his campanions coming back together
Raymond E. Feist - 1st series (4 Books, Might find Book 1 and 2 combined) "The Riftwar Saga" Read 25 times and I think it finally on audible and will be getting them on audible
Orphan named pug becomes the princess companion and gets captured by an invading race through a rift/gate. Learns the higher level of magic and becomes the worlds protector through tons of books the author wrote. I will only mention the first series since there is so many to read. The first series has so many characters he develops throughout the books. Reading the different series, some of the characters show up together in later series.
R.A. Salvatore - All Drizzt do'Urden books-Other mentioned it so wont go into it
Christopher Stasheff- (8 Books) "A Wizard in Ryhme" - Read about 8 times
Mathew "Matt" Mantrell: A PHd student who through reading an old runed document in the library, translates it and gets transported to a magical world where good and evil really exists. The world is very similar to earth geography and share some common history from the past. He learns he can perform magic by reciting ryhmes (Poems). He uses ryhmes that many of us have heard before to perform magic. A little different approach to a fantasy land but a very fun read because of the fun ryhmes he uses throughout the book. Swearing and making oaths are very real in this world. Older series that began in 1986 and the last written in 2000.
Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth series; Other mentioned it so wont go into it-Have some on audible and only like a certain reader/actor
Other Fantasy Novels
Jennifer Roberson- Vol 1- 7 Sword Dancer Saga
Story of Sandtiger, a famous sword-dancer who is hired by a Northern woman to guidee her through the desert to reescue her brother. The Northerner Del is a Sword singer who is almost as good as Tiger in fighting really gets on his southern ideas. Great read of books and follow along as Tiger and Del get more intimate with each other
Mercedes Lackey - Others mentioned and she has great books
Orson Scott Card -(scifi) Ender's Game: I only liked the first book and the book of bean which is written in his perspective
Terry Brooks - Shannara Series: Others mentioned so won't go into it
Dungeon and Dragons Novels: The Dragonlance series are a classic
L.E. Modesitt Jr. - The Recluse series
Chaos vs Order, Good vs Evil. A different take on colors representing order and chaos. I reeally liked the first book and later in the series the character comes back in a novel.
Honarable mention
L. Ron Hubbard: (SciFi) Battlefield Earth
Book was awesome but the movie really was a disappointment with John Travolta
David Weber: (scifi) Honor Harrington series Vol 1-13, 14 coming out
Strong Female protanganist- Follow along her military career in space with lots of politics involved.
