Fantasy Novels

Whytewulf

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I am running out of my fantasy novels to read on my shelf, and I am not ready to go back and re-read some yet. Any suggestions for a new series. I have a preference to have the series already complete, or almost there. Not another wheel of time or game of thrones, where you wait and wait.. and oh look there are more coming in a few years.

Eddings and Salvatore are two favorite (though tired of the drow series)
Also enjoyed Game of Thones, but then liked Potter, Percy Jackson, and Eragorn.
Recently finished Night Angel Trilogy which was really good.
Looked into the Dark Tower Series by Stephen king and not sure it's up my alley but ordered book one to try it out.

I would say I prefer high fantasy, but steampunk is ok thrown in, but not really going for Sci-fi right now. It can be dark, but I don't need it to be insanely dark and gruesome just for the sake of being so.

Any suggestions, discussion and debate are appreciated. I'd prefer not just a list of your favorites, but maybe why.
 

Daniel Ferguson

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Apr 3, 2010
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The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss if you haven't yet, there's only one to go, though I don't know when it'll be released... the author says 2025, and people have given book 3 a 4-star review on goodreads, so obviously time travellers are fairly happy with it :p

It's one of those fantasy books that you simply must read. It's that rare breed that's really, really good, if you can 'grok' the character of Kvothe. The prologue and blurb (on the UK version, the one that's actually a sample from the book, not the one that just talks about the book) alone deserve awards.

If you want fantasy-style steam/diesel punk with high adventure, freelancing privateers, demons, a psychotic golem made of a diving suit, airships - the titular one I choose to believe looks like Serenity from Firefly - and lots of shooting, I'd also recommend Tales of the Ketty Jay, by Chris Wooding, which is a bit like Pirates of the Caribbean on airships with a palpable layer of engine grease all over it.
 

SquidVicious

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If you haven't read anything by Terry Pratchett I'd highly suggest starting with Guards Guards, a book about an incompetent city watch group trying to fight a dragon. Don't know if you like goofy fantasy or are more into the serious side of things, but Pratchett knows how to balance the humor while still finding ways to get a serious point across.

If you're looking for something a little more serious I just finished reading The Goblin Corps by Ari Marmell and it reads out like a typical D&D campaign, but from the "enemy"'s point of view in that the main characters each represent different goblin species. It starts out as your typical "good vs. evil" story, but slowly starts to fade into shades of grey as you learn the bad guy isn't all that evil and the good guy isn't all that good. There's a decent amount of dark humor in it and if you've ever played a table top RPG there will be more than one situation where you'll think to yourself "this DM is a dick to his players"
 

FoxKitsune

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The Half-Orcs's series by David Dalglish is good, and his setting of Dezrel has another several books attached to it if you get into it. It IS rather dark, and I know that the first book puts some people I know off, but It's still one of my favorite series out there.
 
Dec 15, 2009
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You could try The Lightbringer books. They're by Brent Weeks, the author of The Night Angel Trilogy. The first two are out already. They have a rather interesting magic system, political structure and kind of combine High Fantasy and something more modern. I would also recommend The Imager Portfolio by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., The Heralds of Valdemar or The Obsidian/ Enduring Flame books by Mercedes Lackey.
 

Catie Caraco

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Since it seems like you're cool with young adult fantasy lit you could try anything by Tamora Pierce. She's got several quartets based around two different fantasy worlds. I've personally read more of her Tortall series than her Circle series, but that's just me. In chronological order it goes The Bekah Cooper Trilogy, Song of the Lioness, The Immortals, The Protector of the Small, and Tricksters. Her world building is amazing, her characters continue to pop up in each other's books, and you can see her writing improve from Lioness, which was the first she wrote, to Bekah, which is the most recent published. You can find Science Fiction Bookclub Omnibus collections pretty cheap, which combines the series into one copy. This might not be true for Bekah, since that's the newest, but I have the others.

Others you can look into: Mercedes Lackey. I greatly like her reworking of well known fairy tales into darker, more adult stories. Her Heralds series is also very popular.

Garrett PI by Glen Cook are also a good read. They feature a P.I. in a fantasy setting, which is a strange but interesting combination. Again, there are SFBC Omnibus collections available.
 

Yuno Gasai

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Nov 6, 2010
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I'm reading through the first book in the Wheel of Time series right now.

I'm actually really enjoying it - it's not ridiculously verbose, which is a rather irritating trend in fantasy novels, or so I've found.

I'd also suggest the Chronicles of the Dark Ages series by Michelle Paver. I read them a while ago, they're based around a boy named Torak and his wolf companion.
 

dyre

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I'm a fan of Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders Trilogy. Hobb writes some of the best and most relatable characters I've ever read in fantasy, or elsewhere.

Other pretty-good-but-not-as-awesome series are Game of Thrones, Mistborn, and, uh, actually that's it really. Most fantasy stuff is pretty disappointing and poorly paced, imo (ok writing, horrible pacing). Characterization is also often a weak point in most fantasy I've read. Even Game of Thrones which started so excellently, has had pacing issues in its more recent books, though I have no complaints about its characters!

If you're going to read Dark Tower, you may want to prepare for a disappointing ending. Just a friendly warning.
 

Xpwn3ntial

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Dec 22, 2008
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The Gotrek and Felix novels are pretty good. I'd recommend the first four or five books.

There are a bunch of them so you don't have to worry about long waits between releases (for a while, anyway).
 

Madman Muntz

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I'd recommend trying out some titles from the Warhammer universe, like Gortek and Felix. Or something by Elizabeth Boyer if her books are still in print.
 

Loki J

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Nov 12, 2009
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Try Joe Abercrombie's [http://www.joeabercrombie.com/] First Law series and the follow-up books.
 

BlackStar42

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If you like urban fantasy, try the Dresden Files series. It's about a PI who is Chicago's only professional wizard. It has holy knights, fallen angels, three kinds of vampires, faerie queens, plots and scheming, and a sex-obsessed talking skull. How can you not love it?
 

Bara_no_Hime

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Whytewulf said:
I am running out of my fantasy novels to read on my shelf, and I am not ready to go back and re-read some yet. Any suggestions for a new series. I have a preference to have the series already complete, or almost there. Not another wheel of time or game of thrones, where you wait and wait.. and oh look there are more coming in a few years.

Any suggestions, discussion and debate are appreciated. I'd prefer not just a list of your favorites, but maybe why.
Kushiel's Dart (and the Kushiel's Legacy series that follows, 9 books, complete) by Jacqueline Carey.
Fantasy novels set in an alternative world France where no one can cross between France and England because an angry Weather Wizard called the Master of Straits sinks any and all ships that attempt the crossing.

The Curse of Chalion (and Paladin of Souls that follows, complete) by Lois McMaster Bujold.
A former POW returns from war to the castle where he grew up and gets a job there. Little does he know that he is about to be thrown head-first into a political nightmare being woven by the man who let him be captured in the first place.

The Sharing Knife: Beguilement (and the Sharing Knife novels that follow, 4 total, complete) by Lois McMaster Bujold.
A fantasy novel set not in "Fantasy Europe" but "Fantasy America" - specifically the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Although they are never called such in the book. Psionic demon-hunters called Lake Walkers kill monsters for hire by the farmers who are attempting to reclaim the land after a great disaster many many generations ago. In the more settled areas, many believe that the monsters are just a myth - and a way for the Lake Walkers to scam money. How wrong they are.

If you don't mind Urban Fantasy, I'd also recommend this one:

Storm Front, Book 1 of the Harry Dresden Files (book 1 of 13 of a planned 26).
Harry Dresden is the only Wizard in modern Chicago's phone book. He's a Wizard for hire. Mostly he makes his money consulting for the Chicago Police Department, helping out with crimes that are caused by the supernatural. Not that anyone believes in that stuff.... Harry wears a trench coat, carries a staff, and a blasting rod. The blasting rod has one use - casting fire spells. He also carries a .44 magnum revolver, because sometimes the best way to deal with something is a bullet between the eyes.

I highly recommend all of these series. These are my top three favorite authors. Check 'em out.
 

Chappy0

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Feb 22, 2008
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If you like high fantasy I suggest the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_book_of_the_fallen Malazan Book of the Fallen series (you'll have to forgive me, I'm not really sure how to hyperlink on here). Definitely heavy fantasy, very detailed world and a plethora of intersting characters. Definitely one of my favorite fantasy series, and with it being 10 books long and each book clocking in at almost 1000 pages or more (mostly more) it should last you at least a little while.

Just be forewarned, it has A LOT of characters spread throughout the series, dozens and dozens of them.


Also, the Dresden Files series
 

spookydom

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Aug 31, 2009
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Here are some classics you kids seem to be glossing over or heavens forbid are too young to know about.
Raymond E Feist Start with the Riftwar saga and move on from there, first book is called Magician. Get it and don't argue. Anybody who professes to like high fantasy books and has not read these is wrong in the brain.
Check out some books by the late great David Gemmell also, Start with Legend.
Tad Williams-Memory Sorrow and Thorn. It's very important that you own these books.
Michael Moorcok.....Stop laughing at his name and go out and buy his Elric saga....NOW!

You have a lot of books to buy now, run along ;)
 

Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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Also recommend Gotrek and Felix, and lest the Bill King ones, which were the first 7 or so.

The quality can be a bit all over the place, though.

The first one was a collection of not very good short stories, the second was a better collection of linked stories, the third was a full novel, and IMHO, very good, the fourth dragged on alot, fifth was very good, sixth dragged on again and seventh was very good.

Bill King is generally a decent author with some great stuff, but there tends to be large patches of waffle to get through every so often.
 

ecoho

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Ahri said:
I'm reading through the first book in the Wheel of Time series right now.

I'm actually really enjoying it - it's not ridiculously verbose, which is a rather irritating trend in fantasy novels, or so I've found.

I'd also suggest the Chronicles of the Dark Ages series by Michelle Paver. I read them a while ago, they're based around a boy named Torak and his wolf companion.
the wheel of time series should keep you buisy for some time(14 books) but if you need others
anything by Brandon sanderson is really good

maybe sword of truth but then the books kinda get wordy near the end.

the dragon riders of pern are a must its kinda that rare cross of syfi and fantasy that actually works.
 

Yopaz

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Jun 3, 2009
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Ahri said:
I'm reading through the first book in the Wheel of Time series right now.

I'm actually really enjoying it - it's not ridiculously verbose, which is a rather irritating trend in fantasy novels, or so I've found.

I'd also suggest the Chronicles of the Dark Ages series by Michelle Paver. I read them a while ago, they're based around a boy named Torak and his wolf companion.
You're lucky you never get to experience what us older fans had to... 2007 getting the news that Robert Jordan died as he was writing the final book was pretty devastating. The series is complete now and I really encourage you to go on, the series is quite brilliant, but it has its slow moments.

OT: The first Mistborn trilogy is quite good and it's also completed, there's also a branch to connect the first trilogy to the second called Alloy of Law which is not getting any sequels.

I'd recommend waiting with The Stormlight Archives since there are 9 books yet to be released before that is done.

Septimus Heap is a children series, but it might still be entertaining.