Good fantasy (or sci-fi) books?

[shwnbob]

I don't know if you would count this as "sci-fi" but Choke by Chuck Palahniuk is excellent. Oh and You Suck by Christopher Moore. Enjoy.

 

[scarbunny]

Anything by Neil Gaimam, especially American Gods and Anancy Boys.

Joe Abercrombie's Books of the First Law Triology, some of the best fantasy I have read.

Also Stephen King's Dark Tower series if you have time to read them all, and can get past the terrible first book.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Recommended many times before, and I will join them: Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I especially recommend beginning with the Watch series, I found those extremely funny. Not done yet though, took a break and started reading the Death series (Soul Music right atm), apperantly the last book of that series has an important plotlink with my next Watch book. Anyway, they're a lot of Discworld books, 'bout 30+, here's a reading guide for you:

PS: The plotlink between Thief of Time and Night Watch is apperantly not small as this image suggests, but actually pretty big.

 

[NoriYuki Sato]

my vote is for the DMC books ((yes the actual books)) and the GoW book =D

*EDIT* not really fantasy/sci-fi unless you believe the genre tags printed on the books =P *EDIT*

 

[Anachronism]

1. Ringworld by Larry Niven. This is pretty classic sci-fi, which is why I'm surprised it isn't heavily recommended. Written in 1970, it's basically about an expedition to a planet that is a giant ring around a star, but gets into evolution and has some really good characters. It's also not too heavy a read, though the mathematics and physics may go over your head. (They certainly were hard to digest for me.)

I read Ringworld and thought it was very overrated. It certainly wasn't a bad novel, but I'd been told it was one of the best SF books ever, and I just didn't get that. The science behind it is interesting, but, for me at least, Niven spends far too long it. He takes too long explaining why and how everything works; I realise that's part of hard-SF, but I just don't find it that interesting. I'm prepared to accept that the technology in SF works, and don't need an explanation of why it works.

On top of that, the story is very simple, and, while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it didn't really draw me in. Plus, they don't even get to the Ringworld until about halfway through. The main problem I had with it, though, was that he abandoned good characterisation in favour of explaining the science. The characters were fairly interesting, but they were nothing special, and there was precious little development of their personalities.

Other novels have proved that you can have complicated science and good characters: Dune, for instance. In this case I didn't mind all the complicated science, because it was backed up by a really good story and interesting characters. I do, for the record, find the science of Ringworld interesting, but for me, the science should complement the story and characters, and not be the central issue of the novel.

 

[Sindre1]

The "His Dark Materials" trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman is good.
"The Bartimaeus Trilogy" by Jonathan Stroud is also very good (and funny) fantasy novels.

 

[HerrBobo]

Anything by David Gemmel. Very easy to read, light fantasy.

The Rift War Saga by Raymond E. Feist. Fantastic read consisting of 3 books.

 

[RichardNixon]

Some extraordinary dystopias: Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin and obviously 1984 by old Orwell. Of course, if you want a really good first-person dystopia you just turn on your TV.

I don't read sci-fi or fantasy anymore, but I remember that I enjoyed very much the trilogy of Ender from Orson Scott Card. Specially the first book.

ps. Hitchhicker's Guide is funny but it wont be remembered in the Encyclopaedias -of course Adolf Hitler is remembered in the Encyclopaedias and he's a bastard, but you know what I mean-.

ps. Fuck!! I forgot!! Read anything from Herbert George Wells, hi is the master of all the crap that's done after him. The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, etc

 

[ThaBenMan]

And if you're considering starting on taking up "A Song of Ice and Fire", try starting with the second or third book and then working your way through the series.
I say this because whenever i tried getting my friends into "A Song of Ice and Fire" by making them read the First book, they felt it was too uneventful. However they never realized that the scene was just being set for the rest of the books.
Such wonderfully dark and 'things cant possibly get worse' books : ]
Winter is Coming

Dude... I understand what you're getting at, but I think it would be a really, really bad idea to skip the first book, especially because of what happens in the very end...

But, yeah, OP, you should definitely try out A Game of Thrones. It may be more dense than what you're looking for, but sooo good if you can get into it.

I have a suggestion that I don't think has been mentioned - The Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. They're kind of like fantasy detective novels. Vlad Taltos is sort of a private investigator-type guy, one of the few humans who is a member of the Draegaran Empire (Draegarans are kind of like 7 foot tall, badass Elves). He has a little dragon-type thing for a sidekick. They're pretty good, entertaining and not too long or dense.

 

[Sneaklemming]

I've been looking for some good fantasy or sci-fi books to read. I'm going to read Hitchhiker's Guide, and I gave up reading the Foundation trilogy, so I'm wondering what I should read. (Oh, and I've read Harry Potter, I don't want to read Lord of The Rings, I'm already reading a little Eragon, so no need to mention them). One book I'm curious about is "A Game of Thrones" from the "A Song of Ice And Fire" series (heard the name and wondered what it was, looked it up, and thought; hey, this might be interesting). Take note of this: I'm not a hardcore fan of these kind of things, I don't know everything about everything when it comes to fiction books, or any books at all for that matter, I just merely like it as an eventual hobby.

I found Alastair Reynolds [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revelation-Space-Gollancz-Alastair-Reynolds/dp/1857987489]to be a fantastic Space Opera author, big epic plotlines.

If youre looking for that kinda thing.

 

[Shade Jackrabbit]

Gaaah. No, no. While I do like his books, Drizzt is so GOD DAMN BORING... Oh no, I'm a drow with a morality complex, I want to be unique, slash slash slash.

I agree on this one. Drizzt is really boring. Salvatore's best books are interestingly enough near the end of the timeline, mainly The Sellswords trilogy and The Spine of the World. I had only read The Crystal Shard beforehand, but I found them really good and Wulfgar and Artemis Entreri are really interesting characters once they are developed.

long post about Ringworld

Oh, yeah, it's definitely not the best novel ever. It's just one of my personal favourites and I really liked it. I do agree though that the characters could've been fleshed out a lot better, and it's an unfortunate stylistic choice of Niven's to focus so much on the science. It is really hard sci-fi and very "love it or find it meh". I just thought it at least deserved a mention. Besides, it has Puppeteers in it, and they are an interesting race.

 

[Nouw]

Would Meg:A novel of deep terror count as a Sci-Fi?

 

[GrimTuesday]

monster blood tatoo by CM Cornish i think that is his name

 

[vampirekid.13]

The Bible is a great fantasy book.

 

[coldwarkid]

Some extraordinary dystopias: Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin and obviously 1984 by old Orwell.

If we're going down the road of dystopia (what a wonderful and beautiful road it is), then may I suggest:

Franz Kafka's "The Trial"
Anthony Burges "A Clockwork Orange"
Ray Bradbury "Fahrenheit 451"
Philip K. Dick "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

 

[yeah_so_no]

Neil Gaiman, definitely.

I'd also recommend Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard-Boiled_Wonderland_and_the_End_of_the_World]. It's kind of fantasy meets SF meets cyberpunk, if that makes sense, and it's really dark and surreal, but in a good way.

A lot of Murakami's books are really surreal, but in a good way--Kafka on the Shore has Colonel Sanders show up as a "concept" who is also a pimp. And there are talking cats, all in a story that is a modern retelling of Oedipus. It won the World Fantasy Award, which should say something. I absolutely loved Kafka on the Shore and have read it more than once. I love his modern-day fantasy stories.

 

[Timewave Zero]

Anything by Robert E. Howard, especially any of the Conan stories. You can get all of the Robert E. Howard Conan stories in a two volume collection by Fantasy Masterworks. THEY ARE ALL AMAZING.
For sci-fi, try the 'Deathworld' trilogy by Harry harrison. They're not big, random sprawling epics, but they'd beat most of them. Incredibly enjoyable.
Also, Robert Jordan, Andrew J. Offut and Steve Perry, among many others, have written Conan stories. They are also amazingly good!
And H.P. Lovecraft. Read lots and lots of H.P. Lovecraft. Its cosmic horror, yes, but alot of it is fantastical! Infact, 'The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath' is a fantasy story. Fucking wierd, but still great!