Fantasy Novels

[Artemas]

Stunned that there isn't more mention of Erikson on here. The man is superlative, a modern day literary genius with character development, far reaching plot spinning and incredible storytelling. After reading his Malazan series, it's hard to enjoy other books because they lack his sophistication, his depth. His subtley. Amazing. Little touches of humor that will make you laugh out loud the next day. Happens to me all the time.

Martin's Fire and Ice is okay. He needs to hurry it up on releasing new books.

Goodkind is a preachy. Pretentious. Really spoon feeds you as a reader. The first two books were interesting. Then it seems that after those, he started to believe his own hype. What he calls plot and character development and storytelling become dull and even worse, predictable. Every big problem instantly was solved by a deux ex machina by the end of the novel (oh wow, we should have done THAT).

Salvatore is okay on certain things, but mostly lacking depth. Don't get me wrong. I like Drizzt and Entreri and Jarlaxle and Cadderly, but I began to read about them in junior high. They will entertain you, but nothing that will cause soul searching. Salvatore took alot of stereotypical blocks from D & D and put made quite a fine house, but it's overall a bit crude.

Dune, by Herbert.. everyone should read that novel. Even if you don't like the genre of fantasy/science fiction. It's just a good story with good dialogue and great intrigue. Not to mention it's short (around 400 pages).

My guilty mention would be Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series. Sigh. I don't know why, but I like them. I think it's the side effect of having two x-chromosomes.

P.S. - Kellanved gets on my nerves.

[Obev]

Liveship series by Robin Hobb is amazing, Im currently reading those.

These are good, much better than the Assassin series that he(she? idk) did before it.

Seconding the previous comments about Gemmel, with one minor peeve: Legend is pretty much all you need to read, as in my opinion none of his later work compares to it. Shame really, but I like the fact that things are largely unknown in Legend: you don't know why Druss is such a hero, or who these people/places are, lending it an air of mystery which his later books dispel somewhat by making maps and histories and such. Didn't care so much for Waylander and its sequels; making the guy damn-near unkillable and introducing various magicians, demons and whatnot is a bit crap in my opinion. At least Druss died halfway through Legend.

Raymond Feist's pretty epic too. Magician is still one of my favourite fantasy novels to this day. Not really for the faint of heart though: it spans what, 3 decades and two planets? Heavy stuff, but Jesus Christ saving and taking half damage, it's good.

[Kaylia]

Salvatore is okay on certain things, but mostly lacking depth. Don't get me wrong. I like Drizzt and Entreri and Jarlaxle and Cadderly, but I began to read about them in junior high. They will entertain you, but nothing that will cause soul searching. Salvatore took alot of stereotypical blocks from D & D and put made quite a fine house, but it's overall a bit crude.

I tend to agree with this, and it was basically my complain earlier about dragonlance (especially the first trilogy). It's enjoyable, but it's still a rehash of the same D&D story.

[Chezo]

Xanath series by Piers Anthony, I've read all the ones in the main line of books, 1-9 I think, enjoyed all of them.

[Gilanth]

Salvatore is okay on certain things, but mostly lacking depth. Don't get me wrong. I like Drizzt and Entreri and Jarlaxle and Cadderly, but I began to read about them in junior high. They will entertain you, but nothing that will cause soul searching. Salvatore took alot of stereotypical blocks from D & D and put made quite a fine house, but it's overall a bit crude.

I tend to agree with this, and it was basically my complain earlier about dragonlance (especially the first trilogy). It's enjoyable, but it's still a rehash of the same D&D story.

Yes i agree why enjoyable the characters feel like level 18 people and kill dragons in one hit or killing 90 trolls so never any sense of danger making it a bit boring. Much prefer dragonlance even if the novals are just throwaway stuff, Anything by Weis is good though just preordered Amber and Blood can't wait , Although i did here the Dragon's of the hourglass mage is being ghostwritten because they could'nt finish it before the deadline i hope this to be false cause that's the end of dragonlance te me

[geno]

Riddle-master by Patricia A. McKillip is one of my favorite books. I haven't read a ton of fantasy novels, but I liked it better than most that I have. I never see anyone mention this book in these types of threads when I see them, and I'm surprised its not more popular. Its technically a trilogy, but is usually bound together and reads pretty fluently.

[Mulligan]

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - by Cory Doctorow
http://www.amazon.com/Down-Magic-Kin.../dp/0765304368

This book with kick your face in with awesome.

[Foustian]

I'd second Xanth if you're looking for something stand-alone. There's like 30+ novels in the series, but they all stand pretty well on their own. The first one is A Spell for Chameleon. Just be prepared for a tremendous abundance of puns.

[Shuemue]

Waylander - David Gemmel

waylander is my least favorite book my gemmel
king beyond the gate and legend are my favorites, the entire drenai series is awesome. I havent read a gemmel book I didnt like and Ive read all of them multiple times.

Waylander was the first Gemmel I ever read, in fact it was the first book I took out from the library after reading Feist's Magician and The Hobbit from my Dad's collection. So yeah, sentimental choice. I suspect the redemption theme struck a chord somewhere too. I do think that had I read Druss first, I'd prefer him. I certainly love Druss, he's the kind of hero I'd want to be, simple, just and with a fucking huge axe.

Gemmel slipped up once imo, I think it was called Knights of Dark Renown, where they hop through a portal and become vampires. Not his finest work by a long shot.

Did anyone mention David Eddings? The Belgariad and Mallorean make up an epic 10 book set that is surprisingly easy to get through.

[Xanthe]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned The Twelve Kingdoms novels by Fuyumi Ono. I've found it to be a fantastic series. The originals are all in Japanese, but TokyoPop has translated two installments so far, Shadow of the Moon, Sea of Shadows and Sea of Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth. There is also some great online translation work done by Eugene Woodbury; Shadow of the Moon, Sea of Shadows, A Thousand Leagues of Wind, the Sky at Dawn, and The Shore in Twilight, The Sky at Daybreak (in progress, updated weekly). While a fantasy series, it is also highly political drawing on much from classical Chinese government and mythology. There is also a 45 episode anime series based off the books with a few differences, but it is very well done. The animation and especially the music are superb. I would strongly suggest checking out both, but the books are still much better in my opinion.

[Fuja]

If you want to read Stephen Donaldson I'd say read the Gap series, it's sci-fi though. The characters aren't some glorified heroes trying to do what's right.
Katharine Kerr has a long series about a place called Deverry. It's loosly based on this world with a celtic theme.
Greg Keyes has written three books in a series called Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, and the fourth book is due to be released first in June.
Gonna go along with the people recommending Feist, but I'm gonna recommend the three books he co-wrote with Janny Wurts. They are Daugther of the Empire, Servant of the Empire and Mistress of the Empire.

[Skyylya]

didn't read every post so not sure if anyone mentioned.

but if you like fantasy with a hint of sci/fi then check out Piers Anthony's series The 7 Incarnations of Immortality.

it's a 7 book series based on the idea that incarnations govern things on the playing field between god and satan. death, time, fate, war, earth, hell and finally heaven is the basis for each of the books and they have a lot of really cool science in them and stuff that makes you think.

It's probably one of my favorite series, and you can read any book alone without feeling lost. First one I actually read was the 4th book in the series about War for a project when i was a senior in high school. That ones called 'Wielding a red sword' and like the others is an awesome read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarnatio ... lvet_Cloak

I guess there's 8 now, guess I got another book to read

[Zoot]

For something a little different, Clive Barker's Weaveworld is fantasy with elements of horror and surrealism, differing from his other novels in that it has a much more fantastical feel to it.

The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons has many elements of fantasy and sci-fi, and it's just a damn fun read. I really loved reading this series, second to only the Hickman and Weis books from my childhood.

[Vistani]

Liveship series by Robin Hobb is amazing, Im currently reading those.

These are good, much better than the Assassin series that he(she? idk) did before it.

Funny, I much preferred the assassin and tawny man series to the liveship trilogy. Anyway, I liked all of them. Reading Robert Jordan I really can't shake the feeling in the later books that I'm watching the author masturbate, but I still really want to know what happens in the last book . Raymond E. Feist stuff is all excellent, as are the books written by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman in the Dragonlance series.

[Cyn]

Reading Robert Jordan I really can't shake the feeling in the later books that I'm watching the author masturbate, but I still really want to know what happens in the last book .

It's a shame Jordan died before he wrote the last book eh? And yeah, about 6 books in, the series just became to fat and bloated to support it's own weight. 600 page novels covering 2-3 day spans of time at this point lol.

George R R Martin > all! But at this rate he'll keel over and leave the series unfinished like Jordan did. -_-

Others that I like are Steven Brust, David Drake, Sara Douglas, as well as many mentioned in this thread.

Also Artemas, I like the Kushiel series too and I'm a guy, it's just brilliantly written. Not that I would have ever given it a chance if a girl didn't give me the first one and insist that I read it. >.>

[Isiolia]

Neil Gaiman does some good stuff too. While Sandman and stuff would likely be ruled out of the novel category, American Gods was good. I'd put it under fantasy given how it's rooted in Norse mythology.

[Pun]

Waylander - David Gemmel

waylander is my least favorite book my gemmel
king beyond the gate and legend are my favorites, the entire drenai series is awesome. I havent read a gemmel book I didnt like and Ive read all of them multiple times.
salvatore once said he thought gemmel was better than he to give you an idea of the quality of the books.
Liveship series by Robin Hobb is amazing, Im currently reading those.

if you want to get some cheap book sets look for the one combined books by salvatore on amazon, older issues of books they have laying around, can get 3-4 of them combined for 10 bucks or less sometimes.

If you are liking Liveship from Hobb, you really, really, need to read the Farseer Trilogy and Tawny Man Trilogy.

[Ghost_Wheel22]

I'll also recommend The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever novels. They're truly fantastically written, with a bit of a nice twist to them -- But the content can get a bit heavy, at times.

The style of writing is pretty solid, just overplaying many phrases/themes ruined it.

Where is the love for the The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny? Or many other of his books?

[Fistandantilus]

So many great suggestions so far, I love the Weis books as well as anything Orson Scott Card wrote. The Redwall series is so awesome too, I need to reread them. Another suggestion since you mentioned the books you had liked thus far were fairly low reading level is the Lost years of Merlin Series. I think I read the first one in middle school but I still found them interesting when I finished the series in high school, easy to read and very enjoyable.

[wintersquall]

sig.

get it. read it. thank me later.