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Has anyone read The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman? I thought it was a pretty engaging book that felt very different to your average fantasy book, would recommend it.
 
The Chronicles of Obernewtyn ~ Isobelle Carmody

Garth Nix ~ The Old Kingdom Series

Phillip Pullman ~ Dark Materials

David Eddings ~ The Belgariad & The Mallorean Series

Various ~ Star Wars Expanded Universe Novels (Han solo Trilogy On-wards anything set before this isn't Star Wars so far as I'm concerned!)

C.S Lewis ~ The Chronicles of Narnia
 
IMHO,

What I've read and liked (rated from good to very very very good):

Riftwar Series,Raymond E Feist - first 3 or 4 books great then goes a bit downhill
Robin Hobbs - very good trilogies
Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan - only read if you are prepared to be disappointed from book 6 onwards and never ever seeing the final book published in your lifetime.
Song of Fire and Ice series, George RR Martin - very very very good

However, if you want to read good fantasy, where you won't need to wait until book 12 for the story to end then you must read everything (except his poetry) that has ever been written by Guy Gavriel Kay.
 
Btw, it would fall under this section, but may not appeal to as many readers because of the subject matter, or the source, but I'd recommend Spice and Wolf. They're translating them from the Japanese light novels, and they're actually quite enjoyable reads, if short, and basically are about the travels and relationship between a merchant and the wolf goddess that chooses to partner up with him to try and return to her homeland.

Yes, they've been turned into an anime and a manga, but the original materials are short novels, and were award winners before the manga and anime even appeared.
Not exactly an indepth read like much of whats mentioned in here (approx 250 pages vs 600), but the two main characters are interesting and the series is being released translated once every 6 months,with around 14 novels currently released in Asia so theres a fair bit of material to get through over the next few years :)

Thought it deserved a mention as they're very different from the majority of what has been listed here, yet fall under the title quite adequately. I enjoyed the anime/book so much S&W was the first/only anime I've ever actually bought, the series is surprisingly true to the book and just misses out on a few aspects due to runtime. :)

Edit: Oh and the American cover doesnt look like a Japanese origin material either, incase you're as shy about that sort of stuff as I am.
 
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fretted said:
IMHO,
Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan - only read if you are prepared to be disappointed from book 6 onwards and never ever seeing the final book published in your lifetime.
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A bit harsh, just because the author is dead doesnt mean it wont be finished, brandon sanderson is doing his best to get the last 2 finished, takes a few months to write but longer to edit and print.
 
Yeah, I was being a bit harsh... I haven't read "The Gathering Storm" yet, so maybe I should reserve judgement until I see whether the pace picks up, and whether the ending of the series will be acceptable for those who have been patiently waiting since the early 90s.

Also, some other summaries from me:

Dragonlance: Chronicles and Legend series, Weis and Hickman - don't bother with the others bearing the Dragonlance name, just read these two trilogies. Chronicles is well written, extremely faithful to the AD&D game and a necessary (imho) prerequisite read before you tackle Legend.

Belgariad, Malloreon, and other series - David Eddings. Good introduction to fantasy fiction, but ultimately pales when compares to the complexity and intricacies of others mentioned by others in this thread

Sword of Truth - Terry Goodkind - great first book, okay second book and then each book after that uses the same formula (bit like watching the same Red Dwarf episode again and again).

Controversial dislikes:
Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman, sorry to say this but I just didnt like it.
Discworld - Terry Pratchett, not my cup of tea and can't really understand the broad appeal. While I like parodies and humorous novels, TP's style is very basic and becomes predictable and tedious. For the record, I have read about 4 TP books hoping to find out why he is so popular.
 
Nice to see some folks mentioning Robin Hobb, she's a fantastic author. I've read all the books from the Farseer Trilogy to the Tawny Man series right through to the Liveship Traders.

I liked the Farseer trilogy more so due to the animal interactions, although Liveship Traders is fantastic and the pace is better than Farseer Trilogy.

The Draenai series of books from David Gemmel. Anything with Waylander Druss or Skilgannon is an awesome read. None of his books are slow. They kind of go straight for the jugular with the action and theres a hint of fantasy here and there.

I hate the dragonlance series. I avoid anything from Weiss and Hickman. Do you remember a TV series called Xena Warrior Princess? When I was reading Dragonlance I felt like it was written in the same style as shows of that calibre i.e. carp

Thats just my opinion on Dragonlance. You might like it *shrug*

Raymond E Feist - from Magician all the way to the Conclave of Shadows. Fantastic read but can be very slow at times. Nonetheless very entertaining. I'm collecting the Graphic novel series now.

Eddings is always a good read. I loved the Belgariad and the Mallorean series. I couldnt read the next series because for some reason I felt like I was being unfaithful to the characters from the first two series lol :p
 
fretted said:
Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan - only read if you are prepared to be disappointed from book 6 onwards and never ever seeing the final book published in your lifetime.
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Sheesh, bitter much? Hardly the fault of the author that he did his best to finish such an epic series off before he died. The person that got me into reading the series has read The Gathering Storm by Brandon Sanderson and he was extremely impressed with it. He says that if the last two are as good, then it will be a fitting end to a fantastic series.

I'm gonna give a few of the other books in here a go soon. I'm starting to enjoy my reading again :)
 
DampCat said:
depends which 4 you read. For me, Discworld didn't get good until Mort, book 6.
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Mort was the first of Discworld that I read, it's ace! Just starting Reaper Man now.

I recently re-read the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. I forgot how good it really is. Was almost going to read it again straight after.

I really like Trudi Canavan too. The Black Magician series was really good, was really sad when I had stopped reading. I've only read the first two of the Age of Five Trilogy and I liked them and so far I think it's the better series.
 
Makunouchi said:
I hated these books. The main character was a moaning ******* for three solid books, not to mention raping someone within the first 50 pages (which I saw no justification, or repentance for).

I failed to empathise with him at all and the whole trilogy was a chore to read after I realised that.
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I thought I was the only one that felt that way!

Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind is worth a read, first book is called Wizard's First Rule
 
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Oh forgot to mention -

Karen Miller - The Godspeaker Trilogy

Very good read. Better than her awakened mage series.
 
Vampyre said:
I thought I was the only one that felt that way!

Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind is worth a read, first book is called Wizard's First Rule
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For some reason I've always felt those books were a cheap rip-off of the Wheel of Time, I did read the first three books but just couldn't be bothered with the rest of them.
 
im reading a David Gemmel book at the moment, a Druss one, but meh really. It kicked off quickly and the action is there, violence, and sex scenes and mention of nipples and such (those bits just make me feel uncomfortable tbh) but its too fast paced. I dont really care about the characters. I put it down yesterday about half way through and im not bothered about picking it up again :(
 
I have bad news for you : most fantasy is not about character. There is good stuff around, but generally the rule is: if you want character-driven then go with female authors. George R R martin is an honourable exception here.


M
 
The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks has some well written character development for a bloke.

If like me you're always looking for a nice thick series to get stuck into, at least beyond the usual suspects, take a look at the Godless World Series by Brian Ruckley. I have high hopes for for the forthcoming part 2 of the Demon Trilogy by Peter V. Brett, hope it builds on the first one.
 
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Just finished The Confessor the last in the 11 book series The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. I actually got them in Audible book format so listened rather than read them.

The books can be read individually which also means you get to hear the same explanations of things over and over and over and by book 11 you are completely sick of it (of course if you buy or get from library you can speed read but it's harder to do with an audio book lol.

Still apart from that problem the books are great.

Also Feist is my choice for great read. Sadly he doesn't seem to concerned that his books are not being put in audio format so it's kind hard for me to spend time reading his magician again but would buy it in an instant on audio.
 
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