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I suppose it all depends if you want to read a series that is actually finished as neither the Wheel of Time nor Song of Fire & Ice are yet and it will be at least two years for WoT and god know's how much longer George R R Martin is gonna drag out his last few books - i believe it's 3 years and counting since the last one!!! Saying that both series are great and different to each other.

Ghaunts Ghosts are superb books and I've still got a couple to read of them yet and also the Horus Heresy books also from Black Library are excellent.

Only ever read Feist's original trilogy and loved them but never been taken to read anything else by him strangely enough.

The Belgariad by David Eddings is quite good as is the first Sparhawk trilogy also by him (The Elenium).

I've just read the Icewind Dale series by R A Salvatore recently and they are quite good and have a stand out character of Drizzt Do'Urden who has gone on to have many more books featuring him.

Just started An Empire in Black & Gold (Shadows of the Apt series) and that seems quite good but too early to tell yet.
 
Meridian said:
This sums up most fantasy perfectly. It's the only genre I know where editors seem to want the writers to add stuff, not take it out. And it shows - the padding is seldom therefore for any reason but to show how clever the writer is. I blame Tolkien.


M
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No it doesn't, Donaldson is the fantasy equivalent of Tom Clancy, dull and boring waffle interspersed with the odd bit of actual relevance and story. While it's a good story it is spoilt by the added bloat, most fantasy I've read doesn't do anything of the kind and is either lacking anything that could be considered bloat or it actually has relevance without managing to fill page after page of dull diatribe.
 
Zeroecho99 said:
I suppose it all depends if you want to read a series that is actually finished as neither the Wheel of Time nor Song of Fire & Ice are yet and it will be at least two years for WoT and god know's how much longer George R R Martin is gonna drag out his last few books - i believe it's 3 years and counting since the last one!!! Saying that both series are great and different to each other.

Ghaunts Ghosts are superb books and I've still got a couple to read of them yet and also the Horus Heresy books also from Black Library are excellent.

Only ever read Feist's original trilogy and loved them but never been taken to read anything else by him strangely enough.

The Belgariad by David Eddings is quite good as is the first Sparhawk trilogy also by him (The Elenium).

I've just read the Icewind Dale series by R A Salvatore recently and they are quite good and have a stand out character of Drizzt Do'Urden who has gone on to have many more books featuring him.

Just started An Empire in Black & Gold (Shadows of the Apt series) and that seems quite good but too early to tell yet.
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You should check out the dark elf trilogy, its the prequal to icewind dale!
 
Zeroecho99 said:
The Belgariad by David Eddings is quite good as is the first Sparhawk trilogy also by him (The Elenium)
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Sparhawk and his fellow knights are some of my favourite fantasty characters. I also really like how Eddings approaches the idea of divinity in many of his books, and the Elenium has one of the best examples I've seen (Not going to say any more and spoil it...)
 
Ah man! I completely forgot about The Elenium books, I really enjoyed reading those. Although there were several points where I thought "was this really necessary?", not so much padding out as just unneeded plot points.
 
Lord-Jaffa said:
You should check out the dark elf trilogy, its the prequal to icewind dale!
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I have that ready on my bookshelf!

The Elenium was excellent but I was disappointed by the follow up trilogy and I lost faith with Eddings material even further after reading The Redemption of Althalus. Started off great and nose dived quicker than a german stuka bomber over Poland in the latter half. Not read anymore of his since and sadly he's another big author who has passed away.

Still miss the fact that there'll be no more David Gemmell books. Legend will always be one of my all time favourite books and a fantastic character in Druss.
 
Antar Bolaeisk said:
Personally I found Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" books to be somewhat of a ripoff of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" and not that good either.
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this is my opinion too.


oops i messed up multi quoting

Eddinng wrote Belgariad then Mallorean (same world) then Elenium and then Tamuli (same world), I believe after this he started co writing series with Leigh Eddings which is when they seem to have gone downhill

Lol i read the first wheel of time book in 94 and i'm getting bored of waiting now.

Elaine cunnigham books starlight and shadows series in the forgotten realms series are quite good

Also Anne McCafrey talent series and then tower and hive series for a bit of sci fi
 
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Ade74 said:
after this he started co writing series with Leigh Eddings which is when they seem to have gone downhill
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To the best of my knowledge, all his books were co-written with his wife, but pressure from his publisher meant that her name only appeared on very late ones. A more likely explanation is that he'd run out of ideas, which is something nearly all writers are guilty of.


M
 
Phoen1x said:
What a great thread, loads of suggestions there to keep me going for ages, let alone the OP :)

Has anyone mentioned the Malloreon, Elenium and Tamuli series by David Eddings? Also The Redemption of Althalus, although it's only one book, it's pretty hefty and an absolute classic 'band of adventurers save the world' book.
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You forgot the Belgariad...that was the best set!

That said Eddings RIP, wrote some amazing, if occasionally generic tales; they always sucked me in with likeable characters etc.
I'd definately recommend them all [except the dreamers series]; even if the writing isn't perhaps as advanced as some of the other authors.
If you enjoy the Belgarath his side stories about Belgarath and Polgara are also very interesting.

Aside from that, some great suggestions in this thread, I just jumped in as Edding's sets have a warm place in my heart (and over a shelf to themselves in my bookcase), as they're great tales that can appeal to younger and older readers.

Out of the ones mentioned, I'd also second the Drizzt Do'Urden series from Salvatore, although primarily the earlier books, I don't see them getting mentioned that often in comparison to the likes of some of the others; yet they're a pretty damned good read.
I keep meaning to buy them all; as I first found them in the dusty section they call fantasy in my local library the best part of 5 years or so back.
 
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The early Drizzt books are great. Not exactly high fantasy but a great yarn. The later books drag things out a bit but Icewind Dale and the Dark elf are fantastic
 
The dying earth series by jack vance. In fact most of his books have a rich background to them.

Tales of the bard, by micheal scott.

Both these series are the dogs.
 
Bit of a bump, but oh well. Just finished the second book of the Farseer trilogy last night and it's amazing, probably the best books I've read so far.

Out of what's recommended here, which are similar to these books? I'm not too fussed about the plot, I enjoy the extremely well developed and detailed characters more.
 
H2F Scott said:
Bit of a bump, but oh well. Just finished the second book of the Farseer trilogy last night and it's amazing, probably the best books I've read so far.

Out of what's recommended here, which are similar to these books? I'm not too fussed about the plot, I enjoy the extremely well developed and detailed characters more.
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Robin Hobb is particularly good at characters and it is hard to find similar quality of characterisation within the genre. :(

You can obviously read all the other hobb series e.g. start with the tawny man series which follows on from the farseer trilogy. I would also recommend R. Scott Bakker.
 
Read 'Painted Man' recently, and its suprisingly good for a new author. Slightly different take on your 'hero' that's for sure.

Will be quite interested to see how the series turns out as its got potential, but it could just as easily turn into a Wheel of Time-esque series meandering all over the place!
 
Bumping this off the back of my other thread. Proper useful, this.

Going to look into Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire.
 
Have not looked through every thread but Ill just throw the name in anyways David Gemmell. Heroic fantasy at its best, I would recommend the shannow novels or waylander for a first time reader, they really draw you in.
 
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