Fantasy Authors

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Bumping a bit

I think this is scifi but any views on Hyperion series (Dan Simmons)

also Cradle series (Will wright)

They are kind of in my sights on Audible, Hyperion second book is book of the day and 2x cradle in £3 sale
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Hyperion is weird but excellent. Endymion is part 2 and while not as good imo continues a very interesting story. Maybe I was in a bad mood but I felt his Greek gods on Mars (or wherever) stuff - Olympus - was pretty guff. As with so many books I've bought I can't seem to find them now which is a real annoyance. I had all of Simmons' books but seem not to now.

My first edition Game of Thrones was lent out and not returned; I wouldn't sell it but worth in excess of £500 if I wanted to...

Not done the Cradle series so will look into when poss. Thanks.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Fiest’s Riftwar Saga : Magician, Silverthorne and A Darkness At Sethanon are still some of my favourite books.
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One of the few books I have read multiple times.

Magician so needs to be a TV series, hell the first book alone needs 3-4 series to do it justice.
 
Some great writers mentioned above - Hobb, Sanderson, Feist especially are great.
Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books were incredible for the first and second chronicles, but the 3rd I struggled with. I'm not sure how many have read the Mirror of Her Dreams books by him. Nowhere near as well known, but a great read too.
Scott Lynch's books I liked a lot, while Jim Butcher I did - but after getting to about book 7 of the Dresden Files got a little weary.

Trying to think of some not already covered above:

Obviously there's Pratchett. I imagine not mentioned because he's considered comic fantasy - but the majority of his books are an excellent read even ignoring the comedy element.

And Daniel Abraham. Unfortunately it's been so long since I read these, I can't remember the detail to help me recommend. As I remember (and I could be completely wrong) there were elements of his fantasy which were based on Eastern history rather than Western, which was intriguing. But it's quite possible I'm mixing up books!
I might be due a re-read of these.
 
Surprised not to see N K Jemisin in here with all the awards her books have picked up.

Her Broken Earth trilogy is incredible, and the Inheritance trilogy not far behind. Broken Earth is getting adapted for film atm, and I think Inheritance is going TV last I heard.

Kinda lost me on her new series starting with The City We Became though, think you need to be a born and bred city-dweller to appreciate it.
 
Shamikebab said:
Everything by Sanderson is great.

Two of my 'recent' favourites are

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - Urban Fantasy and pretty much the best of the genre. Follows a wizard in Chicago dealing with trying to make a living as the only practicing wizard and dealing with the large variety of things that try to kill him on the way. It's a long series but very readable and has some really interesting takes on fantasy staples like fey and vampires.

The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft - Fantasy with some steampunk. probably the best debut series by an author I've read in the last decade. Incredible characters, incredible locations and incredible prose. It follows a headmaster called Thomas Senlin visiting the great wonder of the world, the Tower of Babel, with his new wife.
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I love Dresden and am just coming to the end of a periodic 'trash action novel' phase, I'll give the Books of Babel a go.

Edit: after reading on in the thread. I hold Feist right up there. The end of the Magician saga got a bit much for me personally, but I'd still read 90% of it again.

Also The Painted Man by Peter Brett. I've read that series from start to current book 3 times after finding it and then waiting for the final books.
 
Loving this thread thanks for keeping it going peeps

Seen a couple of names crop up I need to check out

The riftwar I am sure I read many many years ago.

I am slowly replacing my collection as audible. Will eventually make sure I have all the stuff I enjoy on both audible and hard format
Kind of switched off kindle now, whilst I love it for travelling and its damn nice in a way, i have kind of fallen back in love with paperbacks
 
SPG said:
One of the few books I have read multiple times.

Magician so needs to be a TV series, hell the first book alone needs 3-4 series to do it justice.
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Completely agree with this, if I was Amazon its where I would have thrown my cash.
chroniclard said:
Eddings is ok, I quite like the series, but it just doenst quite hit the right notes for me.
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I always think of The Balgariad/Malloreon as perfect starter books for an introduction to fantasy, they're very tropey and easy, light reading.
 
Shamikebab said:
Robin Hobb yeeeees. One of my favourite authors. Fitz journey is one of the best in fantasy imo.
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The Assassins Trilogy is probably my favourite book series of all time. The characters are wonderfully written and its not overly complicated or convoluted. Fools Quest and Liveship Traders is also excellent but sadly some of her later stuff isnt quite on the same level.

/Salsa
 
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chroniclard said:
It's a shame Salvatore didn't stop.....

Steven Eriken, most notably Malazan Books of the fallen decology(if that's even a term, 10 books) are great.

Ed McDonald, ravens mark trilogy, also good
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I listened to Ed McDonald's 'Ravens Mark Trilogy' on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed it. A mix of Fantasy and Horror - any suggestions for something in a similar style?
 
marl said:
I listened to Ed McDonald's 'Ravens Mark Trilogy' on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed it. A mix of Fantasy and Horror - any suggestions for something in a similar style?
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Trilogy was fairly unique in my eyes. Have not read much similar that I can recall.
 
marl said:
I listened to Ed McDonald's 'Ravens Mark Trilogy' on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed it. A mix of Fantasy and Horror - any suggestions for something in a similar style?
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The Grave of Empires trilogy by Sam Sykes is pretty similar I thought and very good - although the 3rd book got delayed until Dec due to the author being "cancelled" but now seemingly uncancelled again. :D
 
Shamikebab said:
Everything by Sanderson is great.

Two of my 'recent' favourites are

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - Urban Fantasy and pretty much the best of the genre. Follows a wizard in Chicago dealing with trying to make a living as the only practicing wizard and dealing with the large variety of things that try to kill him on the way. It's a long series but very readable and has some really interesting takes on fantasy staples like fey and vampires.

The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft - Fantasy with some steampunk. probably the best debut series by an author I've read in the last decade. Incredible characters, incredible locations and incredible prose. It follows a headmaster called Thomas Senlin visiting the great wonder of the world, the Tower of Babel, with his new wife.
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Just popped back in to say I've thoroughly enjoyed Books of Babel, just about to finish it so I came back for some more recommendations.
 
Lazily checking my Kindle library for a few:

Mark Lawrence (Thorns trilogy and Sister trilogy both good),
Brandon Sanderson (saw Mistborn mentioned but I prefer Stormlight Archive series, also fascinating that his books have an overarching "multiverse"),
Brent Weeks,
James Maxwell
Peter Brett (Demon Cycle has interesting take on a prophesised saviour),
R Scott Bakker
Terry Goodkind (he got me into fantasy books as a kid, I find his later books hard to read as he "finished" the story then seems to have gone back again).
 
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