Good Fantasy Series

No1newts

No1newts

No1newts

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Can anyone recomend one?

Read;
Erikson
Sanderson
Jordan
Fiest (unfortunately)
Rothfuss
Martin
Abercrombie
Mcaffery
Eddings (extremely unfortunately)
Hobb (extremely extremely unfortunately)

I'm at a bit of a loose end at the moment, got a few books to finish to tie up a couple of random series but then I want to get into something that will last a while.

Thought of Adrian Tchaikovsky, a friend has recomended Naomi Novak (sometihng to do with dragons in the napoleonic wars) and I had thought of picking up Canavans follow ups to the Black Magician Trilogy.

Any of the above worth a read or anything not on that list? I would take a good scifi series but it would need to be really good as I am on a bit of a scifi burnout at the mo. (read Herbert, Card, Hamilton, Banks, a lot of 40k stuff and other bits and peices of scifi)
 
Peter V. Brett

The "warded" Painted Man / The Desert Spear -
The first 2 of a planned total 5 books. Starts slow with lots of backstory. Gets realy good imo. Based in a world with very little science and no sci-fi tech the people face a nightly battle against demons that rise from the core. One of the protections against the demons are "wards".



David Gemmell

Legend, The First Chronicles of Druss The Legned, The Legend of Deathwalker.
Swords and Sorcery fantasy. These 3 books follow Druss as he unwittingly becomes a legend.


Waylander, Waylander 2, Hero in the shadows. Set in the same universe as above ^ but a different time line.
This time the "hero" is an assasin.

White wolf, The swords of night and day,
Same timeline as Druss in the first book. He even pops in to say hello.
This time the hero is a disgruntled general whos a master swordsman and has some powerfull magic swords.

There are also a handfull of other books, all set in the same universe. Making refernces to events and characters in the above books. All worth a read.

Im of the opinion that the Druss books would have allready have been made into awesome films if the author hadnt died and his estate said no.

The Rigante Series, again by Gemmell. 4 books in total I think. Follows a people across many generations. Starts off as swords and magic fantasy towards the end flintlock pistols and rifles have been developed. Im not a fan of the ending but its a great story on the way.

Gemmell has also done 2 other series I liked. The Jon Shanow books and the Hawk Queen Series.
The Jon Shanow books need a lot of imagination to read though and do get close to Sci-Fi by the end.

If you havent read the Game Of Thrones Books or Hobbit & Lord Of The Rings these both are classed as Fantasy I think and both contain zero scifi.

Terry Brooks
At a push you could try the Shanarra books by Terry Brooks. There are shedloads of them. Some of the newer ones are actualy based before the older ones and some of his older books, not technicaly sold as being in the shannara universe it turns out actualy were. They can be very samey, following the exact same pattern just with new characters, this is why I personaly stopped buying them.
 
Aye will probably look to check out those next, sound good.

Gemmell also wrote the Troy trilogy books which I enjoyed too. Think he didn't quite finish the last one off and his wife finished it off (don't quote for accuracy).

I've read most of the ones you have as well to be honest, not really got any others to recommend!
 
"Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson is good. It's basically about a race of demi-gods with staggering powers who suddenly lose all their skills in a single night and become decrepit, undying lunatics. Set around this is a huge political struggle with demons, Norse-like warriors etc. It's a book I really enjoyed.
 
checjb said:
"Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson is good. It's basically about a race of demi-gods with staggering powers who suddenly lose all their skills in a single night and become decrepit, undying lunatics. Set around this is a huge political struggle with demons, Norse-like warriors etc. It's a book I really enjoyed.
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Is this a one off book or a series?

I really enjoyed the Mistborn books by Sanderson, and his work on the last Wheel of Time books so I daresay i'll like it anyway!
 
You might want to try the Saga of the Exiles by Julian May :)
A little SF in there in the justifications for things, but really ends up as being a mediaeval based fantasy.

A slightly off the bat choice might by the Kusheline series and the sequels by Jacqueline Carey- A little more sex and stuff than some writers, but some very well worked fantasy underlying it all if you can get past her chosen mechanic.

R.A. Salvatore is alright, but by no means up to the standard of some of the other stuff suggested. Light reading, nothing more IMHO.
My suspicion is that you'll find the Gemell books not to your taste, based on a dislike of Robin Hobb (Although this does depend on which ones- The Soldier Son trilogy isn't a patch on her earlier works), a very similar style in places.

As you've said you'll consider SF, I'd strongly reccomend reading Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, although that's practically the length of 5 or 6 books. Pure, utter genius.

-Leezer-
 
+1 for Brent weeks. I found his stuff to be hugely enjoyable with some fantastic dark humour!

How about some Terry Brooks? Little more old school than some of the writers you have already read but I really liked the Shannara series. Pleanty of books with interesting characters and while not the most revolutionary concept in the world it is pulled off with some great storytelling. Lots of books in the same universe too if you like what you read.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson was alright. Felt like it needed a bit of fleshing out and was over really rather quickly. Or you could try the stand along novel set in the Mistbourne Universe, Alloy of Law. Think mistborn but wild wild west and you are somewhere close. Sounded awful when I read the concept but I got it for Christmas and could not put it down! I love the magic system :D

Or go proper old school and readom some R.E. Howard or Ursula le Guin!

/Salsa
 
Salsa said:
Or go proper old school and readom some R.E. Howard
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Indeed. Howard didn't just write Conan stories. Some of his other characters are cool too. Notably Solomon Kane.


If you like your fantasy with a twist of science fiction, Have a look at Neverness, The Broken God, The Wild, War In Heaven (Requiem For Homo Sapiens series) by David Zindell.
Epic on a scale of mathematics and philosophy with a vividly imagined space and time, that's somehow familiar and yet just alien enough to keep teasing your minds eye.
 
No1newts said:
Eddings (extremely unfortunately)
Hobb (extremely extremely unfortunately)
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Lol, I thought I was the only one. I read the first book of the liveship traders recently. Dear God that was painful. An entire chapter devoted to someone taking a bath.:(

Are you after sword and sorcery fantasy specifically?

I'd reccomend giving Bernard Cornwells Arthurian trilogy and Saxon novels a try.

Also Sergei Lukyanenkos Watch books about supernatural beings in modern day Russia.

Otherwise Brooks and Gemmell are good shouts.
I've heard good things about Barclay, but not read any yet.
 
No1newts said:
That Lukanyenko book sounds quite good. I enjoy stuff set in russia.
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They are really good, i found them really easy going too.

My suggestions are Anne mccafrey Cronicles of Pern series if you are in to your dragon fantasy, some of the stories are set on the same timeline but from a different point of view which, personally, made the world seem so real. And any of Canavan's books that you haven't read :)
 
Well I spent £30 on amazon for 8 books. I bought;

Sidetracked - Henning Mankell
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Crime and Punishment - dostoyevsky
Painted Man + Desert Spear - Peter V Brett
Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie
Darwins Children - Greg Bear
Night Watch - Lukanyenko

Wanted more but amazon have slyly changed pricing. If you got a second hand book you paid the price they asked and a flat £2.80 delivery. Now it's the price they ask + 2.80 + separate delivery charge from the company unless its an approved amazon seller :( only noticed when I had 11 books for £29 and the price on completion jumped to £45! :rolleyes:

Gone are my days of massive amazon orders it was even cheaper to buy first hand copies off amazon than second hand copies, which is probably what they want :(

Still 8 books for £30 ain't bad :D

Thaks for the tips everyone, much appreciated!
 
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Usually someone will **** him off after someone mentions him, but regardless of that, Stephen R Donaldson, Thomas Covenant series + Mordants Need.
 
Kathatrine Kerrs Deverry series, think its about 13/14 books intotal, kind of a mix of celtic mythology and general fantasy, dwarves.elves etc etc.

J.V jones are worth a read as well

If u liked Feist then maybe Janny Wurts and the war of light and shadow series upto 9 books at the moment.
 
Bubo said:
Usually someone will **** him off after someone mentions him, but regardless of that, Stephen R Donaldson, Thomas Covenant series + Mordants Need.
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What a load of.... :p




Hehe, I really liked all of those. They're like old friends that I enjoy catching up with every year or two; We've been apart, but kick off from where we left.
Which reminds me, I have one or two of the TC books missing... the last of the final trilogy? hmmm.



Last Kronin said:
If u liked Feist then maybe Janny Wurts and the war of light and shadow series upto 9 books at the moment.
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I bought The Master Of Whitestorm as an impulse buy from a petrol station (lol wut?) about 17 years ago. Great novel and entirely self contained, bursting with swords and magic and a little tragedy. Llike the above Donaldson books, I come back to it often.

I think I started the light/shadow series (curse of the mistwraith? I forget) but never got around to the others.
I liked her writing though.
 
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