A Song of Ice and Fire

[Wendigo]

I second (or third, or...) the recomendation on G.R.R.Martin, A Song of Ice & Fire is IMO the best Epic fantasy series currently in development.
Excellent characters, plot & credible World-building.
Nº4, 'A Feast for Crows', should be out this year.
His old shorter works like 'Fevre Dream' or 'Windhaven' did not catch me so much.

I cannot stand D. Eddings same as Zen, all that teasing each other from the characters while they are saving the world gets old after a while.

Terry Goodkind is a Robert Jordan hack, and that sado-masochist fetish he has doesn't attract me much.

Robert Jordan started Wheel of Time very strong (although nº1, The Eye of the World draws from Tolkien a bit too much), but he's lost control of the story in the latter books. Books 1-5 up to 'Lord of Chaos' are very enjoyable however, if slightly soap operish.

Light reads, good to introduct your kids to Fantasy literature: Terry Brooks (Shanara) & Margaret Weiss (Dragonlance).

If you like swords & sorcery stuff you cannot go wrong with the original Conan stories, by Robert L Howard.

A writer that is gaining momentum is Steven Erikson (Malazan Empire books), he's up to nº4. His work is almost archeologic in scope, with an ancient world walked by multiple races & Gods, and the power levels are slightly out of control IMO (basically, everybody is an ascendant, powerful mage/warrior or a human capable of dealing with the previous). It's fantasy on steroids, entertaining anyway if you do not get lost following the stories.
Each book has a kind of self-contained story, which is kind of refreshing in this age of long waits until the next installment in a series.

Cheers,
Pepe

edit: typo with names

[ January 22, 2004, 15:09: Message edited by: Wendigo ]