OT: good fantasy books

[Xietor]

That is because they love diplomacy and treachery!

[Novi]

Teraswaerto said:
The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
-High fantasy, demigods and ancient races, sorcerers battling demons, armies incinerated by magic. History of the world reaching back hundreds of thousands of years. Reminds me of Dominions actually.

Well, my experience with this book wasn't as thrilling as it was supposed to be according to the countless fans... Yes, it is epical in basically every aspect but exactly that makes it tedious and difficult to read. Too many facts, too little explanations. Took me a TONNE of devotion and time to read.

The very best thing I've read so far is A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. It might be a pain in the neck for those who yearn for glorious battles and intricate plots but it makes up for that with its depth. Recommended reading. =)

[Teraswaerto]

Yeah, it's true that the Malazan Book of the Fallen is not the easiest read. It's a good idea to re-read a few times to really get into it and understand what's going on. I've started the series from the first book every time a new part has come out.

I like the Earthsea series, read it a dozen times I think.

[Edi]

I actually like Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series of books for the most part and consider them good. They have their own issues, but I found them entertaining and would not mind reading the lot of them again.

As for George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, I liked it at first, but it's almost all downhill. It has its good portions, but more bad than good in my opinion. I do not like the gratuitous feasting on rape and torture that is a fairly prevalent trend throughout the series. Martin has a lot of interesting characters, but he simply throws them away for no discernible reason when he runs out of ideas for them and generally they are not replaced or the subplots involving them tied up at all. He does have some interesting characters that actually grew out of some fairly two-dimensional cardboard cutouts into "real" characters. Jaime Lannister for one, in Storm of Swords, the Hound and Tyrion Lannister earlier.


Edis's list of good fantasy

• J.V.Jones: Barbed Coil, Book of Words trilogy (Baker's Boy, A Man Betrayed, MAster and Fool), Sword of Shadows trilogy (A Cavern of Black Ice, A Fortress of Grey Ice, A Sword from Red Ice (Nov. 2007)). Contemporary fantasy does NOT get any better than the Sword of Shadows trilogy. That one trounces anything and everything else on the market that I've ever read.
• Janny Wurts: To Ride Hell's Chasm, Wars of Light and Shadow (currently at 7 volumes, more to come at some point), Cycle of Fire trilogy, Master of Whitestorm. If J.V. Jones's SoS trilogy wasn't so bloody good, Wurts would be undisputed queen of fantasy writing.
• C.S. Friedman: Coldfire trilogy (Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, Crown of Shadows), see above.
• Marcus Herniman: Arrandin trilogy. Has its problems, but I really liked this one. The final book was in many ways the weakest of them all, but the first one (Siege of Arrandin) completely drew me in.
• R. Scott Bakker: Prince of Nothing, already mentioned, totally kickass.
• Raymond E. Feist: The Riftwar saga (the original four volumes starting with Magician), and its followup books up until the end of the Serpentwar saga, plus the Empire trilogy cowritten with Janny Wurts
• Deborah Chester The Sword, The Ring, The Chalice trilogy and its followup books and the War of Shadows trilogy are all good.
• Glen Cook: Black Company. 'Nuff said.
• R.E. Howard: The Conan Chronicles. What, you thought I would leave HIS name out of the list?
• Ursula Le Guin: The Earthsea books are great.
• Tolkien If Howard and Le Guin get mentioned, then he does too.
• Roger Zelazny: The Chronicles of Amber
• Patricia A McKillip: The The Riddle-master's Tale trilogy. A very good series, though a bit slow to start. It has the novelty of having very unusual villains and a suitably mysterious plot.

That should do for starters.

[Xietor]

Edi,

on the JV Jones series, are they stand alone, or should you read them in a particular order? In short, can you just start with the SOS trilogy?

[Teraswaerto]

I think you misjudge Martin, Edi.

The world he writes about is violent, and the fact he does not gloss over it is one of the things that make him a great writer. The fact that being a main character is not a guarantee if surviving does not mean he's "run out of ideas", just that for a while he told the story from the point of view of someone who doesn't live to see its end.

Also, I don't see how you can say Martin has too much rape and torture and then list Prince of Nothing as "good fantasy".

[Nick_K]

My favourite fantasy novels are probably the Lyonesse books by Jack Vance. They're available in two volumes in the 'fantasy masterworks' series.

Their main competition is Fritz Leiber's books about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. They're called something like 'The chronicles of Lankhmar' in the fantasy masterworks series.

I was also very impressed with some others mentioned here - the chronicles of amber and Earthsea for instance.

There's a few mentioned here that I didn't like very much, but I won't go into that - people have different tastes and I don't want to upset anyone by criticising their favourite!


(edit)
Oh, I forgot the "chronicles of an age of darkness" series by Hugh Cook. He's been criticised before so evidently they're not to everyone's taste, but I found them to be enjoyable light-hearted reads.

[Deimos_tw]

Day/The Night Watch from Sergej Lukyanenko

/seconds that, and if you're too impatient for books the movie's good too

K.J. Parker's 'Fencer' Trilogy was fun.

Everything Eddings

Read more Tolkien

I found J.V. Jones interminably boring, personally - almost as bad as the wheel of time.

[Jazzepi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Amber

I absolutely loved The Chronicles of Amber. If you want a shorter read that's a mix of sci-fi and fantasy try out Lord of Light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light

Jazzepi

[Teraswaerto]

Not mentioned so far:

Michael Moorcock, and his The Eternal Champion body of work. Elric of Melniboné is probably the best known. Also Cormyr, Hawkmoon, Erekosë and many others.

Robert E. Howard, and the original Conan short stories. Classic sword and sorcery everyone should read.

Stephen King, and the Dark Tower. A strange postmodern metafiction that ties together all his novels. Sadly, I felt the series lost its focus towards the end.