Getting back into novels - recommend me some good fantasy lit
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Oh good, i was going to make a thread like this for myself.
Can anyone suggest to me some good books that are similiar to HP, His dark materials trilogy and stuff liek that. Fantasy and adventure stuff rocks.
(Ive heard good things about a trilogy called City of Glass, Ash and Bones.. is it good?)
Can anyone suggest to me some good books that are similiar to HP, His dark materials trilogy and stuff liek that. Fantasy and adventure stuff rocks.
(Ive heard good things about a trilogy called City of Glass, Ash and Bones.. is it good?)
Read Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. It's very un-cliche, has a complex plot, more realistic characters than the usual good guy bad guy stuff. It's hard to get into, and many are discouraged. I would advise you to stick with it. Then read the next one, Deadhouse gates, and possibly Memories of ice after that. Many people quit at the first book, which is a shame. If you read either Deadhouse Gates or memories of Ice and still aren't really interested, then don't bother with the rest of the series.
Perdido street station by Mieville is good, if you liked The Scar. Though he does have trouble with endings.
Also go for The Lies of Locke Lamorra by Scott Lynch.
The Prince of Nothing series by R Scott Bakker(starts with the Darkness that comes before) is good aswell, though opinion is generally very divided on him.
Name of the Wind is good.
Almost anything by Guy Gavriel Kay is good. Tigana is a pretty strong stand alone, though many seem to count it among his weaker works.
A lot of people complain that Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth series go downhill. Sword of Truth gets criticism for a lack of overarching structure, lack of believeability, and being repetitive, though I haven't read it personally. I've read wheel of time, it's pretty decent. The world has a lot of depth and history, but it is very cliched, and i'm not quite sure that it needs to be as long as it is considering the basic story. Most people complain that books 7-11 ish are really slow, and I'd agree with this. Also be warned that you may find it very cliched.
If you're looking for something shorter, and more straight up adventure fantasy, David Gemmel is a good read. Probably starting with Legend there. On a sort of similar vein, Glen Cooks black company books are good, short, fantasy books. They're not hugely complex, but certainly enjoyable, with some great characters.
Perdido street station by Mieville is good, if you liked The Scar. Though he does have trouble with endings.
Also go for The Lies of Locke Lamorra by Scott Lynch.
The Prince of Nothing series by R Scott Bakker(starts with the Darkness that comes before) is good aswell, though opinion is generally very divided on him.
Name of the Wind is good.
Almost anything by Guy Gavriel Kay is good. Tigana is a pretty strong stand alone, though many seem to count it among his weaker works.
A lot of people complain that Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth series go downhill. Sword of Truth gets criticism for a lack of overarching structure, lack of believeability, and being repetitive, though I haven't read it personally. I've read wheel of time, it's pretty decent. The world has a lot of depth and history, but it is very cliched, and i'm not quite sure that it needs to be as long as it is considering the basic story. Most people complain that books 7-11 ish are really slow, and I'd agree with this. Also be warned that you may find it very cliched.
If you're looking for something shorter, and more straight up adventure fantasy, David Gemmel is a good read. Probably starting with Legend there. On a sort of similar vein, Glen Cooks black company books are good, short, fantasy books. They're not hugely complex, but certainly enjoyable, with some great characters.
I highly recommend the Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, the first book is The Magicians Guild.
I also highly recommend The Nightrunner Series, the first book is Luck In The Shadows by Lynn Flewelling.
Also the books of Pellinor, by Alison Croggon, which starts with The Gift are nice to read.
And The Artefacts of Power are an amazing set of books by Maggie Furey, the first book is Aurion.
Another good set of books are The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson, but like The Wheel of Time series, they have a lot of description and is a long and epic fantasy.
The Kingmaker Kingbreaker books by Karen Miller are also really good, the first book is The Innocent Mage, there are two of them, but I think the author has started a new series set in the same world.
I've read those ones, they are quite goodDistorted Stu said:
I also highly recommend The Nightrunner Series, the first book is Luck In The Shadows by Lynn Flewelling.
Also the books of Pellinor, by Alison Croggon, which starts with The Gift are nice to read.
And The Artefacts of Power are an amazing set of books by Maggie Furey, the first book is Aurion.
Another good set of books are The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson, but like The Wheel of Time series, they have a lot of description and is a long and epic fantasy.
The Kingmaker Kingbreaker books by Karen Miller are also really good, the first book is The Innocent Mage, there are two of them, but I think the author has started a new series set in the same world.
I've not read that particular trilogy so can't help there, but some general recommendations based on the books you've mentioned:Distorted Stu said:
Name of the wind. Again, a great book. Not as heavy going as some of my previous recommendations.
You might like Garth Nix, Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen, though I forget the name of the series.
Jonathan Strouds Bartimaeus trilogy.
The Golden Compass.
And while not Fantasy I most definitely recommend Michael Hoeye's Hermux Tantamoque series too.
And while not Fantasy I most definitely recommend Michael Hoeye's Hermux Tantamoque series too.
Thats "A Saga of Recluce" I believe. I agree, I really liked it when I started reading, but so much of the scenes became similar... Which I think was supposed to be part of the point, but pretentiousness does not excuse bad writing.Spectrum_Prez said:
As for suggestions, I just finished "Orcs" by Stan Nicholos for the second time. A really good read, portraying Orcs as the good guys for once
Theres a series of books about demons/fantasy if your interested called the Demonata by Darren Shan
Its meant to be horror but I just find it quite gruesome, its very easy to read (a little too much sometimes)
Theres one book in the series in particular that I really love, Bec, the only one in the series set in old fantasy times .. ish haha but its great.
Or I hear the Golden Compass is great along with its series thing.
Its meant to be horror but I just find it quite gruesome, its very easy to read (a little too much sometimes)
Theres one book in the series in particular that I really love, Bec, the only one in the series set in old fantasy times .. ish haha but its great.
Or I hear the Golden Compass is great along with its series thing.
I personally enjoy comedic fantasy like Discworld and Piers Anthony books. The former has a good following on this site. The second has lots of humor, good plot lines and interesting lore, but at times it reads like a bad romance novel but that just adds to the humor.
re-read LOTR? Or you could check out Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, or Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series, just note that it's actually two parallel stories of 4/5 books each, not one 8/9 book saga. yea, neither of those are really traditional fantasy...I don't read much non-Tolkien traditional fantasy books, as I just keep thing that Tolkien did it best...Oh, and the Harry Potter books are pretty good, if your into that sorta thing.
This, absolutely this. It's incredibly difficult to get into, but if you can stick it out then you'll be reading one of the most amazing series around. Erikson does have some faults, but he's created an absolutely amazing world with around 400,000 years of history an literally the greatest characters in any fantasy books ever.Crayzor said:
If you liked China Meivilles The Scar then pick up his first one, Pedidro Street Station. Widely accepted to be much better, and I recently read through it myself. Very good, so long as you don't mind the adult themes.
As previously mentioned, the Night Angel Trilogy is a good series of reads. I would also recommend The Black Prism, also by Brent Weeks. It's the first (and as yet only) book in the lightbringer series.
I would also like to add The Fallen Herald by Simon P. Edwards, I bought it when talking to the author in Waterstones out of pity more than anything else. I didn't expect much but it turned out to be really good. Again it's part of a series which isn't finished yet.
I would also like to add The Fallen Herald by Simon P. Edwards, I bought it when talking to the author in Waterstones out of pity more than anything else. I didn't expect much but it turned out to be really good. Again it's part of a series which isn't finished yet.