Recommend a fantasy book to a sceptic

[Steve Butts]

I don't think it is out on this side of the pond atm but I may be wrong. You Yanks tend to get books a bit earlier than us. Is your analysis there on the first or second book? If you are talking about the appearance of the spider then I do kind of agree and I do think the book was overly climatic. For me it was the unmasking of the Grey King when the book went a bit to generic. I still throughly enjoyed the book and thought it was pretty original though.

Sorry for being unclear. I was describing the first book. I never read the second.

I can't believe I forgot the Redwall books. The first one is a classic. Ditto Watership Down if you haven't read that.

 

[crazygator]

"On a Pale Horse" by Piers Anthony. It's part of the Incarnations of Immortality series. It stands alone by itself but might get you hooked on the other 7 books. It's the size you are looking for and its a good book. Plus it's about Death. No not the action; the person.

 

[2xDouble]

I think you mean "Skeptic". "Sceptic" means "infected" or "full of bile"...

'Sceptic' is the British English spelling of 'skeptic'. You're thinking of 'septic'.

Claiming another language doesn't make it any more correct. Though you're right, I was thinking of 'septic'.

since when is british english another language? It is a main variety of english.Varieties arent false or right.And if anything is correct then it is this one..being...english...

So it's perfectly OK to spell a word incorrectly because the British do it? or perhaps you simply don't care about correct spelling because "it's MY language, I can do whatever I want with it and that makes it right!". Look closely at your post in text... see all those red lines? They mean spell checker agrees with me. Now lets drop this, it's a stupid argument and has nothing to do with the topic.

I was just trying to be helpful.

 

[the Dept of Science]

I think you mean "Skeptic". "Sceptic" means "infected" or "full of bile"...

'Sceptic' is the British English spelling of 'skeptic'. You're thinking of 'septic'.

Claiming another language doesn't make it any more correct. Though you're right, I was thinking of 'septic'.

since when is british english another language? It is a main variety of english.Varieties arent false or right.And if anything is correct then it is this one..being...english...

So it's perfectly OK to spell a word incorrectly because the British do it? or perhaps you simply don't care about correct spelling because "it's MY language, I can do whatever I want with it and that makes it right!". Look closely at your post in text... see all those red lines? They mean spell checker agrees with me. Now lets drop this, it's a stupid argument and has nothing to do with the topic.

I was just trying to be helpful.

I'm British, so here it is the commonly accepted spelling of it. It's how its written in the Oxford English Dictionary. For the 50 million or so British people "skeptic" is referred to as an "Americanism", ie. an American variation on English, y'know, the language that we invented and have been using for a very long time.
It's not about being able to do "whatever I want with it". It's just a matter of different variations in the language between different countries.

 

[Vhite]

snip

The Name of the Wind is mainly oriented on characters rather then whole fantasy aspect so it may be a good start. Its pretty large book but every page is worth it.

 

[Lady Nilstria]

It seems like everyone has just gone and forgotten about Anne McCaffrey?

(Granted, there is no magic on Pern, so it's actually sci-fi, but Pern is another world populated by dragons. I don't bloody care.)

So yeah, The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. It's endearing and very well put together.

A Song of Ice and Fire is strange is that is doesn't carry a lot of the fantasy archtypes. Yes, there is magic, strange creatures, and so one, but it doesn't follow just one person or group, and each person has their own goal and motivation that really has nothing to do with everybody else. There is an overarching plot of slightly gigantic proportions, but the characters are never swallowed by it. (Also, be warned, your favorite character is probably going to die. With Martin, you just never know. Unlike R.A.Salvatore, they don't come back either.)

 

[Metal Brother]

Glen Cook: Black Company books. Each book is around 250 pages long. Very well written. A bit simpler than most of my other suggestions. Not your standard fantasy, but not as different as some of the others. Certainly not the cliche stuff that gives fantasy a bad name though.

I must agree completely. If you need Short + Fantasy + Good, Glen Cook is a great place to start looking, and the first Black Company series was excellent.

 

[Albino Boo]

I think you mean "Skeptic". "Sceptic" means "infected" or "full of bile"...

'Sceptic' is the British English spelling of 'skeptic'. You're thinking of 'septic'.

Claiming another language doesn't make it any more correct. Though you're right, I was thinking of 'septic'.

since when is british english another language? It is a main variety of english.Varieties arent false or right.And if anything is correct then it is this one..being...english...

So it's perfectly OK to spell a word incorrectly because the British do it? or perhaps you simply don't care about correct spelling because "it's MY language, I can do whatever I want with it and that makes it right!". Look closely at your post in text... see all those red lines? They mean spell checker agrees with me. Now lets drop this, it's a stupid argument and has nothing to do with the topic.

I was just trying to be helpful.

Small but important point, the American spelling is in the minority of global English with only 350 million users, the pretty much rest of the world uses British spelling. I can really not believe that using the argument that the spell checker set to American English agrees with you with you. Try downloading the British English dictionary and see what happens.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I do not read often, and have read that entire series 3 times.

First book is Wizards First Rule and is fantastic.

 

[NickCaligo42]

Snip

Storm Front by Jim Butcher. It's about a wizard named Harry Dresden who practices in modern day Chicago.

 

[Ashendarei]

Chipping in here with my .02 as well,

for a fantasy read that you can knock out at your own pace and is pretty short (around 300) David Gemmell is by far one of my favorite authors.

I'd highly reccomend starting with Legend, and then checking out some of his other works (all his books tend to tie into the same universe, even if there are no direct character links between them).

 

[Unia]

I was going to say R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, but since that's been mentioned umpteen times already I'll drop a new entry:

Dan Simmons: Empyrion
Granted it's in that place between sci-fi and fantasy Star Wars already occupies, it has strange worlds and odd characters galore. It spans into another 3 books and is definately over 300 pages HOWEVER there's actually around five or six stories in Empyrion.
It's the tried and true setting of very different people stuck together exchanging life stories, you see. They're all on a mission (which isn't the main topic in the first book) and their stories explain why they have come there. There are some queer explanations on how the world works (nothing you couldn't handle after Philip K. Dick), ambiguos prophesies and the ever-present threath of a scythe-handed, ultra fast monstrosity known as Shryke.
Most stories are sweet, some feature gratuitous violence and adult situations. Writing about this book makes me want to read them all again.

 

[masseyguy911]

I would recommend trying out the Night Angel Trilogy. Great books, my favorite series of books, I would say even better than Lord of the Rings but thats just me.

 

[zyoto12]

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie got this sceptic, that is to say, me, to start reading fantasy.

This series is very good. Not your typical fantasy at all.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

I think you mean "Skeptic". "Sceptic" means "infected" or "full of bile"...

'Sceptic' is the British English spelling of 'skeptic'. You're thinking of 'septic'.

Claiming another language doesn't make it any more correct. Though you're right, I was thinking of 'septic'.

since when is british english another language? It is a main variety of english.Varieties arent false or right.And if anything is correct then it is this one..being...english...

So it's perfectly OK to spell a word incorrectly because the British do it? or perhaps you simply don't care about correct spelling because "it's MY language, I can do whatever I want with it and that makes it right!". Look closely at your post in text... see all those red lines? They mean spell checker agrees with me. Now lets drop this, it's a stupid argument and has nothing to do with the topic.

I was just trying to be helpful.

Small but important point, the American spelling is in the minority of global English with only 350 million users, the pretty much rest of the world uses British spelling. I can really not believe that using the argument that the spell checker set to American English agrees with you with you. Try downloading the British English dictionary and see what happens.

thats true sir you are the minority. or

or perhaps you simply don't care about correct spelling because "it's MY language, I can do whatever I want with it and that makes it right!"

Yeah, i had a nice discussion about stereotypes today in an online game. With people form the US, Japan, Poland and the Netherlands. We just found someone who might be a perfect example for one of those..

 

[JohnSmith]

Monster Blood Tattoo : D.M. Cornish (possibly a little heavy on pages but an easy read)
The Blade Itself : Joe Abercrombie (really, really damn good)
The Left Hand of God : Paul Hoffman (its good, really just try to ignore the title)

or for lighter reading go grab some of the books based on the warhammer tabletop game, the Felix & Gortek novels are good. Also check out David Gemmell if your after light weight easy to read fantasy then his books are fairly good.

Even if someone suggests them stear clear of the Robin Hobb and Ian Irvine series not because they are bad just because if you start you will want to finish and if you think 300 pages is an appropriate length for a book then these are probably not the books to go with, good though they are.

 

[JohnSmith]

Damn, I was really hoping of a way to just dip my toe in without committing myself to a 500+ pager. Pretty much every other genre has at least some classic books <200 pages.
I mean, within the first 3 posts or something is probably upwards of 2000 pages worth of recommendations. Oh well, I guess I'll get my wading boots on.

Just go for it. You won't regret it.

My new years resolution was to read more (the only resolution in my entire life I've stuck with), and have been averaging out at about 1/week. Before this year I was very poorly read, so I'm trying to go through lots of classics and get a bit of each genre in.
The problem is, when someone recommends me a book thats 600 pages long, I think "well, I could read that, or I could read the Great Gatsby and Mrs Dalloway and Catcher in the Rye and Of Mice and Men".

But why on Earth would you read the Gatsby when there is any kind of alternative, say for instance blunt force trauma or reading Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder which is I believe within polite spitting distance of 300 pages, and a fun read.

 

[Count Igor]

If you can just about read 300 pages in a fortnight, I'm drawing a blank on things you'd like here.
Maybe The Magician's Guild trilogy?

 

[Continuity]

snip

The Magician by Raymond E Feist

If that doesn't do it for you then nothing will.