Recommend me a good Fantasy/Sci Fi Book

[Abe Mac]

Title Pretty much says it all. Looking for an epic fantasy or a great space opera. To you give you a starting point, here are some of these "epics" I've read before:

Wheel of Time Series
A Song of Ice and Fire
Lord of the Rings
Stormlight Archive (what's out, anyway)
Mistborn
Ender's Game + Extended Series

There are some others, but those are the main ones. As you can see, most of what I read is fantasy, so if you have a really good Sci Fi book, it would be very refreshing.

Thanks!

 

[Albino Boo]

Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant novels(fantasy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant

Stephen Donaldson's Gap novels (sci fi reworking of Wagner's ring cycle, cant get more space opera than that)

Moorcook's Eternal Champion (fantsy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champion

not the best but good ripping yarns and there are about 30 years of them to read. Try one to see if you like it.

Asimov's Foundation and also robot series, some great sci fi.

Jack Vance's Dying Earth novels (fantasy, with some sci fi elements) the origin of DnD's spell names.

 

[Ratty]

I quite liked "Magician: Apprentice" and "Magician: Master", the first books in the "Riftwar Saga". Though I have yet to read any of the other books in the series. You could give some of the collections of the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard a try if you want to go back to the beginnings of Sword and Sorcery fantasy, Howard and Conan/Kull actually predates Tolkien in publication.

As for sci-fi, if you haven't given the original Dune novel a look you really should. And if you want to try some retro-futurism Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man" anthology has some good stories in it, including the one that inspired the Elton John hit (and subsequent unforgettable William Shatner cover) "Rocket Man".

 

[TonianBK]

Jack Vance - Lyonesse Trilogy - extremely epic high fantasy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonesse_Trilogy

Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth - very similar to the Wheel of Time in some ways
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

Patrick Tilley - Amtrak Wars - post apocalyptic scenario across 6 - 7 books - classic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amtrak_Wars

David Feintuch - Seafort Saga - epic space tale, with a background of a state religion and a young captain tormented by his sins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Seafort

Philip Jose Farmer and Jack Vance my favourite authors of all time

Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld - An artificial alien world where after we die, we go to become ethically able to 'go on', become ethically pure. However, the Aliens in charge get killed creating chaos on river-world and weird adventures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverworld

Philip Jose Farmer - Dayworld - people live one day per week, 'stoned' kept in suspended animation, the rest of the week, enabling a world short on resources to sustain a 7th of the population. One man breaks the system by adopting a different identity for each day, eventually questioning the system's corruption, going mad in the process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayworld
Notable mention for PHF - World of Tier
Jack Vance - The Demon Princes, The Cadwal Chronicles, Tschai Trilogy

The above are highly recommended science fiction and fantasy books from an avid reader of the genre. Check them out

 

[Batou667]

Did you say "epic"? Then look no further than Asimov's Foundation series.

Ian M Banks' Culture series is popular too.

Arthur C Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (and the less-good sequels) is certainly a "milestone" book.

In general, you won't go wrong with anything by Clarke, Asimov or Robert Heinlein.

 

[TonianBK]

In general, you won't go wrong with anything by Clarke, Asimov or Robert Heinlein.

Asimov, Clarke or Heinlen? They have all written some stinkers especially Heinlen. Number of the Beast springs to mind as especially self indulgent as are a few of his works and of course the light heartedness with which he includes incest between some characters, although many stories are still quite solid today; Farmer in the Sky, The Puppet Masters, Double Star among others. Asimov's foundation series are epic in scope, but not so much in actual story writing in my opinion. Some of the Galactic Empire books are quite dry reading and his Lucky Starr books are very dated. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama is a great book, not so much the sequels with Gentry Lee. The City and the Stars, A Fall of Moondust, The Songs of Distant Earth are some of his better stand alone books.

Ian M Banks - Consider Phlebas and Player of Games are great introductions to the culture series, some of the books are quite heavy reading.

 

[Albino Boo]

In general, you won't go wrong with anything by Clarke, Asimov or Robert Heinlein.

Asimov, Clarke or Heinlen? They have all written some stinkers especially Heinlen. Number of the Beast springs to mind as especially self indulgent as are a few of his works and of course the light heartedness with which he includes incest between some characters, although many stories are still quite solid today; Farmer in the Sky, The Puppet Masters, Double Star among others. Asimov's foundation series are epic in scope, but not so much in actual story writing in my opinion. Some of the Galactic Empire books are quite dry reading and his Lucky Starr books are very dated. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama is a great book, not so much the sequels with Gentry Lee. The City and the Stars, A Fall of Moondust, The Songs of Distant Earth are some of his better stand alone books.

Ian M Banks - Consider Phlebas and Player of Games are great introductions to the culture series, some of the books are quite heavy reading.

To be fair the Lucky Starr books were aimed at kids and not written under the name Asimov. Later publishers cashed in on the name after Asimov hit the big time.

 

[TonianBK]

In general, you won't go wrong with anything by Clarke, Asimov or Robert Heinlein.

Asimov, Clarke or Heinlen? They have all written some stinkers especially Heinlen. Number of the Beast springs to mind as especially self indulgent as are a few of his works and of course the light heartedness with which he includes incest between some characters, although many stories are still quite solid today; Farmer in the Sky, The Puppet Masters, Double Star among others. Asimov's foundation series are epic in scope, but not so much in actual story writing in my opinion. Some of the Galactic Empire books are quite dry reading and his Lucky Starr books are very dated. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama is a great book, not so much the sequels with Gentry Lee. The City and the Stars, A Fall of Moondust, The Songs of Distant Earth are some of his better stand alone books.

Ian M Banks - Consider Phlebas and Player of Games are great introductions to the culture series, some of the books are quite heavy reading.

To be fair the Lucky Starr books were aimed at kids and not written under the name Asimov. Later publishers cashed in on the name after Asimov hit the big time.

Ok that's something I didn't know. But I do have a couple of Lucky Starr books which have Asimov on the cover. There is similarity in regard to the writing style and story telling of Asimov there, a sort of square jawed version of Elijah Bailey with a non robot side kick.

(edit)Just did a google search and saw he had published this as Paul French. Obviously he had reverted this in latter copies like mine.

 

[jademunky]

You might want to try out Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Particularly if you were already a fan of his work and wanted to revisit some of the settings & characters (Flagg makes a return).

If you wanted something a little more...........whimsical try the Discworld series. Its really great if you like the idea of something fantastical being treated as mundane.

or if you really hated yourself, try the Sword of Truth books.

Heinlein is a bit hit or miss. The Moon is a harsh mistress is really good (seriously!). Stranger in a strange land is really really bad.

 

[Tanis]

Peter F. Hamilton:
The Night's Dawn Trilogy.

Just, amazing, epic piece of work.

 

[crypt-creature]

Anything by A Lee Martinez. His books vary from novel to novel, but he most often incorporates mythologies and cultures/scenarios from all around the globe into them. They are all humor, but are a darn good read if you want something a bit obscure and a little eccentric.

http://www.aleemartinez.com/