I just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and it's left me bereft. Alone. Without a huge tome of a beautiful fantasy book to read.
I have plans to read: Star Dust and that other one (Caroline?) by Neil Gaiman Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
I have loved: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell The Once and Future King Terry Pratchett (though I've only read two of his) Robin McKinley Sheri S. Tepper (she's more Scifi, I suppose) OSC Lord of the Rings Harry Potter Cornelia Funke
I want to know what you think about: Tamora Pierce Tad Williams Robin Hobb Philip Pullman Mercedes Lackey Neil Stephenson
I won't read Martin because I have a low tolerance for explicit sex and profanity, but I know he should be on this definitive list too.
I beg of you -- please add to the list. I'm in the mood for epic (or not so epic) fantasy. Tell me what you loved, which authors I'm really missing out on. I really need another fix. Rothfuss' second book comes out in April, and I don't think I can make it that long.
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The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. Read it. Love it.
The Necessary Beggar by Susan Palwick. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It was amazing.
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. I enjoyed this one a lot, though not nearly as much as I adore the first two.
Redwall by Brian Jacques. You can take or leave most of the other books in the series, but this one I definitely recommend.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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If you want a huge tome of beautiful fantasy to read, try Kate Elliott's The Crown of Stars series. It's seven books long and complete. Ignore the really bad cover art because it completely misrepresents the feel of these books. OSC gave it a glowing review. I loved it.
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Of the authors on your list, I've read most of Tamora Pierce, Philip Pullman, and Mercedes Lackey.
I really enjoyed Pierce's Tortall series as a young teen (four sets of stories, for a total of 14 books), and I enjoy it now in rereading. I rather disliked her Magic Circle books, although I'm not sure why. Try reading Alanna, the first book, and see if you like it.
The Golden Compass by Pullman is truly an excellent fantasy novel. The other two in the series have a bit more mixed reviews - they've been talked about on this forum (in conjunction with the movie coming out), so just use the search function to find out more.
I really like the world crafted by Lackey in her Valdemar books. However, I think she runs it a bit dry in the same way that McCaffrey ruins her Pern books. Still read the first three books in the world, which start with Arrows of the Queen, to see if you like it. Some of Lackey's fairytale novels are also quite good - Fire Rose from the Elemental series, and The Black Swan are my personal favorites.
Another author you should consider is Garth Nix, and his great (and thick!) Old Kingdom series, starting with Sabriel.
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Robin Hobb totally deserves to be on the list. I've read all of her books. They're some of my favorites.
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I really like Tamora Pierce books so far. I've been visiting the "youth" section at the library for fantasy and other books (my daughters are 11 and 13, but this is for me). A few I've read recently:
"Wildwood Dancing" by Juliet Mariller (fantasy)
"The Last Silk Dress," "An Acquaintance with Darkness," and "Sarah's Ground" by Ann Rinaldi (historical fiction)
"A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer (an African girl goes on a journey)
"The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf" by Gerald Morris (fantasy)
"The Two Princesses of Bamarre" by Gail Carson Levine (fantasy)
"The New Policeman" by Kate Thompson (fantasy)
"Sabriel" by Garth Nix (fantasy)
"Montmorency" by Eleanor Updale (historical fiction with a touch of fantasy)
The Dalemark Quartet by Diana Wynne Jones (fantasy) I've read several books by her and loved them all.
I won't be pining for something to read when the Harry Potter series is over - there's plenty of good stuff out there.
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Anything by Lloyd Alexander. Sure, it's children's fantasy, but everything of his that I've encountered is excellent.
I second The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, as well as the two sequels; the trilogy, naturally, cannot be complete without them.
I second Redwall by Brian Jacques.
T.A. Barron's Merlin series is fairly good, as far as YA fantasy is concerned.
And if you haven't read it yet, get ahold of a copy of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. I think it's superior in every way to Elantris.
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I've read both the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy and the Otherland books, and while both have very good stories with interesting characters and concepts (the Otherland especially, MST is mainly Williams's version of the Lord of the Rings storyline and not very original in itself) Williams sets his books to a very slow pace. Meaning that while I am interested in his characters and storylines usually when reading his books I'm also simultaneously feeling like he should get on with it already and have something happen.
Robin Hobb:
The Farseer Trilogy (starting with Assassin's Apprentice) is probably my all time favourite fantasy trilogy - I can simply find no fault in it.
The Liveship Traders trilogy (starts with Ship of Magic) continues the story in a different part of the same world with a different set of main characters, and it doesn't really reach the quality of the Farseer books, mainly because a rather crappy ending where in the third book all the obstacles presented in the first two books are solved with the exact same deus ex machina time after time after time. It feels as if RH tried to cram too much stuff into too little pages, maybe she ought to have written a fourth book. The Tawny Man trilogy (starting with Fool's Errand) continues the story of the first two trilogies and it is downright bad, so much so it begs the question of why was it written at all.
Her newest trilogy, Soldier Son (starts with Shaman's Crossing, not set in the same world as the other trilogies), is good but not great.
Philip Pullman: I liked all of the books in the His Dark Materials series, even if the third book kind of took a larger bite than it could swallow as the hefty consepts it deals with get too much in the way of the actual story.
I also second the mentions of Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper.
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In addition to the authors and books listed above, consider:
Charles deLint (e.g., The Onion Girl) David Eddings (e.g, The Belgariad series) Robert Silverburg (e.g., Lord Valentine's Castle) Lewis Carroll (e.g., Alice in Wonderland) William Goldman (The Princess Bride) CS Lewis (e.g., the Narnia series [you're likely to be familiar with this one *grin]) Madeleine L'Engle (e.g., A Wrinkle in Time) Robert Asprin (e.g., the Another Fine Myth series) Patricia McKillip (e.g., The Riddlemaster of Hed) Gene Wolfe (e.g., The Knight) Gordon Dickson (e.g., The Dragon and the George) Sean Russell (e.g., The Initiate Brother) Katherine Kurtz (e.g., the Deryni series) John Crowley (e.g., Little, Big) Ray Bradbury (mostly short stories) Pamela Dean (e.g., The Secret Country series) RA Salvatore (e.g., the Dark Elf trilogy) Andre Norton (e.g., the Witch World series) Judith Tarr (e.g., the Hound and the Falcon series) Evangeline Walton (e.g., the Mabinogi series) Jane Yolen (e.g., The Wild Hunt) Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (e.g, the Dragonlance Chronicles) David Brin (mostly sci-fi, but The Practice Effect is more fantasy) Octavia Butler (mostly sci-fi, but Wild Seed has magic)
I left some out of the list because by "smut" take you to mean any descriptions of sex. I don't remember specific descriptions of sex -- no matter how brief, if explicit -- in the ones above, but I could be wrong. Others would include the following: Fred Saberhagen, Samuel Delaney, Stephen R Donaldson, Michael Moorcock (can't remember if he describes sex at all or not), Patricia Wrede (can't remember if she describes sex at all or not), Patricia Kennealy Morrison (can't remember if she describes sex at all or not), Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jennifer Roberson, Piers Anthony (though I have other reservations about recommending him, he does belong on a definitive list), Tanith Lee, Fritz Leiber, Anne McCaffrey, Roger Zelazny, Mary Doria Russell, and Karl Edward Wagner.
Of note, Sheri S. Tepper does occasionally have a reference to sex (of some sort), so you might want to be careful what you read of hers.
Not all of the ones above are things I would consider favorites, but they are authors I have read that I'd be sure to put on a "definitive" list. Others that I just didn't want to list up there would include Robert Jorden, Melanie Rawn, and Terry Brooks. For a much more definitive list than we have yet, try here.
---
Edited to add: Polly lent me some books recently that belong here, but I can't remember titles or author.
quote:Originally posted by Narnia: I won't read Martin because I have a low tolerance for sexual themes, but I know he should be on this definitive list too.
Can you please remove "smut" from your description of Martin's work, please? I think it's unnecessarily pejorative. I've included a suggested edit above.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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I tend to use the word "smut" as a rather neutral (not pejorative, at least), though I wouldn't put what little I've read of Martin in that category (made it halfway through the first book twice before giving it up as not for me).
Looking through the list, I'd have to say that I probably just don't read much fantasy outside of Lewis, Tolkien, Rowling and the like.
I'd probably add The Dark Tower series. It has sexual themes and some scenes of sexuality (though I don't think any of it was written to titillate), so probably not a good recommendation for you.
I'm almost done with Zelazny's Amber series, but I wouldn't add it to the list. It's been decidedly mediocre (I've been reading them because they're on my Palm, and thus convenient. He's more of a scifi guy.
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I've read Shannon Hale and Gail Carson Levine and really enjoyed them. I forgot to add them to the original list.
I will remove 'smut' as it has a bad connotation I suppose. I've read plenty of books with references and even descriptions of sex that don't bother me, but when I tried his, it did bother me. I'm not sure why there's a difference. There was also a lot of profanity IIRC... *shrug* I feel like I'm missing out, too, because all of you say he's so amazing, and you've never steered me wrong before. I'm just not up for it.
Anyway, this list is getting huge!! Yay!!
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Yes, I'd say start with Curse of Chailion. I personally started with Paladin of Souls, not realizing it was a sequel of sorts, and it was enough to get me to start reading more of her stuff.
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Let me point out that I am not trying to dissuade you from reading the Vorkosigan books (which starts out with Cordelia's Honor). I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed reading a series as much as I enjoyed that one.
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I know. I actually bought Cordelia's Honor on your recommendation, so I'll probably read that series before I get to the fantasy set.
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I agree, Porter. There have been others that I've gotten a certain deep satisfaction out of -- but in terms of sheer enjoyment, the Vorkosigan series is probably tops. Or at least tied with The Song of Ice and Fire series.
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I pronounce it FourKoseUhGen, which has a vague Eastern European sound to it. But I don't know how it would actually be pronounced in Armenian (which I assume it is).
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Four languages: Russian, Greek, English, French. I don't know the relative proportions, but Russian seems to have had the most long-term impact.
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Jane Lindskold has earned a place on the list, in my most humble opinion.
She's more in the Zelazny camp, especially in her earlier books, but she has written a six-book series (More like five-and-a-half) that's set in a neo-medieval time period.
*** Edited for clarity ***
Posts: 438 | Registered: May 2006
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I remember you guys mentioning (a very long time ago) a really good series of books that were about the Merlin/Pendragon thing. Does anyone have any idea what I might be referring to?
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I'll ask Mom if Lois said anything about the Vorkosigan books and how she pronounced it at the pre-release book signing last week. Where she got me the second volume of the Sharing Knife trilogy. Signed. Early. Yay Mommy!
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Both Guy Gavriel Kay and Steven Brust have already been mentioned, but I don't think their best works were nominated.
For Brust, I think Jhereg is the best one to start with. I find reading the Vlad Taltos novels in any order other than the one in which they were written less fulfilling; even though Taltos is chronologically first in the canon I would put Jhereg, which was written first, before it.
For Kay, Fionavar is basically just his take on the Tolkein thing. I think they're his weakest works, and would highly, highly recommend The Sarantine Mosaic or The Lions of Al-Rassan over Fionavar.
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Porter, I could swear they were written by a man (the Pendragon books I saw discussed here...)? Do you know of any others that fit that description?
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For Brust, I think Jhereg is the best one to start with. I find reading the Vlad Taltos novels in any order other than the one in which they were written less fulfilling; even though Taltos is chronologically first in the canon I would put Jhereg, which was written first, before it.
I emphatically second this. Reading them the other way is like reading The Magician's Nephew before The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
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I read the first two books of Lawhead's Merlin series. They were ok, I guess. I had just finished reading Mists of Avalon, and in comparison Lawhead's writing seemed amateurish and the plot was kind of simple and boring. I never finished the series, though, so maybe they get better.
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Would Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis count as fantasy?
Fantastic book that disturbed me, but i don't remember why. I'm finally at an age where I find rereading books that i read as an adolescent and young adult interesting as opposed to laborious and redundant.
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quote:Originally posted by theCrowsWife: I read the first two books of Lawhead's Merlin series. They were ok, I guess. I had just finished reading Mists of Avalon, and in comparison Lawhead's writing seemed amateurish and the plot was kind of simple and boring. I never finished the series, though, so maybe they get better.
--Mel
Hmmm. The Mists of Avalon. It seems to me I should have read that by now, as it is so universally known. You're saying it's good?
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It depends on your tastes as a reader. Personally, I liked -parts- of MoA, but found the rest to range from forgettable to silly. But that's just me. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by theCrowsWife: I read the first two books of Lawhead's Merlin series. They were ok, I guess. I had just finished reading Mists of Avalon, and in comparison Lawhead's writing seemed amateurish and the plot was kind of simple and boring. I never finished the series, though, so maybe they get better.
--Mel
Hmmm. The Mists of Avalon. It seems to me I should have read that by now, as it is so universally known. You're saying it's good?
I recall enjoying it, although it's been several years so I couldn't tell you what specifically I liked (I'm very bad at remembering plotlines for books I've read less than about five or six times). You might want to check with someone who remembers it more clearly, though, because I seem to recall there were some sexual scenes. I can't remember how graphic they were.
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Narnia, while I think the Mists of Avalon is a very good book, if you have qualms about sexuality in books, there is at least some in that one that could be a bit disturbing. (though I was reading that as a geeky 6th grader, so maybe I was making more out of it than I should. Someone more familiar with the book should correct me there if I'm being overly cautious)
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I didn't like the Mists of Avalon... I'm not familiar with the Arthurian tales, and I got the feeling throughout the entire series that I was missing something. Probably not her fault. She seemed to be writing specifically for people who knew and loved the tales.
And, it seemed really silly sometimes. Morgaine's mother in the beginning especially. "I love him, I hate him, I love him, I hate him, I see him dead in a vision, I love him, I hate him."
I read it a while ago, though.
Personally, I'd like to find a good fantasy series based on those tales, that I could reading even being unfamiliar with the stories, but I have yet to find it. I've not read any 'bad' books about them. I just haven't read *any* books about them. I haven't looked that much, though.
There was incest in the MoA. But, the sex wasn't graphic. At least, it wasn't bad, as far as I can remember. But I stopped reading the book when Morgaine decided that she was going to woo some guy, whose name escapes me, so there could be graphic scenes that I just haven't read.
PS: I noticed this before and didn't say anything, but I will now. I was soooo happy that Pamela Dean was in here. Yay!
*** Edited for clarity. <Sigh> I think it's my bedtime.***
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