Best of Fantasy?

To set frame of reference, how old are you? What are you looking for - epic, emotional, sword&sorcery, gritty, realistic, comical, fantastic? Most books that aren't recent releases won't be available in some retail chains, possibly only the msot recent volume in a series.

Some general crowd pleasers:

JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
George RR Martin - Song of Ice and Fire series
R Scott Bakker - Prince of Nothing series
Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen series
Robin Hobb - Farseer Trilogy
Tad Williams - Memory Sorrow and Thorn
David Gemmell - Legend, Drenai tales
David Eddings - Belgariad / Mallorean / Elenium
Steven Brust - Book of Jhereg
Melanie Rawn - Dragon Prince
*Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth
Lian Hearn - Tales of the Otori
Glen Cook - Black Company
*Terry Brooks - Sword of Shannara
CJ Cherryh - Fortress in the Eye of Time
Raymond Feist - Magician
*Stephen Donaldson - Thomas Covenant Chronicles
*Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time
Katherine Kurtz - Deryni Rising





* these may be (heatedly) debatable as to enduring quality or appeal. Just laying them out there - might apply to any and all of these series

Samuel Dark said:

Thanks for the list, and I am looking for Dragons, magic, and epic battles with large numbers. I am 19, and I am currently writing a fantasy trilogy but need more ways to describe big battle scenes (just in the first book, it will happen about three-five times). I have all ready have one out of the way.

Thanks for your list. :-D And Terry Brooks was actually on my list, so yea...

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For what you are looking for I can't recommend Brooks. Some non-fiction might be more appropriate.

Martin, Eddings, Erickson, Gemmell, and Jordan can give you different approaches to large scale battles. Gemmell is probably the best for the time invested - short books with dense action and almost non-stop fighting.

Samuel Dark said:

Also, the others I can find, but what is Jordan's first name? So I can find some of his/her stuff. Thanks.

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Robert Jordan. He's rushing to complete his series after being diagnosed with a serious illness.

MattW said:

George RR Martin - Song of Ice and Fire series

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Just finish the damn story already. And killing off characters that the readers like isn't 'edgy'; it's fricken annoying.

Robin Hobb - Farseer Trilogy

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Interesting--especially the way she handles telepathy. But f'crissakes, the third book? Arrrgh! Make the charcters do sth. already! Enough bewailing their fate! Enough with the fricken' statues!

Tad Williams - Memory Sorrow and Thorn

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Very, very good.

David Gemmell - Legend, Drenai tales

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Also extremely good. The Troy books are tremendous.

David Eddings - Belgariad / Mallorean / Elenium

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Good . . . when you're thirteen.

*Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth

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I am Ayn Rand! With a Sword!

Good Lord.

*Terry Brooks - Sword of Shannara

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Terry Brooks is a damn good writer.

Raymond Feist - Magician

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I wish I was Raymond Feist. I love his books. Magician is good, but the other two books in that first trilogy are also as good.

*Stephen Donaldson - Thomas Covenant Chronicles

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I'll never be able to use the word 'clench' again, without thinking of these books.

*Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time

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It rolls on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on . . .

Ice Ages finish faster than this series.

People to read:

There's a list here.

Anything by H.P. Lovecraft.

Likewise R.H. Howard.

Likewise William Hope Hodgson.

Likewise Lord Dunsany.

Anything in the Fantasy Masterworks series of books.

General authors:

Tim Powers, Dan Simmons, Bernard Cornwell (the Alfred Series), Gene Wolfe (the Wizard, the Knight), Kim Newman (the Anno Dracula series), the Howard Lamb collections from Bison Books, Steven Pressfield (Gates of Fire), Simon Green, Jack Vance (all of the D&D magic system comes from here), Brian Lumley, the Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel woman (I can't remember her name (Susanna Clarke?), but it's a damn good book).

Several of the above are historical rather than fantasy--but the same principles apply.

If you're interested in writing epic battles with large numbers, I would recommend checking out Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe series. They're not fantasy (historical fiction set during the Napleonic wars), but they do give a sense of battle and the chaos that surrounds it, plus they work as good adventure stories as well (which is always an element in fantasy fiction). Tying in with that recommendation, is Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, which is also set during the Napoleonic Wars but is fantasy and does involve dragons, adventure and battles (albeit, sea battles).

MM

I can't in good conscience recommend China Mieville if you're lookin' for something in the same vein as Dragonlance...although Perdido Street Station did arguably have the best treatment of a classic D&D adventuring party in it that I've ever seen...

Lois McMaster Bujold did some good high fantasy stuff. "Curse of Chalion" and "Paladin of Souls" were quite good.

Terry Brooks - The Word & Void series is excellent along with anything Shannara.

I'm not familiar with a lot that's been suggested, I'm old school. Sword and Sorcery is fantasy to me. However, I will concur with Raymond Feist's Magician series.

Personally, I couldn't stand Terry Brooks' or Robin Hobb's writings.

I'd suggest:

The Elric of Melnibone books by Michael Moorcock

Fafrd and the Grey Mouser books by Fritz Leiber

Any and all Conan stories by Robert E. Howard (forget any of the fanfic style books by anyone. Only thing somewhat acceptable are the 12 Ace books published in the late 60s, early 70s edited by L. Sprague de Campe and Lin Carter).

Samuel Dark said:

Thanks for the list, and I am looking for Dragons, magic, and epic battles with large numbers. I am 19, and I am currently writing a fantasy trilogy but need more ways to describe big battle scenes (just in the first book, it will happen about three-five times). I have all ready have one out of the way.

Thanks for your list. :-D And Terry Brooks was actually on my list, so yea...

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BATTLES
Robert E Howard's original Conan stories in Fantasy Masterworks (avoid the Carter/Le Sprague De camp Pastiches)

George RR Martin's Game of Thrones series has some well written and realistic battles.

Simon R Green's Deathstalker series (NOT to be confused with the crap barbarian movies) has some awesome, if implausible battles.

You might also want to try some Military SF... for example anything published by Baen, esp John Ringo's Posleen books.

There's also a lot to be said for reading original accounts of real battles. A good place to start are letters and diaries from the Napoleonic Wars, or well written accounts of particular military campaigns. For the latter, Osprey Books is a good place to start.

zornhau said:

BATTLES
Robert E Howard's original Conan stories in Fantasy Masterworks (avoid the Carter/Le Sprague De camp Pastiches)

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I think we already had this argument.

Either i missed it or you are all just stupid. R.A. Salvatore has to be the best. His storylines his descriptions. His quanity and quality of books. Just amazing

Nice way to join the discussion, by insulting everyone. If you plan on sticking around very long, I suggest you tone it down.

Who

uina said:

Either i missed it or you are all just stupid. R.A. Salvatore has to be the best. His storylines his descriptions. His quanity and quality of books. Just amazing

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'

R.A. Who?

Sorry. just stating my opinion.

now is that sarcasm?

uina said:

Sorry. just stating my opinion.

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Can you do it without insulting anyone? That's generally how discussions are held here. With respect.

Jamesaritchie said:

R.A. Who?

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I've heard the name. I've just never read any of this stuff. His books always looked kind of juvi to me. But, one shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. According to his bio, he's regularly on NY Time's best seller lists and he's sold something like 10,000,000 books.

uina said:

Either i missed it or you are all just stupid. R.A. Salvatore has to be the best.

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Welcome to AW, uina. In case you haven't yet read the Newbie Guide to Absolute Write, the #1 rule here at AW is "Respect your fellow writer."

Please remember this in future posts. We appreciate your input, and hope you'll enjoy the boards, but please remember the main rule here. You may have meant it in sarcasm, but members don't know you well enough to know that, since you've just only joined today.

R. A. Salvatore's written a lot in the Forgotten Realms range. I seem to remember a lot of Dark Elves, but it's honestly been a while since I read any of his work. Saying that, given that Samuel Dark has already read Dragonlance, he might find Salvatore's work interesting, but it could equally be said that it's more same old, same old so if he's looking to expand out of that vein, he might want to take a raincheck for the time being.

Samuel Dark, if you're keen to follow up on historic elements (and depending on what periods of history you're interested in), try checking out the military history section of your local bookstore as there are usually collections of war correspondence and autobiographies, which can be v. useful.


MM

Of all those already mentioned, I think I'll enthusiastically recommend Raymond Feist and Tad Williams.

Terry Goodkind likes a bit of the 'ole hack-n-slash, it's all about magic, and there are even dragons. Though I've been turned off a bit by the latest few books.

Now, if Shweta reads this thread, she could probably give you a list of her favorite fantasy authors five pages long.

beezle said:

Now, if Shweta reads this thread, she could probably give you a list of her favorite fantasy authors five pages long.

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Actually, stuck on a page back in the shadows of this forum, there is a thread that is very similar to this one...and where shweta has already posted her list

uina said:

Either i missed it or you are all just stupid.

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You missed it, but that doesn't mean I'm smart.

R.A. Salvatore has to be the best.

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You've got me convinced.

I've read Salvatore's Demon series and, frankly, I was underwhelmed. You could hear the dice rolling during the combat scenes, the dialogue was something out of a Steven Segal flick. The characters are all ultra-competant superheros who are never in any danger

The list I gave has authors I do not like, but that I can see that some people find something of value in the read. Some even appealed to me for multiple volumes before I caught on to the flaws.

Pthom said:

Actually, stuck on a page back in the shadows of this forum, there is a thread that is very similar to this one...

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Sonds like a quest!

All we need is a strong, but kind hearted warrior and a short-statured sidekick that is only good for comic relief.