Need book recommendations - fantasy type.

[Phillycat]

Hello, all. Once again, I turn to the Du Lounge for its terrific taste in books. Below is a list of fantasy books that I really enjoyed. Lots of them are kid/young adult books. I am always looking for similar titles and am often disappointed. I will also include a list of titles I did NOT enjoy. Thank you in advance! :hi:

Books/series I really liked:

Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry

Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials

All the Harry Potter books.

The Chronicles of Narnia

Tolkien (all)

L'Engle (all)

The Mists of Avalon

Books/series I did NOT enjoy:

Jordan's Wheel of Time series (BLERGH)

Piers Anthony ANYTHING (double blergh)

I also don't like sci-fi, like Bradbury. I recognize it's good, it's just not my thing.

What do you suggest for me? :)

[EstimatedProphet]

1. I like the Axis series by Sara Douglass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Douglass

[Phillycat]

2. Reading the wiki, it looks interesting.

Thanks! :)

[azmouse]

3. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Easy to read and a lot of fun.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. L.E. Modessit, Jr.

If his fantasy is one half of his SF work, it should be amazing.

[Beausoleil]

5. Roger Zelazny's Amber series

The Corwin Series:

Nine Princes In Amber
The Guns of Avalon
Sign of the Unicorn
The Hand of Oberon
The Courts of Chaos


The Merlin Series:

Trumps of Doom
Blood of Amber
Sign of Chaos
Knight of Shadows
Prince of Chaos


Also check out L. Sprague deCamp's collaborations with Fletcher Pratt

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. I totally second that suggestion!!

The rest of the books offered here pale in comparison.

[Iggo]

30. Yes! Yes! A thousand times, Yes!

[MrCoffee]

6. Have you read any of China Mieville's stuff?

It's dark fantasy, almost steampunk (sort of), but his Bas-Lag series (Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council) is as compelling a universe in its completeness as the Potterverse.

[Kutjara]

51. Even better, China's a great guy and a real lefty.

My wife was friends with China's mother, until her unfortunate death from breast cancer a couple of years ago, so I know him pretty well. He ran for election in the UK as a Socialist Worker candidate.

And his fiction is great!

[FloridaJudy]

53. Mieville is one of our most gifted young writers

His ability to create a believable alternate universe, and fill it with intriguing people - among other beings - is magical. Perdido Street Station blew me away.

If you like Mieville, I'd also recommend Neil Gaiman. Start with American Gods. I did, and then had to track down everything else he's ever written. He's mostly known for his graphic novels - he almost singlehandedly made the genre respectable - but he writes gorgeous traditional novels as well.

And if the OP liked The Mists of Avalon, I'd urge him/her to track down Bradley's Darkover novels as well. She's another author capable of creating a believable world to inhabit when this one gets a bit too stressful. It's no fairy tale utopia - some of it's quite grisly - but it's fascinating how her humans adapt and evolve in a hostile environment.

[WildEyedLiberal]

7. It's series fantasy, but I really enjoy the Dragonlance books

The Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is terrific, IMO. The Legends trilogy that follows, also by them, is also pretty good. I wouldn't really recommend any of the DL titles not by them, though.

It's pretty much swords-n-sorcery save-the-world high fantasy, with pretty well developed characters and an actually epic storyline. It's pretty cliche, so if you're looking for a departure from the elves-dwarves-orcs kinda thing, this really isn't it. But if you're looking for a GOOD elves-dwarves-orcs kinda thing, I highly recommend it.

[TZ]

8. I'm now reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series

Funny, funny stuff!!:)

[Sentath]

9. Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar books?

Ooh ooh and The Deed of Paksenarrion (yes I did just type that by memory) by Elizabeth Moon.

[petronius]

10. George R. R. Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' series is great

Nice complex story, with well-developed characters (just don't get too attached to any of them... :)). The first book is A Game of Thrones.

[Chovexani]

13. Ah you beat me to it!

:D

[Kutjara]

52. I second that one.

And you're right about not getting attached to the characters. Martin is pretty unsentimental about killing of folks you think are going to be key figures throughout the story.

[Chovexani]

11. Obligatory George R. R. Martin rec

A Song of Fire and Ice - kick ass, epic stuff.

David & Leigh Eddings' Belgariad/Malloreon series and Elenium/Tamuli. Very typical road-trip type fantasy and not too many risks are taken in terms of breaking genre conventions but they're just FUN books.

If you like YA fantasy (and so much of it is awesome!), try the Darkangel series by Meredith Ann Pierce. Great stuff. Also, you owe it to yourself to read the Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin.

I know you don't like sci-fi, but I like to recommend Dune to fantasy fen who don't normally like sci-fi. It's less about tech and more about religion and politics--if you enjoy palace intrigue type fantasy, you will definitely love it. Frank Herbert's writing style is kind of dry but if you can get past it, you'll find world building on par with Tolkien. Just avoid anything with his son's name on it. :P

[NewJeffCT]

71. I'll recommended George RR Martin as well

he's also a liberal.

[Inchworm]

12. I probably shouldn't reccommend since I don't read much

But I was looking for a genre I'd like to read and asked this very question.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series came up many many times.

Seemed good, I made it to 3rd chapter before I saw a big red ball.

:hi:

[yellowdogintexas]

14. George R R Martin, "A Song of Ice and Fire" beyond excellent.

If you get started now, you may be just done with book 4 when book 5 finally comes out. Some of the best character writing EVER!

Another writer I really enjoyed is Robin Hobb she has a set of 3 loosely related trilogies that are quite good, and is up to volume 2 on another series . Start with "Assasin's Apprentice" and work your way through all nine books. Then go to the newer series (I haven't read it yet)

Guy Gavriel Kay is wonderful.
Try Lions of Al Rassan and Tigana Both are excellent

I like Terry Goodkind's series but there are many here who would disagree with me

Another series that was fun is by Brian Lumley..Necroscope, a very inventive vampire series.

Another nice trilogy set in the Southwest with parallel stories in pre-Columbian and modern times; Anasazi Mysteries by Kathleen and W Michael Gear.."The Visitant", " The Bone Walker" and "The Summoning God" .

Edited to add: The Dragonbone Chair, which my daughter highly recommends. I haven't read it yet.

[DS1]

15. try this

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/




:hide:

[uppityperson]

16. Sheri Tepper, Marian Zimmer Bradley, Dianna Wynne Jones

All good female authors with different styles and things.

[FloridaJudy]

54. I adore Tepper

The Arbai Trilogy - Grass, Raising the Stones, and Sideshow had me hooked from page one. Her The Awakeners (NorthShore and SouthShore) is another fantasy that I recommend highly. She creates complex and sympathetic - albeit flawed - women and puts them in compelling situations.

I also recommend Bradley and LeGuin: excellent writers both.

[uppityperson]

64. Have you read The Family Tree?

It's not hard core feminism, more environmentalism and people's interactions with nature. As well as having a whole lot of word play, once you are partway through it to where it all comes together. I like her women focus, she used to be Colorado Planned Parenthood chair, and how her stories gradually develop. You don't know what's up at first, but eventually it all comes together.

That said, when I got to the point in Family Tree where it came together, I knew I had to reread the whole thing again.

[FloridaJudy]

66. She's a master

Of the surprise twist, and the one that she pulls two thirds of the way through The Family Tree is a stunner. My reaction had to be :wow:

She didn't even cheat: all the clues were there. But I was gobsmacked - I really didn't see that coming. She does something similar in Grass, when you finally get a close up of the "Fox Hunt", and all your preconceptions are turned on their sides, but what she does in The Family Tree really is a literary magic trick of awe-inspiring proportions.

[uppityperson]

67. It sure got me. I had to read it many times to get all the

in there. She sure got me too. Just sent a pm to not do spoilers.

[semillama]

17. Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series

I think you'll really like it, based on your liking of the narnia, dark materials and potter books - seems you like a young protagonist up against the odds, and Williams has that in droves. In the same vein, I also highly recommend David Eddings' Belgariad series. You might want to check out Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain too, especially if you liked the Narnia books.

[Sentath]

22. Seconded (Williams)

Loaned those to a friend who tends to take things literally and they wondered if they were my current belief system ( : ! =>0.o<=

[mak3cats]

18. This one's rather reverse-fantasy...

...but Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy is one of the best King Arthur retellings I've ever read (Mists of Avalon is another, but you know that one). She takes the legend and gives it a historical spin, and "explains" some of the magical aspects with believable reasons. This sounds like finding the secrets behind a magician's tricks, but it's not like that at all. I found it very interesting. The three books are "The Crystal Cave", "The Hollow Hills", and "The Last Enchantment", but you can also get them all in one binding. (There's also "The Wicked Day" which the author published later and which takes the story to Arthur's and Mordred's end. This book is also good, but not to the level of the original trilogy.)

[LadyoftheRabbits]

19. The Firebrand

Also by Marion Zimmer Bradley, so I don't know if you've already read it. I really enjoyed it... excellent account of Troy. :) :hi:

[x-g.o.p.er]

20. Alternate History books by Harry Turtledove

Kind of a "what if" scenario based on the Confederacy winning the Civil War and there being two countries, kind of like a partitioned Korea.

Haven't read them all, but what I have read has been very good and thought provoking.

[uppityperson]

21. Naomi Novik has a set of historical fiction in this Earth, but with dragons.

They are very interesting, set during Napoleonic wars with dragons being used as air guard carriers, bombers, etc. This sounds odd, but I got the books as a present and really do like them. She has 4 out, waiting on 5th. They are NOT formulaic and are quite good.

[x-g.o.p.er]

23. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series

Set in St Louis. Pretty good.

[Phillycat]

40. I hear there are good...erm, intimate scenes in those as well.

Yes?

[FloridaJudy]

63. I think Hamilton has gone way downhill

The first Anita Blake books were great fun: a red-blooded kick-butt heroine and a cast of interesting ghouls and beasties (Blake is simultaneously dating a vampire and a werewolf). But recently she seems to me to be churning out second rate porn: page after page of twosomes, threesomes and moresomes described in dreary clinical detail. Plot and character development have fallen by the wayside, and even the sex isn't that hot. Come on: how many ways can genitals be combined before the reader suspects she's picked up a clinical treatise by mistake? The first nine books are good: after that it gradually descends into Penthouse Forum depths. I'm not alone. A lot of her staunchest fans have given up on the Anita Blake novels.

A nice sexy series is the Diana Gabaldon Jamie and Claire books: start with Outlander. It's not fantasy per se, but an interesting Time Traveler/Historical epic. How the modern heroine copes with conditions and mores in the not-so-distant past - and hooks up with a really sexy Scottish highlander - make for an intriguing read.

[sarge43]

24. Oldie, but goldie

John Gardner's Grendel, the Beowulf saga told from the 'monster's' pov.

A lot of fun: Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were. Just what it says, brief but interesting descriptions of fantasy creatures, places and things.

James Gurney's Dinotopia and The World Beneath A world where sentient dinosaurs and men exist in harmony and cooperation, beautiful illustrations.

[Fox Mulder]

26. You didn't like the Wheel of Time series?

Heresy! :D

I'm currently reading A Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin.

[IndianaJones]

27. Black Company. nt

[Redneck Socialist]

55. Second the Black Company rec.

By Glen Cook.

I also like his Dread Empire series. The first three books of which were recently rereleased in an omnibus edition.

[VenusRising]

28. I liked Nora Robert's Circle Triolgy.

I'd never read any of her other books before, but was intrigued by the premise. The Goddess Morrigan calls upon 6 people over different times and planes to battle the Vampire Goddess Lilith.

I enjoyed the last book the best, but when I was done, I was wishing I could read it for the first time all over again.

[demmiblue]

31. I liked it , too!

I picked it up "Morrigan's Cross" as an impulse buy at the grocery store. I was hooked right away. I really didn't expect to like it that much... I was pleasantly surprised!

[VenusRising]

33. That's how I happened upon it, too!

:hi:

[demmiblue]

35. Ok, I admit...

I totally judged the book by the cover (the Celtic knot work) and the name! LOL! I am easily lead!
:hi:

[VenusRising]

36. You and I must have been separtated at birth!

:rofl:

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[demmiblue]

38. Thank you for the welcome!

:toast:

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. You have a lot of good mediocre suggestions here - but I suggest

1. The Amber series (as mentioned above)

2. David Eddings' Belgeriad and Mallorean series of books - that's ten, total, plus a few on the side. All excellent.

3. C.S. Friedman's "Coldfire Trilogy". Some of the most brilliant, creative, unusual and wonderful fantasy literature I've ever read. It really goes beyond its genre, and becomes, like all great art, a look at ourselves and philosophical treatise.

4. A brand new book, that happens to be a first novel as well, and the first of a trilogy, which I read last month and thought to be the best new fantasy book I've read since Coldfire came out 15 years ago is "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, which I see has just come out in paperback, http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Day/dp/0756404746/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203115441&sr=1-1

The Name of the Wind is a fantasy book that has everything - kings, magic users, monsters, and so forth - but the world that Rothfuss created is unique, and the way he tells the story is unique. Not unique in the sense of a bizarre literature device like Joyce's run on sentences or anything, but it's a very different way to tell a fantasy story; and the fantasy in the book is rather subdued and non-fantastic in a most wonderful and compelling way. And the writing itself - Rothfuss, professor of English, is a FANTASTIC writer; not just in terms of writing great fantasy literature, but in terms of just being a damned amazing writer. Real beauty in his prose. And his storytelling ability is also excellent, which made the book a can't-put-down-OH-MY-GOD-THIS-IS-AMAZING!!!!! kind of read for me. I read it in the span of about 24 hours, because I couldn't put it down.

Coldfire Trilogy is like that, as well - a truly unique kind of fantasy world, and, unusual in the realm of fantasy literature, no real clear cut bad guy/good guy two-dimensional idiot characters. ALL the characters, especially the two main ones, are characters of incredible depth - the kind of depth that one would expect in "serious" literature. Brilliant. Goddamned brilliant books, that have me still thinking 15 years later. http://www.amazon.com/Black-Sun-Rising-Coldfire-Trilogy/dp/B000H2M42I/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203115842&sr=1-1

Almost up there with "Dune", they're that good.

[Chovexani]

32. You have good taste, sir.

:thumbsup:

[Fox Mulder]

57. Thank you Rabrrrrrr.

Thanks to your great reviews on those books (as well as others on the internets), I have now spent over $100 for those books on Amazon. Now I have something to read for the rest of the year.

Great job. :) :thumbsup:

Edited for grammar.

[Rabrrrrrr]

68. Ah, wonderful! Did you get the Coldfire trilogy?

I love buying books.

[Fox Mulder]

73. They were the first books on my list.

I love buying books too.

Thanks again. :)

[demmiblue]

34. Dragon Rider of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

[MilesColtrane]

37. "My Secret Garden" by Nancy Friday

Wait...What?....Oh....not THAT type of fantasy.

[Phillycat]

39. LOL! I actually own that book...

Very interesting, from a sociological POV. She wrote another one that's even more...graphic.

[Iris]

41. the "The Time Traveler's Wife"

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Wife-Audrey-Niffenegger/dp/015602943X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203117534&sr=8-1


I haven't met anyone's whose read it who did not like it.

[Phillycat]

42. Damn, you guys are awesome!

I want to respond to all of you individually, but I don't want to kick the thread a million times. Thank you all so much! :loveya: So many good suggestions, and well-thought out based on my preferences too. I really appreciate it! :hug:

[EstimatedProphet]

43. Not really fantasy, but the Wild Card series is great!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards

[Greyskye]

44. You've got good taste

For reference, I've read and enjoyed all the books you say you like, and share your distaste for the ones you said you didn't like. Here's my suggestion not already covered by other folks in the thread:

Charles de Lint's books that take place in the fictional city of Newford. They are 'Urban Fantasy', taking place (mostly)in our current world:

The books have all been written in such a way that you should be able to pick up any one and get a full and complete story. However, characters do reoccur, off center stage as it were, and their stories do follow a sequence. The best place to start is the collection Dreams Underfoot. From there they go pretty much in this order:

Dreams Underfoot
The Dreaming Place
A Whisper To A Scream (originally credited to "Samuel M. Key")
I'll Be Watching You (originally credited to "Samuel M. Key")
Memory And Dream
The Ivory And The Horn
Trader
Someplace To Be Flying
Moonlight And Vines
Forests Of The Heart
The Onion Girl
Seven Wild Sisters (also available in Tapping the Dream Tree)
Tapping the Dream Tree
Spirits in the Wires
Medicine Road
The Blue Girl

The Dreaming Place and The Blue Girl are YA novels. A Whisper To A Scream and I'll Be Watching You are, respectively, a horror novel and a thriller; they're darker fare than the other Newford books and aren't really that integral to the underlying, ongoing backstory that takes off center stage in so many of the books and stories.
http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/faq.htm

Something fun for de Lint readers to do, is to track down the bands that his characters go to see and hear as well as the authors that his characters read. More often than not, these are the best musicians/writers that you've never heard of, and are well worth your effort in tracking them down. De Lint himself is a musician, and well connected in that community as well.

What just puts the icing on the cake for me, is that at their core, de Lint's stories are about hope, love, and the goodness that people are capable of.

Do yourself a big favor and go read some de Lint soon!

[TheMightyFavog]

45. Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind

And I'm not saying this because I know the author personally.

[BreweryYardRat]

46. Re-recommending Martin and Mieville. All well worth reading. More...

Alan Dean Foster writes sci-fi and fantasy. Look for his Journeys of the Catechist trilogy for a really weird but insanely cool fantasy world.

Harry Turtledove's Videssos books are fantasy roughly based on the Byzantine Empire. They should be read in this order: Bridge of the Separator (one book,) The Time of Troubles (four-book series, recently reissued in two hardcovers), The Tale of Krispos (three-book series, recently reissued in a single fat paperback). You can skip the Legion cycle if you want to-- Turtledove wrote it first, and while it got the series off the ground, I didn't like the dimension-swap conceit, which I am normally a sucker for. Would have worked just as well with native videssians.

Alan Campbell's (check name) Scar Night is great -- steampunk + magic and angels in a marvelously creative world.

[aquaman]

47. Check out some of Terry Brook's stuff.....

One of my favs.

[momophile]

49. my husband really likes Terry Brooks nt

[momophile]

48. have you read any of Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series?

if you haven't, let me try to pitch it to you. It's totally different than Xanth or Adept and his other stuff. It's a little bit of religion, a little mythology, a little fantasy, and a big giant web of fun.

I don't care for his other stuff but I love the Incarnations series.

[yewberry]

50. Have you read any De Lint?

His Newford books are really good.

I loved Gaiman's 'Neverwhere' and several of Tad Williams' books.

I hated the Wheel of Time series, too.

[Redneck Socialist]

56. This poster has excellent taste in books, listen to her.

I heartily second her De Lint and Neil Gaiman recommendations.

[yewberry]

60. ...

:blush:

:hi:

[uppityperson]

65. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is wonderful.

[Malikshah]

58. David and Leigh Eddings-- Belgariad, Malloreon series.

I know these are a bit controversial in the fact that some love them and reread them all the time (like me) and other's don't like them at all.

For me-- I loved them and still do.

[opiate69]

59. Queen of the Orcs series by Morgan Howell.

A pretty entertaining twist on some familiar fantasy creatures.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-0785345-9573524?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=queen+of+the+Orcs&x=0&y=0

[Whoa_Nelly]

61. Just finished the Golden Compass trilogy (His Dark Materials)

Great reading!

Anf a new book soon to come to follow up!

[leeroysphitz]

62. If the author is S.M. Sterling

Then put it back down and walk away...

[Unvanguard]

69. The Name of the Wind--Patrick Rothfuss.

Wonderful.

[Lyric]

70. I have a really, really good young adult fantasy recommendation

"The Dark Is Rising" series by Susan Cooper. I read them for the first time in junior high school, and loved them so much that I *still* read them at age 28. They were written in the late 60's/early 70's, but the story is timeless and enchanting. :hi:

The books are:

Over Sea, Under Stone
The Dark Is Rising
The Green Witch
The Grey King
Silver on the Tree

The whole story is based on Arthurian legend, but it's definitely no re-write of the same Arthur stories we've all heard a hundred times. I cannot recommend this series highly enough--it is FANTASTIC.

Another series that's also fantastic is George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series. It's a lot more serious (definitely not kid stuff) but it's an extraordinary story with characters that are so well-developed, you feel like you've known them for years. The books (so far) are:

A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons (supposed to be released sometime this year)
The Winds of Winter (no release date yet)
A Dream of Spring (no release date yet)

[Phillycat]

74. My husband recommended the Dark Is Rising series, and I LOVED them!

I meant to put that on the original list, actually. Thanks so much for the other recommendation! :hi:

[dropkickpa]

72. Michelle West's Sacred Hunt and Sun Sword series

Read in that order. Reading them again right now.

[Joey Liberal]

75. Clan of the Cave Bear n/t