What are some of your favorite fantasy books?

tbarron · Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:38 pm


	Tam Lin wrote: Piers Anthony is clever and talented, but I've never had much patience for comedic fantasy. Really, with the exception of the classics and Gaiman (the latter of whom I'm awfully hard on as well), I'm really at a loss for fantasy that will pass the muster with me. Perhaps I'm just being unreasonable.

Welcome to the forum, Tam Lin.

Based on your statement about comedic fantasy, I don't guess you'd care much for Terry Pratchett. I just discovered him a few months back and have been enjoying his oeuvre.

But I get burned out on what's available sometimes too. I'm thinking maybe I should write the book I want to read.

Tam Lin · Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:20 pm

Well I loved "Good Omens", although I guess that's not really what most people think of as "fantasy", but otherwise you're right, Pratchett, although a wonderful writer, can't hold my attention very long.

Honestly these days I find more rewarding fantasy in classical authors; Spenser, Mallory, Chaucer, or even Milton. Sometimes I'll bemoan the "poor" state of modern fantasy, but, although there are no end of legitimate criticisms of the genre, I still can't help but think that the problem is less about the books and more about my standards.

Gem · Tue Oct 13, 2009 4:29 pm

I like Terry Pratchett, he is very enjoyable to read, but his style does not change very much, so you kind of know what to expect in his books. His characters are excellent though - an excellent social commentary.

One of my favourite Fantasy authors, in fact one of my favourite authors full stop is Philip Pullman. I think I've mentioned it before on this site, but his trilogy "His Dark Materials" is I think possibly my favourite collection of books. It is a simple childrens story, but raises deep questions about religion, power, the self - and refers to such a range of things in culture - Blake, Milton, and more - I can't recommend it enough!

banjodown · Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:28 pm

I know George R. R. Martin has already been mentioned within this post, but I will wholeheartedly second that recommendation. I admit, it's frustrating that he seems to have neglected the finishing of the series, but I've read the first two in "A Song of Ice and Fire" (or is it Fire and Ice? I can never remember...) and these are definitely the best fantasy books I've ever read. It resembles the world of Lord of the Rings with the political intrigue of Dune. Plus so much more, of course.

tbarron · Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:50 pm


	Tam Lin wrote: Well I loved "Good Omens", although I guess that's not really what most people think of as "fantasy", but otherwise you're right, Pratchett, although a wonderful writer, can't hold my attention very long.

Hi, Tam.

I appreciated what you said about Good Omens since I had been planning to read it. I just finished it last night and had some comments I wanted to make. This thread seems like a good place.

First, I was intrigued and bit perplexed by the dedication. Gaiman and Pratchett dedicated the book to the memory of G. K. Chesterton, which I found surprising. He was an apologist for the ideas the book seems to be poking fun at. Perhaps the dedication itself is tongue in cheek and I'm just not getting the joke.

Second, I thought the notion of an accurate prophetess was a cleverly subtle way of suggesting that the future is as fixed as the past. They even say in the book that Agnes "remembered" the future in order to make her prophecies.

Finally, their description of the perversity of bureaucratic mishaps and people and things not behaving as expected rang completely plausibly to me. So often, that's just how it goes in real life.

I give the book two thumbs up. :up:

I really enjoyed it.

wilde · Mon Dec 07, 2009 8:40 pm

I'm not into fantasy as much as I used to be, but um.. "The Child Thief" by Brom. It's sort of dark, intense take on Peter Pan. There's a few grammatical errors (at least in its first/only edition so far), but I suppose that's the editor's wrong. xD

Also.. LOTR, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, the usual... Oh, and Inkheart.

bluet · Mon Dec 07, 2009 11:06 pm

One of my favorites, which I consider fantasy, is the Titan Series by John Varley, except for the third one, which I didn't like very well. Has anyone read the first two (Titan and Wizard)? I enjoy them and reread them now and then. His vision of Gaia was quite interesting and well thought out. I would be curious about other reviews of these books.

morgoth · Mon Dec 07, 2009 11:43 pm

I really enjoyed the Brent Weeks series. Its called Night Angel, I believe. Way better then expected and actually surprised me. I picked it up at Borders just to look at a few pages and ended up reading the whole first book in about 2 days. Its really worth at least checking out. Super standard fantasy, but actually some thing a bit different.

swhynes · Tue Dec 08, 2009 9:09 am

As a publisher I always like series because, truthfully, if you get hooked you are going to buy many more books, I mean look at Harry Potter! On the other hand a series doesn't mean that each book shouldn't stand on its own. A good book is a good book no matter what number in a series it is. I am not a huge fan of fantasy or science fiction and so many seem to cross over -- Orwell for example, but I do like a new book I agreed to publish The SIN of Addison Hall, because it isn't so easy to classify but seems to be well liked by everyone that enjoys the fantasy genre and I really enjoyed it. Other than that I guess Tolkien is the only fantasy writer I really love.

oblivion · Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:50 am

Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". Or would this be better under "religion"?

morrighan's mom · Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:42 pm

Hick and Wiseman's Dungeon's and Dragon's novels were my first introduction to Sci-fi. Then I moved onto the Star Wars books. It's been a gradual progression to more and more autors like Terry Goodkind, which I picked up because it was sooo big and I was trying to impress the guy in the sci-fi/fantasy aisle at B&N. Tolkien came closer to the movies coming out. I tend to enjoy books that are part of a series because I love to read and can't seem to get enough. Then when I am done with a series i am disappointed to find no more books will be written so i move on to another series.

Theomanic · Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:09 pm

These days, I find I enjoy more "modern" fantasy like Neil Gaiman's books (I don't really think of Good Omens as Fantasy though I see how it is). I also like urban fantasy (shameful!) like Ilona Andrews. Her Kate Daniels books are very fun though light read. Holly Black wrote a trilogy of teen modern fantasy novels: Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside. I highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys the occasional YA novel.

I also liked Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the His Dark Materials trilogy, and the first few Narnia books. I found the religious symbolism got a bit heavy handed for me after a while. Another YA series that I really loved was the Abhorsen books (Sabriel, Abhorsen, and Liriel) from Garth Nix. I have recommended them to a lot of people and so far received only favourable responses.

I used to read more series stuff like the Wheel of Time and the Forgotten Realms books, but the quality level really can't be kept up. I gave up on the WoT books long before Robert Jordan died. I think some people get really attached to characters, and for those people, long series are ideal. I don't get that attached to characters unless I really love them, though (for instance, I could read the Kate Daniels books forever). But even then, it seems to be difficult to not jump the shark after a while.

Isilrien · Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:53 pm

Some of my favorite authors/books include (aside from the infamous Tolkien):

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Neil Gaiman - American Gods, Neverwhere, Anansi Boys, Smoke and Mirrors, Fragile Things.
Guy Gavriel Kay - Everything he's written.
Lois McMaster Bujold - For fantasy: The Hallowed Hunt, The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls; The Sharing Knife series; The Spirit Ring.
Gregory Keyes - For fantasy: The Kingdoms of Thorn and Blood series.
Tad Williams - For fantasy: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series; The War of the Flowers; Shadowmarch series.

Kayta · Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:37 pm

My two favourites, although very different, would be by Pratchett and Eddings.

Eddings is so "old fashioned" fantasy when you know good will win out but it's so well written you just have to keep reading to find out how. I loved Belgariad and Mallorean and Elenium/Tamuli. Couldn't get into the Elder/Younger Gods series but think I should retackle it at some stage.

Pratchett is just so rich. I can (and do) read and re-read the discworld series so many times and still pick up a new in-joke or pun that I'd missed before. In Pyramids, I only got the Djelibeybi/Jellybaby pun on the 5th or 6th reading and only because I read the choice bits out loud to my hubby. Discworld novels make me giggle, then think. There's always an underlying message or comment on society. But not good to read in public 'cause people look at you funny when you giggle and snort.

MLeigh85 · Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:51 pm

I am currently reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I'm on the third book now "The Waste Lands". The book has engrossed in me and I'm not able to go more than an hour with out picking it up.

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