Book recommendations: Fantasy

[Coruscate]

Alright, this will be a thread for discussing book recommendations. No manga, this is books. Text.

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I for one am partial to:

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Robert E. Howard

But I need to broaden past these guys for a bit. Sure they are good, but I want to see what people are doing in modern times. I've had Anne McAffrey (Pern?) recommended to me by an ex-girlfriend.

Outside of that, what's out there?

[Cutey Kerina]

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Great book, one of the best contemporary fantasy books not in the more commonly known "Harry Potter" set and probably the best of Gaiman's personification of forces and deities books. Those also include Neverwhere, the Sandman graphic novels (although Sandman is probably better really but for single volume this is the best), and Anansi Boys.
Cover Description

Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.

On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.

But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday’s schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter—all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.

Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.

All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought—and the prize is the very soul of America.

Then if you like realistic-world presentations of fantastic things, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke will suit things nicely. It's a little plodding at times and more historically presented novel in the style with copious footnotes to fictional references and a Elizabethian feel but quite unique in flavor.
Cover Description

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England’s magical past and regained some of the powers of England’s magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington’s army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange’s heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke’s magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

I'll post on some more later.

[Xia]

Double for American Gods, great great book

Fantasy huh...

George R R Martin's Sword of Fire and Ice Series is a good one. Warning though, this series isn't for the faint of heart, it is as graphic as Sammiko is cute. it is a Knights + Magic kind of book, little end of the world thrown in, etc etc. very very good read

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series is another good fantasy set. almost done, with 8/10 books complete, plus a little side novellette about a character.

[Oshaberi]

Mind if I contribute? =3

Probably one of my most favorite fantasy novels is Tailchaser's Song, by Tad Williams. Even though it seems a little lame (A talking cat looking for his girlfriend?), it's extremely interesting and absorbing.

It starts out when a young tom, Fritti Tailchaser, can't find his catfriend Hushpad. Hushpad lives within the dwellings of M'an, but when Fritti gets to her house it is empty. Fearing the worst after hearing the rumors of cats dissapearing mysterously in the night, he begins on a journey to find her. He's later joined by the kitten Pouncequick and a crazy old tom named Eatbugs.
The cat's religion and mythology is quite interesting, and as you read through you come across stories and songs describing their creation tale, how M'an came to be, and other cat folklore. Even though it may seem like an average story, since the cats talk in their own "common singing" which is translated to English in the book, it has a fantasy twist to it. The end will certainly portray that.

All in all, it's a story for all you cat-lovers out there. O.o It has three parts, all around maybe a hundred or so pages long, but I've read parts of it over and over again. :3 Cheers.

[Coruscate]

<_< That last one came out of our propa*cough*

>_> Oh look a puppy!

*distracts everyone*

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll see if the library has any of them tomorrow.

[ProphetKing]

As an avid fantasy fan, I have to recommend the Abhorsen series, by Garth Nix, and The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan (the first books in the series are good, but they fall off towards the end)
Another good one is Firethorn, which only just recently came out, by Sarah Micklem. That one's part of a Trilogy, very good, fantasy and romance (somewhat graphic romance at that). Also, most of the stuff by Terry Pratchett is pretty good, including the insanely popular Discworld series.
Then there's always Tamora Pierce's stuff. The Immortal's series by her is good, as well as the Circle of Magic books.

Oh, and I second the Sword of Truth books, although I only got to about the 3rd one.

Whoo, and thats only the ones I thought were really good. Maybe I read too much

[Temet nosce]

Mmm...Well the others have covered a lot of the truly famous fantasy but here's a few more.

1. Anything by Terry Brooks. (Especially Shannara books.)

2. Ian Irvine's The View From The Mirror trilogy.

3. Anything by Mercedes Lackey. (Particularly the Valdemar and Bedlams Bard series.)

4. Tad Williams' Thorn, Memory, and Sorrow trilogy.

5. Carol Berg's Revelation, Transformation, and Restoration books. (Three books not the name of the trilogy.)

6. Dennis L. Mckiernan's Mithgar saga.

7. Piers Anothony's Xanth (Warning about Xanth...This series has enough puns to drown in.) Also his Adept series.

8. Margret Weis & Tracy Hickman's Death Gate Cycle. (Also their other books.)

9. Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga.

10. Janny Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow.

I'll stop here for now. If you finish these I can list some more good fantasy but these ones are must reads.

[Xia]

Piers Anthony's Adept series is an excellent read, great trilogy. Very MSFish, considering its two worlds taking up the same place (with overlap of course).

I really need to get back into reading the xanth series

[Sophia Anieri]

I strongly recommend:

The Diamond Age and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

The Prince of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker (The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior-Prophet, and The Thousandfold Thought)

Just about anything by Robin Hobb

The Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust

The Death Gate Cycle series by Margaret Weis and Terry Hickman

And, last but not least, the Wonderland Gambit series by Jack L. Chalker

[ZeroForever]

wheel of time saga by robert jordon, is a good read... though it gets tedious at times... with like 100 characters +...

[ProphetKing]

Yeah, you go for like a whole book without seeing the main character at one point, which is probly why there's so many of them.

Another good read is the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman, and the book "The Foxes of FirstDark" by Garry Kilworth, which had an ending so sad that I actually cried . . .

[Duck]

Wheel of time, Sword of Truth, and Death Gate Cycle is all endoresed by the duck. I loved em all

[Zeph]

George R R Martin's Sword of Fire and Ice Series is a good one. Warning though, this series isn't for the faint of heart, it is as graphic as Sammiko is cute. it is a Knights + Magic kind of book, little end of the world thrown in, etc etc. very very good read

Aww, I was going to say them....

A word of advice: Don't read Eragon. It's very much overrated, and the kid who wrote it is rather pretentious.

[Temet nosce]

I'm fond of Eragon and Eldest personally. (As in I've reread both more than 5 times. Though I've read most of the books listed here at least twice...)

[Mistress Guendolen]

I HIGHLY recommend Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters trilogy, Daughter of the Forest, Son of the Shadows, and Child of the Prophecy. They're Celtic fantasy with decidedly mythic tones. The first book was based around the legend of the seven swans, which I can reiterate for anyone unfamiliar with it. The trilogy together essentially tells the saga of the family of Sevenwaters over three generations, as seen through the eyes of three strong female members. Beautiful books. The first one is my favorite, but they're all wonderful. For slightly older readers, I would also highly recommend Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel trilogy, Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar. I add the caveat of older readers here because the main character of this trilogy, Phedre, is highly unusual. First off, she becomes what is essentially a sacred courtesan. Secondly, she's what is known in the terms of the universe as an anguisette, one who is destined to find pleasure in experiencing pain, having been marked by the god Kushiel. Needless to say, she is a very complex character, and you may be surprised to hear that you feel a great deal of sympathy for and with her. Being an anguisette is no choice of hers, and it's a hard life, made harder still by the other things that happen to and around her in the course of the saga. There are some SERIOUSLY intense sections to this series, not to mention a definite erotic element. So some of you might find some of these aspects off-putting. But so long as you go into it with an open mind, this is one of the most impressive trilogies I've read recentlly. Carey has a lush, beautiful writing style, laden with gorgeous language and a careful complexity of plot that manages not to be overwhelming in its complications. So long as you're not faint of heart, it's most definitely well worth the read. She's recently ventured back into this same universe with the start of another trilogy, the first book entitled Kushiel's Scion. It's either just released or soon to be released, I forget which, so naturally I haven't read it yet. But I'm eagerly looking forward to doing so, as a review of it I saw recently ranked it "phenomenal," which is pretty rare. But as other people have mentioned other authors I would have recommended (Neil Gaiman and Terry Brooks, respectively; though be sure to check out the book they wrote together, Good Omens, as it's truly excellent), I'll be quiet now.