Fantasy Thread

vader100

Now we have this sparkly new topic I think this may be a good idea to have a thread to recommend or discuss all things fantasy orientated.

Whether you are an Eddings,Feist,Jordan,Pratchett,Goodkind or Gemmill fan post your thoughts and recommendations here and help fans of the genre discover a new or previously hidden gem and discuss any points.

Toasty

I've always felt Stephen Lawhead is underrated and if you have any interest in Celtic mythology then the Songs of Albion is a superb series. And again, if you like the Arthur / Merlin legends then his Pendragon Cycles series is excellent.

Another hidden gem for me was Dave Duncans The Great game series. I enjoyed Vardeman & Milans War of Powers, albeit a tad bawdy.

Codehead

My favorite fantasy books are:

Raymond E Feist

The RiftWar Trilogy
Magician, Silverthorn, Darkness at Sethanon

The Empire Trilogy (with Janny Wurts)
Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire

These two are trilogies are Feist's best work IMO. The SerpentWar Saga is good, but not on the same level and the Conclave of Shadows/DarkWar storyline is getting silly now. It jumped the shark when (spoiler)(/spoiler) that was as bad as one of those old Flash Gordon cliffhangers that get glossed over in  the next episode. I'm still reading any Feist I can get, but I don't think he'll better his early work.



Trudi Canavan

The Black Magician Trilogy
(The Magician's Guild, Novice, High Lord)

Similar feel to Feist's RiftWar, but a little slower paced and without a war going on. Canavan has released a prequel and another trilogy that I haven't looked at yet. Anyone else read those?



JV Jones

The Book of Words
(The Baker's Boy, A Man Betrayed, Master and Fool)

Again, a similar theme to the RiftWar and Black Magician, but a little darker IMO.



Stan Nicholls

Orcs - Omnibus
(Bodyguard of Lightening, Legion of Thunder, Warriors of the Tempest)

An odd read, the usual bad guys get to tell their story. Not a masterwork, but entertaining and quite funny in places.Tal re-grew his sword arm with no-ill effects

kav

Does George RR Martin count as fantasy? If so, I highly recommend him. Song of Ice and Fire series is amazing...I just hope he finishes it before he dies!

UnGreat

I second Feist.

Technically kids books but I really enjoyed the Abhorsen books by Garth Nix. I also picked up the Keys to the Kingdom books by the same author, and while I thought the first (Mister Monday) was a little sparse the rest have been amazing.

If anyone is a fan of genre TV and wants a great series to read then I can recommend the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It is fantastic in the way that as well as having stories unique to each book it also has an overarching plot carrying through that develops the characters and reveals small parts of a larger mystery. Read them in order though.

leeb-1977

second here for RR Martin. Song Of fire and Ice is amazing!!!

Cant wait to see what happens with Jon Snow and Jamie Lannister next, as well as tyrion etc.... superb series.

as for my other recommendations.... im a lover of The sword of truth series by Terry Goodkind - although im disgusted with the 'legend of the seeker' tv series.

Stream62

Another vote for George RR Martin here, would be dissapointed if they didn't get finished.. i think the 5th one is coming out in October sometime?

I'm also a big fan of David Eddings (great easy to read fantasy) and Steven Erikson (admitidly a bit harder to read at first, i found the first half of the first one a bit of a trial but once they have clicked they are fantastic).

vader100

I started with Eddings (R.I.P) and progressed with Terry Brooks' Shannara series, Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and then moved on to Feist's Riftwar. I must say I actually enjoyed the SerpentWar more.

Terry Pratchett has always been a pleasure to read.

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series were very enjoyable,meandered a bit towards the end,but, ultimately finished very well.

Also enjoyed Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy, but not the Fool trilogy that followed as much.

I have read the first Wheel of Time book but it was a couple of years ago but think I'll need to read it again before progressing.

The Song of Fire and Ice recommendations I have heard elsewhere and are on my list of future must reads.

PaulieBeef

Not a chance! I don't think we'll see it this year at all. He's still rewriting chapters according to his blog - I think the man must be an absolute perfectionist...
I'm a big fan of fantasy as well. I've read most of the Dragonlance series, Sword of Truth and about half of Feist's books, but all of them pale in comparison to George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Not only are they the best fantasy books I've ever read, they're probably some of the best books I've read in any genre. Slightly off topic, the casting for HBO's A Game of Thrones (1st ASOIAF book) is looking very promising!

Codehead

Oh! I forgot about those. They were like the medieval A-Team, none of the good guys ever died. Great stories though.