Recommend a Good Fantasy Book Series

[OldHoss]

I'll start out with what I've already read:

 

All Tolkien

All C.S. Lewis

Harry Potter series

Bartimaeous Trilogy

 

I'm currently reading:

 

Wheel of Time Series: #2 The Great Hunt

 

I've been somewhat afraid of exploring the genre because -- if you judge a book by its cover, literally, -- they all look the same and it's hard to tell from first blush what's good and what's bad.

 

I'm looking for is a series that either does something completely new and original or, if it is a more derivative series, has some really good writing and character development.

 

So, if you could, please throw out your suggestions and tell me a little bit about the series and why you like it.

 

Thanks.

[saget]

I really enjoyed Raymond Fiest's Serpent War Saga. It's four books long.

 

It's got some of the usual fantasy stuff(elves and what not), but the way they use magic was sort of unique. I think. And there's demons. And some sex. Great characters too, which is probably the most important part.

 

The books are only like $6 a pop, so it's failry cheap too.

[sbrylski]

Redwall, though haven't read any in a couple years.

[jwaltz]

Ramond Feist's Riftwar Saga is great too.

 

David and Leigh Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series. They're a combined 10 books but very good. He does a good job of fleshing out the characters. Not as much action as other series but a lot more characterization.

 

Terry Brooks Shannara series. A lot of good action.

[cwolf2012]

I guess this is more sci-fi than fantasy, but Ender's Game is a really good book, and the series is quite good as well. I recommend it.

[Blancofan1]

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King is probably my all time favorite as far as series go. Falls a lot more into the fantasy catagory than horror like most of King's books. It's fairly adult themed and somewhat violent, but I was totally hooked after reading the first book in the series--The Gunslinger.

[jwaltz]

Anne McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern series. It's a great series.

[logan82]

- Dragonlance Chronicles series Weis/Hickman

Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Dragons of Winter Night

Dragons of Spring Dawning

 

- Dune - Science fiction. I don't know how to describe it well enough to do it justice. It is supposed to be one of the best science fiction books ever. I don't know if I would go that far, but I thought it was pretty good. Was made into a really bad movie in the 80's and a pretty good miniseries by SciFi in 2000.

 

- If you like Star wars, the Thrawn Trilogy.

 

- I will second the Shannara books.

 

- Song of Fire and Ice series. You might want to wait until more books in the series come out. They will and do kill off anybody in this series.

 

- Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

 

- I think the Wheel of Time Series is pretty good for the first 6 books, but things start to drag after that. The 10th book was really just a money grab in my eyes. The book didn't go anywhere and probably can almost be skipped. Add in that there are still 3 more books coming out, one this year and one each of the next 2 years.

[jwaltz]

Dune is one of my all time favorite books. I love it. The 80's movie was a disappointment but the mini-series was quite well done. It's Sci-Fi but if you like fantasy you may like it too. As logan said, it's hard to describe. It has a lot of themes.

 

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Stardust as well. Neverwhere is one of the best novels released in the 90's. Neverwhere isn't traditional fantasy but it's quite good.

[logan82]

Have you read the Silmarillion by Tolkien? It goes through the whole history of Middle Earth from creation. If you really like Tolkien it might be worth a read.

 

I forgot about the Dragon Riders of Pern series. Good series.

 

My wife even liked the The Farseer Trilogy and she really doesn't read much fantasy. I on the other hand read almost exclusively fantasy books.

 

Dune would be my top recommendation. It really is good. Start with "Dune" and if you like that follow the Dune original series first.

Dune Messiah

Children of Dune

God Emperor of Dune

Heretics of Dune

Chapterhouse Dune

 

go to the Legends of Dune Series

The Butlerian Jihad

The Machine Crusade

The Battle of Corrin

 

go to the prelude books

House Atreides

House Harkonnen

House Corrino

 

then finish the original series

Hunters of Dune

Sandworms of Dune

 

I know it is a lot of books, but you can read only the first and and be left without cliff hangers. You can read up until the end of Heritics of dune stopping at any book and not have any cliffhangers. The cliffhangers start at Chapterhouse Dune.

[brewers4eric]

I'll add a recommendation for a comic book series. "Astro City" was one of my favorite reads.

[MJLiverock]

I have read many of the books previously mentioned and agree there a lot of good ones there. Tolkien was my first experience in fantasy as a kid so he sort of spoiled me by setting the bar so high. I would recommend George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. Four books are done a fifth is supposedly nearly done. The first book is A Game of Thrones. I can't recommend this series enough, my second favorite after the Tolkien works. HBO is working on a show based on the books sort of a Sopranos meets the the Tudors.

 

I don't want to ruin the Wheel of Time Series but the author, Robert Jordan, died a year or so ago so I don't know if the series will ever be finished. I read all the books up until the last one but started losing interest as the story dragged on as Logan mentioned.

 

If you liked the Harry Potter books, I think you will like the David Eddings Belgariad and Mallorean series. These are among my favorite books from years ago. The story, characters, etc. aren't as deep or convoluted as some high fantasy stuff but the overall pace and characters are excellent, certainly not as detailed as the Wheel of Time, but I think a much better read.

 

I've read the Robin Hobb, Raymond Feist , Terry Brooks, and would seriously put the Song of Ice and Fire above them all.

 

Another good series I just started this year that falls into the sort of Robert Jordan level of detail is Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Gardens of the Moon is the first book. It is hard to get into but once you figure out the geography, alliances, and a little of the history it gets pretty good. I actually read the book twice to understand it better. I just finished the second book which was much easier to follow now that I understand the world a little more. The story is very deep with a huge geography and long long history behind the story. There are supposed to be 10 volumes and I think number 9 is coming out soon. The author has done a good job of sending out a book every year or so unlike GRRM who has been slow to get out the Song of Ice and Fire books.

 

I've never read the Dune story but have always meant to pick it up. I saw the movie with Sting in it when I was a kid and remembered being disappointed but from what others have said it wasn't a very good representation of the books. I've had the books recommended to me many times over the years.

[sgtcluels]

Stop reading the wheel of time. After 6 books it seems like nothing ever happened. The books get dry and slower then the possiblity of a World Series win for our crew.

[MJLiverock]

Stop reading the wheel of time. After 6 books it seems like nothing ever happened. The books get dry and slower then the possiblity of a World Series win for our crew.

I didn't want to be so blunt since I don't know everyone's preference but yeah, Wheel of Time grinds to a halt somewhere in that range. If you are just getting into Fantasy/Sci Fi I would stop and pick up any other book mentioned thus far so as not to make you hate the genre. The series started out so promising and really had me hooked but begins to drag on and on with seemingly pointless pages and storylines. Check out the reviews of later books on Amazon and you will see the venom people feel about where this series went. Don't worry about spoilers in the reviews, there really isn't any plot advancement to spoil. I gave up after book 9, but I just looked at book 10 to try and remember where I gave up and saw it had 1 1/2 stars on Amazon and some pretty funny reviews.

[jwaltz]

Trery Pratchet's Discworld series are quite entertaining. They aren't serious and are full of satire, slapstick, and silliness. Needless to say, they are quite fun to read.

[logan82]

I felt shortly after or around book 6 Jordan stopped progressing his main characters and instead spent the next several books introducing new characters to the point where you didn't even have more than a couple pages on the main characters if you were lucky.

 

The series is going to be completed by Brandon Sanderson. He was picked by Jordan's widow to write the final book which got split into 3 books. Jordan knew he was going to die and made notes about how he wanted the book to end. He contracted a disease of some sort.

[brewblue1]

Terry Goodkind - The Sword of Truth series.

[OldHoss]

Thanks for all the recommendations. Keep 'em coming if you have some, but haven't postd yet. I'll be printing out this thread at some point.

 

After some further research, many people are echoing the sentiments here about Jordan's books. That's too bad about Wheel of Time series. It starts out so promising.... I'll finish book 2 and leave it at that, unless compelled to go forward.

[Viva La Grinch]

A couple of more of my favorites that have not been mentioned.

 

The Renshai Trilogy by Mickey Zucker Reichert. A sometimes very violent take on fantasy/mythology that has some nice plot twists in it.

 

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. The book floats a bit between a modern time setting and a fantasy world. This series totally threw me a curve on what I was expecting in the books with a great whodunit storyline. Give it a few chapters and you will be hooked.

 

The Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. More of the traditional fantasy storyline, but nothing wrong with that. Follows a story of twelve swords each with a magical individual special power and what happens to each person that carries one. Great mixture of a long storyline with several short stories interacting throughout the series.

[jwaltz]

I forgot about The Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen! Another great series. Each book is only about 200 pages but there's 10 or so books in the whole series. It's worth reading till the end.

[kramnoj]

My two copper pence.

 

Martin's Song of Ice And Fire is simply tremendous.

 

I am also a big fan of Eddings. I loved the Belgariad and Mallorean series, and I loved his other series he wrote. It inclduded the only scene in a book that made me tear up.

 

Goodkind was very enjoyable.

 

I'll make a recommendation for Thieves World. I wouldn't put it as high as many of the other good recommendations that have been made, but I really enjoyed it. It is a series where different chapters of each book are written by several authors, and each chapter is told from the POV of one the of the many characters in the city of Sanctuary. I just thought it was a fun way to tell a story.