Twilight Forums

So, having just finished a brilliant series, Malazan Book of the Fallen, I'm hungering for some more fantasy to read, and don't know where to look. Here are some of my favorite fantasy series, in no particular order:
Wheel Of Time - the first five books
Mistborn
Lord of the Rings
Malazan Book of the Fallen
Riftwar Saga
A Song of Ice and Fire
Name of the Wind

Some other assorted series I have read, at least partially:
Shannara
Sword of Truth
Black Company
Harry Potter
Eragon
The Belgariad
The Darkness That Comes Before
Lies of Locke Lamora

And I'm prolly forgetting one or two from the first list and lots and lots from the second list.
So - any suggestions?

I just read some Piers Anthony books recently, and enjoy the style.
Everything else I can think of offhand is scifi.

Actually, now that I think about it, if you can find The Maze in the Heart of the Castle, I read that years ago and enjoyed it.

Do the Chronicles of Amber count as fantasy?

If you've read the Belgariad, you should go on to the Mallorean. Eddings' series The Elenium and The Tamuli, in my opinion, are better then the Belgariad. The Obsidian trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory was pretty good. If you've never read the original 3 Dragonlance chronicles I highly suggest those as well, by Weiss and Hickman. Feist has written many more series based on the world of the Riftwar books, and I liked 99% of those as well. As for Piers Anthony, his Incarnations of Immortality series, and the Blue Adept series are some of the books that kept me reading fantasy after I had devoured his Xanth books and Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider of Pern books. I could keep going, but that's enough of a list to get anyone started .

Early R.A. Salvatore. First two Dark Elf trilogies. Not sure I'd recommend the later ones, though I stopped somewhere along the way and don't know anything about the last few books.

I enjoyed Dave Duncan's Magic Casement quartet - really interesting system of magic. I'm also a sucker for "hero runs all over the place to save the maiden" stories. The rest of Duncan is kinda iffy, though.

I second Rueby's recommendation of the Dragonlance trilogy. The second trilogy, too, maybe.

If you also happen to like your sophisticated literature (particularly Joyce, Faulkner, etc.) Gael Baudino's "Water!" trilogy is just fantastic. It's not for everyone, though.

CS Friedman's Coldfire trilogy was interesting, though it's been a long time and I need to reread it to see if I still like it as much as I remember it. It's got a touch of Sci-Fi, but most of it is there just to frame the fantasy.

The Tad Williams trilogy, can't remember what it's called... Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn?

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman.

I'm not sure what the hell category Stephen King's Dark Tower series is, but it's got some fantasy involved, and the first 4 books are gripping. The last 3 books should have been one book and I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the conclusion, but I'm still glad I read it.

Fritz Lieber's Lankhmar stories are classics, though I never find older fantasy (or short stories) as enjoyable in a "fun read" sense as more modern novels.

If you count vampire stories as fantasy, John Steakley's "Vampire$" is probably my favorite Vampire book, both for the action and the humor--both are over the top. I'd also recommend Steakley's "Armor" though it's sci-fi instead of vampires. There's something very odd going on there, too, as the main characters from both books are Felix and Jack Crow, but he insists they're not the same character. Weird ...

Although they're written for a younger audience the Lloyd Alexander Taran series is a classic, and quite good. The Susan Cooper Dark is Rising series probably falls in that same category.

More series written more for a younger reader but still quite excellent are: The Myth Adventure books by Robert Asprin and the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. Recently got all caught up in a series called Women of the Otherworld by Kelly Armstrong. If you like urban fantasy (vampires, werewolves and witches, etc.) then this is a great series.

Speaking of Tad Williams, his Otherland series is pretty good. It's kind of a modern fantasy series, taking place in an online environment. Very entertaining.

Wow! A lot of suggestions here. Haven't read any of them except The Dark is Rising and rest of Feist and Edding's stuff. I've been interested in starting some Tad Williams for a while now, so with the multiple suggestions I may check that out. Where should I start? Also gonna look at Dave Duncan's Magic Casement - one of the main reasons I'm really loving the Mistborn series is the magic system. Really original and creative. Finally, the Vampire$ book sounds interesting, I'll try to find a copy.
@MH The early couple are definitely fun, but then it goes downhill, with blatant contradictions and Richard just getting more and more powerful each book with no explanation. But, again, the first book was very good IMO.
@mischal Yep, I recommend those two series to people - just stop reading WoT at book 5.
On the topic of good books, check out the author Christopher Moore if you want some humor. Funny stuff.
@Olaf + Cris I'll try to track down some of those when I'm done with these. I've heard of the Chronicles of Amber but haven't been in the right mood to start it for some reason.

Now I read these books a while, so I don't know how the hold up for somebody over the age of 12, but I really loved the Magic: The Gathering books. The Artifacts and Ice Age books in particular were REALLY good, and now that think of it I've reread the Artifacts books quite a few times recently.

Dragonlance Trilogy(ies): Not bad, just skip the songs and poems. They made my eyes bleed.

Ryme wrote:Although they're written for a younger audience the Lloyd Alexander Taran series is a classic, and quite good.

Oh yes. And you'll get your fill of Welsh mythology and crazy double letters.

neocamp22 wrote:I'll try to track down some of those when I'm done with these. I've heard of the Chronicles of Amber but haven't been in the right mood to start it for some reason.

Well... it's long. The omnibus is probably the way to go, but it's massive. Which makes sense, as there's 10 books in there. Corwin Saga > Merlin Saga, though.

Also, if you're willing to stretch your definition of Fantasy to "magic in the modern world", you won't do any better than the Dresden Chronicles.

Well, I was at the bookstore, and I couldn't find the ones I planned on getting, so I got Abercrombie's The Blade Itself based on some recommendations on another forum. It was good - I'm almost done with it. I'll check the library tomorrow to see if they have any of the ones I said I was going to read.

Oh, just remembered Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. Exceptionally good, (from what I remember from a decade ago) though the last paragraph was godawful frustrating.

Sole Legend wrote:You might want to try the Golden Compass. I thought it was great. (haven't read the other two in the series)

From what I've heard, they have a drastic decline in quality, to the point where the third is almost unreadable.

Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

I'd recommend Ursula le Guin's Earthsea series. Other than Middle Earth, it's the only fantasy world that really works for me.