Harry Turtledove: Into to Darkness series, Tale of the Fox series, Legion of Videssos series, all rather military/political oriented “realistic” fantasy.
SM Stirling: The General series (OK, not fantasy exactly, but super cool military ), Island in the Sea of Time.
Harry Harrison: The Hammer and the Cross. Old English and Vikings clash over religion and culture.
Ummm…let’s see…have you heard of this guy, Tolkien?..
You know, I went into my post thinking MZR was a woman, but as I was typing I had no idea where I got this idea from (or any cites for that matter) and figured Mickey was a guy’s name (it’s Mickey Rooney’s fault). Thanks for setting me straight GL.
P. Wrede- the Enchanted Forest series. Susan Cooper. (Both are sometimes considered childrens fantasy). If you have not already, give the Dame E. Nesbit books a try.
Some of the “Forgotten realms” series of D&D novels are quite good. Some are ecch, tho. Look and see if the author has gone on to write other non D&D stuff- usually that is agood sign.
Hood has written a great series about a fantasy murder-mystery detective with small dragon as a familiar.
The early Vance- especially the “dying earth” & cugel books.
I did read the brust novels- and liked the Phoenix Guards. However, books about assasins are rather hard for me to get into. There ain’t no such thing as a brave & honorable assasin.
Unfortunately, nowadays about 90% of fantasy is marketed as, and is 'womans fantasy"- I am sure that is great for the ladies, but us manly men need something to read also.
At this point, you’re probably right, they’ve taken it way further than it should have been taken. I still love it though.
But give Joanne Bertin’s series a shot. It’s a story, without a doubt, and it’s pretty new stuff. Her third book isnt even out yet. Eagerly awaiting that one, am I.
Did he start writing again? or is that an old one I somehow missed? I suppose the odds of another Marid Audron book are pretty much nil, either way . . .
Admitadly I liked him less after that. (Though technically Reek did it, Theon just didn’t stop him) I liked Theon as a CHARACTER, not a person. He had a great set-up with the two conflicting father figures and the whole Stark/Greyjoy thing. He also acted like an adolecent, as opposed to the “emotional maturity at age 8” thing that the non-blond Starks got.
Besides, if I admited that Tyron was my favorate character, I’d be just like everyone else, wouldn’t I?
But all will be forgiven if he excises the Dannys sections from the next one. She seems to be someone from a completly different and not very good series of novels. Everyone else in the world scrabbles madly to hang onto even a little power, and she falls backward into vast armies that just HAPPEN to be made up of totally obidiant, flawlessly trained enuchs, so she can fight completly clean wars, with no damage to civilians. And they just happen to be owned by utter monsters, so she can kill them and steal the army with no moral questions. And they’re dumb enough to fall for purile tricks . . .
Sorry. Really don’t like the Dany parts. 
“This movie took me to a magical land. I HATE magical lands!”
I have to agree about Dannys, though I do not find her chapters poorly written. I simply think her episodes suffer from the lack of relative weight: we spend to much time on Westeron so the Dannys sections seem like interruptions. Besides, Arya is my favorite character. Followed by Hodor ;).
Also, it’s just a one shot and a shameless plug, but Quest for the Fallen Star by a couple minor writers and me isn’t a bad read. 
Figured that this woud be a good time to finally speak after lurking in the shadows…
After hearing people discuss the Prachett/Gaiman Project, Good Omens I thought I shoud mention Gaiman’s venture into the graphic novel. His Sandman series is rather striking, and every time that I reread one, I always find something new in it.
Hope you get a chance to try one of these out. The first in the series is Preludes and Nocturnes.
Alessan:
Have you ever read The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake? I highly recommend that, it’s not “high” fantasy, but set in a sprawling castle full of arcane rituals and bizarre characters. Considerably different from a lot of the fluff you’ll find in the fantasy genre. The first two books are great, the third is kind of off in a different direction and not as highly recommended.
Also, speaking of Good Omens, isn’t that being made into a movie by Terry Gilliam?
In fact, I’ll even recommend her books. I really enjoyed Bedlam’s Bard, Bedlam Boyz, and even the Wing Commander book.[sub]Although I only read the Wing Commander one once, it was okay…[/sub]
Moonheart, by Charles de Lindt, is one of my favorite fantasy books, as well. In fact, almost anything by Charles de Lindt is pretty good.
Happy reading, I think you’ll be busy a while!
Tisiphone
First off, I must disagree with KKBattousai,
I did not like Guardian of the Flames at all. The characters were too unbelievable. Anyone in their situation would have gone through so much turmoil at being abducted and thrown into a strange land. For that to not even be touched upon until the end, and just barely glanced over then, is a major crime. As a reader I was outraged by that. A cripple can now walk and he treats it as if it’s an everyday occurance? Excuse me, was my book missing a few chapters?
While not fantasy, exactly, I do agree with Grim_Beaker that Hyperion is an excellent read.
OK, I’m biased here. I’m a OS Card freak. But I really enjoyed most of the Alvin Maker series starting with The Seventh Son. It’s the story of the seventh son of the seventh son in an alternate reality of 1800s America. Prophesy revealed that he would be a man of magic who would help create the Crystal City. The Unmaker works to destroy what he has created, and kill him in the process. Most everyone in this world has magic to some degree…it’s just a matter of how they choose to use it. Man, do I sound like the inside of a book cover or what?
One thing about this thread, I’ve decided I’ll pick up George RR Martin as my next author. I read about seven years ago Sandkings which, IMO, was one of the best novellas ever.
Um, hi! 
Gee, magdalene, it seems as if you’ve grown an Evil Twin.
Spiritus, Ura-Maru, the Daenarys sections are among my favorite in the series. Sure, they’re different from the rest of the series, with a hightened fantasy sensibility (have you noticed that everything about her happens in threes?) and a more outrageous style (sort of a mix of Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance and A Thousand and One Noghts), but they manage to generate a “sense of wonder” beyond anything else in the series. Plus, Dany seems to be turning into the one thing this story lacks - an idealistic heroine. Who’d have thought?
Besides, the series is hardly homogenous, stylistically. Jon’s adventures in the North are both much closer to “classic fantasy” than events in the south, and also have strong elements of modern horror writing. Perhaps Martin is trying to do like Simmons in Hyperion (which I’ve read many, many times) and include many sub-genres of fantasy into one coherent work?
Alessan, I just wanted to second whomever said “God Stalk” and “Dark of the Moon” by P.C. Hodgell. Good, dark stuff in there, I can’t WAIT to see how it ends or where it goes next. The books can be hard to find - if you promise to return them I’d lend you my copies.
Also, try “The Dark is Rising” series by Susan Cooper. It’s a children’s book series, but it’s not really for kids and I loved it.
As for my evil twin, I looked on her profile - she’s a member of another site I frequent (under a completely different name), seems evil in a good way, and has great taste in fiction. While I’m sure that this board is big enough for the both of us, I never thought I’d say “thank goodness for post counts!”
Already covered: Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy (Assassin’s Apprentice is book one), Elizabeth Moon’s Deed Of Paks trilogy (The second two books in the series, dealing with Gird, aren’t as good, IMO), and since you’re a Guy Gavriel Kay fan, I’ll assume you’ve already read The Fionvar Tapestry(sp).
Gad, I’m drawing a blank for the most part. For humor, I’d go with Rick Cook’s Wizardry series. It’s about a computer programer who gets sucked into a D&D knockoff dimension, and quickly realizes that forming several smaller spells (programs) forming the base for larger spells makes him one of the most powerful wizards in the realm…
I’d also recommend Robert Asprin’s Myth series, especially the first few books. The last few in the series, predictable enough, begin to get stale.
For serious fantasy, I’d recommend Stephen King’s Eyes Of The Dragon. That’s an excellent read.
Ever read the graphic novel Ronin by Frank Millar? It’s a really good sci-fi/fantasy book about a samurri warrior, his magic sword, a shapeshifting demon, and post apocalipse New York. Cool biotech too.
Selemon88,
I completely forgot about Eyes of the Dragon. Yes, that’s a great book. It blows away even The Stand or It as far as good SK books go.
I would also recommend Goodkind’s Sword of Turth series. The first book is one of the best I’ve ever read. The series as a whole is well above par, but I am getting annoyed with certain aspects of it. Does anyone else here hate how he talks down to the reader by using three paragraphs to explain what an agiel is, or what a confessors power is, as if we wouldn’t remember that from one book to the next?
If you’re looking for a fantasy novel that’s different, check out Mark Sumner’s Devil’s Tower (and its sequel Devil’s Engine). It’s a great western/fantasy combination. The basic idea is that the carnage during the Civil War unleashed some form of magic. Twenty years later, the towns of the American West have been reduced to small isolated outposts controlled by whatever “sheriff” has enough magic to enforce his rule against any challengers.
I understand that. (And in fact, I was half expecting Conan to pop in at some point during the tower bit) Point is, I really don’t think it’s appropriate to the rest of the books. And as “high fantasy,” I really don’t think it’s very imaginative, or very good. I get more of a “sense of irritation.”
It really seems to me to be tacked on as a sop to fantasy steriotypes.
Do we need an idealistic heroine? Every other idealistic chracter either suffers for thier idealism or is forced to compromise, at least a little. Danys dosn’t, because she’s special and mythical. It’s like splicing chapters of a 50’s superman comic into The Long Goodbye. Nothing wrong with Superman or Chandler, but the two worldviews just arn’t compatable. You can do Superman with a Chandler worldview, (Watchmen) or Chandler with a Superman worldview (The Lone Ranger) but you can’t just staple them together.
Well, unless you have some massive weird plot justification for it, ala Aristoi.
This might have worked better forty or fifty years ago, when the idea of a “mysterious, exotic orient” wasn’t so silly.
True, but I’m not sure that’s relavant. I can accept the cast and plot of the Wall sequences as being set in the same world as the rest of the books. Not so the Danys areas.
What I’m objecting to arn’t the high fantasy trappings (well, at least not much) but the fact that they don’t mesh properly. The same thing happened at the end of City on Fire, but not nearly as severe.
Incedentally, all this bitching should not be taken as saying that Martin’s fantasy novels are less than really great, cause they are.
–
“Were a wandering band of Terrasques! Kiie! Kiie!”
I just finished Winter’s Heart (aka the 9th book in the Series That Shall Never End)…
I thought it was -much- better than the two books immediately prior to it.
just my $0.02, of course
My copy of Maureen is dated 1993. It’s a collection of short stories dating from 1982 to 1993. [rumor]Effinger is in poor health, and is having legal difficulties with his publishers, who have him bound to a nasty contract. He’s unable to get them to print his stuff, and is unable to get anyone ELSE to print his stuff because of this contract. On the bright side, he’s married to Barbara Hambly, so life can’t be TOO bad for him.[/rumor]
I don’t see HOW you can fail to appreciate the humor of a demon designing the freeway network to make a giant curse wheel! Sheesh, what’s the matter with you?!?
I said this in another thread, and I’ll repeat it. If you like Tim Powers, you’ll probably like James Blaylock too. I also buy all of Terry Pratchett’s books I can get my hands on, and Neil Gaiman’s, and Steven Brust’s, and L.E. Modesitt’s, and my goodness Amazon.com gets a lot of money out of me!
The illustrator for “A Night in the Lonesome October” (one of my favorites of Zelazny’s) was Gahan Wilson. He used to do a really strange series of cartoons for the newspapers.
Have you read Patricia McKillip’s “Forgotten Beasts of Eld” and the Riddlemaster trilogy? Very good stuff.
I also enjoyed Julian May’s Pliocene books.