I'm hankering for some GOOD fantasy series

Cafe Society
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There are plenty of fantasy series out there, but good ones are few and far between. Sadly, I’m beginning to think I’ve found them all, so I turn to the vast resource that is the Teeming Millions. Tell me what to read! For reference, I give you a comprehensive list of series I’ve read that I can remember right at the moment and what I thought of them:

Tolkein. It’s Tolkein! 'Nuff said.

David Eddings. Loved his stuff in junior high school, was dismayed later in life to realize that he royally sucks.

Robert Jordan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m well aware of his faults and shortcomings, but I still like him, DAMMIT! The fact that I’ve been waiting fifteen years for him to finish has nothing to do with it.

George RR Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice. Love it. Can’t wait for the next one.

Both of Robin Hobb’s series. Great stuff, if a little dark and out there.

Tad Williams’ Green Tower Angel Whatever-it-was. Pretty good, but forgettable. Obviously.

Michael Moorcock. Eh. Not bad, but it doesn’t really grip me that much. I’m giving him another chance, though - I’ve got another of his books waiting for me in the bedroom.

Terry Goodkind. I was very excited when I ran across the first book, then sadly watched it quickly degenerate into complete and utter crap. Didn’t even bother with the last one.

Harry Potter. Decent, if mindless.

So. Suggest! Give me ideas! Oh, I also picked up the first book of L.E. Modesitt’s Recluse series, but haven’t got around to reading it yet. Is it worth bothering with? At this point, I’m not willing to even give a series a chance unless I hear lots of good stuff about it first. I really just want another Tolkein, but then, don’t we all?

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Mercedes Lackey early stuff The Last Herald-Mage and The Heralds of Valdemar as well as the first couple of Vows and Honor books are pretty good, but though she stays in Valdemar, after the first couple of series, they get pretty formulaic.

I’d also recomment Nancy Springer–if you can find her–[/iThe White Hart, The Silver Sun, The Golden Swan* (three separate books). Not as complex as Jordan, but then, what is?

I’ve also enjoyed Raymond Feist RiftWar series, in fact, i may re-read them next.

And I always recommend Charles DeLint. he’s nothing like the authors you mentioned, but he’s well worth reading.

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Fantasy only? That leaves out Dune…

I’m on a sci-fi kick right now but some of might favorite series (these are old but you should still be able to find them):

Fahfrd & The Grey Mouser Swords of ______ series - Fritz Lieber

World of Tiers - Philip Jose Farmer; He also sponsored a series written by other authors called The Dungeon which was quite good until the last two books.

I’m at work so they’re not coming to me too fast.

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Yeah, so am I. That’s why I want to change gears a bit.

Thanks for the replies and keep them coming. I’m writing them down.

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Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles is really the only fantasy I’ve (re)read in awhile because I have been on a Sci-Fi and general Fiction kick as well.

It being late and me being strung out of (legal) drugs, that’s all I can think of right now. I’ll come back later when my brain is functioning properly.

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The writings of L. Sprague de Camp and Peter Beagle.

Not necessarily series but they’re still worth reading.

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Phillip Pullman - especially His Dark Materials trilogy.

And anything by Tamora Pierce - but I especially recommend her “Song of the Lioness” quartet. Sure, it’s aimed at a younger audience, but it’s still a good read.

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Wow, u names all those fantasy stories but left out the best fantasy authors ever … weis and hickmann
go read the Dragonlance Cronicles or the Death Gate Cycle

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I don’t know if it would fit your definition of fantasy, they aren’t sword & sorcery by any means, but all of the novels of Jonathan Carroll (Bones of the Moon, Outside the Dog Museum, etc…) are interrelated. They are sort of modern “magical realism”, and are very good, with strong fantasy elements to them.

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How About:

Terry Pratchett - Fantasy with a Funny twist
RA Salvatore - Classic D&D Fantasy
Raymond E Feist - Riftwar /serpentwar sagas
Robin Hobb - very gritty, ‘real’ fantasy
Weis/Hickman - Dragonlance chronicles/tales etc

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Avoid Fred Saberhagen at all costs. His “swords” series is so mindlessly stupid and formulaic that all of the books are within 10 pages of being the exact same length.

I really enjoyed The Mists of Avalon quite a bit.

I’m in the same boat, though… looking for more good stuff and wary of picking things without a recommendation.

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Although it gets to a formula the shadowrun books are ok for a while as a mix of sci fi fanatasy

And it does explain a lot of the back story so you dont have to know the book rpg its based on

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Elizabeth Moon, Legacy of Gird and The Deed of Paksenarrion - two related series (same land, different times) that I really enjoyed. I highly recommend these.

Terry Brooks, Shannara series - also good, but storylines can be a bit repetitive

Joel Rosenberg, Guardians of the Flame - I really liked this series, especialy when I was younger. It has an interesting premise, although I did lose interest after the first 6 books or so.

Stephen R. Donaldson, Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - some people like it, some people hate it. I’m somewhere in the middle, and am currently re-reading the series for the first time in about 10 years. It seemed a bit wordy and tedious when I first read it, but that might have been because I was so young.

Piers Anthony, Xanth - this twenty-ish book “trilogy” is set in an. . .interesting. . .land. I liked the earlier books, but they get steadily worse (for the most part), becoming more and more outlandish.

Anne McCaffrey, Dragonriders of Pern - I liked this popular series, but the chronology can be a bit confusing (lots of prequels and short stories set in different times). I think the “suggested” reading order is the order they were published.

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I have read everything in your OP, was gonna suggest Robin Hobb, but since you’ve read her already…try this

So far there is only one more book, with more forthcoming. It is different, to say the least.

You may also try The Ill Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

Sorry, but that is all I can come up with at the moment. I am having trouble finding anything worth reading in this genre. Looks like it may be a good time for a run to Borders.

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And don’t forget Jack Vance’s fantasy novels. They start out fairly slow, but some of the later ones are hysterical.

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Great choice, Lyllyan! I loved Kushiel’s Dart and am waiting for the second one to come out in paperback-- waiting for paperbacks is the only way I seem to be able to get a handle on my rampant book buying.

Smeghead, you might like P.C. Hodgell’s writing. Not incredibly easy to find, but worth the effort. Dark of the Gods is an omnibus featuring two books, God Stalk and Dark of the Moon. Amazon also has the sequel, Seeker’s Mask and OHMYGOD! Looking this up for you just now, I see that I can preorder the long-awaited next installment, Blood and Ivory!

WHOO!

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I’ll second Philip Pullman and Zelazny’s Amber series. In fact, I might just go dig up the Amber books and give 'em another read myself!

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Try Elizabeth Haydon’s Rhapsody series. Great read.

Cycle of Fire by Janny Wurts is a good trilogy

Greg Bear’s Songs of Earth and Power is a good duology consisting of his Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage.

And of course you can’t forget the Black Company. I have only read the first three books, The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose but plan on reading the rest of them soon.

A couple other good reads are Carol Berg’s Transformation and Revelation, Jennifer roberson’s Cheysuli Cronicles, and Mickey Zucker Reichert’s books. (Bifrost Guardians and Renshai series are great)

Oh, and what everybody else said.

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Harry Potter mindless?? You are a smeghead. (kiddin’) You may want to check some of these out. I find most new fantasy isn’t very good.

The Misplaced Legion by Harry Turtledove. A Roman legion is magically transported to a magical world. Turtledove has a PhD in Byzantine history and all his Videssos novels have a very strong Byzantine feel. (No, not Byz the doper, Byzantine as in the Empire.) Four books in this series. Two or three other Videssos series.

Fafrd and the Grey Mouser series was mentioned. Very good fantasy series. If it seems too familiar it because so many people steal from Fritz Lieber.

Elric of Melnibone series by Michael Moorcook. Pretty good, gets a little tiring by the sixth book. Moorook returns to Elric repeatedly over the years. I have no idea exactly how many Elric books there are.

Anything by Robert E. Howard, or based on Robert E. Howard’s outlines. Howard is a definite favorite for me. He developed his fantasy world about the same time as Tolkien, but it’s a drastically different type of world. These include Conan I think there’s about 15 good Conan books. If it doesn’t list Robert E. Howard one of the authors, don’t bother. Although you did mention you liked Jordan, who got his start writing some moderately decent Conan novels. Cormac MacArt and Kull are also good, but can be very difficult to find. Try used bookstores if you catch the Howard bug.

You can’t go wrong with the very pulpy Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan is better than you may think. John Carter of Mars is a classic. (See how many dopers have these handles.) The first in this series is A Princess of Mars.

H.P. Lovecraft doesn’t have much, but an antholodgy of his short stories is always fun.

Most of these are classics of fantasy (IMHO) and if I’ved wasted your time with a list you’re familiar with, sorry.

Oh and ditto what Opalcat said.

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A couple of old ones I remembered loving at the time…

Jack Chalker’s Well World series and The Deryni Trilogy by Katerine Kurtz.