# Recommend a Fantasy series to me, please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659 "2010-11-23T15:19:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/101 "2010-11-24T20:10:44Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Thomas Covenant is a man from our world who somehow finds himself pulled into another world. The “Unbeliever” refers to his attitude throughout almost the whole series that he’s hallucinating the whole thing. > > The first series is really good, the second is good. I haven’t read the third at all. Be warned, though…it’s HARD to sympathize with Thomas Covenant. He’s a dick and an asshole (for what may be good reason, but still…) and he does things to other characters that are almost unforgivable. After reading your character summary, couldn’t you easily imagine Hugh Laurie in the (screen) role? Not that it will ever be adapted of course… ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/102 "2010-11-24T20:14:34Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > After reading your character summary, couldn’t you easily imagine Hugh Laurie in the (screen) role? Not that it will ever be adapted of course… I don’t know. Even Greg House is more sympathetic a character than Covenant. I mean, it’s REALLY hard to “hit” sympathy with him…you can go from contempt to exasperation to rage to intense antipathy without once managing to land square on the “Sympathy” target. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/103 "2010-11-24T20:24:09Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Modest, too. Don’t forget hung, too, as well, also. > [@Mahaloth](#): > > I have a confession to make. > > I’m broken up about this, too, so don’t judge me to hard or dismiss me right away. > > I have tried, twice, to get into Discworld novels…and I can’t. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I was raised with a British Mother, too, so I get British humor and so forth. I want, want, wanted to love them, but have had a hard time. > > For the record, the first time I read Colour of Magic. I know! Not the best place to start. > > So this September, I picked up Mort. > > I smiled a bit, but ended up finding it dull, too. > > I don’t know what is wrong with me, but both of my attempts to read Discworld have ended with me finding them…not as interesting as I hoped. > > :hangs head in shame: Dude, both bad places to start. COM was before Pratchett had figured out what he was really going to do with Discworld. Mort was just a big pile of blah - some humor in there, of course, but overall nothing special. Try “Witches Abroad” and then “Lords and Ladies”. If you don’t like those, well, you’re obviously dead inside. -Joe, prefers witches to the watch, and screw all you haters! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/104 "2010-11-24T20:27:11Z")
> [@Jules\_Andre](#): > > Lynn Flewelling wrote a trilogy called the Tamir Trilogy, which begins with [The Bone Doll’s Twin](http://www.amazon.com/Bone-Dolls-Twin-Tamir-Trilogy/dp/0553577239/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290624061&sr=8-1) which is seriously fantastic. It came highly recommended to me, and I highly recommend it to you. The very best praise I can offer this book is that I have reread maybe two or three books in my life and I _eagerly_ await rereading these. Oh, ditto on this one too. But **don’t** read the reviews or even the book description at Amazon – you’ll be spoiled. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/105 "2010-11-24T20:38:36Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Those books (Thomas Covenant) would depress a hyena. ☹ Not worth it. I tend to agree. I first read them when I was in high school (at that time, the second trilogy was just coming out), and loved them. I tried to re-read them a few years back, and couldn’t get through the first book. Not only is Covenant a complete asshat (as others have said), but I quickly got tired of Donaldson’s use of strange (if not made-up) adjectives. How many times can _you_ use the word “roynish” in a book? 😛 > [@DrDeth](#): > > Belgariad and sequels by Eddings is enjoyable and even re-readable. I enjoy these, as well, though, having re-read them for the third time last year, they do suffer a bit from being formulaic (Eddings himself has admitted that he was following many of the standard tropes in the genre). If a location appears on the map at the beginning of the series, you can be guaranteed that the party will have to go there at some point. And (particularly in the Elenium / Tamuli series, which are a different series), you get long sections in which the “hero” characters (and there’s always a group of like a dozen of them) sit around and show off how smart they all are as they discuss how to defeat their enemies. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/106 "2010-11-24T20:43:44Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I tend to agree. I first read them when I was in high school (at that time, the second trilogy was just coming out), and loved them. I tried to re-read them a few years back, and couldn’t get through the first book. Not only is Covenant a complete asshat (as others have said), but I quickly got tired of Donaldson’s use of strange (if not made-up) adjectives. How many times can _you_ use the word “roynish” in a book? 😛 I always thought Donaldson’s other series, the one with the mirrors, was SO much more boring and long and boring and long and boring and…well, you get the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/107 "2010-11-24T20:46:50Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I tend to agree. I first read them when I was in high school (at that time, the second trilogy was just coming out), and loved them. I tried to re-read them a few years back, and couldn’t get through the first book. Not only is Covenant a complete asshat (as others have said), but I quickly got tired of Donaldson’s use of strange (if not made-up) adjectives. How many times can _you_ use the word “roynish” in a book? 😛 Are you familiar with the sport of [Clench Racing](http://www.ansible.co.uk/sfx/sfx060.html)? > [@David Langford](#): > > Perhaps, as the party gets more riotous, you’d prefer games with some physical action. One of these is Clench-Racing, whose inventor Nick Lowe recommends it as a great way to get thrown out of bookshops. Up to six can play. The rules are simple: each player takes a different volume of Stephen Donaldson’s blockbuster Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, opens it at random, and leafs feverishly through the text. You win by being first to find the word “clench” (or “clenched”, “clenching”, etc). It’s a fast, furious sport, and a round rarely lasts a full minute. > > The original point of Clench-Racing was to highlight Donaldson’s peculiar fondness for this gritty word. If players get too good at locating “clench”, Lowe slyly suggests switching to “other favourite Donaldson words like wince, flinch, gag, rasp, exigency, mendacity, articulate, macerate, mien, limn, vertigo, cynosure …” ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/108 "2010-11-24T21:13:45Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > **The Fionavar Tapestry** by Guy Gavriel Kay is a good long read. You’ll pick up on the influence the Silmarillion had on him. In fact, the influence ran in exactly the opposite direction. Guy Kay assisted Christopher Tolkien in preparing the \*Silmarillion \*for publication. However, your basic point, that his later books are more original than _Fionavar_, is perfectly correct. My suggestion for a fantasy series is \*Temeraire \*by Naomi Novak. It is the story of an alternate Napoleonic war, where dragons can carry troops of men around to engage in aerial warfare. It is surprisingly good. ---
**Author:** ![Biers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Biers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biers)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/109 "2010-11-24T21:38:02Z")
If you liked the political intrigue in _Game of Thrones_, I’d recommend _The Empire Trilogy_ (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire and Mistress of the Empire) by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. The first book is the best, but the other two don’t drop off much in quality. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/110 "2010-11-24T22:02:00Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > My suggestion for a fantasy series is \*Temeraire \*by Naomi Novak. It is the story of an alternate Napoleonic war, where dragons can carry troops of men around to engage in aerial warfare. It is surprisingly good. I enjoyed those, too. Sort of Horatio Hornblower meets Pern. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/111 "2010-11-24T22:03:07Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Are you familiar with the sport of [Clench Racing](http://www.ansible.co.uk/sfx/sfx060.html)? ROFL! Sounds perfect. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/112 "2010-11-24T22:53:21Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > My suggestion for a fantasy series is \*Temeraire \*by Naomi Novak. It is the story of an alternate Napoleonic war, where dragons can carry troops of men around to engage in aerial warfare. It is surprisingly good. Well, two things. One the series is in no way even close to being done, as the OP specified. Next, the books have been getting darker and more dismal, not to mention very drawn out. Fans have been outraged and discouraged. But yes, the first few were great and the concept was original. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/113 "2010-11-25T00:43:38Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, two things. One the series is in no way even close to being done, as the OP specified. Next, the books have been getting darker and more dismal, not to mention very drawn out. Fans have been outraged and discouraged. But yes, the first few were great and the concept was original. Yeah, I didn’t read the last one because it was just getting too sad. Definitely suggest the first couple, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/114 "2010-11-25T01:11:05Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Don’t forget hung, too, as well, also. > > Dude, both bad places to start. COM was before Pratchett had figured out what he was really going to do with Discworld. Mort was just a big pile of blah - some humor in there, of course, but overall nothing special. I just want to point out that Mort was highly recommended(most recommended, actually) as a starting point on the Dope, which is where I got my info. I think the runner-up was Small Gods. I’m sure I’ll get back to Discworld for a 3rd attempt, but lets focus away from that for now. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/115 "2010-11-25T02:08:21Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I just want to point out that Mort was highly recommended(most recommended, actually) as a starting point on the Dope, which is where I got my info. > > I think the runner-up was Small Gods. > > I’m sure I’ll get back to Discworld for a 3rd attempt, but lets focus away from that for now. Small Gods is good, but it is by far the darkest and nastiest of the Discworld books. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/116 "2010-11-25T02:12:51Z")
Just an update on Hobb’s series. Her current project is a fourth trilogy (The Rain Wilds Chronicles) about the dragons from Liveship Traders, set in the same world. Two books are out, and she’s working on the third. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/117 "2010-11-25T03:40:39Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Small Gods is good, but it is by far the darkest and nastiest of the Discworld books. > > -Joe 😕 It’s certainly sharp, but I wouldn’t say dark and nasty. Deeply philosophical, and takes a few readings to catch all the brilliance, but I don’t see how it’s nasty. And it’s not the darkest by far. Also: I love _Mort_, but my recommended starter books are _Guards Guards!_ and _Wyrd Sisters_. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/118 "2010-11-25T04:09:18Z")
Gene Wolfe has a couple of completed fantasy/scifi series. _The Book of the New Sun_ (four books), _The Book of the Long Sun_ (also four books), and _The Book of the Short Sun_ (three books) are all set in the same universe. There’s the _Wizard Knight_ series of two books - more ‘standard’ sword-and-sorcery fantasy, and the _Soldier of the Mist_ series of three books and counting. The overall theme of these books seems to me to investigate aspects of the unreliable narrator and human interactions with the divine, culminating in the _Soldier of the Mist_ series where the protagonist, Latro, is a mercenary in the army of Xerxes who suffers a head wound which afflicts him with retrograde and anterograde amnesia. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/119 "2010-11-25T04:35:30Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > They’re usually classed as science fiction. The Encyclopedia of SF ( granted not a universally recognized organizing system ) refers to them as a whole as being part of the sub-genre of _Planetary Romances_. The “magic” system is weakly sf - psionic abilities amplified by what is essentially alien technology. And despite all the manly ( and womanly ) sword and knife-work, your bog-standard “blasters” and space ships make numeorus appearances. > > I liked them a great deal at one time, but IMHO they are _wildly_ uneven in quality. Some are really good, some sorta good, some awful. I would only slightly disagree, in that the really good ones are VERY VERY good, the good ones are still very good, not so good ones are still somewhat entertaining. The worst I personally found of them was “meh,” rather than awful. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > Also I’ll disagree about the Amber books - the first series is a classic IMHO ( the second is much, much weaker ). Though as with all things, not for everyone. > > ETA: Oops - I think the Amber criticism was in that other thread. Sorry for any confusion ;). Thomas Covenant drove me bugfuck. The rest of the stuff was interesting and I slogged through, I think, the first two before saying “oh, fuck you,” and moving on to other things. They are often derided, but if you want “light” fantasy, I like the [Valdemar](http://www.mercedeslackey.com/biblio_series.html) series by Mercedes Lackey. She does go overboard sometimes with the “magical animal companion” theme, but at its worst its still enjoyable popcorn reading. At its best, its wonderful. [The Black Jewels](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Jewels) series by Anne Bishop is fascinating, although a bit difficult to get into. I read it on the recommendation of my best friend. I started the first book (the first three were published as _The Black Jewels Trilogy_, but there are more) four times, and read to 25, 50, 75, and 100 pages, respectively. There’s so many characters, so many themes, and so much “WTF?” going on that it took me until the fourth try to get far enough for things to start to make sense, and once they did, I devoured them all. The last one, _Shalador’s Lady_, I read in one sitting, and immediately opened it to start re-reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659/120 "2010-11-25T05:02:57Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > The worst I personally found of them was “meh,” rather than awful. The Sword of Aldones, for all that it was apparently nominated for a Hugo back in '63, is one that comes to mind as kinda crappy. MZB at least partially agreed, since she re-wrote it almost 20 years later as the considerably better Sharra’s Exile. Meh or awful? I could at least compromise on awfully meh :p. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-fantasy-series-to-me-please/561659.md?page=7)