I don’t think I’d call it mindless, but one of my favorite series was A Dream of Eagles, by Jack Whyte. It’s an interesting… theory, if you will, behind the legend of King Arthur and Camelot. Apparently, outside Canada, the series is titled Camulod.
Mind you, it seems he’s fond of spiritual debate, of which there was quite a bit in the series.
I wouldn’t mind re-reading it, and then get into his other works.
S^G
Dave Duncan is a bit like Lackey in readability, while also dealing with some fairly serious and dark stuff. He also has a lot of lighter moments mixed in with his stories. I highly recommend anything by him, particularly the Seventh Sword, A Man of His Word, and King’s Blades series. Those are his best, I think, and will probably get you hooked on his other stuff.
The Seventh Sword features an unusual fantasy setting, India-esque, and subverts many of the usual fantasy tropes at the same time as it uses the familiar one of a person from our world dealing with a fantasy world.
A Man of His Word takes the idea of a word of power and not just runs, but sprints with it. The cultures and settings are, again, very different from your usual Northern European elves and trolls and forests.
The King’s Blades’ setting is reminiscent of England, particularly the king who is quite a bit like Henry VIII. He introduces yet another unusual magic system and a compelling central character. The covers look like they belong on bad romances, but the stories are nothing at all like that.
Definitely stick with the four series (which could be considered two series, each of which has an original set and a sequal set) that people have specifically recommended: The Belgariad and The Mallorean, and The Elenium and The Tamuli.
Oh, and I’m another who’s going to tell you to avoid Piers Anthony. It’s funny when you’re 12, much less so when you’re an adult.
Malazan quickly turns into a fantasy version of “Fantastic 4 vs. Galacticus”, combined with an equal helping of “Dragon Ball Z”. I’d say it epitomizes “mindless fantasy”
I’m going to have to disagree with you there. Not that I’ve ever read the other two works that you’ve mentioned, but I think the Malazan books are anything but mindless.
I considered mentioning it. With Xanth or any other series by Piers Anthony, you should start at the beginning and stop when you get to the first book that lets you down, because they only get worse from there.
Usually the 3 or 4 book.
Yep. A Spell for Chameleon, The Source of Magic, Castle Roogna and Centaur Aisle are excellent. It’s still GOOD up through about Dragon On A Pedestal. Starting with Crewel Lye, it becomes mostly puns (fueled by Anthony’s compulsion to use as many lousy fan-submitted ideas as possible). All the books after that seem really paint-by-numbers, as the actual plot is likely to be turned aside in order to shoehorn in another fan idea. The Humbert Humbert stuff, while very occasionally present earlier, also starts to get out of hand after Crewel Lye.