David Eddings’ stuff is . . . well, if you like it there sure is a whole lot of it.
Start with Pawn of Prophecy, since that is a beginning. If you do like it, there are two whole series about that fantasy world, and then the Sparhawk books, another two series.
I actually preferred Sparhawk, a man not part of fate, (Starts with The Ruby Knight.) to Belgarion, the peasant boy born to be king of the world. But, the concept of a character known as the Godslayer is fairly cool. Cool sword, too.
I’ll second the reccomendations for Tim Powers’ Anubis Gates, as well as several other of his books: The Stress of Her Regard, On Stranger Tides, Last Call, Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather. He has a tendency to take historical events and provide the uncanny backstory that never made it into the history books. I’ve not done a thorough fact checking on his works, but I have a better than average interest in history, and found myself astounded time and time again how he avoids actively contradicting anything in the historical record when he has historical figures appear in his books. Note, that the three books beginning with Last Call take place in modern US society, and could be described as urban fantasy.
I’m also going to second the reccomendation of Lois McMaster Bujold’s fantasy novels. As Miller said, they’re peopled with wonderfully believable characters and the plots move along very easily - even if one never quite ends up where one expected when the book began.
I want to add a reccomendation for Jane Linkskold’s Firekeeper books, beginning with Through Wolf’s Eyes. It begins with the story of a foundling, raised by sentient wolves, being brought back to her people - but with no memory of her life with humans. Because of the circumstances of her return she’s dumped immediately into the ongoing succession crisis of an idealized European medieval society. (Not precisely European, but the Guildcrest colony successor states, the setting for much of the action of the first book in the series, is nicely familiar to readers of modern fantasy. From there, however, Lindskold gives herself license to begin playing with other societies in later books.) So, the first book recounts (among other things) the challenge of a wolfling trying learn what it is to be human, which also trying to find out whether she should be a leader in the strange society she’s found herself in.
Given your list, I want to ditto Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora. Have you tried
Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint? Or some very old classic Heinlein: Waldo, and Magic, Inc.
Sean Russell’s The Initiate Brother, followed by Gatherer or Clouds, are great favorites of mine since they are (loosely) based on medieval Asian philosophy and martial arts. Silverberg’s Lord Valentine’s Castle is another favorite. And I think that Orson Scott Card’s Enchantment is better take on the fairy tale world Neil Gaiman’s Stardust.
There is a series of seven books published by Playboy, if you can believe it, that are not bad. They’re fairly short, and they’re called The War of Powers by Milan and Vardeman.
Not up there with Tolkien, but not bad considering. Has anyone else read them?
I’ve never been really good about the fantasy/science fiction demarcation, so I guess you could argue some of these. Good reading, though, and most can be found either new or in a used bookstore.
Rational fantasy: Niven’s The Magic Goes Away
Comic fantasy: Niven’s Flight of the Horse and Morressey’s Kedrigern novels
Sword and sorcery: Morressey’s Iron Angel trilogy (Ironbrand is the first novel written, Greymantle the first chronological in the trilogy)
Other: Silverberg’s Majipoor series (start with Lord Valentine’s Castle), Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter.
I’ve picked up The Dragonbone Chair, the first Garrett novel, and a volume containing the first three Jhereg novels. His Dark Materials shall join them sometime after the next paycheck. This should be an interesting start. Thank you all again
Since you liked Zelazny- his Lord of Light has a slightly more sci-fi bent, but it’s still mostly fantasy and my favorite of his.
I recommend Jurgen, by James Branch Cabell, to everyone. It’s a dense book, with enough references that you might want to keep an encyclopedia nearby, but there are a few disturbingly hilarious parts, and lots to think over.
My roommate’s girlfriend likes the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix- I’ve read the first one and liked-not-loved it.
If you go with these, be advised: No matter what you might read on Amazon or elsewhere to the contrary, there are only five books in the series. Any rumors of a book about Satan or God are to be discarded as delusions. Trust me on this.
This is the one I was going to mention. The first two books, Oath of Swords and The War God’s Own, are excellent. But be warned that the third book, Wind-Rider’s Oath, suffers badly from what appears to be a bad case of lack-of-editor-itis.
China Mieville has made me remember why I started reading fantastic fiction in the first place. Start with Perdido Street Station and go from there. It’s a little different though.
Yeah. It certainly reads like Weber had an outline set up for a book, and when he got around to writing it… he had close to 200,000 words down, but only half the outline worked through.
Some more fantasy books well worth reading:
Patrcia C. Wrede has a wonderfully skewed fantasy series called the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. The first book in the series, by internal structure, is Dealing with Dragons, and is grand fun. It begins with an unconventional princess who doesn’t want to marry well, as her family has defined that. So she arranges to become a dragon’s Princess.
Another odd little fantasy is Harry Turtledove’s The Case of the Toxic Spelldump. A world, very similiar to our own, but based on a magical technology, not scientific. The main character works for the EPA (Environmental Perfection Agency) and the spelldump referred to in the title is a place where the by-products of spells are stored to keep them from contaminating the rest of the land. The puns are frequent, and often very, very bad. The story and characters are first rate. My copy of this book just broke last Friday and I’m in mourning for it. sob
If you’re in the mood for some humor in your fantasy, and a somewhat different setting from most, consider Barry Hughart’s Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. That’s the omnibus edition, which consists of three novels. The first one, Bridge of Birds is the best, but Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen are well worth reading.
On a darker note, there’s P.C. Hodgell’s Kencyrath series. Godstalk and Dark of the Moon are available in a single volume as Dark of the Gods. Seeker’s Mask and To Ride a Rathorn are the next two in the series. They’re very dark, bloody, and intricate, with some quite disturbing themes emerging in the later books. Oddly enough, there’s quite a bit of humor, as well, but it tends to be wry, ironic, or manifest in absurd situations. I can’t really draw any parallels with any of the books/series in the OP for this; I’m just suggesting it because I think the books are really, really good. Fair warning: The series is not yet complete, and the releases are pretty far apart.
