Recommend some fantasy to me

Cafe Society
1

I’ve never been a big reader in the epic fantasy genre. I’ve read Tolkein and a few other incidental books but never really got into it.

So I’m thinking about checking out some of the well-known series. And I’m open to recommendations from people who know the genre.

Some possibilities I’m considering:

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Pros: I really like Martin’s SF work. It’s the basis of a currently popular TV series. Cons: A big one - it’s unfinished and given Martin’s past, it’s likely it might never get finished.

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Pros: Popular series. Cons: I’ve heard the series goes downhill as it goes along. Plus it’s unfinished and the author’s dead.

The Earthsea series by Ursula K. LeGuin. Pros: Regarded as a classic. Relatively short series. Cons: Never been a huge fan of LeGuin’s work. Plus I read the first book and a half in the series many years ago and didn’t complete it back then.

The Shannara series by Terry Brooks. Pros: Popular series. Supposed to be pretty accessible. Cons: Heard it starts out weak before getting better as the series moves along. Really long series - twenty-five books so far, I believe? - but broken up into trilogies.

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Pros: Nothing particularly stands out. But maybe a “typical” fantasy series is good. Cons: Heard it declines in quantity as it goes along.

The Belgariad/Malloreon series by David Eddings. Pros: It’s a completed series. Cons: A little long but divided up into two series.

The Pandemia series by Dave Duncan. Pros: Popular series. Appears pretty accessible. Cons: Long but broken up into sub-series.

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. Pros: Highly acclaimed. Cons: Nothing particular. May have gone on too long.

Mythago Wood series by Robert Holdstock. Pros: Critically acclaimed. Relatively short. Cons: Might not be accessible.

Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist. Pros: Popular series. Cons: Very long. Heard it declines in quality.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. Pros: Good critical reputation. A completed series. Cons: A ten book series which is a commitment. Might not be as accessible to a new fantasy reader as other series are.

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Pros: A manageable length. Apparently it’s got some humor. Cons: Might not be familiar enough with the fantasy genre to appreciate the satire.

Black Company by Glen Cook. Pros: Heard it’s “grittier” than regular fantasy. Cons: Heard it declines in quantity as the series goes on.

Obviously, there are plenty of other series out there. I haven’t mentioned Alexander, Brust, Carey, Friedman, Hambley, Hobb, Kerr, Moorcock, Mosditt, Nix, Rothfuss, Sanderson, Williams, or a bunch of others. But this short list alone would keep my busy for a few years.

So educate me. Where should I start? What series are good to begin with?

2

I’d read Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.

3

Oh, and this thread contains all our book recommendation threads, including fantasy ones.

4

Wow, you really do your homework don’t you?

Of the ones you’ve listed that I’ve read:

A Song of Ice and Fire - yes it’s unfinished (and may never be) but it is very good, and the relatively low magic quotient might be a plus.

The Wheel of Time - I gave up around book 7 or so, the series had become a self-parody IMHO at that point.

Earthsea - There are only three Earthsea books and they are very good. I don’t know why Le Guin stopped setting her writing in Earthsea in 1972 but there you have it.

Shannara - I’ve read the first couple, defines the ‘blatent rip-off on the Tolkien literary estate’ sub-genre for me.

Belgariad - easy quick reads, bit bland though.

Malazan - Awesome (in both senses of the word) series - there are more than 10 though - as Esslemont’s books fill in lots more details. Plus I think Erikson’s got another few million words in the setting planned. Daunting and hard to get into though.

5

I second this. I put this one above the George RR Martin books because it is FINISHED. Not having to wait an average of half a decade for the next book counts for a lot. Don’t read the sword of truth series or the wheel of time or the sword of shanarra, all three are horrible. The rest of your suggestions are quite good and I would start reading the finished ones after the Mistborn trilogy, the Malazan books specially are kick ass.

6

I enjoyed the first six books of the Thomas Covenant series, though it was many years ago. I’m waiting for the final group all to be published before I attempt reading them.

7

I’d avoid this to start off with. I get why a lot of people love it but I found it got so dull and meandering in the last few books that I gave up. I doubt Martin has any kind of solid plan for finishing the story off.

The first book was an OK read but it’s the high point of the ones I read.

Possibly the most obnoxius, whiney shit-heel of a main character I’ve ever encountered in a book. Struggled through the first and gave up after that.

Some excellent stuff in the Malazan books but you get thrown into the story with not a lot of explanation or guide to how the world works. Influenced by The Balck Company series. Probably not for starting off with.

I’d actually be OK with starting out with this series. Gritty with a few very funny moments thrown in.

Read the first two ‘series’ Books of the North and Books of the South. Very good.

Take a look at the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. It’s the Napolionic War - with dragons.

The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch are really good as well. I’ts taking a long time for the third book in the series to come out but it should be published this year.

For something a bit different: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed and the *Dabir and Asim *books by Howard Andrew Jones for fantasy books with a middle-eastern ‘1001 nights’ flavour.

8

Another vote for the Mistborn trilogy! Great stuff.

The latter part at least isn’t true; Brandon Sanderson (yes, the Mistborn author) was given permission to finish the last three books.

Especially if you don’t like sadism, rape and Ayn Rand.

9

The books are excellent, but I soured on the series when I realized that we’ll likely never see it finished. I haven’t even read the most recent book.

Is he seriously up to 25 books by now (checks wiki, 24). Yeesh. I’d skip this one. The first book is a direct rip off of the Lord of the Rings (with the exception of the way that they defeated the Evil Wizard, which was completely awful). The books that I’ve read (and I’ve read the first 15) were formulaic.

First book is solid, second is ok, third is awful, fourth is ok, fifth is awful and then it doesn’t get much better from there. Each book has a part that serves as an Author Filibuster. It gets longer as the series goes on. The first book just has one scene mocking Communism. The sixth book devotes a third of the novel to it. The entirety of the eighth book is a screed against pascifism.

God I’ve read some awful fantasy in my day.

I love this series, but you’re right to be a bit wary. Each book has a huge cast, and the cast is added to as the series goes on. You have to be on top of things or you can lose track of the plot threads. You can’t really read one of the Malazan books casually over the course of the summer. I’m the type of person who will obsessively read a book at every spare moment if I’m really into it, so this series was great for me
As many other people of mentioned, The Mistborn Trilogy is fantastic. Definitely recommended.

10

I would recommend The Kingkiller Chronicles, but we’re at least a year away from the final book of the series. The first two are quite good, though.

11

I also anti-recommend A Song of Fire and Ice. I enjoyed it a lot but I also doubt if it will ever be finished–unless Martin dies and the series is handed over to Brandon Sanderson to be finished. That would kick ass.

The Earthsea Trilogy is written for young adults but it is excellent. I would recommend it.

Nobody has recommended Terry Pratchett’s *Diskworld *series yet? I can be the first! This is really great! You are better off not reading them in order. Start with Wyrd Sisters or Men at Arms. If you don’t like those you probably won’t like any of them–I understand that some people don’t like them. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

ETA: I kinda overlooked the “epic” fantasy requirement. I suppose neither Earthsea nor Diskworld are really *epic *fantasy. That also rules out Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and Conan, too.

12

Nothing personal. But that meme really irritates me.

Good to know. I thought it was a completed series.

13

I’ll probably pass on that then. I was rewatching The Incredibles this week and I can’t stomach the Randism in that.

14

My bad. I was counting the 25th book which isn’t being published until next month.

15

I’m pretty sure that LeGuin wrote some more Earthsea books. Either that or I’m delusional in thinking I’ve read them. The Other Wind? I seem to recall that as a title.

The first Shannara book was so awful that I thought it sucked even when I was a teen. I was embarrassed then at how derivative it was.

Mythago Wood is pretty good, I couldn’t get into the sequels.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are crap. Wish I’d realized that before reading six of them. I was young and foolish.

May I recommend The Silmarillion. Best epic fantasy I’ve ever read, including Lord of the Rings. Unfinished Tales is also excellent.

C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy is really fantasy and quite good.

16

Okay, I was just reading some reviews of Terry Goodkind along with some excerpts from his work. I think I’ll just put him back on the shelf next to John Ringo.

17

For the record, there are five novels and some short stories in the Earthsea setting. Maybe I misunderstood lisiate’s post. I was thinking it was one of those “I didn’t like the later works in a series so I pretend they don’t exist” things.

18

Yeah, I was trying to figure that out. I’m not a big fan of Tehanu–it’s a little too much “Men!!! AmIright, ladies??!” for my tastes–but I thought The Other Wind was a stellar conclusion to the series. So, not sure whether lisiate was serious and unaware, or just snarky :).

One very weird series not mentioned yet is China Mieville’s New Crobuzon books. The first is Perdido Street Station, and I’ve met very few people who feel neutrally about it. Some people hate it, either because of the in-your-face leftist politics or because of the total grab-bag approach to worldbuilding. I have no problem with the former and think he explains the latter well enough, and I think the book is muscularly creative and among the best fantasy of the past couple of decades, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

There’s also Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, with similar strong reactions provoked in readers.

19

Good on you for not listing the Darkover or Pern novels as fantasy.

My favorite fantasy series are the Valdemar novels by Mercedes Lackey, with the problem being that she started in the middle of the timeline and wrote a couple trilogies, then backtracked a ways and wrote another one, then tacked on a few more at the end, then backed up to before the first trilogy and wrote a few more, so it’s kind of hard to read them in a purely linear fashion, particularly if you read the anthologies of short stories provided by (mostly) fans (but really talented ones…).

My personal choice of where to start would be the Arrows trilogy: Arrows of the Queen, Arrow’s Flight and Arrow’s Fall. Or, you could just go purely linear and start with the Magic trilogy, Magic’s Pawn, Magic’s Promise, and Magic’s Price.

20

Elizabeth Moon has some excellent fantasy out. I’m not really into her SF, but I’ve always loved the Sheepfarmer’s Daughter trilogy. She wrote two more novels that were prequels, and now she’s put out a new trilogy, the Paladin’s Legacy series. I’ve only read the first book in that series, but it was very good indeed.