What should I read next?

[jmashore]

Ive read Robert Jordan, Terry Pratchett, George RR Martin, Terry Goodkind, RA Salvatore (Drizzt), Terry Brooks, JK Rowling, Chris Paolini and Tolkien in full. Who is the next author I should read?

 

 

Thanks!

[Kadere]

because the only author up there I've read is Robin Hobb, and I thought her stuff was just about as boring as fantasy can get, I had to vote for "other." I will thus highly recommend ANYTHING by Tad Williams. His Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series is A+ material, it's FANTASTAIC! Also his Otherland series (which is more sci-fi) is intreging, densly layered, and incredibly moving. So is Tailchaser's Song, Shadowmarch, and War of the Flowers. All of these use his terrific style, and for the most part are rather original (though you can see elements of GRRM in Shadowmarch). If you can find his other books (Caliban's Hour and Child of an Ancient City) you'll have a few hours of excellent storytelling there too. Anyway, read his stuff, it's good.

[kbundy]

Anne McCaffrey was average. Eddings is youngster friendly, and Feist is 14 up, I think. Eddings is easy to read. Feist is a great writer who moves his story line along well. I haven't read the others.

[Guest Froix]

Try Elaine Cunningham. I find her work better than RA Salvatore's.

[jmashore]

any authors who are more mature in their content? Kind of along the lines of Martin. I find most fantasy to be PG-13.

[Darthbob]

You have to try david Gemmel. start with "Waylander". He is my favorite besides Jordon. No pixie $hit fantasy I swear.

[old hob]

You have to try david Gemmel. start with "Waylander". He is my favorite besides Jordon. No pixie $hit fantasy I swear.

Yeah Gemmel is quite good, I'd also recommend The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Also the Sword of Shadows series by J.V Jones though it is only on book 2 so You might not want to start it because it'll be years yet till the series ends. These are

adult orientated Fantasy and are very good.

[the dude]

because the only author up there I've read is Robin Hobb' date=' and I thought her stuff was just about as boring as fantasy can get[/quote']

 

I demand satisfaction!!! Sigh, Kadere, Kadere... I like ya n all, but why you gotta go and get me mad like that?

 

I'm on a big Conan swing right now. Read one of Jordan's takes recently, and then went out and picked up some of Howard's original stuff. Pretty sweet for light entertainment purposes. I recommend it as a good exploration worth any fantasy readers' time.

[Asgard Thorin]

I haven't read any of Robin Hobb, to my knowledge. The dude, I have to protest the classing of Conan as "fantasy". I think of it more as protofantasy, sort of still scifi, before the two genres were differentiated, as much as they are differentiated, though I must admit the Cataclysm idea so common in fantasy seems to have come from Conan.

 

As for series, I'd recommend Knaak's Dragonrealm. For series that are less kiddy, I'd recommend Gillian Bradshaw's Arthur trilogy, starting with the book Hawk of May. The first book is pretty mild, but the next two go full into all the adult themes. They don't revel in it like Mr Grrim, but I think they are better crafted than Gemmel, who is not bad.

[Guest Majsju]

You have to try david Gemmel. start with "Waylander". He is my favorite besides Jordon. No pixie $hit fantasy I swear.

Yeah Gemmel is quite good' date=' I'd also recommend The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Also the Sword of Shadows series by J.V Jones though it is only on book 2 so You might not want to start it because it'll be years yet till the series ends. These are

adult orientated Fantasy and are very good.[/quote']

 

Yeah, J.V Jones is an excellent choice,. And if you don't want to start another unfinished series, she's got a trilogy named Book of Words, set in the same world (but in another place of that world) as Sword of Shadows.

[TheDiceAgain...]

I voted for Elisabeth Haydon but if you really want, umm, *adult* fantasy, try reading The Seer King, the Demon King and the Warrior King by Chris Bunch.

 

The story is good and it's told from a first person point of view which I found interesting. The only thing is that the sex scenes are extremely graphic(and I'm certainly not a prude by any means). In places it reads just like something out of Penthouse Forum...

 

Still all in all a good series and it has some very gritty realism, including one part that read like a fantasy retelling of Napoleon's retreat from Russia in all its frozen nastiness.

[the dude]

The dude' date=' I have to protest the classing of Conan as "fantasy". I think of it more as protofantasy, sort of still scifi, before the two genres were differentiated, as much as they are differentiated, though I must admit the Cataclysm idea so common in fantasy [i']seems[/i] to have come from Conan.

 

I see what you mean, sort of. But there is very, very little in it that has the trappings of sci-fi in it, really. To me, it's pure sword and sorcery. I think that Howard lifted a lot of his ideas from the same legends and myths that most authors reference, he was just putting it into a format that was not being done much before that. While they're two very different animals, and not as subject to comparison, Conan predated the release of The Hobbit, man. This is one of the very earliest specimens of modern fantasy. Proto-fantasy is an interesting term that I think is accurately applied here, but to me the distinction between it and sci-fi is very clear cut.

 

The funny thing about Conan is that if you hold it to today's standards, it's kinda mediocre.

 

They're short stories written on a magazine's deadline, which limited the amount of polish they could get before going to print, and the format limits what can be done with it, but it's sort of.... the end of each story, specifics aside, will inevitably go like this: "Conan smoked the enemy. Hard. Real hard. Like, the guy stood no chance against this superhuman hero. Conan dropped the boom, and how..."

 

This is not to rag on them, but to try to give an even-handed review. They set the standard, and hence are above a certain amount of reproach, becuase he did it before anyone else, and so it was still original at the time, and he writes good short fiction. The endings aren't always 100% predictable. Only about 90 %, heh heh. But they're good "hairy chest" stories, if you catch my drift.

[Asgard Thorin]

I understand and agree in part, the dude. But it is because Conan pre-dates The Hobbit that I call it proto-fantasy. The quest/mission element (or objective) is lacking in the Conan stories, like most scifi short stories today. They are just stories in and of themselves that happen to involve the same character. There are several other distinctions, though unfortunately I can't remember at this point. However, in a broad sense, the two are the same thing. If I recall correctly, the Foundation trilogy (originally it was a trilogy) was given the Hugo Award for the best science fiction series ever. Isaac Asimov, who was never accused of being too humble, said that the award should have gone to The Lord of the Rings.

[Akenzar]

I wouldn't say that they would be considered mediocre. I'll be the first to admit that the plot isn't always the greatest (well, sometimes it is quite lacking), however, the writing style in and of itself is amazing. Howard can keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time, heart-thumping, because of the writing. I've heard it described like this before, and i agree, Howard gets excited about the things he writes, and he transfers that excitement to the reader, even if it's only a pile of rocks he's talking about. Howard is able to pack extreme amounts of detail concisely. Now, just imagine if a writer was able to write like that, and pack in a less predictable plot.

[ono-neko]

I don't know anyone in the list but David Eddings...

 

I will only suggest David Eddings, IF AND ONLY IF, you are looking forward for a fun light reading without any much of intrigue. The story is okay, plot line tends to be the same from one series to another, some repetitive jokes/sarcasm.

 

I see that you've read Salvatore's Drizzt story. If you want a nice short epic reading, I may suggest his Demonwar series. It's about 7 books, if I remember correctly. It's finished, so you can reading at your own pace without waiting for more :)

[Taymist]

Highly recommend the following:

 

Trudi Canavan

Katherine Kerr

Sean Russell (light but entertaining)

Greg Keyes

David Gemmell

Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Robin Hobb (Farseer books)

[loki redfern]

You have to try david Gemmel. start with "Waylander". He is my favorite besides Jordon. No pixie $hit fantasy I swear.

start with waylander!!! waylander!!! if your gonna start with gemmel do it properly. blood 'n' bloody ashes people. the gemmel book to start with is legend. only then may you move on to others