MY TOP FIVE FANTASY SERIES

[robalthor]

1.WoT

2.THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER

3.LORD OF THE RINGS

4.SHANNARA SERIES

5.BELGARATH AND BELGARION BOOKS

 

AGREE? DISAGREE?

[Jeppit Groccin]

2 things:

 

1) Please hit that little Caps Lock button next to the A on your keyboard.

2) This is a topic more suited to the General Discussions forum, not the General WoT forum.

[Kadere]

Well I'm sure a Mod will eventually move it, so I've only read two of the series on that list, but might I recommend A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams, The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, and The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. If you have not read these yet, I recommend them for a look. On the General Discussions forums you can find many more recommendations by lots of people.

[Necrophorus]

1 A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen

2 Thomas Covenant (perfect anti hero and flowing story)

2 WoT (flowing story line and nice characters)

2 SoIaF (Harsh, intriging and a good read)

2 HP (fun, feel good books without resorting to only happy endings)

 

All those at second place are all equal, excelling in one point and less in other points. Cant really say one is better than the other, they are just different.

 

Further I read quite a few and the worst ever started with The Kingless land. Also The elenium throne by eddings didnt captivate me at all.

On the other hand there are quite a few that you could still read: The books by Ramond E. Feist are good. Liked all the books I read even though they were translated versions. Same counts for the Portal of death series of Weiss & Hickmann. I like the character Zifnab especially (introduced in book 2).

The shannara books arent bad, but when you read one series all the rest are similar. The Crown of Stars series by Kate Elliot is next in rank I think. Lots of intrigue and a well defined story line. It's just a shame that there are so many story lines and that it's hard to keep track of everything, good thing about the series though is that there is not really a good side and a bad side. Then we have SoT, really a lot of nice characters in there, just a shame that the author uses his main character as some goody two shoes who has all the correct answers and all the correct views. One other good series is by David B. Coe (LonTobyn or something like that). It's just a feel good triology, but it's nicely written. Same counts for Memory Thorn and Sorrow.

Finally there are two more fantasy series I've read. One by Diana Marcellas is written almost poetical which I kinda like and it's still developing, so cant really say if it is good or bad. The second one is a triology by Elizabeth Hayden. I read them because of the reviews that were awesome... Ah well they are a fair read, but to be honest would only recommend them if you are out of books and you needed something to read.

 

Btw the books by Auel... The first book is quite oke, but the rest of the books... Those are just full of sex (or at least as far as I read them), it kinda takes the erotic out of it and leaves you to read like you were reading some literature book about coupling of males and females.

 

I am reading the Dark tower atm, but havent really gotten into it yet. It's Stephen Kings way of writing... Still need to get used to it, but normally the books end up quite okay.

 

I just noticed I left out two books. Dune by Frank Herbert is a really good read (at least the first book, the rest... they just go on and on...), but dont know if it is fantasy or sf although both are kinda the same. And the other books I left out are of course the ones by Tolkien. You cant compare any of the following books with this one. He created the genre in the first place, the rest are just books which deviate from the original books. Not that books after this triology are always worse, but just you cant really compare the founder with the ones following.

[Werthead]

1. A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin

2. The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

3. The Prince of Nothing Trilogy by R. Scott Bakker

4. The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton

5. The Gentleman Bastard Sequence by Scott Lynch

[Kaznen]

1. WoT

2. Sword of Truth (YES I SAID SWORD OF TRUTH!!HAHAHA)

3. Farseer/Tawnyman

4. Demon Wars series

5. Drizzt, Drizzt, Drizzt

[Kadere]

1. Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

2. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

3. Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

4. Memory Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams

5. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

[Sirayn]

1. A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin

2. The Dark Tower by Stephen King

3. Farseer, Liveship Traders & Tawny Man Trilogies by Robin Hobb

4. Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey

5. Crown of Stars by Kate Elliott

 

Honourable mention goes to His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Prince of Nothing by R Scott Bakker, Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, Memory, Sorrow & Thorn by Tad Williams, etc etc.

[RobertAlexWillis]

1a. The Wheel of Time (RJ)

1b. A Song of Ice and Fire (GRRM)

 

3a. The Riftwar and everything that followed (Feist)

3b. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (Williams)

 

5a. The Prince of Nothing (Bakker)

5b. Crown of Stars. (Elliot)

 

Close to those are the (in alphabetical order of authors) Asimov's Foundation series, Brooks' Shannara, Hobb's Tawny Man etc., the first few of Modesitt's Recluce novels (they got repetetive after a while), and Zelazny's Amber.

[HunterShaw]

Am I the only one here who has heard of Stevan R. Lawhead? He is a moderate to skilled writer. My favorates are a stand-alone titled "Byzantium" and also the Pendragon series. C.S Lewis is my all time favorate however. His "Till we have faces" and Space Trilogy are amazing. Not to mention "Mere Christianity".

[RobertAlexWillis]

I enjoyed Lawhead's Pendragon Pentalogy. It just didn't make my cheating top 5. "Mere Christianity" is also an excellent piece of literature, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a fantasy series ...

[Loreia]

Hi! I loved Stephen R. Lawhead's books! The Hall of the Dragonking trilogy was great. So was his Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, and so forth (the Pendragon set). Taliesin was amazing! A true fantasy work! Nice to finally know that I'm not the only one who has read them!

 

 

Loreia, the Lost One

[Ciete]

Just my 2 cents (or maybe 5 cents?)

 

1. WoT - Robert Jordan

2. Sword of Truth - Terry Goodkind

3. Thomas Covenant the Unbeliver - S.R. Covenant

4. Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

5. The Death Gate Novels -Weiss/Hickman (Kinda silly I know, but picked them up as a kid and luv'd em since.)

[Guest Egwene]

1. WoT - Robert Jordan

2. Empire Trilogy - Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts (part of Riftwar series)

3. Belgariad - Eddings

4. Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb

5. Wars of Light and Shadow - Janny Wurts

 

My only criteria was: which ones would I take with me into exile on a deserted island?

.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Empire Trilogy - Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts (part of Riftwar series)

 

Mara of the Acoma remains one of my favorite characters of all time.

 

Arakasi gets a strong vote too.

[Hannibal King]

1. Sword of Truth-- Terry Goodkind

 

2. The Dresden Files-- Jim Butcher (not really fantasy, but it is sorta)

 

3. The Shannara Series-- Terry Brooks

 

4. WoT-- Robert Jordan

 

5. R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms stuf

[son of the nine moons]

i think that most of mine are already listed, so hooray for redundance. my list doesn't include WOT; because it goes without saying :)

 

1. a song of ice and fire- martin

2. the recluce books- modessit

3. the sword of truth- goodkind

4. the riftwar saga- feist

5. the elenium- eddings

 

just missing the cut: the albion trilogy- lawhead

[StreetSpirit]

In no particular order:

 

WoT

SoT

Obsidian Chronicles (Lawrence Watt-Evans. The first book was Dragon Weather)

Dark Elf Triology

LOTR

[Illiara]

I'm about a hundred pages into the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire, and I absolutely love it! Here's my take...

 

1) WoT (big surprise)

2) A Song of Ice and Fire (really good so far...)

3) Sword of Truth (another surprise...)

4) Indigo by Louise Cooper (you've probably never heard of this one...)

5) Symphony of Ages (Except for Prophecy, which was a little too bodice-rippy...)

 

There's so many I could name as honorable mention, so I 'd better not...

[Luckers]

The Wheel of Time by robert Jordan

The Second Sons by Jennifer Fallon

Books of the Cataclysm by Sean Williams

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

 

Incidently i strongly suggest the Books of the Cataclysm... very originally done. I mean he destroys the world in the first book, and it just gets better from there. Truly unique. The Fallon books all have great character work and plot twists, very reminiscent of Jordans evolved plot work. The others i think everyone knows of.

[Gandaal]

Harry Potter- JK Rowling

Wheel of Time- Robert Jordan

The Axis Trilogy- Sara Douglass

Tamuli trilogy- David Eddings

Sword of Truth- Terry Goodkind

 

Does anyone else think its too hard to find good fantasy these days? Even some of the good current series have been more than a little shaky of late (WOT & SOT).

[Werthead]

Not really. Between Martin, Steven Erikson, Scott Bakker, Scott Lynch, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Paul Kearney, Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Kate Elliott, JV Jones, KJ Parker, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, Jeff Vandermeer, Raymond E. Feist, Susanna Clarke, Neal Stephenson, Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Rob Grant, Robert Charles Wilson, Neal Asher, Richard Morgan, Robin Hobb, David Brin, Robert Rankin and Phillip Pullman, there's more than enough good current spec fic writers around. That's not even delving into the classics: Mervyn Peake, Jack Vance, Tolkien, Gene Wolfe, Robert E Howard, Michael Moorcock, James Blish, Alfred Bester, Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Lord Dunsany etc.

[Gandaal]

Not really. Between Martin, Steven Erikson, Scott Bakker, Scott Lynch, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Paul Kearney, Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Kate Elliott, JV Jones, KJ Parker, Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, Jeff Vandermeer, Raymond E. Feist, Susanna Clarke, Neal Stephenson, Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Rob Grant, Robert Charles Wilson, Neal Asher, Richard Morgan, Robin Hobb, David Brin, Robert Rankin and Phillip Pullman, there's more than enough good current spec fic writers around. That's not even delving into the classics: Mervyn Peake, Jack Vance, Tolkien, Gene Wolfe, Robert E Howard, Michael Moorcock, James Blish, Alfred Bester, Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Lord Dunsany etc.

Oh yeah there's plenty of fantasy books around.

[Anajon]

any one read James Clemens wi'tch books (fire,...) What do you think of them?

 

I also loved Tolkin (of course), CS Lewis The outer space trilogy, Narnia,…

 

Harry Potter

 

and then some less known stuff like eight by Katherine Neville a partly historic party modern time novel about the elixir of life and a lot of chess games.

 

Oh and I read something really funny a bit chick flick like recently. A new trilogy by Nora Roberts (normally writes very girly romance) about Vampires and time travel and demon hunters - some great entertainment for a rainy afternoon Morrigan’s Cross, The dance of the gods and Valley of silence

 

Sorry if that is below you standard ;-)

[loki redfern]

1)The Night World - L J Smith

2)Young Wizards - Diane Duane

3)The Age Of Misrule - Mark Chadbourn

4)the Last Renshai - M Z Reichert

5)(there's so many that won't fit) The Guardian Cycle - Julia Gray

 

Honerable mentions, i'll just use surnames to shorten the list: J Barclay, P Tilley, J Welsh, G G Kay, C Bunch, H Cook, T Canavan, D Gemmel, R Taylor, S Lynch, ok ok i'll stop there. but i also obvioulsly like the more popular stuff,like jordan, tolkein, goodkind, brooks and eddings, as well, i just didnt want to repeat all that. it seems lots of people have heard of Lawhead - i like the one with the knight who gets the sword made from the healing metal myself,but i cant remember the name of the series