Completed series, smart adult writing needed.

[rrmike]

Ok so I've reread the WoT books like 4 times and am rereading the Ice and Fire books by Martin. Love both as they are written for thinking minds and have great plots and writing while being very different.

 

I have read all (except the newest) Goodkind books and can't bring myself to read them again. I thought they were very simple writing compared to Jordan and Martin.

 

The books I've tried but seem written for children are the Shanarra books (couldn't make it past two) and the Pawn of Prophecy books by Eddings (again lost it by book 2).

 

I love Jordan and Martin but am tired of waiting a couple years between books so are there any really good epics that are done? Or even trilogy's?

 

I read about 4 to 6 hours a day at work sitting doing nothing and it makes my day fly by when I have good books to read.

 

Right now after reading here I'm looking at Steven Erikson. Over on mania he has gotten almost perfect reviews. Is there anything else I should look into?

[Kivam]

Erikson is excellent.

 

Tad Williams is a terrific writer.

 

Pat Rothfuss has a book called The Name of the Wind coming out in 2007 that is the start of the next hit fantasy epic series (book one of a trilogy). You would be starting at book 1, but the wait between books should be no more than a year, since I believe the whole trilogy is already written.

 

Kij Johnson is a brilliant writer/wordsmith who bases her novels mainly on Japanese fairy tales.

 

FitzPatrick's War by Theodore Judson is a great, really intelligent stand alone.

 

R. Garcia Y Robertson is a terrific writer, and his latest - Firebird - is a damn good modern fairytale.

 

Alan Campbell's Scar Night is interesting and adult, also the start of a series.

 

Sara Douglass' Troy Game series may not be the best ever written, but the last book of it is good enough that it's worth reading the first 3 just to get to it.

 

Max Brooks (Mel's son) has an interesting book called World War Z that's written as an oral history of a zombie war (and is better than the description makes it sound)

 

Whatever you do, don't read Robert Newcomb

 

And I'm sure Stevenator and Werthead will be along with some other ideas (like the Prince of Nothing series) shortly.

[Kivam]

1 more - Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga - really great space opera with one of my favorite characters in all of fiction, Miles Vorkosigan.

[Kivam]

This is the Jacket text for The Name of the Wind (as posted on Amazon)

 

My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as "quothe." Names are important as they tell you a great deal about a person. I've had more names than anyone has a right to.

 

The Adem call me Maedre. Which, depending on how it's spoken, can mean The Flame, The Thunder, or The Broken Tree.

 

"The Flame" is obvious if you've ever seen me. I have red hair, bright. If I had been born a couple of hundred years ago I would probably have been burned as a demon. I keep it short but it's unruly. When left to its own devices, it sticks up and makes me look as if I have been set afire.

 

"The Thunder" I attribute to a strong baritone and a great deal of stage training at an early age.

 

I've never thought of "The Broken Tree" as very significant. Although in retrospect, I suppose it could be considered at least partially prophetic.

 

My first mentor called me E'lir because I was clever and I knew it. My first real lover called me Dulator because she liked the sound of it. I have been called Shadicar, Lightfinger, and Six-String. I have been called Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. I have earned those names. Bought and paid for them.

 

But I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant "to know."

 

I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned.

 

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

 

You may have heard of me.

 

I absolutely love this book, so I've been talking it up here every chance I get. Thanks for 1 more opportunity :)

[Mercer]

It really depends what it is about fantasy, other than the genre itself (and more adult-aimed writing) that you enjoy. One of the reasons many people (myself most assuredly included) dig Jordan as a writer, other than his obvious descriptive skill, is that he keeps it very...base. There are no flying creatures who speak mystical languages and are cute and funny etcetc...this is a very medieval based world, with a more serious plotline and characters that reflect that. Hell, before leaving the Two Rivers there isn't a thing "Fantasy" about the first book! If you just generally like the adult-oriented plotlines, then it's easier to find something else.

 

I'm with you on the Shannara series, I too couldn't go back and read them as I have WoT. I have, however found a writer nameed Guy Gavriel Kay who I've been unaware of until now...I read Tigana, and it's a fairly good read. I can't say I'm hugely into his works, but he edited the Silmarillion (of Tolkien fame) with Christopher Tokien, and that alone is a feat. Besides, there are very few fantasy writers whose work I enjoy as much as Jordan. None, in fact. :lol:

[rrmike]

Great stuff! Keep it coming.

 

Kivam,

 

I copied your whole post and put it in the book list I'm starting. I'm gonna print it and take it to the library with me.

 

Basically I'm into good fantasy and some sci-fi with the fantasy mostly written around the human characters. Of course there have to be some monsters but the fairy tale thing I can't really get into.

 

Everything is secondary to great writing though. I think I could read any sci-fi or fantasy that's written really well and for an adult audience.

 

For sci-fi I loved Stephen R Donaldson's gap series and enders game by Card. The foundation books were ok for the first few then got kinda boring.

 

I will definately read sci-fi but I'm kinda stuck for really good fantasy and it's my favorite.

 

Thanks again guys. I know there are other threads like this but I wanted to look for a specific group of well written and somewhat adult targeted books rather than sift through every book people liked in the genre.

 

It will be great when I have enough good books that it spaces the re-reads out enough to start them just in time for the new book or enough that I don't remember every detail.

[Sirayn]

I second Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. My second favourite series, second only to A Song of Ice and Fire ... or maybe third to The Dark Tower. Hard call.

 

Guy Gavriel Kay writes good historical fantasy. Tigana won the 1991 Aurora Award and other than that I'm particularly keen on A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan.

 

My own recommendations ...

 

- Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is marketed as a young adult fantasy trilogy, but there's an awful lot there for adults, particularly the religious themes and symbolism.

- I've been enjoying Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series.

- Tried Neil Gaiman's American Gods? It won the Hugo, the Nebula and the Bram Stoker in one year. Excellent book.

- R Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing trilogy is brilliant.

- Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy and Tawny Man Trilogy are one long (and awesome) fantasy series.

- Stephen King's The Dark Tower! Loved it. :D

[Guest Egwene]

Definately Robin Hobb, agree with Sira there, and definately do NOT touch Robert Necomb... totally agree with Kivam on that!

 

Amongst my favourites are books by Janny Wurts. Her Empire Trilogy which is a collaboration with R. Feist and forms part of the Riftwar series, to me are the best books of that series and can be read independently. Also her 'Wars of Light and Shadow' series (seven or eight books), the final book of which is due out this year, I believe.

[the dude]

robin, hobb, definitely. she's friggin' awesome. i know that most here will disagree with me on this, but for my tastes, i place hobb on the same level as robert jordan, if not for elaboration, for pure entertainment, as well as the quality of the writing itself. some say it starts pretty slowly, but it's in a different style than jordan entirely. worth sticking through.

 

and robert e. howard, if you can get his original works, is pretty entertaining. he was a short story writer for the most part, and the forum he wrote for sort of imposed limitations on making real in-depth works, but what he was putting out was (with some notably stinky exceptions) pretty darned decent, despite having some of the common faults of the time. he was a texan in the 20's and 30's, writing for pulp magazines...

 

anyway, conan frickin' rocks, solomon kane is also pretty righteous. some of his other stuff is pretty good too. with howard though, there's a pretty wide variance in quality. there is some real bad stuff to be found as well, but on the whole, he's a good change of pace from the long-winded, trilogy-or-more-style stuff that comes out nowadays. and there's enough material out there too last a good while.

 

i've been buying a lot of the anthologies that have come out in the last 5 or 6 years, all in their original form (a lot of his work got bastardized by hacks over the years. do not read any of the pretenders except for jordan's conan stories; l. sprague de camp is a clown shoe).

 

there's 3 full volumes of conan, as well as a whole book for each of solomon kane (vigilante puritan in the 15th century who fights harpies and zombies in africa; you know you wanna ), one for kull (screw kevin sorbo!), and a character by the name of bran mak morn, whose a pictish king fighting the romans. those last 2 i haven't really read yet, but conan and kane are pretty much awesome, for sheer action and coolness.

 

and there's a ton of other material out there too, some of it really good (ali al ghazi, the false kurd, is the best outside of the above characters, that i've seen so far). howard's not for everyone, really. a fair amount of people are ready to dismiss it because it doesn't have the convoluted depth of contemporary writers, but he wasn't writing for the same forums, b=and really, howard's influence rivals tolkien's, if in a different way. and for all those who want to naysay that, howard pre-dated tolkien by a good 20 years, and was writing for a different audience. their influences are equal, but in different sub-genres.

[Werthead]

Cheers, Kivam :D

 

Well, critically speaking the 'Big Three' of modern epic fantasy authors are George RR Martin, Steven Erikson and Scott Bakker, so it's certainly worthwhile reading them. Guy Gavriel Kay is usually right behind them on that list as well.

 

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

Ten books. Six available now, the seventh is out at the end of March/start of April. Erikson is already writing the eighth novel. The co-creator of the Malazan world, Ian Cameron Esslemont, is also writing a series of five books set in the same world. Erikson's series is much, much bigger in scope and scale than even Wheel of Time, to the point where some readers may feel it is 'too much'. Erikson softens this by making each of the first five books self-contained with their own storylines. The continuing storyline elements are relegated to the subplots and come to the forefront in the second half of the series. This keeps the series well-paced for its length. The first book, Gardens of the Moon, does have a very confusing opening, however, and it takes until about page 250-300 before you start understanding what's going on.

 

The Prince of Nothing Trilogy by R. Scott Bakker

The first part in a planned, much larger series called The Second Apocalypse. The second series, The Aspect-Emperor, begins at the end of 2007. Bakker is much darker than most fantasy authors and his work can be somewhat grim at times, but his writing is stunning, his worldbuilding incredible and, with the warring magical forces of the gnosis and the psukhe, he actually creates a form of magic even more thoroughly logical than the One Power. The first book is called The Darkness That Comes Before.

 

Guy Gavriel Kay

Kay has written two series: The Fionavar Tapestry (a trilogy) and The Sarantine Mosaic (two books). However, these are not among his best works. I would much more strongly recommend his single-volume novels, namely Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan (soon to be a major motion picture by the makers of The Last Samurai) and The Last Light of the Sun. His new novel, Ysabel, is out in a matter of weeks.

 

The Book of Words & Sword of Shadows by JV Jones

Highly recommended by Robert Jordan, Jones is now not far off the highest level of epic fantasy authors. The Book of Words (a trilogy starting with The Baker's Boy) is a great fantasy trilogy, if a bit on the traditional side and perhaps aimed more at a YA audience. Its semi-sequel series, the four-volume Sword of Shadows (starting with A Cavern of Black Ice, with Book 3 out in November), is a far superior, much more original work. Jones has also written a strong single-volume novel called The Barbed Coil. For my money, she's easily the best female epic fantasy author around (I dislike Hobb, finding her good points - good characterisation, reasonable storylines- are outweighed by her bad - flat worldbuilding and making each of her series roughly 35% too long).

 

Crown of Stars by Kate Elliott

Basically, GRRM-lite. Like ASoIaF, this seven-volume series (now complete!) is a huge, epic tale set on a continent closely resembling medieval Europe, and is essentially the story of clashing religions, feuding politics and bloody wars. There's a somewhat cheey magical subplot that rises to prominence in the later volumes and sometimes the story feels a bit overlong, but it's an entertaining enough work. The first book is King's Dragon.

 

Memory, Sorrow & Thorn and Otherland by Tad Williams

Memory, Sorrow & Thorn, a huge trilogy starting with The Dragonbone Chair, predates Wheel of Time and was influential in getting GRRM to write A Game of Thrones. It's still a very strong, epic story, well-written if a tad on the long side (the last book is so big it was split in half for paperback). Williams' four-volume Otherland series (beginning with City of Golden Shadow), which blends SF and Fantasy, is more enjoyable. He also has a few good single novels, such as Tailchaser's Song, Caliban's Hour and The War of the Flowers. His new series, Shadowmarch, I haven't read as yet.

 

The Bas-Lag Books by China Mieville

China Mieville overthrew a lot of the rules of fantasy by creating a steampunk city full of strange, alien creatures living normally alongside humans in Perdido Street Station, one of the most startling debuts of recent years. He has since written two further novels set in the same world, namely The Scar and Iron Council. He's also written two other books set in different mileus, namely King Rat and Un Lun Dun, his latest book. For something a bit different and great fun to read, Mieville is worth checking out.

 

The N00bs: Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie

The two biggest new fantasy authors of 2006 were Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie (Campbell I haven't read). Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora is the first volume in a series of seven semi-standalone novels called The Gentleman Bastard and is riotously funny, emotionally powerful and extremely cunning. It combines standard fantasy tropes with great writing and elements from a caper movie. Believe me, this is the next big series. It was the best book of 2006 that I read in any genre, and I recommend it very heavily. Book 2, Red Seas Under Red Skies, is out in June. Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself is the first volume in a trilogy called The First Law and is a great book in which epic fantasy collides with a noir thriller. The second book, Before They Are Hanged, is out in March.

 

Finally, if you visit Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, you'll find reviews of Ysabel and The Name of the Wind (which he also recommends, but warns that it is somewhat on the long side). If you go back through the archives you'll also find reviews of some of the other books I mentioned here.

[SBoydW]

Fred Saberhagen- Lost Sword series

 

Raymond Feist- Rift War Saga

 

L.E. Modesitt- Saga of Recluce(this is my next set to tackle.) Also the Corean Chronicles. Though if you want a full series you'll want to wait as I don't think this one is finished.

[dmmandil]

I absolutely agree with Kivam's recommendation of Tad Williams. Excellent! I would start with his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Trilogy (4 books if obtained in paperback).

[Kivam]

Holy hell, how did we all forget Terry Pratchett??

 

The best satirist working today, bar none.

 

His collaboration with Neil Gaiman (Good Omens) is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

[TheDiceAgain...]

Agreed - Most of the Discworld stuff is priceless and Good Omens is hysterical even starting with the sub-title: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch...

[rrmike]

Awesome. I now have like 15 more sets of books to investigate. If even half of them are to my liking I'll be set for a couple of years :D

 

Thank you everyone.

[Guest Barmacral]

I'm a few days late jumping into this I suppose, but in any case...

 

Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my personal favourites in regards to Fantasy Authors, and Tigana is definately the best single book I've read IMO.

 

Sara Douglas is a decent author who has written several book series that aren't too bad. Threshold is a single book that she wrote that is absolutely incredible, by far her best work.

 

Tad Williams has been recommended in better words than I could come up with earlier in the thread, so I'll leave it at that.

 

If you want some books that aren't so much fantasy, Stephen King has a lot of books out there that are amazing to read. One series that he has written is called the Dark Tower series, and its 7 books long and probably his most fantasy like books that he has written.