New Series Suggestions

[Chief91592]

Let's see here...

 

Obviously, you've read Jordan and GRRM. I can't recommend Tolkein's works enough. The Hobbit is by far his best actual story in my opinion. Christopher Paolini is very simple, but I've talked to people who like him. He's very hit or miss. Goodkind is alright. Personally, I don't really like anything of his past the third book in the Sword of Truth, and I almost think it's best to only read Wizard's First Rule. I don't think I see it enough, but Madeleine L'Engle is fantastic. If you're into manga at all, One Piece, Rave Master, Shaman King are all pretty fun. The Last Apprentice by Joseph Delaney and Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan are good young adult books. The Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon is good if for nothing else than the amazingness that is Achmed. Phillip Pullman and C.S. Lewis are both fantastic, and it could be very fun to look at the two as opposite sides of a coin. If you want legends, THe Epic of Gilgamesh is cool (if short), and Beowulf and Homer's epics are great. Terry Pratchett is delightful and extremely humorous. Shakespeare is great, I personally love Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Neil Gaiman is good, American Gods and Stardust both. Oh, and how could we forget Harry Potter, what a great story.

 

Hope this helps

[Red2111]

i just finished "Congo" by Michael Chriton and can't recomend that book enough. he also wrote Jurassic Park, Sphere and other really good books too. more of action/adventures but non the less he's a good author. also theres Rick Roidan for younge adult, "Percy Jacksons & the olympians", " Kane Chronicals" & 1 other i can't think off the top of my head.

 

 

[brujah]

If you're like me then all books are just fillets while waiting on WoT books. But i recently started reading Malazan books, on book 4, and I'm blown away. I haven't been as excited about a series sinse WoT. It's amazing, and it could even pass WoT as my all time fav if it stays good.

Also Way of Kings by Sanderson is WoT worthy.

QUESTION. ANY OF YOU THAT LIKED WAY OF KINGS ALSO NOT LIKE ELANTRIS AND WARBREAKER? I MEAN I ABSOLUTELY LOVED WAY OF KINGS AND LITERALLY DETESTED ELANTRIS. SO BASED ON THAT, SHOULD I READ MISTBORN. IF IT'S LIKE Ay of kings then yes. If its anything like Elantris then no. Pls help.

[Sleeper]

If you're like me then all books are just fillets while waiting on WoT books. But i recently started reading Malazan books, on book 4, and I'm blown away. I haven't been as excited about a series sinse WoT. It's amazing, and it could even pass WoT as my all time fav if it stays good.

Also Way of Kings by Sanderson is WoT worthy.

QUESTION. ANY OF YOU THAT LIKED WAY OF KINGS ALSO NOT LIKE ELANTRIS AND WARBREAKER? I MEAN I ABSOLUTELY LOVED WAY OF KINGS AND LITERALLY DETESTED ELANTRIS. SO BASED ON THAT, SHOULD I READ MISTBORN. IF IT'S LIKE Ay of kings then yes. If its anything like Elantris then no. Pls help.

I've never read Elantris, but I really enjoyed the Mistborn series. I think you'd probably like them too.

[Hallow]

If you're like me then all books are just fillets while waiting on WoT books. But i recently started reading Malazan books, on book 4, and I'm blown away. I haven't been as excited about a series sinse WoT. It's amazing, and it could even pass WoT as my all time fav if it stays good.

Also Way of Kings by Sanderson is WoT worthy.

QUESTION. ANY OF YOU THAT LIKED WAY OF KINGS ALSO NOT LIKE ELANTRIS AND WARBREAKER? I MEAN I ABSOLUTELY LOVED WAY OF KINGS AND LITERALLY DETESTED ELANTRIS. SO BASED ON THAT, SHOULD I READ MISTBORN. IF IT'S LIKE Ay of kings then yes. If its anything like Elantris then no. Pls help.

 

Caps Lock is cruise control for cool.

[brujah]

Ok.

[Shomofo]

If you have a Kindle or book reader I would recomend a few of the new independant Fantasy authors.

The books are slightly cheaper than normal paperbacks and sometimes even free.

I liked David Dalglish especially and also T C Southwell (there is a lot of these but I really like the set I read)

 

Also love the old favourites. Here are some I don;t think mentioned yet.

Raymond Feist- The Magician to start with, and most of the rest are ok although some of the newer ones are slightly repetitive.

Janny Wurts - The Curse of the Mistraith (although not yet finished and up to book 11). This is a little bit different.

JV Jones - The Baker's boy trilogy and also he has a second set of bools but I can't recall the name now and they are good.

Robin Hobb - Assassins trilogy (and then there are a few other related trilogies)

Brent Weeks - Shadow assasins trilogy

Dave Duncan - The Blades trilogy

 

It depends if you are in the mood for Light or Heavy fantasy.

[The Fisher King]

I give my highest recommendation to Melanie Rawn's "Sunrunner Saga."

 

Very adult and magnificent. Its six volumes.

 

 

Fish

[brujah]

Thanks for the suggestions. Already started collecting many of these books for later.

[Smittyphi]

I just finished Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series for the 2nd time in 3 months. I can't recommend the series enough.

[tkroll]

Started reading The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Jury is still out. I do hate how polite Richard is and I am not sure I can read all ten books. The writing is not what I expected. I watched the first two episodes of Legend of the Seeker and it was like watching a really bad episode of Xena Warrior Princess. The guy who played the Quad member Fain was horrible. The episodes did not follow anything in the book.

I only made it through the fourth book. I had to quit the series after that one. Too dark and too graphic.

 

Can't go wrong with all the fantasy series- if you decide you want a little break from the Fantasy aspect try:

The Saxon Stories -Bernard Cornwell

The Richard Sharpe series- Bernard Cornwell

Without Remorse- Tom Clancy (still love his books)

 

Dune books are almost always great. I loved the House books in that series.

 

Timothy Zahn has a new Star Wars book out I still haven't read. Been burn out on Star Wars Books since vector prime.

[thebob101]

I finished A Way of Kings and I loved it. Re-reading WoT now in anticipation of A Memory of Light. I think I am going to read Butcher's Codex Alera and then the Malazan series.

[ironisles]

Glen Cook's The Black Company. Not your typical fantasy.

[Apples First]

Reading through the suggestions; no-one has mentioned Robin Hobb... so there. Apparently, Bardley Beaulieu is pretty good, though, I have never read his books. I remember enjoying Jonathan Stroud when I was young (younger than today; i.e. 10).

 

You may want to have a look at this:

http://www.bestfantasybooks.com/top25-fantasy-books.php

 

I mostly agree with the entries, although perhaps not the order (I mean Bakker at #18, WTH?!) and they did miss out some better series.

 

 

Anyway, Germany are playing against Greece, so I have to go now.

 

P.S.

 

If anyone is still thinking of going through with reading SoT, read this article.

 

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

 

It's pretty accurate, right down to certain things bulging (I'm being serious).

 

Honestly, the series is awful and the same thing happens in each book, certainly for the first 5 or so (I only read that far).

Don't bother unless you wish to see how bad they are.

[thebob101]

Reading through the suggestions; no-one has mentioned Robin Hobb... so there. Apparently, Bardley Beaulieu is pretty good, though, I have never read his books. I remember enjoying Jonathan Stroud when I was young (younger than today; i.e. 10).

 

You may want to have a look at this:

http://www.bestfanta...ntasy-books.php

 

I mostly agree with the entries, although perhaps not the order (I mean Bakker at #18, WTH?!) and they did miss out some better series.

 

 

Anyway, Germany are playing against Greece, so I have to go now.

 

P.S.

 

If anyone is still thinking of going through with reading SoT, read this article.

 

http://uncyclopedia...._Sword_of_Truth

 

It's pretty accurate, right down to certain things bulging (I'm being serious).

 

Honestly, the series is awful and the same thing happens in each book, certainly for the first 5 or so (I only read that far).

Don't bother unless you wish to see how bad they are.

 

I understand that there is a ton of folks on the boards that hate Terry Goodkind and The Sword of Truth series. I honestly found it fairly good. The first book was a bit difficult to get through (the first half), but after that, I found myself wanting to read more about what was going to happen to Richard and Kaylan. Is it as good as WoT? Absolutely not. But it is an entertaining read. I noticed right away the similarities between SoT and WoT and Goodkind probably based a lot of what he wrote using WoT as a reference (or maybe he stole it, who knows). It is definitely for some folks and not for others, but I would tell anyone who asked me if they should read it to find out for themselves. Now, I have heard that all of the recent SoT books are horrible, but once again, I am going to find out for myself.

 

Apples First, thanks for the link to the best fantasy list. Definitely helpful. It is good to know that on most of those lists, the same books are mentioned. Here is another list of the top 100 fantasy/SiFi books from NPR.

 

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books?device=iphone

[Suttree]

Here is another list of the top 100 fantasy/SiFi books from NPR.

 

http://www.npr.org/2...s?device=iphone

 

Thanks for that NPR list thebob. Also enjoyed checking out the one Apples provided...

[Masema]

Not really a fantasy saga but the Langdon novels by Dan Brown are exceptionally good.

[Paul H]

Hello,

 

I am looking for a new fantasy novel (or series) to read, and I would appreciate any recommendations that you all can give me. First, some background:

 

I really haven't read all that many books in the fantasy genre. In high school, I read the first two Dragonlance trilogies by Weis & Hickman, which I enjoyed very much at the time. I also read the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, and I remember that I especially loved the last book, The High King. And I read the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (which I think are excellent in some ways, and flawed in other ways).

 

In high school, I also read the "Myth" books by Robert Asprin, which started out good, but went downhill around book 5 or 6 or so. I read Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson, which I didn't like at all, and Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, which I thought was just pretty good.

 

At some point (maybe during college?), I tried reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but I stopped about halfway through the first book of LOTR. I just didn't understand what was so great about those books. Maybe I should give them another chance, since I know that just about everyone says they are classics. (However, I didn't really like the LOTR movies either, so maybe I truly wouldn't like the books.)

 

Then, near the end of my time in college (around 1995), I began reading The Wheel of Time, which I loved. After college, I read each new WoT book when it came out, and I recently re-read the entire series (up to book 12), and then read book 13 for the first time.

 

Anyway, that's just about the extent of my reading in the fantasy genre, and really I have read almost nothing in that genre since college, with the major exception of The Wheel of Time. So I am sure that there is a lot of great fantasy that I haven't read.

 

Based on what I have read about various fantasy authors and books here and there on the internet, and also based on browsing around at my local bookstore, I have considered possibly reading something by one or more of the following authors:

• Terry Brooks
  
• Terry Pratchett
  
• Patrick Rothfuss
  
• George R. R. Martin
  
• Raymond Feist
  
• Tim Powers
  

Here are some of the things that I am looking for in a fantasy book:

• The magic should be "white magic" (i.e., a natural part of the world) rather than "black magic" (e.g., spells and incantations).
  
• I want the world to feel real, not dream-like or two-dimensional. (The world of The Wheel of Time is a perfect example of a fantasy world that feels very real.)
  
• I don't want anything R-rated -- no sex scenes or graphic descriptions of violence. I say this partly because I just don't want to read that stuff, and partly because I know that if these books sit on my bookshelf, my kids may pull them out and read them some day. (I have no major complaints about The Wheel of Time in terms of sex and violence, but anything that goes beyond where The Wheel of Time goes on these topics, I would rather avoid.)
  
• I don't mind if the individual book or books are long. But I don't want to start reading another series anywhere near the length of the Wheel of Time (i.e., 14 very long books!), nor do I want to start reading a series that is not yet finished. A trilogy that is already completed would be just about right.
  
• I want a series where the difference between good and evil is truly recognized -- where it is clear that values such as loyalty, mercy, honor, love of family, courage, etc. are to be strived for. But that doesn't mean that the good guys have to be 100% good, 100% of the time (because that wouldn't be very realistic).
  

Now, I have no idea whether or not the authors on the first list above fulfill all of the things I'm looking for on the second list above, but I'm hoping that maybe some of you can give me some good recommendations, either from my list of authors or not.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read all this, and thanks in advance for any recommendations.

[Suttree]

Based on what you have said I think Patrick Rothfuss is a good bet for you. Name of the Wind & The Wise Man's Fear are both excellent. Some of the best fantasy out and they fit well with what you are looking for.

[Hallow]

I second Rothfuss, almost finished with Name of the Wind and its phenomenal.

[redarm]

Try the Harry Potter series. It's pretty safe.

 

Your list of restrictions is well... restricting.

 

Terry Brooks would be good as well. While his Shannarra books could be considered as one big series they are actually several independent series that while they shere the same world and history it isn't neccessary to read them all.

 

Davis Eddings actually sounds like a perfect fit for you. Although many consider his books to be "gateway" fantasy meant for readers new to the genre, it is well written and meets the requirements you've set forth. Clear good and evil, violence is pg-13 at worst, no sex that I can remember. Start with the Belgariad.

 

For the reasons you listed stay away from Martin, Erikkson, Goodkind and Cook for now. That is a real shame because their works are masterful. (Maybe not Goodkinds but the rest are magnificent).

 

Good Luck!

[Suttree]

If you didn't like LotR can't see you liking Shannara. The first book in the series is about the most blatant rip off in fantasy history. As the critic Lin Carter once said...

 

"the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read".Elaborating on his disapproval of the book, Carter wrote that "Terry Brooks wasn't trying to imitate Tolkien's prose, just steal his story line and complete cast of characters, and [brooks] did it with such clumsiness and so heavy-handedly, that he virtually rubbed your nose in it"

[Sakaea]

Try Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.

 

Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is awesome, but lots of graphic sex and violence, and there's only 5 of 7 books out.

[Paul H]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations! It looks like I may decide to go with Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind, as a couple of you have recommended.

 

Your list of restrictions is well... restricting.

Well, sorry about that. I don't mean to say that I won't read anything unless it meets all those criteria, just that those are the things I'm ideally looking for. But I would consider reading something that doesn't perfectly meet all of those criteria, if it's a good book.

 

Also, you mentioned David Eddings. I think I actually did read one of his books in college, on the recommendation of a friend. I don't remember much about it at all, except that I seem to remember that I didn't particularly like it.

 

Try Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.

 

Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is awesome, but lots of graphic sex and violence, and there's only 5 of 7 books out.

I am staying away from Sanderson's books for now. I read a couple of sample chapters from the first Mistborn book, and I have read a couple of his short stories, and I guess I'm just not impressed enough to want to read a whole book by him. Maybe I would enjoy his books if I read them all the way through, but for now I'm going with my gut feeling that his writing just isn't what I'm looking for.

 

Also, I have heard many, many very good things about George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books. But I also have heard that the series is not yet complete (which you mentioned), that the books are very long, and that he is fairly slow in writing each book. And while I love The Wheel of Time, I'm just not ready at this point to start another huge series where I could be waiting years for the final book to be released.

 

(By the way, every time I see the name of Martin's series, it seems backwards to me. It seems like it would sound much more natural to say "A Song of Fire and Ice" instead of "A Song of Ice and Fire." But maybe it's just me.)

[Red2111]

i 2nd the recomendation for Sanderson. i can't recomend the Elantris and Warbreaker (both stand alones with planned sequels) enough. he really s a good author, as you can tell from the last 2 WoT books that have been released.

 

 

if you're worried abotu kids pulling books form your self, then i'd recomend staying away from Martin tbh. its a very graphic and realistic world he creates; i honeslty wouldnt' recomend anyone under the age of 18 read it unless their very mature. its not a feel good book by any means and the lines between good and evil are blurred in a very realistic way. if you have Net Flicks i might suggest renting the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones, which is based on the book series and they do a wonderful job with it.

 

 

i'll also recoment the Harry Potter series, as well as the Percy Jackson series. these are young adult books though, but the story in Percy Jackson is wonderful and there are really too many things to list abotu HP that i'd be more along the lines of gushing abotu the series.

 

 

edit - i'd also suggest trying a few of Ann Rice's Vampire novels. their honeslty very good. also, the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher would likely be a good choice for you as well.