Tried Goodkind's Sword of Truth (yuck!). Reccomendations!!!

[AbbyNormal]

Love WoT. While I'm waiting for the next book, I wanted to start a similar series and, after reading some suggestions from Amazon, I picked up Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. I thought it was terrible. Badly written and the whole S&M thing was totally over the top.

 

Can someone who is also a fan of Jordan direct me towards a good epic fantasy series along the lines of WoT?

 

Thanks

[Guest Barmacral]

Myself, I've thoroughly enjoy'd the Sword of Truth novels, and can't wait until the last one comes out next year.

 

A few series that I've read that you might enjoy are:

 

Steven King's Dark Tower Series: 7 truly incredible books, all done in Kings classic style, while being a fantasy (of a more modern stature) at the same time.

 

Guy Gavriel Kay: He has no long series so to speak, but he has a ton of single novels that are incredibly good, Tigana being the best book I personally feel that I've ever read, and a wonderful trilogy called the Fionavar Tapestry.

 

Tad Williams also has lots of good books out there, however, you'd best look to somebody else for reviews on his works, its been a long time since I picked up his stuff. Memory Sorrow and Thorn were good, as well as War of the Flowers.

 

The Shannara series by Terry Brooks is also supposed to be good. I've only read Sword of Shannara myself, and I enjoyed it, although I wouldn't say that its my favourite book in the world.

 

Of course, Tolkien's works were all quite intreguing, although I'm sure that you are aware of that.

 

Thats all that I can think of off of the top of my head, hope you find something that you enjoy!

 

Barm

[Guest Egwene]

You'll find a fair few threads here about book recommendations... worth checking up on...

 

My favourite fantasy series other than WoT is the Empire Trilogy... a collaboration between Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts which forms part of Feist's Riftwar Saga, but can be read on it's own. I would say that the entire Riftwar saga would be a good one for you to try... my one gripe with it is that where as the first book 'Magician' is very detailed, the later books concentrate more on action and are much more condensed. The exception being the Trilogy.

[wtfv]

The best fantasy series ever, in my humble opinion, is A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin.

But beware. It's not for the faint of heart. It's worth reading if you can handle some really tragic tidings.

 

Recently I started to read the Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson. I'm in the first book and I'm pretty much liking it.

[battousai]

How about Harry Potter? lol its worth a time pass and they're pretty good, only if you havent read them already. Also I hear the Runelords by David Farland is decent. Although I havent read it myself so Im not sure. Basically right now you'll find a Sword of Truth and A Song of Ice and Fire to be the popular ones.

[Guest Cadsuane]

Skip Shannara if you've read LotR. If you HAVEN'T read LotR, then read that and THEN skip Shannara. Shannara is a lame rip-off of Tolkien, imo.

 

ASoIaF is excellent, but may be too full of death and despair for some people's taste. The Belgariad by Eddings is fun for a simple, light fantasy read. You could also try the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey, starting with Dragonflight, Dragonquest, Dragonsdawn.

 

As for sci-fi, I recommend Ender's Game and the associated books (especially Speaker for the Dead) by O.S. Card. He's written a series set in altered colonial US times which is also good (starts with Seventh Son??).

[The Outsider]

The Belgariad by Eddings is fun for a simple, light fantasy read.

 

I definitely recommend The Belgariad, followed by its sequel series, The Mallorean. Then The Elenium trilogy followed by its sequel trilogy, The Tamuli.

 

I'm also a big fan of King's Dark Tower series, but I don't think it fits the theme of fantasy in the Epic High Fantasy style like Jordan.

[Azshaya]

Well if its any consolation the whole S&M things pretty much disappears after the first book, however, it gets into other stuff you might find just a tab disturbing...

 

I'll agree with The Outsider on the David eddings thing

Yeah, as we mentioned its pretty simple fantasy, but its the sort of thing that'll perk youup when need be, as is perfect if your looking for something that won't require too much though, or scar you for life :P

[Ozhammer]

Shannara is ok, as long as its the earlier stuff. yes, it can be formulaic, but what fantasy series isnt. Brooks has fallen into the same problem that Jordan has, eke out as many bestsellers from loyal readers that you can. His Word and The Void series is the best of his latest work.

David Gemmell is quite good, alot of his stories are similar to Howards Conan chronicles, and flow quite well. Lawhead is ok if you like Celtic based fantasy.

[Werthead]

Definitely A Song of Ice and Fire, the best epic fantasy series written to date. A Game of Thrones is the first novel in the series.

 

I'd also recommend Guy Gavriel Kay's stand-alone novels, which are all pretty excellent: Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan and The Last Light of the Sun.

 

Steven Erikson's Malazan series is very good, but it can be quite overwhelming. This series is bigger in scope and scale than the Wheel of Time. It's definitely worth the effort though.

 

Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself are the debut novels in new series from new writers. Both are excellent.

[Hannibal King]

Hmmm.... you didn't like Goodkind? Pity.

 

But oh well, not everyone agrees with me!I'll try to name some good ones. :D

 

The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher is excellent. There are three so far and although the first dragged a bit they keep getting better and better. (His "Dresden Files" are a great read too).

 

Then there are the books "Mistborn" and "Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson. Epic books with engaging characters and plotlines.

 

 

And Fiona Mcintosh's "Quickening Trilogy" is definately worth reading! Great story, always another twist, just stunning!

[loki redfern]

erm canavan's black magican trilogy

i'll liked steph swainston's two books to date starting with the year of our war

mickey z. reichert anything by her is good, the rehsiee(sp) stuff especially

the lies of locke lamora by scott lynch is brilliant, and i think the second book is out soon

james barclay's raven trilogies are awesome to. he's not afraid to kill anyone off

the guardia cycle by julia gray

erm yeh i'll stop there as this could go on for quite a time, but there are good series there