Good Fantasy/Fiction Books

After getting a kindle fire for christmas, my past reading hobby has come alive again, now that I have easier and faster access to books. I love the fantasy genre, and all closely related fictional genres like mythology and fantasy-historical. Make suggestions and discuss if you are so inclined.

-Terry Pratchett's Discworld series are great. I'm restarting them again to remember and will hopefully be able to read all of them, and in proper order this time.

-Septimus Heap. These are great books, I just finished reading Darke, the sixth book. I highly recommend these, one of my favorite.

-Bartimaeus Trilogy. Oh and there's a new one, The Ring of Solomon. These books are amazing.

-The Alchemist series are great books as well, and I highly recommend.

-The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is good, but the author is making a new series, the Heroes of Olympus. The first two books so far have been very good.

-Artimus Fowl series.

-I've become interested in trying out the series A song of Ice and Fire. I've heard that they are very good, just got the first from the library.

 

A Song of Ice and Fire is a great series, especially now that you don't have to wait for years to get the next book (Except for maybe the last in the series which isn't out yet.)

Also a great read is Juliet Marillier's The Sevenwaters Trilogy, a fantasy retelling of the 7 Swans story.

Don't forget Dune. I'll never forget the opening chapter.

I've heard The Hunger Games is also an excellent read, although I haven't read it yet.

 

The following are my favourite novels that I have ever read (in order from most favourite to least):

1. The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) (science fiction)

2. The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) (high fantasy)

3. The Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien) (high fantasy)

4. Dragonlance Legends trilogy (Time of the Twins; War of the Twins; Test of the Twins) (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman) (high fantasy)

5. Earthlight (Arthur C. Clarke) (science fiction)



I have not read many novels. I haven't read a novel since I was in my early to mid twenties (I am now 40). The only novel that I have ever read more than once is The Day of the Triffids.

Peter Jackson's movie trilogy adaption of The Lord of the Rings is nowhere near as good as the novel.

I can't wait to watch the series Game of Thrones (I haven't seen it yet)!

 

Vance's The Dying Earth. Gygax based D&D magic on it.
Aspins Thieves World, Another Gygax reference. Great rouges.
Moorcock's Elric series. He wouldn't let TSR use his stuff but the books are good.

 

The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist. My favorite of all time, and I have read many, many fantasy books, including some of the above. I made a list of them for my "To Do" list

Feist's series has many books in it now, but the first four, Magician: Apprentice, Magician: Master (one book in hardback but split for the paperback release), Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon are astounding.

His collaboration with Janny Wurts or "the other side" of the battle, a trilogy starting with Daughter of the Empire, is extremely gripping as well, but in a different way. You can tell a lady writer had a hand in them, and they truly rock. The other two are Servant of the Empire and Mistress of the Empire.

 

Do you mean because 6 of the books are currently out, or because the HBO TV series (Game of Thrones) based on the books is making him rev his pen up.

I hope it's the latter. Via GoT I have gotten into ASoIaF, but I am wary of reading the latest book 'A dance with dragons' because between this book and the last (which I have just finished) there was a 5 year wait...

 

Any of the books R.A. Salvatore has written are well worth a read.

His latest "Neverwinter" was just released and it continues the story after all the destruction that's happened on the coast and near Neverwinter.

 

Hi
I definitely agree with the recommendations for Feist's "Riftwar Saga" and the series starting with "Daughter of Empire". I would also recommend Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. If you want an interesting series that is "Sci-Fi Lite but Science Heavy" may I recommend Eric Flint's 1632 series ?? The "Sci-Fi" all takes place in the first chapter, after that it is all "Science Fact". Even better for those of you with eReaders the first two books in the series ( 1632 and 1633 ) are ( drumroll please )............ FREE !! That's right !! You can get two books totally free and clear.
The Royal Canadian

 

I've just about finished A Game of Thrones, and it's a pretty great medieval novel.
I think I have dune on my dresser, but I've never read it.

I agree. The movies were good, but the books were better. There were some really cool parts in the books that werent in the movies like Tom Bombadil.

I was looking up the series and it seems like the first three are great, but the fourth and fifth haven't been liked as much.

 

I think for the 'old guard' (pre-HBO TV series) fanbase they are getting very frustated with GRRM and his lack of urgency in writing. The series was began two decades ago and there is such a wait between books that when a book is finally released it doesn't live up to their expectations.

For me, The first three/four books (the third was split into two parts here in the UK) were fantastic. AFfC (The last one I read) was a bit of a dissapointment as it focusses on many uninteresting character. New characters that the reader has no emotional investment in are given many chapters which seem to break the flow, and one character in particular travels across half of Westeros during the course of the book without any significant plot developments. Peopel seem to feel it was just 'filler'.

I haven't read ADwD yet but I have read some of the criticism, I think GRRM made a mistake not releasing the book sooner - people were expecting something fantastic.

I refuse to read ADwD until I am farily confident that the next book will be coming out within the next two years...

Hopefully, the TV series will put some pressure on GRRM to pick up the pace.... Waiting 5-8 years between books is just not cool. Seriously.

 

the algebraist from iain banks

 

Well in my point of view The Alchemist series and The Lord of the Rings by (J.R.R. Tolkien) are awesome. I hope everyone must love these books.

 

I just finished reading The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud. Bartimaeus kicked so much ass in this book.

And when I get another kindle gift card I'm probably going to pre order the Enchantress. Too bad it's released in a few months.

 

I started reading Song of Ice and Fire back in the ninetees, i have had to wait for the next book for years a few times, but it is worth it.
Two more books now well be published.

Robert Jordans wheel of time, Sanderson is finishing off the last three, one more to go there, will be published at the end of the year.

So there you have my suggestions,, maybe Robin Hobb if you have already read Jordan.

 

I would recommend Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue series. (Yes that Gary Gygax!) This is how the quintessential rogue character is made! Granted its based on AD&D, but the skill checks are there, the special abilities are there. And of course it takes place in Greyhawk. The second book they go to Verbobonc, and talk about the Welkwood Bog, and Krag Hills. The talk of the Circle of Eight, and one of the main protagonists is a guy named Iuz, you may have heard of him.

They are out of print, but I see them all the time on ebay, Amazon, and Half.