Top Fantasy Books

[hArdyPUNKmArk]

I've been a big Harry Potter fan for the past 9 yrs and have read the series over 10 times each, one of those things I don't get bored with. I love the story the characters and the imagination of the fantasy world.

I'm currently reading Lord of the Rings (finally) and am finding it really fucking good. Tolkein has a way of drawing you in slowly and gives so much detail, you can tell from his writing that he has Middle Earth created fully from every blade of grass to the top of each mountain. The guy is a detail king.

I've just finished the Twilight series before reading LOTR and I actually loved it (i know, i know). I actually started reading it to see what all the fuss was about because it seemed like everyone was reading and talking about. I'd seen the movie and thought it was alright then started reading. Sure enough I was hooked and finished the series in about a week. I really didn't expect to like it let alone be hooked into it so much.

So, with all that said I'm interested in the fantasy books you guys might read (if any) and if you liked LOTR, Harry Potter and Twilight as well. Bit of a random topic but was just thinking about fantasy novels and how good they can be, I may just be one of those weird bookworms but really I'm not, people don't know that I read really but I find it is the best way to live a story. Movies and TV are pretty good but they are nothing compared to what a book can give.

Anyways, went on a bit of a tangent there, my bad.

So, what is your favourite fantasy novels and why and did you like HP, LOTR or Twilight?

 

[CH David]

I like the thread.

Harry Potter was a god to me for a long time. I still love the series, and have easily read each book like 8 times. But once the ending came I stopped because not too many of my friends wanted to talk about it, so I was like wtf?

I can't comment on the content of Twilight or LoTR. My brothers have told me LoTR is awesome, but lately I haven't really had too much time to read them. Twilight I am not really interested in, especially since all of the girls that I went to school with just swooned over it like it was the greatest thing in the world.

Now quite possibly my favorite fantasy series is Artemis Fowl. It has to do with magic, but not witches and wizards kind. I don't want to spoil any of it for you, so I really suggest you read them, because they are awesome.

An honorable book mention is Lord Brocktree. I only say book because I haven't been able to find any of the other books after it in stores. But this story is seriously badass if you enjoy the fantasy of animals kicking other animal's asses.

 

[pyrusane]

Ah, an excellent topic. Let's take a look at a few of my favorite series.

I just finished rereading the first Chronicles of Amber. Awesome series, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves great fantasy.

Raymond Feist's Riftwar Cycle was an awesome series for the first ten books or so. After that, though, the timeline grew a little too murky for my tastes, and I felt like he was trying too hard.

Piers Anthony created three great series, Xanth, Apprentice Adept, and Bio of a Space Tyrant (I know, more sci-fi than fantasy).

Anne McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern series, which started out as fantasy and ultimately, in around the ninth book, suddenly became sci-fi masquerading as fantasy.

And I can't leave out the incomparable R.A. Salvatore. The Spearwielder's Tales, The DemonWars Saga, Chronicles of Ynis Aielle, Crimson Shadow, and of course his best known creation, Drizz't Do'urden and the 23 or so books written about or around him.

 

[Shadowmancer]

Anyone that states that Harry Potter or Twilight are great fantasy series needs to have their heads examined very thoroughly and then smacked round it for even remotely thinking that.

I am not even going into this in great detail but are we talking high or low fantasy? I like fantasy novels so I don't make the difference but academically there is a difference.

I'm not including sci-fi because that gets into even more detailed stuff because I am reading a lot of that right now.

OK to start with I love the Lord of the Rings books. I love the Hobbit, I love the Silmarillion, and I love The children of Hurin. I need to read the Unfinished tales and all of that stuff but that comes after my stack of books is gone and I find the books at the right time, I am a very impulsive book buyer and I am regretting that right now to a degree. But I digress from the main point of this thread, fantasy books.

Well the first series that I am going to recommend is the Drenai series by David Gemmel, "Legend" and "Waylander" are two of my favourite books both draw you into the story and don't let you leave until the story is absolutely finished. There are more books in the series such as "The Legends of Druss" or something like that, there are three Waylander stories in total, all are worth reading though the third one is sort of weird. This is one of the first sets of books that got me into fantasy as a genre as a whole.

The next book/series I am going to recommend is a series called "Orcs: First Blood" by Stan Nicholls it is a departure from the traditional fantasy tropes of having the orcs be the antagonists in the story these guys are not only the protagonists but actual heroes within the story. I suggest getting the British cover because the American one sucks arse. The story is well paced and thought out over the three books within the first trilogy, the next trilogy is just starting up and I am again waiting until my pile has dwindled right down to nothing before I buy a book that isn't related to The Horus Heresy series that I have been reading.

The Gotrek and Felix written by William King is a great series set within the Warhammer universe, William King was one of my favourite authors at one stage with this series, used to rip through them after getting them out of the school library. This series does have a number of running jokes within it but that happens within every series, well worth a read getting the two omnibus' that are out for this series.

I would suggest more but I can't think straight right now.

 

[hArdyPUNKmArk]

Shadowmancer, I like the sound of the Orcs First Blood that you were talking about. That sounds pretty good, will definatley look into that one. Have you read HP because that is an awesome fantasy series and wouldn't be outselling LOTR if it wasn't. I love LOTR as well (which I'm reading for the first time now... finally) but I think HP is way up there in terms of imagination and writing skills. The books are amazing. Twilight, I get what you're saying. The reason I included that was because I really didn't expect to like it and ended up getting pretty into it. It doesn't rate anywhere near LOTR or HP but I still enjoyed it.

Cheers for the suggestions guys

 

[Shadowmancer]

Shadowmancer, I like the sound of the Orcs First Blood that you were talking about. That sounds pretty good, will definatley look into that one. Have you read HP because that is an awesome fantasy series and wouldn't be outselling LOTR if it wasn't. I love LOTR as well (which I'm reading for the first time now... finally) but I think HP is way up there in terms of imagination and writing skills. The books are amazing. Twilight, I get what you're saying. The reason I included that was because I really didn't expect to like it and ended up getting pretty into it. It doesn't rate anywhere near LOTR or HP but I still enjoyed it.

Cheers for the suggestions guys

Yep I have read Harry Potter, the entire plot is ripped anyway, the characterisations get blander and blander as the series progresses, JK Rowling doesn't even develop so called important characters and expects people to go along with it. Its almost like Vince Russo wrote the book. It is only popular because there are movies made about it now. It took until 1978 before an attempt at a movie was put out. Harry Potter is a flash in the literary pan. It is actually a terribly written series with leaps in logic that are stupid in the first place. As a story with a happy ending what does it say, that a whiney person that is morally ambiguous goes off with the main character. That the main character is a right dumb idiot and has plot holes that are filled by simplistic narrative devices, oh how convenient Harry sees the Mirror of Erised before he needs to use it, it also just happens to be in the Room of Requirement. The sword and the pheonix show up because he believed in Dumbledore, what kind of bullshit is that. watching Wrestling gives a great ability to suspend disbelief, but the amount of utter crap within the series is in and of itself so poor that a dung beatle would struggle to even get near it due to it being that crap.

 

[hArdyPUNKmArk]

LOL

You're a smart guy Shadowmancer, I respect those points. You make some sense. I think the difference between us is I'm into books for the story and I'm obviously not as experienced a reader as yourself. I realise the story is somewhat 'chilish' and 'convinient' in a lot of places but I still find it one of the best I've read, I just loved it. Couldn't put it down and the only series I can read over and over again and still enjoy.

I do have to say though that thus far LOTR has really captured me and will most likely top Harry Potter for me but I cannot forget how much I enjoyed the HP story. Sorry mate but I loved it. Twilight is obviously no where near LOTR's league or (in my opinion) HP's.

Have you ever read the River God series by Wilbur Smith?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-God-Wilbur-Smith/dp/0330331973

My housemate wants me to read it after I finish LOTR, he thinks if I like LOTR I would like this too, just wondering if you've heard of it or read it and what your opinion may be. Also another mate thinks I should read some Anne Rice books but I'm not too sure about the vampire thing, Twilight was ok but I think that may be the extent of my willing to read a vampire story....

What are your thoughts? Also by the way LOTR is pretty fucking good so far, just started 2 toweres, up to where Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are meeting with the riders of Rohan.

 

[Shadowmancer]

I can honestly say that I have never read any Wilbur Smith, but as soon as I saw Egyptian based stuff, that is something that I am not going to be reading, I hate the Egyptian historical stuff, Historians can't keep a story straight and it is instantly not credible in my eyes to making a decent narrative out of it.

But I would suggest reading The Once and Future King, which I understand to be a very good Arthurian story. It is on my massive list of books to get through. If you feel like going Sci-fi I can give recommendations as well. In fact I am reading Sci-fi more now just for the speed that I can get through it.

 

[Kip The Fury]

The next book/series I am going to recommend is a series called "Orcs: First Blood" by Stan Nicholls it is a departure from the traditional fantasy tropes of having the orcs be the antagonists in the story these guys are not only the protagonists but actual heroes within the story. I suggest getting the British cover because the American one sucks arse. The story is well paced and thought out over the three books within the first trilogy, the next trilogy is just starting up and I am again waiting until my pile has dwindled right down to nothing before I buy a book that isn't related to The Horus Heresy series that I have been reading.

The Gotrek and Felix written by William King is a great series set within the Warhammer universe, William King was one of my favourite authors at one stage with this series, used to rip through them after getting them out of the school library. This series does have a number of running jokes within it but that happens within every series, well worth a read getting the two omnibus' that are out for this series.

Love both these, great books IMO. Also from the warhammer universe i'd seriously recommend the Malus Darkblade series, Malus is the ultimate anti-hero and the stories are full of action and betrayal.

I'd also recommend the shadows of the apt trilogy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Blac...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246268045&sr=8-1

Another action packed series but with an interesting twist. All the people in the story have different characteristics depending on which insect class they belong to, e.g the mantis kinden are deadly warriors, the beetle kinden are engineers etc. It works really well for character development and the like.

Finally i'd like to put forward anything written by Simon R. Green... the man is a genius. The deathstalker saga is a sci-fi epic, the Nightside books are awesome and the secret histories series is full of glorious supernatural action, and there all darkly funny and incredibly witty. it brings a smile to my face just thinking about some of the oneliners from any of these books.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

I enjoy most fantasy novels. But Harry Potter was really just like, me when I was 10.
But a lot of great fantasy novels have been suggested. For example:

Raymond Feist's Riftwar Cycle was an awesome series for the first ten books or so. After that, though, the timeline grew a little too murky for my tastes, and I felt like he was trying too hard.

Yeah. The first maybe...3 books, being Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness At Sethanon are great, but after that it goes a bit downhill.

Have you ever read the River God series by Wilbur Smith?

This is a great series. The first book, being 'River God' takes a great journey through northern africa, and is set in "real history". For the second one, Wilbur Smith decided to go a bit more creative, and made the main character "become" a wizard. Hence it's called "Warlock". I think... Anyways its a an interesting read.

I also enjoyed The Stand, by Stephen King. I really dig the whole idea of a post-apocolyptic world. Not to ruin the plot, but nearly everyone dies from a plague, leaving a few survivors. If you can survive some 1990's pop culture references, its great.

 

[hArdyPUNKmArk]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll probably get into the Wilbur Smith River God series after I finish LOTR (though I don't really wanna finish haha). My housemate has been hassling me to read them so I'll probably get into those next. I still like the sounds of the Orcs First Blood one too, may look into that one.

Yeah Shadowmancer, I don't mind some sci-fi, just not over the top shit if you know what I mean. What do you suggest?