Fantasy novels

Author
Discussion

richtea78

5,574 posts

157 months

Wednesday 30th November 2016
quotequote all
Joe Abercrombie is good, bit more GoT than Eddings but I enjoy them.

Will echo Pratchett and Gaimen as well

Einion Yrth

19,575 posts

243 months

Friday 2nd December 2016
quotequote all
Piersman2 said:
Gnits said:
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.

I read these before Lord of The Rings. Ended up being disappointed with Tolkeins books as Donaldson writes a v rich and full universe.
I would second this choice. Probably pretty much the earliest series of books I read when but a teen'. They hooked me into the genre and I avidly read every fantasy novel I could get my hands on for about 10 years.

David Gemmell is another author that stands out for me, the Druss the legends book(s) being particularly emotive.
Strange how tastes differ; I find Donaldson's oevre to be some of the most trite hackneyed rubbish I've ever read, and Covenant is possibly the least likeable protagonist ever penned.

grumbledoak

31,500 posts

232 months

Friday 2nd December 2016
quotequote all
Einion Yrth said:
Strange how tastes differ; I find Donaldson's oevre to be some of the most trite hackneyed rubbish I've ever read, and Covenant is possibly the least likeable protagonist ever penned.
I'm the same. I assume the difference lies in the age of the reader - everyone who raved about them to me had read them in their teens, but were recommending them to me at University.

I've only ever given up on a handful of books. Covenant was the only one that has gone straight in the bin.

perdu

4,884 posts

198 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
grumbledoak said:
Einion Yrth said:
Strange how tastes differ; I find Donaldson's oevre to be some of the most trite hackneyed rubbish I've ever read, and Covenant is possibly the least likeable protagonist ever penned.
I'm the same. I assume the difference lies in the age of the reader - everyone who raved about them to me had read them in their teens, but were recommending them to me at University.

I've only ever given up on a handful of books. Covenant was the only one that has gone straight in the bin.
IF THIS IS A CLUB CAN I JOIN?

Sorry the caps was stuck on but frankly Covenant is so hackneyed I feel the capslock was ordained by a higher power, utter slop the lot of 'em

As a younger chap I did enjoy David Eddings and still do, as I did the Spellsinger series of humorous fantasy

It strikes me that I am having difficulty remembering the author but Alan Dean Foster is earworming his way round my skull at the mo'

Must be him

And I concur that Sir T Pratchett must wear the fantasy crown for brilliance and wonderful pifftaking


Call HIM number one


richtea78

5,574 posts

157 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Pratchett was one of the few celebrities I was actually sad to see them pass away. I've met him a few times and got signed copies of several of his books. Discworld is amazing, the characters are wonderful.

I can never pick a favourite but it'd be between Nanny Ogg, The Patrician or the Luggage. Or Death, Vimes, Stibbons, there are so many. They need to make a Nac Mac Feegle movie before Billy Connolly dies

Nik da Greek

2,503 posts

149 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Plus one for finding Covenant intensely irritating. I just found it so frustrating that every time the character was on the verge of becoming even slightly likeable, Donaldson would suddenly come over all "ooooh, no, I'm supposed to be writing the ultimate anti-hero here, I can't have the readership actually sympathising with him..." and make him immediately revert to being an insufferable cock again.

Funny how many people claim Neil Gaiman as a top author but can't actually spell his name... However, misspelled or not, his work is utterly awesome in both prose and graphic novels. Sandman along with Watchmen are the two graphic novels that ought to have raised the artform to the level of true great literature.

Michael Shea is a very much underrated fantasy author. His Nifft the Lean books are definitely worth seeking out as is the slightly more opaque but well worth perservering with In Yana, the Touch of Undying. His humour is so subtle it's often only after re-reading that you even twig the books are funny as well as epic

David Drake is a Vietnam veteran who started out writing mercenary-warfare-in-space stuff but once he matured crossed into some great fantasy stuff, such as the Northworld books which are a great meeting of sci-fi and Norse mythology

Tom Holt writes a lot like a mid-way point between Pratchett (who I always found a bit to puerile to be truly funny personally) and Rankin. Sorta a fantasy Douglas Adams, often in a contemporary setting but involving a re-telling of a legend; Flying Dutch, for example, is a hilarious take on the doomed ship and its crew.

Brian Lumley is usually thought of as a horror author, but some of his stuff crosses cheerfully into fantasy. Indeed, he really cut his teeth adapting HP Lovecraft tales for a modern hero and the Titus Crow stories were the best expression of this. Later he also delved into Lovecraft's Dreamlands with the Hero of Dreams saga, which allow the hero to do something no Lovecraft protaganist was ever seen to do; fight back...


...which leads us to who is, for me anyway, the ultimate fantasy author, HP Lovecraft. Yeah, the language can be a little tough going if you're not used to nineteenth century New England dialect, and a lot of the stories are outright horror rather than fantasy, but when you think it took Tolkein eleventy million years to concieve worlds less real and solid than Lovecraft could manage in a few sentences as a backstory, his true genius starts to become clear. The Dreamlands especially are a perfect setting for a true high fantasy romp that the likes of Piers Anthony would have sold several organs to be able to create.

Edited by Nik da Greek on Sunday 4th December 12:02

Einion Yrth

19,575 posts

243 months

Friday 9th December 2016
quotequote all
Nik da Greek said:
Funny how many people claim Neil Gaiman as a top author but can't actually spell his name... However, misspelled or not, his work is utterly awesome in both prose and graphic novels. Sandman along with Watchmen are the two graphic novels that ought to have raised the artform to the level of true great literature.
Watchmen was Alan Moore; not that I otherwise disagree about Gaiman being a fine author - American Gods is a marvelous piece of work.

Nik da Greek

2,503 posts

149 months

Friday 9th December 2016
quotequote all
Yeah, I knew that! I probably shoulda put some brackets or something in there for clarity paperbag

Ruttager

2,079 posts

191 months

Saturday 10th December 2016
quotequote all
Have a look at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perdido-Street-Station-Ne...

Recommended to me by a friend and enjoyed reading it on Holiday.

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Sunday 11th December 2016
quotequote all
Current reading Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind, and thoroughly enjoying it so far. The only problem is it's the first in a trilogy, the first being published in 2007 and 2016, I hope it doesn't turn in to another Game of Thrones and the last book never comes!

richtea78

5,574 posts

157 months

Sunday 11th December 2016
quotequote all
Nik da Greek said:
Yeah, I knew that! I probably shoulda put some brackets or something in there for clarity paperbag
Hah, love it when someone slips up when trying to make light of other people's errors!

Nik da Greek

2,503 posts

149 months

Sunday 11th December 2016
quotequote all
richtea78 said:
Hah, love it when someone slips up when trying to make light of other people's errors!
*sigh* To be fair if someone were to say, for example... "Along with The Faerie Queene, The Tempest possibly represents the pinnacle of Elizabethan literature" you wouldn't necessarily assume that they thought Spenser had actually been written by Shakespeare. Whereas to recommend Shakspeer is just plain wrong

judas

5,963 posts

258 months

Sunday 11th December 2016
quotequote all
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, and the follow-ups Red Seas under Red Skies and The Republic of Thieves.

A real shame the author suffers from severe depression and anxiety attacks, which means the fourth book has been delayed for a couple of years so far and no sign of it being published any time soon frown

Goaty Bill 2

3,393 posts

118 months

Thursday 15th December 2016
quotequote all
Piersman2 said:
Gnits said:
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson.

I read these before Lord of The Rings. Ended up being disappointed with Tolkeins books as Donaldson writes a v rich and full universe.
I would second this choice. Probably pretty much the earliest series of books I read when but a teen'. They hooked me into the genre and I avidly read every fantasy novel I could get my hands on for about 10 years.

David Gemmell is another author that stands out for me, the Druss the legends book(s) being particularly emotive.
Another one for the original two trilogies of Tomas Covenant the Unbeliever and The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
The third trilogy, The Last Chronicles of Tomas Covenant, less so.

Anything by David Gemmell is IMO worth reading.
Probably the earliest books are his best work, but I never read a bad one.
As Piersman2 says; Druss the Legend is great.
More often than not, I stayed up all night reading, when having acquired a new Gemmell book.


Einion Yrth said:
...and Covenant is possibly the least likeable protagonist ever penned.
Probably a great part of what kept me intrigued at the time.
Detestable little st smile



Edited by Goaty Bill 2 on Thursday 15th December 15:28

cherie171

367 posts

116 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
quotequote all
I'm currently re-reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. I read the first two trilogies when they originally came out, but didn't continue past those six. This time I plan on continuing into the later trilogies.

RizzoTheRat

25,085 posts

191 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
quotequote all
Farseer trilogy is the best of the set but I really enjoyed the others too. Read them in the order they were published as if you go straight to the second Fitz series there's quite a few spoilers of the liveship and tawnyman trilogies.

glazbagun

14,259 posts

196 months

Wednesday 4th January 2017
quotequote all
I really enjoyed Ian Irvine's Well of Echoes series up until literally the last three pages or so where he gives it the most cynical of endings/twists (worse than Peter F Hamilton bad) so as to get another new series of books out of it. Quite light, but inventive (I thought) and plenty of action.

Can't blame the guy for making a buck, I guess.

If anyone has somehow not managed to read the His Dark Materials books by Phillip Pullman, it's not too late- I still found them enjoyable even though I was well past teenage when I read them. Middle book is a bit of a drag, but you can't really go wrong with a childrens book about waging a war to literally kill God. I think the fact that they are meant for kids gave me the perverse enjoyment to go through the dull bits.

I haven't really read fantasy in over a decade so could probably do with digging out some Pratchett, whom I have still somehow never read.

Edited by glazbagun on Wednesday 4th January 22:44

mathmos

717 posts

173 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
SnapShot said:
Ive been enjoying the Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series lately. Read them all over the past couple of months.
RizzoTheRat said:
Current reading Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind, and thoroughly enjoying it so far. The only problem is it's the first in a trilogy, the first being published in 2007 and 2016, I hope it doesn't turn in to another Game of Thrones and the last book never comes!
Yes to both of these, I tend to listen to audio books quite a lot on my commute and along with being really good stories these are both enhanced by excellent narration. I can highly recommend, although the wait for the next Rothfuss book is seriously painful I can see this being a HBO series in the future.

The Joe Abercrombie books are also very enjoyable (also has suburb narration in audiobook form), the first law series in particular I thought was excellent

TheJimi

24,862 posts

242 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
SnapShot said:
Ive been enjoying the Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London series lately. Read them all over the past couple of months.
Thanks to recommendations on this thread and elsewhere on PH, I'm currently on the 2nd book.

I was looking for something to fill the Dresden void and this fits the bill beautifully.

irocfan

Original Poster:

40,153 posts

189 months

Monday 9th January 2017
quotequote all
TheJimi said:
I was looking for something to fill the Dresden void and this fits the bill beautifully.
have we mentioned Benedict Jacka's Alex Versus series yet? Quite Dresden-like in some regards but set in London