Fantasy novels

[grumbledoak]

Lockdown lunacy and this thread collided, so I've read...

The Stormlight Archives. Very good, thanks for the recommendation. Though the heroine was getting on my tits by the third book.

The Liveship Traders 1, Ship of Magic. Mixed. It had a lot of good ideas but no characters I care about enough to buy the next one. I think Amazon's top critical review summed it up really. It's free on Kindle if anyone wants to try it.

[CoupeKid]

I’ve been enjoying the Magic 2.0 series from Scott Meyer, especially as they are only 99p each on Kindle.

It’s fantasy/SciFi in the Douglas Adams mould but Meyer has been a stand up comedian so there are some well set up jokes.


He’s the guy behind the Basic Instructions web comics.

[whitesocks]

The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson
The Midkemia series by Raymond E Feist
The Chronicles Of Amber by Roger Zelazny
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
The Magic Goes Away by Larry Niven
The Fionavar Tapestry series by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Swords Series by Fred Saberhagen
The Wheel Of Time series by Robert Jordan
The Dying Earth Series by Jack Vance

[TheJimi]

Stars and stones, but Peace Talks was good!

Have pre-ordered Battle Ground.

[DibblyDobbler]

Just re-read Feist's Riftwar Saga - magnificent and possibly my favorite fantasy books of all. Tried The Riftwar Legacy - just ok to be honest.

Picked up Gemmel's 'Legend' on a bit of a whim a few days back - read it about 30 years ago as a student and oh my God it's good, absolutely recommend for anybody who has not read it.

Not sure what to go for next so will have a dig about in the thread

[PugwasHDJ80]

Have you read daughter of the empire by raymond feist and janny wurts?

runs at the same period as the riftwar books, its a trilogy and for me as good as Magician etc

[irocfan]

DibblyDobbler said:

Just re-read Feist's Riftwar Saga - magnificent and possibly my favorite fantasy books of all. Tried The Riftwar Legacy - just ok to be honest.

Picked up Gemmel's 'Legend' on a bit of a whim a few days back - read it about 30 years ago as a student and oh my God it's good, absolutely recommend for anybody who has not read it.

Not sure what to go for next so will have a dig about in the thread

TBH I've got a whole stack of DG books to re-read. I'm particularly keen on Waylander

[DibblyDobbler]

PugwasHDJ80 said:

Have you read daughter of the empire by raymond feist and janny wurts?

runs at the same period as the riftwar books, its a trilogy and for me as good as Magician etc

Thanks James - no I haven't... to be honest the synopsis was not that appealing for some reason but maybe I will look again

[DibblyDobbler]

irocfan said:

TBH I've got a whole stack of DG books to re-read. I'm particularly keen on Waylander

Hmm - that rings a bell, think I may have read it as a lad. Will take a look, thanks

[PugwasHDJ80]

DibblyDobbler said:

irocfan said:

TBH I've got a whole stack of DG books to re-read. I'm particularly keen on Waylander

Hmm - that rings a bell, think I may have read it as a lad. Will take a look, thanks

I'mjus finishing the third book in the Rigante series- they're a good read too, bit less action than the Druss books but good neevertheles

I remeber reading a book about Druss growing up, but now can't find it- does anyonre remember which one it is?

[DibblyDobbler]

PugwasHDJ80 said:

I'mjus finishing the third book in the Rigante series- they're a good read too, bit less action than the Druss books but good neevertheles

I remeber reading a book about Druss growing up, but now can't find it- does anyonre remember which one it is?

'The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend' maybe? There's a full reading order here

Reckon I will try the first few next and see how I go

[tomw2000]

Good thread. Over the years I've read a lot of the traditional elves/wizards/hero/evil fantasy type stuff. But in recent years been doing a lot of 'modern urban' fantasy sometimes (not always) with a bit of humour thrown in. Ones I've enjoyed and recommend (which may or may not have been recommended in this or other threads):

Charles Stross - the Laundry series
Richard Kadrey - the Sandman Slim series - I read the latest one, released recently in under two days
Kevin Hearne - the iron druid chronicles
Jodi Taylor - Chronicles of St Mary's and the newer Time Police book (second one out next yr or later this yr I think)
Benedict Jacka - Alex Verus books
Joe Abercrombie First Law (?) series - there's a spin off and I've just started the recent second book of that
Ben Aaronowich - Peter Grant/Folly books
Robert Rankin - the first Brentford 'Trilogy' are his best ones imo and probably just first 3-4 of them
Jim Butcher - Harry Dresden books



there's probably heaps more too. Always keen for recommendations along those lines and the more traditional 'fantasy' stuff too

[MKnight702]

I love David Gemmell, I can't think of one book that wasn't great.

I also like the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, sort of fantasy/alternate history, "a reimagining of the epic events of the Napoleonic Wars with an air force—an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators"

[havoc]

tomw2000 said:

Good thread. Over the years I've read a lot of the traditional elves/wizards/hero/evil fantasy type stuff. But in recent years been doing a lot of 'modern urban' fantasy sometimes (not always) with a bit of humour thrown in. Ones I've enjoyed and recommend (which may or may not have been recommended in this or other threads):

Charles Stross - the Laundry series
Richard Kadrey - the Sandman Slim series - I read the latest one, released recently in under two days
Kevin Hearne - the iron druid chronicles
Jodi Taylor - Chronicles of St Mary's and the newer Time Police book (second one out next yr or later this yr I think)
Benedict Jacka - Alex Verus books
Joe Abercrombie First Law (?) series - there's a spin off and I've just started the recent second book of that
Ben Aaronowich - Peter Grant/Folly books
Robert Rankin - the first Brentford 'Trilogy' are his best ones imo and probably just first 3-4 of them
Jim Butcher - Harry Dresden books

there's probably heaps more too. Always keen for recommendations along those lines and the more traditional 'fantasy' stuff too

Out of interest, which of those are 'heavy fantasy' (the kind that takes itself far too seriously and wants to be Lord of the Rings or Bram Stoker's Dracula when it grows up), and which are either firmly tongue-in-cheek (e.g. Discworld) or a fantastic twist on reality (e.g. Gaiman), or both (e.g. Laundry Series)?

[tomw2000]

havoc said:

tomw2000 said:

Good thread. Over the years I've read a lot of the traditional elves/wizards/hero/evil fantasy type stuff. But in recent years been doing a lot of 'modern urban' fantasy sometimes (not always) with a bit of humour thrown in. Ones I've enjoyed and recommend (which may or may not have been recommended in this or other threads):

Charles Stross - the Laundry series
Richard Kadrey - the Sandman Slim series - I read the latest one, released recently in under two days
Kevin Hearne - the iron druid chronicles
Jodi Taylor - Chronicles of St Mary's and the newer Time Police book (second one out next yr or later this yr I think)
Benedict Jacka - Alex Verus books
Joe Abercrombie First Law (?) series - there's a spin off and I've just started the recent second book of that
Ben Aaronowich - Peter Grant/Folly books
Robert Rankin - the first Brentford 'Trilogy' are his best ones imo and probably just first 3-4 of them
Jim Butcher - Harry Dresden books

there's probably heaps more too. Always keen for recommendations along those lines and the more traditional 'fantasy' stuff too

Out of interest, which of those are 'heavy fantasy' (the kind that takes itself far too seriously and wants to be Lord of the Rings or Bram Stoker's Dracula when it grows up), and which are either firmly tongue-in-cheek (e.g. Discworld) or a fantastic twist on reality (e.g. Gaiman), or both (e.g. Laundry Series)?

Good question!
For me I'd say none are 'heavy fantasy'. And of the rest I'd say the Dresden and Verus books have the most 'serious/sensible' bits (still have smiles).
Actually the St Marys books also have the odd bit of 'sensible' re. human relationships between the characters. The Laundry Series has a bit of that too.

Not sure that fully answers your questions. (I'm currently on a work zoom call ).

Are there elements/themes/genres you're specifically looking for (or to avoid) and I'll see if I can give more opinion for you.

[havoc]

Thanks.

tomw2000 said:

Are there elements/themes/genres you're specifically looking for (or to avoid) and I'll see if I can give more opinion for you.

Really just the cliche'd wannabe LOTR stuff or the "I wanted to write a Warhammer battle". Anything that takes the traditional-fantasy bit too seriously, I guess.

Couldn't get into Tad Williams' Otherland at all, and found Stephen King's Dark Tower very hard going, but that said I didn't mind Richard Morgan's Steel Remains / Cold Commands (and I really like Charles Stross' alt-present Merchant Princes books), so part of it is the writing style...

[grumbledoak]

havoc said:

Really just the cliche'd wannabe LOTR stuff or the "I wanted to write a Warhammer battle". Anything that takes the traditional-fantasy bit too seriously, I guess.

The Robert Rankin Brentford Trilogy books don't take themselves too seriously. Thoroughly recommended.

He is a master of "repeat until funny".

[tomw2000]

grumbledoak said:

The Robert Rankin Brentford Trilogy books don't take themselves too seriously. Thoroughly recommended.

He is a master of "repeat until funny".

Exactly that. He loves a running gag as do I.

[irocfan]

I can't recommend The Monarchies of God by Paul Kearney highly enough (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchies_of_God)

[TheJimi]

Heads up - The Dresden Files - Battle Ground is now available.