Fantasy book recommendations?

vurt

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Stuff i've tried (read a few books or got halfway through): His Dark Materials, A Song of Ice and Fire, Assassin's Apprentice, Earthsea.

Some fantasy i've read and really liked: LOTR (no fantasy i've read comes even near it), Bilbo, Abarat series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Anything you would recommend? Would be nice if it's not like 10 books, but maybe just 1-3..
 
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Would be nice if it's not like 10 books, but maybe just 1-3..
In spite of this, I´m going to recommend the first part (first 5 books) of The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny since it´s a pretty awesome read :).
The second half (the other 5 books) is weaker, but in regards to the first half reading it is unnecessary because the first half works as self contained just fine.
A very imaginative and intricate series.
The second and, to a lesser degree, the fifth books are somewhat weaker, but the other three are rollercoasters of brilliance.
The books are relatively short so I´d say that in the end they kinda fit the 1-3 requirement.

I´d also recommend Lord of Light by the same author, but it falls into "science fantasy" genre.
 
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If you can get it for a budget price, then I can recommend the official novel to "Ruins Of Myth rannor", the second "Pools Of Radiance" game. It isn't great, but really nice to read.

If you liked The Hobbit, then ou might perhaps like Thera Wakening, too. It's the official novel to Stonekeep, but it was only bundled with the game. I don't know if you can get it via Ebay or Amazon in used state. It isn't a great novel either, but a bit like The Hobbit in its tone, only much, much shorter and a completely different setting (that of Stonekeep).

If you like "fantasy" in a *very* broad sense, then I'd definitively recommend "Momo" by Michael Ende. And his "Neverending Stiory", too. Both are exceptional books.
Unfortunately "Jim Butto and Luke the engine driver" seems (according to www.Amazon.com) not available as a reasonable price - the sequel, "Jim Button and the Wild 13" is even more interesting. But both are in fact books for children, although their stories (especially the of the sequel) is unique, imho.

What you also could try to do is read the translated TDE books. There aren't many, but maybe you are understanding Aventuria better after that.

What goes a bit into the horror department are "Skullduggery Pleasant", and the victorian-era dystopia of "Tunnels".

Recently I have read the second "Tinker Farm" book, and I didn't like it at all. Despite it looking like as if it was for children, it is definitively not so - at least not in the last part, which becomes a kind of mixture between a thriller/crime story and horror. Grown-up teenanger might like it, but it is indeed very dark in the end, too dark for my taste.

An entirely different thing against is the official novel to The Dark Crsystal. It showas a few facets not clearly visible in the movie - but in the end it's only a retelling of the movie's content.

The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents is a Discworld book - but it can be read without knowing the Discworld at all. In fact, I heavily recommend it ! - Because it sheds some light on the question of "what is humanity" … A magnificient book, imho. It has won a prize - and that very well deserved, imho. - And don't get yourself fooled by the label "for kids" !

What I'm looking forward to read is his "Long Earth", based on the few things I know about this book.
 
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Discworld is a must for any fantasy fan, but it's mostly comedy/satire and may not fit into what you want. Start with Mort or Guards, Guards! and then see if you want to work back to the earlier ones.

If you want a taste of what inspired the first RPGs and set the stage for modern fantasy as we know it, then you have to read the original Conan stories by Robert E Howard, the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories by Fritz Lieber (coincidentally a huge influence on Discworld), and if you want to mix in a little odd sci-fi, the Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance. Following the same line, you can expand in to the broader weird fiction of HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and others of that school. Most of these are short stories, so you should be able to pick up collections of them fairly cheap.

Some young 'uns might find them a bit odd, since the swords and sorcery genre tends toward small, personal adventures instead of sprawing epics. That and the fact that they tend to stray into Lovecraftian weirdness quite regularly. The Conan stories are actually a part of the Cthulhu mythos, for example.
 
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Thanks a lot :)

I think i will start with The Amber Chronicles. Seems good.

Michael Ende, yes, i have a friend who absolutely loves his books and spams a lot about how great they are on FaceBook. Might order "Momo" then.

I've read some Pratchett, can't remember which one it was right now.. It was "ok", but not what i'm after right now i think.. Conan, yes, i've been thinking about ordering The Complete Chronicles of Conan.
 
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Most of these recommendations are about a decade old since that was last time I went on a fantasy binge.

High Fantasy: Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay; Magician - Raymond Feist; Robin Hobb

Military Fantasy: The Jackal of Nar - John Marco; Glen Cook

Sci-Fi/Unclassifiable: The Steerswoman - Rosemary Kirstein; The Book of the New Sun Series - Gene Wolfe; Perdido Street Station - China Tom Miéville

Alternate History: The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic, Under Heaven - Guy Gavriel Kay
 
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The Belgariad by David Eddings. It's five books and highly entertaining. It is like Tolkien, in that it has a party that travels together on an epic adventure.

The Magic of Recluce, by L.E. Modesitt Jr. This is several books in the same world, but each is completely self contained.

The Codex Alera series, by Jim Butcher-This is military fantasy, following the career of a soldier up through the ranks during a time of war. Good battle descriptions.

I've read and own hundreds/thousands of books, so ask if you have questions about a particular series. Some I haven't read in years though....
 
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The Belgariad by David Eddings. It's five books and highly entertaining. It is like Tolkien, in that it has a party that travels together on an epic adventure.

Yes i read this series some 15+ years ago, loved it back then.

Riftwar, yes, i've seen that series recommended before, might be worth looking into.
 
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Wheel of Time the best fantasy series by far. It is not a few books unf. but well worth it IMHO. It is worth to note that some people think some parts is really slow... but if you're able to see the whole picture everything has a purpose.
 
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Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster:

Spellsinger (1983) ISBN 0-446-97352-1
The Hour of the Gate (1984) ISBN 0-446-90354-X
The Day of the Dissonance (1984) ISBN 0-446-32133-8
The Moment of the Magician (1984) ISBN 0-446-32326-8
The Paths of the Perambulator (1985) ISBN 0-446-32679-8
The Time of the Transference (1986) ISBN 0-932096-43-3
Son of Spellsinger (1993) ISBN 0-446-36257-3
Chorus Skating (1994) ISBN 0-446-36237-9

Robin Hobb
The Farseer Trilogy

The Farseer Trilogy follows the life of FitzChivalry Farseer (Fitz), a trained assassin, in a kingdom called The Six Duchies while his uncle, Prince Verity, attempts to wage war on the Red-Ship Raiders from The OutIslands who are attacking the shores of the kingdom by turning the people of the Six Duchies into Forged ones; still alive, but without any emotion or soul. Meanwhile Prince Regal's jealousy and the indulgence of his own selfish whims threatens to destroy Six Duchies.

Assassin's Apprentice (1995)
Royal Assassin (1996)
Assassin's Quest (1997)

The Tawny Man Trilogy

The Tawny Man continues the life of FitzChivalry Farseer from The Farseer Trilogy. It commences 15 years after the events in Assassin's Quest, a period covered in part by The Liveship Traders Trilogy. It focuses on The Fool's attempts to guide others to fulfill his prophecies.

Fool's Errand (2002)
Golden Fool (2003)
Fool's Fate (2003)

The Empire Trilogy is a collaborative trilogy of novels written by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. It traces the story of Mara of the Acoma's rise to power from a convent novitiate to the most powerful woman in the fictional world of Kelewan. These three books are contemporary to Feist's original Riftwar Saga and feature some crossover characters, mainly from 1982's Magician (Pug, the protagonist of Magician, appears twice in 1990's Servant of the Empire and once in 1992's Mistress of the Empire). Mara struggles to rule her family after her father and brother are killed in a trap by the Minwanabi, one of the most powerful families in the Empire and longtime enemies of the Acoma. Mara quickly learns how to play the Game of the Council with skill and challenges the binding traditions of her world.

Daughter of the Empire
Servant of the Empire
Mistress of the Empire
 
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... And of course my short stories of which a few are translated (by me, of course, because no-one else would be doing it ! :lol: ) ;)
 
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Any books by L E Modesitt Jr. Someone already mentioned his marvelous Recluse series, though my personal favourites are his Imager series. Many are self contained and none go beyond 2 or 3 with the same main characters.
 
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Something very different : The Xanth series. It consists very much on word-games, but not bad ones. I once read the book called "Night-Mare", and I found it kind of fun.
 
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Something very different : The Xanth series. It consists very much on word-games, but not bad ones. I once read the book called "Night-Mare", and I found it kind of fun.

Heh. It's funny you should mention those. I read them years ago and recently reread the first couple to see how they hold up. They're definitely written for a younger audience, but are still pretty fun.
 
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