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Fantasy Series to Read Recommendation

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20 Apr 2010 17:30 #60411 by metalface13
Oh yeah, I thought that was your list of what you planned to read rather than your genre faves. I think my favorite may have been Wizard and Glass.

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20 Apr 2010 17:36 #60413 by Almalik

Almalik said it was overrated. HE'S overrated.


Whoah, now. Easy on the strong language. K&K may have been better if I came into it with no expectations, but I started reading it with high hopes, and it just didn't deliver (for me).

THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy
DUNE by Frank Herbert
SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson
THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien
1984 by George Orwell
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
THE DRAWING OF THE THREE by Stephen King
THE WATCHMEN by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons


The Road is really good (maybe reading it as a new dad gave it more impact?), Dune is in the running for my favorite SF/Fantasy book of all time, and I liked Cryptonomicon and the System of the Worl Trilogy better than Snowcrash.

Is the Gunslinger series really that good? I haven't read a Steven king novel I've really enjoyed yet, although I haven't read any of his newer stuff. Has he gotten better as a writer?

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20 Apr 2010 18:03 #60419 by metalface13
Almalik wrote:

Is the Gunslinger series really that good? I haven't read a Steven king novel I've really enjoyed yet, although I haven't read any of his newer stuff. Has he gotten better as a writer?


Well seeing as how the series spans his entire career it's hard to qualify if he's "gotten better." He writes pretty much the same, nothing gets epically prosiac, if that's what you're looking for.

It's got characters you get attached to and villains to despise. I think it's a great mix of Western, horror, fantasy and scifi. That's kind of hard if you ask me. I wasn't a fan of King before I started reading the series, but now I am.

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20 Apr 2010 20:23 #60459 by iguanaDitty
I tried to read Gunslinger lately...the writing is OK in spots but in some books just downright bad, and there's some just downright stupid shit in there. Since I never read it as a kid I wonder if it's one of those things best experienced when young.
I only made it halfway through the third or fourth book.

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24 Apr 2010 14:41 #60821 by BloodyJack
kookoobah wrote:

...I like little details hidden everywhere type, like how JKR hid some stuff in Book 1 that was relevant in the later books...


Then ASoIaF is the way to go. There are more things (truly major plot clues) hidden throughout those books then I have ever seen. The best part is that the author never spells them out later. One of the only series that I truly believe you actually can read several times and get a new experience each time.

I think it was Skeletor who said earlier that this series ruined fantasy for him. Couldn't agree more. Everything else now seems wanting.

All of that glowing praise being said, there is a fairly large bump in the road:
There are like three more books to go, and George RR Martin is writing one every two to three years (maybe more). So there you go. The nice part is that whenever there is a new one coming out, you can (and will need to) go back and read up to that point.

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24 Apr 2010 22:59 #60823 by Shellhead
BloodyJack wrote:

Then ASoIaF is the way to go. There are more things (truly major plot clues) hidden throughout those books then I have ever seen. The best part is that the author never spells them out later. One of the only series that I truly believe you actually can read several times and get a new experience each time.

I think it was Skeletor who said earlier that this series ruined fantasy for him. Couldn't agree more. Everything else now seems wanting.

All of that glowing praise being said, there is a fairly large bump in the road:
There are like three more books to go, and George RR Martin is writing one every two to three years (maybe more). So there you go. The nice part is that whenever there is a new one coming out, you can (and will need to) go back and read up to that point.


It is an amazing series, but I am no longer recommending it to people, because Martin is writing it so slowly and he is an unhealthy-looking 60 years old now. It sounds like we will finally get book 5 in 2011, but after that, I consider book 6 to be uncertain and book 7 to be a long shot.

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27 Apr 2010 10:51 #61041 by Mr. White
This guy may have been mentioned, but I'm looking for the name of the American author that writes a lot of historical fiction usually set in the Dark Age of Britain. I think he's got a popular 'King Arthur' series or something. This ringing a bell with anyone?

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27 Apr 2010 11:09 #61044 by Space Ghost
You may be referring to Stephen R. Lawhead -- I am reading his Robin Hood series now; I enjoyed the King Arthur series....so I recommend both of them.

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27 Apr 2010 11:19 #61046 by Mr. White
Space Ghost wrote:

You may be referring to Stephen R. Lawhead -- I am reading his Robin Hood series now; I enjoyed the King Arthur series....so I recommend both of them.


Close, but that's not him. I think his name is Richard or Hamilton or something.

On Lawson I read Hood, but not Tuck or Scarlet. I felt Hood spent a bit too much time hanging out in that witches den. Let me know what you think of the series.
His Arthur series was Merlin or Atlantis or something, right?

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27 Apr 2010 11:24 #61047 by Space Ghost
He called it the "Pendragon Cycle" and tried to set the Arthurian legend in historical terms. So far, I have just started Hood, so I don't know if I will get to the other ones or not. Since his earliest work, the Dragon King Saga, almost everything seems to be in this "historical fantasy" genre.

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27 Apr 2010 11:28 - 27 Apr 2010 12:50 #61048 by Mr. White
Also, regarding Hood, I read it before the other two were released. Perhaps I'll give the second book a chance if you can vouch for it.

Edit: Found him - Bernard Cornwell. I was totally wrong. He's English. The Warlord Chronicles is the King Arthur series I was think of. He also wrote the Sharpe series.
Last edit: 27 Apr 2010 12:50 by Mr. White.

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29 Apr 2010 13:02 #61404 by Pat II
Rliyen wrote:

I think my favorite series was the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. Loved the first three books, but the last set were HORRIBLE. Like Dune, stick with the first three and you'll be fine.


I agree - except I found the fourth book to be quite good...interest completely failed in the 5th book though.

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01 May 2010 19:35 #61598 by dan daly
It's not fantasy, but it's an awesome series...read Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles. So far the books out in the series are:

The Last Kingdom
The Pale Horseman
Lords of the North
Sword Song: The Battle for London

I've really enjoyed all of them so far. Because I liked them so much, I've tried some of his other stuff. His Arthurian fiction didn't grab me at all, but his other historical fiction has all been good that I've tried. I'm about 30 pages into my first Sharpe novel and enjoying it.

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13 May 2010 13:46 #62874 by Amontillado
dan daly wrote:

It's not fantasy, but it's an awesome series...read Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles. So far the books out in the series are:

The Last Kingdom
The Pale Horseman
Lords of the North
Sword Song: The Battle for London

I've really enjoyed all of them so far. Because I liked them so much, I've tried some of his other stuff. His Arthurian fiction didn't grab me at all, but his other historical fiction has all been good that I've tried. I'm about 30 pages into my first Sharpe novel and enjoying it.


Yeah, I just spun up a new thread here on FAT about this . I'm reading The Last Kingdom right now and it's great. I read my first Sharpe novel a couple of years ago and loved it. As much as I want to like F&SF, I find that historical adventure fiction is what holds my attention. I'm still seeking more.

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26 Jul 2010 13:37 - 26 Jul 2010 14:05 #69154 by jeb
I'll have some updates regarding some recommendations here, but I saw this linked at Boing Boing and it looks fucking great: The Kobold Wizard's Dildo of Enlightenment +2 (an adventure for 3-6 players, levels 2-5) FAT link .

OK, I finished China Miéville's PERDIDO STREET STATION and it was OK. Well written, but I thought it was all over the place and I wasn't really grabbed by the main conflict of the novel. So folks know, it is steampunk, through and through. If that is not your bag, avoid. I don't mind it, but he's a bit heavy with the "analytical engines" and "chymicals" and what not. I think he has some neat ideas, and I like them as background: the big ribs of Boneville, the Remade, and the Consortium, but I don't think he really married them well--it's like he picked the wrong main thread to tie these concepts together.

I am reading R. Scott Bakker's THE DARKNESS THAT CAME BEFORE now, about 200 pages in. It's bothering me in the same way that THE TYRANNY OF THE NIGHT and the half-finished-and-returned A GAME OF THRONES did. It's all the same story. Savage but honorable tribes in the north. Wild crazy tribes (demons?) in the far north. Political intrigues in the south, where the emperor (king) sits. Something is coming: the Consult, the Winter, the Instrumentalities. Fuck me, fellas, you still need 2700 pages to tell this fucker? I can at least respect Martin for not naming everyone with bullshit fantasy names like Anasurimbur and Gledius. (AINOUS = magical).

There has been a really cool moment in THE DARKNESS though and that is keeping me going right now--the image of a sorcerer floating above a battle field at the height of the trees singing a song of dragons that incinerates his enemies was pretty sweet. More of that, Bakker, less bitchy emperor's moms please.
Last edit: 26 Jul 2010 14:05 by jeb.

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