Favorite Fantasy genre author, or series, anyone?

[verity_blues]

Its a hard choice for me, here's my "hot now" list!

Rated by 1 to 5 's.

Robin Hobb--- Creator of Fitz-Chivalry, The Fool, and Nevarre. This woman writes fantasy novels like a man would, only more subtle and character enthralling. The way she torments the main characters with "real" issues is refreshing and enduring. The "romance" between The Fool and Fitz is something I still cannot shake from memory.

R.A. Salvatore--- Creator of Drizzt, Entreri, Elbryan, Pony, De'Unnero, and many, many more! The way he describes the martial actions taking place is spellbinding. You can actualy SEE Drizzt's two scimitars in action, because of the absolute acuracy in which Rob Salvatore write's it down. Ho, Ho, what?!

Terry Goodkind--- Creator of The Lord Rahl, and all of his followers/detractors. This man writes out the theologies of good vs evil in a way to gives the reader a real sense of the meaning that life will eventualy end, probably painfully, too. I love his series, though I am grateful that the end of it is finaly approaching, only because I want to see what he does with a fresh crop of inspiration. Lord Rahl guide us...

Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman--- OK, I know, I might have overrated these two by placing them on the "hot now" list, because lately their books fail to captivate me as they used too. But I had to include them on my list, mainly because I have Raistlin Tattoo'ed on my arm!!!!!! And, oh, how I loved my Raistlin. Because of him I always threw down my die in D&D as a Wizard!!

George R.R. Martin--- Creator of more characters in one series than I can even fathom. There is an appendix in the back of every book in case you cannot remember them. This man keeps it real! His books are what I envision my MTW2 to be; Bloody, sinister, vengeful, distainful, sensuous, venomous, and heart-wrenching. OOH-RAH!

Sara Douglas & Elizabeth Hayden--- I grouped these two together because they are so similar, I have a constant need of reading some fantasy and picked up on these two while waiting on various hardbacks from my fav's to be released. Sara Douglas had a good thing going, to begin with. But, I think that her Starman saga ended far later than it should have; though, so far only Goodkind has been able to continue an epic story beyond 5 books and keep me anticipating his next. Hayden, on the other hand, has been hard at her saga. And I must say, I am still very interested in following Achmed and Rhapsody.

Gregory Keyes--- This man has somehow added a Southern' flair to a fantasy series, also included some spanish and italian flair. Its really good, and really new to the fantasy scene. If you want to read about some brash young damsel-seeking rapier stabbing man, or an over-forty bow twanging heart broken yet cradle robbing ranger on a mission... then pick this series up, its well worth it.

Tad Williams--- Just started reading from this author, all I can say is that his books or worth getting them in hardback. Me, I can never wait for a paperback any way, Amazon loves me.

Takashi Matsuoka & James Clavell--- This is more historical than fantasy, though fiction-direven. James put Japan's samurai's on the map with his timeless novel "Shogun" and Takashi has taken the torch with "Cloud of Sparrows" and "Autumn Bridge." If you don't read these three novels then there is something seriously wrong with you. Hands down Shogun is one of the best novels I have EVER read, take my word for it.

Well, theres my author list now here's my top five fantasy novels read, to date:

1: Golden Fool, by Robin Hobb
2: Shogun, by James Clavell
3: Wizards First Rule, by Terry Goodkind
4: A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin
5: The Demon Apostle, by R.A. Salvatore

I don't just read here and there, if I fall for an authors stories, I collect ALL of their books, in hardback. If its my first book from a new Author, I'll get a paperback first, if I decide to pursue them further, I get all hardbacks from there-on-out.

Check out one of my bookshelves! I support non-reading ppl and loan my prized books occasionaly (not my autographed copy of Robin Hobbs "Fools Fate" though)... nvr to be returned, sad, but a worthy contribution if one day they actualy decide to read them.

EDIT: you won't see any of my Bible's on the shelf because I've got about 5 of them scattered throughout my house. If you don't have a "Thompsons Chain-Reference NKJ or KJ" study bible then you realy need to get you one.



And, finaly, heres my two future bookworms... my little Carroll kids!



Please post responses if you love fantasy. You might provide a good book for me to read, so suggest one, I BEG YOU!

[verity_blues]

@ANY MODERATOR

please move this over to "The Arts" section of the Thema Devia for me. Thats where I meant to post this, being literature-based and all.

But, don't close it, plz.

TYIA
verity_blues

[Francisco Montana]

@ANY MODERATOR

please move this over to "The Arts" section of the Thema Devia for me. Thats where I meant to post this, being literature-based and all.

But, don't close it, plz.

TYIA
verity_blues

Your wish is my command. Thread moved to the arts. (BTW, you should post the pics in the Say Cheese Thread! ) ~ Lord Gruffles

[Thanatos]

Well, give the kids "The Hobbit" to read, at least.

[Chaigidel]

gene wolf the books of the New Sun

[percival]

Well, first off, really good post. I'm going to have to look into a few of those authors. I am a complete fantasy buff aswell, and generally thats all I read. Occasionaly I'll read historical military novels, but its mostly fantasy.

My favorite author and favorite series would have to be G.R.R.M and his "A song of ice and fire". I still remember the day I picked up A Storm of Swords on impulse ( I travelling and needed something to read on the plane). Absolutely incredible books, what I most like about them is that there is really no distinct line between good and evil. The books are full of gore, and heartbreak. I confess, I cried a few times reading through them.
The books are extremely complex and the range of characters is incredibly dynamic. GRRM is a gifted man.. he can take you from absolutely hating a character, to loving them, as easily, it seems, as he could shake your hand.

I'm currently digging through a third time, eagerly awaiting GRRM to release his next part of the series...

I recently found out that a planned HBO series is in the works for his series, and thats got me riled up too.

[Farnan]

You forgot the kings of fantasy:

J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Since you appear to be Christian based on owning five Bibles, I suggest you get your kids The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Besides being an awesome book, it explains the sacrifice of Jesus in metaphor so children can understand it.

[Thanatos]

Yes. After the kids grow up, give them LOTR.

[enoch]

Prince of Nothing series by R Scott Bakker

The first book is The Darkness That Comes Before

Hard, Deeply Philosophical SF - (like dune is for pussies hard)






frank is still god, of course

[Richard]

Raymond E. Feist (or Fiest?) is good.

[enoch]

the riftwar is a great series
as is the parallel series with janny wurts
yes feist writes the same book again and again, and he ain't no gene w, but wolfe really is kind of blah by the cutting edge standards of a China Mieville, and a lot of cheese is decent if you don't too attached,
look at goodkind

the second two books in the otori series don't live up to the first one, but they are good, not to complicated books

storm constantine will teach you to think around your upbringing

[Darkragnar]

I have read a few book's that you mention but i havnt read em all; thanks for supplying me with more material.

I see u mention Clavell and Shogun , true its based on history but mind you He does make Historical assumptions too, but on the whole its a pretty good explains the idea of a samurai and Sengoku Era Politics to the west.

Also i was wondering do you have the same bible or are there 5 different interpretations of it by different Authors, would kind of be odd to have 5 copies of the same book , unless u loan it ,that is.

Speaking of favourite fantasy writter id have to say Tolkien, mainly because he uses all the "real" i.e. historical old stuff and makes for an very intersting read.

[Tom Paine]

Okay let's start with the obvious, Tolkein. He basically defined and popularised "high fantasy" as a genre, and in a very impressive style with well built worlds, excellent characterisation, and some very interesting bits of plot; his prose can seem a little old fashioned, and he does on occasion go rather over the top on descriptions, but other than that, he is a rather awesome writer; for yourself, I'd advise The Lord of the Rings (one book, often split up into a trilogy), but I was read the Hobbit when I was young, by my father; first real exposure to fantasy, but stayed with me ever since; I advise you do that yourself.

Others... well, as to "mature" (not adult, but dealing with more mature themes and no black-and-white, good-versus-evil, clear-cut stuff) fantasy, I'd go with Pratchett mainly. He is a rather wonderful writer, with great flights of fancy in the Discworld, and a very much whimsical nature; he is also incredibly readable, I find. Don't start with the earliest works, but I'd recommend Night Watch and Guards, Guards quite strongly, with Thud! if you want a somewhat darker work. Again, he has written for children as well - here, I'd recommend The Wee Free Men.

Less mature fantasy, I'd recommend Gemmell. A rather wonderful writer, his characters aren't necessarily as strong as Tolkien or Pratchett, but he does have a good writing style, and whilst some of his books do contain simplistic good/evil dichotomies, others avoid that; I'd recommend Waylander as one of the later and either Legend or the First Chronicles of Druss the Legend as one of the former; he is, I might add, a far superior writer to Eddings.

And a brief segue into science-fiction, go for Dune all the way. Herbert has a little bit of a difficult prose style at times, and jumps between various people, and it is definitely not a book for the faint-hearted, but Dune has to be the best science-fiction novel I have ever read; it deals with some interesting themes and ideas, as well as being good in its own right. However, don't go for the sequels, those go rapidly downhill.

For the master, as far as I am concerned, of science-fiction works, look into the Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card; people of all ages and all walks of life take something from it, and it has impressive characterisation and empathy to his characters, but is also unmerciful towards them. Certainly read Ender's Game, the rest of the series may be said to go downhill after Speaker of the Dead because it gets a little overcomplicated, but I have a tendency to disagree with that assessment.

Finally, I'd like to recommend an anthology of short stories by the master. Asimov's Complete Robot is a wonderful collection of short stories looking at and making predictions about the potential future of technology, life, the impact of robotics on humanity, and similar matters; delving into ethics, psychology, religion, and many other areas of human life, it is a wonderful compilation.

I will add one to steer well clear of, though; and it will shock many. C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia presents a very simplistic and Christianised view of the world; they were written after his conversion, and it shows incredibly strongly, especially in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. While not poorly written, the all-pervading nature of this message and philosophical basis in his works takes a lot of their power and interest out of them, for me; basically its an attempt to explain Christianity by analogy, but poorly done.

[TAG]

R.A. Salvatore
To be honest i don't read books , but from the few i read i like R.A. Salvatore's style.

[danzig]

For the master, as far as I am concerned, of science-fiction works, look into the Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card; people of all ages and all walks of life take something from it, and it has impressive characterisation and empathy to his characters, but is also unmerciful towards them. Certainly read Ender's Game, the rest of the series may be said to go downhill after Speaker of the Dead because it gets a little overcomplicated, but I have a tendency to disagree with that assessment.

Yeah not sure why some people are turned off by the rest of the books, I actually loved them. Ender's Game is obviously the book everyone could jump into and hell if OSC wrote it around Harry Potter time he could have gone that direction and turn it into a multibook series of fluffy characters. Instead he went a different direction, the characters changed quite drastically and grew up. My only gripe about the series is the ease of characters falling in love and the obsessive "make babies" objective that every female character seems to have. I mean god Petra ends up with 10 children between Bean and Peter, though granted she only gave birth to half of them. Few series can produce two strong characters within it (Bean and Ender) like Card did.

[The Super Pope]

Terry Prattchett's Discworld series. Very funny and parodies our own world

[removeduser_426582376423734]

David Gemmel.

[Mathius]

Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman--- OK, I know, I might have overrated these two by placing them on the "hot now" list, because lately their books fail to captivate me as they used too. But I had to include them on my list, mainly because I have Raistlin Tattoo'ed on my arm!!!!!! And, oh, how I loved my Raistlin. Because of him I always threw down my die in D&D as a Wizard!!

By the time I got to Uni I admit I'd got frankly pretentious about what I read and purged my shelves of most of my fantasy stuff...except for Weis and Hickman. The Dragonlance novels are still my go-to if I'm ill or just hacked off and I'm in the mood for nostalgia; weirdly enough I'm down with glandular fever at the moment and am sorely tempted again!! Need to finish my Bruce Catton American civil war marathon first though.

One author I've not seen here is China Mieville....its not fantasy, its not SF, its...er...odd. Perdido Street Station is simply mind bending. I can't help thinking that his work probably best suits British tastes so I'd be interested to see if anyone abroad has read his stuff.

For SF, another Anglo centric choice probably but I think that Iain M Banks Culture novels offer the most convincing SF Universe I can think of. Against A Dark Background is the best, but probably best to begin ant the beginning with Consider Phlebas. Also Dan Simmon's Hyperion/Endymion cantos. Vast, complex novels that kind of annoyed and enthralled me in equal measure.

[Giorgos]

R.A Salvatore's work for me guys. I just love the Drizzt character and his company.

[verity_blues]

About the five Bibles, yes, they are different versions.

About JRRT, I've read LOTR but its not one of my fav's, forgive me. CS Lewis, I've got those too, my aunt gave them to me, but I was- like- already to old to desire to read them.

@Clony the Scourge

Thanx for posting a pic of the cover to Across the Nighingale Floor, I am definately going to be picking that one up soon! And yes, Salvatores style can be accurately placed into the "safe for teens" category, but once I've latched onto an author I never quit buying their books. I still buy the Dragonlance books that M Weis is still writing, even though I'm not "crazy" about them.

Someone mentioned R Feist, I believe, I just read Flight of The Nighthawks while waiting for the new Elizabeth Hayden release. It was alright.

And i fogot to mention one good book

The Great book of Amber