Good book or series recommendation

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Hello everyone . I have always been a big fan of fantasy video games like Baldurs Gate, Elder Scrolls and my personal favorite Planescape: Torment, but I have never really read much fantasy fiction. I have always read science fiction, supernatural suspense and mystery and wanted to broaden by horizens in terms of genres. When I went to look for good fantasy, I realised there is a overhwelming volume of stuff out there, and wanted to narrow down the list more. I did read The Dark Elf trilogy by RA Salvatore a long time ago and enjoyed it, so I may look into more of his work. Any good recommendations of Authors, series or stand alone novels?

 

I'd start with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

The Fafred and Grey Mouser books by Fritz Lieber are entertaining.

The Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (should be in the library).

Chronicles of Amber (and it's follow on series) by Roger Zelazny.

Elric Series by Michael Moorcock (Hawkmoon and Corum series are good as well).

Going more into "children's fantasy" is The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin, the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and the Harry Potter series by Rowling.

These should get you started. [Shameless Plug] Of course you could also read my story in Creativity Surge. [/Shameless Plug]

Edit: An awesome fantasy book is Watership Down by Richard Adams -- it's about rabbits.

 

Pick up a few Discworld books

Edit: Or if you want something a little more dark and serious, try A Song fo Ice and Fire or The First Law series.

 

As T2 says, The Hobbit, and then Lord of the Rings, is a good place to start.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is an excellent series. Although the first series is better then the second IMO; the second series got a bit draggy and repetitive.

 

You could try the Shanara series by Terry Brooks. Also, David Eddings has a couple of good series. And Raymond Feist has written alot about his world of Midkemia and beyond... all good starter series I believe. If you think you would like a bit darker side of fantasy, try the Chronicles of the Black Company, very entertaining. About the travels of a Mercanry Company on world with Evil Tyrants and Magic. One of my favorites.

 

I haven't read that much fantasy themed books but those that I've read, I loved Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis' Dragonlance Chronicles (Trilogy).

 

Lord of the rings is pretty much a default start for fantasy literature imo . The Hobbit is nice, but I think it's aimed at younger audiences and it shows; if that doesn't put you off too much it would be a great read to set you off in the LotR story. I'm currently reading the Amber Chronicles, which I like so far, and recently checked out the Earthsea books - which started good, but the last one (Tehanu) seemed somehow... off. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series are great, although they have a strong parody element and play with many of the cliches of the settings. Then again, if you are a true Planescape fan this might make them even better for you.

What else... Well, if you want to try fantasy set in a world just like ours, I think you could do worse than to check out the Dresden Files. I have a special soft sport for the moment a wizard and a gang of werewolf start playing (essentially) D&D on their free nights .

 

Tehanu was written nearly twenty years after the third. Wizard of Earthsea was originally a trilogy. Tehanu was incredibly dark.

 

If you liked the games read the dozens and dozens of books both from the Forgotten Realms and Ebberon settings.

Amber is great. Discwold is great. Mistborn is good. Wheel of time is good. Do not forget Dune.

How can I forget Caliban, Inferno and Utopia. This is what the movie I Robot loosely is based upon.

 

Dune is probably the single book i've read more than any other, I love it. I haven't read many of the other ones though, the House ones, Children of Arrakis, etc.

 

I have said it before and I will say it again, the Hobbit is a way better book than LotR. Intended for a younger audience or not it is just plain better.

 

Thanks for the tips . The book reviews on this site are a good source of info.

 

I know. The anthology I have has all four, and Tehanu was a somewhat jarring departure from the atmosphere and style of the first. I guess that colored my perception somewhat - I don't normally object all that much to dark fantasy (at least, what I consider dark - i.e. Sapkowski's Witcher series). I suppose the shift might have made me oversensitive to what I saw as weak points, but at the end of the day I just didn't enjoy it as much as the first three.

 

This is just my observation, whenever people ask for recommendations of fantasy-themed books, it is very rare that I see suggestions of Greek, Norse or other mythologies. Nothing wrong with that, believe me, even I had put forth my own Tolkien suggestion without hesitation. I personally grew up with Greek mythologies and those stuff are great. Eventually got to Homer's Illiad and Odessius as well, and those are timeless classics. So for some varieties, I would suggest getting some Greek and Norse mythologies into the mix as well.

 

Illiad and Odessius.

Read them in a classic translation. You know without grammar and stuff.

I advise against that version.

 

Series - fantasy books

Recently finished the 5 book series Magic by B V Larson. Book 1 is Amber Magic Book 2 is Sky Magic, Book 3 is Shadow Magic, Book 4 is Dragon Magic and the concluding volume is #5 Blood Magic. This series is called the " Haven Series" The characters developed are continued through the series. Moves and keeps your interest throughout. I read on a Kindle and through Amazon
and books are cheap. I think this series was 99 cents for each volume. All the books I purchase are archived in Amazons cloud bank, punny punny.
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