Sorting through the fantasy jungle

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I have reached a stage in my reading where I have finished everything I wanted to read and can now start on something new. I wanted to read some fantasy but it's so hard to work out what is good. Everything is part of a bigger series and you don't want to start a series if it's going to be rubbish.

Can anyone recommend a really good, engrossing, and interesting fantasy series for me to start?

I have just finished the original Shannara series by Terry Brooks and I would not call THAT a good series (it was a bit repetitive and too much copied from Tolkien). I don't think I'll bother with any of his other series (unless someone can convince me otherwise).

 

Good point - hardly anything fantasy-wise. The only fantasy series I can remember reading are:

Everything by Tolkien
Sword of Shannara
Chronicles of Narnia
Dark is Rising

So - not much - because in the past I have been put off embarking on a big series. But now I have discovered all you experts......I can tap into your experience.

 

Drizzt!

 

It has been said many times before but two authers you really should give a shot is Robin Hobb and George RR Martin. Hobb's Farseer and then Tawny Man trilogy are great, her Liveship trilogy is definately worth reading but not as good as the other two. Martin is just plain awesome, his A song of ice and fire is the best book series I have ever read all categories. Overall better than Hobb even if Hobb is a master of getting emotion out of her readers.

There is always Terry Pratchett which any self respecting fantasy reader have to read, start from the beginning and just work your way through, all the books stand alone but it is nice to read them in the order they were written.

 

I would recommend you to read the WoT(Wheel of Time) series. I'm almost finished with the first of many books, and they're quite excellent.

Edit: Author; Robert Jordan

[ January 29, 2004, 21:54: Message edited by: Daephon ]

 

I'd definitely recommend George R R Martin's "A Song Of Ice And Fire" - masterful from start to finish.

Not so sure about "Wheel of Time". Interesting enough start but the last few books have been downright awful and you'll most likely be pushing up the daisies before the series is finished.

I'd recommended Stephen R Donaldson's "The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" as an amazingly good read. The second series was a bit of a let down from the first but still well worth a read.

For more light-hearted reading, there's not much (in fact nothing I've read) that comes close to Terry Pratchett's "Discworld".

 

James Clemons-The Band and the Bansished series is quite good.

 

The Waylander books (Waylander, Waylander 2 and Hero in The Shadows, all part of the Drenai series) by David Gemmell are brilliant. You might want to read Legend first, or straight-away afterwards as well.

 

Cool - this is the sort of info I was looking for. I forgot to mention that I have read almost all of the Discworld books already. I will check out which of the above books are featured in the local library.

 

Definetely go for A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin. The first book is called A Game of Thrones.

Stay far far far away from Robert Jordan's books. They're good at first, but end up in hundreds of pages in nonplotmoving generic crap. Really, it's not worth going into the series, because at first it's good and you'll start to care for it. Then you can watch the writer strangle his own story to death so many subplots that also don't move forward that you're just not sure wether you want to kill the author or yourself.

Go out and buy Martin's books. They're the best fantasy I've ever read, and I've read a few.

 

Margareth Weis and Tracy Hickman, especially their Deathgate cycle. For the rest I agree with Martin and Hobb. I'm also one of the very few people who still likes the WoT series where it is now (I'm at book 9) but even I must agree that alot of the storylines have turned really bad but the Mat storyline more than makes up for it IMHO. I also like Tad Williams but AFAIK he only has one fantasy serie, the other serie is Sci-Fi.

Jan Siegel has a good serie, The Children of Prospero (or something like that). W.J. Maryson may be worth a shot.

 

david w wrote:

I agree with everyting that he said here. The first series was excellent, while the second seemed to be one repetitive situation after another. Still worth reading both, though.

 

Lots of people are telling you how great George RR Martin is... well lots of people are right. It's simply a fantastic series.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is great in the beginning, and then sort of hit and miss.

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is like Robert Jordan, only better. Still going on way too long, but definately worth reading.

Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance: Chronicles and Dragonlance: Legends series are also great reads.

Also worth reading is anything by David Eddings. His Belgariad is a great series; he's a personal favorite.

 

Cool - there are a few names here that are coming up again and again so they must be good.

 

Julian May (Saga of the Exiles and so on), though they're a mix of science fiction and fantasy.

Robin Hobb
GRR Martin

The Tamir Triad by someone I can't remember.

Kinda in that order.

 

Terry Pratchett. Definitely.

Start with "Color of Magic" and go on from there. He's one of the most hilarious writers of fantasy ever.

 

I've been down to the library and managed to find George R R Martin's "A Game of Thrones" as that seems to come highly recommended by you lot. Now I shall now see for myself.

Right, here goes: "We should start back", Gared urged . . . . . . . . . . . .