Fantasy literature Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

Well,here is a thread to discuss fantasy or maybe even all kinds of literature,so go ahead,tell us about your favorite writers,recommend some books you really liked,let us know if you didnt like something and why....

Few of my favorite authors

J. R. R. Tolkien
Of course,we all know about him,Lord of the Rings,Hobbit,Silmarilion and so on

Michael Moorcock
His best known work is about Elric of Melniboné,one of the "Eternal Champions" and that was my first dark fantasy

Roger Zelazny
Writer of The Chronicles of Amber serie,which describes adventures of Corwin,Prince of Amber and later his son Merlin

Gene Wolfe
The Book of the New Sun series describes the journey of Severian, a disgraced torturer and its set in the distant future

Stephen R. Donaldson
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is classic fantasy story about Thomas Covenant and his struggle against the Lord Foul

George R. R. Martin
Author of A Song of Ice and Fire,guess he is know well enough thanks to HBO adaptation

Glen Cook
author of The Black Company, a gritty fantasy series that follows an elite mercenary unit through several decades of their history.

Steven Erikson
Author of Malazan Book of the Fallen series,The Malazan world was devised by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont, initially as a setting for a role-playing game

Tad Williams
Writer of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, another classic fantasy trilogy,fellowing adventures of Simon "Mooncalf"

R. Scott Bakker
Writer of the series informally known as The Second Apocalypse which consist of 2 trilogies so far,The Prince of Nothing and The Aspect-Emperor

Arg, you missed some good SCI FI:

Gregory Benford, I love the cycle of the galactic center. The ultimate war between biologic and mechanic life.

Isaac Asimov, You know, the 3 laws of the robotic and Foundation...

Dan Simmons, The whole Hyperion Cantos but also one of my favorite book : Carrion Comfort

Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

Douglas Adams, Don't forget your towel, and read H2G2

Frank Herbert (and now Brian) , Do I have to present DAH BEST SCI FI SAGE evar? The original autor of Dune, and his son that now continue the saga.

And many more...

All well known and great writers,however as the thread name suggest,my primary interest is in FANTASY literature,you know elves,dwarfs,medievil sword and sorcery battles and so on...but sure,Science Fiction is also nice

first let me add one well known fantasy writer i forgot

Terry Pratchett
Creator of the famous Discworld

as for Sci FI writers,will mention few a bit less famous ones that i really like

Larry Niven
Ringworld series is really great

David Brin
The Uplift stories
Humans start traveling into space and soon find out that other galactic civilizations practice so called "uplifting" for numerous races they discover,however since humans already uplifted dolphins and chimpanzee,they menage to skip the part where they are assigned a patron civilization and become patrons themself.Some of those galactic races are not so happy about that and will try to force humans into accepting them as patrons

Philip K. Dick
Lots of great books,The Man in the High Castl,Ubik,A Scanner Darkly,Martian Time-Slip, Dr. Bloodmoney, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a literary source of the film Blade Runner

Stanisław Lem
Solaris, The Invincible, Fiasco, His Master's Voice
Major theme is the impossibility of communication between humans and profoundly alien civilizations, which may have no common ground with human intelligence

Edited by: igoraki

Travis S Taylor is one of the better Authors.

En.wikipedia.org

Zelazney wrote great short stories as well, he was one of my favorite authors.

Stephen King's Dark Tower series are a great read, especially books 2 through 4 (Drawing of the Three, The Wastelands, and Wizard and Glass), which IMO sort of carry the entire series - there are 7 books total. These aren't traditional fantasy, but a really good mash-up of cowboy gunslinging, b-movie sci-fi elements (traveling to alternate worlds, post -apocaolypse settings, plus a few robots), and magic.

Robert Asprin's Myth series (Another Fine Myth and at least a half-dozen sequels- can't remember the names of any). These are fairly silly, but also funny series about an apprentice magician named Skeeve, and his mentor, a demon named Aahz (short for Aahzmandius), who solve their problems with a combination of con-artistry and simple magic. They are light reading.

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar series are a more typical fantasy type story, about the nations of a fantasy world being under invasion from a magically advanced human nation, from a completely different world (they use a magically created rift to travel between worlds). I remember enjoying them, but I am fuzzy on the details as I read them a long time ago.

David Eddings' Belgeriad and Mallorean series's (I think each is 5 books)- I'm really fuzzy about these, except I remember enjoying them a lot when I read them- which was a long time ago. IIRC, they are typical fantasy.

Fred Saberhagen's Changeling Earth series and Book of Swords series, which both have pretty much the same setting, with the Books of Swords taking place after the Changeling Earth saga. These are mostly fantasy, with occasional sci-fi elements thrown in.

I find Rick Cook's Wiz Biz books to be fun reads even if the editing on them is close to non-existent. This is essentially a fantasy series, but it helps to have a background in Unix systems and software development to appreciate all of the [humorous] references.

I also have enjoyed reading various Robert Howard anthologies over the years, including some of the ones Del Rey published over the past decade. I consider the Conan, Kull, Bran Mak Morn, and El Borak ones to be the best, as well as some of the miscellaneous short stories, such as "Marchers of Valhalla" and "The Grey God Passes". (If you've ever read the Conan comic books from the 1970's or fascimiles thereof, then you will probably recognize that those comics recast the Kull and El Borak stories to be Conan stories.) His Solomon Kane stories are also solid, but don't interest me so much. Many of his Steve Costigan and Breckenridge Elkins stories are fun reads, if you feel like humorous fiction rather than fantasy.

Oh, and I recommend some of the Icelandic sagas, which are often heavily mixed with real history and Nordic myth and maybe cannot be called proper fantasy. In particular, I recommend Egil Skallagrimsson's Saga; it is surprisingly fine literature for the era (or has some very good English translations).

Robert Jordan isn't on here? What is this insanity? I'm reading the last book in his Wheel of Time series now (which is actually written by Brandon Sanderson based upon Robert Jordan's note with help and approval of Jordan's wife, following Jordan's unfortunate death some years past) and it just grabs you and doesn't let go. These are amazing books, even if the sheer volume of characters can be hard to keep track of. The world is rich and detailed, the characters varied, the story grand.

Read them! ^^

Ive been reading Scott Lynch - 'Lies of Locke Lamora' series. They're really great. The first one is a masterpiece really.

Its like fantasy/renaissance period with crazy alchemy, mafia etc. Im no good at explaining things xD

Edited by: GZAGenius

Fantasy... masterpiece... alchemy... that reminds me - how did Patrick Rothfuss, particularly The Name of the Wind, get overlooked thus far?

China Mievelle's Bas-Lag is pretty good. Just don't think too much of his politicking at times.

Some nice recommendations
From China Mieville only Perdido Street Station has come to my hands,good read,thanks for reminding me to seek his other books
Already hear people speak good about The Name of the Wind Lies of Locke Lamora,didnt have the chance to read them myself.
As for David Eddings and Robert Jordan,those are not author that i would recommend,i know they are very popular and have lots of fans,but few books i have read really didnt strike me as something special,they are just ok,imho
Stephen King is very good writer but all his books had the same problem for me,nice writing style and good development,but he always end the story really bad...only read old stuff from '80,like It and The Stand,maybe he improved his endings later

I mostly agree with what you posted about Stephen King's story endings. Typically the best thing that can happen to his characters is they return to a more-or-less normal life, and that frequently doesn't happen. I guess that's just part of writing in the Horror genre. The Dark Tower series is certainly not an exception, in fact the ending of the final book may infuriate you.

Javier Negrete wrote awesome books, but there's no English translation (Spanish, also French). If you read either of these languages, Zemal and the Tramorea is an absolute must-read.

Andreas Eschbach's 'The Carpet Makers" is another book that's worth reading. It's been translated in English by chance, thanks to Orson Scott Card reading it. It's a pity that non English books don't get translated more.

Speaking of which, Orson Scott Card wrote a few interesting novels,and some very good short stories. Most are sci-fi rather than fantasy. I don't really like the Ender series (the short story was great though), but "A Planet Called Treason" and '"Songmaster" are good.

Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin series is also a good read. I didn't enjoy the end of the first series but she set a very high standard all through.

Am reading Hobb's Assassins's Apprentice atm and am only 10 or so chapters from the start,for now its not bad but am not too impressed either,glad to hear you have high opinion about it,guess it will get better later

I found the Assassin trilogy from Hobb to be generally boring. I think her later books are better, at least that is what I have heard, buthave not read them.

Some good stuff that has not been mentioned yet:

J.V. Jones: She has written quite a few books. The standalone Barbed Coil is excellent. The Book of Words trilogy gets a good while to get properly started before it gets going, but it is, ultimately, good and well written. It does show the signs of being an early work, which you will immediately notice when you read her real masterpieces, the Sword of Shadows series (Cavern of Black Ice, Fortress of Gray Ice, A Sword from Red Ice, Watcher of the Dead). Can't wait for the next in the series.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: The Shadows of the Apt series (starting with An Empire in Black and Gold) is some of the most original fantasy stuff to come out in the last few years and it is excellently written throughout, though the first four books are still the best.

I'm currently in the middle of reading Alexey Pehov's Dancer in Shadows trilogy, which is a surprisingly refreshing take on some old tropes and better than a lot of the bulk stuff out there.

Thread needs way more David Weber.

twistau wrote: Thread needs way more David Weber.

Must admit this is the first time that i hear about him,please say few more words,from the wiki he have some fantasy but also space opera and alternate history books,those can all be very interesting so recommend something or say why you like his or whatever,but just the name does not tell us much

Almost everything he writes is great, and he puts out 2 books a year usually -
Honor Harrington series - Some of the best space opera going around.
War God series - A unique fantasy series with a touch of metaphysics / sci-fi mixed in.
Safehold series - Sci-fi with a strong historical flavour.

Someone mentioned Glen Cook's Black Company above, which I'll second as good, but add that I like his Garret PI books even more; mixture of film noir and fantasy; they can be difficult to find though.

The wardens and witches of Man remind me a lot of the Aes Sedai from their descriptions.

amuys wrote: The wardens and witches of Man remind me a lot of the Aes Sedai from their descriptions.

The common link would probably be the Aes Sidhe

Edited by: _noblesse_oblige_

Hmmmm, lets see. I don't do TOO much high fantasy. I am usually into "dark urban fantasy." But the few I liked:

Goblin Quest (Jim C. Hines)

Codex Alera (Jim Butcher)

Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson - the guy who helped finish the Wheel of Time Series if I remember right)

May as well offer up some of my favorite urban fantasy books too I guess, quickly:Dresden Files, Nightside, Magic Bites, Nymphos of Rocky Flats, Monster Hunter International

I cant believe the Sword of Truth, Drizzt and Warhammer haven't been mentioned!

Terry Goodkind
Author of the Sword of Truth book series. One of the most amazing literature I've ever read.

Dan Abnett
Prolific author ranging from Warhammer Fantasy novels to Warhammer 40k Sci-Fi. I greatly encourage reading his Darkblade series.

RA Salvatore
Author of the Drizzt Do'Urden / Artemis Entreri / Cadderly Bonaduce books set in the Forgotten Realms.

isnt the sword of truth the one where the dude is a randian superman who hates women or something

Edit: lol I guess so

Wikipedia wrote: Goodkind is a proponent of Ayn Rand's philosophical approach of Objectivism,^[2][3] with references to Rand's ideas and novels in his works

Edited by: Admiral_Aorta

To put it bluntly, Goodkind's work is misogynistic rape fantasy crap most of the time, comparable to the Gor series. I have not read the latter (though I have heard enough from people who have), but I have to my misfortune read Goodkind's series up to volume six, I think. I cannot recommend any of it. The first couple of books had some intriguing ideas, but it all gets buried under the relentless barrage of libertarian ideology, McCarthyist anti-communist hysteria and blatant misogyny.

@Edirr
I honestly agree that Goodkind's books are very liberal and against certain communist ideas, but misogynistic? I think we read different books!
The various parts of the world he created is faithful to popular understanding of the 15-1600s where women truly were prejudiced and oppressed by certain societies. I fail to understand how his characterization of strong, intelligent women who refuse to be brought down could be attributed to misogyny.
I'm sorry, but I fail to see where in the series you see "Rape Fantasy."

I simply read his books and found them enjoyable from my own perspective. I see nothing wrong with finding a soul mate, using reason vs one's emotion, arguing for free will vs destiny, people changing as they grow, choosing the many vs the few and finally fighting against tyranny.

@Admiral_Aorta
Concerning his liberal ideas, I had no prior background knowledge about this connection with Ayn Rand's objectivism, but after reading through it, I have to say that it coincides with my own beliefs. Thus I see no real problem in being idealistic and using reason above emotion to guide one's life.
Near the end of the series, the protagonist could certainly been seen as a superman, but that's because he is built up throughout the series as he finds his flaws and overcomes them. As for the hatred of women, it is the exact opposite, he is one of the few males in the book who truly loves and respects the other sex.