Jeraden

While that Elric series has a few merits in its favor, I don't really recommend it based on you liking Jordan/Martin. Those 2 emphasize detail, backgrounds, and completely involving you in the characters. The Elric series is the exact opposite. It's blunt and to the point, using short but effective sentences. Personally I didn't care at all for the writing style. The books are short, mainly because its all plot and no character/background building. If you like that stuff then its good - you don't get bogged down with fluffy details and get right to the heart of the story. But I think its way too abbreviated and seems more like you are reading a movie instead of a book. This is all based just on the first book of the series, as after reading that one I had no real desire to continue on with it.

benedict

Nooooooooooo!

I am sure Mr A. has written a good book in his time but IMNSHO the XANTH series is an abomination. I admit that I don't much care for most of the humorous fantasy that I have encountered finding it too "forced"; Jack Vance's DYING EARTH quartet was a rare exception and was certainly far more intelligent than PA's material.

Gene Wolfe's Science Fantasy series Book of the New Sun and Book of the Long/New Sun are well worth the effort.

Also, definitely check out grunter's Crowley recommendation.

smokedragon

The only place I have found it in stock is Amazon.co.uk.
I'm very interested to see if anyone has read Gardens Of The Moon.
Sounds interesting.
Would order it, but I have all these friggin' DVD's preordered
So, has anyone read it?
Sorry for hijacking your thread, Shamu. But, thanks to you, and all the responses it looks like I have a lot more books to look for and read.

Draven

Stick with Goodkind. He has some really interesting ideas about magic in the Sword of Truth series.


I second R.A. Salvatore. His books are usually quick reads, but they are exciting and interesting, so definitely worth a glance.

sexymama

Shamu, I'm like you -- I loved Jordan's books when he first started but the last couple have been piss-poor in my opinion. I loved Martin and am on pins and needles until the next one comes out!!!

Anyway, I know you said you like less magic in your preferred readings but I thought you might like to give David Eddings a try. For some reason, I love the first series and have read it several times. I just love the characters and they always make me laugh and amuse me without fail...

smokedragon

Well, I found a used copy online of Gardens Of The Moon. Should get it by next week.
I'll let you know if it's any good.

The Glen Cook novels of The Black Company sound good. Sci-Fi book club has an omnibus edition of the first three books.Gonna order it.

Alvis

I found Tad Williamses Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series to be very good.

Yrth

In previous threads, I have slammed on the Eddings books. Don't like them at all. I once tried to read them but the female characters and the weak male characters annoyed me. I guess I just didn't care much for the dialogue.

Someone mentioned Vance's Dying Earth stuff. Four books???? I only recall: "The Dying Earth" and "Cugels' Saga." If I remember correctly, both have Cugel as the rogue who falls into and gets out of problems all the time. What other two books? "Eyes of the Overworld"? Is that a Dying Earth book? But with different characters, just short stories? BTW, his Lyonesse series is pretty good IMO..."Suldrun's Garden," "The Green Pearl," and "Madouc" although I believe the latter left me unimpressed.

I like the Black Company. But I do have issues with it. Primarily, the magic system is very loose, open to all kinds of stuff being made up. Second, And sometimes his writing in this series is very reminiscent of hard-boiled detective types. I mean, that works well in his Garrett series, but I sometimes get tired of it in his Black Co. books. However, his series that I liked was the Dread Empire series. I don't think he ever finished it off and I've heard he never will.

kdog248

David Eddings' "The Belgariad"...five good books...also his "Mallorean"...five books that continue the story started in The Belgariad....I'm reading WOT, and Jordan should take some notes of how to make a series a good length.

JANK

Seek out the Book of the New Sun series and The Many Colored Land series. Up there with Dune and LOTR. Beyond compare - if you want more details as in reviews email me at [email protected]

Yrth

But both of these are sci-fi series. Not that I knock them. I thought the Many Colored Land series was very very good. I didn't care for the prequels too much although they were OK.

JANK

Both the Wolfe and May series have enough elements to qualify as fantasy too. Their angle is that the science is so lost in antiquity that it is now magic. I prefer that.

Hemulen

Myself I wouldn't recommend David Eddings books. Although I suppose if you're into fantasy books then they are typical examples of the genre.

My main complaint is that he is very repetitive - he has stock standard characters and plot lines that he recycles from one story to the next. To make matters worse his works become evermore clumsily written as the series progress.

(although this criticism is by no means limited to Eddings, but could be applied to large parts of the Fantasy genre, which seems to cater to a relatively undemanding audience. IMHO of course)

Hemulen

(and, as has been said before, LOTR and the Hobbit are pretty much the best there is, unless you're willing to read the likes of Beowulf.)

Kal-El

When it comes to Fantasy, anything by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, most notably the entire Dragonlance Saga which is up to 9 books right now. Harry Potter would be up there too. I got bored by LOTR so I can't recommend it.

saltheart

As a few have posted previously, I highly recommend Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, especially the first trilogy (Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, and The Power That Preserves). I actually read through all the Covenant books (two trilogies worth) before I ever finished reading the Tolkien Fellowship trilogy (heresy, I know!), and while I now look upon the Donaldson series as owing a big debt to Tolkien, even more so than the usual fantasy series, given the numerous plot parallels, etc., I still prefer the Covenant trilogy, because the characters are more fully fleshed out to me -- by the end of the third book, I really cared about the fates of many of the characters, which I couldn't really say was true of many of Tolkien's characters. [flame suit on....]

Way back when, I used to have a serious Piers Anthony habit (back when the Xanth series was only 5-6 books long....). Even then, I knew that the vast majority of the stuff he wrote was pure fluff and drivel, with the exception of the first 3 or 4 Xanth books, parts of the Apprentice Adept series (Split Infinity, Blue Adept, and Juxtaposition) and maybe one or two of his Incarnations of Immortality series (e.g. On A Pale Horse). Otherwise, he's a total hack.

smokedragon

Finally received Steven Erikson's Gardens Of The Moon today. I'll be bringing it to work with me since I have to work a double shift.
I'm going to try, try, try not to compare him to George R.R.Martin.

But, it's going to be difficult.

I'll let you know what I think when I finish it.

Also have Deadhouse Gates on the way as well.

Blade

Another author I greatly enjoy is Steven Brust. He's done a series of fantasy books based on an assassin that I really like.

I just wish he would write faster!

Also, in the same fantasy world is the Khaavren adventure stories, written in the style of Alexander Dumas. Very funny!

-David

TexasGuy

You sound like me. I bought the entire Goodkind series before reading any of them, based on recommendations. After reading Wizard's First Rule, I thought I made a mistake because I didn't really care for it. However, I'm glad I decided to continue reading the series, because it seems to really get better with each book. Better character development, better plot twists, etc.

Given your preference for more realistic knights and lords stories, try the Camalud Chronicles series by Jack Whyte. It's a retelling of the Arthur legend in a realistic sense (no magic). Its now into its seventh book of the series, and has a pretty loyal following. I'll warn you though, it has a LOT of detail (descriptions of scenery, detailed explanations why certain formations are used in battle, etc.), so you may not like it if you prefer a fast read.

benedict

Certainly in the UK, "The Runes of the Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" have been available in hardback for a few months now....

rooter

There is a disgusting lack of Dark Tower love in this thread... one of the best series of books of all time...

Eric F

Way to dig up a 4yr old thread!

rooter

done by a mod no less :P

pingie

I remember reading Memory Sorrow and Thorn back in high school. It was a good series as far as I can remember. And like everyone now, I'm into A Song of Ice and Fire as well. And about The Runelords by David Garland...I bought book 1 and 2 a while back but never pick them up to read...I guess since a few people here mentioned how good it is, I might just get the third book and read through all.

I'm really surprised that no one mentions anything about David Gemmell's books. His Drenai, Sipstrassi, and Rigante series are one of the best I've ever read in my humble opinion that is. =) Like a Song of Ice and Fire, you actually care for the characters in Gemmell's books. His books are definitely entertaining to say the least...

Shady12

I got done reading Legend by Gemmell a couple weeks ago and didn't like it at all. One problem is that I like for fantasy books to have a map of the world.. All these places were talked about in the book and it would have helped A LOT if I could have been able to picture where all these places were in relation to one another..would have made it MUCH more interesting. And I didn't care a bit about any of the characters although Druss and Rek ended up being kind of interesting. Just seemed like a short and uninteresting book.

Draven

I just finished Gemmell's "The Rigante" quadrilogy. I really enjoyed them.

I especially liked the "jump" in technology between the first two and last two books. And while "Wheel of Time" has gotten me used to dealing with the same characters for many, many books, Gemmell's (and Sara Douglass's "Wayfarer Redemption" series) deal with characters and their ancestors later on, which I didn't think I'd like because I'd grown attached to the original characters but I quickly changed my mind. It's cool reading about where the story goes hundreds of years later.

The other thing I liked is that Gemmell writes in a very entertaining way and is the master of hooking me so that I end up reading far longer than I planned. For example, he'll have two characters talking about setting up an ambush. Then the next chapter will be about another character. The chapter after that starts with someone running away from the ambush. And it's not until a little ways in that he'll even talk about the ambush. So I'm halfway through the chapter before I find out what exactly happened at the ambush and now we are on to another scenario I'm interested in.

It was a good series.