gusamo

I am not much of a reader, even though I really wish I was one. I have read 5 or 6 star wars books and I own several others. I have also read The Hobbit and in the process of reading the LOTR trilogy. I loved the Hobbit and I haven't read enough of the trilogy yet to comment much, but I like what I have read so far. What other books would you recommend along these lines. Knowing these are the kinds of books I like.

Jepthah

Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake.

Frank Herbert's DUNE.

More Tolkien, in the form of the Silmarillion if you're feeling strong.

Orson Scott Card's Ender series.

Some of the Dragonlance novels are reputedly excellent. I have yet to read any, though.

Maybe some Ursula K. LeGuin.

Ray Bradbury.

There are some excellent SF-Fantasy authors, just look and find.

milamber

I would suggest the books in the Saga of Recluce by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. - The Magic of Recluce, The Magic Engineer among others.

Also, check out the Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist: Magician:Apprentice, Magician: Master, Silverthorn, and A Darkness at Sethanon. Feist is my favorite fantasy author.

On the SF side, I would suggest "The Icarus Hunt" by Timothy Zahn since he wrote some Star Wars books as well.

If you've not read Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, you really should give them a try. Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books, along with Pratchett's Discworld novels will have you laughing out loud.

RevLiver

David Eddings various series: The Belgariad, The Malloreon, The Elenium and The Tamuli. That's 16 books right there, plus he's got a few stand alones and some historical books with background stuff on The Belgariad. Similar to Tolkien, band of various races goes on an epic quest to save the fantasy world from evil.

Eric F

Guy Gavriel Kay's "The Fionavar Tapestry" series. Excellent.

He helped work on the published edition of the Simirillian, so he knows his stuff.

Groucho

The first few books in the Xanth series by Piers Anthony are pretty good but they go downhill fast. I like Raymond Feist's Krondor books as well.

Although both series are children oriented, I still enjoy the Narnia chronicles by C.S. Lewis and the Oz books by L. Frank Baum (which bear only a casual resemblence to the famous film).

Toxygen

the Silmarillion :thumbsdown:

I guess I'm not strong enough.. I've tread reading it, listening to it, drawing it (j/k)

I just cannot get into it.. especially the first part with the creator of music and thoughts and blah blah blah

just a thought

Eric F

Getting a bit offtopic, but yes, I agree, The Silmarillion is hard reading. It was never completed, and Tolkien always intended it to be the "bible" of Middle Earth, which is pretty much how it reads. But if you love LotR, you'll probably get through it ok. Parts of it are fascinating.

Believe me, none of Guy Gavriel Kay's books are like this. The Fionivar books are brilliant, so is Tiganna, and his newest pseudo-historical novels are pretty cool too.

Holly E. Ordway

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy is often enjoyed by readers of LOTR... I bet you would like it. The first book is A Wizard of Earthsea, then The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore. Each book is quite short and pretty easy to get into. Highly recommended.

From what you have said about your preferences, I would NOT recommend the Gormenghast trilogy. They are dense, dense books that have a certain literary merit, but are not easy reads, and don't honestly have a very strong plot. (That's being generous... a less generous way of saying it would be that they are just this side of plotless). I'm a serious fantasy reader and even so, they're books that I keep for "completeness" rather than entertainment value.

Getting into the science fiction side of things (since you said you liked Star Wars), how about Arthur C. Clarke's Rama books? The original is Rendezvous with Rama, and then there are three sequels co-written with Gentry Lee. The sequels are in a very different style than the first one, but I enjoyed all of them (and I'm in the middle of re-reading the series right now!). They have enjoyable plots and I find them to be page-turners.

Another great sf series is Foundation, by Isaac Asimov (Asimov is just a great writer, with loads of fun books). The first one is called (no big surprise) Foundation. The "Robot" novels are also great: The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are the first two. The Robot novels are kind of a mix of mystery and science fiction.

Alien Redrum

Terry Brooks's Shannara series is pretty good. I read the first 3 and enjoyed them.

The Sword of Shannara
The Elfstones of Shannara
The Wishsong of Shannara

-Steve

gusamo

What about the Christ Clone Trilogy?

Toxygen

I was going to say "Foundation" too.. I especially liked how in "The complete Robot" they said that most, if not all of Isamov's books and stories, are interconnected in a (farfetched) really deep way

Eric F

Ah, it seems like we did a thread like this a while back. Once more I will suggest a guide I use whenever I'm looking for a book to read:

The Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy List

They actually updated it recently. Nicely categorized into series and novels. Most of my best discoveries were found there. (In fact, I'm looking at the current #1 and I've never heard of it, that'll be my next choice I guess) It's nice to know that some people still read, and know what's good.

Just start at the top and work your way down.

benedict

These type of threads sometimes end up looking similar to one another because they become places for enthusiasts to post their respective favourites.

Arguably the more difficult task - although admittedly they are not mutually exclusive - is to address the original request i.e. to post works that sit well with what, in this case, gusamo has said were enjoyable past reads.

Most here may have done so implicitly although, in particular, ordway does it explicitly

Unfortunately, sometimes in trying to do the "right" thing, one can end up killing the thread!

The small contribution I thought of making when I first saw this thread was to mention the Thomas Covenant/Illearth books by Stephen Donaldson on the fantasy side and then perhaps to try his science fiction/"space opera" series, "The Gap Into Conflict". I've only read the first couple of those, SF books, by the way but they seemed OK at the time.

Also, if novelisations and speculations leading on from existing films are enjoyed, then perhaps K W Jeter's Blade Runner "sequels" (to the film rather than to PK Dick's inspiring novel Dop Andoroids Dream of Electric Sheep) might be worth trying. A related gambit would be to look up standalone novels by one's favourite Star Wars writers: as well as Jeter and Zahn, there are some illustrious names among them, now, I believe....

Scheherazade

David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan... Harry Potter.

~Scheherazade

Peter Overduin

Wow...I thought Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" would be in the the first reply. It is a must read for any LOTR and fantasy fans. The best, period.

Snapperhead

The BEST would be George RR Martins, SONG OF ICE AND FIRE series (next to THE RINGS of course)

Seriously, this is the most innovative and captivating fantasy I have read to date. He is working on book4 scheduled for later this year.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!! You will not be sorry!!!!

Eric F

That would be #1 on the SF/Fantasy list if anyone looked.

Mantecore

I loved all the harry potter books and i cant wait until the next one(but unforunately i have to) so anyone know of any books similiar to that?

Mutley Hyde

Along the lines of young adult fantasy, like The Hobbit, and Harry Potter I suppose (never read 'em), I really loved Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles.

The Book of Three
The Castle of Llyr
The Black Cauldron
Taran Wanderer
The High King

Goldberg74

I'm currently reading George Lucas and Chris Claremont's "Shadow" trilogy... the continuation of Willow, the story of the Princess Elora Danan. I'm on the third book (Shadow Star) and I'm enjoying the series... but its kind of a tough read... Chris likes to get in deep sometimes. (The other books are Shadow Moon and Shadow Dawn)

jim_cook87

Glen Cook's "The Black Company" is great fantasy along the lines of LOTR. At least 2 or 3 follow-on books, but I can't recall their names. HIGHLY recommend.

B.A.

I really loved this book, but I will admit you really do need to be a Tolkien fiend to make it through the whole thing without skipping around. It is a great read if you are one of those people who read LOTR and wandered who the hell they were refering to in Middle Earth's past throughout the trilogy. But, like was previously mentioned, the beginning is very slow, and you can tell it was a pieced together work and is not one continuous story, which can be good or bad, depending on the readers preferences.

fallow

My top 3 favorite fantasy series would be these - in no particular order:

A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (in fact, I'm about to re-read this when I start school in a couple days)
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

WoT can be a lot to tackle. It has out 9 books now I believe, and like all fantasy authors, Jordan is not known for his brevity. Ice and Fire is an excellent read, lengthy but not terribly difficult. 3 books out I believe?

I read Shadow Moon and just could NOT get into it. Something about his writing just didn't appeal to me.

Goldberg74

I started reading Shadow Moon Christmas of '98... and I'm only started the third book in March, but I'm determined to get through it, I owe it to my love of Willow (the movie). But you're right it was hard to get into... especially the 23 pages Chris takes to describe the final wave that capsizes the boat...