I'm in the midst of revisiting the Chronicles of Narnia series (I'm 20) for the first time since elementary school. Anyone have any suggestions for some stuff to check out next, I'm not a LOTR fan so don't say those. Thanks

If you want the polar opposite of Narnia, check out His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. I just started the third book, and I am entranced.


Harry Potter is fun, I haven't read Lemony Snicket but they seem to have a decent rep.

And what's your beef with LOTR? As the thread a few done mentions, they are a hard, hard read, but worth every minute.

I'm honestly just stubborn about likes and dislikes, and as far as LOTR, Harry Potter, or Lemony Snicket, I will never read any of them. It's like Kevin Smith movies, I refuse to ever see one. Don't ask why, I'm just stubborn like that. What are the Pullman books like?

I definitely share the same mentality.

As I said, the Pullman books are the anti Narnia. They start out in a world where everybody's soul has a physical manifestion outside your body, and it takes the form of an animal. Until puberty, your soul can shapeshift, but after, it locks into a form that sometimes reflects your personality. Basically, there's some people taking little kids and cutting their souls off. It gets better from there.

And might I add I grew up with the Narnia books too (I'm 30 now) but I also love LOTR, HP, and Kevin Smith.

It has nothing to do with age, it's just a matter my views towards the pieces of work, something I can't really explain, but I know I'd never be able to read/watch them without a strong predisposed opinion.

Okay, stop. LOTR does NOT belong on any list with Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket. At all.

fliggil, initially you've only mentioned one series positively, a children's fantasy, and then gone on to list a few other series in addition to LOTR that you won't read: that's not much to go on. Do you have any other authors or novels that you have enjoyed and can list here by way of reference points?

Thus far in Book Talk we've seen a good number of threads where people express genre preferences, so the following might be a good start:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108724

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127869

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104155

Everyone else, so long as you can see some kind of appreciation for your own constructive suggestions, I'd propose that we don't try to evangelise our fave authors if the thread starter has already said he doesn't like him/her.

Sorry I guess I should have been a bit more specific with my kinds of likes...they're actually a bit diverse which is why I actually didn't mention them, as I have been enjoying the Narnia books so much, that I was hoping to come across a similarly themed set of books. Besides the fantasy, I enjoy Japanese lit (Hagakure, Rashomon and Other Stories), law novels (anything Grisham), and I used to read a bout half of Sue Grafton's "_ is for...." detective book series. Like I said, pretty different stuff compared to the Narnia books, but I'm basically just looking for something along those lines where it's as much about what you can make and take out of the story, as well as being entertaining. Hope that helps somewhat.

and mgbfan: one has nothing to do with the other, my preferences are my preferences, it doesn't matter what "list" anything should be on. thanks for the suggestions though.

Yet you ask us for suggestions based on your list. If your preferences have nothing to do with each other, how is anyone supposed to form a coherent position on what you summarily dismiss?

You're basically saying: There's no logic whatsoever to this list of what I refuse to read, so give me suggestions based on it.

You're blowing this way out of proportion. It would be as if I said "give me some good gangster film suggestions, but I don't like Scarface or Donnie Brasco, so don't say those." Would you not still be able to give me some suggestions? I am saying I love the Chronicles of Narnia, but am not interested in those other titles, so if I liked a fantasy/adventure series with a lot of character involvement and imagination, then I would like...(insert title here). When I said "my preferences are my preferences," that was regarding those few titles that I don't want to read, it's not like I dismissed every single title on the shelves.

It' be more like saying "give me some good mofia movie suggestions, but don't suggest The Godfather or Goodfellas." ...and it does seem a little unreasonable.

can we just close this thread since everyone prefers to pick at me instead of helping out?

Although these aren't my favourite authors you sound like you might like:
Anne McCaffrey's Dragon Rider books
Dragonlance Chronicles by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman
For something even lighter you might like The Phule and MYTH books by Robert Asprin
Or you might be interested in Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker books. The are filled with Mormon allegory and could be compared with the Christian themes in CS Lewis' books.

Ok, I'll second Anne McCaffrey's Dragon series, lot's of good stuff.
Eragon is a good fantasy story.
Not sure if it's up your alley, but I enjoyed the Tales of the Slayer series recently. It's stories of the slayers before Buffy.

Cool stuff, thanks I will check into that Dragon series.

On the above suggestions - McCaffrey is pretty light reading, with more of a young reader bent (which may be right for you if Narnia is your baseline). Same is true of the Dragonlance (it's pretty much RPG fanfic). If you refese to read Tolkien, run screaming away from the Dragonlance, as they're nothing but watered-down Tolkien wannabes done badly.

If juvenile/young reader fantasy is what you like, you might try The Dark is Rising. Another good one in that vein is the Earthsea stuff. If you want something a bit more sophisitcated, I'm afraid you're going to have to go Tolkien. In fantasy, there's Tolkien and then there's everyone else. Good fantasy is VERY hard to find. I'd say 99% of it is utter derivative crap (and yes, that 99% includes Dragonlance and McCaffery). Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series might be an option for a more sophisitcated fantasy series, though you're going to run into some science fiction overtones there.

fliggil, I'm now closing your thread, as requested: I hope that among the suggestions made - and the links provided - within the thread you find something of interest.

PS: there was an interesting and, I think, relevant conversation here that may be worth reading through. And the following threads are probably also worthy of some attention:

• Your five favorite authors
• Who Is Your Favourite Author
• Top 3 Favorite Books of All Time
• Favorite popular bestseller author?
• Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Discussion
• books to read? (aka what's your favorite book?)
• Best / favorite detective / investigator in a mystery book / series ?