Need Fantasy Book Recommendations

[velessa]

I'm in need of a new fantasy novel to keep in my purse and read on my lunch breaks. I just finished up Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (loved it), but now I don't know what to move on to. Some recommendations would be welcome. Here is a list of series/books I've loved and those I've hated, to give you an idea of my taste:


Books I Love
The Belgariad by David Eddings - still my favorite series of all time; I also really enjoyed his Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli series. The new stuff he's written with his wife (The Dreamers? or whatever), on the other hand, is awful.

The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb. Also enjoyed the follow up Tawny Man and prequel Farseer series, although not nearly as much as Liveship. Unfortunately her new one about the soldier son is really very lame so far.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - loved by one and all with any sense. =)

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman - parallel universe hopping kids with talking animal companions? Woohoo!

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice - well, the first four at least. Memnoch the Devil got WAY too religious and I quit after that.

Xanth by Piers Anthony - enjoyable up to a point. You can only take cloned books with lame puns for so long before you tire of them, but they were fun to read for a while.

Dinotopia - people and dinosaurs living and working together, yay!

[shameless plug] Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon - a most enjoyable Rose of Versailles-esque novel with a totally awesome crossdressing main character. Lots of good fun!

Books I Hate
Anything by G.R.R. Martin - I tried to read that first Fire and Ice book or whatever and nearly threw up. I threw the book away. Author writing violence toward animals = automatic SICK FREAK BASTARD I HOPE YOU ARE TORN TO PIECES SLOWLY BY RABID DOGS thoughts from me.

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan - Mr. I-have-50-million-characters-and-plotlines-so-you-have-to-read-a-guidebook-just-to-keep-track-of-what's-going-on-and-by-the-way-everyone-in-my-books-are-complete-assholes-so-you're-sure-to-hate-reading-about-them-for-the-rest-of-your-lifetime-because-that's-how-long-the-series-will-take-to-complete Jordan can kiss my ass. The story was good for a while, but I couldn't get over the fact that I completely hated every single character, and I got sick of reading 700 pages of NOTHING HAPPENING so he could milk the series for all it was worth until he DIED without even finishing it. Way to go.

Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey - I read the first book and liked it until the dragons started traveling through time. Um, WTF?? Keep your sci fi out of my fantasy thanks. Magical creatures are supposed to be plenty magical without giving them superpowers!!

Recluce series by L.E. Modesitt - oh my GOD. How can you create a fantasy world with powerful wizards and make it more boring than watching paint dry?? UGH!

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett - all religion. Enough said.

Wicked by ...some dude. I wanted a book about the Wicked Witch of the West. Instead I got 300 pages of political and religious ranting/preaching. Not my idea of a good time.

Lions of Al-Rassan by ...some other dude. You took medieval Spain and wrote a fictional story set there. Wow. Aren't you creative. How this got listed as "fantasy" I'll never know. Also, way too much religion and historical crap for me. I want to read FANTASY books dammit.

Edited to add:
Glory Road by horrible yet somehow famous author whose name I'd prefer to not remember (as I'm doing since I can't remember it). Oh, Heinlein. Probably the WORST BOOK EVER WRITTEN. This guy has got to be the most sexist pig on the face of the planet, as is his main character. Apparently the most powerful person in the universe is a drop dead gorgeous woman, except it turns out her only purpose in life is to grovel at the feet of this deadbeat who for some reason is the only one who can complete some important task. And if she dares to disagree with him or voice her opinion on something or not love him, he'll just walk and not do the thing he agreed to do. Oh, and then he's given all the power and money and loving in the world, and he's unhappy about it because he's bored from not being in charge of everything! I nearly put this book through a paper shredder, I was so disgusted. I probably would have except it didn't belong to me, thank god.


So if that helps you get any sense at all about the type of books I like, please help me find some new ones to read! I would appreciate it! =)

Comments

[datenshi-blue.livejournal.com]

I would totally recommend anything by Mercedes Lackey, especially The Last Herald-Mage trilogy. I love it to pieces.

Also, I just read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susana Clarke and enjoyed it dearly.

Glad someone else hated Wicked

[mahkara.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the political and religious ramblings so much as the fact that it was just boring. How can you make one witch's childhood take 100 pages of absolute nothingness? I think I was ready to chew off my own arm...decided to stop reading the book instead.

[riki-kiki-taco.livejournal.com]

Well, since you just read His Dark MAterials... The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper! If you want to read the entire series, it technically starts with Over SEa, Under Stone. It's all Arthurian!

Or if you can get a hold of it, The Unlikely Ones, by Mary Brown. Love it!

~kiki

[angelkatharine.livejournal.com]

I will second the recommendation for The Dark is Rising--it is one of my favorite fantasy series.

[jennifer.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend The Snow Queen, and its sequel, The Summer Queen, by Joan Vinge. The world she builds for the characters is just lovely, as are the characters themselves.

[(Anonymous)]

Sarah Monette's series starting with Melusine. Picked it up by chance and fell instantly in love.

[spica.livejournal.com]

-Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer (I laughed a lot in this)
-Earthsea series (especially first three books) - Ursula K. LeGuin
-Books by Neil Gaiman (recommended by friends); wrote Mirrormask, Stardust
-Howl's Moving Castle and its sequel Castle in the Sky by Dianna Wynne Jones. She also wrote other fantasy stuff like Chrestomanci.
-Abarat (there's another book in this series, still ongoing) by Clive Barker
-Watership Down by Richard Adams? (not 100% sure if it's fantasy)

[velessa.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Watership Down, it's a favorite of mine. =)

[thomasj.livejournal.com]

Earthsea is a classic, but it may not be Christy's style because LeGuin has a very sparse writing style. I still like it =)

[spica.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it's a classic. Well, here's hoping that one or more of these recommended books in the comments will make it onto the read list.^^

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Actually I did read Stardust not too long ago because I wanted to have read it before seeing the movie. It was okay, but it's the only instance I can think of where I actually preferred the MOVIE to the book. The movie was a lot less violent, and to be honest I just didn't care for Gaiman's writing style all that much. =/

[noirem.livejournal.com]

I agree, I preferred the movie and I'm not a huge fan of Gaiman. OTOH, American Gods really is very interesting. I seem to remember that it started a little slow. The sequel, Anasai Boys, is just fluff.

[spica.livejournal.com]

I'm in the process of reading Gaiman's Coraline. So far it seems like a creepy kid's fantasy book. I couldn't say about the other books by Gaiman, since I was just recently introduced to his stuff.

I'd push for Artemis Fowl. The humour in it amuses me muchly. I guess happy perusing and reading.^^

[itazura-anrui.livejournal.com]

Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind is pretty good... He's realllly good at description and it's actually a pretty nice series. If you can make it through the first book (Wizard's First Rule). That one's probably the most graphic and long of them all.

That being said, they can get a bit graphic and dark. But some of the characters and quip make it totally worth it. ^_^

[itazura-anrui.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold. :) It can get a little confusing, though... because there's such an intricate family tree... luckily she includes the family tree in the back of the book. So if you're like "Wait... who was Sapphire the daughter of again?!" you can pause and check. Lol.

[thomasj.livejournal.com]

I read Sword of Truth. It's like WoT, but worse. FAIL.

[itazura-anrui.livejournal.com]

I kinda enjoyed it... Except for the fact that it's such a long series.... it's kinda just dragging on now.

Everyone has their opinion. :)

[noirem.livejournal.com]

I -hate- Wizards First Rule with a burning passion and what i've heard of the other books makes me loath them as well. I kinda liked his short story in the first Legends, but near as I can tell I only liked it 'cause none of the main characters were involved.

[baranoneko.livejournal.com]

I'm going to chime in on the "Wow, someone else hated Wicked! I'm not alone!" comment. It reads like bad fanfiction. I recommend going to see the musical if you ever get the chance, though. The musical is /so/ much better. You actually can /like/ Elphaba.
I'm sad you didn't like the Pern series. They are very sci-fi/fantasy, though.
And as a side note, seeing Merry Shannon's book on your list is amusing to me - I was in a Seramyu group with the author a few years back.
Did you ever read anything by Terry Brooks? The Landover series is pretty amusing, but all the Shannara books are very violent.

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I was in a Takarazuka costume group at AX with her a couple of years ago. She's very cool and I really did love her book. =)

I actually did read the first Shannara book and liked it a lot, but not in the OMG I HAVE TO HAVE THE NEXT BOOK RIGHT NOW! kind of way. So it's a series I may or may not continue with.

[baranoneko.livejournal.com]

Wow. Small world!

[urox.livejournal.com]

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

[applez.livejournal.com]

Off the Sword & Sorcery track, but very excellent fantasy:

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station (and sequels in the same universe).

... you can ask Julia what she thought of it.

[jette16.livejournal.com]

I'm clearly not allowed to recommend anything to you. I love Pern and am still reading the series - even after it got into spaceships and genetics. I like GRRM and Jordan (although I really don't ever want to start an unfinished series again) and liked Farseer way more than Liveship. And I hated the ending to Dark Materials. Trying to think of books I don't like to recommned... :)

[noirem.livejournal.com]

You and me, both :o) Though I stopped reading Jordan several books (and almost a decade) ago. I like GRRM, I didn't like the first two pern books as much but -loved- the dragon harper books (and the Sassinak books - not so much planet pirates or Death of Sleep). I liked the first two Dark Materials books and hated the third. I -love- Guy Gavriel Kay and Lions of Al-Rassan is my favorite of his stuff.

[fullburn.livejournal.com]

Yeah I don't know that I can get a good rec in either, because it's tough to guess what you'll actually like.

- I'd venture that you might enjoy the Deathgate Cycle, but it's been a loooong time since I actually read that, I remember it being very active and interesting, if not especially deep. Seven books in all, the first four take place almost independently on four different worlds with unique and interesting mechanics, and then the last three tie the whole thing together. Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman.

- The Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny, is the best fantasy series I have ever read. And I'll be rereading it again for the fifth or sixth time as soon as I get my copy back. The whole thing is available in a single-volume trade paperback called The Great Book of Amber. Amber is not a character btw, it's a place.

- C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy, which consists of Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, and Crown of Shadows. I remember hating parts of it to be honest - it does a damn good job of making things seem hopeless and those characters are just put through hell en route to their goals. That said, it also makes the third act that much more fantastic. :) The series has one of the best endings - meaning pretty much the whole third book - that I have ever read.

[thomasj.livejournal.com]

Read both Deathgate and Amber. Christy will hate both of them. I did!

FAIL.

[fullburn.livejournal.com]

OH OK THX - sorry to waste your time then, putting my opinion up when asked. >:[

[thomasj.livejournal.com]

I've been telling you for a year now to read the Dragonlance Chronicles series.

It's classic, the style is a kind I know you like, and there are a dozen billion more books after the first three.

[fullburn.livejournal.com]

Wait - you do realize these are the same authors as Deathgate right?

Curious what your beef is with that series then. I thought they did an excellent job coming up with their own property, when given the chance to not right D&D pulp trash anymore.

[fullburn.livejournal.com]

Although caveat: I did read it about 11-12 years ago. XD

[thomasj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was a fan of Weis & Hickman's D&D works, but their original stuff... bleh.

Deathgate had (for me) uninteresting characters, an under-developed plot, an no sense of urgency. I couldn't create any sort of emotional connection, and was often wondering "what the hell is going on?"

[fullburn.livejournal.com]

Wish you'd said that first. :)

I remember liking it more for the world-building than the storytelling, except Haplo was pretty cool.

[rhodric.livejournal.com]

Damn you're picky...lol his dark materials was pretty good...

[velessa.livejournal.com]

Yes, well I think everyone who knows me is well aware of that. ;)

[rhodric.livejournal.com]

i used to know you a little lol

[jaeny.livejournal.com]

Getting a bit repetitive here so let's try some new things, shall we? I'm also a huge fan of Eddings so I think you might like Steven Brust (at least 11 books within the world now, mostly connected to the main character named Vlad Taltos). Really witty, good setting, enjoyable plots.

Melanie Rawn is okay. I like the setting and the magic system but she kept abusing my favorite characters and made me mad. Still, good read - 6 books.

Started reading Greg Keyes, the Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone (his most recent and continuing series). Liking it so far.

You may or may not like Tad Williams. He gets pretty verbose but I really enjoyed the single novel of The War of the Flowers and have since picked up his 4 books series called Otherland. As soon as you get past the lengthy introduction of characters it blazes. I hate putting down the books but they're so long you have to eventually. ^_^

While you may or may not like the latter three I would highly recommend Steven Brust. The first book is called Jhereg.

[celtic4.livejournal.com]

- The Sun Sword series, by Michelle West
- The Sundered series, by Michelle Sagara (same author as above)
- Anything by Robin McKinley (The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Deerskin, etc.)
- The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper
- The Coldfire Trilogy, by C.S. Friedman

All of the above are excellent and I recommend them wholeheartedly. ^_^

[illiana-mihoshi.livejournal.com]

Oh, how my father would be proud of me...

The only thing I might suggest would be Patricia A McKillip's stuff. Granted, dad and I have slightly different tastes within her writing (I still can't get into the Riddle-Master trilogy), but she's probably one of the only fantasy writers I can handle in large doses -- my taste in books is all over the place, but probably leaning more towards quirky sci-fi like Douglas Adams or things written in the style of Jane Eyre or some of the other old-school classics.

I'm not sure if a book I read called The Alchemist's Daughter could be considered fantasy or not -- it's a recently written book, but it has the feel of one of those old stories. I wish I could remember the author.

Back to Patricia A McKillip though, I'd probably reccommend Ombria In Shadow as my favourite of hers. Everything she does just seems to be one step in a different direction than all the other fantasy I've read, and I love the characters in this particular book. As with most of her writing, it's very dreamlike.

Actually, if you like some of those lighter fantasy books (yay for me and my darker tastes), I found an unexpectedly good read in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy. I was expecting a tryhard kid's book, and what I got was an incredibly cheeky modern fantasy which was a lot of fun to read.

Just my two cents.