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Re: Fantasy Novels
so this is my favorite genre of books to read...I know Olorin is a fan of LOTR among others....any other favorites?
prolly my r2 favorite series of all time are The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams
a new wheel of time book is due out this november, check out the artwork, its getting tons of flack on teh robert jordan forum i go to but i dont think its all that bad...what do you think? i mean its not the greatest, but it could be worse
- IRISH OS1R1S
- Rep: 59
Re: Fantasy Novels
Most of the stuff written by Christian Jacq especially the Ramses series also i love the LOTR books and way too many to name.
Re: Fantasy Novels
I am also into fantasy novels,has anyone here ever read Lord Of The Isles by David Drake?I read alot of books,I'll read just about anything except romance books.
Re: Fantasy Novels
Neemo that cover is like something from the 70's, it reminds me of the books I inherited from older relations when I was a wee boy.
I also enjoy the Terry Pratchett "Discworld" series. Its quite hard to decribe what its all about, I suppose you could think of it as a world in a parallel universe. This is a flat world, a disc, supported on the backs of 4 elephants which in turn are standing on the back of a giant turtle.
The turtle and the elephants dont come into the stories much though, in the same way that nobody mentions very often in stories set on our world, that earth is a giant ball of molten rock and iron. Its just a fact of life and people just get on with it.
The stories are pretty much light hearted, humerous parodies of the kinds of things that happen here, but most stories have will have themes like politics, crime, romance, mystery, who-dunnit etc. The exception being that this is a fantastical magical world that witches, wizards, trolls, dwarfs, werewolves etc inhabit and things are generally a bit madder.
In the Discworld series there is "mini series" I suppose, where main characters appear. There is the witches, who are main characters and appear in a number of books, they live in more rural parts. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are the 2 main witches who appear in quite a few books in the Discworld series, and pop up now and again in other books that are about other people.
A lot of the stories are set in a city on the disc called Ankh-Morpork, this home to the City Watch, who are also main characters and have a number of books set around their lives:
Left to right, Nobby Nobbs, Captain Carrot, Commander Vimes and Sergeant Colon - The Night Watch 
The city is also home to the wizards who appear quite often, they have a university there, called Unseen University, but dont do much teaching though, they get up to more shenanigans than the students, who dont really appear at all. Probably because the senior wizards in the books avoid students like the plague and do as little work as possible, their all barking mad in there own individual ways, and the Librarian is an orangutan who's only word is "ook".
One transient wizard who appears in a few books is Rincewind, he isnt very good at magic, is a bit of a coward but has an uncanny knack of saving the world from time to time. He appears along with his psychotic luggage that follows him around on lots of little feet.
One character who makes an appearence in nearly all the books is Death. He is a 7 foot skeleton with the scythe and dark cloak and rides a great white horse called "Binky."
He appears whenever anyone dies, he actually is the main character in a few books.
Oh, and he likes kittens.
Re: Fantasy Novels
Neemo,
I'm also a fan of Wheel of Time. It was recommended to me by a friend who knew how much I enjoyed the Dark Tower and Lord of the Rings. It took me a little bit to get into it, but once I was hooked, I couldn't put the books down. I'm really looking forward to the finale of the series appearing over the next 2 years. The final book is going to be split up as there is too much story to cover in one novel.
What is Memory, Sorrow and Thorn about, what would you compare it to? I am looking for a new series to fill the next few months, and open to suggestions.
What is
Re: Fantasy Novels
MST is a complex Fantasy series, well planned out and right in line with WOT or LOTR, however magic doesnt dominate the world like in most fantasy books, Religion plays a huge role to the every day life of humans...prolly more like a medieval story with fantastic twists? the story is 3 books in hardcover, 4 books paperback, the last book was so enormous that it was split into 2 in paperbacks..
i love the series so much i sought out the hardcovers to add to my collection, i've read it about half a dozen times, the first book does take a while to get going but WIlliams is like that he sets up the world and characters, he makes you care about them, and even relate to them on a personal level...the main character is Simon and he begins the story as a scullion in the kitchens of the Castle of the High King the artist who does the artwork for all of tad williams novels is a guy by the name of Michael Whelan, hes fantastic...here is the cover of the first book of that series
if i had to choose between jordan and williams i'd be hard pressed to decide
Re: Fantasy Novels
I also enjoy the Terry Pratchett "Discworld" series. Its quite hard to decribe what its all about, I suppose you could think of it as a world in a parallel universe. This is a flat world, a disc, supported on the backs of 4 elephants which in turn are standing on the back of a giant turtle.
intersting...you'll have to give me some book names to start with....i'll most likely go to a used book store so just give me the names of a couple to wet my feet with 
David Drake I've heard of but can't place whether i've ever read any of his work
I have never heard of Christian Jacq
Obviously i've read Harry potter books, they are pretty cool for light reading
other authors/series i've been into....dragonlance by Wies and Hickman was my first love...and then there is the Drizzt books by RA salvatore...but those are again more of a light reading type of book based on dungeons and dragons so aimed at a young audience
terry goodkind i'm not a fan of, but i know alot of people who like the series...that sword of truth series has a tv show now called legend of the seeker its pretty neat.
Terry Brook has his moments, but there are big lulls too in his writing
I'm trying to get into a series by LE Modesitt Jr....not going so well
There is one book by CS Friedman, i bought it blind nad thought it was pretty good but i havent read it in years
been meaning to check out Guy Gavriel Kay I've been told he's pretty good
I';ve also been meaning to read the Narnia books again
Obviously Tolkien is the King though I've only ever read the Hobbit and LOTR
- IRISH OS1R1S
- Rep: 59
Re: Fantasy Novels
@ Neemo
You probably read some of these but if not you should all are great reads.
I have read quite a few more than this but for the life of me i cannot remember the titles. Anyway hope you enjoy them if you pick em up.
Dark Elf Trilogy
George R R Martin A Song of Ice & Fire
David Eddings The Belgariad Series
Philip Pullman His Dark Materials Trilogy
A Wizard of Earth sea (not sure if the title is correct i think it is though)
Terry Pratchett The Colour of Magic
J R R Tolkien The Silmarillion
Also if your into the Halo games the books are'nt bad either.
Re: Fantasy Novels
From an introduction to Terry Pratchett I'd recommend:
"Lords and Ladies" - not the first book with the witches in it, its actually a sequal of sorts to a previous book, but that didnt stop me when I first read it as its a story on its own.
"Reaper Man" - This has Death as a main character and also the wizards.
"Guards! Guards!" - This is the first book to feature the Night Watch.
If you dont like any of them then you wont like any of Terry Pratchetts work. There are better stories, but these are up there with the best I think and are decent introductions to the series.
The thing is as well, when he first started the series he wasnt neccessarily a great novel writer, his writing style improves as the series goes on. The Discworld, its inhabitants and the plots of the stories are all much better developed in the mid to later books. A few of the early books can be quite a challenge to get your head around sometimes, they are still good reads though, just a bit winding and sometimes confusing.
The Colour Of Magic, that OS1R1S recommended is the very first book, and the very first one I read.
It wasnt intentional to start with that one, I was supposed to do a book report in school when I was 15 and I liked the picture on the cover of that book.
I never ever did the report cause I finally got kicked out of school, but I've still got the book with the due back date stamped on the first page, 06.06.95
Pratchett also has the honour of being the most shoplifted author in the UK!
Another notable point is sadly he has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, so one day his brilliant mind will be destroyed by that disease.
He is trying to finish as many books as he can while he is still capable of writing.
