I'd like to read more fantasy books, but as there are so many authors, I'm not sure what to read. I really like Pratchett and Pullman any suggestions would be great.
Obvious choice
The Lord Of The Rings - JRR Tolkien
Plus
The Book Of The New Sun - Gene Wolfe
The Chronicles Of Amber - Roger Zelazny
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance (any Vance is great but The Eyes Of The Overworld and Cugel's Saga are a must for any fantasy fan)
The Saga of the Exiles - Julian May (sci-fi/fantasy with time travel and psychic powers)
Elric - Michael Moorcock (any of the Elric stuff particularly the early short stories and Stormbringer)
The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander (more children/young adult orientated but fun nonetheless)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. A brilliant debut but there seems to be some considerable delay in waiting for the next part to be published. Even so the book is well worth reading.
I absolutely loved Lord of the Fading Lands. A fantastically well developed fantasy world with really interesting characters. Has a wonderful darkness as well as very uplifting stuff. And a great romance thrown in. Totally addictive.
I have a question for those of you who love fantasy novels.
Are there any other ones out there that someone could recommend where the world we live in intersects with a fantasy/different world as in Stephen King's Dark Tower novels, and again SK The Talisman?
I love stories like that - where normal people living normal lives suddenly find there is more to the universe.....
I have a question for those of you who love fantasy novels.
Are there any other ones out there that someone could recommend where the world we live in intersects with a fantasy/different world as in Stephen King's Dark Tower novels, and again SK The Talisman?
I love stories like that - where normal people living normal lives suddenly find there is more to the universe.....
Appreciate any help.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is one of the best examples of that.
I have a question for those of you who love fantasy novels.
Are there any other ones out there that someone could recommend where the world we live in intersects with a fantasy/different world as in Stephen King's Dark Tower novels, and again SK The Talisman?
I love stories like that - where normal people living normal lives suddenly find there is more to the universe.....
Appreciate any help.
The first of the Chronicles Of Amber is sort of like that. Also try The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson but they are a bit heavy going. The lead character is a modern day leper so that should give you some idea of the tone. There are loads of Children's fantasy books that have a real world/fantasy world cross over. Some of them are quite good and adults should be able to enjoy them too. Like Alan Garners Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon Of Gomrath and Elidor as well as Susan Coopers The Dark is Rising sequence, not to mention CS Lewis' Narnia books.
I think the Thomas Covenant chronicles are excellent - I would agree that they aren't exactly an easy read but well worth the effort and you do relax into his style after a while. His next book in the series (Ägainst All Things Ending) is due out very soon and I can't wait!
Magician - Raymond E Feist - several books after this one
Eragon - Christopher Paulini, big books but well worth the read
Demonata Saga - Darren Shan, written for "young adults" but suprisingly good
number 1 choice - Which is fantasy and funny a bit like pratchett but more fantasy
I second Neil Gaiman and jasper fford and add on tom holt, if your looking for the more humorous less dark style then id go for them.
Robert rankin can be good but i think is an aquired taste
I second the Belgariad and Mallorean. I have read them all through three or four times. The A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R Martin. Complex and very deftly woven stories.
I second the Belgariad and Mallorean. I have read them all through three or four times. The A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R Martin. Complex and very deftly woven stories.
Oh man I despise the Mallorean and the Song of Fire and Ice. I was so disappointed when the Mallorean came out after waiting so long. I remember as I was reading it thinking "this had better end well" but of course it didn't. Too much jolly bantering and back slapping and a plot that was wafer thin for my taste. Song of Fire and Ice is a trudge from start to finish (not that I did ever finish it). The first book of it is passable but the second is pure bunkum.
Long time since I read it/them (originally published as two books, now redone as one, I think) Greg Bear's Infinity Concerto certainly starts in this world, and then off into another.
Sheri S Tepper's The Family Tree tells two stories in parallel until the two collide. One is a contemporary woman and her friends in the real world. The other is a motley collection of characters on a quest in an unnamed world. Characters from one of these end up in the other. I really liked this: it's a lot more immediately accessible than a lot of her work. Her ideas are invariably original and her created worlds vary immensely, but it can take some time for all the aspects of her books to link up internally. The Family Tree is better at doing that.
Charles de Lint does a lot of this "another world intruding into our own", and in a couple of books, people end up in those other worlds. They are much more "the realm of faerie" sort of worlds than other planets, so if it's alien races you want, this isn't really your best bet. I particularly like Moonheart, where the residents of an Ottawa (?) apartment block find it is a bridge between their world and another.
Totally agree on Alan Garner for "real world insecting with another" - the scene in Elidor where the artefacts from elsewhere are messing with electricity in the kids' house is fantastic. "Vertical hold" is out on the television, which is funny and banal, but there are really scary things in the shadows. This one genuinely creeped me out when I read it.
Hard to find now - but try Karl Edward Wagner's Kane books; start with his short story collection of the Mystic Swordsmans's adventures "Nightwinds".
Also - Glen Cook's The Black Company series, particularly the first three novels in the sequence, about an ever-shrinking company of human mercenaries caught up on the wrong side of a civil war involving magic and demons - the evil side....
I have a question for those of you who love fantasy novels.
Are there any other ones out there that someone could recommend where the world we live in intersects with a fantasy/different world as in Stephen King's Dark Tower novels, and again SK The Talisman?
I love stories like that - where normal people living normal lives suddenly find there is more to the universe.....
Appreciate any help.
I assume you've read Harry Potter I second Neverwhere, too. Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones, and Fire and Hemlock, and Deep Secret. Hmm, I thought I read loads of these but I'm coming up blank. The Laundry novels by Charles Stross (the first one is The Atrocity Archives) do this with a sort of cross between SF, fantasy and Cthulhu.
The first two series involves people from our world being transported into another world.
Stephen Donaldson - Mordant's Need
Not as intense as Thomas Covenant books and set in a different land from...ah, The Land
A lonely young woman feels isolated from the world: she uses mirrors to reassure herself that she is still alive - and then they change her life when, one night, a young man appears through the mirror and persuades her to come with him to his own land, where mirrors are magical gateways to other places.
It's a bit intense, I remember reading some bits in tears
Five men and women find themselves flung into the magical land of Fionavar, First of all Worlds. They have been called there by the mage Loren Silvercloak, and quickly find themselves drawn into the complex tapestry of events.
A ship appeared 100 years ago in the waters off the Hebrionese coast. None on board her survived, but now, when the Western world is in flames, and the faithful are warring amongst themselves, an ancient logbook from the ship of the dead tells of a free land across the Western ocean.
Not as intense as Thomas Covenant books and set in a different land from...ah, The Land
As mentioned earlier, I am a big fan of the Thomas Covenant books but I am really struggling to get into Mordant's Need. I've started and restarted it at least half a dozen times. Is it really worth the effort of me persisting? Does it get better?
Comments
The Lord Of The Rings - JRR Tolkien
Plus
The Book Of The New Sun - Gene Wolfe
The Chronicles Of Amber - Roger Zelazny
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance (any Vance is great but The Eyes Of The Overworld and Cugel's Saga are a must for any fantasy fan)
The Saga of the Exiles - Julian May (sci-fi/fantasy with time travel and psychic powers)
Elric - Michael Moorcock (any of the Elric stuff particularly the early short stories and Stormbringer)
The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander (more children/young adult orientated but fun nonetheless)
That should get you going.
I would also recommend Angie Sage and her Septimus Heap series. They are intelligent and original.
I've tried to read it twice. I get to where Frodo and Sam lost in the Dead Marshes and I get seem to read beyond there
Are there any other ones out there that someone could recommend where the world we live in intersects with a fantasy/different world as in Stephen King's Dark Tower novels, and again SK The Talisman?
I love stories like that - where normal people living normal lives suddenly find there is more to the universe.....
Appreciate any help.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is one of the best examples of that.
Thanks. Will give it a go.
Magician - Raymond E Feist - several books after this one
Eragon - Christopher Paulini, big books but well worth the read
Demonata Saga - Darren Shan, written for "young adults" but suprisingly good
number 1 choice - Which is fantasy and funny a bit like pratchett but more fantasy
The Bartimaeous Trilogy by Johnathon Stroud
Robert rankin can be good but i think is an aquired taste
Robert Silverberg's Valentine sequence.
Andre Norton's Witchworld series.
Sheri S Tepper's The Family Tree tells two stories in parallel until the two collide. One is a contemporary woman and her friends in the real world. The other is a motley collection of characters on a quest in an unnamed world. Characters from one of these end up in the other. I really liked this: it's a lot more immediately accessible than a lot of her work. Her ideas are invariably original and her created worlds vary immensely, but it can take some time for all the aspects of her books to link up internally. The Family Tree is better at doing that.
Charles de Lint does a lot of this "another world intruding into our own", and in a couple of books, people end up in those other worlds. They are much more "the realm of faerie" sort of worlds than other planets, so if it's alien races you want, this isn't really your best bet. I particularly like Moonheart, where the residents of an Ottawa (?) apartment block find it is a bridge between their world and another.
Totally agree on Alan Garner for "real world insecting with another" - the scene in Elidor where the artefacts from elsewhere are messing with electricity in the kids' house is fantastic. "Vertical hold" is out on the television, which is funny and banal, but there are really scary things in the shadows. This one genuinely creeped me out when I read it.
Also - Glen Cook's The Black Company series, particularly the first three novels in the sequence, about an ever-shrinking company of human mercenaries caught up on the wrong side of a civil war involving magic and demons - the evil side....
Stephen Donaldson - Mordant's Need
Not as intense as Thomas Covenant books and set in a different land from...ah, The Land
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mordants-Need-Mirror-Through-Gollancz/dp/0575079045
Guy Gavriel Kay - The Fionavar Tapestry
It's a bit intense, I remember reading some bits in tears
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fionavar-Tapestry-Summer-Tree/dp/0586215220
Paul Kearney - Monarchies Of God Series
This book is set entirely in a fantasy realm.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawkwoods-Voyage-Monarchies-Paul-Kearney/dp/0575600349
Sorry for hijacking your thread OP
As mentioned earlier, I am a big fan of the Thomas Covenant books but I am really struggling to get into Mordant's Need. I've started and restarted it at least half a dozen times. Is it really worth the effort of me persisting? Does it get better?