Well I’m craving something in this genre but I’m a bit overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. So many titles and yet I’m not sure what to read. Maybe you can help?
I’m looking for something in a high fantasy setting. I’m not too keen on heavy politics and war driven plots (though, I can read that ). What really gets me is interesting characters, good action and magical creatures.
I’ve loved anything Discworld and I’ve also enjoyed the First Law books by Abercrombie.
I’m finding that Tolkien, Sanderson and George RR Martin appear on every fantasy list I come across, so if you do recommend something I’d appreciate it be something other than that.
I highly recommend the Earthsea book by Ursula Le Guin (I actually recommend all of her books) and the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Frtiz Lieber. Especially if you are looking for something that is a quick read and not a 20 book, 50 billion page series.
Also the Drizzt novels by R. A. Salvatore, while not the same level of quality, are fun.
I’ve read only The left hand of Darkness by Le Guin and I totally didn’t cry, you understand? If at any point anyone tells you that, they’re disgusting liars trying to tarnish my reputation. That aside, I really enjoyed the book and Earthsea was on my list of potential reads. I’ve never heard of the other recommendations, will keep in mind. Thanks
All her hainish cycle books are really good too, which is a very loosely connected shared universe, that left hand of darkness takes place in.
I recently reread The Dark Elf Trilogy after a long, long time and I still quite liked it. It’s funny how differently I see the themes of the first book now than I did as a teenager.
I also remember Weis and Hickman’s Draconlance Chronicles trilogy being a fun read back in the day.
Ooooh
Terry Pratchett!!
I approve of this message :)
None of the suggestions above talk about comedy fantasy. Is there anyone close to the master? GNU
Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series is a good one. Unlike most authors in this genre who tend to be overly descriptive and feel the need to develop the lore of every squirrel in the kingdom, Le Guin writes really tight, well thought stories, where every word is important to the story.
You might want to look at Robin Hobbs’ work.
The Name of the Wind By Patrick rothfuss.
Still waiting on that third book 5o come out though. It’s only been 17 years. It’ll happen any day now. 🥲
At least we have a novella coming out in 2 weeks…
But Rothfuss still owes us the full cast reading of the first few chapters of Doors of Stone. That he set as a fundraiser goal two years ago and promised would be available the following February!
Yeah I’ve given up hope of it ever coming out. Although the bast novella seems interesting.
My personal favorites are the Assassin series, starting with Assassin Apprentice by Robin Hobb.
Some of the best most heartfelt characters I have read in any modern fantasy, with a brilliantly unique type of magic and adventure. There is some political intrigue, especially within the first trilogy, but it isn’t overly burdened by it.
The whole series has continued to be a heavily character driven emotional roller coaster that I would love to be able to forget just so I could read them again for the first time.
My wife got me to read the first trilogy, they’re pretty good. There’s also some weird writing at times that made me think it was very much “men writing women”. And a weird scene at the end of book 3 where >!Fitz (nephew) and Verity (uncle) do a Freaky Friday body swap so Verity could fuck his wife while in his nephew’s body and impregnate her.!< I didn’t read the other books lol.
To be fair, I’ve read all of Wheel of Time and loved the series, and while it’s not as bad as Discworld, it’s still pretty weird and misogynistic at times.
You are the first person I ever know to say Discworld is bad. It’s usually love, ignorance or indifference with Pratchett’s work, may I ask why the hate?
It’s definitely good and entertaining, but I found it almost distracting how he described women. I’ve been told it was actually intentional, like he was making fun of other fantasy tropes, but it sorta turned me off to it. I only read Color of Magic.
There is a massive variety of female characters in Pratchett’s work and they are so different I’m not even sure what you mean by that. Sure, some are bimboes or twats but I can also recall cunning, resourceful, and smart ones, and in particular the older characters such as the witches really stand out. Male characters are subject to the same amount of variety so I’m surprised at your take on gender. He does have a very stylised approach though, cartoonish in many ways and fair enough if that’s not your thing.
I appreciate you being a perfectly reasonable person and understanding that people have different tastes in books lol. Cheers
Colour of Magic is the first Discworld, and one of Pratchett’s first novels. He grew into his voice a lot more over the course of the next fifty-something novels.
Most of the strongest, most unique women I’ve read have been of Pratchett’s creation. And not just heroes that happen to be described as female, but fully fleshed out women ranging from feminists who wish to support their husband to trans females pretending to be males dressing as women in order to fight the patriarchy.
If you’re willing to give the Discworld another go, and I urge you to, there’s a couple of reading order guides online. ‘Guards, Guards!’ is generally recommended as a good starting point, but I’d also suggest Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Going Postal, or if you really want to dive into the gender thing, Equal Rites or Monstrous Regiment.
Robin Hobb is a woman, though
I’m aware, that’s why it’s surprising.
+1 for Cradle already mentioned. I’d add
- The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan
- Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
I always upvote Riyria Revelations
I love king’s little 80’s music references. The sequal is coming out at some point.
Lots of good recommendations here. I’ll just leave some +1s for a few I’ve seen here that I’ve enjoyed.
Blacktongue Thief: A thief tries to rob the wrong warrior and gets wrapped up in a quest to a distant land besieged by giants. The first of a trilogy, but the ending gives you enough closure to be a standalone read while also setting up where the story will go. Personally, I enjoyed the first-person narration which gives you a colorful look at a somewhat non-conventional fantasy world, although it’s still fantasy. If you liked Abercrombie then you might like this. There’s a similar focus on flawed characters trying to do the best they can. There is some war and politics but they are firmly in the background and far from the main focus.
Legends and Lattes: A retired adventurer opens up a coffee shop in a land that has never heard of coffee. I’m not sure if “cozy fantasy” was a thing before this book, but it’s been held up as an archetypal example. The plot is low-stakes and focuses on the characters and the difficulties of running a small business. Makes a good palate-cleanser between denser reads. No war or politics.
Kings of the Wyld: A retired group of adventurers has to come together for one last job after their leader’s daughter ends up trapped in a city besieged by monsters. Admittedly how much you enjoy this one depends on how novel you find the idea of adventuring groups being treated as rock and roll groups. Like literally being a stand-in for rock and roll bands with groupies, managers, and all of that. I’ve seen some criticism that the book doesn’t have much going for it beyond that which is a bit unfair. Following a bunch of middle-aged heroes past their prime was refreshing and I think the author did some interesting things with the main character who only uses a shield in combat and whose main motivation is to make it back to his wife and daughter in one piece. Very little war and politics.
Also, I don’t think he’s been recommended but you might want to check out Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire trilogy. Admittedly it’s not typical high fantasy and it is somewhat heavy on war and politics, but if you liked the grittier, grounded feel of Abercrombie then you might like it. It is arguably darker though and the main character straddles the line between dark anti-hero and outright villain protagonist for at least the first book. But it might be worth checking out if you really liked the First Law trilogy.
I 2nd Kings of the Wyld. Sequal coming out soon.
Legends & Lattes was fun too, and the sequal ‘Bookshops and Bondust’ is similarly fun.
Does Stormlight Archive count?
If you can get past the first 700 pages of book one then yes.
I’d say it counts, but only start that series if you both love LOTR-style epic fantasy and you’re willing to wait for the other 6 books to come out. There’s only 4 released now and while I love them to death, they’re very story thick and not for everyone. I wouldn’t recommend starting Brandon Sanderson with that series for that reason. Try Yumi and the Nightmare Painter or Tress and the Emerald Sea - both came out this year and they are a bit lighter reading, they’re very good, and both are a great introduction to the way Brandon writes. If you liked either of those then you’d probably love Stormlight.
I’ve read Mistborn and I don’t think Sanderson is for me. I know he’s very a very popular author though.
To each their own. However, I’ve read all of Brandon Sanderson’s books and I can definitively say that the writing style changes between Mistborn and other novels that are more recent are massive. Mistborn was good but it was his first published book. The more recent releases are a bit more easy to read. Tress even has a dragon in it. However if you’re not interested at all, try reading the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It’s great magic fantasy set on Earth. However a similar warning applies - the first few books are a bit of a slog. If you read these, maybe start on book 3 - the first two aren’t as story centric.
I appreciate the information! I might try again sometime with Sanderson but not right now. I’ve heard others recommend me Dresden too, it sounds interesting.
Dresden is great, though it starts weak. Like the first 3-5 books are merely OK. But if you get through those, Butcher gets pretty awesome IMHO.
nothing wrong with not caring for a book or author that everyone else seems to love. I have a list of books I DNF’d that are VERY popular. It is what it is.
I too do not enjoy Sanderson. GRR Martin has a series of books called the hedge knight. They are not exactly fantasy but medieval fiction taking place in the game of thrones universe. The tone and writing is very different from aSoIaF so don’t shy away if you aren’t into those. Pretty short but I found them to be very endearing books and might scratch the itch.
It’s weird I can’t recommend a single ‘traditional’ fantasy book despite being quite interested in the genre. I’ve never found one that combines good world building with a writing style I enjoy. Quite sad to think about tbh.
Alright, which ones have you read that would fit the category but you didn’t enjoy?
Wheel of time, Name of the wind, Malazan, the broken sword, eyes of the dragon, the gilded chain, wizard of eathsea.
Admittedly not that many, I guess part of the problem for me is finding ones that look interesting.
His 1st written book elantris was way way too rough for me. But so far that’s the only one of his books i didn’t care for.
I’ll add a +1 to some mentioned:
- Cradle series - progression fantasy, basically DBZ or Naruto style progression with a magic system, intelligent beasts/dragons, demigods, etc.
- Night Angel Trilogy - street rat turned assassin with magic. I feel like it leans pretty heavily into fantasy tropes, but they’re fun reads.
- Kings of the Wyld - this book is fucking hilarious. The main characters are basically a kickass D&D group but it’s 20 years later, they’re old and fat, and have to go on one last epic adventure.
It isn’t so much dragons, but it it is fantasy. The Cradle series by Will Wight is phenomenal. If you’re a fan of audio books they are all available in that format also, narrated by Travis Baldree
Audiobooks, nice. Will keep in mind. Thanks!
Travellers Gate series by Will Wight is also good.
loved the series but peaked at wintersteel, that ending sequence is so damn good
bloodline was kinda weak
The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini! I’ve read it too many times. It’s a really good hero’s journey and the characters are all really interesting. Plus it’s focused on dragons and magic and elves and dwarves, lots of cool creativity that goes on in the world. And I just really enjoy Paolini’s world-building. He’s very good at it and it stays consistent. There are two wars that I remember, one is a small-scale thing that sets a lot of events in motion, and the other is the big climax at the end of the series. It’s my favourite series next to The Dark Tower. I’d highly recommend it!
I’ve heard the Wheel of Time stuff is pretty good. Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels were popular long ago, but he has sort of disappeared (I just looked him up, and he’s probably just retired). I’ve personally read the Black Cauldron books and enjoyed them quite a bit. Robert Aspirin’s Myth books can be fun. Hopefully there is something new to you in that list!
+1 for Piers Anthony, the xanth stuff gets the most attention but he has some other good stuff, the battle circle trilogy was pretty cool
The Powder Mage trilogy is kind of fun. The setting is more late 18th/early 19th century than medieval, and it is far from perfect, but a bit of French revolution era fantasy with magic and gods and stuff never hurt anyone.
China Miéville’s New Crobuzon series must qualify as fantasy somehow. It’s New Weird, but you have weird magic and grotesquely weird fantasy races living in a fantasy world, so it must count. Also, because Miéville is some flavor of trotskyist you get a fantasy world written from some kind of Marxist perspective, but because it is a fictional world where Stalin never existed you don’t have to read 50 pages about how every successful socialist revolution was never real.
What I’ve read of Robin Hobb has been fun, but it’s been more than a decade so take that recommendation with a pinch of salt.
You could also hate read David Eddings, a child abusing drunk of a hack author who hated the genre of fantasy and all of its readers. That’s what I’m doing, because I want to examine my childhood idol more closely. This is a bad idea and will not improve your life in any way, but it is something you could do.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’m curious about the last paragraph. You see, I found an Eddings audiobook and I started with it, considering I’ve seen the name recommended here a few times. I’ve been thinking it’s well written but also really really boring. Is this why you say he hated the readers? Have you figured why he achieved idol status for you during your childhood?
He got into writing fantasy because he thought the people who read fantasy would read absolutely anything. He wanted to get as much money as possible for as little effort as possible, and since he didn’t consider fantasy to be real literature he figured it would be easier than adventure books about rock climbing, which he had written before, because he had to do literally no research. Reading them as an adult it is obvious that they are very lazily written. Every character has a personality that can be boiled down to a single adjective like “grumpy”, “sneaky”, “funny”, or in one very annoying case “having an axe”. This lazy writing however means that because the characters never really have much to say about anything things can move at an incredibly fast pace. This is what I liked as a child.
Fast!? I’ve gone through over 2/3 of the first book and I was thinking the worst so far had been the slow pace. I do agree the characters haven’t said much but I figured it was because they were keeping things a secret from the MC. Thanks for sharing your perspective though!
I think the first series he wrote may have a bit of a slow start. The one I’m hate reading is his latter work about the knight Sparhawk. I was convinced the plot of the first book would revolve around stopping the nefarious plot that he - I swear to god - just happened to overhear a villain just explain to an entire room in an inn. Like 8 or so chapters later and he is on a different continent, kidnapping an ambassador after having completely stopped the evil plot, fought in two major battles, adopted a child, commited arson, survived a shipwreck and infiltrated a cultist meeting. It’s remarkable how fast things can happen if none of the characters have any personality you have to write around.
Currently rereading the Belgariad and will likely go straight into the Mallorean. Probably my favourite “traditional” fantasy series.
But my all time favourite fantasy series is The Death Gate Cycle by Weiss and Hickman. But is very much not your traditional fantasy setup. It’s got wizards, dragons, elves, etc… but in very very non-traditional worlds. Can’t recommend it enough.
cut my teeth on this series, I’ve read the whole thing 3 times
still my favorite story opening about Pol’s kitchen
Sorry, which one of the two series you are talking about? Just to know to which you are giving the +1
He’s talking about the belgariad/malloreon, by David Eddings. It seems like he may not have read the second paragraph mentioning the death gate cycle, hence the confusion.
The Belgariad is a series of 5 books, and the Malloreon is a sequel series which is also 5 books.
it’s the same story, start with the belgaraid
starts with pawn of prophecy
@Adderbox76 @Mothra Love the Death Gate Cycle, would also recommend it. It feels a bit like the prototype for Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere.
@hybridhavoc@darkfriend.social @Adderbox76@lemmy.ca @Mothra@mander.xyz Yes! I recently started it and I was floored by all the Cosmere-ish stuff in the first few chapters, down to names and everything.
Also my brother used to name his video game characters Haplo, so there are core memories involved here.
Incredibly, no one on 17thShard or the Cosmere reddits seem to know this series, but I do not think the similarities are coincidences, given Brandon’s first unpublished book being essentially a Dragonlance story.
I paused Death Gate Cycle to catch up on shorter backlog stuff (and yet another Sanderson book), but I’ll have to prioritize finishing it now that I saw this thread ❤️
I’ve always felt like the magic systems and cultures of the Patryns and Sartans were deserving of their own expanded universe. I was desperate to learn more about them and was sad that they were only ever in that one series.
I remember the versions I read had a sort of encyclopedia at the back of every book in the series dealing with some aspect of another of the world and I devoured those obsessively
