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PreparationH
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Favorite fantasy novels?
#22179382 - 09/02/15 06:12 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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I have never been a fiction guy but my uncle gave me 3 books that he highly recommended and said I would enjoy. The books were "The Wheel of Time: The Eye of The World" and "The Chronicles of Amber" books 1 and 2. Anyone read either series? I have never enjoyed or looked forward to reading anything until these 2 series of books.
Anyone have recommendations of other authors or books?
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Adolin




Registered: 06/28/11
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i enjoyed Robin Hobbs Farseer Trilogy alot
Steven Brusts Vlad/Khaavren series is awesome as well. they are also short & sweet which i like.
i also loved the wheel of time series. i need to read the last one, but its been so long and i feel like i need to reread the last couple to know whats going on
Edited by Adolin (09/02/15 06:16 PM)
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Cj-B
All the same...I saw it first.



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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Adolin]
#22179498 - 09/02/15 06:32 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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The Wheel of Time is good but I felt it lost it's wind after the first 4-5ish.
Off the top of my head I'd say for more serious fantasy I'm a big fan of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series and Latro in the Mist as well as ANYTHING written by Guy Gavriel Kay, in particular Lions of Al-Rassan, Tigris, and A Song for Arbonne.
For less serious fantasy I love Scott Lynch's Locke Lamora series and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Codex Alera series.
Edit: Checked my shelves for anything else and the immediately obvious ones were The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, Glen Cook's The Black Company series, The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman, Viriconium by M. John Harrison, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (my favorites of the different story arcs are the ones centered on Death, Rincewind, and the City Guard)
Edited by Cj-B (09/02/15 06:44 PM)
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PreparationH
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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Cj-B]
#22179587 - 09/02/15 06:47 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Expected to hear Stephen King';s The Dark Tower series mentioned already. I read book 1 and thought it sucked ass. I am writing down both your guys' suggestions and plan to chekc them out soon. What did you think of The Dark Tower?
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Cj-B
All the same...I saw it first.



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Quote:
PreparationH said: Expected to hear Stephen King';s The Dark Tower series mentioned already. I read book 1 and thought it sucked ass. I am writing down both your guys' suggestions and plan to chekc them out soon. What did you think of The Dark Tower?
Overall The Dark Tower was the single best thing Stephen King ever wrote. Not really a fan of Stephen King myself though.
Of those things I recommended you really can't go wrong with Discworld. Frankly, if you don't like Discworld you don't have a soul nor a sense of humor. Shit is fucking fantastic and Terry Pratchett is a master of both feels and satire. Feel free to ask any questions about my recommendations later if ya want though. Don't get the chance to yammer on about books very often.
-------------------- "I have no way of knowing whether you, who eventually will read this record, like stories or not. If you do not, no doubt you have turned these pages without attention. I confess that I love them. Indeed, it often seems to me that of all the good things in the world, the only ones humanity can claim for itself are stories and music; the rest, mercy, beauty, sleep, clean water and hot food (as the Ascian would have said) are all the work of the Increate. Thus, stories are small things indeed in the scheme of the universe, but it is hard not to love best what is our own—hard for me, at least."
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PreparationH
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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Cj-B]
#22181723 - 09/03/15 05:13 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Me either, I think my uncle who is in his early 50s was excited to give me those books to read. I started taking the train and what I have noticed is most people 30 and under I never see reading books, mostly just on their phones yet older folks are all reading.
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Oldgregg
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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Cj-B]
#22181739 - 09/03/15 05:30 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Cj-B said: The Wheel of Time is good but I felt it lost it's wind after the first 4-5ish.
I loved the whole series and generally i've heard people complain about books 7-10 being too slow. And they are a bit slow, but I think a lot of people have a more jaded view since they were waiting long periods of time between each book. If you only got one book every couple years or so then you'd probably be pretty pissed if it doesn't seem like much happens. Having read the series after all the books were released I didn't find that stretch of books that bad, and the last few after that are pretty awesome so its worth it to trudge through a few "slow" books in my opinion
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Patlal
You ask too many questions



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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Oldgregg]
#22181826 - 09/03/15 06:37 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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I work in a bookstore, therefore I know what I'm talking about. I got like 20 book nerds in the staff to suggest shit at all times. Their combined knowledge is enormous.
Fantasy suggestions:
1) Name of the Wind. Patrick Rothfuss. Quite possibly the best damm fantasy book out there right now. It's part of the King Chronicals trilogy)
2) The Blade Itself. Joe Abercombrie. A trilogy of The First Law. Extremely good trilogy as well.
These books should keep you busy for a while. Come back to me for further suggestions.
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Oldgregg
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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Patlal]
#22181827 - 09/03/15 06:37 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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i second Name of the Wind
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LeningradCowboy
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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Oldgregg]
#22181848 - 09/03/15 06:50 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Terry Pratchett, everything from the guy.....try To read without laughing.
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SARAtonin
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^^^^ YES Guards! Guards! And Going Postal are my two favorites of his. RIP Mr Pratchett.
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nicechrisman
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Dune series- Frank Herbert LOTR- Tolkein Gunslinger series- Stephen King
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DTCharlieB
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I really enjoyed the dark tower series. It gets more deep after the first book and just keeps throwing more and more information and characters at you. It has alot of mystery to it and does a somewhat decent job of filling you in on the questions it poses.
I'm currently reading dune now. Only a few chapters I'm but I enjoy it so far.
-------------------- I like lasagna.
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pirate-blues


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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: DTCharlieB]
#22182557 - 09/03/15 11:15 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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I tend to read more non-fiction and philisophical stuff at the moment, but I did semi-recently read Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" and really loved that.
As far as my all time favorite fantasy novel, it's probably A Wrinkle in Time - partly out of childhood nostalgia, but it's definitely one of the best children's fantasy books ever written imo, and worth a read even if you're an adult.
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ReposadoXochipilli
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i reread dune last fall, it was fun.
as mentioned malazan book of the fallen is pretty damn good.
wheel of time if great if you have tons of free time and don't mind getting more and more disappointed as the conclusion is a spark compared to the build up inferno.
cool little tencho punk drug concept book called snow crash was perfect for a flight, a little juvenile but enjoyable.
dark sun D&D had some fun stuff i read as a kid, tribe of one was cool
forgetten realms has some good stuff as well, http://www.rasalvatore.com/bookstore/ some things i want to reread in there.
once in awhile i like to reread LoTR and Hobbit also.
will look into some titles here
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EllisDSox
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Quote:
PreparationH said: I have never been a fiction guy but my uncle gave me 3 books that he highly recommended and said I would enjoy. The books were "The Wheel of Time: The Eye of The World" and "The Chronicles of Amber" books 1 and 2. Anyone read either series? I have never enjoyed or looked forward to reading anything until these 2 series of books.
Anyone have recommendations of other authors or books?
The Eye of the World is the first of fourteen books, so drop that shit if you don't get really drawn in, because it's less than 10% of the whole story.
Patrick Rothfuss is pretty good. Start with "The Name of the Wind" if you can be bothered. First of three books, the last of which still hasn't been published.
-------------------- Disclaimer: If you have any kind of heart condition, my posts are not for you. You could literally die from reading the first couple of words in any one of them. Scroll down the page, live your life and prosper, but don't read my posts because your heart will probably explode. I am not joking.
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ReposadoXochipilli
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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: EllisDSox]
#22182645 - 09/03/15 11:35 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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i literally didn't even want to read the last book of wheel of time but i made myself, so not where i thought the epicness was going to end. if they would have made it 10 books it would have been perfect.
but really so much shit completely left unended.
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Tripsurfer
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His Dark Materials
I enjoyed The Dark Tower. I first read it about 20 years ago and thought it was brilliant. Then after like the third of fourth book he quit writing the series 
I reread the whole thing last year. The ending is quite brutal and I remember it stuck with me for a while
I do not really like Terry Pratchett. Its been a while since I read something but I recall it usually starting out with some good premises and then some silly things being thrown in just for the sake of it. For me that killed the suspense.
I also liked the Sword of Truth series when I was younger
If you are willing to accept a little sci-fi into the mix I would recommend the Hyperion and Endymion saga by Dan Simmons
-------------------- Ach en wee ben ik de klos, met mijn boog schoot ik een albatros... A philosopher is a person who knows less and less about more and more, until he knows nothing about everything.

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DTCharlieB
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Re: Favorite fantasy novels? [Re: Tripsurfer]
#22182853 - 09/03/15 12:26 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Ya wasn't it like 10 years between like the 4th book of the dark tower and the fifth. Then I think the last 3 all came out around the same time. I think not sure though. But that 10 year stretch would have been brutal if you read them as they came out.
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EllisDSox
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Quote:
ReposadoXochipilli said: i literally didn't even want to read the last book of wheel of time but i made myself, so not where i thought the epicness was going to end. if they would have made it 10 books it would have been perfect.
but really so much shit completely left unended.
If Jordan hadn't died, the last one would have been three books instead of one, but yeah there's a lot of filler and they could easily have cut it down to ten or so books. I re-read the last one recently and it's not nearly so bad as I remembered. You can tell it's a bit of a rush job, since clumsily written character development takes place at the speed of light.
-------------------- Disclaimer: If you have any kind of heart condition, my posts are not for you. You could literally die from reading the first couple of words in any one of them. Scroll down the page, live your life and prosper, but don't read my posts because your heart will probably explode. I am not joking.
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