Need a recommendation

Fodder said:
Chronicles of Amber was very good as well, although I much preferred the Corwin saga (books 1-5) vs. books 5-10.
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I'm torn, because while the first saga had better storyline and plot, I was really taken with the second's depiction of magic and of the main character. Granted I don't have all that much exposure to fantasy novels in general, but the fantasy settings I've seen (including RPGs) seem to shortchange magic. You hear of long labors to learn spells, but when it comes down to it, it's not used for much. The second half of the Amber series really made me feel what it would be like to command forces beyond those of the natural world. I didn't care for the too-long traveling descriptions and such, but the workings of magic in that world were vividly depicted and very captivating.

If anyone can recommend other good fantasy books which don't just gloss over magic but treat it in an interesting way, I'd love to hear of them. ^_^ About the only other thing I've read that resonated with me was The Wizard of Earthsea.

And btw, don't let "10 books" scare anyone away from the Amber series. Each of those books is small. I got them all as a single hardcover-sized book, so it's not as huge as it sounds.
 
Have you heard of anything by Haruki Murakami? Hes this Japanese author and they best way I can describe his books is magical realism, theyre all awesome and Ive read about 5 of his books already, Id suggest "The wind up bird chronicles" and "Kafka on the Shore"
 
as for the fantasy genre, my two biggest recommendations if you havent already read them are David Eddings "Belgariad" a 4(i think) book series but im sure you could find it collected into one Volume.... and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series which is currently sitting at book 11 of 12. It's a rather huge and dense series but even in my least favorite of these books, the story given is very much worth reading. Unfortunately Robert Jordan passed away this past fall, but TOR has just recently announced that Brandon Sanderson will finish the 12th and final book "A Memory of Light" which is scheduled for the shelves in Fall '09.


If you want to venture into something slightly different but not necessarily too far off of this genre,... there's a few graphic novels that i'd recommend. Especially since the Dark Knight is in theaters this weekend, you could look for Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Batman: Year One" as well as Jeff Loeb/Tim Sale's "Batman: The Long Halloween" or even Alan Moore's "Batman: the Killing Joke" which deals with the origins of the Joker (I've yet to read this one).

There's a plethora of other Superhero-y Graphic Novels,... but if you want to steer away from that there's always things like Garth Ennis's "Preacher" series which i think is collected into about 9 trade paperbacks, or one of my favorites Brian K. Vaughn's "Y The Last Man" which as well is collected into some number of trade paperbacks.



hmmm... i've got plenty more i could recommend... but for now... /end spam
 
oh yes, The Belgariad and The Maloreon are both fabulous tales. Be sure to buy the paperback version with the various books condensed into 2 volumes.

Robert Jordan just blabbered on about nothing for too long to fulfill contractual obligations. I got annoyed with it.
 
maybe it's just me, but i've been so engrossed in the Wheel of Time universe... that even his "blabbering about nothing" was plenty of entertainment for me.
 
The Wheel of Time had some slow spots for me (books 9 and 10 felt like slogging through mud) but it really picked up again in book 11. It's a damn shame he passed away; his other series that he had been planning to write sounded very interesting, and it'll be hard for anyone to do justice to WoT book 12.

The Belgariad and subsequent additional books in that series are definitely excellent but the writer has this way with character dialogue (my spell check fucking sucks, dialogue is so a word) that got on my nerves after a while. You'll know what I mean if you read it, it started getting to me about 3-4 books in... lol.

-benny
 
I must admit, I don't read much (shame), but I whole-heartedly backs up the rec for Good Omens. I really enjoyed that book.
 
I havnt read thru any of the others responses cause Im lazy right now but here is my list of suggestions.

1. My favorite by far A song of Ice and Fire by george rr martin
Book one is called A Game of Thrones

2. Memory , Sorrow and Thorn by Tad williams
Book one is called The Dragon bone Chair

3. Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Hayden cant recall what book one is

4. The Runelords by David Farland first book is The Runelords (this is a fun series that uses ideas that are very unique.)

5. Sword of Truth by terry goodkind

6. Wheel of time is great and dont worry bout the series not being finished. It almost is and by the time you finish series it will be.
 
Memory Sorrow and Thorn is a good read as well. Sword of Truth made me want to kick TG in the jimmy about half way through... The last book made me want to do it twice. It had such a good start too.

Symphony of Ages - I read it, but it made me think "Harlequin" fantasy lol. I think it's intended more for the female reader.
 
Wheel of Time is excellent, as has been mentioned.

One of my personal favorite fantasy authors is Raymond Feist. He has a tremendously long series that is split up into a number of stand alone books, trilogies, and others, but they are all really parts of one very long story so there is a lot of continuity between them even if many of the characters focussed on are changing. Great read.

Haven't seen anyone mention Feist either, so two big thumbs up from me.
 
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