OK, trying to expand my repertoire of fantasy books, so I'm looking for some new series to try. I am typically very rigid in my choices, so this is me seeking the advice of the community to direct me to the right series of books that fit my taste.
My reading thus far has included the following series.
1) JRR Tolkien (The Hobbit and LOTR)
2) Raymond E Feist's (entire Rift War Saga, including Empire)
3) RA Salvatore (The entire Dirzzt series)
4) Dragonlance (Chronicles, Dark Chronicles, Twins, Raistlin's Tales)
5) Imager series
6) Forgotten Realms beyond the Drizzt stuff (Elminster series)
I am a big fan of the whole Good vs Evil trope, and love paladins and paladin-esque characters. I'm always for the small group taking on the big group of bad guys against all odds types of stories too. I also like books that include good descriptions of where the tale takes place and the cultures involved.
So, if anyone has suggestions within the these general guidelines, or series similar to or within the above books I listed (such as other series within the Forgotten Realms setting), that you feel are good, that would be most appreciative...
...and go!
I would strongly suggest the classic, awesome, and paladin containing Forgotten Realms novel Pool of Twilight
Have you read the pathfinder novels? Some better than others but I found them all enjoyable. The memory, sorrow and thorn trilogy is a bit slow but I really liked it. There is a collection of a short stories about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, those are very good.
Any of Joe Abercrombie's books. They're great. Also, Patrick Rothfuss has a fun series in the "Name of the Wind," and I really really like Scott Lynch's "Lies of Locke Lamora" series: those are like Ocean's 11 meets D&D.
1.) The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy involving a wizard PI...also has one of the best depictions of what Paladins should be in anything I've ever read in Michael). The first one is so-so, it's the weakest of the bunch. From there it's excellent.
2.) Codex Alera, also by Jim Butcher ("What if the Roman Empire was placed on another planet and they developed a bond with elemental spirits?")
3.) The Mistborn Trilogy (In the far, far distant past, a hero fought a great evil...and it won. Also we get super powers from various metals. The plot starts with La Resistance taking on the evil overlord. Really cool.)
4.) The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan, and finished by Brandon Sanderson after his death. (Drags on in places, but as a fan of Tolkien, Feist, and Salvatore that shouldn't bother you. The plot is pretty standard fantasy fare to begin with.)
5.) The Dwarves, by Markus Heitz. (Just finished this one yesterday. Very well done take on Dwarves, traditional in some ways and different enough in others to keep them interesting.)
6.) The Discworld series, by the recently deceased Terry Pratchett. (Brilliant series. Pokes fun at most fantasy tropes in a loving, understanding way. Pratchett's sharp as a tack. Recommend skipping the first two novels, the Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic until you've been eased into the setting by later books because GOOD GOD are the first two overwhelmingly strange.)
7.) Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, and its sequel The Wise Man's Fear are some of the best fantasy I've read in a while.
Daniel Polanski's Low Town is also a huge favorite of mine, super dark, gritty, and the good vs. evil thing gets turned on its head. Our main character is a drug dealer, rather jerkish, and yet its hard not to love him!
nice list of suggestions BTW Rynjin, some excellent selections in there.
I would recommend...
The Cornerstone Trilogy and A Soul of Tsing(which is a stand alone) by Chris A Jackson.
The Elenium and The Tamuli by David Eddings.
War God series by David Weber.
For fantasy, almost anything by Glen Cook. His series are:
The Dread Empire
The Black Company(my personal favorite)
The Instrumentalities of the Night
Garret P.I.(Think fantasy mixed with 20-40's noir detective fiction. If Dick Tracy had a dark elf for a best friend)
Another good series is from a relative new comer to the field. The Authors name is R.S. Belcher, and the series isn't officially named, so lets just call it the Golgatha Series. The two books out for it currently are The Six Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana. It's chuck full of awesome goodness and if you ever want to do a magic and steampunk influenced wild wild west, it has plenty of ideas for that. Actually, quite a few of it's ideas could play well in any fantasy setting.
OK, I think that'll do everyone! Thanks! I think I have enough to keep me busy. And thanks to whoever flagged the thread and got it moved to the right forum. I didn't know there was a Books subforum.
That'd be me. There's probably some other good suggestion threads if you go digging.
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1.) The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy involving a wizard PI...also has one of the best depictions of what Paladins should be in anything I've ever read in Michael). The first one is so-so, it's the weakest of the bunch. From there it's excellent.
2.) Codex Alera, also by Jim Butcher ("What if the Roman Empire was placed on another planet and they developed a bond with elemental spirits?")
3.) The Mistborn Trilogy (In the far, far distant past, a hero fought a great evil...and it won. Also we get super powers from various metals. The plot starts with La Resistance taking on the evil overlord. Really cool.)
4.) The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan, and finished by Brandon Sanderson after his death. (Drags on in places, but as a fan of Tolkien, Feist, and Salvatore that shouldn't bother you. The plot is pretty standard fantasy fare to begin with.)
5.) The Dwarves, by Markus Heitz. (Just finished this one yesterday. Very well done take on Dwarves, traditional in some ways and different enough in others to keep them interesting.)
6.) The Discworld series, by the recently deceased Terry Pratchett. (Brilliant series. Pokes fun at most fantasy tropes in a loving, understanding way. Pratchett's sharp as a tack. Recommend skipping the first two novels, the Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic until you've been eased into the setting by later books because GOOD GOD are the first two overwhelmingly strange.)
7.) Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, and its sequel The Wise Man's Fear are some of the best fantasy I've read in a while.
Given the references mentioned by the OP, I second every single one of these suggestions.
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I would recommend The Princess Series (not your everyday Disney princess versions of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty) and Jig the Dragonslayer series (also known as Goblin quest series) all by Jim C Hines. Spectacular Author. You might even like his Magic ex Libris series (people can do magic by pulling stuff out of books).
+1000For fantasy, almost anything by Glen Cook. His series are:
The Dread Empire
The Black Company(my personal favorite)
The Instrumentalities of the Night
Garret P.I.(Think fantasy mixed with 20-40's noir detective fiction. If Dick Tracy had a dark elf for a best friend)
Exactly. Glen Cook changed the face of fantasy without people realizing it.
If you liked the Imager series, try the Recluce books (same author). I think Fall of Angels and The Magic Engineer fit your specifications best.
Also Stuart Hills Icemark Chronicles are fun reads, and some of the battles in it feel very Tolkienish. (Series is basically tiny magical country and allies defends itself against huge technological anti-magic expanding/invading empire)
Azure Bonds and the rest of the Finder Stone Trilogy by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb sounds ideal for you. A small group taking on a large conspiracy of bad guys.
Jacqueline Carey has a duology that is a pastiche of LotR viewed through the "evil" side.
Gregory Keyes has a GRRM-lite series that's really good. AND it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Maybe two middles...it might be a tetralogy.
Can concur. Read Way of Kings and Words of Radiance over the course of about four days recently and loved every second of them.
As much as I liked Mistborn, this series blows it out of the water, EASILY.
The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Book of Words trilogy by J V Jones
The Book of Years series by Peter Moorwood