Good fantasy reading? Any suggestions?

[Obolus]

The Wayfarer Redempton Series by Sara Douglass.

[moon glum]

Triga wrote:

I am looking for a good fantasy book. Just for reference i will say that I have read the Tolkien books, and I loved them, but at this point after reading them multiple times they are getting dry. So i would like some good suggestions for reading.

Thank You.

There is an immense and wonderous world of fantasy fiction awaiting you.

If you have the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide, there is a great recommended reading list at the back of it.

Here are some of my top fantasy fictions of all time that might appeal to a Pathfinder player (in no particular order):

The Elric Series, by Micheal Moorcock (I just got M. Moorcock to sign my 'Coming of the Terraphiles' Dr. Who Novel!). Elric is sickly albino prince who finds a black sword that is a sentient entity devours souls and that seeks the destruction of the universe. At it eats souls, it gives Elric great physical strength, but at a terrible cost.

Perdido Street Station, by China Meiville. He creates a detailed world and city composed of monsters and many alien races. There are great battles, and terrible horrors.

Tales of the Dying Earth, by Jack Vance. This is the source of all magic in D&D, and the language is wonderful. Cugel the Clever is one of the great fantasy rogues.

The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novels, by Fritz Lieber. Humorous, swashbackling tales of a pair of rapscallions. They include mysterious alien wizards, an awesome thieves guild, and much daring do.

The Conan novels, by Robert E. Howard. CONAN!!!!

The Books of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe. A great dying earth series where magic and super science become indistinguishable.

The Dream Cycle by H.P. Lovecraft, which includes the novella, 'The Dream Quest of Unknown Kaddath'. H.P. Lovecraft is the source of much coolness in popular sci-fi/horror/fantasy culture and in D&D. The Dream Cycle, while not representing his classic works like 'The Call of Cthulhu' or 'The Shadow over Innsmouth', are cool in terms of weird creatures and cities.

The Black Company (first 3 books at least) by Glen Cooke. A narative of a mercenary company involved in what seems to be a fight between good and evil, only they are employed by the forces of evil.

Anything by Clarke Ashton Smith. Some really good stuff of his has been re-printed in the collections 'Out of Space and Time', and 'Lost Worlds'.

The Kane stories by Karl Edward Wagner.

The Amber Series (at least the first 5 books), by Rodger Zelazny. Also Lord of Light, Shadow Jack, and Creatures of Light and Darkness.

[Triga]

wow, i lost track of this topic and neve replied. Thanks for all the replies. Ima go to my local barnes and noble and look into a lot of these, thanks.

[Knoq Nixoy]

what moon glum said

of the newer ones I recommend

Paul Kearney
Joe Abercrombie
R Scott Bakker (at least the first two)
China Mieville (particularly The Scar)
Steven Erikson (first six) and IC Esselmont
A Sapkowski
Patrick Rothfuss
Scott Lynch (first 1 and 1/2)
Brandon Sanderson (his last one)
MC Newton
Guy Kay (Under Heaven)
and GRRM of course

[Thane36425]

Its not traditional fantasy, but "The Glory Road" by Robert Heinlein is a fantasy adventure where science takes takes the place of magic in ways that look like magic. There is planar travel where different places have different rules (like guns work in one place but not another), and there is a bag of holding type device that uses "geometry" instead of magic. Rather interesting concept of ruling the multiverse as well.

I can't think of the name of it right offhand, maybe someone here can guess it, though it has unicorn in the title. The plot is that there are mirror worlds, one science dominant and the other magic dominant. If they get out of balance they cause trouble for each other. To restore balance a champion comes is taken from one world to the other. The main character is a paladin type who is realistically protrayed. For example, if he strays from his principles, his powers fade.

The White Plume Mountain, Descent to the Depths of the Earth, Queen of the Demonweb Pits is a decent triology with the second book being my favorite. The overall ending I didn't care for though.

Lastly, The Tomb of Horrors (if I'm thinking of the right one) is like a Pathfinder journal of an arechetypal dungeon crawl complete with using hirelings and spear carriers.