Bonkers fiction for Rebecca

[towy71]

There is a series of crazy books starting with "The Eyre affair" by Jasper Fforde which you can get a flavour of at his website, I find them hilarious!

[Nigel]

Fantasy authors on my bookshelves include Anne McAffery, Terry Brooks and David Eddings. Or if you want to try something a bit heavier, my favourite is the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen Donaldson.

Of course, if you want to mix Fantasy with Humour, look no further than Terry Pratchett's Discworld books.

[digby_ttf]

Favourite fantasy for me has to be the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, starts with The Eye of The World. It really is epic, and utterly engrossing.

Another firm favourite is Raymond E Feist. It's basicaly a collection of interlinked trilogies. Start with Magician, and go from there.

[fmwt]

List of fantasy stuff

JV Jones
Robin Hobb
Dave Duncan (not read him myself by my wife's a fan)
Fiest is very good as someone else suggested, his earlier stuff is better. The trilogy he co-wrote with Janny Wurtz is as good as the original trilogy. And Faerie Tale which is sort of dark fantasy.
Edding, Belgariad is very good, but then you realise he can only write one story and the fact that everyone is archetype gets a bit irritating after a while.
Guy Gaverial Kay
Christopher Paolini (the trilogy is a young adults read apparently but the first two are still really good. Third's not out yet)
Is Robert Jordan every going to finish Wheel of Time (I got bored at book 4 I think, and it's up to 8???). But I agree the ones I read were good epic fantasy. I just wanted an ending, and five books in a series is about my limit.

If you want move slightly (or indeed quite a way) outside Heroic Fantasy (some of the below have been accursed of writing literature)
Neil Gaiman
China Melville (for a bit of politics)
Graham Joyce
K.J. Parker (bit unsure about recommending this guy, as I really like his stuff but really not sure why)

To go off topic slightly I really winds me up when fantasy/sf/any other genre books get re-classified as not genre when it's widely found to be good.

Gormengast is Fantasy
Harry Potter is Fantasy
Margaret Atwoods Handmaidens Tale is SF


have fun

Marcus

[fmwt]

Oh and read all of Gemmell's stuff including the Jon Shannow fantasy/western stuff. It's all top, the earlier Drenai is my in my opinion his best work, (his second book King beyond the Gate is my favorite of his books) but the Jon Shannow stuff is really good as well.

[andychannelle]

I'd recommend a Cantacle for Leibovitz by (I think) Walter Millar - a short slice of genius (and no hyperbole)

[Smallenhofer]

Wow, that's some reading list, thanks! I've come across some of those writers before, so that's pretty encouraging, and the only one I haven't liked is Terry Pratchett (I know, I know, for some that's like saying I use Exploiter and THROW CANS OUT without recycling them).

Now I just need to persuade the local library to let me borrow books again (running total for late fines since joining must be coming up to £150) and Nick to let me have some, er, gardening leave for some reading time (not that I'd be reading in the garden at this time of year, and is gardening leave when you're not coming back?). How come Bruce Perens and people at Google get time from their employers for 'personal projects'? Isn't getting closer to our readers through the medium of fantasy fiction reason enough for me having every Friday off?

[Hudzilla]

'lo,

Just as a note of interest for readers thinking we drive poor Rebecca too hard, she actually didn't take all her holiday time last year - she must like it here!


Paul

[MartyBartfast]

Well I'd recommend David Eddings, there's plenty of back catalog to choose from but I'm not sure whether he's still pushing them out. Lots of Sword & Sorcery stuff, plenty of bronzed muscly blokes for you, and he has a sense of humour too.

Slightly different but still fantasy (of sorts) is Philip Pulmans "His Dark Materials" trilogy. It was one of the finalists in the BBC "Big Read" comp a few years ago, I didn't vote for it at the time as I hadn't read it then but I now reckon they're among the best books I've ever read. It was beaten by the ubiquitous Lord Of The Rings, but Pullmans trilogy is a much better book (IMHO).

Edited to add: Reading His Dark Materials was a real emotional rollercoaster, it's the only book I've ever read that had me close to tears and it did that on more than one occasion. There were also places where I was reading so fast in my excitement that I felt exhausted by the effort.

[towy71]

I'll second that, Philip Pullman rocks

[Deathchimp]

I'll second that shoutout to Robin Hobb. And the Lord Of The Rings really is brilliant; I was surprised that Jackson left out the bit about the barrow wights.
It's not a book, but the Baroness Von Smallenhofer would probably also like the Niebelungenlied. Who knew that eating a dragon's heart would enable you to talk to birds?

[Hudzilla]

'lo,

David Gemmell is a good author, although his plots get a bit ropey from time to time - "experienced fighter is too old to fight on, but finds some young 'un who has the strength but not the brains" ad infinitum. That said, "Troy" and "Lion of Macedon" are two very fine works.

David Eddings has been known to write good books, but please avoid the Redemption of Althalus unless you enjoy 1-dimensional characters, random plot twists and a brain-curdling "humour".

Don't read anything by Robert Jordan. He is monotonous to the extreme, his books go nowhere (and take 1000 pages each to do that), his characters are painfully crap, and his depiction of women makes me think he's never had a girlfriend. I almost stopped reading the Wheel of Time when each member of the Aes Sedai (aka "witches") shucked off the tops of their dresses to show their breasts, and solemnly had to pronounce "I...am...a woman!" The only reason I've made it so far through the series is because I'm hoping something - anything - will happen that will make my reading investment worthwhile.

Robin Hobb, Philip Pullman: highly recommended.

Neil Gaiman: seriously twisted, full of surprises, edged with danger, and certainly a good read.

Anne McCaffrey writes an apparently endless stream of books on dragons. This is no bad thing if you like dragons, and the first two books are actually very good. Goes downhill a bit afterwards, though.

Raymond E. Feist can be a struggle for less-experienced fantasy readers, purely because he's a real great in the arena - his ideas have been borrowed so many times by other writers that newcomers to the genre will think him dull and uninventive. Magician (and its sequels) is a marvellous book that's packed with what have since become fantasy cliches.

JRR Tolkien: LOTR is a powerful and inventive series, but if you're going to read it I'd recommend you buy the seven-volume edition - much easier to carry, much easier to find your place in, and much less scary Regarding the missing wights, I'd much rather have seen Tom Bombadil!


Paul

[clupea_rufus]

and is gardening leave when you're not coming back?

Technically yes, but it's such a great term that it deserves to be used and abused.

Back on topic, you might appreciate Julien May. Most people who like the other things mentioned tend to.

Regards,

Andy