Be Excellent To Each Other

We've talked about this sort of thing a fair bit across a billion different threads, and the recent Game of Thrones series has got me thinking.
Do you like a bit of magic, swords, coming of age, bodices, grime and tales of mystery and wonder? Do you read fantasy novels and wish they had a better name than "fantasy" as that seems a bit cringey...

I do.

Here are my favourite Fantasy books/novels/series, and you should all read them.

A Song of Ice and Fire: George R R Martin.
As mentioned already, epic fantasy that lifts the game and isn't afraid to do things out of the ordinary. Has very little magic in it, good guys don't always win (hardly ever in fact!) It's a more realistic take on the fantasy genre, if that makes sense, and it is excellent for it. George takes his time writing though, about one every 5 years I think, so the series is never going to end

The Wheel of Time: Robert Jordan
Speaking of series that never ends, I think we are up to book 13, and even Robert Jordan dying hasn't made a dent in the progress! The first few books are incredible, the middle ones are a good story padded out to the millionth degree, the last couple (written by Brandon Sanderson using Robert Jordans notes) are back to the quality of the first few books. Highly recommended if you have some time to kill, I think the saga is well over 10000 pages by now.

Magician: Raymond E Feist
A good book on it's own, but made all the better by the second trilogy (The Empire trilogy) which interweaves the story from the other side of the rift and is less about magic and more about politics. Has spawned dozens of other books in the series that i'm yet to read.

The First Law series: Joe Abercrombie
Starts with "The Blade Itself" A less well known trilogy, but very well written, basically a black comedy based on Conan the Barbarian...

The Name of The Wind: Patrick Rothfuss
Second book has just been released, and the first is simply brilliant. If you read one new fantasy series, then you have to read this one.

The Lord of the Rings: J R R Tolkien
The books that started it all, Flowery, boring, poorly written tripe.

What am I missing?

Not read much Fantasy tbh, I really enjoyed The Hobbit but found The Lord of The Rings a chore to read, so I gave up.

Another 'Fantasy' book I remember enjoying is Ignorant Armies. It's a Warhammer book with short stories concerning the different Chaos factions.

I don't know if it fits the categorisation, but I quite enjoyed the Gormenghast trilogy. I'm not sure if that qualifies as 'fantasy' or not, though.

My favourite books are Alice in Wonderland/through the Looking Glass, some of the Narnia books (despite the Christian subtext that if I don't mention someone else will) and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

They are not quite like the books you are speaking of though. I'm not quite sure what qualifies as 'fantasy', perhaps.

I think that is my problem with Fantasy as a genre, it's usually used to mean a specific type of book, Lord of the Rings being the perfect archetype, but the confusion about the name always brings up these questions.
I don't think Alice falls under my definition of Fantasy that I was using, but by all means talk about them, as i'm happy for the definition to be expanded

I think it does, I'm sure I have read them, but can't really recall much about them!

Is the term "high fantasy"?

I would say Narnia is fantasy, it surely one of the earliest examples of a proper fantasty series that kids are introduced to.

I am pleased with this thread as I have been looking for good recommendations lately. I have to support Curio's suggestion which I'm sure he'll be along with at some point, of 'The Knife Of Never Letting Go'. It's an incredible book with a story that really grabs you. The main character is still only a child but you forget that while you are reading it. I didn't realise it was the first of a trilogy though and read it all in one sitting because I was so desperate to find out how it finished. Man was I tired at work the next day
I have since read the second, 'The Ask and the Answer', and really enjoyed it as well. I shall need to read the third and final one soon.

Also strongly recommend 'The Painted Man'.
This story is about a world where demons are very real and very dangerous and people there live in constant fear of them. Their whole lives and cultures are shaped by the presence of these demons. The story follows three different characters from childhood as they try to survive in this world.
Although we meet the characters around childhood, they are adults before long into the book. The story is brilliant and isn't afraid to be dark at times. It is sometimes funny and almost always exciting. It builds suspense brilliantly and the world that is created is fantastic. I can even now, a few months after reading this book, picture different towns and places visited in the story. It isn't just an action/adventure story though, it is also about the human side of this horrible place and yes, even politics. It is one of, if not the best book I've read for a very long time.
Sequel is also out now, called 'The Desert Spear' and this quality is maintained. I am desperate for the third.

Oh yes, can't believe I forgot those! very much

Narnia was what got me turned on to this stuff, specifically Voyage of the Dawntreader. I'm loathe to watch the film for fear of ruining childhood memories.
Follow those up with Redwall (Brian Jaques) and the David Eddings stuff and I was hooked "Normal" books just seem so boring now...

Could be, I have no idea, I just read them

See, I thought the Painted Man was alright, but not brilliant. It's a bit juvenile, it took a very long time to get to a very obvious destination, and the characters are little more than broad stereotypes, particularly the Islamic-derived nation. I'm not sure I'm going to read the second one.

Voyage of the Dawntreader was my favourite by far as well. I read it so many times when I was younger, I just thought it was brilliant. I can barely remember the storylines of the other books and certainly couldn't name more than a few of the seven(?), but I still remember what happened on all the islands the dawntreader went to. Geek.

The second one is pretty much all about the islamic derived nation, so if you hated that stuff, then I wouldn't recommend it

Sure, I agree is it a bit juvenile, but for me that is part of the charm. It is completely unpretentious, which is extremely refreshing in the genre...

I think the third book was made into a kids' series which I remembered watching and as a result bought the books. I can remember portals to other worlds, and an escaped unicorn running down the street at night.

The Islamic stereotypes (and mocking of it) were unnecessary in the context of the book, and I found them a bit offensive.

I thought that any mocking of the sterotypes was the characters reaction to it which seemed to fit with the characters as they were written. I didn't really think much more about it. To me, its a time when people are scared, selfish, and jealous. This causes them to act in ways they might bot otherwise and this is demonstrated by stupid prejudices, selfish actions, moments of greatness and the like.

Agreed, but it was not needed in the context of the story, the land which was being described; in fact, I feel it actively removed from the imagining because it was inconsistent.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it, but I don't think it was any better than any of David Gemmell's novels, worse than many of them.

You're missing The Malazan Books of the Fallen by Stephen Erikson. And that's criminal.

If you haven't read Dune, you're not qualified to talk about sci-fi/fantasy (because Dune is both, so shaddap). Yes.

I know they're considered hokey and a bit naff, but I very much enjoyed reading the Dragonlance series when I was a youngster. I never dipped into the expanded universe but the original Chronicles and Legends trilogies were awesome.

Another I read as a youngster was The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Bit harder going and some of the names need to buy a vowel, but pretty engaging stuff for Swords and Scorcery types.

Besides The Lord of the Rings, I also have a soft spot for The Fionavar Tapesty (three books) by Guy Gavriel Kay (the man who helped Christopher Tolkien assemble The Silmarillion for publication, therefore you'll see LotR influences in The Fionavar Tapestry).

Many years ago I also enjoyed The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks - not sure why as I now find it a dreadful read.

The Dresden Files are great books, real pulpy page turners.

Now I'm just waiting for some belmer to post 'fantasy isn't a genre, it's a setting'.

I know you're just poking fun, but fantasy does tend to be much more of a genre than sci-fi does. Your example of The Dresden files is a possibly exception though - much like Simon R Green's Hawk and Fisher books, they are a bit more 'mystery in a fantasy setting'.

I'll shut up now.

http://podcastle.org/

Provides a weekly 'fantasy' podcast and is rather splendid...as are the Horror and Sci-Fi sister sites.

I keep seeing the title & thinking of Baby D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f17b8m5fniU

This is about all you'll get out me in here by the way. Me & fantasy books don't usually see ee to ee and I've enough nonsense up there as it is.

Anybody would think that was my intention...

I loved those, very heavy I found, I also loved his gap stuff. Still haven't read the new(ish) one yet though.

My brother was more into fantasy than me, I prefered Sci Fi, but I read some of his stuff, and recognise some of the names. I liked Piers Anthony (not so much his Xanth stuff) but the "Incarnations of Immortality" series is good, blends fantasy with a relatively modern setting, where various natural forces (time, war, death etc) are all people doing a job.

I find I don't have the time to read as much as I used to, so I am not really up on current books. I still haven't read the last Incarnations book yet and I that's been out almost 5 years I think.

Malc

That takes me right back to when I was going through books at the rate of about 2-3 a week. I fancied the pants of her too.

Malc

[quote="Malc"]
I find I don't have the time to read as much as I used to/quote]

I read a fair amount, not as much as when I was a kid, and having a train commute really helps. I tend not to read in the evenings these days, unless I have a very good book on the go, and I also tend to read multiple books at once which is something I never used to do, I blame ebooks

I currently have on the go:
The new Victoria Cohen poker biog
The Wise man's fear, latest in The Name of the Wind series
Mistress of the Empire
A book written by a ugvm'er

I should probably concentrate on them one by one really