The Diamond Age kinda counts?
My longtime favs (apart from LOTR by Tolkien) are:
- The Realm of the Elderlings series bei Robin Hobb
- Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
- Ea Cycle by David Zindell
I really enjoyed the first six Dragonlance novels - after that, not so much.
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The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings. His books have classic D&D feel, light reading with bits of humor.
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Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. A massive plotline (all books already written so no need to wait), very dark, superb characters.
Give The Prince Of Nothing series a read. A bit more of a philosophical series than a hack and slash fantasy.
I'm currently reading the Bound and Broken series by Ryan Cahill. Seems pretty solid. It has dragons, wizards, other magical creatures, elves, dwarves... There is some war, but it's largely a coming of age story centered around an 18-20 year old man.
The Dragonbone chair it has the politics and war but the world also has quite a few different types of races that are not your typical Human/elf/dwarf.
I am enjoying the first book and it is series.
Mistborn is great, less dragons and more alchemical science. Begins with a satisfying tale of overthrowing the government, and then tackles some of the “okay… now what” with tons more interesting stuff along the way
I've read it an it's not my cup of tea. The worldbuilding and premise were solid, but the characters fell flat and so did the plot by end of the book. I finished it and felt relieved it was finally over. I think I might try other authors before reading Sanderson again, that's why I've listed him as a please don't recommend.
NPRs top 100 scifi and fantasy books.
I googled it instead. Loving the first few entries. Specifying only the first Ender book but the entire (Frank Herbert) Dune series is 👌. The fact that the rest of the Dune series is mostly ignored is criminal. The first book is far from the best and the series varies so much in setting and tone that it stays interesting to me after many readings.
I'd recommend David Eddungs' Belgariad. Got me into fantasy genre. Then there's Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan, Raymond, E Feist (brilliant), Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. So many good things out there. If you enjoyed Discworld you'll enjoy these too even though they're not comical like Pratchett novels are.
I'm saving this thread for later because I'm interested in this genre, I am totally new to books, I haven't even read LOTR, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones or House of the Dragons books, I have only consumed that through the movies and TV Shows, but seems like there are some really neat suggestions here.
Rick Riordan's various series might catch your fancy - they're really young adult fiction, but they're still a good read. They cover Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian mythology from the perspectives of the god's half human offspring, bringing the mythology into a modern context while retreading the old myths.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King is a refreshing take on classic fantasy themes!
My fantasy go-to series is The Chronicles of Amber. Roger Zelazny was a poet, and it comes out in his prose. Dude evokes visions inside your mind.
The universe is a collection of infinite reflections between order (ie Amber) and the Courts of Chaos. Corwin is one of the nine princes of Amber, an immortal who can travel between the reflections.
I read the first five books of the series every few years. But word of warning, the first book reflects the casual chauvinism of the the time it was written. Worth powering through those bits though.
The last five books are okay, but nowhere as good as the first five.
Check out dungeon crawler Karl and he who fights with monsters! Can also find them in audio book format 👌
Reading Wheel of Time and I'm really enjoying it
Have you considered Kate Elliott novels? Jaran was amazing if you like sci-fi/fantasy crossover, or King's Dragon if you like pure fantasy. If you prefer easier reading check out the Dragonriders of Pern series.
You say fantasy, but while technically sci fi, I'd like to suggest the galactic milieu series by Julian May. It starts out sci fi and I guess constantly has sci fi elements but leans pretty heavily into bridging the gap to fantasy (elves, dwarves, shapeshifting monsters, magic etc)
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