What are some of your favorite fantasy books?

[tbarron]

Piers Anthony is clever and talented, but I've never had much patience for comedic fantasy.

Really, with the exception of the classics and Gaiman (the latter of whom I'm awfully hard on as well), I'm really at a loss for fantasy that will pass the muster with me. Perhaps I'm just being unreasonable.

Welcome to the forum, Tam Lin.

Based on your statement about comedic fantasy, I don't guess you'd care much for Terry Pratchett. I just discovered him a few months back and have been enjoying his oeuvre.

But I get burned out on what's available sometimes too. I'm thinking maybe I should write the book I want to read.

[Tam Lin]

Well I loved "Good Omens", although I guess that's not really what most people think of as "fantasy", but otherwise you're right, Pratchett, although a wonderful writer, can't hold my attention very long.

Honestly these days I find more rewarding fantasy in classical authors; Spenser, Mallory, Chaucer, or even Milton. Sometimes I'll bemoan the "poor" state of modern fantasy, but, although there are no end of legitimate criticisms of the genre, I still can't help but think that the problem is less about the books and more about my standards.

[Gem]

I like Terry Pratchett, he is very enjoyable to read, but his style does not change very much, so you kind of know what to expect in his books. His characters are excellent though - an excellent social commentary.

One of my favourite Fantasy authors, in fact one of my favourite authors full stop is Philip Pullman. I think I've mentioned it before on this site, but his trilogy "His Dark Materials" is I think possibly my favourite collection of books. It is a simple childrens story, but raises deep questions about religion, power, the self - and refers to such a range of things in culture - Blake, Milton, and more - I can't recommend it enough!

[banjodown]

I know George R. R. Martin has already been mentioned within this post, but I will wholeheartedly second that recommendation. I admit, it's frustrating that he seems to have neglected the finishing of the series, but I've read the first two in "A Song of Ice and Fire" (or is it Fire and Ice? I can never remember...) and these are definitely the best fantasy books I've ever read. It resembles the world of Lord of the Rings with the political intrigue of Dune. Plus so much more, of course.

[tbarron]

Well I loved "Good Omens", although I guess that's not really what most people think of as "fantasy", but otherwise you're right, Pratchett, although a wonderful writer, can't hold my attention very long.

Hi, Tam.

I appreciated what you said about Good Omens since I had been planning to read it. I just finished it last night and had some comments I wanted to make. This thread seems like a good place.

First, I was intrigued and bit perplexed by the dedication. Gaiman and Pratchett dedicated the book to the memory of G. K. Chesterton, which I found surprising. He was an apologist for the ideas the book seems to be poking fun at. Perhaps the dedication itself is tongue in cheek and I'm just not getting the joke.

Second, I thought the notion of an accurate prophetess was a cleverly subtle way of suggesting that the future is as fixed as the past. They even say in the book that Agnes "remembered" the future in order to make her prophecies.

Finally, their description of the perversity of bureaucratic mishaps and people and things not behaving as expected rang completely plausibly to me. So often, that's just how it goes in real life.

I give the book two thumbs up.

I really enjoyed it.

[wilde]

I'm not into fantasy as much as I used to be, but um.. "The Child Thief" by Brom. It's sort of dark, intense take on Peter Pan. There's a few grammatical errors (at least in its first/only edition so far), but I suppose that's the editor's wrong. xD


Also.. LOTR, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, the usual... Oh, and Inkheart.

[bluet]

One of my favorites, which I consider fantasy, is the Titan Series by John Varley, except for the third one, which I didn't like very well. Has anyone read the first two (Titan and Wizard)? I enjoy them and reread them now and then. His vision of Gaia was quite interesting and well thought out. I would be curious about other reviews of these books.

[morgoth]

I really enjoyed the Brent Weeks series. Its called Night Angel, I believe. Way better then expected and actually surprised me. I picked it up at Borders just to look at a few pages and ended up reading the whole first book in about 2 days. Its really worth at least checking out. Super standard fantasy, but actually some thing a bit different.

[swhynes]

As a publisher I always like series because, truthfully, if you get hooked you are going to buy many more books, I mean look at Harry Potter! On the other hand a series doesn't mean that each book shouldn't stand on its own. A good book is a good book no matter what number in a series it is. I am not a huge fan of fantasy or science fiction and so many seem to cross over -- Orwell for example, but I do like a new book I agreed to publish The SIN of Addison Hall, because it isn't so easy to classify but seems to be well liked by everyone that enjoys the fantasy genre and I really enjoyed it. Other than that I guess Tolkien is the only fantasy writer I really love.

[oblivion]

Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". Or would this be better under "religion"?