Book Recommendations

[Brother Laszlo]

Fantasy:

GEORGE R R MARTIN
I cannot recommend his series strongly enough. I got hooked on Jordan before I got spoiled by Goodkind, and now Martin has spoiled me to Goodkind. Martin packs so much action, mystery, and emotion into each of his books my entire social circle is hooked on them, and can spend hours just sorting through the facts and predicting what will come next.

I know the poster already mentioned his familiarity with Martin, but I feel compelled to spread the word of Martin wherever I go.

Sci-FI

NEAL STEPHENSON
His books combine some pretty high-brow philosophical themes with comic-book action in surprisingly detailed and imaginative worlds. Snow Crash had some of the best action sequences I've ever read, and his Diamond Age and (not very Sci-Fi) Cryptonomicon were also extremely interesting and exciting.


Mainstream Fiction

ALEXANDER DUMAS
The Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo, and others, Dumas was the Stephen King of his time, cranking out entertaining yarns for the masses that, unlike King IMO, are good enough to read hundreds of years down the road.

 

[Undead Pete]

CONAN - Conan is one of the three best things in life, period.

I'm with you on that one

A few other suggestions:

I can't believe nobody suggested Perdido Street Station or The Scar by China Mieville. Phenomenal stuff.

This isn't fantasy, but if you like alternate history, you MUST read The Children's War by J.N. Stroyar. Just won the Sidewise Award . Warning: it is IMMENSE...1168 pages.

Elizabeth Moon's trilogy The Deed of Paksennarion is quite possibly the best military fantasy I've ever read.

I agree with most of the suggestions above, although some of them are a bit unicorn foofy for me.

I like my fantasy gritty (to use a cliche). Some of the books mentioned above are the fantasy literature equivalent of chick flicks.

To each their own, of course

 

[oktayne]

Katharine Kerr's Deverry series. One of the few series I have actually read all the way through.