Recommend a Fantasy Book to Me

[Jan van Leyden]

How come nobody mentioned A Song of Ice and Fire yet?

Another recommandation would be Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series or, if you want to an idea of his work, Elantris.

I have recently changed my way of reading fantasy books to get me the first volume of a series and decided after consumption whether I want to proceed. There were several opportunities were volume one was a good read, but I don't have the impression that the author will be able to maintain the quality or doesn't have an idea where his story is going

 

[Umbran]

If you like The Lord of the Rings, you might enjoy Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams.

Seconded. "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" (which begins in The Dragonbone Chair) is explicitly William's take on LotR.

And, if you like "The Dresden Files", I can recommend another series by Tad Williams - his "Bobby Dollar" books, which begins in Dirty Streets of Heaven. Imagine a noir detective novel, where the main character is an angel. Williams shows here that he can a wide breadth of narrative voice.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, a quick read but great book

 

[Zaukrie]

I did not like the third book in Memory sorrow and thorns......I recommend the gentlemen bastard books by lynch. And the coldfire trilogy by Friedman. And the Deed of paksanaarion by Moon. And the vlad taltos series by Brust. The first egil and nix book by Kemp was fun.

 

[Zombie_Babies]

First: Don't poison yourself with fantasy novels. *blech*
Second: If you must pollute yourself with that ... stuff, Raymond Feist wrote some pretty ok junk.

 

[RangerWickett]

Here are some standalone novels I really enjoyed.

Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler. Set in the real world over several centuries, involving a pair of people who each have a 'super power,' but as far as they know no one else in the world does.

Kindred, also by Octavia Butler. A woman keeps blinking back in time ~150 years, always to save one of her own ancestors. Her ancestor is not a good person.


If you're up for comedy, Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett, is the silly and heartwarming tale of a con artist ordered by a fantasy metropolis's overlord to improve the city's post office.

If you're okay with alternate-world sci-fi, Neal Stephenson's Anathem presents a society where cloistered monks all study science, which the public relies on since they're all superstitious. Some kung-fu happens.

 

[Asmo]

Steven Eriksons tales of the Malazan Empire is well worth a read. The first book, Gardens of the Moon, is the gateway into something very special.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you enjoy well written novels, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

Seconded.

Also, Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea stories.

 

[trappedslider]

It's more sci-fi but you still might enjoy it The Homecoming Saga by Orson Scott Card and I'm sure folks are gonna harp on this suggest due to his view points on issues but this isn't the place for that.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Just about anything by Weiss & Hickman will be good.

Dark Elf Trilogy and IcewindDale Trilogies by R.A. Salvatore
Also "Echos of the Forth Magic".

not everyone enjoys Song of Fire and Ice, aka Smut and A-holes soap opera with dragons, aka Game of Thrones.
Been a long time since I looked at Bazil Broketail. Thank you for the reminder!