Best books for DnD

[maddman75]

George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, and Storm of Swords. Very good, if you like gritty and harsh representation of medieval warfare and life. The complex web of nobles, families and ties that Martin created inspired large sections of my campaign world. Best fantasy out there IMO.

 

[Krieg]

And I definately second Raymond E. Feist. Although I prefer the Empire Trilogy and Serpent War Trilogy.

The Empire Trilogy was written by Janny Wurts, Ray's input was minimal.

....although I agree they are well worth picking up.

 

[Asmo]

I´m a huge fan of Terry Goodkind and his Sword Of Truth series.
There´s lots of stuff in his world to get inspiration from.

Asmo

 

[MonsterMash]

I'd second (or third or whatever) Fafhard and Grey Mouser series by Leiber, Robert E Howard's Conan and Kull stories, Earthsea Series by Le Guin.

Add: GURPS Sourcebooks - may seem surprising on a D20 site, but these are usually better than most D20 equivalents.

Books of myths from ancient Rome and Greece or Celtic and Scandinavian mythology. Arthurian legends.

History books - medieval and renaissance especially.

One that I find a good source of inspiration for modern and SF scenarios - Worlds Most Dangerous Places by Robert Young Pelton.

 

[Brakkart]

The Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies by Robin Hobb, especially the former and latter as they feature Fitzchivalry, her best literary creation imho.

The Book Of Words trilogy and also her single novel The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones. And I can't reccomend her Sword of Shadows trilogy enough to anyone wanting to set a game in frozen lands. If you love the book Frostburn, then have a read of those books to help you visualise/describe a true arctic wilderness.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Some novels that inspired me and my various campaigns:

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick
Footprints of Thunder by James F. David
Jumper by Steven Gould
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
Time Bomb (A Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thriller) by Franklin W. Dixon

 

[francisca]

You can't go wrong with R. E. Howard Conan stuff, Leiber's Fafhrd and Greymouser series, and the Elric novels by Moorecock.

I also recently read Three hearts, Three Kings by Poul Anderson. While it is a bit more of a fairy tale than high fantasy, it's impact on D&D is obvious.

You might want to have a look at this webpage as well: http://www.geocities.com/rgfdfaq/sources.html

 

[DMH]

I don't read much fantasy, but there are 3 authors on my shelf of favored novels-

The Pyrdain Cronicles by Lloyd Alexander

A collection of Lovecraft's work

China Mieville (Perdido Street Station and sequels)

Not on that shelf, but Terry Brooks' Void/Word novels would make an interesting Urban Arcana setting.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

Why not start with Gygax's list of inspirational and recommended reading from the AD&D DMG?

Some other books that deserve to be on there are the aforementioned Mythago Wood (Holdstock) and Westeros series (Martin), plus Nifft the Lean (Michael Shea), Bridge of Birds (Barry Hughart), The Phoenix and the Mirror (Avram Davidson), and the Zothique stories & others by Clark Ashton Smith.

 

[Doug McCrae]

The 3.5 core rulebooks
DMG, 1st edition
Splatbooks, particularly the Complete series
Epic Level Handbook for the cool monsters
Campaign settings - Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Eberron and Dark Sun
The Temple of Elemental Evil
The Glorantha setting for RuneQuest
GURPS Middle Ages 1
Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission 1 & 2
Cassell's Atlas of World History
Books of mythology and folklore
Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD-ROM
Roget's Thesaurus
Tolkien
Michael Moorcock, especially Elric
Three Hearts & Three Lions, by Poul Anderson
Nemesis, a strip that appeared in the British comic 2000AD
American superhero comics
Morrowind computer game (not a book admittedly but I found it inspiring)