D&D 5E D&D-ish novels?

[jrowland]

Lord of the Rings is pretty good I hear...

LOL!

Wheel of Time series of course
Anything Warhammer Fantasy is good (well, some are better than others anyway, the genre is good)
Conan books
Dragonriders of Pern are interesting
Sword of Shannara and all the other Shannara books

I am a HUGE fan of Stephen Lawhead. Its more historical fiction, the Pendragon Cycle (king arthur) is fantastic.

You stated you don't like "real world dude goes fantasy" but the Thomas Covenant books are pretty good despite that.

That should keep you busy!

 

[Andor]

Lawrence Watts Evans Ethshar novels are fun to read, and occasionally thought provoking. The Night of Madness is the best exploration of the need for and purpose of magicians guilds that I've ever read.

I tend to prefer fantasy novels that are less D&D like, and they give me more interesting and varied perspectives to bring back to D&D. So along those lines I would recommend both of Lois McMaster Bujolds fantasy lines. There is the Sharing Knife quartology, and the Chalion series which is at three books but ongoing as the mood strikes her. The Sharing Knife in particular stretches the bounds of conventional fantasy, imagine Little House on the Prairie set in a post apocalyptic fantasy world where trouble is starting to brew between the new settlers and the wandering tribes of native necromancers who are still trying to atone for having caused the apocalypse in the first place.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'll second the Black Company and Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales as having a very D&D feel.

I love the Kingkiller Chronicles, but with the emphasis on a single main character and particular magic system, I don’t think it feels very D&D.

Throne of the Crescent Moon has a great “adventuring party” dynamic and is a lovely read as well.

 

[Miladoon]

I am participating, for the first time, in NaNoWriMo and my novel is based off a D&D campaign set in a homebrew world. It is going to be awesome!

ahem.

Anyways, I plan on posting the game transcripts so people can look at the dice rolls and see how the rolls moved the story.

 

[God]

Legend, and basically anything else by David Gemmell.

 

[Jester David]

David Eddings. My favourite bad author. Not a lot of uniqueness in the way of plot and a lot of one-note characters, but his books really have an adventuring party tone, with a group of diverse heroes setting off to save the world.

 

[discoDM]

Malazan Empire

I feel the need to recommend Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It isn't as strongly D&D as many of the titles mentioned by others in this thread, but it has enough elements to be familiar. I've read most of the books listed above and I think its the best of the bunch. I do like the idea of visiting EN World for fantasy book recommendations. It seems like the perfect place for this sort of thing.....

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Nothing feels more like D&D than Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, not even the real D&D novels.

Totally agree. Most modern D&D novels are save the world from latest big bad evil type things, or stop the orc hoard, etc. These are two guys who are looking to get rich and support their lifestyle of drinking and wenches by doing occasionally shifty things, though not evil things. When I think of D&D vibe its F&GM no doubt. They hear about some ancient wizardly treasure uncovered off they go, things rarely go as intended and they end up broke before its over. I prefer D&D to be less superheroes saving the world to a group of guys entering a dank pit of evil in search of gold and glory and these are along those lines.

 

[Inconnunom]

Name of the Wind
The magic system is different, but a retired adventurer as an innkeeper is pretty D&D.

I second this and add the following:

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie has a really awesome gather the party, go on an adventure feel. Although it is brutal and visceral like RR Martin.

The Lies of Locke Lamora series of books is fun thief and rogue books although there is no magic.

The Child Thief is a very dark and gritty reinterpretation of peter pan.

The Magician's Land trilogy is half Narnia and half harry potter added to a Neil Gaiman modern humanity kind of flare.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Ugh...I know a lot of people like those books, but Kvothe is such a Gary Stu it was almost offputting. I also disagree with the D&D feel. For 90% of the books, he's the only one who ever does anything important. D&D is all about the party, not having one PC do everything while everyone else just sits around and watches.

Heh, plus you get to spend about half a book watching him make continual light lamps and struggle with tuition. I couldnt get past that chunk of the book - Kvothe is the best at everything! Oh no, I owe some jots for a new book, better make some lamps. Kvothe is the best and everyone else is a chump! I need X talents to pay my library card fines. Better make some more lamps. Oh no, I broke a my lamp? How will I afford new tools? Better take out a loan from one of the 42 hot chicks who want to bone me. Lets see, at Y talents per week, how many lamps to I need to earn enough jots to...

I really liked the first book, but the second was abysmal.