Fantasy authors worth the reading.

[Sethvir]

Someone above mentioned the Empire series written by Feist and Janny Wurts. You ought to try her solo stuff. www.jannywurts.com

The Cycle of Fire (Available as an omnibus edition) probably out of print.
- Stormwarden
- Keeper of the Keys
- Shadowfane

Wars of Light and Shadow series thus far:
- Curse of the Mistwraith
- The Ships of Merior
- The Warhost of Vastmark
- Fugitive Prince
- Grand Conspiracy
- Peril's Gate
- Traitor's Knot
- Stormed Fortress

She has about 3-4 more to go in the series. The hard part is that the last one has only been published in the UK. But well worth the time.

Elizabeth Haydon's Symphony of Ages
Naomi Novik's Temeraire
Leiber's Fafrd and Grey Mouser (which I just saw tonight back in trade paperback format at the bookstore)
Guy Kay - anything, in my opinion although I have yet to fiinish "Last Light of the Sun"
Charles Stross
- The Atrocity Archives
- The Merchant Prince's series
Moorcock is still about my all time favorite.
Glen Cook - The Black Company novels and the Garret PI stuff.

I'll give another enthusiastic vote for Patrick Rothfuss as well.

That's all I can think of for the moment.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Moorcock? Liked him as a teen, but he wears thin for me quickly.

That's something I noticed a while back when I picked up one of his newer novels.

I have vaguely fond memories of the old Stormbringer novels, and ordinarily I try to be nice, and The Dreamthief's Daughter one started okay, but about halfway through it turned bad. Real bad. Like "stomp any and all suspension of disbelief and sympathy for the protagonist into a pulp, defecate on it, and throw it out the window" bad.

Brad

 

[Celtavian]

I don't read as much fantasy as I probably should. But I'll list what I enjoy.

Tolkien: My all time favorite author. His books do it for me. The most engrossing and believable fantasy world I've yet read even with the unbelievable social mores that seem to permeate the entire book such as almost every decent group of people being perfectly, unbelievably decent and honorable unlike any real world analogues you might look to for inspiration for the peoples of Middle Earth.

It's high, honorable, good guy fantasy executed perfectly.

Martin: Much more realistic, gritty fantasy with some of the best characters I've ever read. Feast for Crows fell a bit flat. I hope he is taking so much time with the next books so that they don't fall flat. But the first three books are some of the best fantasy books I've read.

Moorcock: I read these because they are popular amongst DnDers. The books seem too brief. Elric is an interesting character as is the world in which he lives.

Howard: Some of the most lovely fantasy prose I've read. The man makes Conan read like some epic fantasy novel.

Tad Williams: Otherland was great. A bit overlong, but a very good read worth the few periods of meandering by the author.

Terry Brooks: He is a Tolkien clone. But he still has his own voice. When I read Sword of Shannara, I felt as though I was reading a Tolkien fan paying homage to the master while still having his own unique take on the elements he drew from Tolkien's work.


Guy Gavriel Kay: I liked Tigana. The only criticism I had was too much gratuitous sex. Otherwise Tigana was one of the more unique novels I have read. I liked that it wasn't epic fantasy about saving the world. It was more of a fantasy revolution against dictators, one of which wasn't particularly evil. I highly recommend Tigana to anyone that wants to read a novel about a small scale epic event that has to do with rebels retaking their nation.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I enjoyed American Gods until the last quarter of the book. The ending felt decidedly non-American.

Well, ya know.. (Grumpy looks bothways, leans forwards) Gaiman is... Brittish.

Mostly, I wanted more story.

 

[arcanaman]

I enjoyed American Gods until the last quarter of the book. The ending felt decidedly non-American.

The title sounds intresting whos it by?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Well, ya know.. (Grumpy looks bothways, leans forwards) Gaiman is... Brittish.

From Britain at least. I've heard he's lived many years now (since '92) near Minneapolis in America.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

From Britain at least. I've heard he's lived many years now (since '92) near Minneapolis in America.

And he wrote American God's something like 7 years ago, when he had been in America 9 years rather than almost 17 years. Anyhow, I liked it.

 

[Pielorinho]

So everyone has been listing tons of fantasy authors, but which ones are more light-hearted?

The Lies of Locke Lamora definitely has a lot of funny bits in it. Did you laugh at Pulp Fiction? If so, you'll probably find this one funny (like Reservoir Dogs, though, it has one scene of almost unwatchable brutality, at least for me). It's not straight-up Terry Pratchett humor, but the adventures of a con artist carry a lot of moments of humor with them.

I found it a lot funnier than Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, albeit fairly similar in mood.

Daniel

 

[Cor Azer]

Has anyone else read Brian Ruckley? Fairly new author, I guess, but I recently gave the first two books in his Godless World series a go (Winterbirth, Bloodheir, and the third is forthcoming). I quite enjoyed it - seemed a good blend of political intrigue with a side of adventuring of a sort. Its building towards an epic tale of ancient magics reawakening in the world, but under the unintended cover of exiled nobles attempting to reclaim their lost lands.

Very Martin-esque as my friends use the word - there's a very real sense of tension for his characters, because he does kill off several through the books - some secondary, but several are as close to main characters as you can get.

Ruckley does try for more than one-dimensional characters, and arguably the three most primary characters are decently fleshed out, although a few do sneak their way in (but those are most secondary, or even tertiary, characters).

 

[Atlatl Jones]

I generally don't like 'epic fantasy' novels. Not because I dislike epic tales per se, but because most epic storytellers take things too seriously. I want some fun in my fiction. Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser are great for this, and I much prefer that style to something like George R. R. Martin's books. I mean, he's great, but isn't my cup of tea.

I also generally don't like 'epic fantasy' novels, but for a completely different reason, since I love serious, depressing works. I don't like most epic fantasy because most authors writing it seem to equate "epic fantasy" with "bloated, meandering overcomplicated multi-novel series' that are twice as long as War and Peace." I'm sure that A Song of Ice and Fire is excellent, but I have no desire to read a half-finished story that's already about 5,000 pages, when I could read two dozen excellent single novels in the same time.

Guy Gavriel Kay: I liked Tigana. The only criticism I had was too much gratuitous sex. Otherwise Tigana was one of the more unique novels I have read. I liked that it wasn't epic fantasy about saving the world. It was more of a fantasy revolution against dictators, one of which wasn't particularly evil. I highly recommend Tigana to anyone that wants to read a novel about a small scale epic event that has to do with rebels retaking their nation.

Tigana is probably my favorite fantasy novel, for the reasons you described, as well as the compelling characterizations of the characters, especially the main tyrant. It does have a fair amount of sex in it, by fantasy novel standards, but it's not gratuitous (or, at least, it wasn't intended to be gratuitous). Kay tends to write 'serious novels', the sort that explore themes, and Tigana is largely about the nature of power - political, religious, and sexual - and about identity in a conquered people.