Fantasy Novels and D&D

[Drowbane]

Some authors that helped shaped my D&D experiences...

George R.R. Martin: Song of Ice and Fire (Eagerly awaiting book 5)
Glen Cook: Black Company series
L.E. Modesitt: Magic of Recluse (only read the first couple of the series)
R.A. Salvatore: Drizzt saga. (Its popular to mock RA and his creations... but Drizzt is still a great example of what a D&D character can aspire to. Its not that he is too good... its that most of his enemies aren't CR appropriate )
Robert Jordan: Wheel of Time (especially the first three)
Weis & Hickman's: Deathgate Cycle (I read some Dragonlance too, but I just couldn't get into it)

 

[Bob the Destroyer]

Gene Cooke's Wizard Knight series is very good, and it has an extremely cool cosmology.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld is awesome; it has a lot of books but you can pretty much jump in wherever.

I have very much enjoyed Piers Anthony's Xanth series. Not so much his other stuff.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one of the best books that I have read recently.

Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer is a very good book. It is written as a series of letters between the two main characters.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, also by Patricia C. Wrede, is one of my favorite series, and I would recommend it to anyone.

 

[Desdichado]

just wanted to thank everyone for their awesome suggestions. the reason i havent been here is because last week i picked up jim butcher's dresden files series, after many of you suggested it. after 6 days i am up to book 9. i barely sleep anymore.

i haven't been this stoked on a series since like 1994, when i blitzkrieged through the first books in the wheel of time series, when i should have been reading law school books. its a great feeling to be that addicted to a great series.

Hahaha! That's how I felt about the series when I belatedly discovered it about six months or so ago myself. The Dresden files TV show I've never seen, but I haven't heard much good about it. The exact quote from the guy in my gaming group was, "they took everything that was cool about the novels... and took that out. Everything that was left became the TV show." Eh... no thanks.

Anyway, the Dresden Files novels plus the Supernatural TV show are pretty much exactly what I'd want a d20 Modern or World of Darkness game to be like. And heck; with just a little tweaking, it makes for a great urban "traditional" fantasy. Replace Chicago with Freeport or Greyhawk or Sharn or Lankhmar or something, and you could have a great D&D game with a very similar feel to Dresden + Supernatural. Which already have a really similar feel anyway, IMO.

New book coming out in Spring 2009, by the way. I can't wait for it.

 

[Obryn]

just wanted to thank everyone for their awesome suggestions. the reason i havent been here is because last week i picked up jim butcher's dresden files series, after many of you suggested it. after 6 days i am up to book 9. i barely sleep anymore.

Sorry I missed this before Hobo quoted it.

Anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying them! They're definitely one of the best fantasy series to come out in a long time. It's also one of the very few ongoing series which, imho, gets better from book to book.

It's influenced my gaming quite a bit, I think.

-O

 

[Cam Banks]

Anyway, the Dresden Files novels plus the Supernatural TV show are pretty much exactly what I'd want a d20 Modern or World of Darkness game to be like. And heck; with just a little tweaking, it makes for a great urban "traditional" fantasy. Replace Chicago with Freeport or Greyhawk or Sharn or Lankhmar or something, and you could have a great D&D game with a very similar feel to Dresden + Supernatural. Which already have a really similar feel anyway, IMO.

And what's even more interesting is that the company I work for is publishing the Supernatural RPG while Evil Hat (who are also old friends of Jim and myself) are publishing the Dresden Files RPG. Jim is also a huge Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay nut. It's funny how all this crosses over.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Nellisir]

I've picked up "Gardens of the Moon", by Steven Erikson, on the basis of recommendations from this and other threads.

Up to page 126 so far; very enjoyable. Very reminiscent of Glen Cook & the Black Company, but D&D-ified.

To update: I finished this (some time ago). The book needs a good editing. Alot of material is clearly introduced to set up something else, somewhere else, in another book, and while it all may be wonderful in a greater context, it distracts from the actual plot here and could've been handled better/with more subtlety. The "gritty" Black Company influence is obvious, as is a certain level of "game think" and "cool factor" (ooo...undetectable secret ninjas...ooo). Warrens are a very intriguing concept, and contrary to what I read in a few other places, not at all under-explained (they aren't detailed either, but I don't think they need to be). I'm not wild about the Bridgeburners; while I think they're supposed to be Black Company-esque, it just doesn't work all that well. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, though, and say B-.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

To update: I finished this (some time ago). The book needs a good editing. Alot of material is clearly introduced to set up something else, somewhere else, in another book, and while it all may be wonderful in a greater context, it distracts from the actual plot here and could've been handled better/with more subtlety.

So true. It was the next book, Deadhouse Gates that redeemed the first book effort for me so greatly that I reread DhG again and again, never going back to GotM.