Good fantasy reads?

[Greg K]

Most of these have been mentioned, but off the top of my head (and (mostly) in no order):
J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings
Robert E Howard: Conan stories (and I agree with those who said skip the other authors)
Patricia K. McKillip: Riddlemaster of Hed
Lloyd Alexander: Chronicles of Prydian
Marrion Zimmer Bradley: Mists of Avalon
T.H. Lawrence: The Once and Future King
Hickman and Weiss: Dragonlance Chronicles (the original trilogy) also a few of the short story books by various authors
Lawrence Watt-Evans : The Misenchanted Sword (I have also heard good things about With a Single Spell)
Steven King: The Eye of the Dragon
Not sure if this counts, but Name of the Rose

 

[Gilladian]

Some recent authors I recommend. Katherine Addison - the Goblin Emperor. Naomi Novik - Deadly Education
Garth Nix -Left-handed Booksellers of London.
E. E. Knight - Novice Dragoneer
Oh, and the sixth and final book in Megan Whelan Turner’s Thief series is about to come out. Everyone should read these! The Thief Returns. But PLEASE read them in order!

 

[Wasteland Knight]

Dark Obligations: Book One of the Phantom Badgers by RW Krpoun

These are a series of novels about an adventuring company/mercenary company who are trying to build up their holdings on a dangerous frontier. The world is very much a D&D/WHFRP mash-up and the author makes numerous references to running D&D campaigns in his blog.

Reading these books reminded me a lot of Glen Cook's Black Company, which I loved.

 

[R_J_K75]

So, I got a hankering to get a D&D fix by reading something. Over the years I've read some Forgotten Realms novels, but...to be perfectly, brutally honest...they're trash. The writing is so bad it's painful. I just re-openend one of them, one that seems to be highly regarded, and I just wince at the sophomoric writing.

I bought the FR novel Death Masks by Ed Greenwood last year. I used to like some of his books and those by the other writers. Trying to get through the first 5 pages of Death Masks was such agony, I got a refund. I was disappointed as I was running a Waterdeep/Undermountain campaign and was looking for good ideas from the book. I'm not going to say all of them were bad, Cormyr, the Song & Swords series, and Evermeet were all good books.

 

[uzirath]

I just returned to this thread in order to restock my stack of fun books to read. Lots of great material in here.

I was surprised, on going back through, not to see any recommendations for China Miéville. I enjoyed his Bas-Lag series (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council) as an rpg-style fantasy romp in a decidedly non-Tolkien mold.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I just returned to this thread in order to restock my stack of fun books to read. Lots of great material in here.

I was surprised, on going back through, not to see any recommendations for China Miéville. I enjoyed his Bas-Lag series (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council) as an rpg-style fantasy romp in a decidedly non-Tolkien mold.

True story. I mean, his photo is the first one on the wikipedia page for "New Weird" sub genre of speculative fiction.

I wish he'd write more in that world. At one point there were rumors of an RPG (I know he has played some in his past).

 

[Jd Smith1]

The Phantom Badger series (5 books) by RW Krpoun. Little-known, but good.

 

[Bohandas]

I wish he'd write more in that world. At one point there were rumors of an RPG (I know he has played some in his past).

There was an article in Dragon with stats for some stuff like a decade ago

 

[uzirath]

S A Chakrabotry's Daevabad trilogy is very good too. The first one, City of Brass, is a bit slow on the build but pays off. The second one, Kingdom of Copper, was great. The third one just came out and I will devour it when I get a few moments to myself.

Thanks for this recommendation! I just picked up a copy of The City of Brass yesterday. I'm 50-some pages in and loving it so far.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Thanks for this recommendation! I just picked up a copy of The City of Brass yesterday. I'm 50-some pages in and loving it so far.

Glad you're enjoying it!