Holiday Reading

[Thyrkill]

Hello All,

One week to go and then I can say goodbye to my students for a glorious 2 weeks I will actually have time to sit down and read, and I wanted to get some recommendations from my fellow Enworlders for fantasy novels (I have enough game books to read already). My reading tastes include Tolkein, Eddings, Salvatore, Cook, Goodkind, George Martin, Leiber, Lovecraft, Howard, Burroughs, Brust, Gemmell, and Brust.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and happy holidays,
Matt

 

[Mycanid]

Ever try Tad William's Memory Sorrow and Thorn trilogy? Good stuff. And long ... something you can sink your teeth into and chew for a while.

 

[Maester Luwin]

Hey Thyrkill! I might recommend Joel Rosenberg's Guardian's of the Flame series:

The Sleeping Dragon;
The Sword & the Chain;
The Silver Crown.

Also the Elric books by Moorcock are good as well!

Have you read all of Goerge R R Martin's Fire & Ice series?

I hope that helps. Thanks Maester Luwin

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Okay, I'll put in a selfless plug. If you'd like to read an absolutely free book at no cost to yourself ... check out the Story Hour in my sig. Completely free ... and runs about 170,000 words. That'll put it on the scale of a single book of the Weis/Hickman Dragonlance Trilogy - perhaps a bit thicker.

It's a complete story (as of last night!) so you don't have to worry about getting into a story that doesn't end. I should add that if colored speech bothers you - each post has an Sblock that can be opened so that you can read without colored speech. I tried to make it reader friendly. Unfortunately, it isn't downloadable as a pdf or Word file. So it can be read on screen only. But please, by all means ... have a FREE read at my expense!

[Sblock=A couple of reader comments I have received]
From Piratecat: "You're a good writer."
From Unleashed: "So far the writing is good - very flavourful."[/Sblock]

Okay, I'm done self-promoting. And please forgive my blatant attempt at self-promotion. I'm just so excited to have completed such a large task!

Have fun reading whatever you decide on!

 

[Zaukrie]

Check out the similar threads in the Media Lounge. Then, go get any Guy Gavriel book you can find, and CS Friedman's Coldfire trilogy and the Deed of Paks(however you spell it) by Moon.

 

[SteelDraco]

Since you said "holiday books", I was going to recommend Hogfather, one of the Terry Pratchett Discworld books. It's a fun (and very funny) take on the Santa Claus story. Since you weren't really looking for what I thought when I saw the thread title, I'll just recommend ALL the Discworld books. Start with Guards! Guarsds!, then Men at Arms, and Feet of Clay. Morte, Reaper Man, and Hogfather should be in there somewhere as well. They're all really hilarious stuff.

In a more serious bent, the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser books are also enjoyable, and seem like they'd fit in well with what you like.

 

[Piratecat]

Off we go to the media lounge!

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

I would heartily recommend Philip Pullman's excellent His Dark Materials Trilogy. Best fantasy fiction I've read in the last decade. Few books can instill the sense of wonder and excitement I used to get reading fantasy in my childhood. It isn't merely well written, it is beautifully written, which is unfortunately a rarity in the fantasy genre. It also happens to be incredibly fun, engaging, and accessible. As literary and impressive (and at times dark) as it may be, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone of any age, including your son or your grandma. It is one of the very few contemporary fantasy novels that must be considered literature with a capital L; it's part of the great canon. I would definitely rank it in alonside Tolkein, Lewis, George MacDonald, Edith Nesbitt, or Lewis Caroll.

I'd also recommend George Martin, Diana Wynn Jones, and Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. The Little Prince, the Time Quartet, and Roald Dahl are fun and well-written works that are ostensibly for the kids but are also enjoyed by adults.

Outside of fantasy (but still fan-fsking-tastic), I would recommend Pulitzer Prize winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay," as well as "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. Some favorites also include anything by Borges, Franz Kafka, and Italo Calvino.

edit: OH! I almost forgot about Gene Wolf's The Knight, another good fantasy read.

 

[BadMojo]

I like most of the same authors the original poster mentioned. I've heard good things about Steven Erikson's "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series and also R. Scott Bakker's "The Darkness that Comes Before".

Right now I'm re-reading Keith Baker's "The City of Towers", the first of his Dreaming Dark Eberron books. Excellent book and I am definitely going to read the rest in the series.

I can also highly recommend any of Paul Kemp's Erevis Cale books (Twilight Falling, Dawn of Night and Midnight's Mask) or the book featuring the same character (events prior to the book listed above), Shadow's Witness.

 

[Ranger REG]

Hello All,

One week to go and then I can say goodbye to my students for a glorious 2 weeks I will actually have time to sit down and read, and I wanted to get some recommendations from my fellow Enworlders for fantasy novels (I have enough game books to read already). My reading tastes include Tolkein, Eddings, Salvatore, Cook, Goodkind, George Martin, Leiber, Lovecraft, Howard, Burroughs, Brust, Gemmell, and Brust.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and happy holidays,
Matt

No CS Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia?

If you like [intelligent, speaking] dragons, try Naomi Novik's Temeraire novel series.