Recommendations for a good read?

[Sir Apropos]

I'm looking for some help. I am in desperate need of a Good series of Fantasy Books to read. I just can't reread my old favorites anymore.

Here are some examples of what I like
George R.R. Martin's - "Song of Ice and Fire"
Weis & Hickman - Dragonlance, Deathgate etc. haven't read the new series though.
Anything Peter David writes
Jack Whyte's - "Camulod Chronicles"

Does anyone out there have any recommendations for good Fantasy series or stand alone book? Preferabley in paperback so I might be able to find it at a used book store but I'll take anything at this point.

Thanks.

 

[Replica]

Fritz Lieber's Lankmahr is my favorite fantasy series. It's dark fantasy, very different from high fantasy like Dragonlance.

 

[Crothian]

Raymond E Fiest, Terry Goodkind, David Eddings, and Mercedes LAckey are my favorites.

 

[Sir Apropos]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've read Lieber's Lankmahr stuff before and enjoyed it.

Feist, Goodkind, and Eddings are also some of my favs.

Haven't tried Lackey though.

I've also read most of the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series and find it to be too long at this point.

 

[Clain MacFaileas]

Hey. You might also try Glen Cook's Black Company series and/or Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. The later is a colonial/revolutionary era fantasy series, rather than medieval.

 

[mmadsen]

D&D's Roots

Jack Vance, Dying Earth -- the inspiration for D&D's magic system, some of the spells (Prismatic Spray), and the spell-naming style (Tenser's Floating Disk).
Michael Moorcock, Elric of Melnibone -- the inspiration for Law and Chaos as alignments.
Michael Moorcock, Corum -- the inspiration for the Eye and Hand of Vecna
JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings -- the inspiration for the character races and the typical mixed-race party.
Robert E. Howard, Conan -- an inspiration for the dungeon crawl (and so much more).
Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions -- the inspiration for the regenerating troll and many 1st-edition Paladin powers.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles

edit: for good, light fare try Lawrence Watt-Evans ( http://www.sff.net/people/LWE/ )

 

[Yuan-Ti]

I definitely recommend Fritz Leiber's stuff, having just read a lot of it in the last couple of months.

Aside from that:

Roger Zelazny's Amber series is very good, though not traditional fantasy by any means

the Camber of Culdi series of books by Katherine Kurtz might appeal to you if you liked the Dragonlance books

If you liked the Lankhmar stuff, I suggest some of the Warhammer fiction: the Gotrek and Felix novels are okay, but better than those are "Wine of Dreams" by Brian Craig, "Savant" by Gordon Rennie, and "Hammers of Ulric".

for real sword action, David Gemmell's "Legend" is fantastic

if you really like the WotC novels, then "Temple Hill" by Drew Karpyshyn was actually quite good (though I generally don't care for WotC stuff)

edit: forgot to second Glen Cook's Black Company series. Great!

If I think of more, I will post again...

 

[Teflon Billy]

The Whole Drenai Saga from David Gemmel is great

Pay particular attention to Legend, (also occasionally printed as Against the Horde)...the story of a oomed defense of a fortress. That description doesn't do it justice, but it's great stuff.

Also make sure to read the three Waylander books in the Drenai Saga,

Dakerys the Waylander is an incredibly cool character. If you need examples of how sneak-attacks work, look no further

More to come as I think of it.

 

[Purple]

I've been reading...

Based on a recommendation on one of these previous threads, I picked up the Assassin series by Robin Hobb, and really enjoyed them. Just picked up Ship of Magic(?), but haven't started it.

The Darkness books by Harry Turtledove are very good as well. The third book just came out in paperbook, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through at this point. This series is about a world at war, with magic. A lot of points that are very close to World War II, with some nice twists. Huge cast of characters.

Oath of Swords and The War God's Own by David Weber are very good, and can be found to download for free at the Baen Free Library. http://www.baen.com/library/

Actually, there are quite a few good books there, and you can buy a lot of others at a reasonable price.

I'll add more if I think of them...

-Purple