Works of Epic Fantasy

We've read at least one, and we'll prove it!
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mountainmage
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Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by mountainmage »

Well, we have a thread dedicated to purely "fiction", so I figured (being a fan) why not one for purely fantasy? And sorry, science fiction doesn't count as fantasy in my eye. Make a new thread if you want to.

List favorite books and authors here! I'll start.

Anything by Robin Hobb
Any book in the Magic: The Gathering series
The Stormcaller (book 1), and The Twilight Herald (book 2) - Tom Lloyd
Anything by Tolkien
The Knight (book 1) and The Wizard (book 2) - Gene Wolfe
(Obvious, but still a favorite) The Harry Potter series

Hopefully you guys can offer up good future reading for myself and the other members.
Last edited by mountainmage on Thu Feb 19, 2009 8:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by Frostbite »

The Nightwatch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. I think this would fall under fantasy as it has magic and the such. I never saw the movies, so don't ask about that. But the books are pretty great.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by Asherian »

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan -it takes a while to get started, then its hard to put down.

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson- finishing the WoT off for Jordan since his death last year, still highly entertaining.

Prachett, say no more.

American Gods by Neil Gaimen

Anything Loius McMasters Bujould(most of her stuff is Sci-fi, but Sharing Knife, Curse of Chalion, and a few stand alones are some awesome fantasy.)

Mercedes Lackey is just a guilty pleasure, read her since I was a kid, a lot of her books are fluff but enjoyable. Mostly reading her elemental masters series right now, re-duex of 'classic' fairy tales, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, ect.

Wizards First Rule. Stop there, do not continue unless you really are that into sado-maschoism and politics.

And complete sell out but I love it, Steven Brust, mostly for his Vladd Taltosh series but his stand alone "To Reign in Hell" is one of my all time favorites. Very interesting look at christian creation mythos

There's more, mostly sci-fi. Anyone else read any of those? (Beyond prachett, I know other people on this forum read that.)
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by AHMETxRock »

When I was in third grade I read the Animorph series.
Kids that could transform into animals that had to fight a species of aliens that could invade your brain and take over your body!

The catch is that the kids can only stay as an animal for 2 hours, and that aliens need to leave the brain every 3 days. Also, the aliens got superior technology and death beams, while the kids have to keep quiet and some of their relatives are high ranking officers in the alien army.

It's been a while, but it had it's own television adaption on Nickelodeon for a bit.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by wolf »

Asherian wrote:The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan -it takes a while to get started, then its hard to put down.

American Gods by Neil Gaimen
I was turned onto WoT by a person from a game I use to play. I'm only in the middle of book 3 The Dragon Reborn. I moved so its in a box somewhere. I'm a slow unpacker.

American Gods was great. Have you read any of his other works? I know he wrote another book that follows the son of the god with the yellow gloves. I tend to be afraid to read books by the same other if I really enjoyed previous works just in case the one good book was a fluke.

I highly recommend Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. A grime look into the future with ties with genetic engineering. Love novels that deal with dystopian elements.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by Asherian »

Oh man wolf I'm a huge fan of dystopic future books. I'd normally count those as scifi more then fantasy. I've read gainman's other stuff, though Anasi boys(the yellow glove god) I didn't like as much as American Gods. Neverwhere was amazing, both the mini-series and novelization. (He wrote the script for the show, then wrote the novel to fill it in more after wards.)

Animorphs was pretty cool, it just bothered me for gaps in it, there just always felt like something was.. off/missing in it.

And yeah Great series, book 3 has some great stuff(I'm a Mat fan so yeah.. I loved it.) Book 4 is where it starts to diverge more and start getting into the swing of how it'll go for the rest of the series. 1-3 focus more on the boys, and their still mostly together, after that they split and you start focusing on other story lines more and more. Hell some books later in the series are practically to fully devoid of one guy or another, all 3 disappear at times. (Even Rand, remember its a story about an end of an age not Oh look at me I'm awesome and the only character who matters.)
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by wolf »

Asherian wrote:Oh man wolf I'm a huge fan of dystopic future books. I'd normally count those as scifi more then fantasy.
Yeah, you're right. It is a sci-fi. Oops I did a flub. But still a great book.

See we're different. I find book 3 to be a tad slower of a read for me because I'm not a Mat fan. Having said that I'm still enjoying book 3 and would finish it if I could find the blasted book! I look forward to reading more of Perrin's story lines.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by Asherian »

Perrin does rock.. I just got tired of him after a while, where mat keeps getting better and better to me. Though honeslty there are very few characters I don't enjoy with how they progress. Few being Rand, I hate that angsty little emo so and so.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

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Well I hope Mat gets better. Right now he annoys me too much. Maybe now that the curse is lifted I'll start to like him better. Yeah, Rand is a little bitch, I keep waiting for him to say something like "I cut myself so that I can feel pain and know I'm human," or "No one knows the depths of my dark tortured soul." That and he turned down Lanfear. I'd go evil for her.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by Asherian »

Who wouldn't? Bitch is steaming no matter how she's lookin.

Yah I'd forgotten how annoying mat can be early books with the curse, he gets over it. Then pure awesome. Rand.. well I won't spoil it, but something like that Does indeed happen! Total fisher king reference.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by Jesster »

Katharine Kerr's Deverry Cycle is hands down my favourite fantasy series ever. I've been getting them as they come out ever since I was a kid.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by mountainmage »

I got "The Twilight Herald" which is book 2 (after "The Stormcaller") a few days ago and as with the first I can't put it down. I don't care what the reviewers on amazon said, I'm really enjoying it.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by Asherian »

Since I can't believe I didn't mention it before, the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher is frelling awesome. Jim Butcher also has another more 'high fantasy' series the Codex Alera, which has one of the more unique magic systems I've read.

Very funny stuff, with a good morbid bent in it as well. The actual plot/lives of the characters(in the Dresden especially) sucks, shit goes wrong, the humor is all character stuff, well mostly. So serious semi-noir book with wise ass PI, pretty standard fair for that genre, add in the Wise-ass is a Wizard and insue hi-jinx. Also spawned a short lived(1 season) series on Sci-fi that was both true to spirit and highly inaccurate to the books. Also a stand alone comic that I'm 90% sure is cannon but not defiant on. Just finished re-reading most of the series, and just started Small Favors again. Always forget just how much these books can make me howl with laughter from a line or two.

Codex Alera is about a boy in a land of magic without it, ensue rest of high fantasy stereotypes. Not sure what else I can say without ruining some loverly little bit of intrigue for it. (Plenty of intrigue but not as heavy as WoT ectra for those not as into it.)
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by mountainmage »

I'll update the thread since we have a new member who likes fantasy.

I finished reading The Twilight Herald by Tom Llloyd, and once again I couldn't put it down. While there seems to be a lot of dialogue and not a lot of action in it, I was kept reading by the sheer amount of intrigue and prophecy in Lloyd's world. The grand battle at the climax of the book satisfied my bloodlust tooth as well. I'm definitely buying the rest of the series as it comes out (and when I have money).

The latest Magic: The Gathering book is coming out and it's breaking from the usual method of Magic books. It's called a Planeswalker novel. Planeswalkers are special beings (some with as much power as a demi-god, whereas others are 1 step away from a normal human) who can travel between the many planes (worlds) in the Multiverse. Agents of Artifice will be an entire book dedicated to three planeswalkers and wont have ties to any specific magic cardset as many of the past books did. I'll tell you how much I loved it (I've never disliked a magic novel, though I have liked some more than others) after I buy it, probably this sunday.

I'll also hopefully be buying the third and final book in the Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb, titled "Renegade's Magic" this sunday. I'll comment on it after I'm done with it. Ahh the suspense is killing me...there was a very large gap between the publishing of the 2nd and 3rd book (in paperback anyways. the hardcover was 26 dollars, and I said nuts to that), so I can't wait to finally read how it ends.
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Re: Works of Epic Fantasy

Post by ChooChooTrain »

My favorite book in the fantasy genre has been The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazney. If I have a son, I'm probably going to name him Gerard or Corwin.
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