Your top 5 fantasy books/series

[killersquirrel59]

1) Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson

2) Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

3) Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

4) A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin

5) Bartimaeus Trilogy - Jonathan Stroud

6) Nightside - Simon R. Green

7) Deathstalker - Simon R. Green

 

Couldn't narrow it down to 5 so there's my top 7. Only counted series, defining series as 3 or more books. 

[Redbird]

1. Mistborn 

2. Leviathan 

3. Eragon 

4. Rangers Apprentice

5. Lord of the Rings

[Jeckal]

1. Dresden Files - Jim Butcher

2. Gentlemen Bastards - Scott Lynch

3. Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson

4. Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke

5. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

Edited September 28, 2014 by Jeckal

[magicalxmiracles]

1) Cosmere Novels (i'm a cheater, but I've read Mistborn, Stormlight, Elantris, Warbreaker and I'm sorry, I can't split them up)

2) The Gentleman Bastards (Scott Lynch)

3) KingKiller Chronicles (Patrick Rothfuss)

4) The Demon Cycle (Peter V. Brett)

 

And I can't believe no one's mentioned these yet;

 

Riyriya Revelations (Michael J. Sullivan)

The Black Company (Glen Cook)

The Study Series (Maria V. Snyder)

Graceling (Kristen Cashore)

Chronicles of Chaos (John C. Wright)

[The Drunk Monkey]

my list would be:

 

1. Stormlight Archive

2. Harry Potter

3. the Memoires of Lady Trent (Natural History of Dragons is my fave in the series so far)

4. Lord of the Rings

5. Narnia (my favorite would be The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)

[Orlion Blight]

1) The Titus Books, better known as the Gormenghast Trilogy. by Mervyn Peake. They represent a high literary point in fantasy literature that I have not seen replicated since.

2) Aegypt by John Crowley. Technically magic realism, comes pretty close to Peake's books in my opinion. In fact, I often refer to John Crowley as The One True Author. 

3) The Lord of the Rings by Name Escapes me  First introduction to fantasy literature.

4) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever- Stephen R Donaldson. Opened the door for me to expand my literary horizons. 

5) Eh.

[traceria]

And I can't believe no one's mentioned these yet;

 

The Black Company (Glen Cook)

 

That series is good, but it wouldn't make my top five (or ten, since I ran out of space in the extended list as well).  Still, definitely worth the read.

[Iarwainiel I]

This was more difficult than I expected it to be! Here's my list:

1. The Lord of the Rings / The Silmarillion / The Hobbit
2. First 2 books of C.S. Lewis' space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet & Perelandra (IMO book 3 is too tighly bound to the post-WWII era and isn't as effective today)
3. Stormlight Archives
4. Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy by D.M. Cornish (delightful!!!)
5. Song of Albion cycle by Stephen Lawhead (especially book 2 - brilliant gnomic passages)

@ Orlion - Cornish was inspired by the Gornenghast books to write his MBT series (my #4). MBT is YA, but the series has a similar tone and setting - you might enjoy it.  

[Iredomi]

1. Cosmere

2. His Dark Materials

3. Lord of the Rings

4. Tales of the Otori

5. Monster Blood Tattoo

Still mean to read Kingkiller Chronicles, Malazan, Codex Alera & ASOIAF... 

Edited December 30, 2014 by Iredomi

[Orlion Blight]

 

@ Orlion - Cornish was inspired by the Gornenghast books to write his MBT series (my #4). MBT is YA, but the series has a similar tone and setting - you might enjoy it.

Well, I do have a massive Barnes & Noble gift card that needs to be spent... 

[Dunkum]

Heh, lot of repeats in this thread.  To be expected, I guess, and I am certainly going to follow suit.  I think every one of mine has been mentioned.  In no particular order:

 

-Cosmere (if I had to narrow this down, Stormlight archive so far would be top 5, and mistborn would be top 10, and the rest dont qulify as series to me)

-Lord of the rings/middle Earth (the Silmarillion has its fair share of annoying and/or boring parts, but i really like the fact that it exists)

-Kingkiller Chronicle

-Earthsea

-Song of Ice and Fire

 

Wheel of time probably cracks the top 10, and depending on my mood, Discworld probably replaces one of the top 5 from time to time.

 

I'll have to look into some of the other series mentioned here

[Pestis the Spider]

Ugh, fantasy books only? This is tough. I mean, I read a lot of good sf books and they usually make half of all my 'top fav' lists. And Polish language series usually make a good part of my 'top fav' lists as well, but none of you know them, so there is no point in putting them down. Oh well, I just may end up having to little series for top 5, but I'll try. 

 

1. Malazan Book of the Fallen - I have nothing to add here. This is wonderful. 

2. The Song of Ice and Fire - This has a problem that it got worse with the last book and that some characters are much more interesing than the others, but well. 

3. Stormlight Archive - I did read some of other Cosmere stories (not all of them yet), but SA for now is way better than the rest of them. 

4. The Kingkiller Chronicles or possibly the Black Company here. Or maybe even the Watch series. Maybe the First Law trilogy. Hard choice here. The problem is that I read these books and I liked them, but it was long ago, and I really cannot state which one was better, without rereading them all. 

5. Same as for point 4.

 

My top 4 (four is a good number ;P) Polish fantasy books/series (most of them never translated to any other language), for all the Polish speaking people that may be hiding at this forum, because Polish fantasy literature is amazing and we all know it.

 

1. Opowieści z Meekhańskiego Pogranicza (Stories from Meekhanese Border) series by Robert M. Wegner

2. Saga o Wiedźminie (The Witcher series), especially the short stories, by Andrzej Sapkowski 

3.  Upiór Południa (The Wraith of the Noon) series by Maja Lidia Kossakowska

4. Lód (Ice) by Jacek Dukaj - the biggest single book I've ever read. 

[Who Sharded?]

Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

It has its highs and lows, but the highs are far higher than anything else I've read.  And it's just crazy epic.

 

Cosmere by Sanderson (Stormlight Archive if I had to pick one series)

Nothing to add here.  If Sanderson can keep up the quality of WoR, SA could become my #1 series.

 

Acts of Caine by Matthew Stover

Commonly considered to be the most underread fantasy series out there.  Everyone should read Heroes Die!

 

The Second Apocalypse by R. Scott Bakker

Unlike Heroes Die above, this does not have mass appeal.  But Bakker is absolutely brilliant.  Probably the best writer on this list.  Great for people who like their fantasy epic.

 

That probably makes up the top tier of fantasy series that I have read.  For #5 I'll go with:

 

The Dagger & Coin by Daniel Abraham

There's just something about these books.  While there are very few "holy crap" moments, I just love the feel of it.

 

If I'm honest I would have included A Song of Ice in Fire in the top tier, but it doesn't need my support.  And the last two books have gone downhill.

 

Also while The Wheel of Time is one of my favorites, I probably feel that way because it was my first fantasy series.

Edited January 8, 2015 by End of Disc One

[Pestis the Spider]

Acts of Caine by Matthew Stover

Commonly considered to be the most underread fantasy series out there.  Everyone should read Heroes Die!

I agree it's brilliant, but is it actually considered a fantasy series? I always thought it was more of the sf, really. I only ask, because I also considered putting it on my list. 

[traceria]

I agree it's brilliant, but is it actually considered a fantasy series? I always thought it was more of the sf, really. I only ask, because I also considered putting it on my list. 

Okay, you must change your userpic RIGHT NOW, otherwise I will never be able to read a thread you post in ever again.  *shudders *     (Honestly, it's nothing personal...it's just....the....*gulp *...spider.)

[Who Sharded?]

I agree it's brilliant, but is it actually considered a fantasy series? I always thought it was more of the sf, really. I only ask, because I also considered putting it on my list. 

It's a blend of SF and fantasy.  I see it as more fantasy because more of it takes place in the fantasy world.

 

Stover actually considers the first book to be SF, and the second book to be fantasy.  Either way, I think it would appeal to all fantasy fans who don't get squeamish about violence or language.

[platy21]

Seeing Malazan all over this thread and I'm debating between starting a new series or continuing to make my way through Wheel of Time (finished #4 this summer). Thoughts?

 

Also, What movie rating would you give the Malazan series? (G, PG, etc.)

[Pestis the Spider]

It's a blend of SF and fantasy.  I see it as more fantasy because more of it takes place in the fantasy world.

Yeah, I do realise it's a blend, but I always thought of it ot be more SF because of the way they've got to the fantasy world, and all of that. Actually I once read a book that was set in the really fantasy world etc., and I thought it to be a fantasy book, but then at the end aliens appeared, that turned out to be humans from Earth, end the fantasy world was just some different plante in fact, and now I only think about it as SF novel. maybe I'm just weird this way, but that's definitely the reason why I say I read a lot of SF books.

 

 

Seeing Malazan all over this thread and I'm debating between starting a new series or continuing to make my way through Wheel of Time (finished #4 this summer). Thoughts?

 

Also, What movie rating would you give the Malazan series? (G, PG, etc.)

I haven't read Wheel of Time, so I cannot help you with the choice, really. I just want to say that if you do start Malazan, read at least two first books. Apparently the first book is not the type of the book that everyone like, and I myself find it acttually more similar to the Black Company than to other Malazan books, but it' still really good book. 

 

And I would say it is PG-13, but it really just a guess, as I usually don't pay any attention to movie ratings. Still, read Malazan at some point, it is really good.

[Asperity]

Still reading The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds. Now that I'm back in classes, I'll read more often (for instance, I'm a TA for one class and I don't do much of anything but read for the entire duration.) Got 13% read over two days so that was cool.

 

I did read In Other Worlds by A.A. Attanasio over the holiday break, and Shadow Knight which is a Night Lords (Warhammer 40k) short story. I have their trilogy on my Kindle but who knows when I'll actually get around to reading it.

 

For people who have read Tower Lord or the third Lightbringer book (that I can't remember the name of at the moment), are they decent?

 

Edit: OF COURSE I MISREAD THE THREAD and misposted. Fuggggg. ;_; Right after I pressed the Post button too. I really need a 'delete my own posts' option just for me.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Kythis

[Asperity]

Seeing Malazan all over this thread and I'm debating between starting a new series or continuing to make my way through Wheel of Time (finished #4 this summer). Thoughts?

 

Also, What movie rating would you give the Malazan series? (G, PG, etc.)

Malazan jumps into the middle of a campaign so you won't know about much of what is going on throughout the majority of the first book (no main character backgrounds, event explanations, so on and so forth.) If you can deal with that and make it to the second book, you'll be okay.

 

I'd say easily an R as there is quite a bit of grittiness (gruesome killing, torture, rape, etc etc.)

[Dunkum]

Seeing Malazan all over this thread and I'm debating between starting a new series or continuing to make my way through Wheel of Time (finished #4 this summer). Thoughts?

 

Also, What movie rating would you give the Malazan series? (G, PG, etc.)

I don't know anything about Malazan, but having read WoT, I will say that if you are past the 1st two books, then you are past the worst part of the series (though apparently a lot of people don't like book 10 for reasons that I never properly understood).  That said, I seem to remember 3 and 4 being better than most of what follows until you get to the last 4 books, so make of that what you will

[Orlion Blight]

Seeing Malazan all over this thread and I'm debating between starting a new series or continuing to make my way through Wheel of Time (finished #4 this summer). Thoughts?

 

Also, What movie rating would you give the Malazan series? (G, PG, etc.)

Depends. Wheel of Time requires a little more focus, I think (it's more continual) whereas Malazan, though there are archs throughout the series, is made up of pretty self-contained books. So if you need a break from Wheel of Time, go ahead and pick up a Malazan book. Start with the first one (Gardens of the Moon) to get use to the style, and then read the next two before deciding to continue or drop it. I mean, if you don't like Memories of Ice you're not going to like the series... or have a soul

 

As far as rating, I'd say R-ish. Maybe not is "intense" as A Song of Ice and Fire, but definitely more graphic than Wheel of Time. On the ratings I'd say: The Wheel of Time (PG-13 for Fantasy Action and some sexual situations), Malazan Book of the Fallen (R for Fantasy Violence, some Graphic Scenes, Adult themes, drug use, defecation, etc.) The Second Apocalypse( Rated Holy $#!+, this is what nightmares are made of... do not, NOT read if Malazan or A Song of Ice and Fire are too graphic for you! Which is a shame, because it is very well written and very good, but by jingo! And I've only read the Prince of Nothing trilogy!)

[Who Sharded?]

I don't know anything about Malazan, but having read WoT, I will say that if you are past the 1st two books, then you are past the worst part of the series (though apparently a lot of people don't like book 10 for reasons that I never properly understood).  That said, I seem to remember 3 and 4 being better than most of what follows until you get to the last 4 books, so make of that what you will

 

Hah, yeah I can't agree with this.  Book 2 is great.  1-3 are fairly simple but enjoyable by WoT standards, while 4-6 is more complex and the high point of the series before Brandon took over.  7-9 are slower but have their moments.  10 is just bad.  IMHO.

[platy21]

Thanks for all the replies!

 

Maybe I'll stick with WoT for now so I don't get lost in too many worlds between Kingkiller, Cosmere books, and WoT - I'll dive into Malazan after finishing off WoT.

[Dunkum]

Hah, yeah I can't agree with this.  Book 2 is great.  1-3 are fairly simple but enjoyable by WoT standards, while 4-6 is more complex and the high point of the series before Brandon took over.  7-9 are slower but have their moments.  10 is just bad.  IMHO.

It's been a bit since I last read through the series, and I've read several other series in between, so my memory on it is a bit faded, and I am never very good at remembering which events happened in which book.  that said, I mostly remember that I hated Eye of the World, and was annoyed by a lot of The Great Hunt.  I could believe that 4-6 were all pretty good, and I do know that 3 is one of my favorites.  I had no actual problems with 7-10, I just didn't think they were as good as what came before.  and 11 onwards I really liked, in part because loose ends start getting dealt with.