Good Fantasy?

[Lifts'Awesomeness she/her]

Ok so I have had the mistake of accidentally reading BAD fantasy in the past, but my favorite books are always fantasy. I need a fix to wait until the next in the Stormlight seris. Ive read most of the books by those I have tagged. Any suggestions?

[Left he/him]

Welcome to the 17th realm!

Define bad fantasy please??

[Briar King]

Where's the tag list? Have you read the Malazan series? Shadows of the Apt? First Law?

[traceria she/her]

Some authors to start with:

Patrick Rothfuss

Anthony Ryan

Jim Butcher

Neil Gaiman

 

For YA:

Diana Wynne Jones is a total favorite of mine.

Patricia C. Wrede is also great.

 

(edit to correct spelling)

Edited July 11, 2014 by traceria

[Ashiok]

Also, Daniel Abrams and Jim butcher

Codex alera is awesome

[Atilium she/her]

what is "bad" fantasy? Give us an exmaple of some books you read that you considered "bad" please

 

Off the top of my head, I'd say try Brent Weeks Lightbringer series and Brian McClellan's Powder Mage Trilogy  

[Delightful]

Well, I'm not exactly sure what you do and don't like, but off the top of my head there's 'The Lies of Locke Lamora', by Scott Lynch, and Naomi Novik's Temeraire/His Majesty's Dragon series (US/UK titles are different), and of YA fantasy try Laini Taylor's 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone'.  Hope that helps

 

Also, have you read all of Brandon's books? Mistborn, Steelheart, Rithmatist, Warbreaker?

Edited July 12, 2014 by Delightful

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

I'll be the first to say that I have not read terribly extensively through the genre, only because I am a slow reader, but I usually refer to Best Fantasy Books, which is a great resource for every genre of fantasy. They have explanations of pretty much every subgenre you can think of, and many of them have Top 25 lists. The site is mostly written by a few people, but there are crowd-ranked lists if you wish to get the more general consensus.

Since you seem to like epic fantasy, I would suggest starting with the Top 25 Best Fantasy Books list and the Top 50 Best Epic Fantasy Series list. You will find much of what is suggested by other Sharders as well as so much more.

 

Edit: fixed a typo and added a word

Edited July 12, 2014 by GreyPilgrim

[cem he/him]

Anthony Ryan's Blood Song is just amazing. Its sequel Tower Lord is not as good, but still good. You'll probably love Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles series as most people do. Start with either of these, then switch to Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series. Though I warn you, Butcher wasn't one tenth the writer he is today when he started the series, so it's a bit tough to get through the first three books but it's definitely worth it.

[Voidus]

Peter V Bretts Demon cycle is good, obvious ones are Pat Rothfuss, GRRM, Brent Weeks, I also like a few older ones like Raymond Feist and David Eddings, also Tony Shillitoe but he's Australian and books are hard to find

[Swimmingly he/him]

Rothfuss all the way. Truth be told, I like any one of his books better than any individual one of Brandon's.

Of course, given the disparity in number of books, I can easily say that Brandon comes out ahead overall. Still, that man is an artist.

[Asperity he/him]

The Black Company series is very amazing. The Malazan series is also quite good (still in the process of reading that one) and it drew inspiration from Black Company. Demon Cycle, as suggested above, is decent as well. All three in the dark fantasy category.

 

Kingkiller Chronicles was also suggested. If you enjoy having a Gary Stu as your main protagonist, and nothing that really deviates from most fantasy novels, then you would likely enjoy it.

[Robinski he/him]

@DarkEyes:

 

David Gemmell - I'd start with Waylander or Legend. These are very, very readable books, page-turners you would probably call them. Excellent characterisation, but strong on setting too, with a world that feels very natural, as if he's writing history. Some Fantasy can feel mechanical, like a checklist of elements, but Gemmell's books don't beat you over the head with world-building, they are a breath of fresh air. I wish I hadn't read them all!!

[Shaggai]

Some authors to start with:

Patrick Rothfuss

Anthony Ryan

Jim Butcher

Neil Gaiman

 

For YA:

Diana Wynne Jones is a total favorite of mine.

Patricia C. Wrede is also great.

 

(edit to correct spelling)

Diana Wynne Jones is just amazing, even if you don't read YA. 

[Fatebreaker he/him]

There's this great author, name of Sanderson. You may have heard of him...

 

In all seriousness, when in doubt re-read.

[el_warko he/him]

@DarkEyes:

 

David Gemmell - I'd start with Waylander or Legend. These are very, very readable books, page-turners you would probably call them. Excellent characterisation, but strong on setting too, with a world that feels very natural, as if he's writing history. Some Fantasy can feel mechanical, like a checklist of elements, but Gemmell's books don't beat you over the head with world-building, they are a breath of fresh air. I wish I hadn't read them all!!

 

+1'd.

 

I'd also recommend Lion of Macedon and Dark Prince by Gemmell.

 

I also +infinity Neil Gaiman. 

 

China Meiville is fantastic too, hard work though.