Your Favorite High Fantasy Books

[Gabriele she/her]

Oh, I forgot one. Anything by David Gemmell.

[Briar King]

Malazan is my top dog easily.

Others are: Codex Alera, First Law series, Shadows of the Apt, Caines Law 4 books.

[Gabriele she/her]

What I find interesting is that Malazan gets quite some votes here while ASOIAF is less popular. On the Westeros boards Malazan is seen more negative on average.

 

Do Malazan and Stormlight Archives have more in common than Malazan / ASOIAF, Stormlight / ASIOAF?

[Awesomeness Summoned he/him]

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that a SoIaF is low on the fantasy, at least in the first book. For people who aren't fans of High Fantasy, the first book is more of an alternative historical fiction and most of the fantasy elements are light and can be ignored. People get drawn into the characters and story before the more fantastical events start happening and by then the readers are too hooked to be put off by the fact that they are now reading books about magic and dragons.

Malazan on the other hand is about as in your face as high fantasy gets. I remember reading the opening chapter and thinking what in the light is going on?!?. It was epic and really cool but I was completely lost for quite a while. It's got a huge learning curve and the plot is extremely intricate with some books almost completely focussing on characters you are just introduced to and ignoring the previous main characters until latter books. They definitely are not recommended for the recently converted fantasy fans which many of the SoIaF readers are.

Stormlight is much more obvious high fantasy so I could see why more stormlight fans would recommend them than aSoIaF fans would

[Erai Sedai he/him]

middle earth (LOTR, Silmarillion, unfinished tales, children of hurin)

To be honest, way of kings and words of radiance are incredible. They've so quickly become my favourite books!
I just went to the shops last week and bought the mistborn trilogy and also elantris. I hope i like them just as much

[Gabriele she/her]

Malazan on the other hand is about as in your face as high fantasy gets. I remember reading the opening chapter and thinking what in the light is going on?!?. It was epic and really cool but I was completely lost for quite a while.

 

I loved how Erikson just threw me in there without a guidebook. I found it was actually Fantasy that challenged me the way I'm else more used from authors like Dostoyevsky.

 

But I love ASOIAF, too, and felt a bit the odd one out on Westeros for liking both series. Well, I also like historical fiction (though not the romance-y stuff of a Philippa Gregory, more the epic time portrayals of a Sharon Kay Penman or the battle fun of a Bernard Cornwell or Robert Low) and my taste is all over the place anyway.

[Tamzin Ashevai she/her]

So, The Lies of Locke Lamora remains my favorite book in The Gentlemen Bastards Series. Neither Red Seas Under Red Skies, nor The Republic of Thieves quite achieve that which author, Scott Lynch, did in the series' debut novel. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful for The Bastards and The Knives (though it's not scheduled to be released until sometime in 2017). Boo!

As to Malazan, I haven't yet read it, but it's on my list of "to-read" on Goodreads.

Also, ASoIaF remains long overdue for it's next installment. As such, this follows ... http://www.georgerrmartin.com/excerpt-from-the-winds-of-winter/. Even so, I'm currently pleased to be subscribed to HBO for the next three months just so I can watch the series.

While I've read Philippa Gregory (and continue to do so), I also enjoy Sharon Kay Penman as well. However, I much prefer her actual historical fiction to her historical fantasy (i.e.: her novels based in historic time frames but inclusive of fantastical characters and plots).

[Briar King]

What I find interesting is that Malazan gets quite some votes here while ASOIAF is less popular. On the Westeros boards Malazan is seen more negative on average.

Do Malazan and Stormlight Archives have more in common than Malazan / ASOIAF, Stormlight / ASIOAF?

Is this the same Gab that's on the Malazan Boards?

[Gabriele she/her]

Yep.

[-Deleted-]

I see a lot of the obvious answers such as LotR and things like Wheel of Time and Cosmere an d I feel that these are probably already thought of by you, so I'll think of things that probably weren't posted. How about Brian McClellan, Daniel Abraham and NK Jemisin? Thlose are all authors that I, as a pretty big fan of fantasy, feel are very strong newer authors who are each doing things no one else has done in the genre before, much like the a;ready-mentioned Wheel of Time, Sanderson, Rothfuss and LotR. Also, some really amazing stand-alones are Imajica, Jonathon Stranfe & Mr Norrell, Paradise Lost (technically an epic poem, but still fantasy), The Princess Bride, Gossamar (Lois Lowry), The Last unicorn and Tigana. 

 

Also, I second the mention of The Gentleman Bastards. The first one was very good. Same goes for Codex Alera, and if it hasn't been mentioned I firmly believe Gormenghast should come back into popularity.

[fyoosha she/her]

Amanda Downum's Necromancer Chronicles (The Drowning City, The Bone Palace, Kingdoms of Dust) are stunning.  They are a fresh perspective on high fantasy, featuring plenty of female characters, plenty of people of color, fluid gender relations and gender neutrality, and a main trans character in the second book.  These elements never overtake the plot, however; they are represented as an ordinary part of Downum's world, which is really what makes this series unique.  Also, the settings aren't your played out Anglo-French settings.  In the first book, the setting is based on Southeast Asia, which makes for an incredibly diverse and rich setting.  Each book can be a stand-alone, but they all center on Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and investigator.  When reading these books I feel like I'm reading truly original high fantasy.

[Kasimir he/him]

I'd second (third?) Codex Alera and Tales of the Otori. Tigana too--I think Kay's written some which straddle the line between high fantasy and historical fantasy because of the low magic, but his writing is incredibly beautiful. For me, Guy Gavriel Kay and Sanderson are on two opposite ends of a fantasy spectrum--Kay prefers the lyrical, Sanderson the meticulous, but I find myself greatly enjoying both.

 

With regard to 'guilty favourites'--things that probably won't be on most people's list but are guilty pleasures nonetheless: the Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, and Alexey Pehov's Chronicles of Siala. I enjoy these primarily because of the richness of their worldbuilding--I'll never get tired of how the Elves in the Obsidian Trilogy can go on about tea, of all things

[the Gleeman he/him]

Wow so many things that I would think would be obvious haven't been mentioned yet...

• The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
• Redwall series by Brian Jacques
• The Princess Bride  by William Goldman
• All things Cosmere
• The Wheel of Time
•  Anything Terry Brooks
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
• Tolkien
• The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica by James A. Owen... AMAZING

This should work as a starting point

[Left he/him]

I'm really sad that only one person has mentioned Modesitt...

 

The Imager Trilogy- L.E. Modesitt. I haven't read the prequel books so I'm not sure about them.

 

Cosmere stuff

 

Royal Assassin Trilogy- Robin Hobb

I've only actually read the first book because of lack of time, but I really enjoyed it.

 

I may as well put Rothfuss on here since it is amazing, although everyone else has already said it.

 

The first trilogy of Dragon Riders of Pern and the Harper Trilogy- Anne Mcaffry

 

First three books of Riftwar- Raymond E. Feist

 

The Neverending Story- Michael Ende

 

Timothy Zhan star wars books, because Star Wars is Fantasy not sci-fi.

 

The first two trilogies of The Legend of Drizzt- R.A. Salvatore

After these it starts heading downhill

 

Memory Sorrow and Thorn- Tad Williams

It's the only stuff by Tad that I like, but I really love this trilogy. More than I like LoTR easily.

[jthome27]

I am surprised that only one person has mentioned the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind! I agree in part with the persons assessment that the first four books were amazing, then the series going downhill after that. Here is the order in which I rank his books: 1-4 were amazing. The fifth is one of the most painful books that I have ever read due to the fact that it is 600 pages of almost nothing to do with the main characters at all. The sixth book redeems the fifth and is IMO one of his best works. The seventh and eighth are much like the fifth book in the series in that they have little to do with advancing the main plot line and in part are a massive waste of time. Then he made the Chainfire story arc (books 9-11) which is the trillogy that ends the main story line of the sword of truths main story arc and they are really incredible. Since then he has started to write a new story arc in which he calls the Richard and Kahlan story arc which is where we are now. The first book in the new arc is alright and his newest book (the 13th in the series and is called The Third Kingdom) I really enjoyed. He also wrote a novella and a prequil to the series and they are both really well done IMO. The prequil in particular was incredible because it answered a lot of nagging questions about the Sword of Truth story arc.

A lot of people really dislike Goodkind because he has a really bad tendency to beat the reader over the head with his views of Objectivism. Some times I feel like I am reading Ayn Rands Atlus Shrugged and NOT a high fantasy novel. Well if you can get through these parts and some of the more pointless novels I think you would enjoy the series quite a lot!

So I really like a high fantasy writer that makes long series, Wheel of time, Sword of Truth, aSoIaF, Stormlight Archives. I like it a lot when an author writes long series and stays with his/her characters. I dislike series that are one or two novels and are finished. Trillogies are alright but I prefer a really long tale, a la robert Jordan or terry goodkind. Does anyone have a suggestion on a really good long series? I tried Terry Brooks first few novels in the Sword of Shannara (spelling?) I liked it but hated it at the same time because every book all the characters were either old from the previous book or were dead (minus one of course). So suggestions? Thanks!

[Left he/him]

There's the Saga of Recluse by Modesitt, although those hop around on a timeline so that you get different groups of characters. I haven't read it so I don't know how good it is.  There's Dune which goes on for as long as you feel like reading it, although a lot of people would classify it as sci-fi. I believe it's much more like Fantasy, but that's slightly off topic. There's the Dragon Riders of Pern which does the same thing as Recluse, except with Dragons. Mercedes Lackey has also written a ton of stuff that I haven't actually read, but I'm pretty sure it's pretty tightly knit. There's also the Riftwar Saga, but that one leaves the main characters alone for over two thirds of the thing which drives me crazy.

Quick question, are the sword of truth books like Wheel of time-one really long story that is worth it in the end- or a bunch of small groups of books, kind of like the mistborn trilogies except without hundred of years passing.

Edited April 27, 2014 by CalebTheGeek