Orlion Blight

These are more Sci-fi than Brandon (not fantasy) but I read both Prey and Jurassic Park (yes, its a book and the movie strayed pretty far) by Michael Chrichton and they are both very amazing novels. 

You almost can not go wrong with Michael Crichton. I would also add Timeline to that list. 

I was raised on various Oz books growing up. My grandparents had a bunch of them, and every time we visited we could take one back home with us. 

Then there was The Wind in the Willows, which might be hard to classify as fantasy, so we'll just call it integral.

I can't remember if I read the Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings first... it would have been around fourth grade, then in I was introduced to the Chronicles of Narnia by my fifth grade teacher who read a few of them to us. Then in sixth grade, I revisited Tolkien and read the Divine Comedy by Dante.

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.

I really do not understand this viewpoint. Every person I've met, either in real life or on forums, who recommends Malazan always says this. If I were to read the series, then, should I even bother with book 1? Most answer with "yes." Why? If someone didn't like the first, no matter how good the rest might be why recommend they continue? If someone read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone and told me they did not like it, I would never tell them to continue reading, even though the books only get better. It just does not make sense to me. I would actually greatly appreciate someone explaining this to me, as I really only ever see it happen with Malazan.

For Malazan, it's for the following reason: you're going to get thrown in the middle of events no matter where you start. So yes, Deadhouse Gates is great, Memories of Ice are better, but it's better to get nearly drowned in Gardens of the Moon and get a sense of the style and characters before you get into later books. 

I would add that if neither Deadhouse Gates nor Memories of Ice impress you, just stop. It will not get better for you.

Finally finished reading Words of Radiance making it the last book to read off of the big Cosmere titles!!!

now I am a little lost cause I don't know what to read after said masterpiece :s

Titus Groan

Currently, I am reading The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton.

Journey before destination, my friend. We've got three main cosmere books within the next two years or so, which is already pretty great. We're years away from needing to worry if all the series will get finished. I'd prefer Brandon coming up with too many stories to ever write them all to him running out of ideas. Just think about all the stories we've yet to hear. It's gonna be great!

Yeah, there are only a few "destinations" that can be reached in fiction, it's the journey that provides variety!

It's also nice to have books to look forward to!