Favorite Fantasy Series (High or Low)?

[Brian-M]

and the Alice books,

That reminds me. Lewis Carrol's Alice books have always been highly popular, but I've never understood why his Sylvie and Bruno books are largely ignored. It's a great story (split between two books), with magic, childish innocence and humor.

 

[Niggle]

LOTR, first and foremost. And in no particular order:
Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders. Todd sucks.
Elfquest
Harry Potter
C.J. Cherryh
I'd have to go through my bookshelves again to remember the rest. There are about 2,000 of them, mostly fantasy, though not all of them will be read again.

 

[fuelair]

I don't know about "series"; but some of my favorites include:
Tolkien of course
T.H.White.. The Once And Future King
Fritz Lieber. The Fafherd and Gray Mouser stories
Pohl Anderson.. Several titles.. Three Hearts and Three Lions sticks out
Jack Vance... The Dying Earth stories, Cudgel the Clever, Mazirian the Magician... Great stuff.
E.R.R. Edison...The Worm Oroborous. A great fantasy, written in essentially Shakespearean English. Ignore the little prelude part.
Roger Zelazney... The Amber stories.
Finally, I'd include Julian May's Pleistocene Exile stories. Not REALLY fantasy, since there's a strong science-fiction underpinning, but since we have "magic" in the form of metapsychic powers and aliens who seem to mimic Celtic gods and wee folk....Quite a ride.

Three Hearts and Three Lions is my favorite of all.

 

[GraculusTheGreenBird]

Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles and Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series are seconded, both excellent.

Joe Abercrombie is highly, highly recommended if you enjoy a little more realism and cynicism in your material, with a big slice of moral ambiguity thrown in. His First Law trilogy, and 3 standalone's The Heroes, Best Served Cold and Red Country are all corkers. One might say a similar approach to GRRM, yet less sprawling events and cast of thousands, and more character study and development. Simply some of the most memorable and just damn interesting fantasy characters written, IMO. And remember, you can never have too many knives..

I'm not a huge fan of David Gemmel's earlier fantasy stuff, but his final semi-mythical Troy trilogy was very well done.

 

[jj]

Hmm, I'll second most of the older series. In newer ones, the Codex Alera by Butcher is good, and the Vlad series (Teckla, Taltos, Athyra, Phoenix ...) by Brust is really good, I just wish it came out a bit faster. I'm afraid he's going to die before it ends. (It does appear to have a specific end.)

 

[Wudang]

Ooooh thanks jj! I thought Brust had dropped the Jhereg books.

And you have to be realistic - Abercrombie writes a torturer you're sympathetic to? Awesome.

 

[GraculusTheGreenBird]

Ooooh thanks jj! I thought Brust had dropped the Jhereg books.

And you have to be realistic - Abercrombie writes a torturer you're sympathetic to? Awesome.

Absolutely. The crippled, pain-wracked Inspector Glokta of His Majesty's Inquisition is one of the most fascinating characters I have ever read. The man for whom dealing with the most commonplace situations of a flight of stairs is a daily torture.. Why wouldn't he end up as a torturer himself? On the other hand, why would he?

I appreciate authors who really look behind the facade of moustache twirling villains and Dudley Do-Rights. Why is such a person good or evil? Are they evil in their own minds or do they consider themselves to be heroes?

Nice quote from Elizabeth Bear on Abercrombie's work:

"Instead, it embraces a balance closer to reality: that the world is arbitrary and unfair, and that sometimes even well-meaning people do awful things: desperate, vicious things. But also, that complete jerks, sociopathic monsters, can and do accomplish good—sometimes purposefully, sometimes not.”

 

[catsmate]

That reminds me. Lewis Carrol's Alice books have always been highly popular, but I've never understood why his Sylvie and Bruno books are largely ignored. It's a great story (split between two books), with magic, childish innocence and humor.

Rather like Edith Nesbitt, The Railway Children is remembered while her fantasy works (apart perhaps from Five Chaildren and It) are largely forgotten.

One series I forgot to mention, David Weber's The War God's Own series. Excellent stuff.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Read so many ... a few good ones:

Three Hearts Three Lions very, very good.

Farseer books by Hobb

Damiano, three books, RA MaCavoy

Sanctuary collective books were enjoyable IIRC Aspirin edited.

RE Howard's Conan books, and L Sprague's follow ons

Forgotten Beasts of Eld.

The Dragon and the George was fun, though not serious

Master of Five Magics

So many I forgot to mention ...

 

[Morrigan]

Only one person mentioned GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire? That's disappointing. My top series by a long, long shot. Nothing else comes close.

Other good ones:
- Scott Lynch: Gentlemen Bastards
- Joe Abercrombie: First Law + his standalones
- Robin Hobb - Realm of the Elderlings
- Bernard Cornwell - Warlords Chronicles (not really fantasy, but based on Arthurian legends)
- Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
- Glen Cook: Black Company

And she does some excellent character development (my favorite character in those books started out as one of my least favorite characters).

Let me guess: Malta?

 

[Dcdrac]

The Starlost, Martian Chronicles, Space 1999, Blakes 7

 

[asydhouse]

If anyone likes sf as well as fantasy... or even if you don't normally care for sf, really... I really really really really wish everyone would read Justina Robson's totally wonderful reimagining of the whole concept of "other races" of beings, and how their worlds intermingle with ours in a sort of multi-dimensional cosmology, in her series of 5 novels called Quantum Bomb, which starts with Keeping it Real.

Justina has really let her hair down and enjoyed herself with these sexy novels following her alter ego heroine through a series of deepening and broadening adventures through the realms of the elves, the demons, and faerie (visiting the realm of the dead as well, which is nothing like a world as we know it, and also tangling with the dread archetypes, the Original ones...) and her three-way marriage with a charismatic maverick Elf (the elves are not like you've experienced in any book before!) and an equally maverick and charming demon.... these characters will give you a new lease on life!

Justina's writing is fun and intelligent and sumptuous and "down to earth" (ironically!) and her imagination and story-telling is top notch.

Do yourselves a favour and check it out!

 

[Wudang]

I tried one of the books and didn't finish it which is very rare for me. And I think the "alter ego heroine" is the problem as I found her a bit of a "Mary Sue".

Mixing SF and fantasy I'll go Zelazny (Creatures of Light & Darkness and Eye of Cat among others), Steven Brust (Reign in Hell), Michael Moorcock and others.

 

[Vortigern99]

So far I can't help but notice the distinct absence of Terry Goodkind's 12-book Sword of Truth series, and Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson)'s 15-book Wheel of Time series. No love for these major, best-selling, generation-crossing fantasies?

For lovers of more obscure (but no less brilliant) fantasy, there is Dave Duncan's wonderful Man of His Word series (The Magic Casement, etc.), and the sublime Shardik and Maia by Richard Adams of Watership Down fame.

I'm really enjoying reading through this thread, people. Thanks for taking me back to old favorites and for giving me new ideas for future immersions.

 

[jj]

So far I can't help but notice the distinct absence of Terry Goodkind's 12-book Sword of Truth series, and Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson)'s 15-book Wheel of Time series. No love for these major, best-selling, generation-crossing fantasies?

No love whatsoever, thank you, for those.

 

[PixyMisa]

So far I can't help but notice the distinct absence of Terry Goodkind's 12-book Sword of Truth series, and Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson)'s 15-book Wheel of Time series. No love for these major, best-selling, generation-crossing fantasies?

Wizard's First Rule (the first book in the Sword of Truth series) is without question the worst book I have ever read. Just jaw-droppingly awful.

Series that are rather less awful, in no particular order:

C.J. Cherryh's Fortress and Morgaine books.
Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books (and spin-offs).
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (his Codex Aliera is readable but ultimately pointless).
Garth Nix's Old Kindom Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen).
F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series.
Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Lyonesse books.
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (if you view it as fantasy rather than s.f.).
Pratchett's Discworld.
Glen Cook's Black Company. His Garrett, P.I. books are also fun.
Michael Moorcock's Elric, Hawkmoon, and Corum books.
Guy Gavriel Kay's work post-Fionavar, particularly Tigana.
Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion books.
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books.

 

[asydhouse]

I tried one of the books and didn't finish it which is very rare for me. And I think the "alter ego heroine" is the problem as I found her a bit of a "Mary Sue".

Mixing SF and fantasy I'll go Zelazny (Creatures of Light & Darkness and Eye of Cat among others), Steven Brust (Reign in Hell), Michael Moorcock and others.

Maybe you should have started with the first in the series. The five books are really one long story arc of character development. But then, I'm more an sf fan than a reader of fantasy (but I've read LotR twice... with a gap of 35 years in between readings!).

I don't know what a Mary Sue is. I've met Justina at the world sf con in Glasgow a few years ago, so for me the heroine of Quantum Bomb really was her! Which was fun for me.

I'm sure I have read other fantasy I enjoyed, but I can't recall what right now.

Oh, The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick was brilliant!

And anything by Neil Gaiman is brilliant. His Sandman comics are a masterpiece.

 

[PixyMisa]

I don't know what a Mary Sue is. I've met Justina at the world sf con in Glasgow a few years ago, so for me the heroine of Quantum Bomb really was her!

That's pretty much it: Mary Sue^WP.

 

[asydhouse]

That's pretty much it: Mary Sue^WP.

hmmm... nope, can't figure it out! What's "wp"? I know when people put a superscript "tm" it's a satirical reference to "trademark" (unless it's real of course ) but I can't think what "wp" would be.

So a Mary Sue is a character in a novel that is the author? Why? Where's that from?

Okay I just googled it, and no she is not a Mary Sue! Wudang has totally misread the character and the story. I wonder how much of that book he/she read before dismissing it? Any competence in these novels is earned psychologically, and the physical cyborg she is transformed into by the secret government agency she is shanghaied into is imposed on her after a mission to the dimensional realm of the Elves goes disastrously wrong, and she would have died if they hadn't effectively replaced most of her body. The enhancements to that Earth technology that she picks up through her adventures in the Elf realm are also earned.

Honestly, these books are great writing and original imaginings that are far deeper and more rewarding than any satire or fan fiction could ever be!

I'd be sad if people were put off by comments from someone who hasn't even read them!

 

[Wudang]

I'd be sad if people were put off by comments from someone who hasn't even read them!

So would I. I mainly posted a negative remark as I felt that too often when something gets great press the reader can be disappointed by something they would otherwise enjoy.

Good grief! SF and fantasy crossover : I forgot Charles Stross' the Laundry Files. Cthulhu meets Turning completenes, what's not to like?