So I’m currently waiting for the 3rd book from Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive to come out and I need a book series to fill the void. I am half way through book 2 of Malazan Book of the Fallen and I’m probably going to finish it at some point but I dont have a lot of desire to continue with the series…
So that being said what are some of your favorite Fantasy Novels series?
Two recent series that I have read and enjoyed:
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie is very good, gritty and grim, with humour and great characters.
The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Again, quite dark in places, but very well written and with interesting time skipping as a literary device.
and two older series:
Anything by David Gemmell - most of his books are part of his Drenai Saga in one way or another, but his last work was a trilogy about the Fall of Troy, mostly from the viewpoint of the Trojans. Gemmells main flaw is that his writing is a bit samey throughout his work, but its like… an old pair of slippers, very comfortable and easy to get on with.
A Song of Ice and Fire - do I need to elaborate on this one?
If you didn’t already I highly recommend to give Witcher book series a go. First two are collection of short stories, next six books is basically a saga concerning Ciri and other related events. If you played the games, all of them are set to be after the books. They really are masterfully written, the world and characters feel very real. Nothing is just black and white, or have “expected” outcome, there are complex issues with no apparent right choice, that kind of stuff. Not that I’m against archetypes and characters pretty much set from the first scene (e.g. Tolkien) but there are far fewer fantasy novels not doing that and being actually good at it. There is tons of lore, politics, amazing dialogues, relationships and battles with people, monsters and youself.
If you haven’t read them already I can highly recommend Brandon Sandersson’s other books in the Cosmere! Especially the Mistborn series are very good, but Warbreaker and Elantris are very good to.
It’s been a while since I read them but I remember Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series as being quite good too. It is set in the Napoleon wars but with dragons. If you enjoy Brandon Sanderson’s style with a more scientific magic you will probably enjoy Naomi 's take on dragons too.
Of course the Kingkiller Chronicle series by Pat Rothfuss is fantastic too, so if you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend giving it a shot!
Stuff by Robin Hobb is pretty good, and I second the recommendation of First Law series and Broken Empire, both have a good atmosphere too it that sorta strays away from classic fantasy.
I recently read through the mistborn 1st gen series. You could definitely see sanderson coming into his own as a writer but i wasnt a huge fan…everything seemed lucky for the heroes
Not sure about best, but these are on top of my favorites list:
Those are the top of my favorites list.
The Cinder Spires by Jim Butcher could end up being on this list. Only the first book The Aeronaut’s Windlass has been released as of yet but I really enjoyed it. Its Steampunk though so its more Sci-Fantasy than Fantasy.
I’ll go ahead and recommend Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle. Its an awesome series; honestly, reading it is really, really fun. Its the most beautiful prose I’ve read in fiction. Its just…beautiful. At least to me. But its epic, it has a big, sprawling world slowly unfolding from a first-person perspective. It has its own, unique, version of magic. The characters are fun and interesting and I couldn’t put it down.
No one’s mentioned it yet, so I figured I would.
The big 3 for me to recommend are (first book in series for each):
the name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss. (Flawed hero coming of age story in an interesting world)
Lies of Lock Lamora by Scott Lynch. (Thieves and Grand Schemes, think Rollplay Blades)
The Painted Man/ Warded Man by Peter V Brett. (Men living in a world where demons rise from the ground every night. Only thing that can protect people are wards. This is the only book I have ever lost track of time reading)
While there are tons of others I would recommend, these are my favourite.
a few series that have not been mentioned yet
• The Wheel of Time : One of my favorite series 14 novels long finished by Sanderson after Rigney died. the fight between good and evil, right and wrong, men vs women.
• The Sword of Truth : A very good series about trying to keep magic in the world from invaders who wanted to eliminate it. It could have been a book or two shorter but the ending trilogy was great
• The Iron Druid: a fun and funny series about a 2,000 year old Druid and his dog, dealing with all the gods from all the Patheons
I would have recommended the malazan Series. I absolutely love those books.
Most of the recommendations in here i read, there are a lot of great books.
I feel like i obviously have to mention A Song of Ice and Fire. Only to complete the List.
I second that, kinda teen style but still great (I read that when I was 18 so y’know)
Yeh agree with the kind of teen style especially the first 2 books, but it gets pretty depressing and dark at some points too.
Wonder why a guy called Ben Delat recommends Malazan. For real though Malazan is great, but can be seen to lack focus in the early books because a lot of it is made to come together a lot later. But when it does come together it is really great.
I started malazan bc of how much i loved asoiaf. Im in middle of book 2 and im finding myself not caring about the characters as much as book 1. Just afraid i dont care about where the story is going…you still think its worthwhile?
Since no one has mentioned:
Raymond E. Feist
I stumbled upon this author while I was in the same shoes as you, I was waiting for the next book in Wheel Of Time and needed something to fill the void, I bought Robin Hobb, Brandon Sanderson, Terry Goodkind etc and nothing could give me the same satisfaction of the storytelling that Robert Jordan could.
Raymond E. Feist delivered what I needed.
The world is so big, the characters are multifaceted and rich, the development of the world and characters are progressing and interesting, politics and family in the world transgress generations. In his books you will follow several different characters within the same world and sometimes the same characters in different timelines, something that brought me joy in reading the books by Raymond E. Feist was that I could learn about the “ending” of a true hero, how his/hers life went AFTER the hero tale ended. The stories interwine with eachothers so beautifully that every time you touch upon a familiar character you will feel… something.
Myself- i´m reading 3 different fantasy series right now with different vibes that can satisfy whatever mood i´m in for:
Dark Tower by Stephen King
Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski
I´ve also heard good things about Joe Abercombie. You should also look into The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rotfuss.
Considering you liked Stormlight Archives and didn’t like Malazan, you probably are like me, so let me be the good/bad guy here an warn you about something:
Don’t go near Robin Hobb, Assassin’s Apprentice is terrible.
Dresden Files is good series, but nothing mind-blowing still a favorite of mine.
I would recommend other Sanderson’s books, specially Mistborn, the next saga of Mistborn is good too (and you should consider the first book of the 2nd saga was to be a stand-alone and a it’s not as good) but it gets better in 5 and 6
Sword of Truth is a beautiful series, at least read the first 3 books, if you liked it go til book 9 and stop there.
Have heard a lot of good from kingkiller of Pat Rothfuss and Witcher Series but haven’t read them yet.
Yeah you gotta be in the right age range to appreciate Robin Hodd
What got me into fantasy back in the day was David (& Leigh, in the later books) Eddings’ various series about Belgarath, Polgara and all the people. It’s uncomplicated, fun fantasy that doesn’t go to any particularly dark places, at least that I can recall.
The Inheritance Cycle (The Eragon Books): I may be tainted by nostalgia here, but I really enjoyed this series. Paolini’s writing style can get a bit convoluted at times and is heavily inspired by Tolkien and the like but it’s still a fun read. The characters and world are the engaging parts of this one, not the story.
The Belgariad (Followed by the Mallorean and the two prequel books): I just got to reading these ones recently and I managed to get through all 12 books in less than a year. The series is an awesome example of heroic/epic fantasy. The interesting characters and setting work well with the slightly cliche story to make an engaging page turner. The biggest flaw for me in this one is Edding’s reuse of the same phrases or situations.
If you enjoy young adult fiction akin to Harry Potter, Fablehaven and Septimus Heap are pretty good. They don’t go to any dark places but they have humorous characters and situations that are a nice break from wars and court intrigue.
A lot of the other ones that I thought of have already been mentioned, so I’ll just list them out: