New to the fantasy scene, need a good book to read, any recommendations, must haves?

Try Elizabeth Haydon's Rhaphsody. There are now three books in the series and they are all great.

Oh gosh, don't read Rhapsody...they're stuck in a tree 1/3 of the book.

I'd recommend ...

"Game of Thrones"
"Wizards First Rule" by Terry Goodkind
"Lord of the Rings" (a classic) By JRR Tolkien
"The Sword of Shanarra" (another classic) by Terry Brooks
David Eddings has a great 5 book series called "The Belgariad" ... and that, in my humble opinion, is the best I've read.

Check out http://www.sorcerers.net/Books/index.htm for more info ... also, if you buy the books through that link, you'll help keep the site alive!

thanx a lot i'll look into them, hey what do u think of the wheels of time?

There's a recent topic about it here: http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000127.html

So far i've read 120 pages of the eyes of the world, and i think it is really really good!!!!!!!

Go to amazon.com and you will find many nice books to read.
Lord of the rings by JRR Tolkien.

yeh, i read LOTR, thats the only fantasy book i read so far

Go for any of the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels. Mort or Soulmusic are good places to start, and of course Goodomens :)

Pratchett is a Fantasy/Sci-fi master!

I just read Canticle by R.A. Salvatore - first part of the cleric quintet. Very pleased with it so far.

If you read pratchett it is true you can start anywhere but it is best to start at the beginning. Colour of Magic, light fantastic. Because soem of the later books have joeks in them which are only funny if you have read the previous.

I can't stand it when people start reading whichever title takes their fancy, really bugs me!
lol me being mad.

i came across some of his material but wasn't sure about it, what is he like, what authors is he similar too, what style

Who? Pratchett? Well, the only other writer I can even compare his style to is Douglas Adams. Terry's books are unique and a great read - but they are not fantasy books in the usual sense of the word. The setting is similar but nothing else is...

OOOK!

http://www.sorcerers.net/Books/index_pratchett.htm

You have sample chapters for almost all Discworld novels. Go read. Buy through the links on SP. Help me pay the bills. :D

Try 'Legacy of the Drow' and 'Paths of Darkness' by R.A.Salvatore.

Hey thanks for the advice, i've now read about 360 pages of the eyes of the world and have decided that i love it, its so gripping, i hope these other recomendations are as good, im sure they will be

If your gonna read some Drizzt, at least start at the beginning.
I hear that the Saga of the Exiles is good though I also hear its more sci-fi than fantasy.

The following are a bit different from the RA Salvatore and all the other Forgotten Realms stuff (I like them too). There's a lot less magic but they are none the worse for it. If you have a chance check them out.

Kate Elliott's "Crown of Stars" series is brilliant although the fifth and final book has yet to come out (I can't wait!).

I have just finished reading the latest book (not sure when it came out) of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series and they have all been exceptional so far.

The most recent book I've read is Robin Hobb's "Assassin's Apprentice" and I'm on the look out for the rest in the series now.

[This message has been edited by monkey (edited July 07, 2002).]

thanx i will check them out

I have always disliked Forgotten Realms. I am a big big dragonlance fan. My friend finaly talked me into reading the Forgotten Realms book: Homeland. Well, for someone who hates FR so much, wow. I loved that book. I Recommend it.

Christopher, you beat me! I just read the Rhapsody series. I think it's very original (which is great in a fantasy book) and quite engaging...

Well, when you are REALLY new to fantasy, when you haven't read anything at all, there is only one book to start with. (strange that no one even mentioned Tolkien).... I always recommend to read The Hobbit and then Lord of the Rings first, for it is the oldest of the fantasy-books and in these books are the roots of many other fantasy-books. After that, I would say: Go for Wheel of Time. I know it takes a year before you read all books but it is really good stuff.

As Mathetais stated, David Eddings' five books series (the Belgariad?)is excellent. He wrote another five in the same series the Mallorean(sp?) which was also very good.
Dennis Mckiernan(sp?) wrote a decent series called the Iron Tower Trilogy followed by the Silver Call Duology. Somewhat of a LTR ripoff, but decent.
Barbara Hambly has some good series out also.
And of course, as mentioned above, The Lord of the Rings.
:book:

[ August 02, 2002, 20:36: Message edited by: keraptisdm ]

Actually, he wrote Silver Call first, though the Iron Tower was released first. McKiernan also has several more single novels all in the same world in different time periods, and they all relate to eachother in one way or another. IMO very good stuff.

You should of course read:
Dark elf trilogy(homeland, exile and sojourn)
Icewind dale trilogy(the crystal shard, streams of silver and the halflings gem)
Legacy of the drow(the legacy,starless nights,siege of darkness and passage to dawn)
and paths of darkness(Servants of the shard, spine of the world,sea of swords and the silent blade)

R.A salvatore is great, Drizzt is greater and Atremis entreri is the greatest:)
(i dont remember the order of the paths of darknes books)

The Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust.

Those who enjoy the Drizzt books may like the Tribe of One trilogy by Simon Hawke, set in the Dark Sun world.

well ive beem reading the leagend of the five rings books wich r really cool if u love samurai then u will love these books.
also the star of cursah (something like that :confused: ) is really good i love the way its done past presnt thing or at least thats how most of the book is done, i havent finished it yet. reiver is such a cool guy i wish he was in a game cuz it a FR book, but i think the auther has some thing about perk breasts if u have read the book u know wot i mean lol

I've only read Tolkiens books so far, and especially Silmarillion was gripping. The old Beleriand with all the different elf realms, and the Valinor... wow, that's something I want to read more about. But I don't know where to begin. Are there other authors than Tolkien that write from this universe? Or write about the Tolkien kind of elves? I would very much like to have recommandations on books about elves and their realms, if possible. Please? :)

[ August 13, 2002, 15:44: Message edited by: Blue ]

Nobody but Tolkien (and his son) wrote about Middle-earth. But there are plenty of books about elves around, and probably plenty of Tolkien's books you don't know about yet.

Check out http://www.sorcerers.net/Books/index.htm

Especially the Tolkien subsection. I've listed practically all of his relevant fantasy writing there.

[ August 13, 2002, 22:20: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

The Coldfire trilogy and In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman. Good sci-fi fantasy blend, and she's working on a sequal to In Conquest Born.

Orson Scott Card's Homecoming quintet, Worthing Saga, and Wyrms are also sci-fi/fantasy. And his Tales of Alvin Maker is a good modern fantasy set on an alternate history Earth.

Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Endymion quartet is neat too, again sci-fi/fantasy blend.

There's not much magic in them, and few fantastical beasts, but the 'song of fire and ice' series is the best-written epic fantasy series i've ever read. George RR Martin is a fantastic writer, and so far each book has improved on the last one(there's 3 so far). As a matter of fact, I think I might start re-reading them right now.

Cullain

The Sword of Shannara and Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks, the Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and Preludes 1 Trilogy (Dragonlance).

By the way, Mathetais I am so glad that someone else has read Sword of Shannara apart from me! Don't you think that Menion Leah is pukka? :D

And ofcourse Don't forget to read Trough the Looking glass, it's A classick!

I reccommend anything Tolkien there's plenty of it. The entire History of Middle Earth collection, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, etc.

If you want something thats not Tolkien try C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis and Tolkien were Friends so you may see some similarities.

THere's this book called THe Legend of Nightfall written by Mickey Zucker Reichart and the book is damn good! A must read. You'll enjoy yourself throughly, trust me. Some books like the above mentioned are Thieves Guild by Jeff Crook and Raven's Bluff by Richard Baker. THe former is from the DragonLance Crossroads series and the latter is from Forgotten Realms' The Cities series. THese books do not seem like they'd have a lot of impact on their respective worlds but they are great books. Try them!

If you haven't checked out Katherine Kerr's series set in Deverry; do. The first four books of it are the best I've read, after Tolkien of course. One of the best features in her writing is that evil has a point and motive, not just for the sake of being evil.