Holiday season is coming up and I'm looking for some books I haven't read but are an absolutely must read. Preferebly fantasy books, any universe.

Books I've read:

All Salvatore books.
the sword of truth series
Death gate cycle
Chronicles of Aurian by maggie furey
Lord of the rings
Elaine cunningham's dark elf serie
Cormyr trilogy
Elminster - didn't like it that much.

I've been thinking about 'song & swords' and Weis and Hickmans first Dragonlance trilogy.

Please give me some advice on other books.

[ July 04, 2003, 01:37: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

Have you really not yet read "Dune?" That's a must, at least the first three books! The 10 volumes of Zelazny's "Chronicles of Amber" should keep you busy for a day or two, as well.

The Saga of the Exiles (mix of science fiction and historical fantasy)
Intervention (Modern science fiction)
Galactic Milieu Trilogy (science fiction)
No matter what, you should read these books. They should be compulsary reading.

I have also just finish reading The Bone Doll's Twin, which is utterly brilliant. Read The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb as well.
A Song of Ice and Fire mayhaps?
The T'En Trilogy?
Or if you want light reading try some of the Discworld novels.

[ July 02, 2003, 17:13: Message edited by: Aikanaro ]

Tad williams' Memory, Sorrow & Thorn is a must-read!! It's a little different than others... which makes it very good.
So that's my recommendation.

Modesits Recluce series is worth a read, not brilliant but good enough.
Feist's first books are worthwhile but his best is the empire series with Janny Wurtz.

Moorcock's Von Bek series which I recently read is also definetely something I would recommend, as is his Elric books.

As for sci-fi so is Asimov always a winner. I also really liked McMaster Bujold's Miles series.

Try and scan through this forum and you should find more ideas that you know what to do with.

When scanning, eliminate the 20 day limit, as there were several threads a few months back where we put many of our favorites. Those threads have been quiet.

A couple of threads to look at are:

http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000224

http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000171

http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000136

http://www.sorcerers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=000247

Well, now you can add one more -dead- topic to the list...

Try these:

The Dragons of <insert one of the four months here>... (From the Dragonlance serie)

Terry Pratchett, any of the Discworld series.

Robert Jordan. Part #1 of the Wheel of Time.

Hmmm how about:
Chronicles Trilogy - Dragonlance
Legends Trilogy - Dragonlance
War of the Spider Queen - Forgotten Realms
They also say that Artemis Fowl is also really good.
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is a MUST read.

I highly recommend A Song of Ice and Fire series from George R. R. Martin. The first three book is available (A game of thrones, A clash of kings, A strom of swords) and they are fantastic. Perhaps Martin is one of the best fantasy writers in these days.
Another good writer is Robin Hobb.
I've red her Farseer trilogy - it was a real blast.

These books are very different from the mainstream sword and sorcery fantasy, and imho they are far better.

Try Ursula Le Guin - The wizard of Earthsea. Different kind of fantasy.
Dune is pretty good.
Or try Conan, but stick to original R. Howard's stories. His epigons like Sprague Camp suck.
Anyway did you read Silmarillion and Hobbit?

Haven't read the hobbit or silmarillion, this because every time I start with the Lord of the Rings, I'm not able to finish it out of sheer boredom. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book but not my style I guess.

I think I'll try Dune, since I've heard some good things about it. And after all those forgotten realms books it might be nice to start with 'Dragonlance'

Thanks for the replies so far :thumb:

Apeman, The Hobbit is a different kind of book than Lord of the Rings, maybe you can take a chance with it.
And there's a very good mainstream fantasy writer, Raymond E. Feist. The Riftwar Saga and the Empire series are a must read from him.

Joaqcin, did you really like Feists and Wurts' Empire series? I thought it was the worst of them all. Too much sex and politics.

Sara Douglas' Axis Trilogy is good, brings in new ideas instead of sticking to the vanilla elf-dwarf-human template.

Kate Elliot's series (I can't recall the title) is good. The first book is King's Dragon, then Prince of Dogs, The Burning Stone and Child of Flame. Have a look.

George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire.

Didn't think much of Song of Fire and Ice. And only made it halfway through A Clash of Kings. Martin just doesn't handle his characters well enough to keep interest for the long haul. But the first book of the Wheel of Time was excellent as was The Great Hunt . But I could not make through Dragon Reborn .

The Silmarillion is nothing at all like LotRs. It may take a while to get into but once you know who's who it's one of the best books I've ever read.

Raymond Fiest's books are also great. Great characters, wonderful story. Excelent books.

The Kate Elliott series is called the Crown of Stars and is excellent.

The Liveship Traders is Robin Hobbs second trilogy and is mostly unrelated to the Farseer trilogy and I think its a bit better (less depressing anyway).

The Golden Key by Kate Elliott, Melanie Rawn and someone else who I can never remember is my favourite fantasy book. Its quite hard to find though and is very different to most fantasy.

Non-fantasy books:
I'd say a historic novel. Example: "Gates of Fire" and other similar. Or maybe classsic literature("Whitefang" is great).

Fantasy books:
The others recomended fantasy books so I wont bother anymore with them.

Yeah, the Hobbit is very different from the Lord of the Rings. I always adored the Hobbit -- very classic fantasy style, but I've never been able to finish Lord of the Rings (and I've tried 15 times) I just get bored either in the 2nd or 3rd book because it starts to seem like Frodo and Sam wander around forever always lost and then it's all battles and I tend to have problems visualizing his epic battles.

If you liked R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books then I would also have to reccommend the Crimson Shadow -- not as widely read but easily just as good (if not better in some cases.) Also his DemonWars Sagas are good though a bit thick and long in the reading.

I also reccommed Piers Anthony's Xanth series -- just don't read the recent ones, and Total Recall by him. I've also been a big fan of the Belgariad and Mallorean by David Eddings and some of the Shanarra books by Terry Brooks are wicked good. Also, if you like a lot of theology hidden in with your fantasy, C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is also pretty good but as I said; lots of theology.

Well, It could be caused by the Czech translation (that is not very likely however) but Crimson shadow seemed to be pretty bad to me.

Speaking of Piers Anthony: On a Pale Horse is still one of the best fantasy books out there, IMO.

The First 7 books of the wheel of time are awesome, the 8th sux IMHO the 9th is good and the 10th goes nowhere but has alot of good info,the series is.IMHO, as good or better than the sword of truth. the Belgariad, Mallorean, Tamuli, and Elenium by David Eddings(4 diff. series). The Gord the Rouge series by Gary Grygax(old but good). The Drenai by David Gemmel. The Earthsea books are different but very good. The Riftwar Saga, and the Empire by Raymond E. Feist. The Xanth and the Apprentice adapet series' by Piers Anthony are also very good.The Moonshae trilogy and its sequel(cant remember its name) are fairly good. Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind is pretty good(its before the boundries went up). The Heroes trilogy is good(dragonlance) cant remember author, havent read it since i was 10. The Dragonsong series(i think thats the name) was different but good(i dont remember the author).

[ July 10, 2003, 06:57: Message edited by: LoS_DrIzZt4 ]

yea

go with DUNE...but don't just stop with the first three....

<puts on the flame proof vest>

...and go with all the prequels to. While they're not Herbert....it's nice to have the origins as well.

As mentioned before, Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality, Apprentice Adept, and Xanth series are good reads. I also liked LeGuin's Earthsea triolgy. The Dune series is definitely required reading.

I've got to recommend Andre Norton's Witch World books, either the series or the many novels that take place in the same world.

The Dragons of Pern series is written by Anne McCaffrey and is a good set of books. I also liked her Rowan series.

Christopher Stasheff's Warlock series is a generally good read and a personal favorite.

Since all the others have pretty much covered up the mythological fantasy chapter i will recommend you some books from science fiction chapter which are:
Dune read it. It's a must
Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona lisa, Virtual Light, from William Gibson i believe you know the guy read his books they are awesome.
Starship Troopers, The Godmakers by Frank Herbert (the writer of Dune).
These for starters i hope that if you choose them you will enjoy them as much as possible :cool:
Have a great time in your holidays :thumb: and take a dive for us unlucky ones who are stuck in the big cement cities :)

The Axis Trilogy is very very wonderfully brilliantly brilliant. Go get it. :D
And get The Silmarillion, as slow as it is it is one of the most interesting books I've read.

Thanks for the replies everyone, these are my choices:

Dragonlance, Chronicles Trilogy
George RR Martin, Clash of Kings
The colour of magic, first discworld novel
First book of the wheel of time.

I saved the rest of the replies for next years, thanks a lot :thumb: