Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Looking to expand my writing skill by reading some of the greats. Problem is, not sure what's great and what's trash. Here's what I have read:

Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
A Wizard of Earthsea (#1)
The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1)
Dragon Lance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but that's what I can think of right now.

So, recommendations? Thanks in advance.

P.S. Haven't read the Drizzt novels yet, because I'm planning a dark elf fantasy and don't want to be inadvertently steal anything from Salvatore.

Steven Brust is really good & has the Vlad Taltos series with spinoffs starting with Jhereg.
A good standalone is Brokedown Palace & he has a few others, too.

If you want to see allusion in action, I highly recommend anything by Zelazny. His Amber series starting with Nine Princes in Amber, is a good starting point, but I prefer his books that mix SF with fantasy such as Lord of Light & This Immortal. Roadmarks & Creatures of Light and Darkness do too, although the latter was an experimental piece he didn't intend to publish. I just finished reading it again & loved it, but it's weird. Too strange for most probably because a lot of it is poetry. We just finished reading "A Night In The Lonesome October" as a group, one chapter per day for the month.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

L.E. Modesitt Jr. has written a lot of straight fantasy & is best known for his Recluce books which start with The Magic of Recluce. Published order varies from chronological order. It's one of my favorites as are most of his other books.

I know of a lot of others, but that's a good start. Just to let you know my tastes, I adore LOTR & the original trilogy of Earthsea. Dragonlance is iffy. It's been too long since I read much by Weiss & Hickman. I've never cared for Jordan's or Salvatore's work. My wife loves Jordan's series, although she hates the way he wrote horses. He was so ignorant & poor at it that she hurled one book against the wall, but she has read the series twice so I guess the rest was OK.

I suggest you look over the lists compiled by Locus Magazine.
Locus's Best Fantasy Novels of the 20th Century
Locus's Top Fantasy Novels of the 21st Century

And I suggest you finish the Earthsea books (all 6 of them) because Le Guin is one of the great SF/F writers.

Jack Vance's "Lyonesse" trilogy (Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl and Madouc) is an excellent read.

Raymond Feist
Janny Wurts (who writes horses very well btw)
David Eddings (I’d describe the Belgariad as a ‘jaunt’ but should be on a must read fantasy list)
Neil Gamain
Robin Hobb
Melanie Rawn
There’s a whole heap of others, so expect a bundle of posts!

Memory, Sorrow & Thorn by Tad Williams

I second Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams and Lyonesse by Jack Vance

Also:
The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
Anything by Michael Moorcock
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski
Tigana and The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Anything you can find by Lord Dunsany (specifically The King of Elfland's Daughter)
American Gods, Neverwhere and Sandman (graphic novel series) by Neil Gaiman

I can't think of more unless I'm looking at my physical shelves XD

Luke wrote: "Looking to expand my writing skill by reading some of the greats. Problem is, not sure what's great and what's trash. Here's what I have read:

Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
A Wizard of Earthsea (#1..."


Recommendations also depend which of these you're finding yourself liking most. But some series/books often well liked by fantasy fans are:

- Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series: first book - Assassin's Apprentice

- The Final Empire / Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (currently 6 books and 3 short stories with more books to come. Divided into two eras so far starting with The Final Empire)

- The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson which is also an ongoing series and part of a greater universe (Cosmere) that includes Mistborn The Way of Kings

- Guy Gabriel Kay has several great books. Am personally partial to Tigana

Some recent newer series from the 2010s that have been getting attention (both have one book left in trilogy to be published ):

- The Band series by Nicholas Eames that centres around bands of monster hunters. The first book Kings of the Wyld is about retired, middle aged monster hunters who have to get the band back together for a rescue mission

- The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden follows Vasya, a young woman living in rural medieval Russia who can speak to the old Slavic gods and land spirits. The final book in the series is coming out early 2019. First book:The Bear and the Nightingale

Some personal favourites I think deserve more attention:

- The Dagger & Coin series by Daniel Abraham, a five book high fantasy series following five characters in a pretty unique world with unique new fantasy species created by Abraham. If you like drow society well...there are no drow but there is a cult that worships a spider queen. Also features some very cool characters, one of the best villains in fantasy imo and a heroine that uses economics to try to save the world. First book: The Dragon's Path

- The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. If you like epic fantasy and military fantasy and are a big medieval warfare buff you will likely enjoy this. But if you're picky about typos/not so great editing it could get on your nerves lol Personally liked it a lot and only read it earlier this year. Five books focused on a mercenary band that goes from grittu wyvern hunters to suddenly defenders of the world. There are some seriouuusslllyy epic battles in here and imo some really great characters. First book in the series: The Red Knight

Also love seeing folks still reading Dragonlance. Used to love the chronicles and want to reread them. Am currently re-reading the Drizzt books. I first read them as a teen and am re-read for the first time in over a decade...still love them. Folks who aren't into pulpier dnd/fantasy adventures tend not to like them as much but personally that's still very much up my alley. Hope you enjoy them too!

If you're going with epic/high fantasy only then these should fit the bill:

Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
The World of Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin
Divine Cities series by Robert Jackson Bennett
Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan
The Black Company trilogy by Glen Cook

Some great suggestions. I agree with Andy that The Belgariad by David Eddings is a must read series, but a word of warning - if you are reading to improve your writing then watch out for the adverbs! For a time in my teenage years David Eddings (along with Raymond E Feist) was my favourite author. I used to copy out and practice some of the vocabulary he used particularly the adverbs, "......." Silk said sardonically etc. It was many years before I realised that this was actually bad writing!

Steve wrote: "Some great suggestions. I agree with Andy that The Belgariad by David Eddings is a must read series, but a word of warning - if you are reading to improve your writing then watch out for the adverb..."

I was thinking that as far as good writing goes Eddings wasn't at the top of the list, but he does to good world building. Also the characters are all kind of caricatures of a personality trait. So we have "sneaky" Silk with his "rat face", and of course the Viking like characters all drink and fight all the time and aren't exactly the brightest. I found this was meaningful to the story, to expose Garion to all those different personality types and show how each one had their pros and cons, but they were still caricatures.

Your target audience matters of course. This kind of thing is ok for Middle-Grade - YA writing, they need a lighter read so you can't go all Tolkien literary on them (not saying that's true for all, but there are kids out there that just give up on reading if it's too dense and hard to read, on the other hand I was reading Tolkien as a middle-grade kid, but do you want to reach the full audience or just a portion?)

Basically there is a huge difference between the writing in Lord of the Rings and Dragonlance :) A lot of adults give up trying to get through Lord of the Rings since it's so dense and at times slow, but Dragonlance is a bit like candy, it takes no effort on the reader's part and I'm sure some would call it trash because of that. I personally like both but I read my LotR and my Dunes when I have plenty of time to take it slow and savour them, but if I have a headache that day then I need my Dragonlance or my Eddings to put my brain on auto-pilot.

Andrea and Steve make some excellent points. Books like the Belgariad and Dragonlance serve a market, but aren’t what you would call great writing. I read these many moons ago and lapped them up.
For writing style I think Guy Gavriel Kay is among the most fluent. He writes beautifully and really draws the reader along. The plots are often quite simple so books are really character/world driven. I really enjoyed Tigana and A Song for Arbonne for these reasons. The Fionavar Tapestry probably belongs on the classic list too.

Splitting by market:

Simple fantasy/easy to get into:
-Dragonlance Chronicles have been mentioned, as well as the Drizzt novels.
-A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (though he may never finish it)
-Virtually anything by Brandon Sanderson (I personally recommend Elantris)
-The Never-ending Story by Michael Ende
-The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rorthfuss

Quality fantasy that's also fun:
-The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski
-The Conan stories by R. E. Howard
-Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (really anything he's written is good, fun and weird)
-The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson (in the spirit of LOTR, but harsher, cruder and much shorter)
-The Elric novels by Michael Moorcock (maybe his whole Eternal Champion sequence, but that spans a couple dozen books)
-Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams (a middle ground between Game of Thrones and Tolkien)
-The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
-American Gods, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Sandman (graphic novel) by Neil Gaiman
-The Dark Tower by Stephen King (I especially recommend the first one)

Quality fantasy with fantastic (no pun intended) but dense prose, not so much for light reading:
-The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
-The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
-Little, Big by John Crowley
-Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
-The Mabinogion Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton