So I grew up very sheltered and isolated from society and as a result missed out on a lot of pop culture and other common things. I love to read, and I really enjoy fantasy and DnD and those types of things and I’m trying to find and catch up on the great fantasy books/series that every fantasy lover/nerd should know. I’m not as interested in sci-fi, but I’m willing to read the “great” ones too. What would you recommend?
Series I’ve read: The Lord of the Rings The Witcher The Dark Tower The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Dungeon Crawler Karl
Update to add also read: Wheel of Time Most of the Stormlight Archive The Hobbit
I’m just starting my first Discworld book.
Edit: Thanks everyone! Keep them coming, I’m going to make a list with all the suggestions and start working through them.
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander.
The fantasy/SF line is pretty blurry. You can have dragons and robots at the same time. Others have mentioned Tad Williams and Zelazny already. I’ll add Melanie Rawn for dragons and magic, Charles de Lint for Faries in the modern world, and Christopher Stasheef for witches and terrible puns. And Tim Powers for a bit of everything!
Dragons? Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series is worthwhile!
I count those as SF. Romance heavy SF but still.
I thought they were fantasy for the longest time! I remember reading a later Pern book (can’t recall the title anymore, sadly) where there was a computer system that got uncovered after like 600 years - surprise! SF!
I would recommend Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series as well as his Lyonesse Trilogy.
Ok so since you’re doing sci-fi as well, Hyperion/Hyperion series.
I just finished the Cantos this week. I think Hyperion is one of the best sci-fi setups ever conceived. The Canterbury Tales in Space is so hype, and so well executed. I could read it ten times and love it every time.
The rest of the series is ambitious, but never quite lived up to the first book. There are incredibly interesting ideas, and some excellent parts… but I can’t give the whole thing a 10/10.
Book four light spoilers
Aenea spends so much time talking at the reader, and her set up as the savior of humanity pins her character in a corner.
The discussion on how “humans stopped evolving” was an incredible turn on my view of the Ousters, and helped recontextualize the series as a radical, conservationist epic instead of just an anti-authoritarian one was also A+.
Since I just read this, I’ve been thinking a lot about how a television adaptation would work. Season one would be just the first book… one pilgrim’s tale per episode. But then I feel like the next three books would need a comprehensive overhaul to streamline the narrative and pick a clearer focus.
I started the second book shortly after reading the first, and I didn’t finish it. I think I prefer to remember Hyperion as a standalone story as it’s so perfect
Yeah, I put Hyperion/Hyperion series since the series is not for everyone.
I personally enjoyed the Endymion books, some people enjoy Fall of Hyperion and leave it at that.
Titan, Wizard, and Demon by John Varley. The first book starts off with a bog-standard “first human exploration of Saturn’s system,” bit, but starts going off the rails immediately. By the end, you’ll meet a 50 foot clone of Marilyn Monroe and think, “eh, I’ll accept that.”
It’s one of sci-fi’s more delightfully unhinged stories.
Completely agree. It is fucking unhinged and a great read.
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Yes definitely this one
As someone who finished it, nah.
It’s a rambling mess.
I forgot I read this series! I absolutely loved the first half, by the last half I just felt like I was only finishing it because I had invested too much time in it. I hated the way the women characters developed at the end, it felt very “men writing women”. It was so gross. I also hated how dialogue heavy the last few books were, the plotline dragged hard.
Which series was this? The original commenter deleted their comment.
I’m guessing wheel of time?
Yes, I’m not sure why they deleted their comment, it was still a good suggestion and I appreciate it.
As someone currently reading book 8, yes. It’s a rambling mess but it’s my rambling mess.
Its a wonderful rambling mess and I love it. I’m on my third re-read at the moment.
Also, bosom.
The hobbit is great. I loved every page of it. Just don’t base your opinion of the movies if you’ve seen them, and not read the book. How the fuck did they shit out a 3.5 hour long turd from a 15 page chapter in the battle of the five armies. Holy shit.
There are several ‘edits’ you can put together online that are actually way better than the movies. They cut out a lot of the nonsense and trim around excess to provide a 2-ish hour movie that feels choppy but good.
Yes. You may have seen the movies but the books are works of art. I still don’t think I’ve read a better written book in my life. The hobbit is especially fun to read.
Yup. The movies are an abomination. I saw them once and I’ll never watch them again. But I’ve read the book more than a few times
I read Tolkien growing up and it kind of set an unrealistic expectation for the quality of literature I would encounter later in life. I was constantly disappointed after that.
Earthsea, as someone else has already mentioned, was one of the few series that measured up.
Howl’s Moving Castle was fun, as long as you don’t take it too seriously. It’s not meant to be serious.
I’m reading Wheel of Time now, and it’s just okay. It’s good as far as these things go, and I’m invested in the plot, so I’m gonna finish the series, but it’s just not a masterpiece in my opinion.
Some of the characters are well done, some of them are kinda cringey, and only some of those are cringey on purpose. Some of the running jokes are funny, but some just sound like what an old british guy in the 90s would think is funny. Some of it didn’t age well.
Some of it gets really repetitive, too. Like, I swear, if he says someone looks like a bird again, I’m gonna lose my mind. It’s always someone from the brown ajah, too. And I think he overuses the ta’veren device to rationalize some kinda stretched plot points.
It probably sounds like I hate it. I don’t. Well only a little. It’s a bit love-hate ever since my favorite character died (won’t say who but it was near the end of book five).
Character analysis (avoiding spoilers):
Some of the character development is pretty good though. Rand kinda turns into an asshole, but it makes sense because he’s under so much pressure. I hope the author uses that device to bring it full circle so he corrects himself. If he’s just an asshole for the rest of the series then that would be lame.
I really appreciate the flawed characters (namely, Nynaeve and Mat), both for the comic relief and their occasional redeeming moments. And how they’re always projecting whenever they criticize others really cracks me up, especially when the two interact with each other. Cause you know that deep down, as much as they can’t stand each other, either one would risk their life for the other in a heartbeat.
I started out liking Perrin, but I think the author dropped the ball on his development. He has some outdated ideas about chivalry, and at the same time Faile (as much as I want to like Faile, but she’s just kinda one-dimensional) she encourages some really toxic and even abusive traits. It might be deliberate on the author’s part, but I just think it’s poorly done. Perrin is one of the few characters who isn’t constantly lying to himself though, and I still like that about him.
Egwene’s character development is really good. She starts off kinda bland and tokeny, but around book four she really starts coming into her own, and I can’t spoil anything but I’m past halfway through the series now and her plot arc is probably the one I’m most interested in at this point. I’m legitimately so proud of her, and I think that part of the story is being handled well. It’s not just like some “magic solution on a silver platter” that’s the hallmark of bad writing. She still has challenges, but she meets them squarely, and her inner monologue is just so honest with herself. She’s probably the most relatable character in the series in my opinion.
And Elayne’s plot arc is fun because it’s usually lighthearted due to her innocence and naïvete, but she makes some really intelligent decisions on things that are within her wheelhouse, and she’s usually pretty honest with herself (usually). She’s a strong character though, even leaving aside the obvious nepotism, and sometimes her strength and intelligence clashes with her innocence and naïvete in some really interesting ways.
I don’t know who else I can talk about without spoiling things. I’m looking forward to Elaida’s downfall (so clearly forshadowed by her hubris), which she’ll deserve every bit of.
Some new characters have been introduced recently, and some old characters reintroduced, but I’m not gonna give anything away and honestly I still need to wait to form any opinions about them.
I will say, though, that there’s a lot that could be done with some of the different groups that are coming together (and clashing), but that’s another point where I think the author drops the ball. Some of them are just unrealistically hotheaded and arrogant, and it turns into this sorta clusterfuck where everyone’s trying to teach the others to respect them by asserting their dominance. It’s just really immature for the people who are supposed to be the wise leaders of their respective societies.
I mean, the machiavellian stuff makes sense within some contexts, like within the politics of the different nations, but that was always tangential or adjacent to the plot at most. Now it’s just starting to seem like the groups that are supposed to be the main good guys are just as foolish as the meddlesome side characters running most of the governments…
Anyway, that’s probably enough critique for now. I just don’t really have anyone in real life to talk about this stuff with so I’ve been keeping it all bottled up inside my head (and occasionally rehearsing my critiques in my inner
dialoguemonologue…)
i read that, but i dint quite grasp it at the time.
I still can’t get over how they stretched that short of a book over that long of a trilogy of movies and still managed to not show enough of Beorn. All of the party arriving at Beorn’s house is one of my favorite chapters and it’s just… not there. The. Fuck.
Don’t even get me started on tauriel. I’m all for diversity, but she was entirely unneeded. A love triangle? Really?
I have read the Hobbit! I was so excited for the movies and when the first one came out I almost cried in the theater. I made myself watch the second one but never did watch the third one. The book is good enough.
Some of my best memories are of my grandfather reading me the hobbit at bedtime when I stayed with him for a summer.
Oglaf 😆
insert joker laugh
Excellent suggestion.
I need an Oglaf omnibus.
Earthsea.
Earthsea is beautiful. There aren’t very many books, and they were written across 50ish years. They evolved with the genre, allowing readers a clear window into how we got to the modern works of Jordan, Sanderson, etc.
There are six, which, by modern standards isn’t much. The first three came out in a four year time span and was an attempt to answer the question, “What was Gandalf’s youth like?” This was before Tolkien answered these questions publicly.
Twenty some odd years later, she wrote Tehanu. It was, from what I remember, an attempt to answer her critiques who said she had written a series where magic was not accessible to women. Then ten years after that she finished with two more books. The first of the two was a bunch of short stories that fill in some corners of the stories prior.
I’m gonna suggest a web novel, Practical Guide to Evil. Great series about 8 books long that follows the apprentice of a medieval fantasy villain. Looks like the first book just dropped on Amazon for kindle and audiobook last year
Pale Lights the author’s ongoing serial, is even better. New chaptr just dropped a hour ago!
Just finished the latest chapter. Go 13th
Gotta love a story where “mapmaker” is the OP vocation.
Brandon Sanderson books, specifically the cosmere stuff are all pretty fucking good.
My favourite is probably Mistborn but I know a lot of people prefer The Stormlight Archives. All worth reading!
Both Mistborn ages are really tight, making them easy reads. Intriguing magic, moving story, great characters.
Stormlight has all the same elements, but it lets every character have their own storyline. It’s sprawling. It lets you see more sides of it.
Sanderson is a great airport read.
I wouldn’t recommend it outside of that context. It’s nothing special.
He’s great at coming up with magic systems but he’s basically a very talented YA writer.
I’ve heard great things about Malazan. I should probably pick that up.
I just finished Gardens of the Moon. In order to keep track of everyone, I made my own wiki. It felt like watching Eriksson play a war game.
I’m taking a break as the style isn’t interesting to me. I hear his writing becomes more intimate and visceral in the rest of the series. Looking forward to this in book 2. Sort of wish I started with book 2 since none or few of the characters carry over.
His dark materials aka the Northern Lights series. I read it as a young teen and again as an adult. Really good.
Just a note to add that if OP does dig in to HDM, bear in mind that there are only three books. There are three more books masquerading as a continuation of Lyra’s story, but they can be safely disregarded as they are a nonsense.
Whenever I see someone asking for book recommendations, I always seek out comments like yours or make one if I don’t find it.
His Dark Materials aka Northern Lights (Golden Compass in US) is a really good one. I was 12 when I read the first one. It’s such a good story and I remember anxiously waiting for the 2nd and 3rd books to be published. When my friends started reading HP #1, I was already 2 books deep into HDM and was fully engulfed in Lyra’s story. HDM is a superior series that I think all children should read.
I read it again as an adult and realized how much those books really shaped my world view. Philip Pullman is an amazing storyteller.
‘I always seek out comments like yours or make one if I don’t find it.’
Same here! They were so eye opening as a young kid
Along the same lines as Discworld and Hitchhikers Guide, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The Amazon tv adaptation is excellent as well.
Discworld is great and so many series within it to start with, guards! Guards!, the color of magic, mort, etc really enjoyable to read. My second fav after LOTR for fantasy.
Some classics are Conan by Howard, Michael Moorcock’s Elric books and Fritz Leiber’s “Swords” books. I really like Dune as well (but that’s sci fi I guess). Have fun with Discworld!
oh man I was obsessed with Conan when I was a kid. those books probably did something to my developing brain
Yep, something good, guaranteed!
I loved Fritz Leiber Swords. If you like DnD it’s definitely what built lots of tropes from it. Also the episodic nature is a fun fast read
I really like Frank Herbert’s Dune. It is science fiction, but takes many aspects from history, like fiefdomship/politics and religion, especially from medieval times. Some argue the book is too much into details and thus can be dry (no pun intended) but I like it as the world seems more authentic, the characters more relatable.
Just remember that Dune is only half (eh, two-thirds) of a book, and the story isn’t complete without Dune Messiah.
The next two books are more self-contained.
oh I didn’t realize Dune counts. Yeah Dune is awesome
