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.
I’m gonna lean into the series part here, and point at some web series:
Pale is an urban fantasy story (modern day with a magical hidden world) by Wildbow. The premise for this story is it’s a murder mystery where none of the suspects is able to lie; and three girls are inducted into the magical world to solve it. This is actually the second web series of his in this world, after Pact. Wildbow is an extremely popular online author, and all his works are available online for free - his superhero stories (Worm and Ward) have influenced most of the online superhero fiction (and even some print publications) I’ve read since.
The Gods Are Bastards by D. D. Webb is a “high fantasy western”. It follows a class of 9 students going through the premier adventuring school in the empire; about a century after magitech advances have made that unfashionable. This series is entirely free online, as are most of his other works. Book 1 of 17 has been printed and is available under the same name. This series is on hiatus partway through his final book; he’s working on getting the mental space to complete it. If you read it online he’s very open about his process and issues as he goes; and if you find you enjoy it, he has a few other series getting updates in the meantime!
A Practical Guide to Evil is a fantasy series where story tropes are as strong as physical laws - the Law of Threes, for example, states that if a Hero is trounced by a Villain, and then is narrowly defeated in their second encounter, they will absolutely defeat the Villain the next time they meet. It follows the adventures of Catherine Foundling, an orphan who turns Villain to carve out a better life for her people. The first book is up on Amazon, the rest of the series is still available online.
All three of these have amazing, unique characters, extensive and fascinating world building, and go long - 15+ books worth apiece, so if any grab you, pace yourself! Also, they’re almost entirely available for free online!
I don’t really like manga, but one of the best stories I’ve ever read in any format is the 7-volume Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. It’s post-apocalyptic fantasy about the nature of evil, the corruption of humanity, the extent to which individuals can fight against historical forces, and the fragility of civilization, for a start. Plus there’s a lot of action and world-building. There’s an anime movie which covers about one tenth of the story, if you want to get a feel for it.
I saw the movie. It was AMAZING. I had no idea it was based on book(s)!
Yeah, the manga is eminently worth reading. Especially if you enjoy the movie at all (it’s my favorite of Miyazaki’s.) The manga somehow manages to be even better.
I read Dresden Files for the first time within the last 18 months and I’ve been relentlessly shilling it to everyone ever since. I’ve been a bookworm my entire life and it’s probably my favorite series I’ve ever read, ever. It fucking slaps, it’s SO good.
I thought Butcher’s other series was much better. IDK why it’s called Codex Alera and not something with “Fury” in the name since that’s what all the books have, but it’s a more consistent series than Dresden and with better worldbuilding.
I have gone in bursts devouring those books. There’s a little too much nerd boy fantasy insert in the first book. (The skinny loner who dressed bad has WAY too many beautiful women into him). But it’s pulp so it’s expected. Besides it gets so good.
Can’t say no to gritty magic crime noir.
I have already read some excellent suggetions. Here’s some of mine:
The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb (the Lifeship Trilogy is excellent as well)) The Many-Colored Land series by Julian May Imajica by Clive Barker
Don’t bother with the Ice and Fire series by GRR Martin. The first three books are good and the rest is meh. As per the fourth book, an entirely new set of characters and storylines were introduced, without actuallly finishing the story after the first three books. The story will not be finished and that’s a bummer. Life’s too short and there’s too much better stuff out there.
Robin Hobb’s books are my favorite series of all time, probably across all forms of media too, highly highly highly recommend
I read the farseer trilogy last year and… man it’s a tough read. Not because of the writing - I was blown away by the prose, it is incredibly evocative - but just because they’re so relentlessly harsh.
Still taking some time off before any further Hobb books for that reason alone.
The original “The Princes Bride” by S. Morgenstern
The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander.
If you fancy a small change over to comic/graphic novels, I can highly recommend the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing. Two years ago I would have also included Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, but it seems that he’s a piece of shit, so if you do want to read his stuff, please pirate it to avoid giving him any money.
Recently I’ve been thinking one of the best things Alan Moore has written is the original 12-issue series Top 10. It just has certain characters and events that stuck in my mind.
Didn’t spot the chronicles of amber by Roger Zelazny in the thread, so that’s my recommendation if you want a long one!
EDIT: seems somehow no one actually recommended the Foundation/Robots series by Isaac Asimov, that’s the base…
The Incarnations of Immortality series by Alan Dean Foster. It coverers all of the main Incarnations. Death, Time, Mother Nature, War, the three fates and the Devil and an introspective God. An excellent seriese.
Everyone? Nothing. People have different tastes. Everyone should read the books they like.
Last time I recommend Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, I got crucified over it. Imma do it again. It was a formative work to me, and I frequently quote the wizards’ rules. Content warning though: some scenes are quite disturbing, and some of Terry’s political opinions leak into the text and are questionable at best.
Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series is another of my favorites, and I think I can recommend it without content warnings but it’s been a long time since I read it so I don’t really remember.
Louis McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga is also very good. Scifi instead of fantasy, but how often do I get the chance to recommend books?
Valdemar deals with some serious stuff, but glosses over the worst of it. The torture of one main character, and the brutal burning of another, as two examples, are handled pretty well. I would still go back and read them if I didn’t just remember them all so well because they’re awesome. There is definitely the fantasy trope of orphan/unwanted kids getting their fantasy though, but it’s appropriate for the blue fantasy genre.
…also, you should get crucified for sword of truth :P
Gah, sword of truth. I read that, ok, so there’s a hero’s journey thing going on, I can dig it - suddenly BDSM fanfic!
Nope, Goodkind ain’t for me. It was SO jarring!
Still, you also recommended Bujold. My fav! I’ll have to check out Valdemar.
I’m more of an SF person, but I really enjoyed the Raksura series, by Martha Wells, about a guy who can shape shift into a sort of dragon. I’m also currently rereading the Amber Chronicles, by Roger Zelazny, and it’s very good.
In case it helps any, I made a post with a giant number of spoiler-free short reviews of SF and fantasy books I’ve read over the last few years, and many of the books mentioned here are in them.
Series?
-
Le Guin’s Earthsea Trilogy
-
Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain
-
Discworld, especially the Night Watch books
-
Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series
Individual Books:
-
Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown, or anything else she wrote
-
Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock and Howl’s Moving Castle, or anything else she wrote
-
Philip K. Dick, “Galactic Pot-Healer” (Dick straddles the line between science fiction and science fantasy, but this one’s firmly the latter)
-
Madeline L’Engle, Many Waters
I’m sure I’ll think of more but my break is up.
I came here to say Chronicles of Prydain. I read them over and over as a child and they are so magical and well written, it’s a shame they aren’t more well known!
Wait wait. You’re starting with Engel’s “Many Waters?” Isn’t it book 4 in a series where book 1 (“A Wrinkle in Time”) is considered a classic?
It’s been a long time but I remember liking book 2 a whole lot. I never did get book 5, though I think there is one?
-
Discworld (Terry Pratchett), no question.
Very much Discworld. I shouldn’t have had to scroll this far down to find this shame on all y’all. The Night Watch series and The Witches series are my favourites and I do recommend reading series’s in order to but you can start practically anywhere if you want. Just remember the very first two books aren’t anyone’s favourites but are still good.
I mean, they mentioned they’re already reading Discworld…
I found this reading order quite helpful:
It’s my turn to ask this question, it seems, but if this image low resolution and very compressed?
I found a better version, updated.
Wtff… I remember the colour of magic being fun and knew there was more but that’s wild
The Colour of Magic was published in 1983, The Shepherd’s Crown was posthumously published in 2015 with up to three books published in some years. It’s an incredible life’s work.
If you liked The Colour of Magic, I’d strongly recommend continuing reading, it’s usually considered one of the weakest novels in the discworld, being the first book he wrote while still having a day job.
The good thing is, there are these sub series as you can see in the picture following specific characters with some cameos from the other series, so no need to read all of them (although recommended, because they’re great). Even within these series, every book is basically a standalone story with minimal spoilers if you read them out of order and zero confusion if you don’t remember what happened in the last book.
I’m a really fast reader and I had a slowish day at work yesterday. I read The Colour of Magic start to finish yesterday morning and really enjoyed it. I’m almost finished with The Light Fantastic now.
They get better
Red Rising by Pierce Brown is really popular. I’m only just started the 4th book so nobody spoil it for me. So far so good.
