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Essential fantasy

post #1 of 18
Thread Starter 
Just like the sci-fi thread, but for fantasy novels.

Richard Adams
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Watership Down
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Plague Dogs
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Lloyd Alexander
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Prydain Chronicles
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Robert Asprin
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Myth-Adventures series
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Clive Barker
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Weaveworld
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">L. Frank Baum
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Oz books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Mists of Avalon
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Darkover books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Terry Brooks
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Sword of Shannara
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Elfstones of Shannara
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Steven Brust
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Vlad Taltos books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Tarzan books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Orson Scott Card
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Tales of Alvin Maker
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Lewis Carroll
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Alice In Wonderland
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Through the Looking-Glass
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Stephen R. Donaldson
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The First Chronicles of Thoman Covenant
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">David Eddings
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Belgariad
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Raymond Feist
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Magician
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Silverthorn
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">A Darkness at Sethanon
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Neil Gaiman
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Neverwhere
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">American Gods
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Good Omens
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">William Goldman
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Princess Bride
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">H. Rider Haggard
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Allan Quartermain books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Robert E. Howard
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Conan saga
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Brian Jacques
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Redwall series
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Guy Gavriel Kay
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Tigana
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Ursula K. LeGuin
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Earthsea books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Fritz Leiber
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">C.S. Lewis
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Chronicels of Narnia
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Anne McCaffrey
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Dragonriders of Pern
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">George R.R. Martin
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">A Song of Ice and Fire
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Elizabeth Moon
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Deed of Paksenarion
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Michael Moorcock
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Elric saga
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Robert O'Brien
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Terry Pratchett
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Discworld books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">J.K. Rowling
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Harry Potter books
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Fred Saberhagen
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Book of Swords
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">J.R.R. Tolkien
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Hobbit
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Lord of the Rings
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Silmarillion
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Dragonlance Chronicles
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">T.H. White
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Once and Future King
  • <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The Book of Merlyn
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Obviously, I'm a little more well-read in fantasy than I am in SF!
post #2 of 18
What? No Karl Edward Wagner and his books of Kane? That's a tragedy to skip those. Wagner was the first and still only writer after Howard to really capture the spirit of heroic fantasy fiction. Start with "Bloodstone." That was his best novel.
post #3 of 18
Thread Starter 
Would that be Solomon Kane?
post #4 of 18
Poxy said it all, but I'd like to add books of some writers he mentioned:

Stardus for Neil Gaiman

Imajica and Galilee for Clive Barker.

I also think that The Dark Tower series qualify as fantasy, though I may be wrong about that.
post #5 of 18
Thread Starter 
Crap, I totally forgot Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. Man, I should be flogged for that.
post #6 of 18
You know what? I'm sorry if this sends you all on a mad rampage through every used bookstore in your cities ... but if you love Goldman's The Princess Bride, you owe it to yourselves to find, and purchase, at any cost, his The Silent Gondoliers.
post #7 of 18
What, no R.A. Salvatore?
post #8 of 18
Thread Starter 
Well, I really don't consider him essential. He's written some good stuff, but I think you have to read Dragonlance -- it's the best book TSR/WOTC ever put out, and it got the whole ball rolling that made it possible for Salvatore to have a career.
post #9 of 18
Ah ha! Now this is my catagory!

Let's add...

Piers Anthony
Xanth series (at least the first 5)
Incarnations of Immortality series

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pellucidar series

Jack L Chalker
And the Devil Will Drag You Under
Dancing Gods series

Alan Dean Foster
Spellsinger series

C S Friedman
Coldfire series (By far my favorite fantasy series, excluding, of course, LotR.)

John Gardner
Grendel

Ed Greenwood
Shandril's Saga series

James Gurney
Dynotopia

Lyndon Hardy
Master of the Five Magics
Secret of the Sixth Magic

Robert A. Heinlein
Job : A Comedy of Justice

Robert E. Howard
Solomon Kane stories

H P Lovecraft
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (and related tales...)

Brian Lumley
Dreamlands series
Titus Crow series

Michael Moorcock
The Elric Saga (Because it needs to be mentioned again and again and again.)

John Norman
Gor: Chronicles of Counter Earth

Mervyn Laurence Peake
Gormenghast trilogy

Tim Powers
The Anubis Gates
On Stranger Tides

Melanie Rawn
Dragon Prince series

Mark E. Rogers
Samurai Cat series

Stephen King and Peter Straub
The Talisman

Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Roger Zelazny
Amber Chronicles series

I'll think of some more later.

post #10 of 18
Thread Starter 
Tindalos, I'll give you the first Xanth book and the first three or four Incarnations books, but the man simply needs to learn when to stop -- the series started decades ago with Blue Adept is finally drawing to an end, and there's no end in sight for the Xanth books even though that well ran dry around book nine or ten. I think Asprin and Pratchett are your essentials for humorous fantasy.

Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant did just barely miss going on my essential sci-fi list though.
post #11 of 18
R.A. Salvatore is essential to me! Next to Raymond Feist and Tolkien his dark elf books are my favorite fantasy series
post #12 of 18
and what about Robert Jordans "Wheel of Time" series? While I thought the first book was O.K. I am half way through the second book and the story is really starting to pick up.
post #13 of 18
No Choose Your Own Adventure books?
post #14 of 18
Quote:
Poxy Von Sinister:
Tindalos, I'll give you the first Xanth book and the first three or four Incarnations books...
I agree with you there. I would only list the first five Xanth books (as indicated) and I have only read the first 4 Incarnations books. But the first 2 are definately on the list.

As for his whole Phase series I read the first 3 years ago. I remember little about it.

You are correct, the man does like to beat a dead horse...

post #15 of 18
Quote:
TheRealSnausage:
and what about Robert Jordans "Wheel of Time" series?
I purposefully left them off of my list. I am currently trudging through the 3rd book and fully intend to stop there. I gave it a chance and just can't get into it. I know there are people who swear by Jordon's series. I'm just not one of them.
post #16 of 18
Robert Jordan is in fact an amalgam of ghost writers all working towards one goal: the neverending story. After one incarnation dies (or commits suicide, or is killed) the next picks up the torch and continues the saga.

I predict somewhere around book 52 (which will be 600 pages long and whose story will recount a single day in the life of Rand) the children of those poor demented souls still reading the novels will rise up and ship their parents and all traces of the series off to another planet and erase Robert Jordan's franchise and name from human existance (ala Star Trek in Futurama.)

Btw, I got to book 5 and enjoyed the first 3 very much, was disapointed by 4 and could see the writing on the wall at the start of 5.
post #17 of 18
Thread Starter 
One of the most recent Wheel of Time books (and lord was there ever a more appropriate title for a series of books) covered one day of story time.

One day.

You want some fun? Go to the Robert Jordan newsgroups and read the raging debates about whether Jordan intended this thing to be this long all along or if it was originally a trilogy that he busted open to keep the cash rolling in. The people who claim you can find signs of the second argument all over The Great Hunt are as rabid as the Kennedy conspiracists.

Me, I have the last two books sitting on my shelf, one half-read, one untouched, and there they will stay. I'm out.
post #18 of 18
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. Fantastic stuff.

Astrid Lindgren's Brothers Lionheart. not just the best children's book I've ever read, but also a truly spectacular fantasy novel.
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