Anyone know any really good fantasy literature. I like dark fantasy and also noblebright stuff. Also future fantasy

The Books of the New Sun are a good read.

I only read the first two, but I enjoy the dynamics of The Sharing Knife series, by Lois McMaster Bujold.

The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron.

...

Veeky Forums always has such god tier literature threads.

Let me just throw in some weeb recs
>Berserk
>Vinland Saga

Oh, and I forgot to mention, it has the best first chapter of any book ever.

Definitely second the recommendation on the Eddings' stuff. It's not high literature by any stretch of the word, but it's fast-paced and pretty funny while still be a serious story. It's a shame you almost never see it mentioned anywhere.

>Berzerk
Stops being good once he gets the berserker armor.

>Vinland Saga
Does it ever start getting good? I'll admit I only read the first few chapters and I was quickly unimpressed and dropped it.

Maybe I just have shit tastes though. But I will say Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions is pretty amazing.

Oh man I had so much fun with Eddings. I discovered him by buying a random fantasy book in a used book store. I don't even remember which one it was there was a princess mentioned who was turned into crystal or something, and some knights steamrolled some time traveling from the past things or something.

It made me get the first part of the Belgariad, I wonder where I stopped last thing I really remember was the MC and the wolf wizard crossed the straight into the other continent and had a kaiju battle with the natives.

Another great book is Dark Heart by Margaret Weis and David Baldwin. Awesome story but it's book 1 of the Dragon's Disciple trilogy which... never actually made it into print for whatever reason. A fucker really, it ended on a really interesting note.

I'm reading something called "The Sword of Truth". So far, I can't quite comment on it. I like it, but I don't really know what to say.

If you're going to recommended weeb stuff, don't forget Nausicaa (the manga, not anime)

Askeladd made /a/ cry.

Vinland Saga is very good.

Michael Swanwick will blow your mind.

First Law Trilogy - Abercrombie
I can also vouch for his Best Served Cold, The Heroes and Red Country.
He's dark, funny and his characters are very human. He toys with expectation and is very aware of how best to deliver the content and in what way.

Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
This series is hard. The first book, Gardens of the Moon, throws you into the world and expects you to hit the ground running, as there's virtually no exposition, barely any introduction to things and no characters who need things explained to them. There's magic here, other races too, but it's not 'genre'. If the whole thing was modern and given a more mystical/drug induced vibe, it would be prestigious.

The Prince of Nothing Trilogy - Scott Bakker

The series is difficult to explain without spoiling the journey. It's got strong character driven plots, no magguffins and nothing cheesy. A serious labor on behalf of a good writer. It deals a lot with notions of faith and human corruption, nihilistic is a good way to describe the theme.

His best novels are Vacuum Flowers, Stations of the Tide, and The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Those three are incredible, the others are just decent.

The rest of his best work is in his anthologies. He is one of the best short fiction writers out there, and has the Hugos and Nebulas to prove it.

I recently finished The Wheel of Time series. 14 books (plus a prequel) all up, so it's time consuming, but man what a ride it was.

...

And Iron Dragon's Daughter will rip your heart out.

One of few books where main hero screwing up everything due to being unable to change is done well

Ressentiment is pretty mindblowing manga too. Fantastical virtual reality with a twist. Kinda Veeky Forums related being basically magical realm, but not in a bad way and interestingly it's not porn.

This book was really fun. You could also get Tales of the Dying Earth, 4 books in 1.

If you like your fantasy dark, but not too dark and the protagonists a shade more complex, there's the Gentlemen Bastards series.
The first three books are out, the fourth one comes this year.
I'm in the middle of the third one right now.
The setting is low magic, there's alchemy, but it' reasonably close to Chemistry for it to seem mundane for a while.
The timeline is somewhere around 16 century Europe but no guns, just crossbows.
The protagonists, the Gentlemen Bastards, are a small gang of thieves and con artists. Thankfully, the artists is funny and pulls off the charming bits excellently.
The books steadily grow darker with each iteration, as things spiral out of control.

You should check out a series called hammer's slammers, although it might not be exactly what you're looking for. There is one novel called across the stars, which is basically the Odyssey IN SPESS, though.

/thread

Nonsense. Lord of Light blows it out of the water.

The Malazan Books of the Fallen are literally the best fantasy to come out in an actual generation.

First chapter, I said.
Think about what happens in the first chapter of Lord of Light vs first chapter of Nine Princes in Amber.

I do adore Lord of Light an awful lot though.

He's also responsible for Dilvish the Damned, to which this is the sequel. The cover art is 100% accurate.

Guardians of the Flame by Joel Rosenberg
The Fallen Moon series by K.J. Taylor
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop
the Mithgar series by Dennis L. McKiernan ( start with Dragondoom as it's the best imo)
Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorecock

>I'm a big fan of the Belgariad and the Malloreon by David and Leigh Eddings
Same here, but I'll recommend Elenium and Tamuli over the above for Veeky Forums purposes.

I've just started reading Discworld novels because I happened to find the Colour of Magic and the Light Fantastic in hardcover at a library book sale. very lighthearted, somewhat whimsical despite the deadly setting. It plays with genre tropes, but stands on its own as a very funny book without relying on poking fun at those tropes.

The first couple were while the setting and author were finding their legs. It really comes into its own after, maybe by say, Feet of Clay?

I wouldn't know. I'm only about halfway through the Colour of Magic, and I'm really enjoying it so far, but it's encouraging to hear the series gets even better.

It gets better. A lot better. All without really retconning a great deal. A lot changes, but it really feels like the natural evolution of the setting, rather than successive iterations fine-tuning the view.

He has a bit of a soapbox, but it's pretty unobjectionable one in my opinion, and relatively minor as far as things go; it's incidental rather than the purpose of the writing. His footnotes if anything get better, and the plotlines (well, character lines, really. Wizards, Watch, Withes, etc.) get better as he works them out and adds more.

I dunno.

As far as the Watchmen series goes, I think he honestly hit his peak with Men at Arms. Feet of Clay I also enjoyed, but man, Men at Arms.

I was also a little annoyed that Going Postal and Making Money are essentially the same book, overall.

Robin Hobb

Enjoy the First Changeling Novel. The others can be fount on drive thru rpg

He...He must've forgotten the first one.

>Belgariad and Malloreon

My fucking nigga. Belgarath is one of my favorite literary wizards of all time. I've honestly considered a "Will and the Word" tattoo

I've been trying to get through Gardens of the Moon off and on for like 4 months, when time permits me. I've heard Malazan is worth, but when does it become worth?

So, I read this ages ago and it really stuck with me. What first looks like an incredibly edgy series is actually more like Game of Thrones only shorter, not as boring, not as stupidly dark and with an actual point. I found it to be well worth the read.

Despite being the worst book of the lot, and one of the author's earliest works (which was initially supposed to be a script) I'd say GotM is a decent enough.
Most people become devout fans by the second book, which is fantastic.

That being said, the series is long, the list of characters is huge and since there's no reliable narrator it can get confusing. If you've got the kind of life that stops you from reading 6 pages a day, I can't really recommend it.
The slog for GotM comes early on, when the gods, Warrens and magic comes up, but a good two thirds of the book is mundane intrigue and subterfuge.
Think of the first book as a test of your memory and capacity for correlation. If you can make sense of it, you can remember all the important things. I know a few people who kept notes on it.

>peak watchmen series
>not Night Watch
Shamefur Dispray, user.

Night Watch was good, but it wasn't Men at Arms good.

It was a nice attempt to make Vimes interesting as a character again, but it just felt a bit hackeyed, overall. The villain ended up feeling more like a prop than actual bad guy to be confronted. The secret police leader ended up being much more interesting as an antagonist.

Men at Arms is the book where the watchmen actually face real, personal trials, rather than simple external threats. It's also the only book that discusses Vimes's personal code of honor without it feeling silly as all hell.

It starts slow, but damn if by the end of the book you aren't in love you just won't like the series.

First half of the book is an intentionally dense barrier to entry to keep people out. I don't know his motives, but he has said as much himself.

I didn't think the villain was the villain, in Night Watch.
History, that grinding, unstoppable tread that turns the present into the future, god help you if you happen to be caught under it, was the foe. Vimes took on HISTORY and won.

Thud! was pretty good too.

it gets really fucking good for awhile, then gets fucking stupid and predictable. i think he is on book 15 and book seven onwards was stupid as fuck. i am still commited to reading it, but i dont reccommend reading past book one due to the letdown.

fucking grew up with that series. it sucks that it gets so much hate in these threads. i think sanderson ended it perfectly. Also, his new series, The Stormlight Chronicles is pretty good.

It's been so long since I read them, but I remember the first book being good, and then the later books just getting dumber and dumber, until they were just stupid ass soapboxes for the author to expound on the greatness that is Ayn Rand.

Recommending these desu

>Black Company

You know, I started reading Black Company because of all the praise Veeky Forums gives it, and let me tell you, that is the most overrated piece of shit I've ever read. I've seen fucking fan fiction from edgy 12 year olds better written than that nonsensical garbage.

That's the last time I take book suggestions from Veeky Forums.

I mean, it's almost like Veeky Forums is made up of a bunch of different people with different likes, dislikes, and interests.

God, who'da thunk it?

I enjoyed pic related's series quite a bit, what I've found of it. First one is Stalking the Unicorn, and it's quite amusing urban fantasy. Not the witty-and-pop-culture of the Dresden Files, but a more... uh, deadpan, facetious mirror of modern life, maybe.
It takes place in fantasy-New-York, the real world appearing for like, the first chapter of the first book and never again.

If you're going to read an obscenely long, overwrought, weirdly detailed about the weirdest things fantasy series with some really shite bits all the way through that slowly get worse, you're much, much better off just reading Wheel of Time. At least Wheel of Time has Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara.

And cool names.

Come on. Lews Therin Telamon? That name is *bad ass*, and Logain Ablar is pretty fuckin sweet too.

...well that's genuinely asinine. Can you provide a source on that? I'd like another reason to not try to dive into that huge pile of reading.

Beat me to it

is another good choice. I've read another of the author's story series, more medieval fantasy but very good

Mistborn was alright, everything is just shit.

Grunts by Mary Gentle was interesting, but now the premise of "Orcs find Guns from a dragon's trans-dimensional horde and are cursed to turn into Marines" is almost cliche.

Think GATE except that for "Grorious Nippon" you have Orcs BTFO'ing everyone. Still, it gets points for a) having the Orcs remain pretty fucking horrible, like Marines from 'Nam and Korean wars. b) Having magic seriously fuck up their non-magical weapons nonetheless. c) Having decent Realpolitek in the following books (they're all short though so really I'd read them all as one book) as people deal with the Orcs.

Overall, it's not as innovative as it once was but it's still retained a solid amount of quality in the writing and how it plays out the premise. It DOES get a little preachy at times though.

Dude, "Dragons of Babel" is dope as fuck.

It really captures the essence of the traditional Fae myths while modernizing the setting into something at once familiar yet, well, fey and slightly unreal.

Also, that foreshadowing and twist at the end.

It's also just a genuinely entertaining read through.

Malazan Book of the Fallen - best treated as if Shoggy could ever get a book deal for All Guardsmen Party. Essentially two dudes played games for 40 years and then turned all their campaign notes into books. It's frustratingly contextual picking up how shit works and what the larger situation is like, but totally worth it. If you want an easier in than Gardens of the Moon, check out "The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach".

> If the whole thing was modern and given a more mystical/drug induced vibe, it would be prestigious.

Nigga, you got techno dinousaurs in the setting fighting with their progenitor Psychic Tyranid dinosaurs, while Gods walk the earth and are sometimes killed for it, but it's okay because they can also come back. Maybe. Sort of.

The main problem is that each goddamn book has like 30 main characters who die more than in Game of Thrones. Often in mundane or even outright stupid ways, occasionally in amazing ways, and once in a while they just roll badly.

> And won

No, Vimes fought the past, and still lost. But he went down swinging, and when he came back he came back with a future (his son, if you didn't get it.)

You can't fight the past, you can't change it or win against it. But you can use the past to win against the future.

Those good men still died. But what they fought for eventually came to pass as well, so at least they didn't die for nothing. Hell, even if it hadn't come to pass at least they fought.

By modern , I meant set in some semblance of our times, like WW1 and by more mystical, I meant less characters who can identify what's going on. Making it weird without explaining the weirdness makes it "sublimate the material in favor of transcendental allegory" as opposed to "the usual drivel of elves and dwarves brought on by the Lord of the Rings books".

The first half of the book is detective work. Not meant to keep people away, the author simply trusts that you're quick on your feet and don't want him to throw in some random characters who go on quick monologues about what Warrens are, how big or old the Empire is, who Laseen is, that kind of thing. Because of this, the audience actually picks up subtle, hidden things first, as characters discover them, while still being unsure of some stuff nobody would bother discussing in character.
Nobody makes a distinction for the reader about the composition and placement of the Warrens, you'd have to read all the books and then the new trilogy he's writing and piece stuff together.

That being said, if you don't enjoy the mystery, then the books aren't for you. The whole series is a bunch of clues and small things being oblique references to stuff that happens later. He actually spoils (and clarifies) the entirety of a later book in an earlier one, but in such a way as it's difficult to realize until after the fact.

Redemption of Althalus is also great Eddings work.

It falls to shit during Fires of Heaven. Robert Jordan's death was the best thing that happened to the series.

>fantasy
>literature
>good

Choose one

The Terrarch Chronicles by William King - Think Sharpe, with magic, elves and demons.

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding - A Jack the Ripper style story, with things that go bump in the dark.

The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sandersen - A really interesting setting, with a cool magic system. Lots of people prefer Mistborn, but I didn't. Too 'dark because dark' for my tastes. And the MC was annoyingly emo.

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfus - I ain't even gonna spoil this slightly. Just read it. And hope that he actually releases the next book someday.

Codex Alera by Jim Butcher - Something of a guilty pleasure. Starts as a generic farmboy becomes hero story, but actually improves into a good political-intrigue war story, in a Rome with magic setting.

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is really good for the first two entries, but then devolves into the bizzare really quickly after that. By the fourth book I was struggling to follow the story. I love the way he writes though, his prose is beautiful.

Book of the Malazan Fallen by Stephen Erikson - The first four are amazingly good. The Generic Dark Elves, sorry, Letherii ark sucked and lost my interest. I only made it to House of Chains via momentum, and couldn't bring myself to push further.

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey - How about modern day fantasy? This is basically a comic book series written as novels, but really well done.

Uh..The Letherii are a (human) people, from the Empire of Lether.
They, uh, were attacked by the the viking elves. Also: that arc has Tehol and Bugg, the single best comedy/conspiracy duo of all time. I am genuinely amazed you got turned off then.

>Uh..The Letherii are a (human) people, from the Empire of Lether.
>They, uh, were attacked by the the viking elves. Also: that arc has Tehol and Bugg, the single best comedy/conspiracy duo of all time. I am genuinely amazed you got turned off then.

Shows how little the story managed to hook me. Tehol and Bugg were great, but they weren't enough to save the ark for me.

Glenn Cook's Swordbearer is an amazing standalone. In fact the only real negative thing I had to say about it was that he didn't write a sequel; the ending leaves a little too much open.

He also wrote a few good series outside of the Black Company (which is primo). The Dread Empire and The Instrumentalities of the Night are two fantastic series that you should check out.

I really like The Elric Series, The Witcher Series, and GoT, But I guess you already know them.

Not sure if I'm going to be shat on for GoT. Let's see.

It's honestly not terrible. Most of the hate at this point is either hate at the show, meming, or hate at the author for being a dick in a few different ways. The books themselves are pretty meh at worst, and fairly original and fun at best.

>Not sure if I'm going to be shat on for GoT. Let's see.
I'm going to shit on your for not calling it ASoIaF, that's for sure.

But no, those are fine.

Oh, yeah. I kinda fluctuate between the abbreviations. I read people talking about GoT yesterday, so I used that without tinking twice.

I've read the first three books. I think Game of Thrones was honestly the best of the lot. Martin had the good sense to make the plots mysterious but not obtuse and the action properly paced.
It was initially supposed to be a trilogy and it shows in the second and third books, where very little actually happens. I think Martin lost hold of the story and it's running away with him. Still a decent read, provided you don't talk to anyone about it. The detractors are as terrible as the fanboys.

It's not dark in the least, but Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a must-read for any fan of fantasy. Trust me on this one.

These threads seem to have too many overlapping answers over time, and although I won't deny the importance of the "classics", I'll post some I consider good if less known:

The Bridge of D'Arnath by Carol Berg

Iron Elves by Chris Evans (A good book to ease someone into military fantasy)

Legends of the red sun by Mark Charan Newton (This series has a little bit for everyone and I think would be even better for Veeky Forums dwellers)

The Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Gods, sex and politics)

The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keyes (A growing up and almost destroying the world story)

The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman A priest allies himself with a "vampire" and go on adventures to save the world

A land fit for Heroes by Richard Morgan (dark fantasy and mostly gay sex)

I also propose reading K.J. Parker like the Folding Knife.

Don't worry about it, homie. Most people I know referred to the books as GoT before the series was even a rumor due to convenience.

I'm amazed you could get all the way to book 6 of Sword of Truth. I liked the first one, despite its many flaws, enough to power through book 2, but I couldn't even get more than a few chapters into Blood of the Fold.

I don't even know how someone could like the first one, unless you were in it for the bondage, domination and other fetishes blatantly shoehorned in it.

There were a few moments I found interesting, such as Zed's (was that his name?) insistence the BBEG wasn't "evil," but was simply operating on a different morality system due to his upbringing. I admit, I was on a Nietzsche kick at the time, so that bit stood out to me.
In retrospect, I'm pretty sure I was in denial. After all, it was such a well selling series with so many titles there was no way it could really be THAT bad, right?

If the me of right now read it for the first time, I doubt I could have gotten past the "we should outlaw fire" speech.

>Think GATE
Stopped reading there. GATE is garbage.

I have trouble getting into those books. I can only stand terminal stupidity for comedic purposes from main characters in small doses, and both starting points people have suggested, Guards! Guards! and The Color of Magic, seem to make heavy use of the gimmick. Still, I'll probably try to finish one or the other eventually.

Be honest Veeky Forums, would you pay a nominal sum to read shlock self-insert wish fulfillment filled with cute girls (mostly a succubus) and autistic world building mixed with humor and general nerddom?

Artemis Fowl is a good mix of Fantasy and Sci fi
The last few books aren't as good as they could have been but that can be said for any series I think.

I'd recommend The Acts of Caine series, which combines both low fantasy with with a dystopia sci-fi setting.

>my nigga
My favorite series. I love the progression and Brust not being afraid to experiment a bit with how he writes through the novels.

If you enjoy dark humour and want to see modern weapons and tactics in a fantasy setting I'd suggest Grunts! Summary is a dragon with a collection of multiversal artifacts gets killed and places a death curse on its treasure to affect whomever stole his treasure into what they stole. The band of Orcs, that are the main characters, that killed it steal US Marine hardware and essentially turn into marines, though far more violent. Shenanigans ensue. The Orcs do ROFL stomp to begin with, but a major weakness of the modern gear gets found a little ways into it.

try either Vagabond or Real, and if that stuff doesn't float your boat it's more likely that the genera isn't for you

I really liked most of the Vlad Taltos books, but the ones post Vlad's divorce got kind of wonky, I have to say.

I adore Brust's Khaavren Romances stuff, though, the pseudo-Dumas style writing is really really solid.

Something I suggest in general is Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky trilogy, which is set in Fantasy Central Asia and involves a lot of really cool adventure and world-building.

Agreed, though those are aimed at middle-school-aged readers.

Ugh. Stay away from Lies of Locke Lamora at all costs. Horribly written (jumps all over the damn place in a sequence that drives you mad). Only book I've ever thrown across the room.

Wut?
It's telling two stories in parallel. Both feature the main character, one when he's very young and the other in "real time".
It's literally one chapter in the present, one in the past.
The characters are funny, adequately fleshed out and the action is interesting, on top of the neat (if rather exposition heavy) world the author builds.

It had a decent set-up, but suffers from a really shitty twist early on. I would have been more interested in reading about Locke worming his way out of marrying the mafia princess than about the whole dumb revenge plot.