Veeky Forums approved Veeky Forums?

Having read through the Old Kingdom trilogy I find myself hungry for more fantasy goodness. Any good reads? I know of Pratchett, and will probably be looking into his works soon enough.

Wheel of Time's alright.

if you haven't read lotr, read lotr. don't say you'll get around to it, read it first, it is that important

malazan book of the fallen

Read the Silmarillion while you are at it.

Yeah, this. Read Tolkien. Yes, you've seen the movies, yes, you've constantly heard it discussed, yes yes.
If you don't read Tolkien, you'll never be able to recognize post-Tolkien works and ideas that came out of Tolkien in general. This means you will read a book, think it's great, without realizing that it's just a rehash of thinks Tolkien already did.

Tolkien actually had too much influence in the fantasy world. Often the only safe way to get away from his influence is to read authors that came before Tolkien.

Read the fucking Xanth series.

It is also /d/ approved.

Do you want a man that is not afraid to have pun-fueled magic?

Do you want gratuitous explanations of how Lamia, Centaur, and Griffon babbies are formed?

Do you dare enter Piers Anthony's magical realm?

Fuck yes you do. This shit was on my high school bookshelves and it ruined my life forever. It is that good.

Start with the classics senpai. Pic very much related.

>Read Tolkien.
>Often the only safe way to get away from his influence is to read authors that came before Tolkien.
Seconded.

I enjoyed the Night Angel Trilogy much more than I thought I would when heard the concept. Orphans trained as magical assassins sounds like an after school freeform forum RP, but it's a lot better than it sounds.

not OP but I gave that shit up after THREE FUCKING PAGES OF ANT PUNS!
but yes read the first book "a spell for chameleon" at the very least, loved that one.

>old Kingdom
Nice choice. It's a young adult read, but not in the bad way. Just simple good fun.

Pratchett is good, but it's satire, with later books being more satiring modern trends rather than fantasy literature troops.

In some ways I recommend starting with Guards! Guards! for Pratchett, it's technically in the middle of the series, but it's after he hit his stride, the start of a new thread, and really good.

Black Company is good, but quite dark. Not exactly a 'fun' read.

Codex Alera is a fun read, but not amazing in terms of quality.

You've probably been told about The Name of the Wind, and would be setting yourself up to be pissed he's not finishing the thing.

The Belgaraid is a cliche fest, but sincere and fun.

Lies of Locke Lamora is more of a low fantasy heist caper than a fantasy adventure, but it's amazing.

I stopped after book 3 and people who've finished the series have told me that was a fine decision.

>Elric Series

All the short stories about Conan by Howard.

this
Edgar Rice Burroughs too ando ther pulp novel authors that i don't know about -- say, can you recommend more pulp novel authors Veeky Forums?

Heinlein is a must for GMs.
>The Moon is a Cruel Mistress
>narrator gets tasked with going into a meeting behind closed doors and recording it for a curious AI
>narrator speaks/is written with a russian slant to his speech
>it's a "Party meeting"
>fair number of members are wearing red caps
>subject of revolution against the government comes up
>crying out against a corrupt oligarchy that the common man can't get into and hold power in
>it's not Space Commies, they're Space Capitalists who want a free market more than anything else

It's a simple, ironic inversion where the players can fill in the blanks where the majority has been stated. That's perfect example of how to write less factions in a campaign.

I just finished Poul Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions". I thought it was a nice read!

Everyone always has mixed opinions on it but I really enjoyed Mistborn. It's got a lot of things going right like interesting and consistent magic, good pacing, nice plot, and good descriptions. Some characters are a little bland but others are great.

The Culture series. Neuromancer. Worm.

Anyone know of some good Veeky Forums-related web serials? I've read Worm and another one called The Gods are Bastards (both of which I highly recommend) but it's surprisingly hard to find good ones out there.

I've generally speaking enjoyed all of Sanderson's books set in the "cosmere"

>Neuromancer
My cybernigga.

It's not quite as Veeky Forums related as the rest of Gibson's cyberpunk stuff but read Pattern Recognition if you ever want to run a game about being lonely.

Not sure about the rest of Veeky Forums, but I fucking love The Expanse.

The Windrose Chronicles by Barbera Hambly
Songs of Earth and Power by Greg Bear
Tales from the Flat Earth series by Tanith Lee
Time's Master Trilogy by Louise Cooper

Enjoy some bells.

The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. LeGuinn.

I'd say Wheel of Time gets to book 6 before becoming infuriating in character decisions and choices.

Clark Ashton Smith is okay, you can even find most of his stories online free.

Came to say this

Confirmation 3358734i rather like Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love". It's a hefty volume, but seeing as how it is about a nearly immortal man recounting his life story, it's an interesting read.

Any non-fantasy, historical novels? Anywhere from 400 BC to 16th century or so is good.

The Outlaw of Torn and I am a Barbarian from Edgar Burroughs are both good, and what I am looking for. I am aware of Bernard Cornwell's work also, but I am less interested in his sort of fiction. I'd rather the earlier style of almost skipping past combat rather than going into detail and making some sort of action-movie fiction.

Oh boy please don't lynch me,

I really like Erin M. Evans' Brimstone Angels Saga

Things to note:
I know literally nothing about D&D
I only read it because I found The Adversary for what is the equivalent to spare change at an run-down warehouse sale

>no love for Gene Wolfe
You're killing me guys.

Book of the New Sun, Latro in the Mist, and the Wizard Knight are all fantastic.

Latro? Is that the mercenary guy with recurring amnesia or something like that? I've been wanting to read that book for a decade.

Is it any good?

Felix Dahn's "Battle for Rome". gotta get that ~1900 goodness

Surely Conan counts?

Haven't read that much historical fiction tbqh but one I remember liking or at least found interesting was "A Lady for Ransom" a fictitious account of Roussel de Bailleul, a Norman mercenary knight and his company and how they end up from Mezzogiorno fighting under Roger de Hauteville to fighting Seljuks in Anatolia for the Byzantines to establishing a short-lived independent state there

THE Lady for Ransom was the title, sorry

thats the one, the main character is a Roman Mercenary stranded in Greece after the Persian Armies were routed by the Athenian/Spartan alliance.

He managed to severely piss off one of the gods, I wont spoil which, and received a divine curse in the form of a head wound that causes him to forget all his recent memories with every passing day.

It also makes him capable of seeing and interacting with gods and other divine creatures that have have obscured themselves from the mortal world ever since the end of the golden age,

making him an extremely valuable pawn to many interested parties since he is one of the only mortals that they can directly interfere with.

The book is written in journal format from the main characters perspective and frequently plays up the unreliable narrator card and does it very well.

It also calls into question exactly how much of what the main character experiences is real or if it is a dementia resulting from ongoing complications of his wound.

I simply cannot recommend this series enough.

Read the Poetic and the Prose Eddas, it's where Tolkien took a lot of inspiration from

The deaths head trilogy by David gun is good if you consider Sven as a Mary Sue DMPC and his Aux as new but good players.

David Weber's Safehold series is good for early industrial-age stuff, because it teaches you a LOT about seacraft and technologies from roughly 1500-1900.

His Honor Harrington series is okay but Honor is an almost textbook sue. The Safehold series is better at avoiding it.

Do I do this before or after I finish the entire Bible and Quran?

Whoa...I'm not really into the whole gods thing, but it isn't a deal breaker. I'll give it a shot after my current slog of a book.

I'd recommend reading the Black Company series. Just really like the characters, and some of the settings.

>The Name of the Wind, and would be setting yourself up to be pissed he's not finishing the thing.
THE FUCK!?

what does Veeky Forums think about the man-kzint wars series?

Found this old thing in my closet.I don't remember reading it before so I though you guys would know if its any good.It doesn't have a cover so I stood it on its side to take the pic.

He hasn't said anything about not finishing it, we just don't have a release date.

Also, I've felt since about a quarter into book 2 that he was kidding himself if he thought he could finish the series in 3 books. So it might be that he's putting off admitting there is going to be 4 books.

Apparently Sam Sykes writes very fa/tg/uy-esque fantasy books.

Read the Malazan series, it is good, could also recommend the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S.Friedman

Out of curiosity has anyone here read anything by Jack Chalker? Lots of light series, much /d/ would like

Check out the Broken Sword by Poul Anderson next. Pretty much one of the first dark fantasy books.

The Half a King and The Blade Itself series are good, if a little depressing.

In many ways he's crueler to his characters than GRRM, but it feels fairer about it.

Joe Abercrombie is a little overrated. He's a great blockbuster writer like Bernard Cornwell, but outside that I don't think he rates very highly. He's part of this new wave of cynical authors that have learned all the wrong lessons from stuff like A Song of Ice and Fire and Berserk, that to be 'realistic' or 'meaningful' is to be unrelentingly sadistic and grim.

Richard Morgan is another guy in that modern trend, but he occasionally has something to say.

I think both of them, and this period of 'bleak fantasy' will be looked back on with a bit of cringe. It reminds me of the 90s comic book scene where they decided super heroes had to be fonts of cynical dialogue and sadistic brutality instead of super heroics. Just apply that to fantasy instead of cape comics.

While I mostly agree with you on the First Law trilogy, the Shatter Sea trilogy isn't as depressing.

It's dark, but never gets to the 'dear god have something good happen to someone' feeling I get out of many of the grim books. It's got hope, and good people, and romance, and other positive bits mixed in there.

I mean there is a cynical motherfucker, but he kinda gets told off by the character who's there basically to be a moral compass, and things actually work out for the moral compass.

One for the Morning Glory by John Barnes and Apropos trilogy by Peter David. Slightly comedic, great authors.

>He hasn't said anything about not finishing it, we just don't have a release date.
oh, pft. whatever.

>I've felt since about a quarter into book 2 that he was kidding himself if he thought he could finish the series in 3 books. So it might be that he's putting off admitting there is going to be 4 books.


Yeah. I felt that too. Book one had things moving: childhood, teacher, woods, slums, college. Book two.... eeeehhh... more college. And eventually moving on and getting a job out of state. And then learning to fight and fuck.

But there's a MAAAASIVE gap between the end of book two and what we've seen in the intro. What king? How did he get killed? Who is Bast? WTF is with the Chandrion and the.... Army. Amry? whatever. There's just no way he's going to wrap it up well. Definitely not in a single book.

Reading Conan aloud and voicing the characters is comfy, but you should know this already.

>reading it via audiobooks from the library
>they give the book for two weeks
>I missed the first five days of Fires of Heaven
>It's over a hundred hours long
Jesus christ WILL HE EVER SHUT UP ABOUT ALL THESE CUNTS

Do I miss literally anything if I just start skipping to chapters about Rand/Matt/Perrin/anyone with a penis?

Mistborn is badly written, dude.

Vaguely interesting magic system, but the characters are cliché storms, the setting is bare-metal, and the writing is atrocious. I don't understand how anybody would like it, really.

It's Eragon level, and Eragon was written by an untalented teenager.

I agree with every single of your opinion. Great post, 10/10.

>I stopped after book 3 and people who've finished the series have told me that was a fine decision.

It's good if you're into fantasy BDSM. Every four chapters or so, there is a woman that is enslaved, magically enslaved, bound, magically bound, stripped, bought low, or any other titillating thing. It is (by far) the most fetishistic fantasy series I have ever read.

I felt the quality dropped tremendously after Croaker stopped narrating.
Books of the North were great, but it started going South afterward.

Peace Talks when?

Don't read the Horus Heresy series

Recently the only 2 40k books I have enjoyed was the Xeno hunters a book about differs Death watch kill teams and some Ciaphas Cain books

Hence why Im reading it.

Hehe, I see what you did there ypu clever motherfucker

>but it started going South afterward
Is that a pun?

Mistborn is popcorn, its fine man.

Yes, but I meant every word. Once the Lady became the narrator I lost interest.
Although, I've been reading the Malazan series lately, which's kinda made me wanna give Black Company another try.

Malazan Book of the Fallen and Black Company for great military fantasy.

China Mieville's Bas Lag novels for general weirdness and highly creative worldbuilding and races. Also plenty of purple prose and jarring amounts of swearing, but it's worth it.

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun for being fantasy/sci-fi with strong amounts of literary merit.

I just finished She is the Darkness and now that I can see the endgame of the series I'm interested in where it's headed. I think I'd personally recommend newcomers to stop after The White Rose if they don't want to read too much of the series, and anyone more committed should read the entirety of the series otherwise.

I will admit Bleak Seasons was very confusing but I do like Murgen as a narrator.

Pretty sure I read up to the end of Dreams of Steel or the start of Bleak Seasons.
It just didn't capture the charm that the Books of the North had for me.

The Silmarillion is far easier to understand than the Bible or Quran, but reading the latter two will make you a better informed and more well-rounded person.

I got thise when i was stick in a non touriaty paet of malaysia for three months. It was one of the few scifi series i could find in english. A decent read, though its somewhat hard to wrap your head around it sometimes. You have to go into it thinking weird science, not military scifi like i did.

Bump