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[revo]

I'm looking for an epic fantasy book. I've read a lot of list of good books but the reviews or descriptions kind of throw me off.

i've read the LOTR trilogy, All of the ASOIAF books, The night angel trilogy,  Eragon cycle, and others. Any suggestions are welcome I just want some dwarfy advice. (thinking about it... a book about dwarves we be cool to. BOATMURDERED the trilogy.)

[revo]

The Kingkiller Chronicles from Patrick Rothfuss is entertaining, if you don't mind a protagonist that might be a bit of a Gary Stue. Fantasy of the highest order, featuring adventure, intrigue, magic, bandits, etc.

I read the opening of the first book. up to the time that he fights the cab thingys. It was alright but I really don't understand the plot well enough to know if id like it

[Max White]

All of the ASOIAF books

Not yet you haven't!

Anyway go read The Children Of Hurin, also by Tolkien, kind of...

[Lectorog]

The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson!

[Arx]

Brandon Sanderson is good; Mistborn is probably the most famous, but Elantris and Warbreaker are equally good, if not better. They all tend to revolve heavily around magic, though, which may not work for you.

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar cycle is good as well, but it tends to be surprisingly light (by which I mean not dark), and the first book (Magician) is by far the best. If you don't like things managing to unexpectedly go right/wrong, this is not the book for you.

The Painted Man (Peter V. Brett) is pretty good; it's about as dark/gruesome/etc. as the Night Angel trilogy, but a completely different theme. Probably easiest just to google it.

Those three are the ones that I have recently read and enjoyed; your mileage may vary.

[Tack]

I'd say the Dresden Files.

It's a little known Contemporary Fantasy/Paranormal Noir Thriller which Jim Butcher manages to make work by borrowing from... essentially every folklore from the last 2000 years.
Not exactly in the vein of epic fantasy, but the character progression over the series is just a work of art which I've never seen from any other author.

That being said, the same author also did a very good epic fantasy Trilogy by the name of 'The Codex Alera'. So that might be something if you're particularly rigid in your likes and dislikes.

[lemon10]

The Kingkiller Chronicles from Patrick Rothfuss is entertaining, if you don't mind a protagonist that might be a bit of a Gary Stue. Fantasy of the highest order, featuring adventure, intrigue, magic, bandits, etc.

I read the opening of the first book. up to the time that he fights the cab thingys. It was alright but I really don't understand the plot well enough to know if id like it

Its a great series, and going by the other books that you read and liked, you should like this one too.
The main character is a total Gary Stue, but the author is good enough that he can get away with it.

This site also has a pretty good list of what I also consider some of the best fantasy books out there. You might not have the same tastes, and may dislike a few of the choices he made (as I do), but all the books there are pretty good, and there are enough to keep even the most voracious reader busy for quite a while.

[miauw62]

Discworld. All of them.

[Helgoland]

Orwell.
1984 and Animal Farm are the classics, of course, but Burmese Days (drawing from his time as a colonial police officer), Down and Out in Paris and London (drawing from his time as a semi-hobo in Paris and London) and Homage to Catalunia (about his time in the Spanish Civil war) are at least as good.
He has a very laconic style of writing: "The experience of being shot is very curious and one that I feel is worth elaborating upon" (or something similar).
Two pages later, the reader learns that he was shot through the neck, the bullet barely missing the spine and the major arteries.

[Mech#4]

"The Belgariad" series by David Eddings. They're very trope ridden and the story is generic by purpose (I believe it was done as a challenge to write a good novel using only clichés or similar. It uses the Heroes Journey story convention if you know that) but the characters and overall writing I found very enjoyable. There's also a sequal series called "The Malloreon" which follows again all the same major plot points.

There's two prequels; "Belgarath the Sorcerer" and "Polgara the Sorceress" that follow those characters through their lives. They're better read after "The Belgariad".

Others... "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan. That's a really long series which suffered "critical author existence failure".

Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books are a good read too. Not complex by any means but I found them enjoyable.


One of the weirder fantasy novels I've read is "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers. It involves time travel, murderous magic clowns and Egyptian gods in 1800 London. As I said before, it's really odd but quite entertaining, with some nice moments of creepy.

Oh, and I concur with miauw62 on Discworld.

[Biowraith]

It's been a couple decades now, but I remember enjoying one or more books in the Earthsea series by Ursula Le Guin, around the same time I was reading Tolkien's books.

Also, yes, Discworld.

[Tack]

Discworld. All of them.

Have you read 'The Color Of Magic' again lately?
Terry Pratchett (Bless his soul) started off with some really intimidating language and a rather pretentious cadence.
So be warned. Though once you get through the Rincewinds and into the Vimes's, you're already hooked.


(Also if you're after Dwarves, I've heard good things about (but never read) "The Dwarves". Pretty simple that'n.)

[Max White]

Don't read the Discworld in order unless you play D&D... Better to get used to the world before you expose yourself to the full force of Pratchetts geekyness.

Then again I'm on bay12, so go right ahead.

[Tack]

Start with the Vimes books first, I'd say. The first of which is... "Guards! Guards!" ?

[Arx]

Don't read the Discworld in order unless you play D&D... Better to get used to the world before you expose yourself to the full force of Pratchetts geekyness.

Then again I'm on bay12, so go right ahead.

I read them in order and enjoyed them without knowing anything about D&D, but I'm extremely geeky anyway.

I'm going to add The Silmarillion to the list. It's a bit love it or hate it, and it reads a little like a history book sometimes, but it explains a lot about Middle Earth.