Recommend me a good fantasy book.

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>>49537688
Gentlemen Bastards series.
The fourth book came out just a little while ago.

>>49537688
Lord of Light.

https://parahumans.wordpress.com
"Worm", webnovel. 1.6 million+ words. Complete.
Loved it so much I read it twice.

>>49537688
The Way of Kings

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The Red Knight (pic unrelated)

>>49537837
Warning, it's shitdark levels. Goes way past grimdark.

I wasn't able to finish it, myself, because I found myself unable to bring myself to care about a single goddamn person in any of it. They're all horrible, horrible people and I'd probably legitimately have more fun prying my kneecap off with a rusty spoon rather then reading anymore of that.

>>49537889
Less grim than 40k

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The Edge Chronicles

>>49537911
Aaaahahahah.

No.

40k is a mess, and has a load of shit, but there's fun bits.

There's not a single thing about Worm I'd ever want to touch.

>>49537937
Ow the edge

>>49537889
I wouldn't say it's grimdark. It's like true neutral with a layer of corruption sprinkled over everything.

>>49537944
What fun bits? There has never been a happy moment in 40k to my knowledge in any area that matters in the setting.

>>49537962
>corruption
Kill me now

>>49537688
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. It's actually a whole series, but everything after the first three books follows new characters in a very different part of the timeline. Start with the trilogy, then decide if you want to continue.

>>49538022
Anything by Sanderson really

Mistborn, Warbreaker, Stormlight, Elantris, all worth a read

as for my recommendation Ligtbringer and Night Angel by Brent Weeks

>>49538022
Second this. The Mistborn series has a real interesting magic system with great characters. Huge fan of Wax and Wayne so far, though I've just read the Alloy of Law.

>>49537688
The Bible's a pretty decent fantasy read, to be honest.

>>49539535
Ow tHe EdGe

>>49537688
not exactly fantasy but try Ender series of Orson Scott Card.

>>49539556

okay does Spirit science have books?

>>49537688
Looking at my bookshelf:
Perdido street station (weird fiction)
The colour of magic (comedy fantasy)
The eye of the world (generic fantasy)
The fellowship of the ring (you've already read it)
A game of thrones (political low fantasy)
And that's really it for good fantasy. I'm really more of a sci fi guy. They're all series, so you have plenty to work with in each, although Bas-lag is only 3 books long and ASOIAF gets pretty shit after book 3.

>>49537837
Back to Spacebattles, cuck.

I bet you write MLP crossover fanfiction like all the other faggots

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>>49537688
Everworld. Short, but badass series that deals with the idea that every mythology existed, but humanity began to outgrow the old gods, so they created and moved to another universe with their most dedicated followers. Deals with lots of interesting concepts, like alien mythologies (Aliens and their gods are starting to move in, and some are friendlier than others, how real-life religions, like Christianity would work in a setting like this, and how societies might evolve under these conditions things like the Norse going to war with the Aztecs, or the Amazons going after the Egyptians.

>>49537937
i remember those, good books, though i always disliked how the 3 inter-tangled stories were told out of order, had some neat ideas in it for sure.

>>49537993
The orkz, the irony of the Imperial Faith, how over-the-top everything is. Look to far into it and it's super-dark and grim, but step back and it's ridiculous.

>>49537688
Magician series

>>49538625
stormlight 3 soon my brotha

The Dawn book and its sequels were pretty good. As is the Dragon Master trilogy by Chris Bunch.

>>49539515
Keep going. Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning are really, really good.

>>49537688
I like that Keith gets to plow Ayesha's ass every now and then

>>49537793
wait, it has?

the chronicles of prydain are pretty top notch, if you can stand the mc being a bit of a whiny kid for the first book and a half

>>49537937

Mah nigga.

But fuck, this shit was not for kids as it was intended. Life on the edge is suffering.

>>49537793
It did? I thought it got pushed to november

>>49537793
I'm about halfway through the first one now, and I have to say I'm disappointed so far. It's good and all, but not great so far. Certainly not on the level people told me it would be. Maybe I was poisoned by high expectations.

Also, Locke is entirely unlikeable so that hurts the series a lot.

>>49544916
I suppose since I haven't read multiple entries, I should probably say it hurts the book a lot.

Well, I can honestly recommend the Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan.
Fantast novels set in the french revolution period with mages and gunpowder. One of the better series I've read. And yee gods do I read alot...
Just my 2 cents dear OP

Any series by Robin Hobb, especially if you like low-powered fantasy
Then read the other series of her universe

>>49544916
Yeah, he's the weakest link in the series for me. I mostly read it for the worldbuilding. He does get a bit better in later installments, though.

>>49540468
The ones by Lev Grossman?

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>>49545214
>Hobb

she good, but why would you do that to yourself?

poor fuckin Fitz

If you want epic your only option is Malazan Book of the Fallen. Tens of thousands of pages spanning empires and continents.

>>49537828
Lord of Light is delightful.

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I've been reading Glen Cook's Black Company books and they're actually really good dark fantasy. Would heartily recommend.

>>49544916
I thought it was a bit mediocre also, and I read it, before it blew up in popularity. It's decent, the world building and interesting characters is nice but Locke is as brain dead as they come

>>49537688

Lord of the Isles series by David Drake is pretty good.

I found "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear" to be very pleasant, and I hope the last book will come (if ever) soon.

ask /lit/

this is a traditional games board, not a novels and literature board

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>>49546058
/lit/ doesn't like anything that isn't absurdly obscure and pretentious

The Monster Hunter International series is good. Glen Cook's other series, Garrett PI is good until... whatever his latest stuff is. Because Garrett can't have nice things.

J. Zachary Pike's Orconomics was excellent, I'm waiting for the next one.

The Waldo Rabbit series is hilarious. Nelson Cherata is great.

Elliot Kay's Poor Man's Fight trilogy is good, though I'm only through the first book.

I'm a big fan of Jim Butcher. Can't wait for his next book.

That's all I have off the top of my head.

>>49539602
Make sure you grab these in a way that doesn't give Card any money. Dude turned out to be a massive cunt.

Also, Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher series is good reading.

>>49539617
>spirit science
I still can't get over how those videos look and sound like something out of the Extra Credits series.

>>49546328
>dude turned out to be a massive cunt

holding alternative views is not illegal and his views aren't even unacceptable

im sorry he triggers beta libcucks like you

Hunters of the Dark Sea by Mel Odom

>>49545264
This
Malazan Book of the Fallen is massive but you get the full spectrum of emotions, action, drama and all

I almost cried for an evil villain and laughed out loud at great dialogues.

You get epic battles and plots spanning centuries and continents.

I really love the worldbuilding. If you want to know how to subvert some tropes in fantasy, here's a good example.

But it's not for everyone. You will be left in the dark about many things like magic and the makings of the world. There are parts in these books you have to slog through.
And there are no dwarves ...

>>49546377
No dwarves? No point.

>>49546337
>holding alternative views is not illegal

nobody said being a dick should be illegal, fuckboi, just that you shouldn't give your money to cunts

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Series:

Deepgate Codex is great, Alan Campbell. Easily my favorite series.

Sea of Ghosts by same author is great as well, though Book 3 in that series seems to be not forthcoming.

The last post the author made, 2 years ago, before his personal website's domain expired, was a vid of him scaring his dog with a vacuum.

Fucking Scots.

>>49537688
I'm not OP, but I have a different request:

Recommend me a short fantasy book.

Something that manages to flesh out both the world and the characters in a very short timeframe and is complete on its own.

Even better would be a series of interconnected fantasy short stories, something like Robert Sheckley or Stanislaw Lem - only fantasy, not sci-fi.

>>49546306
Can second MHI, though it does need a bit of time to start with.

The author is a big fan of Worfing, and the set up before the fall made me think that the MC was going to be an SI.
Fortunately he pleasantly surprised me.

>>49546058
That's like asking /mu/tants about music, or /d/eviants about porn.

They've consumed so much in a single direction that everything is blasé, and they are exploring further and further out, seeking crumbs that will spark their earlier levels of interest. They're chasing a high they'll never reattain.

/lit/igants don't know shit about literature.

>>49546418
The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

More of a novella really, but you can get into the story and setting without reading the original novels it's set in, and the story is satisfying enough on its own

The Braided Path by Chris Wooding is pretty rad, has a very eastern aesthetic if you're into that sort of thing.

But then if that's not your thing he also wrote the Tales of the Ketty Jay, which has steampunk airship pirates.

>>49546418
Lye Street

Depends what you like, really.

My favorite fantasy series is probably The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Ten books divided in three story arcs, you can read just one or read them all if you like. The first and second arcs are the best. Third and last one is good but overall weaker. tl;dr a self-hating bitter cynic from America in the 80s gets transported to a fantasy world with magic and sunshine and rainbows. He's an extremely unlikable character, but he grows on you as you experience his internal struggle with the cognitive dissonance. The books are not very typical fantasy, they go about as deep in the internal thinking and emotions of the characters as Tolkien does with his world-building. They're also very original, many races and interpretations of standard fantasy races that exist only in these books.

The Kingkiller chronicle is also a great series, only two books but some of the best-written stuff I've seen. Takes a second read to fully appreciate his use of poetic meters. Really beautiful language, just read the first few pages of the prologue and you will see what I mean. wish he'd write a bit faster, though. tl;dr books are about a former genius adventurer, telling the tale of his youth and how he ended up a sad mess, running a bar in the middle of nowhere, It's told over three days, two days have been covered in two books.

>>49546418

You could try one of the books by Joe Abercrombie. He's written some short stories and some books, including a trilogy, all set in the same world. I'd personally recommend reading the books first starting with the trilogy, but if you just want a book to read, try Best Served Cold (which is set after the trilogy and has some spoilers in it) or the Heroes (which is set after that book and is a massive spoiler-fest for both the previous book and the trilogy). But yeah, he has short stories that might interest you.

>>49546306
>The Monster Hunter International series is good.

It's alright, but slogging through the Alpha Male NRA-faggotry is a chore.

The author also started the Sad Puppies bitchfest.

>>49546015

I found them to be pretentious Mary-Sue wank, and it's sad that they're so popular.

>>49546418
Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword.

>>49544916

Honestly, I think the first book was the best. The second book has a lot more melodrama and Jean and Locke get fucked over again, and again, and again. It's kind of a depressing read. The third book starts off good and has a very engaging 2 part story, where every other chapter is a flashback, but they are all continuous, so it's like reading two different stories at the same time. The main problem with the third book is the ending. It's absolutely terrible and is very heavy handed/obvious give away for what is going to happen in later books.

If you already don't like Locke, all I can say is that he gets even more moody and cynical as things go on, which isn't surprising considering what happens to him at the end of each book.

>>49537837
>How to turn a bullied nerd into a bug overlord:the webnovel
I like it, even if it goes hilariously over the top by the end, shit like !Doc Manhattan almost causing the end of the world or the writer literally rolling dice to see who dies during Endbringer attacks and everything about Bonesaw.

>>49546418
Stardust or The Last Unicorn would probably qualify, though they are bittersweet so be warned.

especially when you discover the Cheistopher Lee related trivia about the latter.

>>49546588
Could you elaborte on that "Mary-Sue-Wank"?

>>49537688

I would second >>49546535 with the caveat that yes, those books are not for everyone.

If you want something a bit more normal, I'd recommend Zelazny's stuff. Someone upthread mentioned Lord of Light, but you should check out Amber, and some of his short stories like Kalifriki of the Thread.

If you're looking for a fast, fun read, I'd recommend Eddings. His stuff isn't brilliant, and they're the sort of books that the more you think about them the more you realize shit doesn't actually fit together, but they're nice adventure stories and rest on some very good characters, a lot of the books are really about them bantering with one another, which he does very well.

>>49537688
[Spoiler]Drizzt[/Spoiler]

>>49537883
I like the series overall, but book 3 was a pretty big let down.

The mass unceremonious slaughter of characters and lack of focus on most of the survivors outside the Red Knight/Queen's chapters made it clear that the author had realised at the last second that he'd made a major fuck up in planning the earlier books, and he did a bodge job of repairing the situation.

>>49538625
First law?

>>49546409
Not him. What did he do?

All of the Malazan books are fantastic and particularly relevant to this hobby

>>49546306
>Garrett PI is good until... whatever his latest stuff is. Because Garrett can't have nice things.

That's a shame to hear, I was just about to buy the latest few books. Are they still worth it to complete the series or should I save my money?

>>49546631
I heard the author was going through a divorce at the end of the third book, which is why it took such a nosedive.

>>49537688
I'm going to dump my entry level list:
>Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, Silmarillion, Children of Hurin, Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle Earth
>Wheel of time 1-11, the last three by brandon are optional, it's not very likely he interpreted the ending correctly imo
>Harry Potter and The Dresden Files
>The Chronicles of Narnia, if you like suffering
Once you have wallowed through these, prepare thyself for:
>The Black Tower
>The Discworld series
>Maybe some of the Dune books as science fantasy
>Game of Throne- rape
And when you realize it's all shit
>Elric of Meinbone
>The Chronicles of Amber
>Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
After that, it's time to leave your mother's basement and go sight-seeing with a walking stick you carved yourself.

>>49537793
I'm half way through book 2...liking it so far.

>>49537837
seconding this suggestion.

GOD TIER world-building

>>49545214
>Hobb
same one as did the assassins apprentice?

there's more than one series?

>>49546058
no, he asked the right people
to expand on >>49546434, /tg/ slowly expands in all directions along all vectors of media because we create things, a world is more than just it's literature and has more than just one kind of music. makes /tg/ a better place to ask.

that and what we do here more than gaming is "Make Stories" and "Tell Stories" so we know good ones when we find them

>>49546306
>I'm a big fan of Jim Butcher. Can't wait for his next book.
I know right?
Peace Talks can't get here fast enough

>>49546377
>Malazan
sounds like good materials to steal stories from.
summaries, start-points, and pertinent data?

>>49547812
Not that Anon, but Orson Scott Card is kind of a weird fish and some of his views are bound to offend almost anyone on the political spectrum.

Economics: in favor of 'real communism' and state control.
Presidental elections: hates Obama with a fervor that borders racism.
Values: strongly anti-gay for no apparent reason.

Songs of Earth and Powerr by Greg Bear
Time's Master Series by Louise Cooper
The Windrose Chronicles by Barbera Hambly
The Flat Earth Series by Tanith Lee.

>>49537688
Gardens of the Moon

>>49548957
He's a Mormon, you dope.

>>49546418
Basically everything by Neil Gaiman would appeal to you. Especially stardust.

>>49548935
The Malazan books are set in tabletop setting that was run on GURPS back in the 80s. It's a really interesting kind of late Roman era technologywise (but with explosives and crossbows), and an incredibly complex magic system. There are 10 books that top out at well over 1000 pages each, and another 8 or so books (all by authors originally part of that tabletop) that have some pretty long ones themselves.

It's incredibly twisty and long. But I will say that it manages a number of things that most other fantasy books don't

The Characters are incredibly interesting, even the villains, and the scope of the cast is massive.
Death is tossed out constantly and is always looming over everyone, even characters that are 'main characters' of books. But it doesn't feel forced or arbitrary like certain other series. It just... happens. A character you like is as likely to take a crossbow bolt in the gut and go down screaming and gurgling as they are to make a heroic stand, or die because of some minor mistake.
It actually manages multiple worlds in a relevant and interesting way
The military parts are actually interesting, easy to understand and fascinating to read.
You get the entire emotional gamut
The worldbuilding is impeccable and always feels vast. Even after 10,000+ pages the world feels like you've only seen a sliver.
Actually competent and interesting female characters that you can cheer for for other reasons than they have tits.
When it tries to be funny, it's legitimately hilarious.

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Gonna throw in my recommendation for the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. One of the best fantasy epics you'll ever read. Erikson's other works are also good, as is anything else associated with the setting.

Other authors of note include Brandon Sanderson, Glen Cook, Jim Butcher (Ehhhhhggg, I always hate recommending Butcher because while I enjoy his work, I realise on some level that it is basically pulp trash and I fucking hated the Codex Alera), Stephen Donaldson and Patrick Rothfuss. You can't really go wrong with any of them. Except Butcher, perhaps, but I'd still recommend giving him a try.

>>49537688
historical fiction and not fantasy, but I really liked The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame). Good late medieval military fiction about a company of mercenary longbowmen after the 100 years war.

The Fifth Season by NK Jemesin
The gate of Ivrel by CJ Cherryh
Perdido Street Station by C Mieville

>>49549179
>I fucking hated the Codex Alera

I thought it was pretty good. What didn't you like about it?

>>49537837
>>49548935
Worm does have some problems like a break neck pacing as a result of being periodically released and fearing every week that it could bore and lose readers if it slowed down too much.
The author is still editing it though and will probably (hopefully) improve on that when he publishes it as a real novel, the world building is literally god tier and even if the story was absolute shit I would still consider it worth recommending to other people.

Just beware the length of this thing though.

>>49548851
>MST
No, no, fuck no. I despair when I think of slogging through the third book.

>>49548336
Don't know what he is on about. The last one, Wicked bronze Ambitions, actually ends in a good note for Garrett. He gets put through Hell and back, but SERIOUS SPOILERS he gets his wife back alive

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>>49549362
OCT-FUCKING-AVIUS.

Remove the main character and his mother and you might have a decent fantasy series on your hands. But Tavi and Isana were absolutely fucking insufferable, the former for being a ridiculous deus-ex-machina generator and managing to be a mary sue (despite being the canonical main character!), and the latter for being a giant walking idiot ball generator who spends the entire series swanning about and emotionally crucifying herself before 'Oh and she's actually the strongest water mage in the setting :^))))))'

His every character trait reads like a checklist of how not to make a protagonist, how he's automatically liked by all the 'good' characters and automatically disliked by the 'bad' characters (but oh wait they all get their just-desserts for daring to dislike Tavi!), how he's actually the fated chosen one who must become a great leader and inherits godlike power, how almost all his early characterisation is based on him not being able to use magic (And succeeding in spite of that because of aforementioned deus-ex-machina asspulls that the narrative then has the gall to call 'ingenuity' as though everyone else in the setting is retarded because they use magic), to his insufferable love interest who automatically falls head-over-heels for him, spends a few chapters being tsundere, and then has a connection to him which is treated as being inherently more special than any other love in the setting (Oh and she also gains godlike power because REASONS!), the constant roman wanking (Okay I actually enjoyed some of this), it's just... Ugh. Tavi is not a good character, and along with Isana, almost single handedly ruins the entire series.

Isana is just as bad, and for much the same reasons. Neither of them have an arc that doesn't feel forced, the setting seems to bend itself around them to a sickening degree, all the other, much more interesting characters defer to them, serve them, love them, or die at their hands.

I want to do my public duty and warn people away from Free the Darkness in case it crops up in any recommended lists.
Ignore the ratings. and don't listen to the reviews, because they are filthy LIES.

It's pretty much Twilight for boys, moreso than Eragon, and the fact that so many people, who tricked me with their positive reviews, ignore the utterly nauseating Self insert will baffle me to the end of days.

>>49548851
What didnt you like about Sanderson's ending?

>>49548714

That might account for its rushed Deus Ex Machina feel, but not for the WHAT A TWEEST reveal about Locke's past. What happens in the last two chapters clearly set up later books to be much more "high powered" considering just how powerful the Falconer becomes, the hinting at the possible true extent of Locke's abilities and the whole "threat from beyond" thing.

Don't get me wrong, I've overall enjoyed the books for the most part, but I kind of liked the low-mid fantasy setting. It's just sot of obvious that things are going to be getting more outandish later on.

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Noble Dead Saga
Charlatan vampire hunters encounter real vamps and get dragged into a globe spanning quest to save the world
Won't blow your mind, but worth it for some pretty good world building and character development

Interestingly, one of the few stories I've read where language barriers actually matter. Surprising how much it helps a setting feel like an actual world

>>49549640
Ah, good. Means I can go and finish that book. I was rather buttmad at how it opened, and couldn't continue it because I was so disillusioned.

Glad to know I was wrong. I've always liked Garrett.

>>49537688
Not fantasy, but SPQR is a good series to check out.

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>>49545228
By Raymond E. Feist.

>>49537688

Also :
- Chronicles of The Black Company
- The Witcher
- Metro 2033 (differs a lot in a good way from the game.)
- The Farseer Trilogy
- What they say everything Sanderson
- Prince of Thorns
- The Golden Bough

>>49546409
>you shouldn't give your money to cunts
He wrote a good book and deserves compensation for it. He has some views you disagree with. Don't be so childish.

>>49554006
>By Raymond E. Feist
I set down Silverthorn after getting a little ways in. Nothing really seemed to be happening. I was hoping that the slowness of the first book was due to it being an introduction. Does the series pick up?

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If you like meta, read Sanderson. Any story he writes that does not take place on Earth is located within its own literal universe.

>>49551031

Not him, but as someone else who doesn't like Sanderson that much in general and the WoT books in specific, I had the following problems with them. Caveat the second: I read those 3 books when they came out and haven't touched them since, so I'm working from fuzzy memory here.

He takes out all the cleverness and makes all the mythological references plain as day. Yes, the trio of them being Odin for Mat, Thor for Perrin, and Tyr for Rand were kind of evident, and I remember predicting somewhere around book 4 or 5 that Rand was going to have to lose his hand because of it, but really, naming Perrin's now warhammer "Mjolnir but spelled differently" was just cheesy.

The Last Battle was surprisingly lame. More of the cheesy military fiction, turned even more ridiculous than RJ himself had it. It's absurd enough that a smallish nation like Arad Doman can muster up mid 5 digit number armies, but apparently they can also move invisibly in the strategic sense by having people bunk down in local barns.

You have Demandred, who has been stated time and time again to be almost LTT's equal in all things, including strategy, acting like a complete dumbass "I MUST FIGHT LEWS THERIN! I HAVE NO OTHER MOTIVATIONS! I WILL KEEP SHOUTING IT OVER AND OVER AS WE MOVE UP THE LADDER OF BADASS SWORDSMEN WHO HAVE MAGIC PROTECTION!"


1/2

>>49551031

2/2

But most of all, I felt very jarred by how he handled a lot of the Min prophecies/viewings I can't even remember what Moraine did after being rescued by Mat, but it didn't seem to bear in with Min's viewing that she was absolutely necessary to win. That central vision she has, of the flies swarming and the shadow swallowing them up, the one that's a metaphor for their struggle, seems to indicate that it was the ta'veren action, of Rand AND the other two, that would be necessary to win the final confrontation; some kind of reinforcement of the pattern around the DO's attempt to tear it apart. It's what they started with to make them special before we found out about their other abilities, and it's what "should" have been the final key to their success when it comes down to the last throw.

Instead, we get this stupid thing where it's only Rand at Shayol Gul at all, and it's some sort of weird pass the buck from different visions of the future and a bit of banter with Satan. And what the fuck happened to Shaidar Haran? I mean, he was built up as this avatar of the DO on earth, and then he's just completely and literally discarded for nothing. An empty husk.

Granted, RJ had problems in his books, a lot of them (They were very much the sort of thing I enjoyed 500x more as I was reading them than when I look back on them), but I do not think Sanderson was up to handling that kind of world at all.

>>49546363
anything by Mel is cool as fug

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>>49537688
Are you asking in 2008 or 2016? Because in 2008 I'll recommend A Song of Ice and Fire but since it's popular in 2016 I'll be criticized, so I'll go with Black Company.

The Hobbit is also still good.

>>49546418
Rowan of Rin, I think it was called. Written by Hilari Bell, I thinm? Read it when I was a kid, absolutely loved it - it's a short series with little adventure plots and some honestly very enjoyable characters.

>>49537688
Tales of Earthsea and it's collective novels. Ursula LeGuin, hell of a writer. I loved the way magic worked and the subtle world-building introduced with each book.

Memory of Flames and the followup series Silver Kings by Stephen Deas

Even if it has the most infuriating cliffhanger ending ever

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>>49546783
Not >>49546588 but I liked Name of the WInd. The world building and how the author discribed the way magic worked was pretty good. Kvothe was a pretty hardcore Mary-Sue.
pic related

I need some good middle eastern styled fantasy, can I get some recommendations?

>>49557880
Ehm. Lions of Al-Rassan is kind of a low fantasy depiction of the fall of not-Muslim Spain?

>>49557411

Seconding this. LeGuin is great. Her sf is pretty top tier too.

>>49557072
Grow up, anon.

>>49538625
>Anything by Sanderson really
Bullshit, first mistborn trilogy is just plain meh.
Second series is on the other hand great, and stormlight archive is great. He is getting better with time, the older stuff isn't really worth visiting unless you really want to get into the meta verse

>>49557811
First book was pretty good, all the future stuff was rock fucking solid, and kvothe is made tolerable as a character by knowing he is going to fall... hard. Most of the second book is trash though. Fucking hate how he ended up portraying the adem, trouncing around the forest was such a slog to get through, and denna is worst grill by several orders of magnitude. Good bits include a fair amount of the stuff with the master namer, some select bits of prose working very well (cutflower sound, the bits where kvothe "sees" the name of the wind), broing it out at nothogwards, and a sorta cool magic system

The Riddlemaster of Hed series by Patricia McKillip
Also, A Tapestry of Magics, same author.

>tfw you don't like Pratchett or Sanderson but that's all anyone ever recommends to you ((((((

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The Second Apocalypse series

It comes off as a bit pretentious, but the world-building is top-tier, and Cnaiür is a great character.

Also The Black Company, which has been mentioned a couple of times already

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>>49559768
The First Law series is pretty good as well. Good characterization, and pretty funny at times

>>49559793
Bayaz did nothing wrong.

>>49559809
Any scene where Bayaz got pissed was bound to be entertaining.

Glokta was my favorite, though. Probably followed by Black Dow

>>49549648
I enjoyed it for the pulp trash it was.

Not every book need be LotR or Dune, sometimes you just gotta have your pulp and enjoy the worn-out literary tropes for what they are.

Speaking of great pulp garbage, anyone ever read the Lost Fleet series?

>>49557381
>Hilari Bell
Emily Rodda

>>49559809
Bayaz did EVERYTHING wrong.

He's just too much of a lovable dick for me to be mad over it.

>>49540439
Yeah, 40k is meant to be absurd even after it was revised to be superficially po-faced.

Even the tagline--"In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war"--is an ironic play on the fact that it's a war game. The setting exists only for war and only to produce more war; anything else that happens is gravy.

>>49537793
Fuck yes, didn't know there even was a fourth one planned!

Can definitely recommend this series, thanks anon.

>>49537883
Careful, there's mods who have banned for less than that.

Discworld.

The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E. Feist is really good.

I've only read the first 3 series and Darkwar, but they have all been very enjoyable.

Also don't skip the "side story" series, the Empire trilogy which focuses on Mara of the Acoma is my favourite so far.

>>49560016
t. Khalul

>>49544916
I liked the first book overall, because I'm a sucker for con artists and hustlers, but I personally found Locke to be... not unlikeable per se, so much as just a kind-of "nothing" character. I could never get a clear sense of what he wanted out of life, where his goals and values lay.

That, and he spent most of the book being bossed around and bullied by other characters, when I was expecting more of a cheeky hustler romp akin to Pratchett's Going Postal or Making Money.

Then there's the pacing - as much as I loved the world the book presented, I found it really annoying on a second read that so many important plot details were only introduced a chapter or two before they became relevant. It made the book's plot feel slapdash and aimless - instead of building up a set of problems for Locke and his crew to wrestle with over the course of the story, it just keeps dumping more and more crap on the reader with barely any build-up. The Gray King's reveal fell completely flat for me, the guy turned out to have almost no relation to any other character in the story up to that point, and his overall master-plan felt absurd in hindsight.

Oh yeah, and the resolution of Locke's first meeting with the Spider was so stupid I honestly laughed. This woman, supposedly one of the most cunning plotters in the entire city, decides to confront Locke alone and unarmed, poisons him and then attempts to blackmail him with the antidote, and somehow never considers the possibility that this man, in fear for his life, might just try to overpower her and take the antidote by force. It was the single dumbest moment in the story, and it retroactively ruined the Spider as a character for me.

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The Temeraire (a.k.a. His Majesty's Dragon) series by Naomi Novik. Basically the Napoleonic war with dragons. Lots of really nice worldbuilding and great character moments.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Another novel set during the Napoleonic wars, where two magicians try to be of use to the government.

I can't really speak for the whole Old Kingdom series, but Sabriel by Garth Nix has some pretty neat magic in it, especially this bell-based magic used to deal with the undead.

>>49545251
I've gotten very near the end of Assassin's Quest, and I'm at the point where the book mentioned Fitz is prophecised to be betrayed by one he trusts, he already knows that the Fool has been psychically compromised by the enemy, aaand he just told the Fool exactly where to look to find Molly and his child.

Fuck you, Hobb. I can see exactly where this is going, and I'm fucking sick of it. Your books are the most tedious, over-wrought garbage I have ever read, and I only stuck with them this long in the hopes that Fitz would find any sort of catharsis. But no, I'm done. I'm fucking done. Fuck Fitz, fuck these books, and fuck you for wasting my fucking time.

>>49537688

The Sword of Truth.

>>49560232
>said every Hobb fan ever until she releases her next book

is the hobs dragon books worth reading i did read the pirate books where they start with the dragons but is it even good after that lol

>inb4 people begin complaining about how they hate tolkienesque "generic" medieval fantasy

i'd rather read an interesting story in a familiar world i can easily visualize than waste half the book explaining gobbledegook terms

not to mention it's very easy to relate to an elf but not to a 3 cocked purple furry

but what am i saying, the 3 cocked purple furry is Original™

>>49560781
what are you talking about anon

that sounds like sci-fi, not fantasy

>>49560809
there's an attitude with some fantasy readers that using tropes in your setting or tolkienesque races = automatically bad and that "original" = automatically good

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>>49560228
On Naomi Novik, she also did a one off book called Uprooted.
Its fantastic and I'd highly recommend it to anyone, it has everything.
Cool concepts.
Interesting Magic.
Good characters ('We Wizards get baller old and kinda lose touch with normal people')
A touch of romance.
Best fuckin' depiction of a fey ass forest as the villain I've ever seen

>>49559904
Thanks anon. I derped.

>>49559809
>>49560016
Bayaz IS everything wrong

>>49537688
Stormlight Archives

>>49560596
>This was no chicken....
>armed with nothing more than their lack of moral clarity

>>49559882
Mang, Dresden Files is good pulp trash, and I eat that shit up. Codex Alera was just awful.

>>49555225
>Raymond E. Feist
Don't bother with this guy.

It's entry level fantasy, gateway stuff. It doesn't really get better after the Magician series.

I read a substantial amount of his stuff in high school and was thoroughly impressed. I went back to it and it's not that great in that I felt fondly of the experience and world but have moved on to have better standards.

Feist is like Scarface, the movie. If Scarface is the first gangster movie you see, it's great. If you watch it later after watching better things, you ask yourself why people think so highly of it. I would tell people to read Feist if they're young and getting started with fantasy.

>>49559629
> first trilogy is meh
> like the second one
Whats it like to have shit taste anon?

>>49537688
Anyhing Alexey Pehov

>>49537937
This.

>>49537688
ASoIaF is actually not bad. The show's trash but the books aren't that bad.

>>49566089
They're readable. Contrarians who on principle avoid the show shouldn't immediately discard the original.
However I find that Martin was much too keen on writing something massive. There are a lot of things I'd just cut away and I think the overall story wouldn't suffer from it at all.
Slogging through some parts of the 3rd, 4th and 5th books wasn't very enjoyable and I'm not exactly optimistic on him wrapping everything up properly, but there is still the chance of satisfactory ending.

>>49566089
GRRM's writing has a lot of major issues, but you could do a lot worse in terms of low fantasy.

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Any good books with interesting beastfolks?

>>49566389
The Chronicles of Narnia

>>49566516
Good suggestion, I should get around to read it at some point.

>>49545281
MAH NIGGA
A
H

N
I
G
G
A

Grimnior Chronicles by Larry Corriea

>>49548851
>Harry Potter and The Dresden Files
Would read.

Gonna recommend The Magic of Xanth. It's a fun, funny and lighthearted fantasy adventure.

Wouldn't recommend reading too many of the rest of its series though, they kind of get grating.

On that note it's only funny if you enjoy puns as most magic in the setting is based on puns, riddles and wordplay.

It's also kind of lewd at times.

>>49566791
Xanth got...Weird.

>>49555363
WHAT

>>49537688
Nine Princes in Amber
Talking to Dragons

>>49559793
LOGAN NINE FINGERS 2016

>>49566833
Hell yes it did.

>>49555363
what does that even mean

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I really can recommend you reading some russian fantasy books, they are very multi-layer heavy and really non-standard in execution.
My personal favourites:
>Goodsdoom by Nick Perumov
The fight of a Mage and his friend, another Mage that previously tried to rebell and was cast down, to overthrow the narcissistic and vain new gods.

or, in the more mainstream area

>Night Watch (and Day Watch, Twilight Watch and Last Watch)
A modern day setting with the forces of light and dark having a pact of non-interference, with every wrongful action by the other party giving their opponents freeby-points to use for their own actions, and watches to keep the balance.

>>49537688
Earthsea cycle.
Most comfy fantasy novels ever.

>>49537793

Why would you lie on the internet, anon? The fourth book isn't out yet.

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>>49537688
I recommend all the discworld novels by Terry Pratchett.

Start with the Colour of Magic, then work yourself through the different storylines. It seems like a lot, but once you're hooked there's no stopping you.

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>>49566389
The Autumnlands. It's a comic, but nevertheless good

>>49537688
Can /tg/ help with identifying a book based on hazy recollections?

Years ago I read about a fantasy book that was an in-universe theological document asking the question "Do elves have souls?". I recall that it won an award or two but I can't for the life of me recall any further details and it is really bugging me.

So does the book even exist, what is it called and is it any good?

>>49560672
Rain Wilds series?

They're quite slow, but good for a binge.
Delivers a very satisfying karmic bitchslap to one character at the very end.

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>>49544650
The villain from the first one was fucking terrifying

jesus christ

>>49569472

>he is wherever he is called
>can shapeshift at will
>is way more clever than you
>and his only goal is to cause you ultimate suffering

>>49570098
he also hates the fuck out of your dad for whatever reason

>>49570307
Was that ever explained?

>>49570454
I think in the 4th book it is, i forget exactly

>>49537688

Do your self a favor and read R. Scott Bakker.
The Prince of Nothing

Pretty grimdark. Worth the time it takes to get going (second book really picks up but the first is pretty fucking good) and the names are unusual but the series is like GoT had a lovechild with Dune.
Seriously.
Read it.
Seriously.

>>49567118
do we meet the storied Sabitha by book 3?

I keep hearing that name...and I'm only half way through book 2

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>>49570847
Already mentioned
>>49559768

Why are we autosaged?

>>49571279
probably because we're not /tg/ discussing.

still, I call this a good way to deal with this kind of thread. we CAN discuss still, and this thread is useful, just not for /tg/ things, so it doesn't get driveler to stay, TOO long.

>>49571457
>driveler
>privilege
FUCK YOU AUTOCORRECT