GameBanshee Forums

So I was just a little bit curious. Since you all are fantasy fans and like playing those games, does that mean you also read fantasy books? If so, what books by what author?

Personally I read almost any fantasy but my favorit writer is with no doubt Terry Brooks. The first fantasy I read was his shannara serie and I loved it. Probably why I continued to read fantasy. Recently finnished "Angel fire east" and is eagarly awaiting for more.

------------------
When there is no wrong, there can be no right.

When there is no darkness, there can be no light.

And when there is no evil, there can be no good.

~Just a few words of wisdom from a proud member of the Brotherhood of the woods

I loved Raymond Feist's Midkemia books. Some great characters and exciting adventure in those. I also really enjoyed Philip Jose Farmer's "The Dungeon" series, which was really weird right until the end. I think that Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is fantastic too, but it's so bloody long! What got me hooked on the whole genre was the Dragonlance Chronicles. I think that everything you could ask for in a fantasy series was in those three books.

------------------
"Ah, home, sweet home... wait a minute... I don't live here." - Jan Jansen

thats a diffecult question
I read the shannara serie too (and bought it completly, it is really good)
but I thing my favorite is wizards first rule form terry goodkind

------------------
lama member of the Council of Mages

my vote definitely goes to R.S. Salvatore. He definitely has the best fantasy books that are available in the market.
u can try his forgotten realms books about Drizzt Do'Urden (u ll meet him in the game)

those books are wonderful resources if ur into AD&D world and they affected the way i look at things now, i feel more mature and strong with the "Drizzt Principles of life"

i really recommend u the series starting with "The Dark Elf Trilogy"

if ur into the Gods And Pnatheloons of the realms, (Like Helm, Mielikki or Tempus, Mystra etc.) i recommend the trilogy called "The Avatar Trilogy"

u should be abel to find these books paperback/hardcover in [url="http://www.amazon.com"]www.amazon.com[/url]

hope this helped =]

------------------
~Goddess Of Forests and all Rangers~

I strongly agree with you on Terry Brooks. He is one of the best fantasy writers out there. The Shannara series was phenomenal. However, you cannot have a post like this with out mentioning J.R.R. Tolkien. I think he was an ispiration to a lot of the fantasy writers today.

------------------
"Blind. Like one when sleep comes over in a swoon; I stumbled in the darkness, and went down"

A tough question. Maybe James Branch Cabell's Jurgen, arguably one of the strangest, most erudite, thoughtful, funny novels ever penned in English. Its author's earliest works brought accolades from Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Jurgen was banned by the Society for the Prevetion of Vice in New York City, in 1916--it's not a "dirty book," but it is wildly, humorously suggestive at times, in a sly way that was common with books at various earlier times. It took a group of leading literary figures to challenge the ruling in court, before Jurgen was put back on the stands--and became an instant hit, of course.

Just to give a feel for it: Jurgen is a medieval, middle-aged pawnbroker, a one-time poet and lover of women, and an egotist who is very proud of his wide reading and wider imagination. He recovers his youth, and then engages in a bunch of adventurers to recover a lost object that take him to heaven, hell, pagan woodlands, Arthurian Brittany, and other locations, where is seduces Guenevere, a hamadryad, the Lady of the Lake, and the wife of Lucifer. (As Lucifer confides to Jurgen, once, "My wife doesn't understand me.")

There's melancholy, there, but also high laughter, a great deal of satire, and a prose style which is both unusual and brilliant. This work may be hard to find on new bookstands, but any fantasy lover will want to locate a copy. In a world where all fantasy literature is increasingly starting to read alike, Jurgen is a breadth of fresh air.

gee, 4 posts and I've read hardly any of these.

I highly recommend the Black Company series by Glen Cook. His most recent books have begun to lose flavor, but the original 3 and the subsequent 3 were quite good. It starts with the self-titled "Black Company".

I'd also throw in Michael Moor****'s series on the eternal champion. Elric's series was great; some of the others were harder to get into. Then there are a few stand alone's like "Gloriana" and another I'm blanking on.

A last one - and I'm forgetting the author began with "Damiano" and was a 3 book series.

Yeah, of course it is Tolkien who is the best, he does write his books in a good way, without the everhappyendings most other writers do, but more "real". The best example of happy endings is David eddings, where it just gets stupid.

If you think you can manage Silmarillion, read it, since you wont ever find a better fantasy book that isnt part of a serie

Anyone read the "Death gate series" from Weiss and Hickman?

Imo they really rock.

At first, I thought the Shannara series really rocked, and read very many of them, that was a few years ago, now I think they're too much of children's books, they're too simplified. And it really grows boring since ALL the Shannara books have nearly the exact same plot, just with other characters. There's always a druid, a great enemy, and someone from the Ohmsford family who really don't want to do it, and always the druid (Allanon or Bremen) never tell him (or her)the full truth. BORING, BOOORING - Lilarcor

Terry Pratchet! The Discworld ROCKS!!! They're the funniest, strangest etc. books ever published. And Terry Pratchet's is the bestselling author of England all categories.

John Ronald Ruel Tolkien of course.

Lord Dunsay (wrote "Tolkien fantasy" about 100 years before Tolkien).

Katherine Kerr - The Deverry series.

------------------
Ro´Jadre - Mighty Kensai/Mage of the Council of Mages

[This message has been edited by Ro´Jadre (edited 03-26-2001).]

These are some of my favourites. Tolkien goes without saying.

Salvatore: Forgotten Realms
Cunningham: Forgotten Realms
Weis and Hickman:. Dragonlance, Death Gate
Hobb: Liveship Traders