3rd November 2010, 7:45 PM
Considering that along with history books, fantasy books particularly (and sci-fi secondarily) have been my favorite kind of books ever since elementary school, wow is that a hard question... it does make me think though, I've never actually made a list of any of the books I have. Now that wouldn't even begin to be a list of all fantasy books I've read or something, that list would be impossible because also since elementary school our family always were regular visitors to the local library (and the school library too), but it'd be kind of interesting anyway, I think. I mean, I do have quite a few books.
A few obvious things do come to mind though...
-You haven't finished Snow Crash? Seriously? It's one of the best cyberpunk books ever written, how did you put it down?
-everything by Tad Williams is outstanding! Long books, but incredible. The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series and the Shadowmarch series are fantasy, while the Otherland series is cyberpunk; The War of the Flowers is kind of dark fairy tale fantasy. I think his first series, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, is probably my favorite of his, but all three of those main series are really, really incredible books.
-The Wheel of Time series is my favorite fantasy series from the past few decades.
-David Eddings was probably my favorite author when I was in Jr. High... I read the whole Belgariad/Malloreon series in sixth grade or so, and thought they were really good at the time. His books aren't as complex as some others and his last series, The Dreamers, is definitely derivitive (character style wise particularly) of his older works, but still, I'll always like David Eddings' books. He died a year or so ago, you know. At least he was old, unlike Robert Jordan. :(
-George R. R. Martin's books are somewhat dark and grim stuff, but pretty good. Definitely recommended. Just don't expect things to go well for the main characters...
-Brandon Sanderson, who is finishing the last three Wheel of Time books based on Robert Jordan's work, also has his own fantasy series, called the Mistborn series. I've only read the first book, but it's pretty good and might be worth a look. Definitely a somewhat original take on the genre, I'd like to read the next one to see where it goes.
-Anne McCaffery is another author I probably liked more in junior high than I would now. Back then (and into highschool) I read all of the Pern books, Acorna books that were out then (the first three or four I think), Kilashandra series or whatever that series was, etc. and liked them, but I haven't read any of the newer ones, so I don't know well they hold up now that I'm a little older... like Star Wars books, I used to love them but now they're not so great. Of course, part of the problem there is that the newest Star Wars book series, the Legacy of the Force one, was just atrocious... I liked the Yuuzhan Vong stuff and before, but it's gone downhill. Anyway, yeah, I liked those at the time, but no idea about now.
-Oh, my favorite fantasy book series I read in elementary school probably would have been the Redwall series (really good stuff! Brian Jaques is a great writer.), Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles (the series that the '80s Disney movie The Black Cauldron is based on), and the Narnia series.
There are so, so many fantasy books though, I'd never manage to think of everything... every time I go into the fantasy section of a bookstore I see interesting things. Um, a few more for the moment.
-Lynn Fwelling - Has written eight books now, all set in the same universe (three are a prequel trilogy, the other five star the same two main characters). I like this series and own all of the books. It's not perfect, I could complain about some things, but overall I like them.
-Mercedes Lackey - Author of the Valdemar series, among many others. She's written a lot of books, and they're usually good. Not my absolute favorites, but good, and I've liked quite a few of her books.
- Terry Goodkind - Yeah, I read his stuff back when it came out. I own the first eleven books of the 12 book Sword of Truth series, actually, even though by the sixth or eighth book or so I was really disliking it... the first four books are a good fantasy story, but after that Goodkind starts inserting more and more of his own very conservative (Ayn Rand-fan) political viewpoints into his books. The lowpoint is when one entire book of the series has, as its primary plotline, a story about how evil pacifists are, because by not resisting the evil empire that uses them they're as evil as the empire. It was a transparent, and awful, political message... then I disliked the central plot of the concluding trilogy of books in the series and completely lost interest. I haven't actually read the last book. Oh, as I suggested, and as you may know, a lot of people really hate Terry Goodkind's books. I don't think they're quite as bad as that, but will admit that they're not the greatest ever. While with the Wheel of Time series I never once wanted any of the books to be shorter (I read through them quickly, and always loved the detail), with the Sword of Truth I often found myself skipping chunks because it got boring and simply dragged on for too long...
There are many many more, that's just a few. I'm sure I'll add more later.
A few obvious things do come to mind though...
-You haven't finished Snow Crash? Seriously? It's one of the best cyberpunk books ever written, how did you put it down?
-everything by Tad Williams is outstanding! Long books, but incredible. The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series and the Shadowmarch series are fantasy, while the Otherland series is cyberpunk; The War of the Flowers is kind of dark fairy tale fantasy. I think his first series, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, is probably my favorite of his, but all three of those main series are really, really incredible books.
-The Wheel of Time series is my favorite fantasy series from the past few decades.
-David Eddings was probably my favorite author when I was in Jr. High... I read the whole Belgariad/Malloreon series in sixth grade or so, and thought they were really good at the time. His books aren't as complex as some others and his last series, The Dreamers, is definitely derivitive (character style wise particularly) of his older works, but still, I'll always like David Eddings' books. He died a year or so ago, you know. At least he was old, unlike Robert Jordan. :(
-George R. R. Martin's books are somewhat dark and grim stuff, but pretty good. Definitely recommended. Just don't expect things to go well for the main characters...
-Brandon Sanderson, who is finishing the last three Wheel of Time books based on Robert Jordan's work, also has his own fantasy series, called the Mistborn series. I've only read the first book, but it's pretty good and might be worth a look. Definitely a somewhat original take on the genre, I'd like to read the next one to see where it goes.
-Anne McCaffery is another author I probably liked more in junior high than I would now. Back then (and into highschool) I read all of the Pern books, Acorna books that were out then (the first three or four I think), Kilashandra series or whatever that series was, etc. and liked them, but I haven't read any of the newer ones, so I don't know well they hold up now that I'm a little older... like Star Wars books, I used to love them but now they're not so great. Of course, part of the problem there is that the newest Star Wars book series, the Legacy of the Force one, was just atrocious... I liked the Yuuzhan Vong stuff and before, but it's gone downhill. Anyway, yeah, I liked those at the time, but no idea about now.
-Oh, my favorite fantasy book series I read in elementary school probably would have been the Redwall series (really good stuff! Brian Jaques is a great writer.), Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles (the series that the '80s Disney movie The Black Cauldron is based on), and the Narnia series.
There are so, so many fantasy books though, I'd never manage to think of everything... every time I go into the fantasy section of a bookstore I see interesting things. Um, a few more for the moment.
-Lynn Fwelling - Has written eight books now, all set in the same universe (three are a prequel trilogy, the other five star the same two main characters). I like this series and own all of the books. It's not perfect, I could complain about some things, but overall I like them.
-Mercedes Lackey - Author of the Valdemar series, among many others. She's written a lot of books, and they're usually good. Not my absolute favorites, but good, and I've liked quite a few of her books.
- Terry Goodkind - Yeah, I read his stuff back when it came out. I own the first eleven books of the 12 book Sword of Truth series, actually, even though by the sixth or eighth book or so I was really disliking it... the first four books are a good fantasy story, but after that Goodkind starts inserting more and more of his own very conservative (Ayn Rand-fan) political viewpoints into his books. The lowpoint is when one entire book of the series has, as its primary plotline, a story about how evil pacifists are, because by not resisting the evil empire that uses them they're as evil as the empire. It was a transparent, and awful, political message... then I disliked the central plot of the concluding trilogy of books in the series and completely lost interest. I haven't actually read the last book. Oh, as I suggested, and as you may know, a lot of people really hate Terry Goodkind's books. I don't think they're quite as bad as that, but will admit that they're not the greatest ever. While with the Wheel of Time series I never once wanted any of the books to be shorter (I read through them quickly, and always loved the detail), with the Sword of Truth I often found myself skipping chunks because it got boring and simply dragged on for too long...
There are many many more, that's just a few. I'm sure I'll add more later.