Fantasy recommendations

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Have you tried Tolkein? How does that sit with you? If you like the LOTR series, then you might try the Shannarra books by Terry Brooks.

No, nooo, noooooo!

Apart from the plot in The Sword of Shannara (which was a bit too heavily influenced by Tolkien's writings), LotR and Shannara couldn't be further apart.

Granted, Shannara is nice stuff to read, but it's more comparable to The Hobbit than to LotR, IMHO. If you're looking for fantasy for adults, then Shannara is not the way to go. If you like fantasy geared toward 14-17 year old kids (even if you're way beyond that age you can still like it), then Shannara will be a good choice.

If you don't like huge books but have no problems with a trilogy or a quintet that is one story, you could look into David Eddings:

- The Elenium (Trilogy)
- The Tamuli (Trilogy. Read The Elenium first, or you'll greatly spoil it because of references.)

- The Belgariad (Quintet)
- The Malloreon (Quintet. Same: Read The Belgariad first.)
- If you like those, you can read more about Belgarth and Polgara in "Belgarath the Sorcerer", and "Polgara the Sorceress". In there, Eddings explains some of the references that are made, such as Polgara saying "I was an important Duchess once...". That is explained in these books.
- If you want even more, read the Rivan Codex. It's a Silmarillion-like book with background stories.

Avoid "The Dreamers" by Eddings, unless you wish to basically read the same book four times. Man. That's the only series I ever gave up on.

Other possibility: Salvatore. Action, but good plot development.
- The Dark Elf Trilogy
- The Icewind Dale Trilogy

Warning: Drizzt novels. They may suck you into The Forgotten Realms.

Also by Salvatore:
- The DemonWars Saga I (Trilogy)
- Mortalis (DemonWars Saga I and II "bridge")
- The DemonWars Saga II (Trilogy)

Salvatore warning: fast paced, but descriptive fighting scenes. If you don't like fighting scenes that can easily be 2 pages long, this may not be for you.

[svenlind]

David Gemmels trilogy about Troy starting with Lord of the SilverBow.
http://www.amazon.com/Troy-Lord-Silv...&keywords=troy