Favourite fantasy books and why

[Finchbearer]

This thread has almost certainly been done before but I wanted to ask, what are your favourite fantasy book series, and why?

I’m also curious as to your favourite standalone fantasy books too, and why?

I emphasise on the fantasy series and standalones, and by books I mean written words on a page without pictures.

 

[CupofJoe]

A bit of a cop-out as they are not technically a series, but Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books.
The City Watch and Tiffany Aching subsets being my favourite.
Even in the last Tiffany Aching books The Shepherd's Crown, when you can feel that Terry was almost done, the story is still beautiful and more than a little bittersweet.
For standalone…
Easy...
The Hobbit. It is where my love of Fantasy started.

 

[Mithnen]

Yeah, I'm with you. The Terry Pratchett books were just so spot on. However, I also have a fondness for the Douglas Hill series regarding the character of Keill Randor. Galactic Warlord, Deathwing Over Veynaa, Day of the Starwind, Planet of the Warlord. It depends on the writing, and although I've tried to read Isaac Asimov's Foundation without success and I've had the same problem with Ray Bradbury.

You could argue that some of the Discworld Books are series, the guards ones for example because we follow the fortunes of Sam Vimes, with Men At Arms, Guards! Guards! and Jingo being 3 of my favourites.

Standalone - has to be Small Gods because I read for a Theology Degree and Pratchett 'gets' the whole religion thing so well.

While I love other books, was given the Narnia Series as a child (which royally screwed me up for a few years) I also loved Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Pratchett showed me that Fantasy doesn't have to be stuffy - I did think that Tolkien was a bit stuffy - and after finishing The Last Battle I developed a seriusly deep loathing for C S Lewis.

I haven't read many fantasy/sci-fi books in the past few years, I've read a few very weird Kindle Unlimited ones, but they might classify as Sci-Fi Romance so I'm not sure about that. I hate George RR Martin, loathed the end of Game of Thrones and have really tried to read other Fantasy/Sci-Fi authors. I've read 2 by an author called Charlie N. Holmberg and her two Sci-Fi (?) books: Star Mother & Star Father although I'm not sure if it's Sci-Fiction, Fantasy or anything else.

Anyway, now I've bored you senseless, I look forward to any and all replies.


Mithnen

 

[pmmg]

I am not sure I have a favorite.

Some I have enjoyed were...

The Belgariad - I thought the characters were fun
Game of Thrones - First time I felt 'I am not worthy' with my writing style.
Elric stories - I liked the hero and the demon sword. I was younger then
Conan/Kull - Cause he had such an epic tone to his voice
Illiad - Cause it was so detailed and not at all what I expected
The Divine Comedy - Also not what I thought it might be from the outside.


Books I admire, but did not enjoy

LOTR - I mean...kind of the model.
HP - Very Imaginative. Nor for me.

Books I did not really care for
Sword of Truth
Sword of Shannara
Wheel of Time
Anything Steven King


Stand Alones....
Watership down - It just had so much for such a simple tale.
Screwtape letters - Just a lot of good stuff about the diabolical mind.



I'm having trouble remembering all the things I read actually... I may come back.

I did think of some others....and I can still edit.

 

[Mithnen]

I am not sure I have a favorite.

Some I have enjoyed were...

The Belgariad - I thought the characters were fun
Game of Thrones - First time I felt 'I am not worthy' with my writing style.
Elric stories - I liked the hero and the demon sword. I was younger then
Conan/Kull - Cause he had such an epic tone to his voice


Books I admire, but did not enjoy

LOTR - I mean...kind of the model.
HP - Very Imaginative. Nor for me.

Books I did not really care for
Sword of Truth
Sword of Shannara
Wheel of Time
Anything Steven King


Stand Alones....
Watership down - It just had so much for such a simple tale.
Screwtape letters - Just a lot of good stuff about the diabolical mind.



I'm having trouble remembering all the things I read actually... I may come back.

I know the feeling! I'd completely forgotten about the HP books - although I hated The Half Blood Prince, Harry was such a horrible teenage brat throughout the whole book (and I didn't think much of his friends either.)

I quite like the first two or three Sword of Shannara books and then I felt they became somewhat samey - if that makes sense [appreciate it if it doesn't!]

 

[pmmg]

To be honest, I barely remember any of the Sword of Shannara. I think that was the one where the dude was traveling with a Troll for a while. My recollection was, it felt like a rip off of LOTR. One of them, Sword of Shannara or Sword of Truth was so similar to it, I wondered how it got to such prominence. I think the was Shannara that was the clone.

But...my memory is fuzzy. All I remember of Sword of Truth is the end.

 

[Mithnen]

You probably remembered the best bit! LOL!

I can't explain it, by the third/fourth book I felt like I was reading the same story, so I was often skipping whole chapters just to get toe the end.

 

[Mad Swede]

I've read quite a lot of SF and fantasy books over the years, and there have been many I've really enjoyed. But the one that made the most impact was Astrid Lindgren's Bröderna Lejonhjärta (in the English translation The Brothers Lionheart). Even now, more than 45 years after I first read the novel it still moves me. For me the book is proof that even childrens novels can deal with very dark subjects such as death without ever becoming sentimental or patronising. To me it's the best novel she ever wrote.

 

[Aldarion]

Anything by Tolkien, obviously. I really like the attention he put into building his world.

 

[Mithnen]

I've read quite a lot of SF and fantasy books over the years, and there have been many I've really enjoyed. But the one that made the most impact was Astrid Lindgren's Bröderna Lejonhjärta (in the English translation The Brothers Lionheart). Even now, more than 45 years after I first read the novel it still moves me. For me the book is proof that even childrens novels can deal with very dark subjects such as death without ever becoming sentimental or patronising. To me it's the best novel she ever wrote.

Yeah, there is a tendency for some authors to gloss over the nastier side of human nature, parents do it ostensibly to protect their children but it presupposes that children are stupid and most kids aren't. While I understand the concept of not wanting to upset your child, I'm not sure it helps. Not really fantasy, but if BTAS can do it, then I'm fairly sure other authors can

 

[pmmg]

What is BTAS?

Its not exactly just, I dont want to upset them. Its also that I am shaping their values. Somethings are abhorrent, and are not to be made into the common background noise. Parenting is a multifaceted endeavor.

 

[Mithnen]

What is BTAS?

Its not exactly just, I dont want to upset them. Its also that I am shaping their values. Somethings are abhorrent, and are not to be made into the common background noise. Parenting is a multifaceted endeavor.

Batman: The Animated Series, there's an episode called 'Over The Edge' when it seems that Batgirl's been killed by The Scarecrow and the fallout from that event leads Jim Gordon to seek out Batman and incarcerate/murder him. That's a really dark and serious subject for a children's cartoon and it's done REALLY well, no schmalz and 'kids can't handle' death etc

 

[pmmg]

It not entirely accurate to say, just cause a kids cartoon did it, then its okay for kids. I think we still need to apply our better judgment on that.

Batman may have done this well. As a parent, its still my job to measure it. I've seen plenty of 'for kids' stuff, I would not want my kids to see.

 

[skip.knox]

The opening proviso included only books, no pictures, so that lets out the animated stuff (which might deserve its own thread).

Lord of the Rings still wins. In part because I read it as a teen back in the 1960s when there was precious little fantasy around. My second love at that time was Andre Norton's fantasy works (Witchworld, etc). Peter Beagle's, Folk of the Air was my first portal book and still sits well in memory. I came to The Last Unicorn late, but I thought that was a brilliant little book.

More recently, I put forward Josiah Bancroft's Books of Babel series. Probably the most imaginative series I've encountered.

Then there's T.H. White's memorable Once and Future King. That work is very nearly perfect.

 

[Insolent Lad]

I'll answer THE one standalone first: The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany. At least at the time I first read it. The novel showed me there was more than the epics of Tolkien and Eddison and such (though I quite like those), that fantasy could be introspective and thoughtful. If anything challenges its place, it would be LeGuin's A Wizard of Earth-Sea.

Which brings me, not surprisingly, to my favorite in terms of series--the Earth-Sea series. As Skip, I was a fan of the Witch World books when young and can't deny they were a personal influence. The early ones, though, are arguably SF, not fantasy.

 

[Mithnen]

Oh yeah, the Earth Sea series. When someone told me many years later that Ged was a person of colour my reaction was what? Really? I didn't notice, to me they were just good books. So to be told about 15 years later that Ged wasn't anglo-saxon threw me for a loop.

 

[Ned Marcus]

The Empire Trilogy by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts. I love the protagonist, Mara, and the rich depth of all the other characters too.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Lord of the Rings is definitely my favorite novel of all time (though technically it does have pictures in it, so it might not qualify, and it's both a standalone and a sort of series...). I've read it more often than any other book. (nr 2 on the list is The Hitchhikers Guide, which is Science Fiction, so it doesn't make the list).
I'm one of those weird people who also loved the Silmarillion.

I'll second anything written by Terry Pratchett. The man was a genius. I love the Discworld series.

The Riftwar Saga by Feist (I think that's the name for the whole series) is great for what it aims to be.
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan is great as well.
The Farseer trilogy, by Robin Hobb (as well as the later books in the series). It has some wonderful and evocative characters, though it's probably not for everyone.
The Change trilogy, by Sean Williams, which is just very different.
The Cradle series, by Will Wight.

Books I read as stand-alones (though they are part of series) which I loved are:
- Sixteen ways to defend a walled city, by K. J. Parker
- The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
- Red Sister, by Mark Lawrence

Three series that didn't make my list: Harry Potter, the Wheel of Time, and A Song of Ice and fire. All of them have some great entries, but also some not very good ones. Harry Potter I think the first 4 were great, the last 3 were in dire need of an editor who dared to stand up to the biggest money making machine in publishing at that time. They're just bloated and meandering (though they still have some great moments). Wheel of Time has some wonderful entries and some meh ones. The stories meander a bit too much for me. And as someone mentioned earlier, it feels like nothing is ever resolved. ASOIAF starts amazing. Game of Thrones is an excelent book. Unfortunately, for me it's downhill from there, and by the last book I wasn't sure anymore what the story I was reading was actually about.

As for stand-alones, there just aren't very many of them around. Most novels end up being a trilogy at least.