Your top 5 Fantasy books/series

OK, I will start:

1. Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien. I first read this series in the 8th grade in 72. My English teacher loaned me her set, and two years later I found a boxed set at the Indian Mall in Jonesboro Ark and blew 3/4 of my vacation allowance on them. The original, and best.

2. Wheel of Time. Robert Jordan. OK, the first 6 were the best, but even after he decided to milk it for the money it remained a good solid read.

3. Sword of Truth.Terry Goodkind. Again, the first 4 were the best, but even after he decided to milk it for the money,and even after he got a little preachy, it remained a good read.

4. Riddle Master of Hed Trilogy. Patricia McKillip. Original storyline, and great story telling.

5. Earthsea. Ursula K. LeGuin. Sparrowhawk is DA MAN!

Honorable mention.

Lord of the Isles series, David Drake. Very good, based on old, obscure mythology.
Belgariad. Light reading, more YA than adult, but good reading.
Harry Potter. Very light reading, YA but worth reading.
Crystal Shard series, RA Salvatore, good Forgotten Realms novels, introduces Drittz.
Thieves world, Robert Asprin and friends, a shared world anthology of short stories, 10 short story collections and a few novels.

OK, somebody else go, surely we can get a few ideas for the used book store!

The Gap Series - Stephen Donaldson

OK, it's a little black, but I am reading it again just now.

Songs of Fire and Ice series, George R. R. Martin. - I love Salvatore, especially the Dark elf books and the cyrstal shard series... but honestly, Martin beat them out, which I never thought would happen.

1. The Amber series, Roger Zelazny. If my first daughter was a boy, she would've been named Corwin, after the lead character from the first five Amber books. Zelazny was a master of alternate worlds, and with the Amber series he created a truly awesome setting - Amber, the one true city, of which everything else is just a copy, a Shadow - and an awesome cast of characters - a family that by virtue of blood and force of will can navigate through Shadows to any reality at all. I stole these books from my father when I was in 5th-grade-ish, and I have enjoyed them ever since. Also, anything else by Mr. Zelazny is gold in my book, especially Lord Demon. Give his stuff a read, you won't be disappointed! (I've even hunted down the elusive Amber Diceless RPG - it's an awesome read, as well!)

2. The Hawk and Fisher series, Simon R. Green. A great series with truly memorable characters, Captains Hawk and Fisher, a husband and wife team of City Guards in Haven, the low-down-est city of the Low Kingdoms. Plus, the sixth book had Wulf Saxon in it, a portrait-inspired thief turned brawler of no small consequence, single-handedly tearing through street thugs, mercenaries and assassins! Wowza!

3. Any D&D rulebook or sourcebook or supplement or what have you, Gygax, Arneson and many, many others too numerous to name - if they had a hand in published D&D material, I've enjoyed it! Seriously, I can't stress it enough - I love to read through the many, many publications that I've tracked down over the years (although I still cringe a little bit when I page through the Spelljammer box set ... it's no wonder that TSR went belly up ...)

4. The Crystal Singer trilogy, Anne McCaffrey. So much so that I lobbied for years (unsuccessfully, I might add) to name a daughter after the series' main character, Killashandra (I believe that I referenced this in another thread, as the name is now attached to our family computer). This was the first series that I ever read that featured a female character as lead, too.

5. The Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling. I've said it once, and I'll say it again until the end of time - anyone who can get a punk kid to read an 800+ page book is all good with me! Seriously, though, it's a heckuva read, and it doesn't hurt that the movies are awesome as well!

Honorable mentions:

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson. My first real, full exposure to the concept of the anti-hero. Great reads, but terribly, terribly depressing. (On a related note, the anti-hero, I never cared much for Michael Moorcock's Elric saga. I dunno, it was just ... blah somehow. Sorry, Michael.)

Tailchaser's Song, Tad Williams. Loved this one since junior high! This book is about the adventures of a cat, Tailchaser, and the epic adventures that he gets into while trying to find his friend - lots of cool cat culture devices here.

Game of Thrones series, George R. R. Martin. Ok, I confess, I haven't read the book yet, but Showtime did an absolutely phenomenal adaptation of Game of Thrones. For what it's worth, my wife read the first book, and said that pretty much all is the same from the book to the series!

I'm exhausted for now, perhaps I'll chime in with more when I remember them!

The Coramonde duo by Brian Daly:

http://www.brian-daley.com/BrianDaley-books.htm

The Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deryni_novels

The Xanth series by Piers Anthony:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanth

The Conan series and others from Robert E Howard

These are additions to the growing list....

I will grant the Amber series by Zelazny as belonging in the top 5, just not sure what to drop for them...........

Deryni certainly deserves honorable mention.

Song of Fire and Ice just didn't do it for me, I read them all, but after the first two without a great deal of enthusiam for some reason.

Xanth was good for the first 5 or 6, then seemed to go downhill, I thought the Powers series was better, until the last one anyway.



heheh, just realized all but the Gap series and Tailchaser are in my library right now. Thank God for an understanding wife and built in bookcases!

I've read through about 70% of the above

I really like all of The Sword of Truth Series by Goodkind, I hear he has a new book out soon too, after taking a small hiatus to reflect where the series started "going wrong" in many of the fans eyes ... ... to be honest, the TV adaptation (The Seeker) wasn't too bad either, but that may just have been due to the awesome casting(s) of the lead girls ... and I'll note, if you want to get inside what makes Zed "tick" you need to read Debt of Bones..( after the first book is a good place to slide it in) ...

I would also add in the Dark Materials Trilogy ( The Northern Lights/The Subtle Knife/The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman ... a good read throughout, maybe a little religious reference and so much better then the cr*p film adaptation (The Golden Compass) .... ..

Also, all 30(odd) of The Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett ... highly entertaining viewpoints on a wealth of "common" lore/arcana/fairytale etc... even some of the spin-offs are good too ...

Back when I was younger I really enjoyed the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars ~ and the short novella The Martians) by Kim Stanley Robinson .... not sure quite why I liked these, but they are still stuck in my memory as good books .... ...

And I'll cryptically mention the best 5 part trilogy I ever read ...


.... ...

Eye of the Dragon - Stephen King; departure from the usual Horror fare, and dedicated to his daughter is a memorable piece of Fantasy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyes_of_the_Dragon

I was recently shuttling some of my books around, and recall seeing said Stephen King novel among them ... I must agree, I first read that book at my first college, and it stuck with me, so much so that I actively sought it out ... we have an awesome little used book store just three blocks or so from our home ... it's where I've gotten many of my books, including a copy of the James Bond RPG from Victory Games, and it's where I found my copy of Eye at ... Eye was the only Stephen King book that I really read - I have paged through others, but have never really had an interest ... but Eye of the Dragon I will enthusiastically recommend ...

RustyDios wrote:And I'll cryptically mention the best 5 part trilogy I ever read ...

Rule 42.
DON'T PANIC

.... ...

Any chance this is a Douglas Adams five-trilogy?