Looking for some good fantasy, Help me Admin or anybody!

[Damian Reyna]

Please tell me if you know of any good fantasy novels!!! :D
Hey Admin, why is nobody ever here?

[apstudent]

Fantasy Novels?

Well 1984 by George Orwell is a pretty good book. It was written in the past about what 1984 would be like. Also, Brave New World by Huxley is an awesome book about the future.

[Admin]

Look up these authors.

1. Tolkein

2. Weis and Hickman

3. Dave Duncan

Those are my favorites.

[Eric, son of Chuck]

Just about anything by Terry Pratchett, but I recommend "Witches Abroad." Also, Neil Gaiman's great. I highly recommend "American Gods," even though it's a complete rip-off of Pratchett's "Small Gods." That's ok though, because they're friends, and Pratchett helped edit it. And they co-wrote another excellent book called "Good Omens." Pretty much any of these would be good picks. Enjoy!

[Damian Reyna]

Thanks for your guys' help!!

[Shea]

Don't know if you still need some suggestions, but one of my favorites is the Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Also, could Utopia by Thomas Moore be considered fantasy or just the suggestion of an ideal social order? I enjoyed thinking about the concept anyway.
However they may seem like children's books, my all-time favorites are the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I still re-read them! I must have read the entire series about 10 times! :D

[Blackadder]

There's always Robert Jordan--even if he does steal from Tolkien. He'll keep you busy for a while. :D

Also George R.R. Martin, I like. Both these authors are writing big, epic series.

Who else? Um...Melaine Rawn, Jennifer Roberson. Mickey Zucker Reichert, too--she's got a cool Scandinavian mythology thing going on in her Renshai books.

There's Douglas Adams, too. He's considered up there with Terry Pratchett. He does to sci-fi what Pratchett does with fantasy, but with more absurdity in it, I think.

Also, I have been reading Jasper Fforde [sic] lately. Excellent books, especially if you're a total bookworm. It's more of an alternate reality sort of book, rather than pure fantasy. 'Course, for me, being able to get inside books is my fantasy. :)

[Munro]

Try JRR Tolkien, Raymond E. Feist (start with Magician), Terry Pratchett (more satirical and unorthodox, but hilarious), CS Lewis, and the Dragonlance series. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has a large following, and RA Salvatore is a good read as well.
Did anyone else ever read the Forgotten Realms series? It was similar to the Dragonlance ones. Those books are what got me into reading in the first place when I was 12. Those are mainly Fantasy Fiction, but if you want Science Fiction there are heaps more.

[MarsMonster]

hm and can any of these books other than tolkien and prachet be found online? in english? (for free...)

[b]

The master of the fantasy novel is of course mr. Tolkien, the personification of fantasy himself.

Tolkien created worlds that were literally inspired by the ancient European mythes, but were compiled with so much care that you - when you start reading - are perfectly drawn to those worlds.

The main plot of a fantasy novel is allways similar to that of a simple fairy tale told to little children: that of good and evil and the realation of men to it. So people don't read fantasy novels for deeper philosofical, life-reflectional or poetical reasons, but for the fact that they want to be absorbed by a non-existant reality for which the normal rules of life don't apply and myth is a central motive. The perfect fantasy novel has that ability to perfectly draw you to a certain metaphysical reality.

I often compare the fantasy genre - as well as most holywood movies - to a warm bath: starting it is letting yourself slide backward in a warm bath.

Pick a novel, close your eyes, feel the warmth and let your mind be absorbed by the purity of the water.

(Terry Brooks' Shannara series would also be a good bet!)

[Munro]

When I said to my friend the other day that Shakespeare would be a film-maker today, not a novelist, playwright or poet, my friend agreed.
Then he said if Tolkien was alive today, he would be a game-maker (obviously fantasy games). What do you think? Quite an interesting comparison.

[waxmephilosophical]

I'd have to disagree. Tolkien's characterizations are so intimate and detailed that I don't think he could have adequately portrayed the likes of Bilbo, Frodo, etc. in a video game. If he did create them as video game characters and not characters in a novel, I would have been one extremely dissapointed person! I think if Frodo were a real person, I'd marry him. :D

[Admin]

I think Tolkein would still be a writer, the guy's day job was that of a Linguist.

[Ninjai]

don't forget jack london ... if you like fiction- with nature type books

[Chardata]

Books by Irene Radford are always good. Also a new type of fantasy that is popular is Japanese manga books. Fushigi Yugi, Chobits, Dragon Knights and there are much more...but they all have to do with magic and things like that. Brian Jaques writes good adventure books. They are not necessarily fantasy but they are good. Hope this helps!

[dennismurphy]

but I would also recommend Frank Herberts Dune trilogy. the first three books are awesome. After these, the story starts to get out of hand and veer from the original theme.

Picture a universe with a single precious commodity, superpowers vying and conniving for control of it. There is a local Bedouin-like group of people terrorized and exploited while the great powers struggle to control this commodity. One leader arises to help the native people regain their own destiny.

Sounds like OIL eh? but this is sci-fi/fantasy- so there is alot of interesting twists in this.

Two movie versions were done- the Kyle Mclachlan version was poorly done. The sci-fi channel version was much much better. (which I believe starred William Hurt).

[M.C. Bennett]

It really depends on what kind of fantasy you're looking for. Apart from all the great authors and books listed already, Marion Zimmer-Bradley's Darkover Universe is a wonderful combination of science fiction and fantasy. There's also Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, if you like a bit of comedy tossed into your fantasy. I would also recommend any of Mercedes Lackey's novels and those of Anne MacCaffrey.

Happy reading!

[madnessisdivine]

The Gregory the Overlander series are usually pretty good and there's a new book i just started, it's called "Skulduggery" or something on those lines.

[Rakthor]

If you're looking for more recent stuff "The Name of the Wind" is an excellent book by an up-and-coming author. I know several people that have read it three our four times.

[JBI]

Italo Calviono, and Ursula K. Le Guin are probably the highest rated fantasy authors by the literati.

[valleyjune]

I would recommend Tolkien, of course and Ursula Le Guin. Also, Orson Scott Card ("Ender's Game", "Harts's Hope" and "Songmaster"), Clive Barker's "Weaveworld" and "Everville". Also anything by Guy Gavriel Kay even though I think you could feature his works as historic fiction....