posted 11-13-98 02:53 AM ET        

Here's my top 10 (roughly in order):

1. The Lord of the Rings/Silmarillion/Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (cliched, but still the best)

2. The Riftwar Saga - Raymond E Feist (while he has written many more books, Magician, Silverthorn (to a lesser extent) and A Darkness at Sethanon were his best, IMHO)

3. The Wheel of Time series - Robert Jordan

4. The Farseer trilogy - Robin Hobb (if only the ending was better)

5. Wizard's First Rule (and the rest of the series)- Terry Goodkind

6. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series - Fritz Leiber

7. Elric series - Michael Moorcock

8. Twins series - Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman

9. Greyhawk series - Gary Gygax (of AD&D fame, yes)

posted 12-09-98 03:31 PM ET            

Sharon Greene's quintology that includes "Golden Knight, Silver Princess", and "End Game" - nice tale about shapeshifters and a new type of magic.

The series that begins with Her Majesty's Wizard.

David Duncan's "The Seven Swords" triology

David Duncan's "A Man of his Word" octology.

Bradleys' Darkover Series.

posted 12-09-98 03:51 PM ET            

As for my favorite... I'd have to say the whole series of Bazil the Battledragon books by Rowley. (My mind for first names is going... I think it's Christopher, could be wrong.)

posted 12-09-98 05:40 PM ET            

Tad Williams--Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. This trilogy is a very good read.

Terry Brooks--Anything with "Shanarra" in the title is a good book, although you should read them in order.

posted 12-09-98 06:39 PM ET            

(now if he'd only just finish the series

posted 12-09-98 08:19 PM ET            

CClark, different Farseer trilogy, if the trilogy by Sawyer is indeed called farseer. I definately got the author right, absolutely nothing to do with Dinos.

Old_Guy: I wasn't saying Tolkien was cliche'd, I was saying that listing him as your favourite was sorta cliche'd. Tolkien almost invented the Genre (along with a few others such as Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock), so he couldn't be cliche'd.

Darklight: Yes, the Dragonlance "Twins" series. V Good read.

Jojo: Asimov and Card are Sci-Fi, not Fantasy. I do like them though. Funny, I found it REAL difficult to get into Thomas Covenant. I have struggled through the first book twice, but never got any further. I just find the book is WAY too unbelieveable, and it puts me off. I did like his Mirrors series though.

TAS: Wasn't End Game by "Sherri S Tepper", or am I thinking about another book by the same name?

posted 12-09-98 09:50 PM ET            

Dragonlance- I read chroniocles and greatly enjoyed them. The characters stayed in character, and sensibly evolved! Hurrah! The plot was good, too. Some day, when I have time, I will read the Twins series.

Terry Brooks- When I first read him, I thought he was awesome. But after several rereadings, the mistakes and silliness in the plot and chraracters became more and more evident. The Talismans of Shannara, the last in the series chronologically so far, was especially awful. The first three were still excellent, though, and the middle two of the second series were pretty good. It's just that the "main" storyline in the Heritage set of four on Par and Coll was just plain bad at points. And some of the other characters had to act stupidly to move the plot as well, did I mention that I hated that? I utterly hated Par by the end of the Talismans.

Tolkien- It's unfair, but his work does feel cliched and old fashioned, but I guess you can't blame him for it.

posted 12-09-98 10:07 PM ET            

Death Gate was close, but not quite. And Chronicles was probably second best.

I have read a book (can't remember the title) by C Cherryh, and didn't find it that good. It was allright, but nothing special.

Terry Brooks: Loved the first one or two, then very quickly got turned off. He seems to be flogging a dead horse. Found sorta the same with the Pern series my Anne McCaffrey.

Never read Tanith Lee, Zelanzy, Dave Duncan, Sharon Greene.

posted 12-09-98 11:12 PM ET            

My current favourite fantasy author is Janny Wurts, with her Wars of Light and Shadow series. It's certainly not a Tolkien rewrite (like so much "modern" fantasy), and it certainly a much better story (although seemingly going to be just about as long) than Jordan's "Wheel of Time."

Then there's Terry Pratchett, the hands-down funniest author ever living. His Discworld series is satire/farce/spoof at the peak of its form (and there are so many half-hidden jokes you'll never get the same reading twice).

Of course, for comic fantasy there's also the Castle Perilous series by John DeChancie, but if your choice is one Pratchett book or the whole Castle Perilous series, get the Pratchett book

I'm glad some of the Greats were mentioned (Leiber, Le Guinn, Tolkien), but everyone forgets that Theodore Sturgeon wrote fantasy as well as science-fiction.

And we can't forget George R. R. Martin (A Game of Thrones), or Mercedes Lackey (The Last Herald-Mage).

Gee, guess I better stop before I really get carried away and start hauling over every book from the other room...

posted 12-09-98 11:30 PM ET            

As for Brooks and Eddings, if you really look at it, there is VERY little that is truly original these days. Most of it is so cliche'd as to not be funny, and those that do go off in different directions do so mainly through storyline rather than innovation in the field itself. I mean, how many books aren't about a battle between good and bad?

IMO Eddings has some quite likeable characters. Beldin fits this category quite well.

Wraith: Hmm, funny, I started reading Janny Wurt's series, and after two (or was it three) books, I gave up. That storyline had soooo much promise, but IMHO she killed it off. Well, each to their own.

Also like Pratchett.

George RR Martin's second book has just come out in Aus, and I can't wait for it (apart from the fact I am reading Jordan's new book). The first was brilliant. I had forgotten about him until I went to the bookstore yesterday.

Theodore Sturgeon? Never heard of him...

I got about 3-400 books in my bookcases, and I sure as hell ain't gonna drag them all out either.

posted 12-10-98 12:32 AM ET            

Innovation? If you look for innovation you better tru to learn russian. There is now (in last 3-5 years) a new generation of really good writers appear. They mix all styles and make some new, which I think may be called by our russian name - fantastika. For example, if you like Tolkien (or hate him ) try to read Perumov - he wrote stories using Tolkien world, but with some interesting twist I don't like him, but he get some great fan support here. Or take G.L.Oldie - this is pseudonym for Gromov/Ladygensky. I can not even define their style or try to describe their books - but all of them are worth reading. Or take Dyachenko's - how would you like story, where not beautiful, but ugly princess was stolen by dragon, who later fall in love with her, return her to another man (who was not worthy of her), and... I would not speak of a finale, it is not totally impossible to guess it, but is perfect anyway. Or Lukianenko and his 'Night Watch' or 'Lord from Planet Earth'...

But you NEVER find there one thing - Battle between Good and Evil. I know - why, but don't sure, that I can explain it clear. It is simply not the option now. There are more interesting problems... And you almost never find superheroes there - it is all about simple and real men and women in some strange surrounding.

posted 12-10-98 02:30 AM ET            

However, it does sound like they are at least innovating.

posted 12-10-98 06:11 PM ET            

Yes, I was trying to say that I agreed with you on the Brooks issue: When younger, they seemed great; now I wonder what I was taking. His first 3 I still respect though, somewhat. And if you want someone beating a dead horse, look no farther than Jordan, who has managed to squeeze 8 massive books out of one generation of characters. I'm sorry, but eventually people learn to confront the problems and realize that the danger that the peasants are whispering about is real, and yes you have to stop your petty quibbles now. "The world is falling apart, but I'm too busy doing the laundry..." only works for so long in one generation of characters before you start getting annoyed at them.

posted 12-10-98 06:30 PM ET            

Glen Cook's The Black Company series.

posted 12-11-98 04:49 PM ET            

Is Anita Blake the Executioner with the penguin collection, or is that another series?

posted 12-14-98 02:40 AM ET            

I like the Robert Jordan series, but I do NOT like the art on the covers. Rand is supposed to be about 21 and kind of skinny, yet he always looks like a 35 year old body builder.

I like the Tolkien calendars by the Brothers Hildebrant. (I got the name right, didn't I?) Likewise the Bantam 10th and 25th anniversary Lord of the Ring covers are great with the 10th being Tolkien watercolors and the 25th by the brothers. However, the 50th anniversary covers are a pathetic joke. The hobbits look like wimpy fat men and the picture with Legolas and Gimli makes me laugh whenever I see it.

posted 12-14-98 03:13 PM ET            

I think Robert Jordans 'Wheel of Time'series is the best fantasy I have read. I also read one of his books about the 'Fallon Blood' (written under another name), but I didn't like it. It felt like he was trying to lecture me in politics, but I still never really got any clear view of where he stands politically.

posted 12-14-98 10:37 PM ET            

Brother Greg, how can you not have heard of Sturgeon? He's one of the best science-fiction writers of all time. He also wrote two of the best Star Trek episodes ("Amok Time", my favourite, and "Shore Leave." These, along with Harlan Ellison's "City on the Edge of Forever" show what can happen when a science-fiction writer writes for television).

posted 12-15-98 04:54 AM ET            

The Jordan and Goodkind series do mirror each other too closely to be coincidence. I don't know who's copying who, and I don't care, because the Goodkind series is written so much better. (Although Jordan's story is definately _bigger_) Basically, I think of Jordan's series the same way as I thought of Frankenstein: I'll work my way through the (IMO) bad writing so that I can enjoy a truly great story.

Everything that Weiss and Hickman writes is great, but the Twins series is definately their best work.

Been a really long time since I read a Xanth book (not 16 years, but then, that's a lot longer to me than to CClark)

Thomas Covenant. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. Wonderful world, and a great protagonist.

posted 12-15-98 12:02 PM ET            

You are right, Tolkien did not steal the stories, he wrote them himself, but you can not deny that some of the plots in the book has remarkable similarities with stories from old germanic and nordic mythology. I am not saying that this is negative. The reason I think he is overrated as a writer is just that I think his stories move too slowly forward, not that some of his plots are taken from another source.

posted 12-16-98 11:16 PM ET            

I'll have to verify that with the others though.

[Goes off into a huddle, much mumbling is heard]

Well, Jimbo, through a technicality in the laws, we decided it does qualify. The decision shall be reviewed by the full board at a later date.

posted 12-17-98 03:18 PM ET            

First of all Weiss/Hickman books are great. Yet I don't think the Twins were the best. Perhaps the first three (Dragonlance) or Dragons of the Summer Flame were the best. If I had to pick just one fantasy book as the best, it would be the DotSF.

Tolkien was a great author, but he had one book written ready before he died. That was The Lord of the Rings. Well you can count also The Hobbit, but actually it's just a prelude to the actual trilogy and was not meant to be an individual book. Silmarillion and The Book of Unfinished Tales were finished by his son and were not ready when JRRR died. It's easy to see that if you compare the texts to the ones in LotR. Actually they are pretty bad, I'm sorry to say.

One good series was the one that started with the book Wizard's Apprentice. Our local library doesn't yet have more episodes, but I'm pressuring, I'm pressuring...

posted 12-17-98 04:10 PM ET            

Tolkien wrote several child's tales before he wrote any novels. One of those tales just grew up to be the Hobbit. After it got a good reception he decided to write a full novel about the same topic.

Now I meant a novel when I wrote a book.

And yes, the style "grew" during the trilogy. Why wouldn't it, when the author had written just tales before? And also the shift of style suits the plot, while it also grows with the characters to the final climax.

posted 12-18-98 12:13 AM ET            

Quantity does not a great author make. Otherwise, some of the bloody Mills and Boon authors would be stupendous. =)

As for why Silmarrilion and Unfinished tales were "so bad" as you put it, that is because he never particularly meant them to be books in their own right. Tolkien wrote them (as he did LOTR) over some 20-30 years or so, and the Sil and UT were just scraps that he had used to flesh out the history of LOTR. Not as part of another book. So it is a bit unfair to judge him on that.

That aside, I still find the Silmarillion to be a good book. =)

posted 12-19-98 03:50 PM ET            

Silmarillion was meant to be a book. Or actually it was meant to be a saga for Englishmen, the way Norwegians have Edda(?) and Germans that something perhaps about Beowulf and Finns Kalevala. So it wasn't meant to be that entertaining as LotR and it was supposed to tell the history of that imaginative world. In my opinion it failed. It is quite hard to follow and after all it tells the same story over and over again. Yet it doesn't produce a feeling of true saga like reading Kalevala when you know it is written by one man.

And Unfinished Tales was just a collection of separate short stories. I've never liked that kind of books, so I didn't like that either.