THE BEST FANTASY NOVELS

as a literary category FANTASY NOVEL has a very broad inclusive quality that can accomodate any fictional work featuring mythical beings places objects events etc


of course THE LORD OF THE RINGS and ALICE IN WONDERLAND will probably be at the apex of most lists and rightly so

they are for that reason a convenient jumping off place to mention other fine creations that may not be so well known or frequently read

although the title of this thread is Fantasy Novels do not hesitate to include

short stories

poems

and plays


here are my recommendations in two categories:



Classic - THE CUTHULU MYTHOS by H P Lovecraft

and PETER PAN by J M Barrie



More recent - AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman

and HIS DARK MATERIALS TRILOGY by Philip Pullman
















[Edited on Nov 21, 2004 by zenhell]

when i was growing up i loved the sword of shannara series by terry brooks. and i would love to see them made into a three part movie series comparable to lord of the rings.

i'm not a nerd.

The Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen, and the complete Dark Tower series, by Stephen King.

The "Wheel of Time" novels by Robert Jordan.

The "Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser" novels by Fritz Leiber.

The "Elric" novels by Michael Moorcock.

The original "Conan" novels by Robert E. Howard (and finished by other authors).

The "Brak the Barbarian" novels by John Jakes.

The "Death Dealer" novels by James Silke and Frank Frazetta.

To those I'll add:

Beowulf
Gardner's Grendel
Lewis' Narnia stuff
Peake's Gormenghast books
Le Guin's Earthsea stuff
White's The Once and Future King
Adams' Watership Down
Helprin's Winter's Tale
Mary Stuart's Arthurian legends
Mallory's Le Morte de Arthur
Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry
and Pullman's His Dark Materials series.


[Edited on Jan 05, 2004 by NowhereGirl]

R.A. Salvator any thing set in The Forgotten Realms ,he has many books out there a good place to start is The Crystal Shard

Hell yeah! Finally someone agrees with me. Kudos to you, Maladjusted. I'm reading the latest "Companions" novel right now and it kicks ass!

George R.R. Martins " A Game of Thrones" and all the subsequent books in A Song of Fire and Ice.

Michael Moorcocks Jerry Cornelius books. Yeah, they might be more in the SciFi department, but then try proving it...

China Mievilles Tales of New Crobuzon. I am particularly fond of "The Scar".

Gene Wolfes Tales of the New Sun and Long Sun. Its just kind of neat really.

Magician by Raymond E Feist

The rest in that series are good, but after them his others go downhill.

The Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy!!!

I'm rather partial to the Legend of the 5 rings series.. samurai, ninja, demons and hoards of the undead

Most of the stuff by Melanie Rawn, Anne McCaffrey, Tad Williams and Stephen Donaldson is also worth a mention, although George R R Martin is definitely the best I've read for years. Came across the Kushiel stuff the other day and although I have yet to read I am very intrigued...

A Charge to Keep By George W. Bush

and

Dragonlance!!

Guy Gavriel Kay - The Sarantine Mosaic

i'll second that... but i actually like the rest of the series a lot too.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. Chronically depressing at points but absolutely stunning. All his stuffs incredible but thats my favourite.

Steven Erikson is also excellant. Mainly because I want to be Undead though.

Most of the way through Magician, if the endings good I'll third it. Read some of his later stuff which is good but not as good as this so far.

[Edited on Jan 05, 2004 by Fry]

Goddamned ROIGHT!! I knew I loved you for a reason, Cherie (*edit- you too Scopitone)

At 10, I learned to read with the Chronicles. Some may call it a LOTR ripoff, but the majority of fantasy is under that shadow. DL still kicks major Dragon Ass.


est Solamnas oth Mithas like a motherfucker, yo.

[Edited on Jan 05, 2004 by KidMorlock]

chronicles of amber

I just want to throw in "The Druid of Shannara" Terry Brooks.
I know most fantasy fans have read all of them already, I quit after the prequel, but "The Druid" was definitely my favourite out of them all.

People who call it a LOTR ripoff have no idea what they are talking about. They are AMAZING books, and they are the very first books that got me into Fantasy.

Just got done reading The Silent Blade, awsome story and character development.

well lets see pretty much anything by salvatore in the forgotten realms setting any of wise and hickmans dl books oh and cant forget the sword of truth series by terry goodkind damn good series

Martin, George R.R.
A Game of Thrones

Want a book so fucking good that nothing else will get done till you catch up with the series?

I was into the first month of my HOT new relationship and after both getting hooked we spend are evenings reading instead of boning.

THIS IS A VERY VERY VERY GOOD BOOK!
I WILL GIVE A DOLLAR TO ANYONE WHO TRIES IT!
(an invisible dollar)

wow i thought I was the only person who bought The Complete Book of Swords... AWESOME Fantasy novel...but don't get the little books that he wrote afterwards... the next two are good, but the last one is awful, ruins the series