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#1 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 19,057
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Advice on Fantasy Books for my mother.
She likes 'Epic Fantasy' style stuff. David Eddings, Terry Brooks etc.
She wants some suggestions for similar authors. I don't do Fantasy much so I can't help but, I told her I know people who can. Any suggestions folks?, I don't know any better bunch of folks to help. |
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#2 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,896
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Tad Williams writes some pretty good "High" fantasy, although his female characters tend to be weak, and he's fairly derivative of Tolkien.
Look for his "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" books and and "Shadowmarch" books. Uprooted by Naomi Novik is fun. |
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#3 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 19,057
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She likes derivative of Tolkien and weak female characters.
She doesn't like lots of names and exposition. She likes action, wizards, dragons and a lack of long 'fantasy' names and back story exposition. She tried the D+D stuff 'Forgotten realms' and 'Dragonlance' but she thinks they are boring with too many names and waffle. |
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#4 |
Hyperthetical
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: A pocket paradise between the sewage treatment plant and the railroad
Posts: 14,514
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Various old stuff:
Dennis McKiernan: The Iron Tower trilogy, The Silver Call duology (These are so derivative of Tolkien that the duology, written first, was originally intended to be a direct sequel to Lord of the Rings, and when the Tolkien estate didn't allow that, the trilogy was written to be so much like LotR that the already-written duology, with a few names changed, could be a sequel to that instead.) Guy Gavriel Kay: The Fionavar Tapestry (This is infinitely better than anything else mentioned in this post, but it still has enough dragons action wizards etc. that your mother will like it, if she doesn't mind poignant heroic sacrifice.) That Eragon series, maybe? Its almost as bad as Terry Brooks so she'll probably like it. The two great kids' "Chronicles Of...:" Prydain (Lloyd Alexander) and Narnia (C.S. Lewis). Why not? |
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#5 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,739
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Kingkiller Chronicles?
Game of Thrones? Seconding the Guy Gavriel Kay. |
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#6 |
Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 241
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The Earthsea books by LeGuin, maybe. Jack Vance's Dying Earth stuff too.
Fred |
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#7 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 19,057
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#8 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 19,057
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#9 |
Nasty Brutish and Tall
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 17,161
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Raymond E Feist's 'Magician' was OK. The later books in the series left me cold.
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#10 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 19,057
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#11 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: The Great Northwet
Posts: 20,053
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I was going to suggest Pratchett but he doesn't really fit the profile and she's probably already done that anyhow.
Classics? L. Sprague DeCamp etc? |
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#12 |
New Blood
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Shores of Lake Humber
Posts: 17
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Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (14 books, I think) would keep her going for a while. Certainly the first in the series (The Eye of the World) is worth a read - some of the others drag a bit, but you're hooked by then.
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#13 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 84,797
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#14 |
Bandaged ice that stampedes inexpensively through a scribbled morning waving necessary ankles
Join Date: Jan 2007
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#15 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 11,477
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Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy?
Peter Brett's Painted Man series? SWMBO is a big fan. A bit dark and violet if she's okay with that Joe Abercrombie First Law trilogy. Some wonderfully realized characters |
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#16 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 11,477
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If you have Amazon Prime K T Davies' Dangerous to Know and its successors are a fun free read on Kindle Unlimited. Some scatological language - think Deadpool.
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"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
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#17 |
Maledictorian
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 6,847
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Farseer Trilogy by Robbin Hobb
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...n_s_Apprentice Liveship Traders Triology by the same author https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45100.Ship_of_Magic I love Brandon Sanderson's books (all of them), but they tend to get technical with their systems of Magic - not sure your Mom would like that. |
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#18 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 19,269
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Piers Anthony's Xanth series goes on forever, but I found the first six or so books to be enjoyable.
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#19 |
Maledictorian
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 6,847
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Opinion is divided on the subject. All the others say it is; I say it isn’t. |
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#20 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 11,477
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"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
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#21 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,739
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The R. E. Howard Conan stories, for real.
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#22 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 11,477
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Paul Edwin Zimmer's Dark Border - first 2 books. The Lost Prince and King Chondos' Ride. The latter 2 I didn't enjoy so much.
I'd be surprised if they didn't at least partially inspire Gemmel's Legend. |
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"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
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#23 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,602
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I second Jordan's Wheel of Time, though like was said the middle books drag.
Glen Cook's Black Company is pretty entertaining. |
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#24 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,739
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Lies of Locke Lamora?
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#25 |
BOFH
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire
Posts: 11,477
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"Your deepest pools, like your deepest politicians and philosophers, often turn out more shallow than expected." Walter Scott. |
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#26 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,739
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#27 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Toronto
Posts: 1,010
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I've read most of the Wheel of Time series and I recommend the first three. After the first three the series has a truly massive case of verbal diarrhea and utterly outrageous padding. There are entire novels in which basically nothing happens and they are written in some of the most turgid dull prose ever put to paper. It seems obvious to me the Jordon decided to expand and enlarge the series in order to extract more lucre from his fans. The result being many, many pages of boredom. Also Jordon and his publishers began to show what can only be called contempt for the fans by prolonging the series beyond any sense to the point of idiocy.
The result is that some of the later novels in the series are among the worst fantasy ever written. For reading I recommend the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. It is very well written and quite strange. |
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#28 |
Nasty Woman
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 71,597
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Why weak women???
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a fantastic trilogy. |
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Restore checks and balances no matter your party affiliation. |
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#29 |
Uncritical "thinker"
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 20,024
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I liked Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World series
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...e_Anvil_of_Ice |
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#30 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,739
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#31 |
0.25 short of being half-witted
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Somewhere north of the South Pole
Posts: 12,266
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Aw, crud, scratch my recommendation for Katharine Kerr's Deverry Cycle then
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#32 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 18,290
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Who is General Failure? And why is he reading my hard drive? ...love and buttercakes... |
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#33 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 18,290
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Dark materials maybe? Coopers novels perhaps.
Hard to know where to pitch it. |
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Who is General Failure? And why is he reading my hard drive? ...love and buttercakes... |
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#34 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 18,290
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U. K LeGuin even?
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Who is General Failure? And why is he reading my hard drive? ...love and buttercakes... |
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#35 |
Uncritical "thinker"
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 20,024
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Probably not a good place to recommend Richard Morgan's "Land Fit for Heroes" trilogy
What I find a hilarious (and accurate) review by Joe Abercrombie https://www.joeabercrombie.com/2008/...steel-remains/
Quote:
Quote:
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OECD healthcare spending Expenditure on healthcare http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm link is 2015 data (2013 Data below): UK 8.5% of GDP of which 83.3% is public expenditure - 7.1% of GDP is public spending US 16.4% of GDP of which 48.2% is public expenditure - 7.9% of GDP is public spending |
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#36 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,739
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The Dresden Files. The epic fantasy gets off to a slow start, and there is a bit of exposition from time to time (gets a bit repetitive if you read the books one after the other), but very little fantasy name stuff. Even then, the more fantastical creatures generally go by easy English nicknames.
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#37 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 31,739
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C. J. Cherryh.
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#38 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 17,704
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Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland any where close to what you are looking for?
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#39 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 4,304
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The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
It is a 7 book story that is very high fantasy and very epic. I have re-read it every two years for the past 10 years. And I will keep re-reading it. It is the best fantasy story that I have ever read. Pretty much all my rpg video game character names over the past ten years have been named after characters in those books. |
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100% Cannuck! |
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#40 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 11,773
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You beat me to it, but at least I can second this.
I'd also like to very strongly recommend The Ramayana, and specifically the translation by Ramesh Menon that I recently read. It may not exactly qualify as fantasy, any more than say the Iliad or the Odyssey do, but then aside from real people having believed these stories to be real, it's not much different. The story is about a ten headed demon who rules the three worlds (basically heaven, hell and earth) and is invincible to all gods and immortals but whose distain for humanity led him to overlook them, and Rama, the man who is destined to kill him. The demon king is portrayed as a somewhat heroic if evil figure. Their final fight scene full of celestial weapons and everything is amazing. Menon's translation puts it into thrilling prose and cuts out the repetitive and digressive storytelling that I think was probably present in the original (at least that's how the Mahabharata was). It's really a riveting read. |
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