[rune]

HI ALL

I started reading fantasy last year. I read Tolkien (Nice story but very detailed at times).
I have tried to read Eddings, slow and boring books.
Terry Brooks I like and Terry Goodkind.
But i have now read all their books.

I need new authors to try but dont know who.
I like plenty of magic and stuff, but no pages and pages of detail, i tend to scan over that stuff.
I did try Raymond Fiest Riftwar sage (just recently) but i have heard his other books are not as good.

Anyone got any good ideas?

[bookfreak13]

Lets see...
-Piers Anthony, not too much detail, his "Xanth" series is okay
-Terry Pratchett, very hilarious, I would reccomend him to anyone
-George R.R. Martin, yeah I know there is a lot of detail in his books, but his "Song of Ice and Fire" series is very good with all the plotlines and mysteries
-Tad Williams, another one with lots of detail, but like with Martin, the various plotlines and characters more than make up for him getting too much into detail
-Don Callander, sort of like Piers Anthony, doesn't overdo it on detail, reminds me of Anthony's "Xanth" series.
hope that helped!

[Cannon Fodder]

Well some of my favourites, that I'd recommend.

Terry Pratchett- great humorous Fantasy.
Robin Hobb- I've only read the Liveship Traders books but they really were excellant.
David Gemmell- Good stuff, fast paced and action packed, not always a lot of magic but certianly never any excessive detail.

[Belgarion]

I would recommend you to re-read David Eddings!! Slow and boring...hmmmm...this seem to say much about your character. Eddings have gone through painstaking years to achieve the best 10 book series regarding Belgarion. He have gone through meticulous detail of describing every country's political, religious, and economical infrastructure. The man is a god.

Terry Pratchet is pathetic..you cannot have a comical fantasy. It is a paradox. Think hard on that.

Robin Hobbs is reasonable but too tradegical and wierd. The Fool and Chade suffered far too much for my liking.

Terry Brooks is fantastic and is my 2nd all-time favourite author behind the very under-rated David Eddings. Allanon and Walker Boh are fantastic characters. I also loved the idea of a jurassic fairy world background.

JRRT is a classic but full of gay characters and a bit too detailed. But a fantatastic author who created the fantasy genre.

L E Modesitt is okay but his Recluse series is spolied by the time-zone changes.

Robbie Jordan is a sad fella who cannot make up him mind when to end the series and made the crucial mistake of making his first book far too boring for my liking to continue to read. A good book should be compulsive from the very first chapter.

SO HERE IS MY ADVICE..read DAVID EDDINGS!!!

[FitzChivalry]

Here is my advice, avoid David Eddings at all cost, if you read one series of him you already know exactly what happens in the next ones.

Some good series are:
Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny - immortal princes and princesses fight over the throne of Amber, the one true world, after their father the kind disappears, and then it gets complicated...

Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - The plot is basically the same old group of heroes go to save the world from an evil god (goddess in this case) but great characters, worth the time.

A song of ice and fire by George R.R. Martin - Probably the best series out there, can't begin to tell the plotline, lots of characters, very realistic, good guys don't always win.

some other cool series are: Robin Hobb's The Farseer, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, Glen Cock's The Black Company, C.S. Friedman's The Cold Fire Trilogy, Patricia Mckilip's The Riddlemaster of Hed and Michael Moorcock's Elric and Corum.

[allanon]

Well,I must say that IMO Feist is the BEST,with no close rivals.But I like also:
Weis&Hickman
Terry Brooks
Tolkien
Eddings
Jordan[his first books]
Goodkind[his first books]
LeGuin
Moorcock

[Belgarion]

This is for FitzChilvalry,

Robin Hobb's Farseer wasn't that good although I admit it contained some good storylines and plots. The story is far too tradegical and all the good characters suffered far too much. The Fool for instance was a good character but as the story progressed he became too victimised. It became too depressing and it took far too long for the hero to win....but did he win...looking at all the costs Fitzchivalry suffered...I don't think he did. He died and then became reincarnated. Absolute nonsense and crap.

Belgarion can overcome Fitzchivalry any day. Sorry mate if i sound a bit acid there.

[wolfshead]

i must admit to being more than a bit perplexed by references to there being 'loads of gay characters' in Tolkien's books. There aren't ANY> In fact there is almost no reference to relationships of a sexual nature at all, something the book has been criticised forin the past. i suppose someone might take Fodo and Sam's closeness for something else entirely but I have little doubt it was not intended as such by thre author, who was following the style of heroic sagas where male warriors/comrades often declaed undying lfriendship, shared bedrolls, kissed each other when one was dying upon the field and so forth...

[Cadfael]

The Runelords by David Farland are a good set of books, not much detail... just a very fast paced plot...

[DarthV]

The last few months have really opened my eyes on what I consider good fantasy.

Robin Hobb's Farseer
C.S. Friedman's Coldfire

I'm going to wait until some of the other epic series are closer to completion before starting them :

JV Jones
GRR Martin
Kate Elliot
Janny Wurts
John Marco

You might also want to check out :

Tad Williams
Dave Duncan
Stephen Donaldson

I should get a statement from Chapters to find out how much I've spent there in the last 12 months...probably 800$ on softcovers...