[Kibeth]

You and I all love the Pellinor Books but what else do you guys read. Care to recommend any, preferably with similar style to Pellinor series. :)

[alison]

It's probably a bit cheeky for me to butt in here, since I'm not quite a reader. I guess you must have read Garth Nix's books, Kibeth! I like them too. You've probably read most of these already, but here we go... A big influence on the Pellinor books, besides Tolkien, is Ursula le Guin's Earthsea quintet. I've stolen quite a lot from le Guin, and Cadvan is rather like Ged (though I hope he's not a carbon copy - I take my cue from Ezra Pound, a poet I like a lot, who said that great writers don't borrow, they steal :D )

Less obviously, I really like writers like Alan Garner (The Owl Service, Red Shift &c) and David Almond, although they write very different kinds of books, not quite secondary reality like the Pellinor books. I think that their writing, which is just so good, and often so moving and poetic, gives me something to aim for. And then, to shift to left field a bit, I think my prose ambitions come from books like Jane Austen's (who just has the best style and writes brilliant dialogue) and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (I'd like to write a fantasy book like WH one day - what a romance that is! - but I have to finish the Pellinor ones first). But that's probably enough from me...

[Gemini]

well.. where to begin? I absolutely loved the Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglass, it's very Tolkienish, quite epic seeing as there are 6 books (though i thought the first 3 were the Axis Trilogy, it might be different overseas) all hovering around the 500 page mark, it's got romance, betrayal, battles and mysterious powers, it's all there, also, i loved Threshold by Douglass as well. Storm Constantine is quite good too, i'm in the middle of reading one of her series, it starts with Sea Dragon Heir, (i forget the names of the rest :o ). Eragon by Chritopher Paolini is ok, not the best book I've ever read... but hey, i was a good attempt by a 15 year old, it's been described as "Star Wars in Middle Earth" which is fairly accurate. And of course, i have to mention Harry Potter, it's not very Gift/ Riddle like, but, i felt compelled to mention my other obsession... "only" 114 days to go... sigh. There was another quest type fantasy i just thought of. It's called the Ropemaker (?) or something, i forget who wrote it but it was enjoyable.

BTW, i've also read the Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix, and recomend them, but as Kibeth has probably already read them...... :D .

I've also enjoyed a fair bit of John Marsden in my day (it's not fantasy or sf, :p but it's great anyway), my favs were Winter and (of course) The Tomorrow Series, if you haven't read or heard abput the Tomorrow Series, you have been living under a rock, so go get them! Z for Zachariah was also really good. ummm, LotR...duh. A Journey to Distant Mountains by Jill Dobson, also recomemdable.

i think that's about it from me. :D (you hope ;) )

~17 days :D ~

[Lirva]

i read a lot especially fantasy garth nix, and ursula le guin are recent favs (i did not see the similarity till you mentioned it alison there are a few similarities but Cadvan is much more charming and as i imagine them Cadvan is younger looking and quite a bit sexier(heee heee hee))
tamora pierce has been a fav of mine for years as has phillip pullman (the sally lockhart quartet is fab if you haven't read them!) but i also have my hopeless romantic side so Jane Eyre has to be one of the best books i have ever read and Maya Angelou is always great. "By The River Piedra I sat Down and Wept" by Paolo Cohelo is amazing i re read it so much i just love it. eragon the gift and Lian Hearn's Otori trillogy are my most recent reads. at the mo i have gone back to Ann Rice's vampire chronicles with Blackwood Farm, also dipping into Anna Karenina for my romantic self!

[Mrs. Cadvan]

I'd definately recommend George R. R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice & Fire' series. There's seven books in all, but only the first three are out at the moment. The writing is totally addictive, the plot original and complex, and the characters very intriguing. If you like 'realistic' fantasy you'd probably like them; they're very medievally and I think one of the many plotlines is an allegory of England's War of the Roses (pre-Tudor). Fantastic books, in my opinion. :D

[Lirva]

yeah my brother is totally hooked on them i haven't got round to reading them yet but i might have to nick them off him

[Merenwen]

Ursula le Guin's Earthsea quintet- not read the books but i watched a program on t.v over easter called Earthsea and the main character was ged so am guessin this was adapted from the books. it was quite gd but i imagine the books were way better... lets not go into the harry potter movies OMG all i can say is the books were a million times better and after seein the first movie i've made a point of not watchin the rest. soz thats enough of my ranting for now

Merenwen

[Seira]

heh more books to read (a avoid doing that assingment and HW over). ok these are some of the authors i have enjoyed over the years and are well worth reading (excluding authors already mentioned)
Britain, Kirsten (http://www.kristenbritain.com/)
Lackey, Mercedes (http://www.mercedeslackey.com/)
Harding, Traci (http://www.voyageronline.com.au/traciharding/)
Takabayashi, Tomo (if you can find any of her stuff in english)
Hamilton, Laurell K. (http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/) - some of her stand alone books were excellent
Hobb, Robin (http://www.robinhobb.com/)
Carroll, Jenny aka. Carbot, Meg (http://www.jennycarroll.com/)
Wrede, Patricia C.
nothing else jumps into my mind ATM (evil sleep deprevation) but these are all very good writers
S

[alison]

If you haven't read the Earthsea quintent, Merewen, you might really like it. They're wonderful books, and Le Guin is a great writer. There are also some Earthsea short stories she put out not long ago, which are worth a look. But so is anything by her!

There's a not so well known writer who's in my book a bit of a genius called Russell Hoban. He often very dark and sometimes very difficult, but simply amazing. He's one of those unclassificable writers, his books are always of realities that are slightly askew from ours. His most famous book is probably RIDDLEY WALKER, but THE LION OF BOAZ-JACHIN AND JACHIN-BOAZ is one of the most beautiful books I've read, and well worth a look.

[Lirva]

definitely read the earthsea books they are so much better than the t.v. thing Ursula le Guin hates that adaptation herself the really didn't do the books a lot of justice, they have so much more richness, i am so glad i read the books before i saw that.