[Pointed]

Reading the posts on this forum has had a pleasant side effect.

It has forced me to evaluate why I enjoyed certain books at certain times.
I started reading Fantasy at age 11 iirc, though the first book that i can remember clearly is Alan Dean Foster's Spell Singer followed by some Xanth books by Piers Anthony.

The first Fantasy series that really blew my socks off, was Feist's Magician (world building, magic system, characterization and pace).
I remember thinking how do you top this:rolleyes:

Fortunately, i've had this experience over and over again. The next "Wow" read for me was Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile (world building, magic system and kickass characters), followed shortly after by Michael Scott rohan's Winter World (atmosphere and writing ability) series, Donaldson's Covenant and Mordants Need series (World building, writing ability and atmosphere) and The Cycle of Fire Trilogy by Janny Wurts (world building, magic system and scale)

Next in line was Robert Jordan who deserves his place amongst the all time greats for his first five books (sometimes trite but nobody did the farm boy to hero better than jordan, also world building, magic system and humour).

I picked up Robin Hobs Farseer (characterisation, world building) trilogy sometime in the mid 90ies and was once again reminded of why i love fantasy, although on susequent rereads, iv'e been staggered by the the amount of unfullfilled potential and immersion breaking plot development in these books.

Jordan was a tough act to beat imo, but along came a game of thrones.
Martin was another eye opener on whats possible in the Fantasy genre(Characterisation, writing ability and atmosphere).

During the long waits between jordan and martin books, i was lucky enough to stumble upon J.V. Jones latest series the Sword of Shadows (character realisation and atmosphere), the clan is the best realised faction in Fantasy imo.

And then there was Erikson.... The best thing since toilet paper was invented imho:p
The Malazan series is a romp through world building at its finest. You literally never know whats around the next corner. Eriksons backround in ethnoarcheology iirc gives Eriksons world an imersive quallity thats hard to beat.

My newest favorite is R Scott Bakker, The Darkness that comes before was a debut offering not without its faults, Bakker however keeps on getting better and better. A tight plot, excellent characterisation combined with massive world building and thought provoking prose. Try A judging Eye to witness a budding Fantasy master.


It would interest me to here your chronological journey through your past and present favorites.:)

[chris777]

Well my reading experience is odd. I've always been a guy that plays sports outside, made fun of people who read. In a joking way. Never read a book for pleasure until I was 22. Started working at a job and was bored, decided to try read during down time. The only book available was "Fahrenheit 451". It was OK, and made me want to read and made me think about what I wanted to read. Which brought me to fantasy.

A friend there was reading Vlad Taltos series. So I started there, and thought it was really good. Very fluid writing Steven Brust has.

Once I finished with this series I was told I should read "The Death Gate Cycle" by Weis and Hickman. Thought it was amazing. I wanted to find more similar books.

Stumbled upon "Dragonvarld" another Weis and Hickman book. Not a very popular series, and for good reason. It's OK, only OK. So I wanted something from a great author to make up for it.

Found The Dark Tower, by Stephen King. Again back to amazing. Less fantasy, more old west meets scifi. So I wanted to find something with strict fantasy, highly rated.

Rift War. Feist. AWESOME. My favorite so far. I've only read the trilogy, but plan to read the rest of the "Cycle".

I think it was here where i found many great series. I purchased the first 2 books of WoT, Farseer, and Malazan. Now I know I made some very good choices. I first tried reading Farseer, I wanted more assassin type fantasy...and made it through book1, but didn't like it enough to continue(I may go back some day). I then tried ASOIAF, and got through the prologue and where the Starks find their Direwolves...and was bored to tears. I put the book down thinking I made a mistake.

At that point I tried Wheel of Time, and fell in love. Despite the fall off after book6, I still love the series, and always will. After catching up to the current WOT book(11 at that time), I wanted to start another series, but not so daunting. So Malazan is still on my shelf.

I believe it was here I read Good Omens, Neil Gaiman. A great book. I'm more fond of series/trilogy types, but he writes a good book. I tried American Gods as well, but never got through it. The gay Cab God or whatever happened there I didn't care for, and the writing never really drew me in like I expected it to.

A Song Of Ice and Fire
I decided that I should at least read the whole book, since I bought it. In TV I normally give a series at least 4 episodes, or more if they are the 30min kind, before I decide it sucks. In books I am deciding to do the same. So I gave it another shot. Wow am I glad I did. Love how he does his chapters, and characters. Wish he'd finish, obviously. Tied with WOT as my 2nd favorite series so far.

About the time where I tried and failed reading Farseer, I found a girl, who is now my Fiancee. Well she likes to read mystery...not fantasy. So I've been trying to force my books down her throat(Among other things! jk...not really). She read most of the first WOT book, and most of the first Magician book. She didn't like either...And I think it was because she went into the book expecting to hate it and not wanting to admit it if she did like it. Regardless I kept pushing and eventually gave her my list of books. And she picked one.

While waiting for the books to arive, and for her to finish her current book. I read Tigana and To Reign In Hell. Would not really recommend either to anyone. I know a lot disagree, but I thought Tigana was pretty bad. Neither had me wanting to come back and read more...but I forced myself hoping it would get better. Both of them got better towards the end, but the journey there was not worth my time.

She chose The Warded Man. So we read it together. She loved it, I loved it. I also read book2(she has not yet). I wouldn't rank it up there with WOT/ASOIAF/RIFTWAR, but it's about Dark Tower rating. Definitely worth reading.

About 10minutes ago I just finished book13 of WoT, Towers of Midnight. I liked it!

I plan to start Cold Fire Trilogy this weekend.

I do really want to read Malazan, but I am not yet int he mindset to start another HUGE series. You have to understand how I think though If i read book1 and like it..i will want to read the rest of it and nothing else, until i am done w/the series. So it will be Malazan, and only Malazan for a 6months..or however long it takes.

[algernoninc]

earliest fantasies are the classic fairy tales and legends : I had a book on The Greatest Legends in the World that started with Ghilgamesh and went through Greek and Romans to Song of Roland, The Round Table, The Nibelungen, Tristan and Isolde. There was also the Grimm Brothers collection, a big series on myths from around the world ("Undying Tales") and later the Arabian Nights with the djinns and rocs and assorted fantastic kingdoms.

The next period was mostly Jules Verne and H G Wells, followed by a few years of Dumas, Paul Feval, Karl May, Eugen Sue, Sven Hassel, Walter Scott or Fenimore Cooper.

Then I decided to become a sailor and I read a lot of travel books : Thor Heyerdahl, Fridtjof Nanssen, Columbus voyage, Captain Cook's, Douglass Reeman and a local favorite : Toate Panzele Sus [approx. translation Host the Sails High).

When that plan fell through I had a long period of reading classic SF [Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke) and classic everything else (Balzac, Zola, Flaubert, Hardy, Galsworthy, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Marquez and so on)

I continued to read more modern non-genre and SF until my 30's when I started to get a keener interest in fantasy: it started with my first reads of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit in the early 90's, followed by a bunch of Terry Pratchett, Shardik and Maya by Richard Adams, Robert E Howard, Dune by Frank Herbert, some borderline fantasy / SF by Brian Aldiss, .

Fantasy took a more central stage after I read Robin Hobb and George R R Martin and I'm now planning to alternate between reading new stuff and plugging in the holes in my fantasy education with older titles.

[Loerwyn]

It's a relatively short journey for me, sadly.

I think it started with my nan and my mum, and I remember borrowing my nan's copy of The Hobbit to read for school (Must have been about 10 at the time). I tried to read her omnibus edition of The Lord of the Rings but I'd always struggled to get into it (And I believe that very edition is the one which started my aversion to tomes). In the next couple of years my mum bought me it split into three parts, and also a copy of the Hobbit to go with it, and I think that's what really started it.

During high school, I branched out a little. My nan supplied me with Sir Pratchett's The Bromeliad, but what really cemented my love of comical fantasy was the teen series called Tales of the Dark Forest, written by two authors named Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore. From there I've moved onto slightly sillier books.

My mum told me a while ago, after I'd got Carrie by King, that she'd read his books when she was my age (roughly), and as such I started to read more of them. I came across a fantasy novel called The Eyes of the Dragon, and I absolutely loved it.

And recently, perhaps the past year or two, I've become more exposed to the larger names in fantasy. Jordan, Goodkind, Martin, Brooks - They all have a place on my shelves. Due to my growing interest in fantasy, I joined this website and became aware of so many more authors. Thanks to here I have Buchanan, Newton and many others. But, that's not all. I became a little involved in a topic towards the start of this year revolving around female protagonists, and it culminated in probably one of my favourite fantasy series - Jim C. Hines' Princess series. If it wasn't for this site I'd probably have never known about it.

And, even more recently than that, I've been reading some Discworld novels and quite liked them, although I'll admit I find my enjoyment Pratchett to be very inconsistent.

And that's the rather chronological history of this late bloomer's favorites.

[Sfinx]

It would interest me to here your chronological journey through your past and present favorites.:)

Mmmhhh, well, ok, let's see!

Limiting to fantasy, and listing some of my relevant reads in that period:

--> Late seventies, early eighties: first forays into fantasy. For instance:

Thea Beckman (Crusade in jeans, Give me Space trilogy...)
JRR Tolkien (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings...)
Wim Gijsen (Dream Thief series)

--> Mid to end eighties: discovering some of the all time greats. For instance:

Tanith Lee (Birthgrave trilogy, Tales from the Flat Earth, Wars of Vis...)
Jack Vance (Lyonesse, Dying Earth, Demon Princes, Planet of Adventure...)
Brian Aldiss (Helliconia)
Clive Barker (Weaveworld, Cabal...)

--> early to end 90s: multi-volume series galore! For instance:

Raymond Feist (Riftwar Saga...)
Stephen Donaldson (First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant...)
Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time)
Terry Goodkind (Sword of Truth)
Tad Williams (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn...)
Robin Hobb (Farseer Trilogy)
Ian Irvine (View from the Mirror)

--> end 90s to ~ 2005: ' going back in time' to see what I'd missed :) For instance:

Patricia McKillip (Riddle Master Trilogy)
Ursual LeGuin (Earthsea...)
Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser...)
Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast)
Eddison (the Worm Ouroboros)
Gene Wolfe (Book of the New/Long/Short Sun...)

--> 2005 - now: catching up with the 'contemporaries' [well, sort of] For instance:

George Martin (a Song of Ice and Fire)
Joe Abercrombie (First Law Trilogy)
R. Scott Bakker (Prince of Nothing)
Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen)

That's about it in a nutshell, apologies to all authors not mentioned in this short anthology :cool:

Cheers,

Sfinx.

[Rexington]

Here goes.

The first books I can remember reading with any proficiency is the Hardy Boys series my dad gave me. I also read the Lord Of The Rings and it was the worst book(s) I had ever read. I then read the Chronicles Of Narnia and liked it. I then read the Foundation Series by Asimov and kinda liked it. I then read a couple more Sci-Fi books that I can't recall. Around 6th grade I came accross a book in the school library called The Sword Of Shannara. I absolutely loved it! I told my dad about the book and he suggested that I read Lord Of The Rings again. After rolling my eyes at the stupidity of adults I did re-read the series and really liked it. My dad also gave me a book called The Dragonriders of Pern. I also loved that series and tore through all that I could find in the surrounding area. Shortly after that I got a hold of the next 2 Shannara books and devoured them. After that a friend of mine lent me the Riftwar series by Feist, and another friend lent me The Belgariad and Elenium trilogies and follow-up trilogies. I liked them all. My real favorite during that time period was the Xanth books by Piers Anthony.

During highschool (94-97) I played three sports for my first two years and 2 sports my last two years. I read whatever books the school made me read. The four books I really enjoyed though were Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fahrenheight 451 by Ray Bradbury and Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. I do remember aquiring the second book of The Deathgate cycle (Elven Star) and not reading because it wasn't book one. I still wonder what happened to that book. I also read the first wheel of time book (wasn't impressed enough to find the second).

Shortly after highschool I read various science fiction books that I don't remember except Space by James A. Michener (hated it) and Mystery by Peter Straub (also hated it). Then my life changed.

I decided to go down a self-destructive path about a year out of HS, so my memory is a bit hazy. I know that I discovered The Stand by Stephen King (still my favorite book) and read a bunch of his other novels. I also read the Empire Trilogy by Feist/whoever that was. I also read most of the Shannara books that were out at that time. About eight 7-8 years ago a female friend lent me the Wheel of Time series. Even having to read most of it with one hand covering an eye (only way to read drunk out of my mind) I enjoyed it. I am not sure, but I think I read a couple Thieves World books too. I don't remember if/what other books I read during those years.

About 6 yrs ago I came out of my drunken stupor, moved, and sobered up completely. My voracious appetite for books was re-awakened. I read The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. I liked them on a purely escapist/entertainment level. I then read some more Stephen King before going back to my true love, Fantasy. I then read Dragons of Autumn Twilight followed by 6 or 7 Drizzt novels before re-reading The Wheel of Time. I must admit that I do not have a love or hate relationship with that series like most people do. I kinda like it, but I just want it to end. I then read the Serpentwar Saga, all of Feists various riftwar books, Bio of a Space Tyrant by Anthony, and the aforementioned Belgariad and elenium trilogies. During my time with Eddings I joined here. I have since read the Coldfire trilogy by Friedman. That series, in my opinion, is almost as bad as Space by Michener. For the first time in my life I almost quit reading all three books multiple times. I did read the whole series, mainly because I have to finish what I start and also because by finishing it my opinion actually counts (to me at least). I then read the Mistborn Trilogy by Sanderson. I really liked that series. I am now at a standstill choosing between a sci-fi series (Mars trilogy perhaps) and The Deathgate cycle. After reading one or both of those series I think I am going to tackle the Malazan series. Thank you to anybody who read this absurdly long post!!