[DarkMatter15]

Can anyone recommend fantasy or sci-fi novels with great imagery and descriptions of landscapes? Authors who don't overally decsribe but create an attractive picture? thankyou

[Hemingway]

I'd say Raymond Feist is a pretty good medium point, though his description of human complexities and thought processes get very detailed, but not overtly so, very good landscape description with a brisk pace.

[milamber_reborn]

William Forstchen's Honoured Enemy. In as few words as possible he paints a good picture of Feist's world.

[horribleman]

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun:

Book1 is Shadow and Claw
Book2 is Sword and Citadel

The books move at a fair pace, the descriptions of the places is phenomenal and the story is good too.

I personally think that Martin's Song of Ice and Fire offer good descriptions of places too.

Tad Williams' Memory Sorrow and Thorn has it's moments, but I found it a teensy bit slow.

Not strictly fantasy, but Dan Simmons' Hyperion is quasi Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and his descriptions are also rather spiffing.

[DarkMatter15]

Thank you everyone! I'll be sure to check out these books. Thats great to hear you say Gene Wolf. I've been planning to read the Sun books for a long time. Thanx!

[Eventine]

If you're looking for more descriptive writing, I'd suggest Janny wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow. Book one is called Curse of the Mistwraith, and Janny is well known (and sometimes criticised) for her descriptive writing.

Another one to look at would be Tad Williams' Otherland. Tad uses a variety of fantastical worlds in these books, each of which he describes quite well to vividly paint in the readers mind.

Finally, I'd suggest Sean Russel and his book The One Kingdom. At the time I read it I was quite impressed with his description of the river where much of the story is set.

[Cannon Fodder]

Tad William's Otherland is pretty good in that regard but I have come across people complaining about him being too descriptive, although I think that might have been in regard to his Memory, Thorn and Sorrow series.

[manticore]

Philip Pullmans Dark Materials trilogy

[Hatfield]

I don't know if you're looking for PRETTY imagery, but as far as excellent and absolutely enthralling DARK imagery, Jeff Vandermeer's "City of Saints and Madmen" takes the cake. His description of the wild, mysterious, and historical city of Ambergris is a true treat. I could really see it in front of my face, smell the stenches and sweeter aromas, and hear the sounds of chaos, especially on the festival of the squid (?) day.

The experience of reading vandermeer for the first time paralleled the experience of reading f. scott fitzgerald for the first time: you just want to rip the words out of the book and eat them. Because they're delicious.

[Eventine]

Originally posted by Cannon Fodder
Tad William's Otherland is pretty good in that regard but I have come across people complaining about him being too descriptive, although I think that might have been in regard to his Memory, Thorn and Sorrow series.

Probably both, but Otherland has copped the brunt of it, especially due to its length. I enjoyed every moment of it though.