Title is pretty self explanatory. After wracking my mind on Bakker, Martin, and Erikson, I'm ready—and by ready I mean NOW!—for some lighter but by no means unintelligent fantasy: swashbuckling stuff, stories revolving around roguish adventurers and derring-do. Something similar to The Three Musketeers or The Lies of Locke Lamora or the Sharpe series. Suggestions?
Thank you for your time
Mage-
Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy fits that particular bill, imho. Very fun and action packed.
These two series have been in progress for some time, so you may have already read them, but...
Glen Cook's Black Co. or Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books might do the trick.
from what you described, Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders series would be perfect.
There's a thread from earlier in the year that has some good info in...
http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showt...ight=adventure
I would disagree with Liveship Traders being all that light-hearted. Hobb's work is usually depressing. But there definitely is an adventure involved (pirates!) so it could work.
My suggestion is Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. Some heavy guilt does develop around book 4, but the first few books are very light hearted. The first book, His Majesty's Dragon (in the US), can be read alone and is pretty fun.
Also, Terry Pratchett's stuff is pretty light and funny to boot. The Rincewind novels are a lot more like the adventurous derring-do you requested, but they aren't actually my favorites. I liked the Watch novels. Look here for a chronology.
I have read two light enjoyable adventure fantasies recently.
The Crown Conspiracy by M. Sullivan is the first in a planned multi-volume series about an adventurer duo made up of a skilled thief and a good fighter. Standalone by and large, it's a kind of Locke Lamora light and a page turner
Martha Wells' Elements of Fire - available free online at author' site - is another light fantasy, this one more of the typical pre_"new-epic" stuff - with intrigue, sword fights, magic...
This isn't fantasy, but Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stephenson is amazing. It's a classic and it's only about 200 pages. Very swash-buckling.
R.A. Salvatore might fit the bill. So would Fritz Leiber. In general, I think any Sword and Sorcery / Heroic stuff might fit the bill like Robert E. Howard's Conan.
This thread might point you in the right direction:
Want some blatant stereotypical fantasy.
I second Rob's suggestions, especially Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser (Lankhmar) stories.Originally Posted by Rob B
How about the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. I think it fits what you are looking for.
The Tiger and Del books are some good adventure.
Awesome results guys, thank you all very much!
Sooo...
Treasure Island -- already read it, and I concur, fabulous novel
Tiger and Del looks very interesting, as does Crown Conspiracy, which is right up my alley with a thief as a protagonist (not enough of them these days). I came very close to getting Mistborn once, but passed it up in favor of some history book. After seeing glowing reviews for all three novels in the trilogy, I don't think I can pass it up. It seems what appears to be the big bad guy is wiped out in the first book. If this is true ... very interesting. I've been reading Salvatore forever and I'm starting to get tired of himIt was great while it lasted.
Read The Blade Itself. I thought it was very good but wasn't in love with it enough to finish the trilogy, but apparently Last Argument of Kings is earth-shattering.
Read Temeraire and actually wasn't that impressed with it. I think I just can't handle historical fantasy.
This is about the fifteenth time I've been recommended Leiber and Howard. For some reason I've been avoiding them both. Time to stop screwing around.
Also, I just picked up The Religion by Tim Willocks. It looks very good and I like what I've seen so far.
Wow. Okay, definitely reading The Crown Conspiracy and probably Mistborn and The First Law. For some reason I'm associating Tiger and Del with Kushiel (which is barf IMO). Am I wrong?
Hell, Rob B and jaimieem, I haven't even looked at those threads yet. You people are efficient.
As well as the stuff mentioned (although I dont know about Hobb's Liveship series being light) I would reccomend Dave Duncan's Kings Blades stuff- both tales & Chronicles, as well as Ill Met in the Arena.
His stuff is high intelligent, tightly plotted, and very much swash buckling!
I think they'd be right up your alley in your quest for quality stuff that isn't too heavy.
I especially liked Paragon Lost, but they're all great.
Codex Alera by Jim Butcher has plenty of action and adventure: from daring excapes to good old Roman-style battles.
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