Where to start?

[manticore]

ok, tell me what books you would recommend starting with for each of these authors

(ie best standalone or best series beginning)

Eddings
Feist
Gemmel
Anthony
McCaffrey

Brooks?

not really into fat fantasy, want to try. Jordan put me to sleep, though.

[Cadfael]

With Macaffry.. start with Dragonflight... okay you will get the argument to begin with Dragonsdawn, which is a prequel... but the event described in that are part of the 'mystery' of Dragonflight and its following books...

1. Dragonflight
2. Dragonquest
3. The White Dragon
4. there is another that follows White Dragon... anyone help?

You can then move onto the prequels, and find out the details of the 'mystery'.

Pier Anthony... all I can suggerst is his 'Incarnations Of Imortality' series... begining with On A Pale Horse Riding, my reason for this is because I did it that way

Eddings... The Belgariad (a series)
Gemmel... The Waylander books
Brooks... The Sword of Shannara, The Elfsong Of Shannara, The Wishsong Of Shannara... you will be able to pick the rest up from there...

Feist... Magician!!! and then follow the refs in the list

I will give you more detail if you PM me

[Eventine]

For something a bit different (and a bit better) by Brooks, try the first in his Word and Void trilogy, Running the Demon.

[Sammie]

Den -

Concurrent (supposedly) with the White Dragon is 'Renegades of Pern'
Then its 'All The Weyrs of Pern'
i think it's then 'The Dolphins of Pern'
and the most recent is, i think 'skies of pern'

Don't hold me to the latter, but the first 2 i'm sure of. 'Renegades' isn't really nec to the storyline tho, and 'Weyrs' is better, imo - i'd probably recommend going straight to that after White Dragon.

[manticore]

thanks all. fat fantasy, here i come!!!

[Stor-All]

My suggestion would be try a different Anthony - Mark Anthony. He is writing The Last Rune series (4 our of a hopeful 6 so far) and it is my favorite series thus far. I've read the first 3 books of The Wheel of Time, and I hear they get worse starting soon, but thus far I would choose Anthony over Jordan any day. If you're curious, check out www.thelastrune.com.

[moonraker]

Magician(I think it was divided up into two books Magician:Apprentice and Magician: Master)
That's the best but if you want to continue you can read on to Silverthorn and beyond.

[milamber_reborn]

I've enjoyed every Feist book, and there are quite a few.

[Cadfael]

Originally posted by moonraker
Magician(I think it was divided up into two books Magician:Apprentice and Magician: Master)
That's the best but if you want to continue you can read on to Silverthorn and beyond.

You are correct in that for some countries... in the UK (and others) however it is was published as a single volume... a rather large single volume I admit...

[milamber_reborn]

Anyone got a word count on either the original or special edition (with the extra 10,000 words) of Magician?

[allanon]

EDDINGS!I suggest you the "Ellenium" series, however, that the "Belgariad" is his first major success in the genre.
From Feist I reccomend you "Magician", book 1 of the "Riftwar-Saga".
From Terry Brooks - the "Shannara"-saga, but read it in publishing, not in chronological order! I mean, begin with the "Sword", if you start with the "first King", you'll ruin your reading with spoilers.
About David Gemmel - his sipstrassi-books: "The Ghost King" and "The Last Sword of Power" are pretty nice.
I'm not very familiar with McCafrey's books and I never read Antony.

[kassimir funk]

Here's the order I read them in

1)Dragonsong
2)Dragonsinger
3)Dragondrums
4)The white Dragon
5)Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

I only read two others and they weren't so good. Keep in mind that I was also in eigth grade so it's a little tough to remember.