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[Ratrat]

What are some good fantasy anthologies?

 

[i_am_ben]

Recently I started getting back into reading books again.

I recently purchased Ender's Game, Game of Thrones, A Brave New World, and The Hunger Games.

I'm looking for some more recommendations of good books in these genres to read, or maybe just any genre in general if its good.

After looking up some recommendations and hearing some things from friends I asked for the following for Christmas:

American Gods
The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles, Day 1)
Neverwhere
Dune
The Legend of Drizzt Collector's Edition Book
Neuromancer
Ring World

My one coworker friend recommended The Sword of Truth series, but I think GAF really hates that book lol. My neighbor recommended the Eragon books to me, but from what I've heard they aren't too good either.

Also another coworker friend just informed me that The Legend of Drizzt is mainly female fap material. :S

I'm currently half way through American Gods and it's beyond awful.

It has boring and unlikeable characters and pages and pages of boring and uninteresting things "happening". Hopefully it improves because at the moment I am flabbergasted by the praise it gets.

 

[Pkaz01]

I find the Percy Jackson series entertaining if you like greek mythology i'd recommend it. Its not the best written but it is interesting. But maybe because I don't know a lot of books that relate to greek mythology that aren't the Iliad or the Odyssey.

But it is written for teens so don't expect some mature ASOIAF like story

 

[Paertan]

Cannot agree with this. The hatred comes from the fact that it's boring as fuck for hundreds of pages at a stretch.

Yep when I read them I stopped way before I hit the last book that was out then. There were some good bits but there was a lot of shit to dig through to find them. Decent books but there are too many better books.

 

[Fjordson]

Officially SF, but is' really a wildly imaginative fantasy collection of short stories and novellas full of magic, wit and Vance's typical baroque language. Vance was the inspiration for Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun tetralogy but his books are much lighter in tone.

Plus don't forget about
Fritz Leiber - The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books
Tanith Lee - The Birthgrave trilogy, the first three Tales of the Flat Earth books
Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword
L. Sprague de Camp - Lest Darkness Fall

All of them are classics.

Great post. Love Leiber and Vance especially.

Never read any Tanith Lee, though. Going to check out the Flat Earth books. They sound wonderful.

 

[Salazar]

But maybe because I don't know a lot of books that relate to greek mythology that aren't the Iliad or the Odyssey.

In terms of the Iliad, you ought to read Christopher Logue's verse retelling in three books: War Music; Cold Calls; All Day Permanent Red.

There is very little that comes close to it. Simon Armitage's BBC radioplay (readable as verse, and written with some of the mood and devices of it) of the Odyssey is also tremendous.

 

[Angst]

Thanks to this thread I've bought Pandora's Star and Altered Carbon, don't make me regret this GAF!

As for my own recommendation I really enjoyed the Hyperion and Endymion cantos, the Culture series is really good too.

"Perdito Street Station" is an EXCELLENT choice!

I also highly recommend:

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Vurt by Jeff Noon
The Otherland Saga by Ted Williams

It's Tad Williams if anyone wants to pick them up http://www.amazon.com/Tad-Williams/e/B000AQ3HBI

I enjoyed the Otherland Saga, but found it a bit lacking in comparison with the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series.

 

[i_am_ben]

I'd also recommend Wheel of Time. Not the greatest writing, but the creativity is through the roof. The hatred comes from the long periods between books, but being that the last book is almost out, you won't have that problem.

This man knows what's up. I've never read a series that felt so immersive.

 

[SerArthurDayne]

I like the Wheel of Time. It has huge flaws, and they are certainly not just delays in books.

He is overly verbose and repetitively so, especially about hair pulling and dress straightening. He seems to hate women, at least subconsciously, and nearly all of his female character are terrible with few redeeming qualities or moments. The pacing of his books is as slow as molasses later on. His villains tend to be pathetically ineffective and often stupid. His fetish for foreshadowing is extreme. His dream sequences tend to be boring, and were quite common early on. He like the Deus ex machina, but that is true of nearly all magic fantasy that doesn't bore you to death with rules up front.

Those are off the top of my head.

All that said, I really enjoy the books. I just don't think its fair to deny that there are legit criticisms to be made. However, by the time you finish they should all be published, and it is really an enjoyable series overall, so give the first two a shot and see what you think. They were really 1 book split in half, so they give a good flavor. It got really good around 4 and 5, then tapered off a bit around 8-10.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Thanks to this thread I've bought Pandora's Star and Altered Carbon, don't make me regret this GAF!

As for my own recommendation I really enjoyed the Hyperion and Endymion cantos, the Culture series is really good too.

It's Tad Williams if anyone wants to pick them up http://www.amazon.com/Tad-Williams/e/B000AQ3HBI

I enjoyed the Otherland Saga, but found it a bit lacking in comparison with the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series.

For some reason I couldn't get into Tad's series......... that said, I absolutely adore War of the Flowers.

 

[Fallout-NL]

American Gods is very polarizing, mainly because it has a wonderful concept and mediocre execution.

I'd still say it's worth reading, but I enjoyed Stardust more.

Yeah, that seems fair.

 

[Kattbuss]

You should really read some Charles Stross.
I say start with Halting State or Glasshouse but most of his stuff is top class.

 

[Pkaz01]

In terms of the Iliad, you ought to read Christopher Logue's verse retelling in three books: War Music; Cold Calls; All Day Permanent Red.

There is very little that comes close to it. Simon Armitage's BBC radioplay (readable as verse, and written with some of the mood and devices of it) of the Odyssey is also tremendous.

thanks ill check it out sounds interesting

 

[AAequal]

Mortal Engines saga has been pretty interesting so far. Can't wait for Peter Jackson's film adaptation

 

[elrechazado]

Snow Crash-Neal Stepenson

Synopsis: In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous…you’ll recognize it immediately.

Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

Synopsis: John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.

Both of these books, while very very entertaining, also educated me, or at least got me interested in a variety of subjects. I think Stephenson would've like to have been a professor but he was too damn good at writing.

Anathem by stephenson:
imagine a world where scientists and philosophers are cloistered like monks of religious orders in monastery type buildings. Then add in polycosmic theory and some other craziness, and a great fun narrative adventure story.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

The thing about the Wheel of Time series is that it has some very slow parts but when it comes to epic "holy shit this is really happening" moments it can't be beat.

Dumai's Wells, 'nuff said.

But first you have to read hundreds of pages of women just wanting to take a bath.

 

[Fedos]

The thing about the Wheel of Time series is that it has some very slow parts but when it comes to epic "holy shit this is really happening" moments it can't be beat.

Dumai's Wells, 'nuff said.

But first you have to read hundreds of pages of women just wanting to take a bath.

Yeah, Jordan was capable of writing some incredible sequences. I'd say Steven Erikson is up there as well though.

 

[ymmv]

What are some good fantasy anthologies?

Legends 1 & 2, edited by Robert Silverberg.

 

[PersonaX]

Too lazy to search the thread, so i don't know if this has been mentioned yet.

I recently bought this, i think you're gonna like it if you're into cyberpunk.

Altered Carbon (2002) is a hardboiled science fiction novel by Richard K. Morgan. Set some five hundred years in the future in a universe in which the United Nations Protectorate oversees a number of extrasolar planets settled by human beings, it features protagonist Takeshi Kovacs. Kovacs is a former United Nations Envoy and a native of Harlan's World, a planet settled by a Japanese keiretsu with Eastern European labour.[1].

edit: nevermind, i'm an ass, it has been mentioned many times, but it can't be said enough!

 

[RedShift]

Mortal Engines saga has been pretty interesting so far. Can't wait for Peter Jackson's film adaptation

What. What. You sir, have just made my day. Brilliant books.

I also recommend the Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lireal and Abhorsen) by Garth Nix. Good books.

 

[Maklershed]

Thanks to this thread I've bought Pandora's Star

Nice! I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

[Movement]

Jack Vance is one of my favorite sci fi authors. Planet of Adventure, Lyonesse, Tales of Dying earth.
Ursula K. Le Guin is hands down the best fantasy out there.
Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is amazing. Someone already mentioned the Hyperion Cantos, I recommend it as well.
If you're feeling really ballsy, give Gene Wolfe a try. Book of the New Sun and Book of the Long Sun.
That's just the start.

 

[ymmv]

Here's a longer list of my all time fantasy and SF books:

Isaac Asimov: I Robot, Foundation trilogy, The Naked Sun
Robert Heinlein: Door into Summer, Citizen of the Galaxy, Orphans of the Sky, Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Arthur C Clarke: The City and the Stars, Childhood's End
Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination, The Demolished Man
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle, Ubik
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451, Martian ...
Jacl Vance: Demon Princes-series, Planet of Adventure-series, To Live Forever, Emphyrio
Cordwainer Smith: Norstrilia
Frank Herbert: Dune
Roger Zelazny: Lord of Light, Nine Princes in Amber
Lary Niven: Ringworld
Robert Silverberg: To Live Again, Lord Valentine's Castle
John Brunner: Stand on Zanzibar
Ursula K LeGuin: Left Hand of Darkness,
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War
Michael Moorcock: Dancers at the End of Time-trilogy
Joan D Vinge: The Snow Queen, The Summer Queen
Frederik Pohl: Gateway
Julian May: Saga of the Pliocene Exiles-series
Brian Aldiss: Helliconia trilogy
David Brin: Startide Rising, The Uplift War
Mary Gentle: Golden Witchbreed
Greg Bear: Eon, Eternity
Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game
Ken Grimwood: Replay
Dan Simmons: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Olympos
Steven Gould: Jumper
John Varley: Steel Beach, any of his short story collections
Walter Jon Williams: Aristoi
Connie Williams: Doomsday Book
Neal Stephenson: Snowcrash, Cryptonomicon

Fantasy:
Poul Anderson: The Broken Sword, Three Hearts and Three Lions
L. Sprague de Camp: Lest Darkness Fall, The Incomplete Enchanter
Jack Vance: The Dying Earth
Fritz Leiber: The Fafrd and the Grey Mouser-books
Ursula K. Le Guin: Wizard of Earthsea
Tanith Lee: The Birthgrave, Vazkor, Son of Vazkor, Quest for the White Witch, The Storm Lord, Night's Master, Death's Master
Terry Pratchett: Discworld-series
Michael Moorcock: Gloriana
Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun-series, Soldier of the Mist, Soldier of Arete
Tim Powers: The Anubis Gates, On Stranger Tides, The Last Call
David Eddings: Belgariad (bit of a guilty pleasure though)
Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy
Dave Duncan: A Man of his Word-series, The Great Game-series
Guy Gavriel Kay: Tigana
Steven Brust: The Phoenix Guards, Five Hundred Years After
Delia Sherman: The Porcelain Dove
Ellen Kushner: Swordspoint
Michael Bishop: Brittle Innings
Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials trilogy
J Gregory Keyes: The Waterborn, The Blackgod
George RR Martin: Song of Ice and Fire-series
Lois McMaster Bujold - Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls
Lynn Flewelling - Tamir trilogy (Bonedoll's Twin, The Hidden Warrior, Oracle's Queen)
Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn-series
Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora

 

[Erico]

The Commonwealth Saga is getting lots of love here, but I feel like I should add a counterpoint. I thought Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained had some excellent worldbuilding, but man, the characters are flat, dialogue is juvenile, and the story is constantly bogged down in the numerous aimless subplots. Great concepts in the books, but I thought the crafting of the plot and pacing was pretty poor.

As for recommendations, I just read Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination and thought it was great.

 

[Cow Mengde]

Try Rex Riders. It's a Cowboy Dinosaur Alien story. It's not super deep, but it's pacing is excellent.

 

[malingenie]

I'm currently half way through American Gods and it's beyond awful.

It has boring and unlikeable characters and pages and pages of boring and uninteresting things "happening". Hopefully it improves because at the moment I am flabbergasted by the praise it gets.

If you aren't tied to the mythos and the characters, I don't think it will grow on you . Happens to all of us... I am having a devil of a time trying to go through Ender's Game for pretty much the same reasons... but i adored American Gods and the Sequel.

Also:
Metagame (highly reviewed in Amazon) was a big pile of meh. Some of the concepts were faintly interesting, but it's pretty much about world of dudebros doing cyber-dudebro things. the main character's name was D_light. meh.

 

[FrontalMonk]

The thing about the Wheel of Time series is that it has some very slow parts but when it comes to epic "holy shit this is really happening" moments it can't be beat.

Dumai's Wells, 'nuff said.

But first you have to read hundreds of pages of women just wanting to take a bath.

Gotta agree here. I keep being told that the series really picks back up in Book 11, to the point where people criticize it for having _too much_ stuff going on, but I gotta slog through book 10 to get to it. At this point I'm of the mindset of "I'm 10 books in, I gotta get through it to see the ending".

 

[SerArthurDayne]

The thing about the Wheel of Time series is that it has some very slow parts but when it comes to epic "holy shit this is really happening" moments it can't be beat.

Dumai's Wells, 'nuff said.

But first you have to read hundreds of pages of women just wanting to take a bath.

That might actually be one of my criticisms of it. He could wrap up an entire book in a great, action-packed, tightly edited 20 pages. So why the fuck did you take 680 pages to get there!!!

 

[tycoonheart]

Hyperion series by Dan Simmons
The Foundation series by Asimov

 

[Dragon]

Gotta agree here. I keep being told that the series really picks back up in Book 11, to the point where people criticize it for having _too much_ stuff going on, but I gotta slog through book 10 to get to it. At this point I'm of the mindset of "I'm 10 books in, I gotta get through it to see the ending".

The ending should be out next year. Right? Right?!! C'mon Sanderson!

 

[Orcastar]

that said, some my favorite hardcore sci fi novels are the books in the revelation space series by alastair reynolds. he has a very cinematic style, everything is epic, gritty, action scenes unfold as in very high budget anime sequences, where he either slows down time in microseconds, or events happen across millenia. planets and suns are moved around, epic doomsday devices are released...the tech is just mind-blowing. and he actually makes all these things sound like they could happen. he has a PhD in astrophysics, so he makes things pretty hardcore. but very fun.

revelation space series:
Revelation Space
Redemption Arc
Absolution Gap

stand alone:
House of Suns
Pushing Ice

Scifi:
Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, if "show, don't tell" style of hard scifi doesn't scare you.

Came here to post these.

Also Discworld, Foundation, The Hyperion cantos, American Gods, Ringworld... Meh, everything's been mentioned already.

 

[SerArthurDayne]

The ending should be out next year. Right? Right?!! C'mon Sanderson!

Website says draft 1 is 94% done. Reread only 1/3. So if he is planing to finish the rearead before he makes his final draft, it might still be a while. Still, next year sounds reasonable. Probably not March like it was initially planned, though.

 

[V_Arnold]

I am rereading Wheel of Time for the 4th or 5th time now, and it is literally one of the best masterpieces any writer could have ever done. I cant recommend it enough.

And Brandon Sanderson is at 92% on Memory of Light first draft, so... really close.

Website says draft 1 is 94% done. Reread only 1/3. So if he is planing to finish the rearead before he makes his final draft, it might still be a while. Still, next year sounds reasonable. Probably not March like it was initially planned, though.

No, the reread project stopped being refreshed like half a year ago. Do not worry about that.

 

[Dresden]

The thing about the Wheel of Time series is that it has some very slow parts but when it comes to epic "holy shit this is really happening" moments it can't be beat.

Dumai's Wells, 'nuff said.

But first you have to read hundreds of pages of women just wanting to take a bath.

I always tell people to skip every chapter with a woman's POV. They think I'm joking.

 

[Shanadeus]

Glad to see The Forever War recommended.
Decided to check it and its sequel, Forever Free, out the other day and enjoyed both books immensely.

 

[Puddles]

The one problem with The Forever War is that the author's treatment of homosexuality is a little anachronistic in today's world.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

Anything by Joe Abercrombie. The First Law series is excellent.

Guy Gavriel Kay is also great. A Song for Arbonne, Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan and Under Heaven are all great reads.

As for sci-fi, read Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series and John Scalzi's Old Man series.

 

[kinn]

that said, some my favorite hardcore sci fi novels are the books in the revelation space series by alastair reynolds. he has a very cinematic style, everything is epic, gritty, action scenes unfold as in very high budget anime sequences, where he either slows down time in microseconds, or events happen across millenia. planets and suns are moved around, epic doomsday devices are released...the tech is just mind-blowing. and he actually makes all these things sound like they could happen. he has a PhD in astrophysics, so he makes things pretty hardcore. but very fun.

revelation space series:
Revelation Space
Redemption Arc
Absolution Gap

stand alone:
House of Suns
Pushing Ice

A man with excellent taste.

Also The Lost Fleet series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Fleet

 

[Shanadeus]

The one problem with The Forever War is that the author's treatment of homosexuality is a little anachronistic in today's world.

He seems to be aware of it at least, and I just started reading "Forever Peace" which is supposed to be a spiritual sequel to The Forever War but with a more modern perspective.

We'll see.

 

[ZephyrFate]

He seems to be aware of it at least, and I just started reading "Forever Peace" which is supposed to be a spiritual sequel to The Forever War but with a more modern perspective.

We'll see.

He approaches homosexuality with a very machismo, soldier-reinforced attitude towards it most likely drilled into him from Vietnam.

It leaves a poor taste in my mouth, because I like the book overall. His fear of homosexuality becoming popular is VERY evident, however.

 

[i_am_ben]

Forever War was a good idea but extremely poorly executed.

Also, in regards to the wheel of time, the female characters have never really annoyed me. I always viewed them as over the top and humourous. Plus, I find the gender power dynamics of the world and the subsequent position of women in society a nice twist.

oh and I personally think Sanderson's abrupt change of pace (Especially in the last book) and the decision to break Jordan's notes into 3 parts was a terrible mistake.

 

[gollumsluvslave]

the First law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

+100

Great series, Glokta is one of my favourite characters in any book.

I'd also second The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson.

It's a 10-book series and is on such an ambitious scale that it is a massive commitment, but it is a tremendously rewarding series.

Again, some of the best characters; I can't imagine never having met Anomander Rake, Cotillion, Quick Ben or Trull.

Fantastic stuff, and probably Erikson's biggest achievemnet is that his quality of writing rarely drops across the 10 volumes. Staggering achievement!

 

[Salazar]

Fantastic stuff, and probably Erikson's biggest achievemnet is that his quality of writing rarely drops across the 10 volumes. Staggering achievement!

Once it has lurched upwards from the confusion that is the first book.

 

[ZephyrFate]

Malazan... ugh, I felt a twinge of pain. 10 books and I felt like I wasted time.

 

[Satanic Saint]

The Wheel of Time. I have read the whole series 3 times. And the final book is gonna come in about a year or so.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Never wasting a moment or excuse to repeat my love for Richard Calder's work, particularly his Dead Things trilogy. A dank, baroque adventure through a near future; imagine of an atomic virus borne of man's idealism of hyper-femininity rewrote space-time and the universe; the main character a genocidal Dead Boy dandy and his girlfriend an original scion of META, the virus that largely turned the world's female population into vampiric gynoids. It's a luxuriant and fetid descent, thick with an undercurrent of grotesque satire.

I'd actually recommend our resident wordsmith Salazar to have a gander at at least Dead Girls. I feel he'd get a buzz from the prose. Calder's rather delicious, style-wise.

 

[Puddles]

Forever War was a good idea but extremely poorly executed.

Poorly executed? Man, that was the exact opposite of my impression.

I think it kind of falls off in the second half, but the training chapters are some of my favorite sci-fi chapters ever.

My single favorite chapter from any sci-fi book is Colonel Kassad's tale in Hyperion. I can't even begin to explain how amazing that chapter is.

 

[ZephyrFate]

I can't name a favorite chapter in Hyperion, I loved all of them. That entire series, in fact.

 

[Puddles]

All of the tales are good, and each of them has enough creativity and world-building to be a self-contained novel. The fact that they're all part of the same world just makes that world unfathomably brilliant.

Sol Weintraub's tale also really affected me. I think the only one I wasn't a huge fan of was Martin Silenus', mainly because I couldn't stand him.

 

[ZephyrFate]

Martin Silenus reminded me a lot of myself -- I'm a writer who is incredibly crass with his language, so it was awesome reading his tales.