your favorite high fantasy or sword-and-sorcery authors and worlds
For me it's
- J.R.R. Tolkien/Middle Earth
- Frizt Leiber/Nehwon
- Ed Greenwood, et al/Forgotten Realms
pretty much in that order, although it's about a tie between Leiber's and Greenwood's worlds. I think Leiber is a better writer than Ed. But Ed built an incredible world, for sure.
What are yours?
- J.R.R. Tolkien/Middle Earth
- Frizt Leiber/Nehwon
- Ed Greenwood, et al/Forgotten Realms
pretty much in that order, although it's about a tie between Leiber's and Greenwood's worlds. I think Leiber is a better writer than Ed. But Ed built an incredible world, for sure.
What are yours?
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Inb4Sanctuary.
Author - Terry Pratchett.
I have never read any of his books. FWIW, I really enjoyed the first Conan movie, though. Love the atmosphere of the main character and his world.
Edit: Add Dragon Lance aswell....I loved to comics
and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire
as opposed to Harry Potter and Hobbit which also like pretty much (yes I know I'm sometimes little infantile:)
I sure had a great time reading the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser short stories and novels by Fritz Leiber, though. I read those only a year or so after I had completed the LotR and the Hobbit, so that was a hot streak.
- J.R.R. Tolkien/Middle Earth
_ Baldur's Gate
@Grieg "Song of fire and Ice" is a must for sure, and Sapkowski's Witcher is all time favourite. Most likely because I'm Polak as well:D
Yeah it is always better to read the books in their original language. There is so many little details that you could not get with the translated text and maybe that's why more common is to like someone who writes in your own language.
Honestly, I'm surprised it took eleven posts to get to this one.
i did love eyes of the dragon by stephen king, it's nothing like his usual stuff execpt for parts
star wars of course (sword and sorcery :P)
and......ender's game series.....i consider that high fantasy
star trek
sorry for movies/tv and books, but you did add worlds :P
EDIT: GRRRRRR not sure how but i forgot DISKWORLD
RA Salvatore - Drizzt, Forgotten Realms
Brent Weeks - Night Angel Trilogy
David Eddings - The Belgariad
His writing is just so...well difficult is not the word - but challenging and demanding. Most other authors in fantasy I can browse through - but here I have to focus.
I love the world he has created
In the middle of reading Joe Abercrombie's First law series. Seems pretty good.
Couldn't really get into Malazan Book of the Fallen, and I gave up on the wheel of time series at the end of the second book, because the poorly written gender politics seemed to have taken over completely by that point.
Might try some of the recommendations in this thread.
80's
- Steve Jackson - most of his "play and read" books - was my initial move into the charming world of fantasy.
- Loyd Alexander - The journey of Taran - classic fantasy in every way, and a good time before the various d&d worlds emerged.
- JRR - especially the trilogy and simarrillion
-Weis/hickman- twins and dragons trilogy
90's
Avatar series, dark-elf series, moonshae series
- Weis - Chaos chronicles -
00's
-Ambercrombe - barbarian series
-weis - War of souls series
Of lately:
Been a while since I've purchased new books, I should pick some up soon, I've been spending the last years rereading the above and the remaining 100+ books I got.
IF any reckognize the above, feel free to point me in a direction with new releases that resemble them in some way.
LeGuin's Earthsea was good but you really should read Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber. Just start with that (the first in the series). It is relatively short and a complete knockout if you ask me. A bit hard to classify though... something like high fantasy meets S&S meets low fantasy/pseudo-real world (Earth setting, at least until you realise Earth is just a shadow of the true world Amber, like all other worlds are).
Michael Moorcock's Elric series is another must-read... I guess mostly S&S and definitely on the dark side. Surprised no one's mentioned this.
@Bjjorick - Eyes of the Dragon was great... Gunslinger was also good, at least the first few (particularly book 1) in the series; it got progressively weirder after that (weird as in Stephen King writing himself in as a character from what I heard).
Pratchett's Discworld is great of course... not sure if it qualifies as any of these genres. Humorous fantasy perhaps, possibly its own genre. L. Sprague De Camp's "Unwilling King" series is somewhat akin (closer to Leiber though than Pratchett perhaps).
@killeah - Lloyd Alexander was great... forgot about him... it's been ages. Great Welsh-epic influenced stuff though.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series either. He died before finishing it, but it was good, if a bit difficult and complex toward the middle, due to the number of characters involved. A bit similar to Martin's books I think, though I haven't read those, but just watching some of the series made my head spin a bit trying to keep up with all the characters and subplots.
Then of course there's Beowulf, Norse sagas and such if you want to go back to the originals that inspired a lot of what folks consider "modern" fantasy
Game of Thrones is awesome in both book form and on HBO. I am worried he doesn't know how to finish the series since it is so intricate, but if he pulls off an awesome ending then the series will be brilliant.
I liked RA Salvatore's original trilogy with Drizzt, after that it just seems all the same to me although I haven't read every book of his.
I liked the original dragonlance series as well although I read that when I was significantly younger
I also love Discworld and pre 4E Forgotten Realms is definitely my favourite D&D setting, which is largely down to Baldur's Gate.
If I'm honest though I'm not the biggest fan of The Lord of The Rings, I have very fond memories of being read The Hobbit as a bedtime story and my dad starting but never finished LotR with us. I had the audio books and never finished them either, it just didn't grab me in the same way as The Hobbit did. On the flipside, however I'm very much enjoying Jacqueline Carey's The Sundering, which is LotR in essence told from the 'evil' POV, and actually demonstrating that actually most things in life are actually shades of grey, so she's not unlike Martin in that respect. (& if I was her I'd be having words with WotC about calling their big event in the forthcoming 5E 'The Sundering').
While it may not be great literature, I have a soft spot for the Lords of Dus series by Lawrence Watt-Evans. It was the first sword & sorcery series I ever read, and the fact that the main character wasn't a true-blue hero rattled my 12-year-old mind.
I have very fond memories of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain - I found those before Lord of the Rings.
J.R.R. tolkien
Terry brooks(shannara/Magic kingdom for sale:sold)
Terry Goodkind(Wizard's 1st rule series)
Weiss/Hickman's Death gate series
Tad williams (dragonbone chair)
some older authors whose books adorn my shelves but i haven't read in a while;
Katherine Kurtz(deryni series) not as good as it could have been but still enjoyable
Anne McCaffrey(dragon riders of Pern series) surprisingly good despite plot limitations
Stephen R. Donaldson(chronicles of Thomas covenant)
Last one though there's plenty more and though technically not "high fantasy", Tad Williams' Otherland series was phenomenal and is a mishmash of genres set in a modern day setting.
You may have noticed that most of these are excellent writers who don't fill their books with useless filler but stay with a story and tell it compellingly and well.
I also Like Pratchet and Jim Butcher for their writing and their worlds.