So I grew up very sheltered and isolated from society and as a result missed out on a lot of pop culture and other common things. I love to read, and I really enjoy fantasy and DnD and those types of things and I’m trying to find and catch up on the great fantasy books/series that every fantasy lover/nerd should know. I’m not as interested in sci-fi, but I’m willing to read the “great” ones too. What would you recommend?
Series I’ve read: The Lord of the Rings The Witcher The Dark Tower The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Dungeon Crawler Karl
Update to add also read: Wheel of Time Most of the Stormlight Archive The Hobbit
I’m just starting my first Discworld book.
Edit: Thanks everyone! Keep them coming, I’m going to make a list with all the suggestions and start working through them.
Earthsea.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown is really popular. I’m only just started the 4th book so nobody spoil it for me. So far so good.
Some that I didn’t see listed
Tad Williams Memory Sorrow Thorn trilogy. It starts really show, but if you make it through the first fifty pages it gets really good.
Tad Williams Otherland series is also really good, but kind of blends sci fi and fantasy.
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The Awakeners by Sherri S Tepper. All of her books are good, but again some of them mix sci fi and fantasy, but The Awakeners is straight fantasy.
If you’re into early 20th century pulp fantasy, I highly recommend Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars and Robert E. Howard’s Conan.
Terry Brooks, Shannara series (wiki/goodreads)
It’s a rather extensive fantasy series and covers a prolific amount of time instead of focusing on a few characters and events (over 40 books and thousands of years basically).
Chronicles of the Black Company
There is an unfortunate lack of female authors in this thread so I will post two recommendations:
- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
I’m not familiar with Jacqueline Harpman, but Left Hand of Darkness is quite fun. Not at all what I expected going in.
I’ll add Lois McMaster Bujold and her Curse of Chalion to the list. Great book.
The Black Company by Glen Cook. It’s like what if a mercenary chronicled the Vietnam war but with wizards. The next two books in the trilogy are good, too, but don’t quite live up to that first. The follow up trilogy is fine, but didn’t really do it for me.
Robin hobb farseer books are great
the rainwild chronicles were my favourite
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books. Hyperion (first 2 are best buy i love all 4 in the series). Read some of the classics like Philip k dick “do androids dream of electric sheep” and robert heinland’s “stranger in a strange land” isaac asimov’s “i robot” books and foundation series are excellent too.
A really cool story about first contact. It was written in the 70’s, and it shows in the gender and societal norms presented in the novel. If you can power through that, you’re in for a treat!
A novel series about a wizard detective in chicago.
Do the Dresden files get better as they go on? I’m on the 5th or 6th one and they’ve all been pretty samey and they’re not really doing it for me.
Also the way he talks about women is cringe as hell.
Yes and no? The treatment of women gets less cringey, but the books get more-and-more convoluted. That said, I just read the recently released 18th book, and I’m still enjoying them enough to not drop the series.
I despise Pournelle, his shitty conservatism always shines through his writing. But I will admit that The Mote in God’s Eye is a good novel, no doubt in large part thanks to Niven.
Another decent first contact novel is Learning the World: a Scientific Romance by Ken MacLeod.
Ya, he was a pos, even by the standards of the day. Dude loved his patriarchy…
It’s not a book but I think everyone should watch land before time
DISCWORLD
Honestly, probably the most enjoyable series of novels ever. The jokes are so layered and absurd while being witty well setup. It’s been a few years since I’ve read them, may be time to start over…
And there is, quite literally, something for everyone. From absurdist to noir to scifi to swords and sandals to philosophy…it’s a big universe
The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman
Didn’t spot the chronicles of amber by Roger Zelazny in the thread, so that’s my recommendation if you want a long one!
EDIT: seems somehow no one actually recommended the Foundation/Robots series by Isaac Asimov, that’s the base…
