Help me pick a new fantasy series

Seconded. There is lots of stuff going on under the surface in his books, stuff you have to figure out for yourself. The OED is a suggested, but not necessary, companion for reading the Book of the New Sun.

Wow, you guys/gals are awesome! Looks like I’ll be reading at least 3-4 of these series, “patiently” waiting for GRR Martin.

This started when I needed to buy a little extra something on Amazon to get my order into the Free Shipping zone, which leads to my last question. I must be missing something, but why is this paperback $22.50? $22.50 for a paperback??!! I don’t get it.

If you are picking up Book of the New Sun and still need to make the minimum for shipping, definitely get Lexicon Urthus. As others have indicated, Wolfe very much rewards deep, careful reading and the Lexicon can add a lot to your reading experience, not to mention help make sense of things. It also contains a very, very clever Borgesian joke.

Edit: If you aren’t getting Book of the New Sun (and even if you are), you might consider starting with Wolfe’s The Fifth Head of Cerberus. It’s definitely an easier place to start than Book of the New Sun, and is a much shorter, faster read, so you won’t have invested as much if you decide that you hate Wolfe. Some people think that it takes place in the Urth universe (Wolfe won’t tell!), so you’ve got some “series” aspects in that regard.

Eisenhorn is, in my opinion, a fantastic series. Unfortunately the follow up, Ravenor, is comparatively weak.

But I’m seeing the disconnect here.

I hate Bakker and love Abnett. I think it comes down to the type of prose you enjoy.

Abnett is definitely more straight forward adventure, but the books are filled with fantastic plot twists and interesting characters.

Bakker is much more about internal conflict. Lots of plotting and conniving, for page after page. And slaves, and whores. And whore-slaves.

A quick vote for Vance’s “Lyonesse” series, absolutely awesome and a cut above the rest of Vance’s other stuff.

Anyone have opinions on GRR Martin’s “Wildcards” stuff? I’m a GRR Martin fan (of sorts – I gave up on Songs of blah de blah; whereas I loved Fevre Dream) but haven’t read the anthologies that he’s edited.

Moorcock:

Elric
Corum
Hawkmoon
Erekose

Although, even Moorcock has professed love for China Melville.

Lois McMaster Bujold - Curse of Chalion and onward
A story about an “old,” humbled soldier returning to his home country in tatters. A great story, and I love the theology of it, with a pantheon that consists of Father, Mother, Daughter, Son and Bastard. Magic is not done lightly, but always incurs great cost. Mostly I like the characterization.

Katharine Kerr - Deverry saga
Starting with Daggerspell, it’s a 15 book series with just the ultimate book left to be released, spanning four acts. A fascinating weave of interwoven fates and debts carried through history, and an excellent shot at world-building, as it tells a tale starting several hundred years after the people in focus fled from the Romans by magical means and ended up in another world (of course, there’s almost no knowledge at all about that among the common population).
It’s been my favourite/one of my favourites for some 12 years now.

Kate Elliott - The Spirit Gate
This author has previously written the Crown of Stars series, which I stalled out on reading, but this is keeping me riveted. Lots of cultural clashes, challenges of tradition and possibly their rebirth.

Steph Swainston - The Year of Our War
A more gritty tale depicting a world that’s been at war for a very long time against a race of insects that never stops building and expanding. Since it follows the sometimes-drugged immortal Jant, the only person in the world who can fly, it also has its decidedly surrealistic moments.
The most defining moment of the series for me might well have been the visit to the MEAT GARDENS.

But sometimes his “skill” is about saying a simple thing in the most complicate and convoluted way. That I don’t see exactly as a good thing.

I tried one and it was kinda meh and I did not finish the anthology and I have read all and loved the SoIaF books.

Croaker in the Black Company books really evolves through those stories and he is one of my favorite characters in any series. If you just loathed the first, I guess you should stop, but I would recommend those books to anyone who wants a gritty, in the trenches fantasy series.

I flew through The First Law Series and cannot wait for Abercrombie’s new book that is set in that world, but I believe follows different characters.

Loved the first of the Prince of Nothing books, but was distracted and somehow never made it back, but, oddly enough, have picked up the third.

The Covenant series was a challenging read, but I thought it was so different and creative that I ended up loving it. I started the 2nd Covenant series, but could not make it through.

The rest I will defer to those more well read than me and will pick up recommendations for myself.

Since someone already mentioned Guy Gavriel Kay’s “Tigana” (which I fully endorse), I felt I should mention his seminal series, “The Fionavar Tapestry”. Though flawed in some ways (it’s his first effort), the prose is still powerful and the story moving.

It’s based on the fantasy cliche of people moving from our world to a fantastical one, but it’s fairly well realized for all that.

Raymond Feist, the Serpentwar or the Riftwar trilogies.

Robin Hobb’s Farseer books.

oooh, yeah, that!!!

Terry Brooks!

That’s true and it’s an acquired taste. Translation for Wolfe must be a huge pain in the ass- a lot of his obscure English vocabulary might not carry across. Have you compared the Italian with the English? I’m curious to see if it’s more or less complicated.

Unfortunately the sequel has been well delayed. It will be Fall at the earliest and maybe even 2010.

I’ll chime in with a vote for Guy Gavriel Kay’s books and put them in order for my own favorites:

  1. Tigana
  2. The Lions of Al’Rassan
  3. A Song for Arbonne
  4. The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy - The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road
  5. The Sarantine Mosaic Duology - Sailing to Sarantium, Lord of Emporers
  6. The Last Light of the Sun

You can find background and selected passages from each book, including some spoilers, here: http://www.brightweavings.com/passages/index.htm

No idea, I read in english and italian versions are old and hard to find.

Good authors aren’t published here. There was a time when we had basically everything in SF and Fantasy translated (and well), now it’s just stuff for kids or commercial stuff like Mayer, Goodkind and so on.

Anyway, I don’t think it would be too hard to translate as many words used have a latin etymology.

I’d go with Abercrombie or Cook.

[ul]
[li] - Glen Cook, The Black Company[/ul]I have the first six books in two larger format trade paperbacks. I recommend it, but if you aren’t enjoying the first book, I don’t see why you would really enjoy the rest.[/li][ul]
[li] - Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever[/ul]Leper! Unclean! If you can wade through hundreds of pages of that maybe there is a story in there. Somewhere. I’d rather have my wisdom teeth pulled - without drugs - myself. [ul][/li][li] - Gene Wolfe, Shadow of the torturer[/ul]Rather liked it.[/li][ul]
[li] - Riddle master of head[/ul]Yawn. Okay, that’s about it.[ul][/li][li] - Theives world, aspirin[/ul]Breaks down fast - some writers are good, some aren’t, and there were apparently no rules on what you could do with someone else’s character. [/li]
Zelazny: Nine Princes in Amber (first five book series). The usual Zelazny striding the line between fantasy and science fiction. Plots within plots. Wheels within wheels. And where does reality truly lie?

Lloyd Alexander: The Chronicles of Prydain. Yes, it’s aimed at young people, but it is very well written. I read it simultaneously with the Belgariad, and I thought this much better (The Black Cauldron Newberry Honor Book, The High King Newberry Award winner - Newberry award winners are almost always worth reading, no matter what your age is).

David Eddings: The Belgariad. If you like Tolkien, you’ll probably like this. At it’s best early in the series, kinda becomes predictable as it goes on.

If you like blatant plagiarism, read Terry Brooks Sword of Sha-na-na. Filed off the serial numbers to Lord of the Rings. Disgraceful that Ballantine ever published this. Guy Kay was mentioned earlier - much better job of using Tolkienian themes without simply changing the names.

Again thanks. I found a couple of books rotting on my bookshelf, The Iron Tower books, by Dennis L. McKiernan’s (Dragon Doom). I recall starting to read these when I was younger, but never made it through book 1. How do these hold up? At the time, someone was highly recommending them.