Other Reading.....Any Recommendations ?
 

At some point in the next few months I will have prolly read most of what there is in the Tolkien catalogue...but even if I haven't I still might like to have a read of somebody else.

Does anybody on here know of any other authors who are similiar to Tolkien and might appeal to somebody who likes the works of JRR ? The kinda thing I would be interested in is books with:

1. Grand, Epic stories
2. Historical content
3. Maps
4. Appendices
5. Indexes..!!

ie like JRR but not him !!

Cheers,

Paul C.

How about The Once and Future King by T. H. White? Homer's Odyssey? Dante's Divine Comedy? (I only read the Inferno so far, and it is not the "traditional" epic, but Dante is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant) And Beowulf? Take your pick!

I second those, though it's been a long time since I've read the Inferno.

Nobody, but nobody, equals Tolkien's level of detail.

Sticking to the Fantasy Genre:

T.H. White is of course a classic.
The Riddlemaster of Hed, Patricia A. McKillip
Trilogy
better than the title seems, has much of the same humor, banter, charm and humanity you find in the LotR
A Wizard of Earthsea, or the Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Leguin. Her most famous work is The Left Hand of Darkness, which is SciFi and brilliant/somewhat disturbing. Ursula by-the-way, really started to suck when she turned feminist, I've no idea why.
she's past master of language, like Tolkien she doesn't just write, she sings her stories in near verse cadence
Game of Thrones series
George R. R. Martin
He's quite cynical and political, more Fritz Leiber than Tolkien, but has created a beautifully realized world and powerful characters. One of the best of recent fantasy.his web page to whet your interest
Elric of Melnibone, Micheal Moorcock
seriously depressing, almost the moral opposite of Tolkien
Alright, the Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan, but I think it's over-rated as Tolkien can never be.
Fritz Leiber's short stories, if you're in the mood for flippant fun rather than serious travelling.

If SciFi floats your boat, try:
Enders Game, Orson Scott Card
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Dune, Frank Herbert
Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh

For Fun (and when you get sick of it all):
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (lol funny).

-Maril

[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: Marileangorifurnimaluim ]

[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: Marileangorifurnimaluim ]

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are wonderful authors. They are very similar to Tolkien in the sense that they give in-depth backgrounds and history which make you that much closer to the charactors. They pretty much "born and raised" the world of Dragonlance and many a gamer gives them credit where credit is do. Im not saying that their better than Tolkien(Heavens NO), but they are some of my fav. authors. They were inspired by what Tolkien did for ME. He made that world so detailed that you almost believe it is real. As do Weis and Hickman do to their worlds. If you are interested in them you should start out by reading.....

1)The Chronociles(trilogy)
2)The Legend(trilogy)

They have many other novels out, but these are the best.

The Deathgate Series is not a part of Dragonlance (Although written by Weis and Hickman) but is a truly a wonderful 7 book series.

They are just two of some authors I truly enjoy. The above choices are wonderful indeed, you cant go wrong with a good classic!

Enjoy!

I suggest Calvin and Hobbs. Those books have made me laugh so hard boogers shoot out of my nose.

His snowmen were the best! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Both these series of books are very good too.
David Eddings Belgariad and Mallorean series are also good. Terry Brooks Shannara series are also good but his first book The Sword of Shannara is Tolkien like, the rest are pretty good. Nothing beats Tolkien though. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: Elrian ]

Well, C.S. Lewis is a good Author, he was a contmporary and good friend of Tolkien. Homer, the ancient greek poet wrote some great stories. There are some other authors who I would suggest so this is my list:

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The Space Trilogy - C.S. Lewis
Till we have faces - C.S. Lewis - (My favorite book)
The Illiad - Homer
The Oddysey - Homer
The Aenid - Virgil
The Divine Comedies - Dante
There are others but I can't seem to recall them right now, I will post when I do.

One of my favourite series is the Obernewtyn series by Isobelle Carmody. There are four books in total and don't have the detail that Tolkeins books do but I liked them. Although I'm only 16 and they are aimed at people my age, and I don't know how old any of you are.

And I think it's gone on WAY too long. I love the books, but even though I've had Book 9 for over a year I haven't read it because I've forgotten so much detail from the other 8 books. I just dont have time to read them all. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

[ January 20, 2002: Message edited by: Sindalómiel ]

I quite like Marion Bradley: The Mists of Avalon and Firebrand, and Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy The Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur are classics. Then, of course, there's David Gemmell...
They're not much like Tolkien, but they're of similar quality.
Then if Douglas Adams tickles your funny-bone, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul had me in stitches.

ach sod it....I'm just gonna read LOTR again !!..it's been a month since I last read it and the time has come again.

Paul.

Hee, hee...

LotR once again. And again, and again, and again... Like my English teacher said: "It's great that you take an interest in such a magnificent writer, just remember that there are other writers (and genres) out there too."

If I were to reccomend fantasy books, I have to agree with Elrian; Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon are great series, and also his other series: Elenium and Tamuli.

Also, R. E. Feist is a writer not to be overlooked. Very 'existential-philosophical-mind-wrenching' stories.

As for other genres and the writers of these, have you read any short stories by Edgar Allan Poe? Or perhaps classical 19th-century 'classical' (seemingly tedious, yet not so!) English literature like Charles Dickens or Charlotte Brontë?

BTW: Calvin and Hobbes R-U-L-E-S!!!

The book Le Morte d'Arthur has tons of stories about knights and grand battles in it, and it includes characters like King Arthur, Merlin, and Lancelot. Also, the Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer are worth reading. Tolkien, himself, wrote an essay about the story Beowulf, which is one of my favorites. It's about monsters and the warrior Beowulf who fights them. For more Christian fantasy, try reading C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, especially the second book in the series The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the last book The Last Battle. These are just a few books you will probably like if you enjoy Tolkien's books. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

In addition to C.S. Lewis and Narnia, Ursula K. Leguin and the Wizard of Earthsea and the whole of Dante's Divine Comedy, already listed by others, I devoured the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman:

1. Philip Pullman, Northern lights
2. Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife
3. Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

It makes gripping reading, is wonderfully inventive, invents not only one alternative world but several interconnected ones, has some beautiful characters and creations and embeds the whole story in a cosmology of anti-Christian good and evil. This ranks with the top.

to be perfectly honest i cant really say theres any author that writes as well as tolkien. but then again i'm a complete obsessive so... theres no point asking me. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]
i'm sure theres loads of other great books/novels like The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit but, I can't come up with one right now!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

The DeathGate Cycle is one of my favorites, seven explicit books spanning different worlds, and an interesting plot and cast of characters. Especially a certain tall imposing gentleman with white hair.

How about Piers Anthony? I too enjoy Marion Zimmer Bradley, although I was greatly grieved when they made Mists of Avalon into a movie. They did a severe injustice to that book [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img] ! And of course, Anne McCaffery is pretty good too. And yes, no one can compare to Tolkien!
Calvin & Hobbes - OH YEAH!!!! [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]
Dante - pretty awesome!

I've just started reading The Gormenghast Trilogy, a very surreal fantasy trilogy about a castle and its inhabitants. It was written (I think)in the mid-1940s by Mervyn Peake, an English writer. Very poetic writing, elaborate description, a complete and very strange world. It's not fantasy like elves-n-dragons fantasy, but surreal, weird, magic-realism fantasy. There's been some new interest in it this year because it was adapted for TV as a mini-series.

Try Terry Pratchett too! A mixture of fantasy and (sometimes sharp) satire. He has a whole series of books set in Diskworld, a demented yet hilarious universe of his own creation. His best one I've read is Small Gods.

Philip Pullman, 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. It's quite new.
1. Northern Lights
2. The Subtle Knife
3. The Amber Spyglass
I wouldn't really say it was similar to Tolkien all that much, although it does have a fantasy theme. It is set in the present but accross many different worlds. It's the best read ever, apart from LotR, of course.

I'm still reading Tolkien for the first time, but! These are what I recommend:

1. Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials- Wonderful setting, and a wonderful man! My copy of the Golden Compass is signed by him!

2. Eddings! The Belgariad and the Mallorean especially if you want history. Just don't read Belgarath and Polgara before the Belgariad, unless you want to know how it ends. There's also the Rivan Codex which details his planning and writing of the holy books (which, oh man, I'm still working on), the histories of the peoples... I loved it! The Elenium and Tamuli are also excellent series, but not to the level of the Belgariad. Its earthier though, more realistic, imho.

3. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. The book is... beautiful. It sings. No other book has moved me the way Mists has.

I enjoy McCaffrey, but I don't feel as inspired to read the rest of her series. I have a few favorites and that is it.

Sorry if someone else already mentioned these.... ohwell...

But here are some books that I have read that I personaly enjoyed....

By Phillip Pullman(sorry if I spelt his name wrong):
The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass

By Anne Rice:
Interview With a Vampier
The Vampier Lestat (im in the middle of this one, but so far so good!)

There's another book by her which I haven't read yet, and I thnk its called The Queen of the Damned(i think they're making it into a movie too), but its the first book in The Vampier Chronicles(which the other two books above go to), and maybe you should read that first, but I was fine just reading Interview with a Vampier first.
Oh and another author who my friend sggested was Lloyd Alexander, an he wrote these:

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldren
The High King
The Castle of Lyre

Well, thats it.... Enjoy...

actually, i've remembered a book that i really enjoyed. the prints a bit big but the books still good!!
Old Magic by Marianne Curley
(first name might be spelt wrong. i'll contact u if so!)

"Oh and another author who my friend sggested was Lloyd Alexander, an he wrote these:

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldren
The High King
The Castle of Lyre"

I beleive there are more than that, but I can't think of what the others in the series are off the top of my head. I personally enjoy all books, so I'm not much help (I agree with the idea of re-reading Tolkien over-and-over however)

Naw, Those silly fantasy-writers get payed for evry word they write. Read my "A Hobbit's confestment" wich is a quite long essay (maybe ont the right word) in swedish that I wrote. I could translate it by request. Anyone??? [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

I'd like to get paid for every word I write! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
I am working on some fan fiction, in case some of you didn't know. I should have the first installment in a few months. I know, famous last words! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

And...how could I have forgotten anything by Eddings! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

Dwarin,TWHF is my favourite too!!
I would recommend every book in this thread..

Traci Harding is great too, if you can get your hands on her books. I'm not entirely sure they're available outside Australia. But, they're great, they're the books that got me hooked on fantasy.

They are:
The Ancient Future: The Dark Age
An Echo in Time: Atlantis
Masters of Reality
Chronicles of the Ages
Tablet of Destinies

And also The Alchemist's Key, which isn't part of that series.

I don't see Roger Zelazny mentioned anywhere in this thread, so I guess it is my job to add his name to the list. Read anything by Zelazny, although I would recomment to start with the first five books of the Amber series:

Nine Princes in Amber
The Guns of Avalon
Sign of the Unicorn
The Hand of Oberon
The Courts of Chaos

The second cycle is good, but it is much more confusing and not as carefully plotted:

Trumps of Doom
Blood of Amber
Sign of Chaos
Knight of Shadows
Prince of Chaos

And other Zelazny books you might be interested in would be:

Lord of Light
Creatures of Light and Darkness
The Bells of Shoredan
The Changing Land
Dilvish, the Damned
Changeling
Madwand