What other fantasy books do YOU read?

I have been a fan of the Chronicles of Prydain for over 2 decades now. Back when I first read the books in fifth grade my mind was envisioning them as live-action movies. For me, these books carry with them so much truth and beauty, ideas and values that I think are so often forgotten in our society. The books have a real-life magic to them; it is hard to describe exactly how much these books mean to me, but it is enough to have inspired me recently to write a screenplay for the first book, The Book of Three. (It's 168 pages right now, and I need to do some editing.)

I have had some correspondence in the past with the author, Lloyd Alexander, and most recently I inquired into his thoughts on live action movies based on the films. (I also asked if I might send him a copy of my screenplay). He reminded me that Disney holds the rights to the books, and he more or less felt that such an endeavor was not possible. It would be nice to have his blessing, so to speak, but I am detirmined to let the people at Disney know that there are perhaps millions of people who feel deeply drawn to his Chronicles and would love to see them made into films.

I am envisioning the movies to be less high fantasy, more historical, focused more as a chronicle of a young man's journey to adulthood. I believe people will be inherently drawn to the ideas of what true nobility is, and the power to command ourselves. And I am certain that the deep and abiding love that develops between Taran and Eilonwy, which gracefully and beautifully grows through the length of all 5 books, will touch everyone.

I am corrently living in Los Angeles, working in post-production (music for film and TV), and I have made some connections with people in the industry, and more importantly Disney. I am in the process of talking to one director in particular who has worked with Disney in the past, and I am trying to get an agent to solicit the screenplay to Disney.

What I think is of utmost importance is what fans of the books think, their opinions, and feedback. So, I am also looking for some help in starting a website or link for people who want to see the Chronicles of Prydain made into movies. I want to try to get as much buzz happening as possible for the project, and the internet, as we all know, has become one of the most powerful tools to do this.
Any ideas or comments would be appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to read through all of this.

[The Mouth of Sauron]

Originally Posted by River Jordan

Other than LotR, what other fantasy literature do the rest of you read? I like:
CS Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia"
Madeleine L'engle's "The Time Quartet"
and Richard and Wendy Pini's "ElfQuest".

Elfquest, unlike the others which are books, started out as a comic book graphic novel, and has seen many different incarnations from comics and books to full colour graphic novels and now a movie is in the works. Any other EQ fans here? That's where I got the name "River" from, my ElfQuest fan-days back when I was in high school...


Your friendly neighbourhood elf, *River*

"You have nice manners for a thief and a liar." Smaug

The Bible and the Koran .

And regretably they cause more grief than LOTR .

[ninja91]

Come on, everyone likes R.A. Salvatore. Dark Elf Trilogy, Icewind Dale, Legacy of the Drow, Hunters Blades, among a couple others. Fascinating author.

[Brinniel]

Ah, yes. I've owned both The Dark Elf Trilogy and Icewind Dale Trilogy for years now, but for some reason I never got around to reading them.

I really need to stop buying new books and read the ones I already have.

[ninja91]

Brinniel, I have that same exact problem. I buy like three books at once, and the next time I get to reading them is a year afterwards. I must have 10 books that I have had for a while that I still have yet to read.
P.S. Read the Hunter's Blades trilogy. Too exciting to put it down!!!

[Lalwendë]

Me too. I blame those good offers in Waterstones. And I see a new Bill Bryson book is out so it won't be long before I'm tempted to buy that!

However, I'm now re-reading His Dark Materials again after all the Pullman debate, so I can make some more informed comments. And it's a great read anyway, despite what people say. I'd forgotten what a great character Lyra is!

[Rhod the Red]

I've also read C. S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia), J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter series) and just starting the Terry Pratchet series.

[Texadan]

I'm reading the Noble Dead series by Barb & J.C. Hendee. I've read the first three and enjoyed them. The fourth is out in paperback but I've not been able to get it yet. And I'm not sure the Keeper trilogy by Tanya Huff qualifies under the topic since it's set in modern day Canada. But it has magic and elves in it so.... I highly recommend it. Good story and some good humor as well.

[Thinlómien]

I've just finished Trudi Canavan's The Magician's Guild and have started The Novice of the same series and I must say I like it. The clichés are well.used, the characters lovely and the plot intriguing. The perfect books to read during the summer...

[ninja91]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

I've just finished Trudi Canavan's The Magician's Guild and have started The Novice of the same series and I must say I like it. The clichés are well.used, the characters lovely and the plot intriguing. The perfect books to read during the summer...

I was either going to borrow that or the Earthsea trilogy. I chose the Earthsea trilogy, but I'll give the books you mentioned a shot next, Lommy.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by ninja91

I was either going to borrow that or the Earthsea trilogy. I chose the Earthsea trilogy, but I'll give the books you mentioned a shot next, Lommy.

A good choice, I finished them some time ago and they were well worth the read. Although, I prefer the Earthsea-trilogy....

[Elmo]

Are we allowed to talk about a certain adolescent wizard on here? Just finished the book, man it's depressing! The deaths just keep on coming. I'm not sure I can say much more about it because of spoiling it for people but its the first Harry Potter book I don't want to reread in a hurry, not because it was badly written but its general gloominess.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I personally did not finish it yet, but generally yes, I think it might be a good literature for the kids who just learn to read. You see: you give them the book, so they learn to read, and you even can simultaneously teach them count up to 100 by making them count the deaths!

That won't happen in Middle-Earth.

[Nazgûl-king]

I love fantasy books! I've read:

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon and its sequels) by Christopher Paolini

I’ve read a few others as well, though I can’t think of any others to add right now.

[McCaber]

Narnia is good, that's where I started fantasy.
I tried Potter and Inheritance, but I got fed up with them very quickly.
I like The Wheel of Time. If only Robert Jordan could have finished before he died.
A Song of Ice and Fire is amazing, but it's not really fantasy.
I've read some of Salvatore, and it's been pretty good.
Dune is a great series, but it's sci-fi, and not fantasy.

[Brinniel]

I've recently gotten into the more modern era fantasy books. Particularly with two books: Moon Called and its sequel, Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. They're about a skinwalker and mechanic named Mercy Thompson who has dealings with mainly werewolves and vampires, along with fae, ghosts, and witches. The book covers are rather silly...they resemble the cover of a men's magazine, which is lame because the books are not risque at all. But as the saying goes, "don't judge a book by its cover," because these books are very good.

At the moment, I'm reading His Dark Materials. My professor assigned The Golden Compass for class, then decided we should read The Subtle Knife too, which is the one I'm currently on. I'm loving the trilogy so far, so of course I'm going to continue reading into The Amber Spyglass. Haven't seen the movie yet, though I plan to next week. But I don't want to hear anything about it that might spoil my judgement. I just don't want my expectations to be too high or too low.

[Oddwen]

I was reading a webcomic the other day, and ran across this bit of news for you fans of the Wheel of Time:

The big news in the world of Fantasy literature is that Mr. Brandon Sanderson, author of The Mistborn Series and Elantris, has been chosen to finish the late Robert Jordan's masterwork, Wheel of Time Book 12: A Memory of Light.

I read this on www.lfgcomic.com


I also have picked up "The Deed of Paksenarrion" by Elizabeth Moon and am about halfway through - it's not too bad.

Greetings to all!

I have been an avid reader of Robert E. Howard's Conan series for a number of years now. In many ways, it was Howard's short stories that drew me to fantasy literature and, actually, literature in general.

I also like other Howard creations such as Bran Mak Morn, Kull, Solomon Kane, and so on and so forth. Not quite as much as I like the Conan series, though.

Over the years I've picked up many fantasy novels, many of which have fallen out of memory. I do, however, remember enjoying Brian Jacques' Redwall series some years ago, though it has been ages since I last picked up a Redwall book.

Regards,
Ytheogan

[Elmo]

Originally Posted by Oddwen

I was reading a webcomic the other day, and ran across this bit of news for you fans of the Wheel of Time:



I read this on www.lfgcomic.com


I also have picked up "The Deed of Paksenarrion" by Elizabeth Moon and am about halfway through - it's not too bad.

I'll probably buy it just to complete the set, that's the same reason I bought a lot of the books as I stopped liking them a while ago.

[Mekor Karun]

I read the Chronicles of Narnia, the Inheritance Cycle, and most Midevil history books

[Galadriel]

I recently gave a try at Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. It was awful. Hobb can write well, but her plot is clichéd and her characters are cardboard cut-outs. There was, sorry to say, too much unnecessary description (rich, coming from a Tolkien fan!). But, where Tolkien's prose is lyrical and impressive in itself, Hobb's sounds forced, and lacks beauty.

I had high hopes for this book, but it was quite disappointing *Shields self from Hobb fans*

Right now I'm reading a fairly new fantasy novel by Fiona McIntosh, Royal Exile. The plot is good, and relatively original, but the prose could use a lot of work. There is little to no description, and most of the characters, houses, palaces, etc. are vague blobs. Still, it seems fairly promising, and I'll probably finish it.

I'm also in the middle of George R.R. Martin's Dreamsongs, Volume 1. It's very, very good. Managed to keep me entertained for a few nights, and I usually don't even like short stories! Two stories in particular, The Ice Dragon and The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr, are my personal favourites.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Galadriel

I recently gave a try at Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. It was awful. Hobb can write well, but her plot is clichéd and her characters are cardboard cut-outs. There was, sorry to say, too much unnecessary description (rich, coming from a Tolkien fan!). But, where Tolkien's prose is lyrical and impressive in itself, Hobb's sounds forced, and lacks beauty.

I had high hopes for this book, but it was quite disappointing *Shields self from Hobb fans*

Ah, well, here's a newly-discovered non-Hobb fan to back you up.

My local library doesn't have the first book, but I got out the second, "Royal Assassin", recently, then started to read the third but couldn't finish it. I wouldn't say the middle book's awful, though, exactly– it is mostly well-written, and there are hints of an underlying mythos that sounds intriguing– but I just don't think that makes it worth wading through chapter after pointless chapter of Fitz-Sadsack-Chivalry whining drearily on and on and on about his loneliness and his health problems and his illegitimacy and his stigmatised psychic powers and his semi-unrequited love for Molly– and, of course, the overpowering angst of an assassin's lot. I'm not kidding when I say that I kept finding myself muttering "Just. Shut. UP!" though gritted teeth. It doesn't help that nothing much happens for ages, and that when the "real" plot finally gets going it becomes apparent there is no reason whatever for Fitz to be the main character, since he plays very little part in the overall story. Hobb tries to gloss over this by throwing in some prophecies about how Fitz is "The Catalyst... destined not to actually do anything but to be very important anyway, because... um... er... hey, look over there!", but needless to say, this doesn't work. As for the rest of the cast... well, to Hobb's credit she does try to give them some character development– in fact, she spends quite a lot of time establishing what they're like– but the trouble is, there's just not that much to establish, if you see what I mean.


Also, why is it always wolves and dragons? Why is no fantasy protagonist ever mystically soul-bonded to a sheep? I ask you.

~Yes, that was a bitter rant, that was. Put it down to disappointment– I'd heard so much praise for this trilogy.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

Also, why is it always wolves and dragons? Why is no fantasy protagonist ever mystically soul-bonded to a sheep? I ask you.

Sheep are food.

People want to be bound to the hunters, not the prey.

Sheep are stupid, wolves and dragons are smart (well, every hunter has to be smarter than the prey...).

People worship the fierce animals.

What's mystical about sheep?

Sheep have no kind of loyalty except to the greens they much on.

I could go on for a while with this, but I'll stop here. There are peoples from fantasy novels that live off sheep and thus appreciate them more than just meat and wool, but they would not worship them or have some mystical ties with them. Sheep are too domestic, too tame, and too predictable to be mystical.

Though Erendis and Ancalime might not agree with me.

[Nerwen]

That was a joke, G55.

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

~Yes, that was a bitter rant, that was. Put it down to disappointment– I'd heard so much praise for this trilogy.

I did a worse one on Amazon Some parts of the book were intriguing and could have been worked on, but for the most part it was just...ugh.

Yes, I am very eloquent.

[Belegorn]

Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
A Wrinkle in Time by the recently deceased Madeleine L'Engle
The Arabian Nights the Mahdi manuscript

[Thinlómien]

Has anyone else read the Acacia trilogy (The War with the Mein, The Other Lands, The Sacred Band) by David Anthony Durham? I read it this summer/autumn and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Durham follows, in a way, in George R.R. Martin's footsteps: epic high fantasy peppered with sometimes ugly realism and a world where nothing is black-and-white.

I was fascinated with Durham's frequent balancing between traditional fantasy clichés and more unconventional ideas - the first book is a story of the old emperor's four children, two girls and two boys, all of whom have a different destiny when their father is assassinated and they have to regain the throne. Yawn? Well then, what if I told you the empire was founded on slave trade and drugging their own people with an opium-like substance? Much more intriguing, says I. Durham's world is populated with humans and it has a very historical feel. There are fantasy creatures, but they are either just animals that don't exist in our world, or then monsters created by misuse of magic. Magic itself is rare but it does play a key role in the trilogy, as do human souls and boundaries between life and death.

It was also very nice to read basic entertaining high fantasy which is not a tad sexist (the female characters are just as important and active as the male characters, and none of them fall into the marysue category, or maybe a few, but the male characters are just as garysues!), has homosexual heros and heroines as well as stuff like communists opposing the monarchy (!!! that was totally unexpected and funny, and they were not any better or worse people than the main guys) and preaches co-operation, tolerance and trust in other people over other things (okay, to be fair, these are pretty common themes/values in fantasy, but it still makes me happy).

All in all, Durham writes more contemporary, liberal and realistic fantasy than many fantasy authors who seem still to live a bit in the past and harbor some sort of macho hero mythology. It doesn't prevent him from writing an intriguing and entertaining traditional epic fantasy plot (his twists and turns kept surprising me all the time) and having wonderful heroes you can root for and baddies you can dislike with all your heart. Also, Durham's world seems pretty real and thoroughly built, which is always cool.

I had a few grievances with the books too, but all in all I was impressed. I would warmly recommend the Acacia trilogy to anyone who wants something refreshing and a bit but not too much different in their epic fantasy diet. (And apparently I'm not alone in my appreciation - I heard that Durham's sales went up when George R.R. Martin praised him recently. So all Martin fans, here's something you might want to try. )

[Aganzir]

I just finished my third reread of K.J. Bishop's The Etched City. It's magical. I know I've praised it before on this very thread, but I've got to do it again. Read it.

[Lalwendë]

It's not fantasy but it's one of the most geek-friendly books I've read in a long time - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

It's set in 2044 and the world is a rotten place. The narrator is a 17 year old lad who is addicted (like almost everyone else) to a virtual reality 'world' (more of a 'verse) called the Oasis. He even plugs in to go to school. He's also a huge geek hunting an Easter Egg hidden by one of the creators (another geek, and fan of 80s pop culture), because finding it means winning the billions he left in his will. It's all about gaming: online gaming; D&D; arcade games etc. And stuffed full of references to: Tolkien; Star Wars; Firefly; Doctor Who; John Hughes films; Rush etc. And has quite a lot to say about online friendships and what happens when people meet in real life.

Give this one a bash. It's good fun.

[Glorthelion]

I tried reading [B]Eye of the world[B] by Robert Jordan. I didn't last the first chapter. My book savvy friends recommended the series. It has to be a rip-off of Tolkien. I might give it another go in the future.

[Yregwyn]

Sword of Truth series is one of my favorites, read "Wizards First Rule" and tell me that you dont want to start on "Stone of Tears" asap. Also The codex Alera is very good, i really really liked that series. Warhammer Fantasy has great Elfs and Dwarfs, (fantasy mind you i cant do 40k) Gotrek and Felix is good, i like the Nathan long books better then the William King ones. Nathan is more detailed in his writing. I also love Drizzt, he may very well be my favorite character of all time. Alot of people dont like me because i like Drizzt but oh well Xd. Thats a few ill post more when i have time im in a hurry.

[Galadriel55]

Thanks to my sister, just finished The Princess Bride, which I believe is not unfamiliar to some of you. Really fun book on many levels, but (no offense) I think the movie is horrible. It botched all the best parts and all the parts that are left up to the imagination! There's a reason the ending of the book is as it was!!! >< (Just for the record, I prefer Morgenstern's ending to Bill's father's ending). And Buttercup isn't supposed to be such a lovely and loving lady, she's supposed to have a healthy streak of selfishness, so don't make her into a self-sacrificing heroine! And they made Inigo and Fezzik into much more minor characters than I think they should be and basically turned a tale of true love and high adventure into a tale of true cliches and high hollywood.

What I liked about the book is that, unlike many modern reads for children and young adults, its main source of humour is the setting, not the characters. Other novels lighten the mood at the expence of characters; usually there is at least one clown in the bunch who would throw in a joke to break up the suspense every time. While there are occasionally funny things being uttered by characters here, they are not being compromised, and they are still taken seriously overall.