Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels resonate so well with me, I haven't yet found anything that compares to them. I have some fond teenage-age memories of devouring any Wolfgang Hohlbein book I could get my hands on, but I somehow don't dare to re-read then to avoid getting disappointed.
I am a huge fan of anything that R.A. Salvatore puts out.
His D and D inspired adventure stories, typically feature well developed anti-heros.
I particularly loved The Sellswords trilogy, which chronicles the adventures of an assassin Artemis Entriri and a band of dark elves.
I'm not a huge fan of the books myself, but if you like the Drizz't stuff, you may be interested in the Gotrek and Felix books set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. They revolve basically around the same kind of thing.
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We have laboured long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors.
Must say that Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle is my favorite at the moment. So many hidden little gems of information in the stories, the stories within stories framework, and the time you can spending thinking about what might end up happening when some of the characters come to realize what is hinted at just keeps me rereading the series. Great characters and lovely prose, even if Kvothe is an epicish character. Although, speaking to that, I find it interesting, as good as he is at so many things, he keeps running into people that are better at specific things.
So, a few suggestions I haven't seen so far in this post.
Black Jewels novels by Anne Bishop (Fantasy/Romance) are fairly good. Good characters with some dark twists.
Patricia Brigg's Mercedes Thompson series (Urban Fantasy with some romance) is a lot of fun and the interaction between Mercedes and the members of the local pack are quite fun.
Carrie Vaughn's Kitty series is very interesting in that we have the typical hidden world Urban Fantasy matrix but then we get to see what happens when that hidden world gets revealed. Although, I do wish she would have spent more time exploring that aspect of the story.
Drew Hayes books NPC and Split the Party are surprising fun, interesting, and rereadable. Although the start of the first book is a little cringworthy and stilted, although part of that maybe because I knew, and know, people like those Hayes describes.
Going back a bit, Joel Rosenburg's The Guardian's: Warriors of the Flame series was quite good.
Its always interesting to see how widely people's tastes in the same genre can be. I personally cannot stand Robert Jordan' Wheel of Time series, found the story and characters uninteresting. Sanderson, I liked the books I have read, but not as a series as they never seem to go anywhere. Piers Anthony I loved as a teen (and still think the first six Xanth novels are fun to read as well as some of the Incarnations of Immortality) but many of his other books, ug (although Rings of Ice and Macroscope I find to still be quite good)! RA Salvatore, pretty much throw-away novels for me, read them once but never again, even though I like his characters. But then he also wrote the Cleric Quintet series, which is one of the only books, never mind a series, in a D&D universe where the main character is a cleric. Which seems fairly surprising since you would think a universe where the gods take an active role by giving their most devout followers powers, those followers would play a more prominent role. But in most of those type of novels, the devout worshippers are usually the villains of the story. Which maybe says something about the religiousness of the writers in D&D universe stories.
LOTR... I've read the trilogy multiple times but keep forgetting what happens in detail. Still one of the best books to open to the middle of, recognize and remember what's happening, start reading anyway, and look up hours later at the end of the book.
More importantly, though, the Silmarillion. Have literally tried that book 4 times and have not made it more than halfway, despite enjoying what I was reading. It's just too dense, not so much with text or events as with characters. Actually, that's probably about why I stopped Game of Thrones past novel 1 -- it was fine writing, and compelling enough to make me finish, but the thought of having to keep track of that many characters for a whole 'nother book was crushing.
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"It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes... Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
The ones already been mentions; Harry Potter, A song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time
But my all time favorite fantasy author is Tamora Pierce. While she is a mostly YA writer she doesn't follow too much into the trapping (too much) of the genre and covers a lot of mature themes. She has so far written two different universes;
Tortall- Her first set of books, Song of the Lioness, begin this universe that several tries of books have taken place and continued the stories of different character from Song of the Lioness.
Circle- Follows a group of four kids who discover they have magic not commonly found and how their lives and friendship become tied to each other. Has a setting based more on Mediterranean and Asian areas.
She is also pretty diverse with her characters, most of her main characters are female, with the only two main male characters being in the circle stories and she is going to write a prequel story about a male character from the Tortall books, in the circle books half of the four are PoC, as well as one of the two them coming out as a lesbian later on. The non-lead characters also have a great range of ethnicity and number being LGBTQ.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
In the name of this board I am going to add some Good magic ones (their are afew...)
The Brother's war MTG books (the Urza saga ones In fact I will extend this from Urza's all the way to the end of the invasion apocolips)
Chainers Torment
To a lesser extent the time spiral block books.
Other good (but hard to find) options
Magic kingdom for sale sold.
The black univorn
Villains by necessity (Read this its REALLY interesting based on what happens when the good guys win and go too far)
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I'm not a huge fan of the books myself, but if you like the Drizz't stuff, you may be interested in the Gotrek and Felix books set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. They revolve basically around the same kind of thing.
So, a few suggestions I haven't seen so far in this post.
Black Jewels novels by Anne Bishop (Fantasy/Romance) are fairly good. Good characters with some dark twists.
Patricia Brigg's Mercedes Thompson series (Urban Fantasy with some romance) is a lot of fun and the interaction between Mercedes and the members of the local pack are quite fun.
Carrie Vaughn's Kitty series is very interesting in that we have the typical hidden world Urban Fantasy matrix but then we get to see what happens when that hidden world gets revealed. Although, I do wish she would have spent more time exploring that aspect of the story.
Drew Hayes books NPC and Split the Party are surprising fun, interesting, and rereadable. Although the start of the first book is a little cringworthy and stilted, although part of that maybe because I knew, and know, people like those Hayes describes.
Going back a bit, Joel Rosenburg's The Guardian's: Warriors of the Flame series was quite good.
Its always interesting to see how widely people's tastes in the same genre can be. I personally cannot stand Robert Jordan' Wheel of Time series, found the story and characters uninteresting. Sanderson, I liked the books I have read, but not as a series as they never seem to go anywhere. Piers Anthony I loved as a teen (and still think the first six Xanth novels are fun to read as well as some of the Incarnations of Immortality) but many of his other books, ug (although Rings of Ice and Macroscope I find to still be quite good)! RA Salvatore, pretty much throw-away novels for me, read them once but never again, even though I like his characters. But then he also wrote the Cleric Quintet series, which is one of the only books, never mind a series, in a D&D universe where the main character is a cleric. Which seems fairly surprising since you would think a universe where the gods take an active role by giving their most devout followers powers, those followers would play a more prominent role. But in most of those type of novels, the devout worshippers are usually the villains of the story. Which maybe says something about the religiousness of the writers in D&D universe stories.
Discworld, naturally.
LOTR... I've read the trilogy multiple times but keep forgetting what happens in detail. Still one of the best books to open to the middle of, recognize and remember what's happening, start reading anyway, and look up hours later at the end of the book.
More importantly, though, the Silmarillion. Have literally tried that book 4 times and have not made it more than halfway, despite enjoying what I was reading. It's just too dense, not so much with text or events as with characters. Actually, that's probably about why I stopped Game of Thrones past novel 1 -- it was fine writing, and compelling enough to make me finish, but the thought of having to keep track of that many characters for a whole 'nother book was crushing.
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
Chronicles of Amber is pretty good too.
But my all time favorite fantasy author is Tamora Pierce. While she is a mostly YA writer she doesn't follow too much into the trapping (too much) of the genre and covers a lot of mature themes. She has so far written two different universes;
Tortall- Her first set of books, Song of the Lioness, begin this universe that several tries of books have taken place and continued the stories of different character from Song of the Lioness.
Circle- Follows a group of four kids who discover they have magic not commonly found and how their lives and friendship become tied to each other. Has a setting based more on Mediterranean and Asian areas.
She is also pretty diverse with her characters, most of her main characters are female, with the only two main male characters being in the circle stories and she is going to write a prequel story about a male character from the Tortall books, in the circle books half of the four are PoC, as well as one of the two them coming out as a lesbian later on. The non-lead characters also have a great range of ethnicity and number being LGBTQ.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The Brother's war MTG books (the Urza saga ones In fact I will extend this from Urza's all the way to the end of the invasion apocolips)
Chainers Torment
To a lesser extent the time spiral block books.
Other good (but hard to find) options
Magic kingdom for sale sold.
The black univorn
Villains by necessity (Read this its REALLY interesting based on what happens when the good guys win and go too far)