So Im at the bookstore, and Forgotten Realms and Dragon Lance seem to be the big 2 series to read. If I pick one, what books do I start on? Im big on going in order. Which is best?

Examples what i like, I loved LOTR obviously, read over 15 years ago waaaay before movies... I liked the Warcraft novels, again obviously.... Im ahuge Anne Rice fan and the Vampire Chronicles, I have em all....Have all the Harry Potter books, etc

so Im a fan of series. Hook a brother up


Im currently jsut starting the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. On Gunslinger still

readign is for fags

Personally, I read the entire series of books by Mercedes Lackey. She has like 6 or 7 trilogies, plus a couple of single books as well, that tell the history of an entire world.

If you want to start those chronologically, then get (The Mage Wars Trilogy) The Black Gryphon, by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon (her husband). If you want to start off with an amazingly fucking awesome set of written books in a different trilogy, get (The Last Herald Mage) Magic's Pawn.

Overall, here's what she's written in a chronological order in terms of the world's history:
[Trilogy name (Book name) or if it's a standalone book, just Book Name]

The Mage Wars (The Black Gryphon, The White Gryphon, The Silver Gryphon books)
The Last Herald Mage (Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, Magic's Price)
Brightly Burning
Vows and Honor (Oathbound, Oathbreakers, Oathblood)
[The following take place in an extremely dense period of time in the world's history, probably a consecutive 50ish years]
Exile (Exile's Honor, Exile's Valor)
By the Sword
Take a Thief
Heralds of Valdemar (Arrows of the Queen, Arrow's Flight, Arrow's Fall)
The Mage Winds (Winds of Fate, Winds of Change, Winds of Fury)
The Mage Storms (Storm Warning, Storm Rising, Storm Breaking)
The Owl Trilogy (Owlflight, Owlsight, Owlknight)

I have pretty much every detail of every book committed to memory simply because I've read, reread, and read some more of every one of these books. Personally, I think she has the best "magic system" I've ever read about.

Fuck Lackey.

Go DragonLance. You won't be disappointed.

(Forbidden Realms is for fags and women...er I mean, hi)

Finish the dark tower. Im on the 5th book and cant put it down. The 1st book is kind of slow and boring, get past that and your gold.

Trust me trust me trust me. Roland the Gunslinger is the best (anti?)hero ever.

Read them all.

you WILL NOT regret it

Fuck DragonLance. Don't give me that shit. Lackey is a very talented author with a unique perspective on the ideals of magic comapred to everyone else.

PS: DragonLance sucks if you know that it's a DnD based thing. I couldn't even finish the second book because I was too absorbed on how each character was advancing, imagining the character sheet of each character, and so forth. It completely ruins it if you're a Munchkin like I am. So... Fuck DragonLance.

Well, yes, of course it's DnD, they fuckin' created DnD.

=P

And I don't mean it about Lackey, I was just joshing.

(Go read DragonLance, Jamie).

omg dark tower series is the coolest fucking book series i love that series

Well Im gonna finish Dark tower first for sure.....then Ill pick dragon lance or lackey, hmmm

I trust Sidd....list me the books in that to start with, like Zhen did

I know ill end up reading both

Read Dragonlance! It's the only fantasy novels i've liked aside from LotR. If nothing else just read the Chronicles Trilogy and Legends Trilogy. The sequence is as follows:

Chronicles Trilogy
Dragons of Dwarven Depths
Legends Trilogy
Second Generation
Dragons of Summer Flame
War of Souls Trilogy

only read dragonlance written by Weiss and Hickman, the rest are shit for the most part.

I read Dragonlance back in high school and enjoyed it very much. I think I started with Dragons of Autumn Twighlight, then goes through Spring, then into the Twins Trilogy, Next Generation, and Dragons of Summer Flame.

The Forgotten Realms series is also very good. And very popular, Drizzt D'Urden being one of the most beloved and copied names in fantasy roleplaying games. He's also quite the badass. Those start with the Dark Elf Trilogy (Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn in that order). That's just the first 3, I think there are like 10 or so that are out now. I like R.A. Salvatore's style or writing, his action is intense and I often found myself rereading several pages just for the mental images of the fight scenes he describes. The first 3 books are just setting the storyline of the main character, to show where he came from and what makes him different. The story really gets good in the later books when he introduces characters like Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle. (I like villains)

If you can stand to read Steven King, you might like the Wheel of Time series. Personally, I think the series peaked out at book 6 or 7. Whichever one ended with the battle of Dumai Wells. The thing with the Wheel of Time series is though... I hate Robert Jordan's style or writing. He's VERY detailed. You'll be reading a lot about scenery and what people are wearing, and how they feel about what they're wearing. By book 10 in the series, he's completely just dragging the story out, trying to fill in pages with endless paragraphs about dresses. The thing is, I love his characters, but I hate that I love them because I hate Robert Jordan's writing style. I usually skim his books now since it's 1 paragraph about scenery or clothing, followed by a paragraph of contemplation about the scenery or clothes, then 1 paragraph of action. Book 9 was a disappointment as well. 800 pages of nothing then in the last 2 chapters everything happens he just wraps everything up. To date, the series is not yet completed. He just released book 11 a few months ago and it's STILL not over.

Lately, I've just finished the Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock (yes that's his real name). It's an older series but I enjoyed it very much. I like his concept of the multiverse, non-linear time and multidimensional existance. I also like the fact that he wrote his saga in a way that you don't see anymore. He wrote a tragedy, not this happy ending hollywood crap.

Another good author is Raymond E. Feist. The series I read started with Magician: Apprentice. One of the things I like about his series is that it doesn't focus on just 1 character. As the series progresses, the characters age and grow old, some of them fade into the background to be replaced by a younger generation, such as the children of the main characters from the last book. And while the main characters may change, some of the old ones do maintain a presence in the later books. Great characters, great story and excellent action.

Haha, yeah Steven King, specificall in the stand and in the dark tower series hes VERY detailed. Goes on and on about clothing and scenery just as you said. I found myself skipping large portions of chapters simply because it was what Roland was thinking of wearing when he was 14... or like what every individual person was wearing at Reap. Charyou Tree. ha. I do love how that word shows up in alot of places, randomly. Anyway, defintely finish the dark tower series. So far, my favorite book is book IV. Book IV is basically Roland at 16, and hes still bad ass. It explains ALOT in book IV that most of the time youre just going, WTF?

MM, Darktower.... now i want to go read.

I like history books, but i suk

I'd go forgotten realms just cause I've read a lot of them Also, it's no wonder most of the video games are based on Forgotten Realms. It's a great series.

Dune.

David Eddings is another great author. The Blegariad, The Malorean, The Elenium and The Tamuli are 4 great trillogies, the Belgariad and Malorean involve the same characters same with the Elenium and Tamuli. Read, enjoy and call me sometime you hick!

have u read the wheel of time series ? if not that should be a good series to read its like 13 books so far and most of them are really good reads, i would personally say its on par with the lotr trilogy

Caste you always IM me when im not home, then u offline when I get home.... SO dont bitch at ME!

Update, On book 3 in Dark Tower, and already bought 4 ready to go....

Gonna finish this series and start on Dragon Lance

dragon lance is ok read the first couple in the series but id have to say robert jordans "wheel of time" series is better by far

Updating this thread that rocks:

I have read the Entire Dark Tower series

The entire Wheel of Time Series

The Area 51 Series

The entire Warcraft series again, including the new book

I am working on Dragonlance, I am up to Second Generation

I plan on finishing out thru War of Souls trilogy and possibly heading over to Realms, not sure tho. Dune peaks my interest, as does the Vampire Masquerade books or whatever they are called


anyone read anything good lately?

I am legend wasn't bad, halfway decent.
i myself have been contemplating reading the dune series
there are two series that are pretty good but rather short atm game of thrones is a good series but it only has about 4 books ( decent sized ones about 1000+ pgs)
and the green angel tower series which is only like 3 books but well worth the read

what did you think of the wheel of time series compared to some of the other fantasy series like lord of the rings?

I liked Wheel of Time, just got kinda bland and drawn out the last couple of books or so, and sucks to have to wait so long for the final book, IF it ever even comes out. Better than LOTR? not a chance

Game of Thrones is actually the A Song Ice and Fire series. They have 4 books with another on the way and the author is George R.R. Martin. IMO great read. There are no chapters persay. He breaks it down from each character's point of view instead. Like you'll see the scenario unfold from different perspectives.

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is awesome. He just finished the final book for it in November. I was so in to the damn thing that I finished the book in a day.

R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden series is a great read. Bout 20+ books in that series and still going. First series in that is the Dark Elf Trilogy.

I have looked at the Goodkind series several times. it will be my next after I finish with Dragonlance and my new Krypton book ( I have read a shitload of comic novels lately)

Weeee

add to completed list

The Sword of Truth series, all 11 books

just finished today. Listened to 3-11 on audiobook on my ipod at work.

I think I am going to start on those books Zhendar listed. Its either that or Forgotten Realms, and agreeing with Sidd, they do seem a lil faggoty

To an extent, yeah But they offer a new insight to the world of fantasy that I found refreshing.

Cant find anything good on audio books to pirate

Guess its back to buying $7 paperbacks. My poor bookshelves

I just started a series named "The Sword of Truth" (lolwut?). It's actually really fucking good. I'm having trouble putting down the first book even though everything is slow right now. Its basically about this world thats divided into 3 and seperated by this thing called the boundary which is a link to the underworld. The bad guy, Darken Rahl, is tearing down the boundaries and trying to obtain these 3 boxes which makes him able to kill someone with just a thought. Darken is a super powerful wizard. In the Westland, a place created for those who didnt want to use magic at all (unlike the other 2 zones), is where the main character Richard Cypher lives. His lifelong best friend and mentor Zedd turns out to be the most powerful "good" wizard that put a stop to Darken's father Panis (lol). Zedd names Richard the Seeker (which he has pretty much been preparing him for for his entire life) and gives him the Sword of Truth. Basically, if Richard thinks something is evil (anything at all) then he can destroy it with the sword with one swing. He tested it by cutting an oak tree directly in half...lawl. A few friends of mine say that the books get incredibly good, that Richard learns all kinds of magic and shit. Basically its a Hunter with a Warriors sword that can pom/pyro.

TLDR version : Sword of Truth series = awesomesauce