Hey everyone! I'm a big fantasy fan and I'm always up for sugesstions of good reads! I have the new Douglas Preston/Lincoln Childs book reserved at the library and am reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I think it's pretty boring so far, so the reading is going slowly. My favorite books are the Dark Jewels Trilogy and the Dragonlance Series. Let me know what you like

Ithlilian, welcome to the forums. :-)

Here are some recommendations for you:

"Sirius" by Olaf Stapledon - it's a classic sci-fi about a dog with human intelligence, written in Britain in the 1940's I think. A thought-provoking and tragic novel which I really should read again, now that I think of it...

"City of Saints and Madmen" by Jeff VanDerMeer - this is a dark fantasy about the city of Ambergris. The book is a collection of writings - some short stories, a few novellas, a "travel guide", a history of Ambergris, and the most hilarious glossary I've ever read - about this alternate reality. It's not an easy book to get into but I found it immensely trippy and rewarding, and thought about it often in the weeks and months after I read it. My next book purchase will be "Veniss Underground", also by VanDerMeer, which gets even more enthusiastic reviews on Amazon than City of Saints did.

"The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson - this one is hard to describe, so I'll just advise you to look it up on Amazon! The ending sort of fell apart, but I completely lost myself in this book. The future that Neal Stephenson envisions just blew my mind. Hubby recommended this one to me and I didn't think I'd like it (I don't usually seek out sci-fi or fantasy, but he's a huge fan), but I babbled about it to him throughout and I think he wished he'd never mentioned it to me. :-)

"Blood Music" by Greg Bear - nanotechnology gone horribly awry. Sad and beautiful, and only too plausible.

I don't really consider myself a "fan" of sci-fi or fantasy, but it's funny how some of my favorite books fall into those categories...or maybe they should be called "speculative fiction"...

Quick Hijack...
This shows you how much I like the Dragonlance series...here is a pic of Laurana. I didnt have a final pic onhand so this 1 was a "under construction".

Stick with Wizard's First Rule.. it gets slow at times but it'll pick up. Right now I'm on Temple of the Winds, the fourth book in the Sword of Truth series. Sometimes Terry Goodkind get so caught up in the details that the story drags along, but when he's telling a story, he's pretty darn good at it.

I don't read a lot of science fic/fantasy, but my faves include:

Stephen King's Dark Tower books
Stephen King's Eye of the Dragon
Stephen King/Peter Straub's The Talisman
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut
Anything by Ray Bradbury

I've read a few Terry Brooks that were good, and Robert R. McCammon Swan's Song was decent, too.

For children's books, The Lioness series by Tamara Pierce and the Darkangel series by Meredith Ann Pierce.

Clever: Thank you I will definitely look them up on amazon

Dirk: Raistlin is my favorite character, although I think he's alot of peoples favorite character. Awesome tat congrats

Coma: Since a friend gave it to me I'll have to pull through it, I hope it picks up

Peace: I have read those Stephen King books and I enjoyed them very much, I'll check out your other authors on amazon tonight.

Thanks everyone!

Ugh I had to give up on Wizard's First Rule. I was just turning pages and not liking a paragraph of it.

I recently finished The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I have read all of their Pendergast books except for three and I wish the library had them so I could read them. The Diogonese triology was the best and I suggest that to anyone for a great read

Some Authors are just better story tellers than others. Some think that they have to give every teeniest tiniest detail to make a story work when they really don't. Some bore you to death with all the scientific jargon till your eyes glaze over. Others overkill with too many characters and you lose the ability to sympathize with them.
My all time fave is Anne McCaffery. I always enjoy Asimov, Bradbury( the classics) and I really haven't tried the new ones. Although I have gotten a couple of the " Best of this Years Sci Fi" in one large book with alot of different stories and styles. Enjoyed those. Some times theres just too much to choose from and you don't know where to start.

Exactly. Just this past weekend, I was at a B&N and walked down the sci-fi aisle with the idea of getting something. I was overwhelmed by the selection and not knowing what's good/bad. The cover art and jacket description on most of them seem interesting, but you know, like any genre, most probably suck. In the end, I scurried back to the WW2 aisle where I'm more comfey.

Most science fiction and fantasy are in series so it's hard to get into that when just browsing. The library also seems to be missing one or two parts of a series which bothers me. I don't like overly descriptive novels. I've never tried Mcaffrey I think there are too many of them maybe

The fantasy books that got me started were Ann MacCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern", but my all time
favorite is the "Sunnrunner" series by Melanie Rawn. Anyone who is looking for inexpensive books
should check out Wonder book and video in Hagerstown and Frederick. They have an extensive science fiction / fantasy section. Everything is in alphabetical order by author and most are under $5.00. Best way to see if you like them.

I used to LOVE Wonder Book and Video. I thought they closed up?

I used to browse their everythings till I moved moved further south. They still open?

Yes pookie, they're still open. They moved over on the Dual Highway in the old pharmacy, next to the auto parts store( where Ames/ Zayres used to be). I think they're still over at Kmart's shopping center, but I think it's their $1 store. I'm pretty sure I saw that in the windows once when I went over that way. Havn't checked it out tho.

yes, the one by kmart is still stuffed full, and all books are $1.00