party go

[ex_pippin880]

Hi and welcome to fantasy!

Why don't we start off with introductions and favourite books and authors?

I am going to be disgustingly unoriginal and say I love the Discworld series to death. I also crush on Lieber's Lankhmar stories pretty hard.

Comments

[trouble]

Will y'all make fun of me if I say I'm still in love with my old Mercedes Lackey books? Oh, Vanyel: The Angsting, how I <3 you.

Cuz, if you are, my fav books are the Jasper Fforde ones. Specifically Thursday Next. Get lost in a good book, indeed.

[nathaara.livejournal.com]

Aaah, gotta start with the hard questions, don't ya? ^_~

Current favorite series is The Second Apocalypse, by R. Scott Bakker. Thoroughly disturbing in a way that makes me want to both run away screaming, and keep reading forever. Simultaneousley. I haven't gotten to read the most recent one yet as I am currently in Japan, which is not very near to Canada, where it was published... sad. But I will get to read it in June! Happy!

Other favorites include pretty much any and all short stories by Neil Gaiman, as well as the Graveyard Book, and Good Omens. Mirrormask and Sandman too, if we're allowed to delve into non-novel fantasy here. ^_^"

Speaking of Good Omens, I love me some Pratchett. Discworld, gotta love it.

Favorite of all time though still stands as His Dark Materials, by Terry Pratchett. I like his newer spinoffs on the series too, especially Once Upon a Time in the North.

Oh, and like every unoriginal fan out there, I followed the Harry Potter series obsessively. Yay!

Recently I've also been into more magical realism type fantasy, like books by Haruki Murakami and Randy Taguchi. I guess maybe you could slip Wickett's Remedy into that category too, but it's only barely outside regular fiction. Still, good book!

I look forward to talking with everyone and eventually being able to make posts when I manage to get an invite. (^_^)v ::peace::

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

I discovered Lankhmar through the Discworld, and yeah, the Leiber books are pretty cool :D.

Current favourite fantasy books include A Song of Ice and Fire (get on with writing, George!), quite a lot by Neil Gaiman, Pratchett (obviously), Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and I will happily admit that I love David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean, those books were an excellent introduction to the genre.

oh hai

[foxfinial]

Things written by China Miéville, KJ Bishop, Catherynne M Valente, M John Harrison, Milorad Pavic, Christopher Barzak, Jeff VanderMeer and Steph Swainston make me happy.

[theironchocho.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm Jazz, and I've been into fantasy as long as I can remember. My first love was Peter Pan. Eventually I moved on to Harry Potter, which has a special place in my heart but I'm not sure I can say it is my favorite since the ending fell flat for me. My favorites fantasy series is His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Tied with HDM is A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I'm only on the second book, but I was in love from the beginning.

[senmut]

I'm cheesy in my fantasy love. Various parts of the Forgotten Realms series, for instance. Saberhagen's Swords books. Dragonlance, the originals and a few extended novels/anthologies.

[anehan]

The Changeover by Margaret Mahy is probably my all-time favourite fantasy novel.

[kajivar]

Let's see....

GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire -- love, love, love
Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner books
Virtually anything by Charles de Lint
The two original DragonLance trilogies (I had such a thing for Raistlin)
David Eddings's Belgariad/Mallorean
Michelle West's Sun Sword books
Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar and Empire series

Two series I love that are fantasy and scifi:
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's Keltiad books
C. S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy

[lian]

Ah, dare I say Lord of the Rings? (there's currently a readthrough led by kate_nepveu over at Tor.com that makes me all freshly excited. There can never be enough in-depth character discussions on Aragorn! <3 sigh~.)

Apart from that, off the top of my head -- favourites include Ursula K. LeGuin, Barry Hughart, China Miéville, Tad Williams and Steven Brust. (but to be honest, I'm a super-lazy reader! it's kinda anathema to say this in a book community, though, isn't it?)

(Also, why are there hardly no female authors in this list? DD: sad.)

(since a few people mentioned him here: David Eddings, hee! I started out with straight-laced fantasy à la David Eddings and loved the Elenium saga to tiny bits!... but sadly, these days, straight-laced non-ironic medieval fantasy makes me want to spork my eyes out. I'm wishing you all the fun in the world with it! but overdose can do that to a person. >_>;)

Currently, I'm reading the Doctrine of Labyrinths series by Sarah Monette and am (pleasantly) surprised that it's so openly and clearly slashy (as in, reads like actual slash! how interesting.) Have just ordered book three of four.

[fleetfoxes]

for me, George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire ties with Robin Hobb's Elderlings series (Assassins, Liveship & Tawny Man trilogies.) I also really really like Good Omens, and I've had a life-long love affair with Stephen Donaldson (mainly the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.)

[almadsfeika]

Wow. I was thinking I don't read all that much fantasy, but love lots of the books people have mentioned here.
Tamora Pierce, Neil Gaiman - Good Omens, Philip Pullman, Jasper Fforde - Thursday Next series (do these count as fantasy?), Ursula K Le Guin - only just started reading the Earthsea books over the last few months and love them, Karen Miller, obviously HP, CS Lewis... I could go on!

[anaquana]

Some of my favorites (in no particular order)

Naomi Novik

Charles DeLint

Neil Gaiman

Harry Potter

Tamora Pierce

CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy and Magister series

The original Dragonlance books

RA Salvatore's Drizzt series

Robin McKinley

Patricia McKillip

LOTR

CS Lewis

And there are about a million more, but my brain is too tired to think at the moment.

[tallan]

My top three authors are Neil Gaiman (everything), Stephen R. Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and The Gap Cycle) and Marion Zimmer Bradley (especially Darkover, though The Mists of Avalon var my favourite book for many years).
I also love Charles de Lint's Newford books, Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy, ASoIaF by George R.R. Martin, most series by Robin Hobb, Guy Gavriel Kay's alterna history/fantasy (The Sarantine Mosaic, The Lions of Al-Rassan, A Song for Arbonne), and I have an everlasting weakness for Anne Bishop's Black Jewel Trilogy. Straight to the id, that goes. Much love for Discworld, especially the books with the witches. Granny Weatherwax is my hero.

[trialia]

Come now. Of course the Discworld is made of win. :D

Favourite fantasy writers and books? Diane Duane, Lois McMaster Bujold, Terry Pratchett, Guy Gavriel Kay, David Gemmell, David Eddings (earlier books anyway! *g*), Tamora Pierce's Circle series and her Aly books (I don't like Alanna a whole lot), Tolkien, and I will admit to liking Harry Potter, but only as a sort of looking-back-on-childhood thing, since I was 11 when the first one came out. I read Scott Lynch's "The Lies of Locke Lamora" over the last couple of days, and I love that, too! I'm also mad on fantasy and SF in other media.

*uses shiny Elenium icon* :D

[wanderer]

My favourites are ones I've seen mentioned above, and some that I haven't. At the moment I'd say that my absolute, total, unchangeable (until next week) favourite is Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. Nothing terribly earth-shattering, but strong, believeable characters, and she has an engaging writing style/story.

Naomi Novik would have to rank up there, and I've just discovered a series I'm really enjoying: Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra. It's a bit more plotty and intricate than a lot of epic-style sword and sorcery, and the magic is incredibly complex.

And of course, the standards: George RR Martin, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett etc.

(Sorry, reposting for html screw up. . .)

[animeshon]

A few months ago I would have said my favourites were the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett and the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, but then I discovered the Song of Ice and Fire books by George RR Martin and now I'm hooked. I'm also a big fan of David Eddings early books Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium & Tamuli and Feist's Riftwar books (although I stopped reading after Darkness at Sethanon).

I also love Sergei Lukayenko's Night Watch series

[libelula]

Hm, let's see. I like a lot of the writers that people have already mentioned above. And I'm open to just about anything on the board. But I really enjoy Sarah Monette, Carol Berg, Peter S. Beagle, George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Scott Lynch, Philip Pullman, etc. And there are several others I just can't think of -- and even more that I've been meaning to get to (Valente, G.G. Kay, and Gemmell among them).

I have a new interest in the steampunk genre as well, but I've yet to find any books I really enjoy.