Intelligent, well-written, gripping fantasy (possibly sci-fi) novels please

[Fishpond]

I am more of a fan of the 'high fantasy' - i.e. medieval style, royalty/high court/fairly realistic but with elements of magic, etc. Rich characters are the most important thing to me in a novel, and excellent writing rather than Dan Brown type stuff.

A Song of Ice and Fire is my favorite fantasy series by far, I also love LOTR and HP. I have recently read and loved Doomsday Book, and when younger I enjoyed the Ender's Game series and 1984, but that's about as far as my sci-fi forays have gone.

I tried Wheel of Time twice and couldn't get into the first book, is it worth perservering?

Any others welcome, preferably long and with lots of sequels . I'm pregnant and want to take the time to enjoy leisure reading as long as I possibly can!

I'm guessing you would love Immolation of Eve by Helen Fields (from Amazon)

The Helliconia trilogy is pretty good - Brian Aldiss.

I love Ian Mcleod - House of Storms is good.

Alister Reynolds - all his books are amazing. More Space Opera than Medieval Sword and sorcery but really good.

i see Doris lessing and Ursula LeGuin have already been mentioned. So many wonderful writers. Also a writer called Gene Wolfe - quite odd TBH. DH bought me a copy of the Wizard Knight last christmas (i think it was remaindered!). And I was hooked. He is clearly American in his writing but so imaginative and just downright odd. Definitely medieval in tone. Book of the New Sun is fascinating (it's 3 books actually).

yes to the culture novels. Brilliant.

I third the Left Hand of Darkness, and Ian M Banks Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Oh yes, Gene Wolfe's Book of The New Sun and John Crowleys Little Big and Aegypt are at the top end of Fantasy As Literature, well worth a look.

"The Eye of the Dragon" or "The Dark Tower" series by Stephen King. Both excellent. Oh, and "The Talisman" by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Listed in my profile, I think. Some of the best reads I've had.

Yes to, 'The Talisman' which is brilliant. It has a sequel too, called 'Black House' which isn't bad.

Fishpond Thank you for starting this thread. I've just ordered Beauty, Gunslinger and Assassin's Apprentice!

Definitely second recommendations for the Earthsea books and Neil Gaiman. Particularly American Gods and Anansi Boys.

I did enjoy all the first four Outlander books. But I ran out of steam by book 5 and it's still sitting on my shelf.

I was going to suggest Lev Grossman's 'The Magicians' which, to me, was a slightly more grown up HP. I really enjoyed it and there is a sequel too, 'The Magician King' but I do like Margaret Atwood too so I'm not as confident in my recommendation as I might have been!

I have long loved the Weyrs of Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. They are science fantasy, with no magic, but she is exceptionally good (imho) at both drawing characters and creating a complex and utterly believable world for them. The first book of the series that she wrote is Dragonflight, although there are subsequent books that are actually set a long time before this first book.

I also love LOTR and HP, so hopefully I'm on the same wave length.

I am a busy teacher so don't have as much time to really sink into anything too complex as I would like. I love anything by Garth Nix, especially his Abhorsen Trilogy and one off sci fi book Shade's Children (quite dark). Trudi Canarvan's Black Magician novels are a lovely escape. I also really recommend (if you haven't already read them) Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy (If you like HP yuo'll love this) and Willian Nicholson's Firesong and Jango Trilogies (he wrote the Gladiator film, but these are fantasy books).

Happy reading and happy new year!

clicked on this to recommend Neil Gaiman, but also agree with Stephen King's dark tower and linked novels, Philip K Dick, lain M Banks and Terry Pratchett.

might make some notes from this thread for myself. :)

An oldie but goodie: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The most gorgeous retelling of the Arthurian saga I've ever read. Apologies if it's already been suggested upthread - I just skimmed through it at speed.

Also, I second the recommendation for Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials. HP for grown-ups.

Proper 'intelligent' stuff:

Dan Simmon Hyperion (and Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, etc)

Vernor Vinge Fire Upon the Deep

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

Echo Tad Williams too- Dragonbone Chair, and the Otherland books too.

Gaiman's American Gods is a work of genius.

I also really like Gibson's Neuromancer and Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash.

I like Orson Scott Card too- Enders Game is a good place to start.

Also meant to mention The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern I've HEARD lots of good things but haven't read it yet.

Am thinking that I should also order Tad William's Dragonbone Chair.
Was put off a bit by the 944 pages but it does seem to be highly recommended on this thread so perhaps I'll go for it!

Yes to The Windsinger trilogy and Philip Pullman (though I can't be doing with those bloomin' wheeled horse things). The Sally Lockhart books are great too.

Another good teenage series is The Mortal Engines series by (I think) Philip Reeve.

For whoever it was that asked about the Feist books and female characters - the "Empire" trilogy have Mara of the Acoma as the main character, and in a society that is very much like feudal Japan, where women are the lowest of the low, she leads a Great House, and from nothing, with everyone against her and convinced she is doomed, she rises to the greatest heights of power, and overcomes everything in her way. That sounds a bit pompous, but she is a very human character, as are the people around her, and she has to be very strong and clever to make it. Now I think about it, she's one of the strongest women characters I can think of, especially in sci-fi which does tend to the "little women" and "big strong men". The Riftwar books do tend to the "little woman" though, Princess Anita spends all of the second book unconscious waiting to be saved by the men and the rest is much the same - men doing "men's stuff" apart from one sorceress who makes random cameo appearances.

My all time favourite fantasy author has to be David Eddings start with either the Belgariad series or the Elenium (different characters). Again like with Feist avoid some of his later stuff and his first two stand alones are terrible!

As mentioned on another tread here the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik are also worth a read.

Agree with everyone who recommended Neil Gaiman the man is amazing

I also want to second (or third!)
Neil Gaiman
Robin Hobb
Tadd Williams

Gritty Urban Fantasy from Ben Aaronovitch

Sheri Tepper, feminist dystopian fantasy, she does great aliens. She's my favourite Fantasy author

On the horror-y side of Fantasy, quite hard to classify is
Phil Rickman. His protagonist in this series is a woman Anglican priest who becomes the 'exorcist' of the Welsh Border. The books are very interesting and the character development is great.

Starhawk writing about the choices that face us now and the way the world might be Fifth Sacred Thing

Life Changing in the Second wave of feminism Woman on the Edge of Time

Please keep the ideas coming, I live in a family of Fantasy readers and we always need ideas for presents.