good fantasy books/series?

[neonrainbow]

Need something new to get my teeth into. I've read and love all robin hobb. Very much dislike game of thrones as too wordy and too much rape, misogny and sooo many names. Read the wheel of time series years ago, it was ok.. not too keen on very long series that never seem to end. What other books or series or authors do i need to look at?

P.S. Regarding good, free ebooks. I download a lot of free fantasy. These are the last three that had me caring enough about the characters to buy the successors.

www.amazon.co.uk/Bring-Fire-Part-Wolves-Loki-ebook/dp/B008UUIGB2 Urban fantasy plus Norse mythology.

Qualify by Vera Nazarian. Urban fantasy/sci-fi. I think good for anyone who liked the Hunger Games.

(If you decide you like Nazarian's writing, she has most/all of her first-in-series books going free.)

Nolander by Becca Mills- urban fantasy.
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007R6PPZA/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

The Avalon series by Marion Zimmer Bradley is also good.

I would recommend Trudi Canavan too and anything by Elizabeth Chadwick.

Another one if you like gritty urban supernatural books, the Felix Castor series by Mike Carey is extremely good. His 'The Girl with all the gifts' is also well worth a read.

Second Benedict Jacka.

Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip and Patricia Wrede are good too (beware Deerskin potentially triggering) and everything Diane Wynne Jones has ever written.

If you like intelligent and well-written fantasy, I'd strongly recommend K.J Parker's Fencer trilogy and C.S Friedman's Coldfire trilogy - great books well worth reading more than once and without gratuitous misogyny.

I absolutely second Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favourite writers, and if you like your fantasy mythology- and history-based, you should read Guy Gavriel Kay. The Fionavar Tapestry series remains one that I revisit regularly, and Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, the Lions of Al-Rassan and Sailng to Sarantium/Lord of Emperors are all well worth a read.

I love Robin Hobb's fool series these are other authors in my collection

Raymond E Feist - start with Magician
David Eddings - absolute genius, I read the Belgariad & Malloreon & accompanying books every year.
Trudi Canavan
Jennifer Fallon - several trilogy's, brilliant.
Gareth Nix - Abhorsen series which is a mixture of fantasy & modern day, YA but seriously good.

Marion Zimmer Bradley - Mists of Avalon is very long but well worth the effort. Also have other books worth checking out.

Im just getting into Eragon book
Series & is really growing on me.

pointythings

Ha! I came back to this thread to recommend CS Friedman's Coldfire trilogy!

In lieu of that, I'll rec CS Friedman's Magister Trilogy instead.

Garth Nix - abhorsen trilogy
Laini Taylor - Daughter of smoke and Bones trilogy
Terry Brooks - Shannara series
Anne MaCaffrey
Cecilia Dart Thornton - the Bitterbynde Trilogy
Raymond E Fiest - Magician
Sarah J Maas - Throne of Glass series
Kristin Cashore - Graceling trilogy
David Eddings
Thea Harrison - the Elder Races series
Ilona Andrews - Kate Daniels series
Elizabeth Hunter - the Irin chronicles
Patrick Rothfuss - kingkiller chronicles
I loved the Robin Hobb series when younger. Must re-read.

So many excellent suggestions thank you! I have read Garth nix. Also read Cecilia dart Thornton once, i quite enjoyed that. I did read daughter of smoke and bone but only book 1 so ill look into that again.

If anyone is looking for not quite urban fantasy check out jodi taylor. The first book is "just one damned thing after another". Excellent series about time travel. Very funny in places.

John Gwynne - The Faithful and the Fallen

I am circling back to a vampire/werewolf/witch fantasy world again so I am quite enjoying Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series.

A lot of the ones I would recommend have already been mentioned - Guy Gavriel Kay is great really - try one of his stand alone books (Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, Lions of Al-Rassan) you won't regret it. I am just finishing the second Locke Lamora and have enjoyed it. Have you tried J. V. Jones? Ursula Le Guin? With Joe Abercrombie I'd start with "Half a King" (probably officially YA but I really enjoyed this trilogy, his other stuff is a bit darker.) Really enjoyed "The Invisible Library" by Genevieve Cogman and it's sequel, I think there might be more coming, slightly more steampunky but good fun.
Some interesting suggestions for me to hunt out here, thanks for the thread :)

I haven't read the full thread so not sure if this has already been mentioned, but the Thursday next series by jasper fforde is really good! It's a sort of grown up, book lovers dream!! )

For something a bit more off the wall (but absolutely hilarious in places) can I also just recommend Ben Aaronovich's River of London series? I'd hate for you to miss out on those, OP.

I second the mistborn series, also try Katherine Kerr the Deverry series, Chris Wooding the Braided Path series and Freda Warrington the Blackbird Trilogy.

Ooh, and Mickey Zucker Reichert the Last of the Renshai series.

Try the Hollows series by Kim Harrison, starts with Dead Witch Walking.

Rachel Morgan is a with who works with the "monster" version of the FBI.
Ivy her partner is a living vampire, eventually when she dies she will become a full vampire.

In Harrisons world a plague struck humans which resulted in some non-humans coming into the mainstream - Witches, Pixies and Vampires but elves and werewolves are still in the closet.

Really well written, sometimes funny and a total of 13 books all sort of named after Clint Eastwood films

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead
Every Which Way But Dead
A Fistful of Charms
For a Few Demons More
The Outlaw Demon Wails
White Witch, Black Curse
Black Magic Sanction
Pale Demon
A Perfect Blood
Ever After
The Undead Pool
The Witch with No Name

I haven't read the full thread so not sure if this has already been mentioned, but the Thursday next series by jasper fforde is really good! It's a sort of grown up, book lovers dream!! )

This thread has cost me a fortune, btw.

For crappy entertainment, I properly love Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. They're trashy goodness.

Any of the Kelley Armstrong books, I'm reading Betrayals at the minute which is part of the Cainsville series. No werewolves in this.
Patricia Briggs - Mercy Thompson series
Ilona Andrews - Kate Daniels series
Chloe Neil - Chicagoland Vampires
Charlaine Harris - The Sookie Stackhouse series
As you can see there's a theme, lol

RavenQueen Cainsville fist bump for you! I love this series and I can't believe I have to wait a year for the final instalment!

LBOCS2 I don't think WotO is crappy entertainment, I like to think of it as well written pulp, urban fantasy fiction. I'm none to impressed with th SyFy channel's tv version of Bitten but I'll be watching series 2 starting in September anyway!

To be fair, I love it. I think there's a general feeling that there's 'proper' sci-fi and then there's the werewolf/vampire/witch in the modern world genre which is much less respected - Kelley Armstrong, Keri Arthur, Charlene Harris et al (quite apart from your Twilight offerings).

I've really enjoyed the Cainsville series but I found the most recent one to be a bit of a placeholder - I didn't feel like it moved the story on particularly. Have you read City of the Lost? Or the Nadia Stafford books? I enjoyed those too.

I've heard terrible things about the TV adaptation of Bitten so I've actively avoided it.

NauticalDisaster I can't get into the TV series Bitten, I've tried and I really can't, I don't think any of the characters match the book, Elena maybe but the others I can't see it, so I turned off.
Cainsville I love it!!!!! 😍😍😍 I just love Kelley Armstrong though, lol

I am a big Kelley Armstrong fan too and I have read pretty much all her books except the YA and the series she wrote with another author.

An ex- boyfriend got me into WotO back when it first came out and I've been a fan ever since.

I classify vampire/witch et all as fantasy as opposed to scifi and I do enjoy both.

Point taken re Betrayals as a placeholder but it does advance the fae mythology quite well and I enjoyed the deepening of the relationships in the story.

Have you read the excerpt of Rituals? It does look like it will be good.

Bitten is quite dire but I watch it anyway.

I enjoyed Kelley's YA series, it's like a mini Otherworld. I haven't read the Nina Stafford series but I did like City of the Lost. Was that a one-off? I can't remember?