Can you recommend any fantasy novels?

And give your own opinions on books you've read too

I want to read some more fantasy novels but I'm uncertain of some of them because of their mixed reviews.

The ones I've read of, and which I'm uncertain of, are:

Terry Brooks, Sword of Shanarra trilogy (online reviews say it borders on plagiarising the Lord of the Rings)

Terry Goodkind (said to be somewhat simplistic and to have a bad writing style)

Ian Irvine, The View from the Mirror Quartet (said not to make sense in some places and for the characters to behave unpredictably)

Tad Williams, Memory, Thorn & Sorrow

Lloyd Alexander, The Pyrdain Chronicles

Guy Gavriel Kay

Julian May, Boreal Moon Trilogy

Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast Trilogy

I already own the following books:

Trudi Canavan - The Black Magician Trilogy
Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising Sequence
William Corlett - The Magician's House Quartet
David Eddings - The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Elenium, The Tamuli, Belgarath the Sorceror, Polgara the Sorceress, The Dreamers
Alan Garner - The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath, Elidor
Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy
Mary Hoffman - Stravaganza trilogy
Robin Jarvis - Whitby Witches series, The Wyrd Museum series
Katherine Kerr - Deverry series
Ursula leGuin - the Earthsea Quartet
C.S. Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia
George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice & Fire
Jenny Nimmo - The Snow Spider Trilogy
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
Katherine Roberts - The Echorium Sequence
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter series
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of The Rings, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, Unfinished Tales

It would be good if anyone would like to discuss them or if you want to know more about any of them

Primarily I like fantasy but not really science fiction... I have been recommended books such as C.S. Lewis' Perelandra series and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series but they don't really appeal to me...

wow....I think youve got most of that genre covered....I dont know any more than youve listed

I dont know if "Watership Down" would fit in this category

also one I read a long time ago:

"The book of the Dun Cow" by Walt Wangerin

Oh, what wonderful taste you have! :-)

You need Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn and his harder to find, Folk of the Air.

All of Diana Wynne Jones is good. The Dalemark Quartet.

I just finished Garth Nix's The Abhorsen Trilogy. I found it "difficult" kind of like the actual book, The Dark is Rising, the books were a bit scary for me, disaster looming on every page, kind of intense I guess.

You absolutely must read A Red Heart of Memories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman and then perhaps her The Silent Strength of Stones

I was surprised I didn't see any of Patricia McKillip. Start with the Riddle Master trilogy.

Tamora Pierce is very good too. The Circle Opens, Song of the Lioness, and Protector of the Small series and her new series Beka Cooper.

Madeleine L'Engle, The Wrinkle in Time quintet

The Pellinor Series (starts with The Naming) by Alison Croggon.

The Seer and the Sword and The Healer's Keep by Victoria Hanley. I handn't realized it was a trilogy; I just ordered the third in the series after I refreshed my memory about these first two :-)

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson. It is a great series and is really original work. It has a fairly complex story line that goes book to book and toward the end the names got a little confusing but I think that is because I had a fairly long break before I read the last book. If you are into fantasy and liked the Lord of the Rings, I think this series is a must read. .

Raymond Feist.

Not quite sure how this goes but there is 'Magician' and there is a part 2 (other book) as well. Originally put out as one long book, I think, and then split into two (as it probably should have been in the first place).

Not sure if you would get into medieval fantasy (knights of the round table kind of stuff where there is some magic etc) - there are a couple good ones about... 'The Mists of Avalon' etc.

I loved reading all the Margaret MCCaffreys Dragon books.
Plus her Freedom books (all her books in fact)

and the "The Time Travellers wife " is fantastic.

Terry Goodkinds sword of truth seris is awesom!!! altho i dont think i ever got past the third or fourth book but i do that with most books and other things... usually cuz i end up doing other things instead and lose interest.

Another awesome boo series that is also fantasy is 'the wheel of time' series by Robert Jordan. Another series that i didnt get past the 4th or 5th book lol but iv started re-reading them and im already on the 4th book again. Unfortunatly iv been reading them ebook style using my NDS, which i have to send in for repairs which will take weeks so i have a feeling that i may find some other interest by the time i get it back.

Has anybody ever heard of a book called something like 'knight in shinning Armor' which is about some woman who ends up going back in time and meeting a knight, and he ends up coming to the future as well? I read it a long long time ago and havnt been able to find it since.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions

I realized later after I'd posted that I hadn't mentioned I already own the Riftwar Saga and Serpentwar saga by Raymond E. Feist... and I've already read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever but I didn't like them... though I did read them a few years ago now

Perna, what a long list I haven't heard of many of those authors

Hyper1... what do you think of the Wheel of Time series? I've considered trying it but it goes on forever and the author has died now so idk when the final book of it will be published.
And I don't know anything about that book you want to know about

Has anyone read the Tad William's series of Memory, Thorn, and Sorrow?

R. A. Salvatore and the Forgotten Realm stories

A series, editted under R. A. Salvatore but written by others is War of the Spider Queen

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Series

My son recommended these.

Hyper, I read that too! It was good. I was a medieval history major once, for 2-3 years, and I learned a lot of good stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Shining.../dp/0743457269

The wheel of time series is awesome. i like it even better than the sword of truth series. altho like i said i havnt gotten past the 4th or 5th book (cant remember which). I seriously want to learn how to sword fight. Not like fencing but real midieval sword fighting. That would be useless.... but awesome!

Anything by Charles De Lint is good.

Hyper... with you sounding so enthusiastic about the Wheel of Time I'll give it a go (if I can ever find the books in order, like from a library). And I know what you mean about wanting to try mediaeval things, lol.

And for everyone else, thanks for the new suggestions

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Labyssum said:
Anything by Charles De Lint is good.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">
Oh, yes, he's fabulous, especially his short stories. I had to put down a couple of his books recently though because the sexual abuse theme with the two sisters was too ugly for me.

well i shall say i ADORE stephen king. although i dont reccomend it to anyone who triggers easily. he is a horror writer so quite a bit of messiness and uhm nasty things. but he is an amazing writer.