what's your favourite fantasy/scifi book?

[schuss]

Lots of good suggestions.
Brandon Sanderson is my current book crush, as his Mistborn series and way of kings are fantastic.

[Buster Highmen]

There's a book that my 11 y.o son read several times (it's 704 pages with 134 b&w illustrations) that is of a kind of fantasy genre but not really classic fantasy in that the main character is a bear.

It's "The 13 and 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear" by Walter Moers. Moers is lauded as a combination of "..equal parts J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams and Shel Silverstein...".

I'm rereading it to my kids as a bedtime book and it's pretty funny and well written, even covering some fundamentals of cosmology. My sons favorite author.

Others by Moers include "City of Dreaming Books" and "Rumo", the latter loved by my son as well.

[crackboy]

yea, i recently read the malazan books. its definitely hard to to keep track of the subplots especially since at times it is hard to figure out which plots are important and which one are one off things. though he does tie a lot of things together.

one other series that is pretty good is the Temmeraire series aka His Majesty's Dragon. basically its the Napoleonic war only with dragons and dragon crews serving as an airforce

[Grange]

I'm heading to my brother-in-law's place tonight to look at his books. He's been an avid reader since he was a kid and has an entire room filled with books. With as much as I enjoyed the Codex Alera I am thinking of starting another fantasy series. I'm a little leery of sticking with a fantasy series since the only other true fantasy book I've read is Lord of the Rings. While LOTR is a good story I thought the book was really tedious and tough to get through. I hate starting a book and not finishing it and if I pick a series that is too damn detailed finishing it will become more like a chore than a good read.

[Ski to Be]

Herberts Dune

[klar]

There's a book that my 11 y.o son read several times (it's 704 pages with 134 b&w illustrations) that is of a kind of fantasy genre but not really classic fantasy in that the main character is a bear.

It's "The 13 and 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear" by Walter Moers. Moers is lauded as a combination of "..equal parts J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams and Shel Silverstein...".

I'm rereading it to my kids as a bedtime book and it's pretty funny and well written, even covering some fundamentals of cosmology. My sons favorite author.

Others by Moers include "City of Dreaming Books" and "Rumo", the latter loved by my son as well.

ha, nice. Käpt'n Blaubär was originally a cartoon character in an iconic children's show called Sendung mit der Maus (=Show with the mouse) on German state television that is on every sunday morning. A moderator and the mouse sort of lead through it and other figures like bluebear have little cartoons and skits. Generations grew up on that, myself included. I remember there was an all night marathon once and I was allowed to set up a bed on the couch and stay up as long as I could.

The books came out quite a while after I grew out of the show but I loved all of them. Had no idea they made it to the english speaking world. I'd liek to see how they translated all the weird encyclopedia entries. "Adventure smells like the smoke of campfires on the wind, with a pinch of cinnamon" or something like that, right? I recently picked up Neil Gaiman's graveyard book not realizing it's supposed to be a childrens' book. Perhaps your kid would like it. Wolves in the Walls is also supposed to be great.

Some books were mentioned that I should perhaps reread with a grown up mind, as opposed to that of a 10 year old. So LeGuin is "incredible commentary on human sexuality and the human condition", huh?

This turned into a great thread with tons of cool sounding suggestions that will keep me occupied for a long time. Thanks all!

[Hayduke]

You're all wrong (except those that mentioned Forever War...that was good). I also enjoyed American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

But the correct answer is the "In Her Name" series by Michael R Hicks.

[frozenwater]

Lots of interesting suggestions on this list. Some I want to read, others frankly scare me.

I prefer my fantasy purely in the escapism realm. In this light I ditched Robert Jordans "Wheel of Time" series around book 5. It was no longer fun.

So my favorites, some already mentioned:

David Eddings "Belgariad" series and of course "Malorean" to wrap it up.

Most of Terry Brooks earlier stuff including the original trilogy "The sword of Shannara" and for fun his "magic kingdom for sale, sold" is not bad.

I LOVED as a kid the Raymond E. Feist "Magician" series. I quit reading it about book 20 or so, but its a great trilogy that keeps spitting out new trilogies based on different characters.

For fun I recommend Brent Weeks "Night Angel" trilogy. Good fast paced romp.

My kids love and, gulp, I do too... The author Cinda Williams Chima. Start with "The Warrior Heir" also a trilogy.

[DeathVan]

Almost anything by Philip Dick is going to be good. Some hokey writing, but great stories if you can get into them. Dick's works are more philosophical than technical.

Thank you Viva, Philip K. Dick is my most favorite author of any genre.

My personal favorites (I've read and reread all of them):

V.A.L.I.S. -written near the end when he believed that he had been contacted in real life by a higher intelligence (God?) through a pink laser beam, more autobiographical. My favorite book to just open up and read a random passage from. (better than The Bible...)

Ubik -life after death and other created realities

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch -escape reality on Mars through a drug induced collective hallucination into the Earth-world of a doll

The Man in The High Castle -alternate history tale of life if the Axis won WW2

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -what constitutes being alive?

Sweet thread I've got a lot of new material to look into

[Grange]

I picked up the first two books from the Song of Fire and Ice series last week and am half way through A Game Of Thrones. So far the Codex Alera series is kicking it's ass. To this point the book is reading like a combination of a Soap Opera and Murder/Mystery novel. I hope the first book is just setting up the world and the story because if it doesn't pick up I'm not too thrilled about reading the others.

[Tippster]

Here's your problem: Codex Alera is written for Teenagers, Game of Thrones is written for adults.

Serisly tho - this is how Codex Alera was written:

The inspiration for the series came from a bet Jim was challenged to while a member of the Delray Online Writer’s Workshop. The challenger bet that Jim could not write a good story based on a lame idea, and Jim countered that he could do it using two lame ideas of the challenger’s choosing. The “lame” ideas given were “Lost Roman Legion", and “Pokémon”.[1]

Forewarning: There is very little emphasis on Magic and much more on Politics & human relations in the Song of Ice and Fire series. If that turns you off then you might as well stop now before you get pissed. Sure there are dribs and drabs of the supernatural (wraiths, dragons, wizards, even a zombie) but they are very few and far between. GRRM is way better at dialog than action.

[NoPostholio]

I picked up the first two books from the Song of Fire and Ice series last week and am half way through A Game Of Thrones. So far the Codex Alera series is kicking it's ass. To this point the book is reading like a combination of a Soap Opera and Murder/Mystery novel. I hope the first book is just setting up the world and the story because if it doesn't pick up I'm not too thrilled about reading the others.

If you make it through the second book, which I would highly recommend, I don't think it will disappoint. I think the books do a fantastic job of blending a mixture of our own perceived historical/medieval past and a fantasy that at least leans towards something that could be possible.

[Grange]

If I want politics I can read a political thriller and if I want human relations I could read a Harlequin Romance novel. I'll certainly finish the first book, but not sure if I'll open the second one. There are some interesting things though in the book that I wish the author would focus more on. I think the there is a lot of potential in the Wall. Oh well maybe that is what modern fantasy novels are moving toward, less action and fantasy to more realism and drama.

I am aware of how the premise of The Codex Alera came about. That doesn't take away from the fact that it was a fun series.

[schuss]

Lots of interesting suggestions on this list. Some I want to read, others frankly scare me.

I prefer my fantasy purely in the escapism realm. In this light I ditched Robert Jordans "Wheel of Time" series around book 5. It was no longer fun.

So my favorites, some already mentioned:

David Eddings "Belgariad" series and of course "Malorean" to wrap it up.

Most of Terry Brooks earlier stuff including the original trilogy "The sword of Shannara" and for fun his "magic kingdom for sale, sold" is not bad.

I LOVED as a kid the Raymond E. Feist "Magician" series. I quit reading it about book 20 or so, but its a great trilogy that keeps spitting out new trilogies based on different characters.

For fun I recommend Brent Weeks "Night Angel" trilogy. Good fast paced romp.

My kids love and, gulp, I do too... The author Cinda Williams Chima. Start with "The Warrior Heir" also a trilogy.

I really recommend you pick up the Mistborn series. I grew up on David Eddings (read the Diamond throne series of books when I was 10).

[Viva]

Going through my shelf I found a copy of The Man Who Folded Himself. Fun book revolving around time travel. I remember really liking it. Time to re-read it, I suppose.

Also, check out works from Stanislaw Lem, especially Solaris.

[nest]

Recently finished Tropic of Night by Michael Gruber. It is a surprisingly well written detective/sci fi book based in modern times. Explores race, anthropology, obsession, and has an amazingly believable plot including plausible mechanisms for "magic". Cool book.

[The Suit]

Necromancer, william gibson

It's, aahh, "Neuromancer." Not that Necromancer wouldn't be a good book.

Paulo Bacigalupi is brilliant. The first thing I read by him was a short story called "The Tamarisk Hunter," which was published in High Country News. Everybody should read The Windup Girl. Ship Breaker is a great read, too. I'm pissed that only the first eleven chapters of "The Drowned Cities" are available on Kindle.

Charles Stross is funny and thought-provoking at the same time. I like his "Laundry" series the best, but I've enjoyed most everything he's written.

Neal Asher's "Polity" series is pretty cool. I started with Gridlink, but Shadow of the Scorpion would also be a good starting place.

Holy crap, I almost forgot Verner Vinge. He hasn't written enough (douchebag) but every one of his books is fantastic. Try The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime. For a one-book intro, Rainbow's End would be good.

[Danno]

Was just looking at my bookshelf, and saw one that while it isn't my favorite, is a fascinating book and a great read: Inferno, by Niven/Pournelle; a modern retelling of Dante's Inferno.

[hafilax]

I thought American Gods was ordinary at best and boring for the most part.

[subtle plague]

i also found the kingkiller chronicles highly entertaining.
also try the pratchett collabo "the long earth" for nice sci fi.
i really enjoyed most of rr martins short stories set in his sci fi universe and his other stuff from dream songs (except the wild cards stuff).
read the hedge knight, sworn sword and the mystery knight!

the malazan stuff suffers from the overpowerment problem. and lack of captivating story/characters (and his weird digression on captatlism in book 6 or seven on the continet where the malazan army ends up).
abercrombies first law triology is readable but fairly uninspired storywise.

and i hate bakker's prince of nothing series. it is gruesome and underwhelming.

the wheel of time did not improve much with sanderson, but it certainly did not get worse. i guess they lost me somewhere on the way while nynyvae was pulling her braid in anger ......

[flatNshallow]

Good stuff here... "wish I had a good book" will not be a problem for a looooong time!

Can't believe Piers Anthony has not been mentioned. The Xanth series isn't for me but has legions of fans. The "Apprentice Adept" series is the best crossover SciFi/fantasy series I've found. Magic & Technology intertwined in a compelling and " believable" way. Top it off with Anthony's wit and you have a great read. Highly recommended.

Also -
The Dragon Riders of Pern.

+1 for Dick Gently... But get the audio book narrated but Tim Curry (yes, that Tim Curry).

The Simerilian (ap?) sucked.

Canticle was one of the wierdest books I ever read...

Wheel of Time is pure genius, imo the genre now belongs to Jordan, not its grandfather Tolkien.

[Tippster]

the wheel of time did not improve much with sanderson, but it certainly did not get worse. i guess they lost me somewhere on the way while nynyvae was pulling her braid in anger ......

I'm still waiting on the Aviendha/Elayne/Min threesome fanfiction chapter.

[Danno]

A couple of great books that are not typically mentioned as "fantasy" but I can't see classifying them any other way.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Watership Down by Richard Adams

[ashusood331]

nice collection of books

[Intuit]

Great ideas and suggestions, have added a handful of new titles and authors to my list thanks to everyone. As mentioned earlier the Robert Jordan wheel of time books are good but I found the series did drag slightly after the first couple. Iain M Banks; I just enjoy the way that man writes fullstop, both his scifi stuff and his fictional writings, The Wasp Factory has been a favourite of mine from a young age.

A few that I didn't see mentioned which sit on my bookshelf are

H.P. Lovecraft - Necromonicon
H.G. Wells - The Invisible Man
Marion Zimmer Bradley - Mists of Avalon
Bram Stoker - Dracula

and also I have found Neil Gaimans Sandman series of graphic novels to be very enjoyable once you get through the first couple of books and into the heart of it.