Books

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, david eddings are all good too, and unfortunately all have passed away so dont expect more books!

Legends and Lattes might be some easy lovable reading if you're looking for low stakes character-driven fantasy. It's very low on action, but there is some.

A former adventuring hero orc swordsman decides to retire to open a coffee shop, collecting a cast of local misfits to help make her dreams a success. It's light but basically D&D meets Stardew Valley if that makes sense.

I'd recommend David Eddungs' Belgariad. Got me into fantasy genre. Then there's Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan, Raymond, E Feist (brilliant), Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy. So many good things out there. If you enjoyed Discworld you'll enjoy these too even though they're not comical like Pratchett novels are.

I'm currently reading the Bound and Broken series by Ryan Cahill. Seems pretty solid. It has dragons, wizards, other magical creatures, elves, dwarves... There is some war, but it's largely a coming of age story centered around an 18-20 year old man.

Give The Prince Of Nothing series a read. A bit more of a philosophical series than a hack and slash fantasy.

Just out of curiosity, why haven't you read Tolkein?

NPRs top 100 scifi and fantasy books.

https://imgur.com/a/zHxdYSF

I'm saving this thread for later because I'm interested in this genre, I am totally new to books, I haven't even read LOTR, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones or House of the Dragons books, I have only consumed that through the movies and TV Shows, but seems like there are some really neat suggestions here.

My fantasy go-to series is The Chronicles of Amber. Roger Zelazny was a poet, and it comes out in his prose. Dude evokes visions inside your mind.

The universe is a collection of infinite reflections between order (ie Amber) and the Courts of Chaos. Corwin is one of the nine princes of Amber, an immortal who can travel between the reflections.

I read the first five books of the series every few years. But word of warning, the first book reflects the casual chauvinism of the the time it was written. Worth powering through those bits though.

The last five books are okay, but nowhere as good as the first five.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King is a refreshing take on classic fantasy themes!

Rick Riordan's various series might catch your fancy - they're really young adult fiction, but they're still a good read. They cover Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian mythology from the perspectives of the god's half human offspring, bringing the mythology into a modern context while retreading the old myths.

The Dragonbone chair it has the politics and war but the world also has quite a few different types of races that are not your typical Human/elf/dwarf.

I am enjoying the first book and it is series.

Robin Hobb - Assassin's Apprentice

Very fresh and original high fantasy.

I really enjoyed the first six Dragonlance novels - after that, not so much.

• The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings. His books have classic D&D feel, light reading with bits of humor.

• Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb. A massive plotline (all books already written so no need to wait), very dark, superb characters.

Mistborn is great, less dragons and more alchemical science. Begins with a satisfying tale of overthrowing the government, and then tackles some of the “okay… now what” with tons more interesting stuff along the way

I just finished Dragon Weather by Lawrence Watt-Evans. It's got the dragons, magic, adventure and intrigue while also getting the main plot going almost immediately, which I like because I feel the beginnings of books from this genre can drag on forever. It's also a trilogy, so there's more if you like it. Currently I'm reading Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen, and it's interesting so far because it is fantasy, but there's a science fiction element to it which is fun.

You say fantasy, but while technically sci fi, I'd like to suggest the galactic milieu series by Julian May. It starts out sci fi and I guess constantly has sci fi elements but leans pretty heavily into bridging the gap to fantasy (elves, dwarves, shapeshifting monsters, magic etc)

One for the Morning Glory by John Barnes

The King of Elfland's daughter, by Lord Dunsany

Reading Wheel of Time and I'm really enjoying it

The Reyira Revelations Is great fun. Five Gods is an outstandingly well-written series.

• Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" series.
• Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" series
• Tamora Pierce's series spanning multiple mini-series: Lioness, Protector, Tricksters and Immortals.