So I grew up very sheltered and isolated from society and as a result missed out on a lot of pop culture and other common things. I love to read, and I really enjoy fantasy and DnD and those types of things and I’m trying to find and catch up on the great fantasy books/series that every fantasy lover/nerd should know. I’m not as interested in sci-fi, but I’m willing to read the “great” ones too. What would you recommend?
Series I’ve read: The Lord of the Rings The Witcher The Dark Tower The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Dungeon Crawler Karl
Update to add also read: Wheel of Time Most of the Stormlight Archive The Hobbit
I’m just starting my first Discworld book.
Edit: Thanks everyone! Keep them coming, I’m going to make a list with all the suggestions and start working through them.
No speculative fiction recommendation thread is complete without mention of Peter Watts’ Blindsight. Truly alien aliens, and some very interesting exploration of the nature of consciousness.
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books. Hyperion (first 2 are best buy i love all 4 in the series). Read some of the classics like Philip k dick “do androids dream of electric sheep” and robert heinland’s “stranger in a strange land” isaac asimov’s “i robot” books and foundation series are excellent too.
There is an unfortunate lack of female authors in this thread so I will post two recommendations:
- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
I’m not familiar with Jacqueline Harpman, but Left Hand of Darkness is quite fun. Not at all what I expected going in.
I’ll add Lois McMaster Bujold and her Curse of Chalion to the list. Great book.
Discworld (Terry Pratchett), no question.
Wheel of Time is an incredible experience, if you ever get to it and like it (especially the last few books) I’d also recommend Brandon Sanderson’s first era of Mistborn books! The second era gets a bit too convoluted imo
A really cool story about first contact. It was written in the 70’s, and it shows in the gender and societal norms presented in the novel. If you can power through that, you’re in for a treat!
A novel series about a wizard detective in chicago.
I despise Pournelle, his shitty conservatism always shines through his writing. But I will admit that The Mote in God’s Eye is a good novel, no doubt in large part thanks to Niven.
Another decent first contact novel is Learning the World: a Scientific Romance by Ken MacLeod.
Ya, he was a pos, even by the standards of the day. Dude loved his patriarchy…
Here are some series I can’t recommend enough:
Cradle by Will Wight — A young man born too weak to matter in a world where martial artists can shatter mountains and walk on air decides that’s not good enough. Starts small and intimate, then escalates into genuinely insane power fantasy. The progression system is crack cocaine. 12 books, all out, binge-worthy.
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan — A slum girl accidentally discovers she has magic, which is very illegal if you’re not from the right family. Gets accepted into the Magicians’ Guild under suspicious circumstances and slowly uncovers something rotten at its core. Cozy, character-driven, and surprisingly political.
The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks — Magic is literally made of light and color, and drafters slowly go mad from using it. Packed with political scheming, morally grey characters, and one of the best slow-burn mystery plots in fantasy. Weeks hid twists in plain sight for five books and sticks the landing.
The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington — Time travel, prophecy, and a magic system where using power costs you years off your life. Dense and intricate in the best way, the kind of series where you flip back to chapter one after finishing it and realize how much you missed. Islington clearly planned every page from the start.
All are fantastic series, happy reading! 📚
Worm by Wildbow, 10/10 all the way through, which is incredible given it’s 7000 pages and written by an indie author.
It’s good, but even Wildbow themselves says it could use a thorough edit - which will likely never happen. Not to say you shouldn’t read it. It’s fantastic.
I dunno, I’m holding out that an animated adaptation will happen one day on the worm series. Maybe it’ll get the invicible treatment and get some edits then.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown is really popular. I’m only just started the 4th book so nobody spoil it for me. So far so good.
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5
Firsthand account of one of the scariest events of the Second World War in the shape of highly entertaining sci-fi novel.
Must read for everyone.
Some that I didn’t see listed
Tad Williams Memory Sorrow Thorn trilogy. It starts really show, but if you make it through the first fifty pages it gets really good.
Tad Williams Otherland series is also really good, but kind of blends sci fi and fantasy.
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
The Awakeners by Sherri S Tepper. All of her books are good, but again some of them mix sci fi and fantasy, but The Awakeners is straight fantasy.
The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman
Lord of the rings of course you have read it but what about a second time
I think I’ve got about 5 reads in ;) I tend to find books I like and reread them way too many times. I’ve got about 9 or 10 reads of The Witcher novels and am trying to resist pulling them out again.
Oglaf 😆
Excellent suggestion.
insert joker laugh
Malazan, Malazan, Malazan. Literally the result of two bored archaeologists and their DnD campaign while they were out on a dig.
It hangs with the best in terms of humor, tragedy, epic scope, and heroism. It does not hold your hand, in fact it will delight in letting your hand go while leading you through a dark room. Deeply philosophical, challenges and embraces tropes in equal part, absolutely interesting magic system(s). It is hardcore hopecore, it champions the little guy, empathy, and the bright mind over the slow. Main series is finished, 10 giant books. Also a bunch of others outside that series by both creators.
Be patient with it, some payoffs take a while. Read Gardens of the Moon and then Deadhouse Gates to see if it’s clicking. It isn’t for all.
