Ask Lemmy

I have already read some excellent suggetions. Here's some of mine:

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb (the Lifeship Trilogy is excellent as well)) The Many-Colored Land series by Julian May Imajica by Clive Barker

Don't bother with the Ice and Fire series by GRR Martin. The first three books are good and the rest is meh. As per the fourth book, an entirely new set of characters and storylines were introduced, without actuallly finishing the story after the first three books. The story will not be finished and that's a bummer. Life's too short and there's too much better stuff out there.

NK Jemisen's The Fifth Season has some of the most beautiful prose I read in the genre. Stunning and intimate.

I would recommend Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series as well as his Lyonesse Trilogy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Earth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyonesse_Trilogy

Titan, Wizard, and Demon by John Varley. The first book starts off with a bog-standard "first human exploration of Saturn's system" bit, but starts going off the rails immediately. By the end, you'll meet a 50 foot clone of Marilyn Monroe and think, "eh, I'll accept that."

It's one of sci-fi's more delightfully unhinged stories.

Ok, I know the author is full of his own ego and probably won’t finish the series in his lifetime but “A Song of Ice and Fire” series (Game of Thrones) were some amazing books. I really enjoyed the first 3 of them. He’s finished 5 of 7 so I guess that isn’t too bad.

Lord of the rings of course you have read it but what about a second time

If you're into early 20th century pulp fantasy, I highly recommend Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars and Robert E. Howard's Conan.

I'm more of an SF person, but I really enjoyed the Raksura series, by Martha Wells, about a guy who can shape shift into a sort of dragon. I'm also currently rereading the Amber Chronicles, by Roger Zelazny, and it's very good.

In case it helps any, I made a post with a giant number of spoiler-free short reviews of SF and fantasy books I've read over the last few years, and many of the books mentioned here are in them.

If you’re open to manga: Dungeon Meshi

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.

Along the same lines as Discworld and Hitchhikers Guide, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The Amazon tv adaptation is excellent as well.

Some classics are Conan by Howard, Michael Moorcock's Elric books and Fritz Leiber's "Swords" books. I really like Dune as well (but that's sci fi I guess). Have fun with Discworld!

If you fancy a small change over to comic/graphic novels, I can highly recommend the Alan Moore run of Swamp Thing. Two years ago I would have also included Neil Gaiman's Sandman, but it seems that he's a piece of shit, so if you do want to read his stuff, please pirate it to avoid giving him any money.

The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickman

You will get varying degrees of people crapping on A Song of Ice and Fire, because it is incomplete... But the tale telling in his books are imo, unparalleled. Ive read and reread the series several times, and it always pays off, especially if you get into the deeper storytelling that you miss on the first read. Ive finally reached a peace with the author, after hating in him like everyone else... That is because i realized that id rather live in a world with the story he started, than live in a world where i never experienced the story at all.

Last week i finished the first book of a trilogy i had never heard of, and its a damn shame it doesn't have more fans. I urge anyone who sees this to add at least the first book to their reading list. That would be Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King". It is a retelling of the King Arthur tale, from a new angle, and i LOVED it. The first book is pretty amazing on its own, and it stands alone. I have started the 2nd book, but not gotten too far into it.

Id also like to recommend The Black Company books by Glenn Cook. These are a different slant on fantasy, and really good.

Didn't spot the chronicles of amber by Roger Zelazny in the thread, so that's my recommendation if you want a long one!

I'm not sure if you are wanting suggestions of series to be caught up on the zeitgeist or actually just good stuff to read or not. If you want good things to read that are free I recommend my two favorites. The Wandering Inn and Worm. They are both very long web serials and that is not in a lot of peoples wheel house but if you are the sort that is reading wheel of time and Stormlight Archives, then these are going to be your jam.

Worm The Wandering Inn

I'll add another recommendation for The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, it is absolute peak storytelling imo

I'll second NK Jamisin's Broken Earth series. At a dinner a friend mentioned he had just finished the second book and the dinner immediately turned into talking about how amazing the series is. Highly recommend.

Three Body Problem is hard science sci-fi with amazing storytelling. The last book sort or rushes some parts, but I think that story of works for it in the context of a story of humanity rushing at dealing with possible destruction.

I didn't see it mentioned, but the Hyperion Cantos books are more classic SciFi/fantasy but it still hit. I cried at the ending, I'm not sue I ever have before at a book.

I actually liked A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) but, obviously, an incomplete series. Still.

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

My ex was really fond of Dragonlance which is a DnD original setting. Inspired a bunch of heavy metal music I guess.

My mother is pretty obsessed with Anne McCaffrey's Pern series, which blends sci-fi into fantasy.

I can remember liking fantasy way too much as a teenager but nothing that I still think holds up now. Maybe Sabriel by Garth Nix, it was about necromancers

I'm gonna lean into the series part here, and point at some web series:

Pale is an urban fantasy story (modern day with a magical hidden world) by Wildbow. The premise for this story is it's a murder mystery where none of the suspects is able to lie; and three girls are inducted into the magical world to solve it. This is actually the second web series of his in this world, after Pact. Wildbow is an extremely popular online author, and all his works are available online for free - his superhero stories (Worm and Ward) have influenced most of the online superhero fiction (and even some print publications) I've read since.

The Gods Are Bastards by D. D. Webb is a "high fantasy western". It follows a class of 9 students going through the premier adventuring school in the empire; about a century after magitech advances have made that unfashionable. This series is entirely free online, as are most of his other works. Book 1 of 17 has been printed and is available under the same name. This series is on hiatus partway through his final book; he's working on getting the mental space to complete it. If you read it online he's very open about his process and issues as he goes; and if you find you enjoy it, he has a few other series getting updates in the meantime!

A Practical Guide to Evil is a fantasy series where story tropes are as strong as physical laws - the Law of Threes, for example, states that if a Hero is trounced by a Villain, and then is narrowly defeated in their second encounter, they will absolutely defeat the Villain the next time they meet. It follows the adventures of Catherine Foundling, an orphan who turns Villain to carve out a better life for her people. The first book is up on Amazon, the rest of the series is still available online.

All three of these have amazing, unique characters, extensive and fascinating world building, and go long - 15+ books worth apiece, so if any grab you, pace yourself! Also, they're almost entirely available for free online!

Hand of the Emperor is the start of a many novel, interwoven set of stories. Calming, delightful.

Shannara. At least the first few.

Last time I recommend Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, I got crucified over it. Imma do it again. It was a formative work to me, and I frequently quote the wizards' rules. Content warning though: some scenes are quite disturbing, and some of Terry's political opinions leak into the text and are questionable at best.

Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series is another of my favorites, and I think I can recommend it without content warnings but it's been a long time since I read it so I don't really remember.

Louis McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is also very good. Scifi instead of fantasy, but how often do I get the chance to recommend books?