Best Fantasy book/series?

[Fisty]

Tolstoy rocks... read some of his stuff in phylosophy class, was really great. But yeah, I read for entertainment if I read fiction most of the time.

[Lightning]

I can read either, but you don't have to do it every night There is plenty of room for fantasy novels such as the Forgotten Realms books, Dragonlance and their ilk.

Very little high fantasy, I would say, qualifies as "classic literature"

[Kalthanan]

I guess my point was that there is a LOT of stuff out there that's "good enough" but I'd like to see a comprehensive list of good fantasy and sci fi that could really be called "the best" or at least, exceptional.

I wouldn't exactly compare Zelazny to Tolstoy, but he's a big leap above some other writers that are extremely popular. A lot of Zelazny's writing appeals to me because the vocabulary he uses is fairly ordinary, yet at times his passages can be downright poetic. Sometimes he even refers to classic poetry, literature, and philosophy, but you don't need to have a Classical training to enjoy him. (Except maybe Lord of Light.)

Martin is good; he's got a gritty style that appeals to me after 30 years of reading about bunnies and dragons and fairies. It's not "literature" either, but I enjoy it, and I would recommend it, as long as you can stomach your main characters being disemboweled.

Goodkind's Sword of Truth series also does some exceptional things. His writing is good, and his first 4-5 books are amazing. I'd recommend stopping there, though. It gets tiring when Goodkind uses the same boring "Richard can't use his powers again" plot device.

Moorcock's Elric saga is good stuff.

Basically, everyone likes to read stuff that gets us emotionally involved, and can make us cry at a sad ending. I *really* like it when a writer can also pull me into the story intellectually and make me think, not just follow people into new situations where they kill some new critters or figure out how to Get The Bad Guy Off The Throne or Retrieve The Magic Vial That Will Cure The Princess again.

[ThunderAxe]

True on all accounts, I refer to the current glut of contemporary fantasy out there as "pulp fantasy" (with a few notable excpetions), not a lot of substance, but a darn good read when its dark and stormy.

Very few writers have been elevated to the status of "Old Buddy". You know, the stories that you read again and again to the point that when you open the worn out cover, it feels like you have gone home...and even though you can recite whole passages verbatim, you always get that warm, fuzzy feeling when you finish a major plotline or come to a twist in the story arc.

...sigh...

Where's my axe....

[Kalthanan]

Originally Posted by ThunderAxe

True on all accounts, I refer to the current glut of contemporary fantasy out there as "pulp fantasy" (with a few notable excpetions), not a lot of substance, but a darn good read when its dark and stormy.

Very few writers have been elevated to the status of "Old Buddy". You know, the stories that you read again and again to the point that when you open the worn out cover, it feels like you have gone home...and even though you can recite whole passages verbatim, you always get that warm, fuzzy feeling when you finish a major plotline or come to a twist in the story arc.

...sigh...

Where's my axe....

I completely agree. Whenever I open up the Hobbit or The Stand or Nine Princes in Amber or any of a dozen old favorites that I've read a dozen times, I get a serious case of nostalgia. I get goosebumps just anticipating the next few hours of reading that I will be enjoying, savoring the old worlds and old friends that I'll be meeting for the first time... again.

Damn. I might have to do that now after talking about it... What to choose???

[Tazzrin Jaegernaut]

Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

Its basically his dark version of LoTR, but held in a more western setting. Once I started reading the first book I could not put it down, and I am serious here. I grinded out the first three of the seven books which are hundreds of pages long in 3 days. The last four books I took my time because they were a little chunkier. I would suggest reading this dark fantasy series. I will never forget that epic adventure.