Looking for "high fantasy" book recommendations

[Epiphany]

Hi gang,

I've been reading some fantasy books again recently and they're very well written, stylish, atmospheric, good character development.. yada yada yada but tbh they're not magical enough for me. One dragon per book isn't enough and I want the magic to be in your face, not subtle psionics or herbalism.

So.. any recommendations from anybody?

Ta v much

 

[Requiel]

Hi gang,

I've been reading some fantasy books again recently and they're very well written, stylish, atmospheric, good character development.. yada yada yada but tbh they're not magical enough for me. One dragon per book isn't enough and I want the magic to be in your face, not subtle psionics or herbalism.

So.. any recommendations from anybody?

Ta v much

Nagash the Sorceror by Mike Lee. One of the 'Time of legends' series where they tell the backstory of one of the Iconic Warhammer characters in his own trilogy. This one is obviously about Nagash (evil Undead dude), the other two trilogies unveiled so far deal with Sigmar and Malekith.

Yeah it's Warhammer, but it's actually good.

 

[Swither]

great authors and their first books in a series

Steven Erikson - Gardens of the moon
Robin Hobb - Assassins apprentice
G R R Martin - A game of thrones

 

[Zeus]

isn't game of thrones more of 'low fantasy'? i'm not too up my definitions, i must admit i tend to think of it as 'high fantasy = elves, magic, classical good hero types, low fantasy = low level magic, more brutal storylines, not very heroic heroes'.
anyway, i'd certainly recomend the Codex Alera series from Jim Butcher.
relatively original (and interesting) magic system - and a decent backdrop to it, basically a fantasy series that roughly parallels the fall of the roman empire. (the author said the concept for the main civilisation was 'what if a roman legion had suddenly found itself in a different world, with weird creatures and magic?' or words to that effect)
first book is a bit weaker than the others, but still well worth reading.
they can be a bit hard to find in the uk (or they were when i started reading them) so what i did was download them, and then bought them when i got the chance to.

...and by the same author we have the harry dresden books, which arnt high fantasy exactly, but use a lot of the same themes as high fantasy, but set in modern day chicago for a change

 

[Epiphany]

Thanks guys.

I just finished The Farseer Trilogy and am part way through Game of Thrones. The Farseer Trilogy was what caused me to embark on my heroic quest for a more hign fantasy read. I'm a little reluctant to read a book based on a game like Warhammer but I'm probably being bigoted, narrow minded and stupid as I did enjoy the dragonlance books a few years back..

That Codex Alera series sounds good and I'll check out 'garden of the moon' too. Actually, I'll check out the warhammer book reviews too ..just in case .

I guess what I'm really after is fantasy with a capital 'F' and magic with a capital 'M'! ..Oh. That's probably warhammer aint it?!

Cheers

 

[Swither]

Well if you liked the dragonlance series (I did too and it started me off reading fantasy) then there are plenty of dragonlance books out there and forgottenrealms series are easy reading too.

Weis & Hickman who wrote dragonlance also did a few other good series like the death gate cycle and rose of the prophet.

That codex alera series by Jim Butcher sounds suspiciously like Harry Turtledove's Lost leigion series, which was a Roman legion that ended up in a fantasy world alonf with their Celtic foes.

 

[Zeus]

its not *that* based on a roman legion if anything its several thousand years evolved from it.

 

[Swither]

(the author said the concept for the main civilisation was 'what if a roman legion had suddenly found itself in a different world, with weird creatures and magic?' or words to that effect)

Well you did say the above Zeus Pah silly paladin type

 

[Zeus]

that was the *concept*... doesnt mean he stuck to it now, does it just means that the government structure is roman (ie. emperor, senate, high lords with legions), and the basic army structure is roman (legions, fortified camps, etc),
- but then you throw in some fairly high powered magics that everyone (bar the books hero) can use pretty much at will, 5 'opposing' races that are all different (one of which we havnt really seen yet, except to know that the reason the northern legions arnt helping much is because they're far too busy holding them off), and a good amount of intrigue and politics (though not enough that it gets in the way of the action and suchlike).
oh, and theres some references to 'romanic' technology like catapults and such - that most people dont see the point in when if you want to chuck a rock 500yards, you just get an earthcrafter to do it for you

 

[Swither]

Sounds good m8, I like Jim Butcher's other series, will look out for this one too.

 

[Pit.Sweat]

The Warcraft and Diablo books are reaonably readable though nothing that is going to make you think "wow" or anything.
The Orcs trilogy was very enjoyable and fro a completely different perspective to the run of the norm fantasy stuff. Have a peek on Amazon as they let you check out the first few pages of some of stuff, including this one!
The Dark elf fogotten realms stuff is pretty good reading as well though it's many years since I read

 

[Elsevier]

Read everything written by Raymond E Feist starting with Magician.