A Book List — Off the Top Of My Head!
On Saturday evening, exactly like a large proportion of the world, no doubt, I went to a party.
At this party, I caught up with an old friend who asked me what some of my favourite Fantasy novels and series are. I did say that the answer to the question was buried in the deeps of my blog, under Recommended Reading and What I’m Reading and Epic Fantasy…
…But then I thought, how cruel, to make a friend trawl through what is now a very long list of posts, given I started blogging awa’ back in 2010, and books and writing and stories are very much a major theme of “…on Anything, Really.” (Although to make that blog title true I’m always prepared to branch out, not quite at random, on a variety of topics. #JustSayin’ 😀 )
And then, of course, my friend said, clinking her wine glass to mine: “What about off the top of your head then — just a few books or series that you heart?”
To which I replied, “Ah, the pressure…”
But here’s a few of the authors and/or titles I mentioned (in no other order than alphabetical by author surname):
With the proviso that The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia and Earthsea series were excluded, as I knew for sure she’d already read them, together with Robert Jordan, JK Rowling, and Terry Pratchett.
A Few Fantasy Favourites (Just Off The Top Of My Head & Several Wines To The Good 😉
Warning: This Is Not An Exclusive List
Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Mists of Avalon, The Firebrand
Orson Scott Card: Seventh Son, Red Prophet (the Alvin Maker series)
Steven Erikson: Gardens of the Moon; Deadhouse Gates (the first two of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series)
Raymond E Feist & Janny Wurts: the Empire trilogy, which begins with Daughter of the Empire
Barbara Hambly: Dragonsbane, the Windrose series, the Starhawk & Sun Wolf series
Robin Hobb: The Liveship Traders trilogy
Guy Gavriel Kay: the Fionavar trilogy; Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan
Katherine Kerr: Daggerspell (the first in her multiple Deverry series)
Elizabeth Knox: Dreamhunter, Dreamquake
George RR Martin: A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka A Game Of Thrones)
Patricia McKillip: The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, The Changeling Sea (et al)
Robin McKinley: Beauty, The Blue Sword, Sunshine
Brandon Sanderson: The Stormlight Archive (starts with The Way of Kings)
Mary Stewart: the Merlin series, which begins with The Crystal Cave
Maggie Stiefvater: The Scorpio Races
Laini Taylor: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
The focus, as you’ve no doubt detected, was on more adult reading rather than children’s stories (which is a topic in itself), and I know there are a lot of favourites I missed, simply because “off the top of my head”, on a Saturday night, and at a party are not the stuff of “exhaustive”…
So feel free to add to the list (and the reading fun) through the comments. 😀