David Eddings:
- The Belgariad
- The Malloreon
- Belgarath the Sorceror and Polgara the Soceress
- The Redemption of Althalus
Eddings is good, but his plots are a tad two dimensional and repetitive. Those books were some of the first fantasy novels that I'd read and blew me away when I started. Not so much now, thought.
Robin Hobb:
- The Farseer Trilogy
- The Liveship Traders
- The Tawny Man
I love Hobb. The Farseer Trilogy is the best series I've ever read (particularly Royal Assassin). I'd never read anything like her books. I love the characters and the plot, and I'm waiting for the final book to come out in paperback. The Farseer Trilogy was the best of the three trilogies, although I think the final book Assassin's Quest was a little drawn out. The Liveship Traders was slow to get into, but enjoyable once I get into the storyline. The first book in The Tawny Man, Fool's Errand was a bit slow and didn't seem to go anywhere, but I think the second one, The Golden Fool made up for that.
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman:
- Dragon Lance Chronicles
- Dragon Lance Legends
- The Death Gate Cycle
All enjoyable. Tasslehoff and Raistlin were the best characters in the Dragon Lance books. The Death Gate Cycle was really good. I particularly liked the third book, Fire Sea with all the dead people. A darker series that was a tad confusing in the first couple of books, but really enjoyable.
David Gemmell:
- The Rigante
All the Rigante novels were good. The first two, The Sword in the Storm and Midnight Falcon were in a Rome vs Barbarians type world. They held my attention effortlessly the first time throuh and were quite enjoyable. The latter two, Ravenheart and Stormrider were set in a French/English revolution type thing. They were more modern than the first two, but just as enjoyable when I got to know the characters and adjusted to the environment.
Traci Harding:
- The Ancient Future Trilogy
- The Celestial Triad
- The Alchemist's Key
I really enjoyed The Ancient Future Trilogy. They were great sci-fi/fantasy books. The first two were more fantasy than anything else, which was good, but it was really cool when it got into the third book, Masters of Reality, which was really sci-fi and not some weird mix like the second one, An Echo in Time. The Celestial Triad was enjoyable, but a lot of the spiritual crap went over my head. The action was good, though. The Alchemist's Key was dull. I bought the first two books in The Ancient Future Trilogy and The Celestial Triad at Angus and Robertson the other week in their two for the price of one sci-fi sale thing. Unfortunately they didn't have the third in each series in any package.
Sara Douglass:
- The Axis Trilogy
- The Wayfarer Redemption
I really like these books. The one problem I had with Douglass' style was how in the first book, BattleAxe she changed viewpoints too quickly. One minute we were following, say, Axis and the next we're seeing what Faraday thinks. She didn't do that as much in the other books, though. The Axis Trilogy was really enjoyable, although the snowy environment got a bit dull after a while. I'm currently reading the second book in The Wayfarer Redemption, Pilgrim, and I must say this series is a lot darker and there is more of a sci-fi element to it. I'm not a fan of fantasy worlds that are touched by advanced technology, but since it's not an aspect of every chapter I can still enjoy the books. The characters in The Wayfarer Redemption are a lot more dislikable. Axis is more of an idiot and I don't really like Caelum.
J.R.R. Tolkien:
- The Hobbit
- The Lord of the Rings
Most goes without saying. Good story. A little too much description for my taste.
There are others that I can't remember, but those are most of the authors and books that I've read and enjoyed.
oh my...
