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[GrahamZA]

Read a novel that you really liked? Think others should read it as well? Post them here!

Series: The Dark Tower
Author: Stephen King
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_Series

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In the story, Roland Deschain is the last living member of a knightly  order known as gunslingers and the last of the line of "Arthur Eld", his world's analogue of King Arthur. The world he lives in is quite different from our own, yet it bears striking similarities to it. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West but is also magical. While the magical aspects are largely gone from Mid-World, some vestiges of them remain, along with the relics of a highly advanced, but long vanished, society. Roland's quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Roland's world is said to have "moved on", and indeed it appears to be coming apart at the seams—mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Even the Sun sometimes rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals and age are unclear, though later installments shed light on these mysteries.

Books in the series:
   1. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
   2. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
   3. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
   4. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
   5. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
   6. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
   7. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

Additional reading (Marvel comics)
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born
The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home
The Dark Tower: Treachery
The Dark Tower: The Sorcerer
The Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead
The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

[NeoN]

Series: The Sword of Truth
Author: Terry Goodkind
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Wiki

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The books follow the protagonists Richard Cypher (Richard), Kahlan Amnell and Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander on their quest to defeat oppressors who seek to control the world and those who wish to unleash evil upon the world of the living. While each novel was written to stand alone except for the final three that were intended to be a trilogy, they follow a common timeline and are linked by ongoing events that occur throughout the series.

Books in the series:
Sword Of Truth 00 - Debt of Bones
Sword Of Truth 01 - Wizard's First Rule
Sword Of Truth 02 - Stone of Tears
Sword Of Truth 03 - Blood of the Fold
Sword Of Truth 04 - Temple of the Winds
Sword Of Truth 05 - Soul of the Fire
Sword Of Truth 06 - Faith of the Fallen
Sword Of Truth 07 - The Pillars Of Creation
Sword Of Truth 08 - Naked Empire
Sword Of Truth 09 - Chainfire
Sword Of Truth 10 - Phantom
Sword Of Truth 11 - Confessor

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I've currently read 'Wizard's First Rule' and 'Stone of Tears', made for some captivating reading. ;)

[Ahzure]

Series: The Wheel of time
Author: Robert Jordan

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Strangers have come to the Two Rivers during the Bel Tine holiday. In this remote area three young boys, Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon and Perrin Aybara, look forward to the coming festival. With the mysterious outsiders come strange stories of war and of a man named Logain, who claims to be the Dragon Reborn, the one prophesized to save the world, and also to destroy it in his madness. For it is known that no man can channel the One Power without going horribly insane.
On the night before Bel Tine, Trollocs come and ransack the village where the young men live. Together with the mysterious Moiraine and Lan, an even stranger man, the young men escape with a few other companions into the night and make their way toward Tar Valon.  There they discover that they all have roles to play, and that evil seeks them out…

Often compared to The Lord of the Rings, this series differs in some key elements. First, The Wheel of Timeis significantly longer than LotR. Humans are the main focus, although there are other intelligent races; if far fewer than what J.R.R Tolkien envisioned.
The books begin very simply, but they quickly escalate into one of the grandest epic sagas ever written. With a cast of characters in the thousands, Jordan weaves together dozens of plot lines, all of which eventually come back to the basic story. He deconstructs our own myths and cultures by showing how they might have actually happened and still become known by how we know them today. A former nuclear engineer, Jordan creates a world that is governed by complex rules, but all of which have logical consequences, even if they are hard to predict.
Although the books focus on a specific number of characters, this truly is a story about a world on the brink of a new Age. It's themes focus on the nature of time, the dissemination of information, and, of course, the balance of the sexes.

Books in the series
0.     New Spring (A prequel)
1.   The Eye of the World
2.   The Great Hunt
3.   The Dragon Reborn
4.   The Shadow Rising
5.   The Fires of Heaven
6.   Lord of Chaos
7.   A Crown of Sword
8.   The Path of Dagger
9.   Winter's Heart
10.   Crossroads of Twilight
11.   Knife of Dreams
12.   The Gathering Storm *


@ NeoN, you left out  one book, Confessor

[NeoN]

^ Thanks, updated my initial post.

[Ahzure]

Series:  The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever
Author: Stephen R. Donaldson.

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Thomas Covenant is a young, best-selling author with a wife (Joan) and an infant son (Roger), whose world is turned upside-down when he's diagnosed with leprosy. After six months' treatment and counseling in a leprosarium, he returns home to find himself divorced, alone and an outcast in the community. On a rare trip into town, he is accosted by a beggar who makes a number of cryptic pronouncements. The beggar refuses Covenant's offers of charity, including his white gold wedding band, leaving Covenant with the admonition to "be true." Confused and disturbed by the encounter, Covenant stumbles into the path of an oncoming police car and is rendered unconscious.
He wakes to find himself in The Land, a classic fantasy world.
 

The First Chronicles
1.     Lord Foul's Bane
2.    The Illearth War
3.    The Power that Preserves

The Second Chronicles
1.   The Wounded Land
2.   The One Tree
3.   White Gold Wielder

The Last Chronicles
1.   The Runes of the Earth
2.   Fatal Revenant
3.   Against All Things Ending – (October 2010)
4.   The Last Dark – (expected 2013)


I was nine years old when I  read the first two books in the series, it was a bit much at the time, I mean heroes are not supposed to do that to women who help them. Besides  that I found Thomas Covenant to be very unlikeable protagonist but now years later I can't wait to get my hands on the series once more. I now realize that  Stephen  Donaldson was light years ahead of other  fantasy authors. 

[jGLZa]

Watership Down

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[NeoN]

^ Pictures don't always tell a thousand words. >_< More info plz. ^^

[jGLZa]

Watership Down: here is the You are not allowed to view links.Register or Login

wiki

entry for it.

And here is my abridged summary of the story:

Watership Down is a story telling the tale of the EPIC journey of Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and their friends as they flee their home to avoid ominous death only to be put through many other dangerous and life-changing tests for which they need to rely on each other as well as make use of their trickery and cunning.

Over the course of their adventure they meet new friends as well as dangerous enemies, all who in some way or another assist them in building the safe haven and pinacle of prosperity that is Watership Down.

Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig and their friends are all rabbits by the way.

A timeless classic if there ever was one!

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[Ahzure]

Series: A Song of Ice and Fire
Author:  George R. R. Martin

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"We should start back," Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. "The wildlings are dead."
    "Do the dead frighten you?" Ser Waymar Royce asked with just the hint of a smile.
   Gared did not rise the bait. He was an old man, past fifty, and he had seen the lordlings come and go. "Dead is dead," he said. "We have no business with the dead."

These are the words with which George R.R. Martin starts the prologue for A Game of Thrones, the first of seven planned books of a saga called A song of Ice and Fire, and they only give the tiniest of the clues of what is to come.
In this first novel, Martin begins to create such a complex world and set of characters that it would be really hard to explain without actually experiencing it. Or, at least, the enterprise would take many pages in order to create a good enough synopsis.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin takes us to the fictional world of Westeros. It is a world created in some way after Medieval Europe where the seasons last for decades. When the story begins, we soon learn that there exists a huge background to it, which we will slowly learn through the words and the memories of the main characters.

Every chapter is written through the eyes of one specific character in a third person limited point of view. The tone and style of the narration will vary depending on who is the main character in each moment: a grown woman, a little girl, and adolescent, a warrior, a king... The big number of main and secondary characters creates a huge amount of personalities interacting with their different motivations in the complex and cruel Seven Kingdoms, something which contributes to the richness of a plot that is really different from which we could be used to when we think of epic fantasy novels. It is not, however, underage reading. Martin's depiction of violence and sex, for example, are crude and realistic. These and other themes and issues that appear on the saga make it a really mature work which is a great distance away from other epic fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings, which works for all kinds of readers while A Song of Ice and Fire does not.

But what is so different about it? First of all, and probably its most mind-blowing feature is the way in which Good and Evil are presented. When at the beginning of the story the author introduces the first characters to us, we could easily feel compelled to think that we are distinguishing in them the classic characteristic features which make them heroes or villains..

A Song of Ice and Fire
1. A Game of Thrones
2. A Clash of Kings
3. A Storm of Swords
4. A Feast for Crows
5. A Dance with Dragons (Forthcoming)

[BanzaiBoB]

The Works of Robert Rankin

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If you want something weird and flaky, try these. I particularly enjoy the Armageddon trilogy. Note - some of the content can be rather "adult" in nature - nothing is sacred with this guy, so if this may be offputting, you've been warned. Otherwise, very comical stuff.

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From Wikipedia:

Robert Fleming Rankin (born 27 July 1949) is a prolific British humorous novelist. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999. His books are a mix of science fiction, fantasy, the occult, urban legends, running gags, metafiction, steampunk and outrageous characters. According to the (largely fictional) biography printed in some Corgi editions of his books, Rankin refers to his style as 'Far Fetched Fiction' in the hope that bookshops will let him have a section to himself. Many of Rankin's books are bestsellers.
Most of Rankin's books are set in Brentford, a suburb of London where the author grew up, and which, in his novels, is usually infested with ancient evil and/or alien conspiracies.

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Novel List:

The Antipope (1981) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
The Brentford Triangle (1982) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
East of Ealing (1984) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
The Sprouts of Wrath (1984) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
Armageddon: The Musical (1988) (Armageddon Series)
They Came and Ate Us (Armageddon II: The B Movie) (1991) (Armageddon Series)
The Suburban Book of the Dead (Armageddon III: The Remake) (1992) (Armageddon Series)
The Book of Ultimate Truths (1993) (Cornelius Murphy Series)
Raiders of the Lost Car Park (1994) (Cornelius Murphy Series)
The Greatest Show Off Earth (1994)
The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived (1995) (Cornelius Murphy Series)
The Garden of Unearthly Delights (1995)
A Dog Called Demolition (1996)
Nostradamus Ate My Hamster (1996)
Sprout Mask Replica (1997)
The Brentford Chainstore Massacre (1997) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag (1998)
Apocalypso (1998)
Snuff Fiction (1999)
Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls (1999) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
Waiting for Godalming (2000)
Web Site Story (2001)
Fandom of the Operator (2001)
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (2002)
The Witches of Chiswick (2003)
Knees Up Mother Earth (2004) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
The Brightonomicon (2005) (see also The Brentford Trilogy)
The Toyminator (2006)
The Da-da-de-da-da Code (2007)
Necrophenia (2008)
Retromancer (2009)
The Japanese Devil Fish Girl and Other Unnatural Attractions (2010)

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I'm busy with "The Toyminator" and have "The Da-da-de-da-da Code", but still have to catch up to the last three. If nothing else, he has some of the best titles for novels ever.

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[Ahzure]

Series: The Malazan Book of the Fallen
Authors Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont

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Bled dry by interminable warfare, infighting and bloody confrontations with Lord Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, the vast, sprawling Malazan empire simmers with discontent.
Even its imperial legions yearn for some respite. For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his Bridgeburners and for Tattersail, sole surviving sorceress of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, still holds out—and Empress Lasseen’s ambition knows no bounds.
However, it seems the empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister forces gather as the gods themselves prepare to play their hand…

The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series
Gardens of the Moon (1999)
Deadhouse Gates (2000)
Memories of Ice (2001)
House of Chains (2002)
Midnight Tides (2004)
The Bonehunters (2006)
Reaper's Gale (2007)
Toll the Hounds (2008)
Dust of Dreams (2009)
The Crippled God (2011)

Novellas in the Series
Blood Follows (2002)
The Healthy Dead (2004)
The Lees of Laughter's End (2007)
Crack’d Pot Trail (2009)

Novels of the Malazan Empire
Night of Knives (2004, written by Ian Cameron Esslemont).
Return of the Crimson Guard (2008, written by Ian Cameron Esslemont).
Stonewielder (2010, written by Ian Cameron Esslemont).
Orb, Sceptre, Throne (2011, written by Ian Cameron Esslemont).


For  a number of years Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont  were turned  down by publishers. No one was interested in their  Malazan Book of the Fallen series because it was too long and overly complex
Then an author by the name of Robert Jordan releases his series, the Wheel of Time. The series is quite popular, it breaks the trilogy barrier but the series lacks something. Along comes George R.R. Martin with a his “Song of Fire and Ice” series and proves to be more popular than the Wheel of Time Series because seems to aimed at more mature readers and it breaks convention.
Now that publishers see that there exists a market for books with 900 (plus ) pages finally in 1999 Bantam Books (and TOR) publish
The Gardens of the Moon, thus changing the face of Fantasy forever.

Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen has a very steep learning curve, it has a plethora  of characters, the plot is often a  complex tapestry of interwoven threads and  world building is taken to new heights. All I can say is persevere and you might be well rewarded.
Please heed my warning this series especially the first Book has a steep learning curve!
Did you know that Steven Erikson is the current King of Fantasy
He more or less dethroned George R.R. Martin  eight or seven years ago.

[Ahzure]

Series: The Second Apocalypse
Author: Richard Scott Bakker

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The Prince of Nothing is a series that also forms the opening three books of a much longer sequence (at least seven volumes in length) called The Second Apocalypse. As the title hints, the books revolve around - once again - the return of an ancient evil to a world that no longer believes in it.

The setting is Earwa, a continent which resembles Europe in the Hellenistic era. The new Sharia of the Thousand Temples  has called a Holy War. The Emperor, Ikurei Xerius III, is determined to mould the Holy War to his design.
Ansurimbor Kellhus is the Prince of Nothing of the title. A member of an ancient and forgotten order called the Dunyain, Kellhus is a master manipulator of human thought and emotion, able to bend people's wills to his design by knowing their histories: what has come before determines what follows.

The Second Apocalypse
The Prince of Nothing
The Darkness That Comes Before (2003)
The Warrior-Prophet (2004)
The Thousandfold Thought (2006)

The Aspect-Emperor
The Judging Eye (2009)
The White-Luck Warrior (2011)
The Unholy Consult (forthcoming)
In the absence of books by George R.R. Martin (specifically the A Song of Fire and Ice series), a plethora of  new fantasy  writers have stepped into the fray. Steven Erikson‘s detractors  have pointed out that his books take forever to conclude, that there are  too many characters to keep track off.  Another point of contention is that  they  (detractors) believe that fantasy books should adhere to one volume or trilogy formula.

 In 2003 R. Scott Bakker released the first book in his The Prince of Nothing trilogy. I could tell you that readers  feel   that he is  the new leading voice of fantasy, surpassing that most other authors. Rather let me leave with a quote from

You are all staggering drunks to me. Boys who would play at war when you should kennel with your mothers. You know nothing of war. War is dark. Black as pitch. It is not a God. It does not laugh or weep. It rewards neither skill not daring. It is not a trial of souls, nor the measure of wills. Even less is it a tool, a means to some womanish end. It is merely the place where the iron bones of the earth meet the hollow bones of men and break them.

You have offered me war, and I have accepted. Nothing more. I will not regret your losses. I will not bow my head before your funeral pyres. I will not rejoice at your triumphs. But I have taken the wager. I will suffer with you. I will put Fanim to the sword, and drive their wives and children to the slaughter. And when I sleep, I will dream of their lamentations and be glad of heart."

I’ve never read the books but a friend of mine  recommended it (the series
•Just a word of warning the  series has a “steep learning curve “ so I would not recommend it anyone that has not mastered  Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen

[Ahzure]

Series: The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone
Author:  Greg Keyes

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Two thousand years ago, the Born Queen defeated the Skasloi lords, freeing humans from the bitter yoke of slavery. But now monstrous creatures roam the land—and destinies become inextricably entangled in a drama of power and seduction. The king’s woodsman, a rebellious girl, a young priest, a roguish adventurer, and a young man made suddenly into a knight—all face malevolent forces that shake the foundations of the kingdom, even as the Briar King, legendary harbinger of death, awakens from his slumber. At the heart of this many-layered tale is Anne Dare, youngest daughter of the royal family . . . upon whom the fate of her world may depend.

The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone
The Briar King
The Charnel Prince
The Blood Knight
The Born Queen

One can’t help but compare The Briar King (The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, Book 1) to A Song of Fire and Ice (by George R.R. Martin) or the  Crown of Stars  series by Kate Elliott.  While Greg Keyes might not utilize  sex, foul language or gore to such a large extend (as Martin does) he also doesn’t  allow the reader to get bogged down with details.  It’s amazing how quickly one wades through the book.