[Books] A good fantasy book (or series) to read?

[ragequitlife]

The rangers apprentice series by john flannagon is 12 books long and counting. I think its "young adult fiction" however. If you can get past the first 2 chapters of the first book then you can get into it. Also, the chronicles of ancient darkness series is just as good if not better than the rangers apprentice.

[Osmin]

I have found this site helpful when I've been doing similar searching.

http://bestfantasybooks.com/best-fantasy-series.php

several options to choose from, reviews, comments, comparisons to other series you may have enjoyed.. it's a good resource. The best series I can think of to fit your criteria would be the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It is quite long, but that is one of the things I like about it, and magic is very prominent, especially later on. There was also a TV series (loosely) based on it called The Legend of the Seeker. Otherwise browse that site a bit, you're sure to find what you're looking for.

[Grizzelbar]

Dragonlance series starting with "Dragons of Autumn Twilight". First trilogy tells about adventures of a party, but it can be easily seen that the main character is a young mage Raistlin Majere. Second trilogy is more devoted to his and his brother's (warrior) journey.

[iowaman]

Steven Erikson wrote a series called "Malazan Tale of the Fallen" which is an incredible read that I highly recommend.

It is however, quite long as each book near the end of the 10 book series has over 1000 pages each. The first few are much shorter and can act as stand alone novels if you don't wish to read through the entire series. Magic is very overt and plentiful in the books and the depth of many of the characters is astounding. My favorite is "Memories of Ice".

[Tatzu]

I would second the suggestion of Brandon Sanderson. The Mistborn Trilogy is one of my favorite series in all of fantasy and I read a fair amount. They aren't super heavy, they aren't super long, and the fantasy aspects are very original and interesting.

[Deleted]

Steven Erikson wrote a series called "Malazan Tale of the Fallen" which is an incredible read that I highly recommend.

It is however, quite long as each book near the end of the 10 book series has over 1000 pages each. The first few are much shorter and can act as stand alone novels if you don't wish to read through the entire series. Magic is very overt and plentiful in the books and the depth of many of the characters is astounding. My favorite is "Memories of Ice".

This man speaks true words

Its a really awesome serie's

[mrbadxampl]

There was also a TV series (loosely) based on it called The Legend of the Seeker.

please let's not talk about that; I already hated Disney, then they ruined my favorite book series...

however, he was right about the books themselves, as long as you don't mind a long series, and a little deus ex machina now and then, it's a great read. I'd also throw Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series, true they're more sci-fi and comedy, but they're also great fun

[lastdefenders]

IMHO, Erikson's Malazan series is even heavier than ASOIAF. It's extremely good, though, so OP, if you're ever looking for something heavy, give it a try!

For lighter fare, I recommend Brandon Sanderson (Elantris is a good standalone, Warbreaker is a little heavier), or Terry Pratchett--Pterry, as he's known, has something for everybody. The Discworld series is comic fantasy, and over the course of lots and lots and lots of books, he manages to lampoon just about every aspect of fantasy genre and modern culture, and a fair bit of history as well. Best off, there's not really an "order" to the books, except for the order that he managed to write them in, so just jump in wherever! However, Night Watch, about the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, is widely recommended as a starting point. If you're interested in the magic especially, look for the books focusing on the Wyrd Sisters/Granny Weatherwax, or on Unseen University. The early books with Rincewind and Twoflower have a lot of magic, but are best saved for later--some people love them, some people hate them, and they're somewhat different than the rest of the series, though I couldn't tell you exactly why*.

*I hope you like footnotes. Discworld has a lot of them, and in proper British style, most of them are charmingly irrelevant--and drop-dead hilarious.

[Deleted]

Magicians Guild by Trudi Canavan is a fine place to start, altho my favourite author of all time has to be Raymond Feist, Magician was his first book in the Crydee series (about 24 manin books now and the final 1 comes out next year with a few little spin off series inbetween) and over the past year and a half i've read them all atleast twice coz they're just wonderful books, filled with plenty of Magic, Intrigue and WTF moments

[Deleted]

Raymond E. Fiests' Riftwar Saga (Magician, Silverthorn, Darkness at Sethanon) and then his Empire trilogy (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire, Mistress of the Empire) Highly recommended.

Game of Thrones as you suggested would also be excellent.

[Deleted]

The sword of truth series hands down best fantasy magic books ever created

ever

[Junseiyuri]

Try Mistborn series by Brandon Sander

[Deleted]

Artemis Fowl - series by Eoin Colfer.

Awesome series.

[Julian Rayne]

This may be of help to you:

http://i.imgur.com/WpdLE.jpg

Thanks for that.

[sprinklings]

"Malazan Book of the Fallen" all the way!!!
(starts with Gardens of the Moon)

[Incognito Noctix]

I must recommend the Broken Sky series by Chris Wooding. It's actually a book for teens, and I read it way back then. But they were so good, and I so desire to read them again.

The first is called The Twilight War.
The second is called Communion.
The third is called The Citadel.

Since I read them, they have had their covers redone, or rather, they made paperback versions of the books. They also gave them the subtitles. They were just called Part 1 through 3 back then, if I recall correctly.
It might be hard to find new versions of them, my quest has proved rather futile in that matter.

[Wikko]

Dragonlance series starting with "Dragons of Autumn Twilight". First trilogy tells about adventures of a party, but it can be easily seen that the main character is a young mage Raistlin Majere. Second trilogy is more devoted to his and his brother's (warrior) journey.

This. Dragonlance saga has dozens of books which are all somehow connected. Some of those are good to be read in order but some trilogies can be read on its own. Highly recommended, you wont be dissapointed if you like magic, dragons and gods.

[Brightamethyst]

Wow. Someone else has read Broken Sky.

I still think it's the closest anyone has ever come to novelized anime.

[Deleted]

Steven Erikson wrote a series called "Malazan Tale of the Fallen" which is an incredible read that I highly recommend.

Came in to recommend this. It's amazing.

[kelevandros]

Some of the books referenced above are indeed very good:
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (my personal favourite)
Sword of Truth series Terry Goodking (ignore the Legend of the Seeker series if you've seen it - totally ruined the whole book atmosphere)
Raymond Feist's series (Riftwar Saga, Serpentwar Saga etc.)
Robin Hobb's series (Farseer Trilogy, Liveship trader's Trilogy etc.)

One book I read recently and liked it a lot is by Patrick Rothfuss and called "The name of the wind", I'd recommend that as well.

Lucky you, so many options!