Favorite and memorable books

[RMS]

There's been a lot of my favorite author's mentioned in this thread, but one I really like that hasn't is Louise Cooper. I really enjoyed the Time Master trilogy by her, and also really like the sequel Chaos Gate trilogy. These take an interesting twist on the classic Law/Chaos issues, ala Moorcock. The Time Master books were released in the late-80s and went out of print, but recently have been available in print again and I'd highly recommend them.

[Shaira]

I'd definitely second "Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov - there's a cool campaign idea in there if only you can winkle it out, plus of course it's a masterpiece.

Tolkien, Le Guin (Earthsea mostly), Leiber, Clark Ashton Smith, the Lovecraft Dreamlands and Mountains of Madness stories, Moorcock's Hawkmoon and Dancers at the End of Time (the latter is IMHO Moorcock's best work), also Stephen Baxter's Time / Space / Origin and Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. HG Wells' Shape of Things to Come.

Also up for mention: Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence, particularly the "Dark is Rising" book itself, CS Lewis' Perelandra trilogy, naturally ERB's John Carter of Mars (particularly the first book), Earth Abides, Alan Garner's Moon of Gomrath, Herodotus Histories, the Thousand and One Nights, and Marco Polo's Travels for some really mad ideas, Journey To The West. Name of the Rose. Larry Niven's Known Space.

Non-fantasy: anything by Dostoevsky, Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, Evelyn Waugh, William Burroughs, Shakespeare. Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights. Odyssey and Iliad. Diary of Samuel Pepys.

Also just reading The Worm Ouroboros by Eddison - still not sure what I think, but I'm still reading so it must be doing something right!

Best novel ever? Toss up between Devils by Dostoevsky, Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

I'll stop now...

[nightlamp]

Count me as another fan of the weird fantasy/S&S of Howard, Smith, Lovecraft (Dreamlands), Leiber, et al.

I'll add:

Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure, Dying Earth, and Demon Princes cycles

Michael Shea's Nifft the Lean books + In Yana

The first 3 or 4 Thieves' World anthologies

M. John Harrison's hallucinatory Viriconium books, especially The Pastel City and A Storm of Wings

Roger Zelazny's first Amber quintet

[Sunwolfe]

Like most of you here, I enjoyed the "canon": Tolkien, Leiber, Lewis, Moorcock, Howard, Lovecraft, Burroughs, Cherryh, LeGuin, Herbert, etc. (too many to mention).

In the fantasy genre, I have to admit I burnt out quickly long ago. Pop-fantasy authors seem to have a tough time breaking the mold and either creating a unique story or telling an old story uniquely. Some have even blatantly admitted that they were trying to write a story that was, say, Tolkienesque right down to the race, character and storyline archetypes . Worst of all sinners (IMHO), is Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara. Yes, yes, I know he went on the write better stuff and has become a mainstay of the genre, but I just can't quite forgive him for that first miserable tome. I also make it my personal policy to avoid any book that refers to dragons anywhere in the title or has a dragon depicted on the cover. Eregon comes to mind (retch).

I don't mean to diss anyone's favorite author; it's just my take on things. I heartily enjoy reading, but get tired of having drivel propagated via pop-culture when there are really richer pickings out there should anyone take the time to dig. Unfortunately most want to be served rather than serve and thus Christopher Paolini has yet another movie coming out based on his second book to serve-up and stupefy the young reader crowd into believing his ho-hum betcha-I-can-guess-what's-gonna-happen-next storylines are "...so good".

A few notable exceptions come to mind, however (Again, MHO only). I really enjoyed Steven Burst's work in the Vlad Taltos series: Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, Taltos, etc. The humor in these always made me chuckle. His Pheonix Guard series was fun too; an "old story told uniquely".

Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle Master series: The Riddle Master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire and Harpist in the Wind, were a whole lot of fun.

Roger Zelanzny's Amber series really helped me out with plane-ular travel and the quest mono-myth for my games.

Barbara Hambly's The Ladies of Mandrigyn series (at least the first two)was great for believable (I.E. no chain mail bikinis) women warriors.

I also liked Katherine Kurtz' Deryni novels...at least the first half dozen. They gave me ideas on medieval puzzles and intrigue and politics that were deep enough to employ in game play, but not so deep as to lose players.

The series I have enjoyed the most as of late are Jack Whyte's retelling of the Arthurian legend: The Camulod Chronicles. Usually I stay away from Arthurian-rehashes, but this one tells the tale from a distinctly pseudo-historical perspective describing how Britian's Roman population tried to keep the light of civilization burning. A unique telling of an old story, it has the feel of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Sword At Sunset sans the sentimentality for the legend.

Presently I'm reading Simon Scarrow's Eagle series: Under the Eagle, The Eagle's Conquest, etc. I'm enjoying great descriptions of how the Roman army operated during the Britain campaign of Claudius through the eyes of a couple of earthy and interesting characters. I am presently working up a rather grand war in my RP world and these books have given me plenty of ideas.

Some one mentioned the Thieves World novels earlier. I found another city-centered series with a distinct Middle Eastern flavor by a cadre of authors and edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull: Liavek and Liavek: The Players of Luck, Liavek: Wizard’s Row, etc. These have great gaming ideas as well as a great essay in the back of the first anthology explaining the magic and traditions of the city that many a GM would do well to emulate when working up a major city from which they plan their players to launch their heroic endeavors.

And then...LOL...so many books, so little time

[seneschal]

Harry Turtledove's "Fox and Empire" series. It features a pseudo-historical Dark Ages Europe where the various polytheistic pantheons are real and active.

[Centaur66]

I've got to mention 'Mythago Wood' by Robert Holdstock,which i'm reading right now.A brilliant,haunting novel set in England after WW2.It won a World Fantasy Award,and deservedly so!His concept of mythagos could quite easily be worked into most RPG's.

[jarulf]

I also loved Mythago Wood when I read it, and immediately thought that there is a whole rpg in there. I was thinking of doing something similar to the book in CoC but never got around to it.

[NickMiddleton]

Funnily enough earlier this year I took a run back through Mythago Wood, Lavondyss, the Bone Forest and the Hollowing - and I must get round to reading Gates of Ivory as well. I love the Mythago books - I'm still not entirely sure that Lavondyss is as successful as it could be, and the Hollowing, for all it's by far the most approachable volume is also perhaps the least profound; but a wonderful series of books, well worth reading.

Cheers,

Nick

[rust]

I am currently re-reading some of the "Golden Age" Underwater-Science Fic-
tion ("The Deep Range" by Arthur C. Clarke, "The Undersea Trilogy" by Frede-
rik Pohl and Jack Williamson) - very interesting and very well written, with a
lot of useful "colour" and ideas for my setting.

[jarulf]

Originally Posted by NickMiddleton

I love the Mythago books - I'm still not entirely sure that Lavondyss is as successful as it could be, and the Hollowing, for all it's by far the most approachable volume is also perhaps the least profound;

I think I only read as far as Lavondyss which i thought was something of a disappointment. I obviously need to check out the rest of the series.

Does anyone have an www.anobii.com account? It's sort of like Last.fm and similar sites but for books.