Ok, One Last time Fantasy Books

Ok. You might check out Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. The first book in the series is Lord Foul's Bane. The protagonist is definately an anti-hero. There is a follow up series after that one.

Also, maybe check out Janny Wurts series the War of Light and Shadow, the first book being Curse of the Mistwraith. I've read some of her stuff before, but not this series. I have the first two novels in the one i mentioned, but I've been reading other things and haven't gotten around to it. I'm not sure if this one will fit the bill, but I know that one of the main characters of a darker bent.

If I think of something else, I'll post it.

 

Also...check out Tad Williams. A great series of his is Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, the first book being The Dragonbone Chair.

Also...check out Dennis L. McKiernan. I can't recommend this guy enough. He started writing a while ago, in the early 80's, and self proclaimedly was directly inspired by Tolkien. As such, his first series, The Iron Tower Trilogy, is very reminicent of Tolkien. It is still a great read though. The first book of this series is The Dark Tide. Other good series of his include The Silver Call Duology, the first book of which is Trek to Kraggen-Cor; Hel's Crucible Duology, the first book of which is Into the Forge; and another duology of sorts, but not a named series begins with Eye of the Hunter, and follows with Silver Wolf, Black Falcon. His stories are very dark in mood - his ability to create a mood and atmosphere is among the best I've read.
McKiernan also has several other stand alone novels, and short stories that I've not read- I'll not list those here but you may want to check those out as well.

 

Ok... you might also check out L.E. Modesitt, Jr. I've only read one of his books, The Magic of Recluce - and it was many years ago. The system of magic that he uses is incredibly unique (at least to my knowledge). At the least I found the one novel that I read interesting and a good read, although I can't speak for the exact qualities of the protaganist (I'm a little fuzzy there).

 

at first I thought that an edit button would have been a good idea but then I thought nah it looks better this way more organized

 

Lol.... man I didn't remember that...its been a while...not sure If i'd have mentioned him if i did..... think i read him in about 8th grade.

 

You will love Thomas Covenant then. I loved the series and have read them 3 times now. The character just wants to make you scream, in his apparent powerlessness.

 

Right you are about the frustration in regards to Thomas Covenant. I had thought that an "Anti-Hero" theme in a fantasy milieu might be really cool. Boy was I wrong~!
(PS – did you catch the missing Haruchi chapter that Donaldson released in one of his short-story books? I cannot remember the title of the book. Mirror of Her Dreams maybe? I'm too lazy to do a Google search.)

I also like the wit that Glenn Cook used in his “Black Company” series as well as his “Garrett PI” series.

~PM~

"Being an old cynic myself I have strong notions about the true value of human gratitude. It is a currency whose worth plunges by the hour."
- Glen Cook

 

I would recommend anything by R.A. Salvatore, but you aren't into the D&D stuff so that doesnt really work. I still highly recommend him as an author to anyone looking for a good, long, read. Really, it would be foolish to miss out.

 

David Eddings all the way bro. Read The Elenium, thats my fav of all time.

 

currently reading his bugerad series (excuse the spelling ). If fantasy is what you want does it matter if its not dragons and wizards fantasy?

have you considered the Dark tower by Stephen King? its a 7 book series that the final book just came out last week. Its a GREAT read.

 

Also, there is the Banned and the Bannished series by James Clemens. They are Wit'ch Fire, Wit'ch Storm, Wit'ch War, Wit'ch Gate, and Wit'ch Star. Nice dark read. The heroess has her failings, which fits with your flawed hero requrement.

 

That is a great series, it's a trilogy, bu the third book is so long it's actually TWO paperbacks. Very literary in approach.

One thing to note, the books have numerous long "ordeal" passages, where characters pass through long ordeals and have a lot of internal struggle. Think Frodo and Sam in Mordor. I didn't mind, but I know some people who put the books down because of that.

And I like Modesitt. His style gets more mature as the series develops, and he is doing some other interesting things with the way he writes (when a character thinks something during a conversation with someone else, you actually miss part of what is being said while the main character's thoughts are elsewhere). He's a nice guy, met him at a book signing and talked with him for a half hour or so because there was no-one else at the signing at that point. He has definite ideas about fantasy and about writing, and uses those in his books.

I also Like Don Callander's 'Mancer series. Very whimsical. It starts with Pyromancer. It falters by the time it gets to the book Marbleheart,, but before that it's fun.

Also recommend Lyonesse, by Jack Vance. I think the first book has been retitled Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden. Another literary take on fantasy. Powerful and challenging.

 

On a related note, David Farland (mentioned earlier), the writer of the Runelords series has signed a deal with Orion Pictures a while back. I am skeptical on this becoming an actual movie as I have seen corporations perform 'IP holding' before (but then again, I haven't looked to see if any progress has been made on this).
It would have been interesting to see how it would have turned out as a game, unfortunatley development team that possessed the rights went out of business. A sad situation, as they did good work at a good price and I liked them.

Who knows what the future brings - depending upon the movie deal, perhaps a game might come of it yet.

~PM~