Need book suggestions ASAP...

I am winding up my second reading of the hobbit and LOTR and I must have something to follow up to prevent withdrawel. I must be along the middle earth etc. track that LOTR is on. I talkin' valor, legend, swords, magigical waters and forests, Wizerds that are wise and freindly, good on evil, journeys, and of course those battle scenes in which the foe is dramaticaly scewered.

thanks in advance!

You could always trek through Harry Potter (Or not..I donno) or try some nice non-fiction. "The Critical Path" and "Car: A drama of the American workplace" are 2 of my favorites but my book choices are, er, unique...

Have you read "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card?
Actually there are a series of Ender's books so that might be a good place to start.

The Dune books are Ok. Or you might try some non-fiction, How about the Civil War Books by Michael Shaara. "Gods and Generals" is one, also his son Jeff Shaara wrote "Last Full Measure".

Two of my favorites are "The Infinity Concerto" and "The Serpent Mage" by Greg Bear, now sold together in a single volume I think called "Songs of Earth and Power" Not exactly the same as LOTR, but then what is?

I have throughly enjoyed everything by Raymond E. Feist, the series starting with "Magician: Aprentice" is excellent with lots of magic and swordplay and fighting monsters and whatnot. His book "fary tale" is a kind of modern day set story which I really enjoyed as he did a very good job bringing magic into the otherwise real world in a highly enjoyable and scarry way.

Sience Fiction Book Club has some nice Omnibus Editions of vintage science fiction:

The Lensman Series, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Ph.D. 2 volumes.

The Sector General novels, James White, 2 volumes
Note: Sector General is Sector 12 General Hospital. A multispecies, multi-environment hospital, with a sometimes wild and wacky staff, not to mention the sometime very weird patients and conditions.

Both are great reads and my favorites. Lensman Series is classic Space Opera and true vintage SF. It is a 6 book epic.

You can somtimes find these on eBay as well as other SF (huge selection).

If you have a used book store, try there also.

Ender's Game will take you to another place and time...is that what you are looking for? I really had a great time with this novel. If you want it I'll send it to you.

Oh yeah, Ender's game--just read that a couple months back.

How about the Belgariad by David Eddings.
It's a 5-book set that should keep you busy for at least a few days.

the silmarillion!!! it is even better than the books!

and after that, read: lost tales of middle earth and numenor, unfinished tales, the histroy of middle earth. then read some non-lotr tolkien: farmer giles of ham, sir gawain and the green knight, roverandom ree and leaf (i can't find this in english ), the adventures of tom bombadil(this is kind of lotrish. then read the letters(i can't find these either )

other than the two i couldn't find, i have read everything listed above, and probably some that i forgot.

face it, no matter what you choose to read, it will not be as good as tolkien

other good authors of the same "type" are terry brooks, r.a salvatore, and the dragonlance novels(i don't know who they are by...)

Well...it's always a matter of taste and all, but...

I just LOVE Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy. The actual books (that's just the trilogy's name) are:

The Dragonbone Chair
The Stone of Farewell
To Green Angel Tower (in paperback, this book is two--yes, two--monstrous separate books.)

The only criticism I can think to make of the trilogy isn't a criticism at all, which is that Williams moves a bit slow. I LIKE that, but some people don't. As a Tolkein fan, you prolly won't have any problem there. These are nice, big, fat novels, with a writing style that's a joy to read even when it's talking about the weather, and a story that is more subtle and down-to-earth than your typical fantasy tale.

I truly do love these...my favorite fantasy since Tolkein. Readily available at any major bookstore.

rusty

I already read michael shaara and harry potter is well- not advanced enough.

thanks and keep the suggestions comin'!

Well, I also can recommend the Belgariad and Malorean series books by Eddings- Good adventures, and wonderful characterizations... I've been "in love" with the sorceress Polgara for years ;-) .

Terry Brooks Shannara series is good.

My favorite (preferred even to Tolkien, personally) is Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series (although the most recent one sucked).

In the general genre although kind of short on magic (there is SOME) is George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series- I like it almost as much or equal to Jordan. Very "gritty" though.... The "good guys" get killed and maimed with regularity.

Robin Hobb's Farseer, Liveship, and more recent "Tawny Man" series are great.

There are a lot more fantasy books that I really enjoyed, some of which I have written reviews on. If you are interested they can be found HERE .

All my reccommendations are epic series or even multiple series of series.. On all of them, it is better to start at the begining and read through.

Oh, and Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" series is very good, and although the "hero" is a whining little wimp 99% of the time, the rest of characters are great.

And Dennis McKernian is a good story teller (if somewhat juvenile too).

If you like situational fiction, Tom Clancy is rather obvious. I like a lot of his books, Sum of All Fears is especially relevant given the times and the book is about Arab terrorists (amongst some home-grown people thrown in), unlike the movie. Rainbow Six is good too.

In the same category is Larry Bond. He has technically consulted with Tom on a few things. I love all his books.

One of my favorite authors is L. Neil Smith, but you should be a gun nut, Libertarian, or very open minded if you read his stuff. I can recommend The Probability Broach, and Pallas. Pallas is one of the best books I have ever read. YMMV.

Alongside Night by J. Neil Schulman is good for light reading.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein is a little technically dated but very nice regardless.

Victor Korman is another great author. Kings of the High Frontier is specifically about a modern day space race. This is tied with Pallas for my favorite book ever read. Solomon's Knife is extremely interesting, and is a refreshing look at both sides of the abortion issue with an interesting solution.

All of these are works of fiction by the way...

you found wheels of time preferable to tolkien!?!?! you are crazy...
i started reading (i think i finished the first one), but i really didn't like them...tolkien on the other hand...i can't even imaging any book being better then the tolkien books...

really aragorn, you've gotta read the silm if you haven't alread, i liked it even more than the hobbit and lotr.

you should also search the interned for books, i once found a book called "isuldur" it was a tale about...your guessed it...isuldur. it was written by someone other than tolkien, and it seemed quite accurate.

sorry bout all the tolkien ramblings...i'm about s big a fan as bart! (although he has some advantages that i don't have )

the chronicles of narnia are really good, but you can easily read one in a night. these were the first books i actually enjoyed.

Yeah, I know... I have lousy taste; A lot of people find Jordan long-winded and hate his strong female characters.

The only thing of Tolkien's that I REALLY REALLY like is LOTR. The Hobbit was juvenile (as it was intended to be). I found everything else (especially the Silmarillion) to be boring.) And I have read EVERYTHING written by Tolkien, including son Christopher.

Just a matter of taste: I'm one of those plebian, uncouth, unwashed ignoramuses that prefers a good story and a straight conflict between Good and Evil to poetry or a flowery prose.

Well...not trying to open a major debate here, but yeah...I grew cold on Jordan's series too. Book One, I thought, was just great, but not long after that the plot seemed to just screech to a halt. I got the impression that we went from a three-novel pace to a ten-novel pace. I don't necessarily have objections to that, but I didn't have the patience for it either--I have a lot of patience, but I felt a bit more like (again...sorry for saying it this way, but it's true) Jordan was inflating his original story to sell more books.

Martin's Game of Thrones series is some of the most unusual and interesting fantasy I've read in some time. I started out liking it a great deal, but started to cool off a bit as I neared the end of book Three. Very heavy emphasis on political intrigue, possibly more than I want...but also what seems to be a deliberate effort at shocking the reader. At first it was "a gritty and brutally honest portrayal of the lives and behavior of people in these times and positions" but now...I'm starting to think he just likes the shock factor. So I'll probably read the fourth book when it hits, but if the trend continues I may stop there. That disappoints me a bit...I read some earlier Martin stuff and enjoyed it.

Honestly...why would anyone even think of not following my recommendation of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn? CLEARY those are the only books worth reading! Ahem. Yeah, yeah. I know. Actually, HAS anyone else here read them? Oh, and if anyone's a sci-fi fan and has been considering the Otherland series, Tad Williams' latest...well...I liked it, but I was disappointed. Very interesting story, patented Williams style throughout, but Tad's need for a good editor really showed this time...the 4-book series basically needed one book's worth of extraneous plot trimmed out at various places. It's clear that the nature of Otherland allowed him enormous opportunity for fascinating little short story concepts, and he got a bit carried away.

Nice review page, Silviron! I will check out your list.

rusty

Terry brooks has been brought up a few times. Everything he has written is good in my opinion. The Shanarrah series, Landover series, and the voyage of the Jerle Shanarrah series are good. That alone will keep you busy for quite a while. Robert Jordan is about as verbose as you can get. It took me many years to get to the point where I could tolerate the slow pace but he does paint a very wondrous and interesting world. The imagery is pretty awesome. Raymond E. Feist's riftware saga was great, and I highly reccomend that you read it, but once he teamed up with Jannie wertz his subsequent writings went downhill.

Terry Goodkind hasn't been brought up yet, and his series is pretty darn hard to put down. He is one of my favorite authors. I've read the first six volumes in his sword of truth series. All but book 5 were exceptional. Book five was total & utter crap, and I wonder how a gifted writer could come up with that. Book six totally made up for it though.

The last author is my favorite. C.S Friedman, this writer rocks! Everytime I go to the bookstore I look to see if there is a new book. The coldfire trilogy is awesome. The main characters are a priest and a vampire. Seriously if you have not given C.S Friedman a chance, do so. I'd be very, very surprised if you didnt think the writing was phenomenal. This Alien Shore is awesome also, but only read it if you are into SciFi.

May I suggest the Redwall series?

James