Recommend me fantasy books! BONUS POINTS for elves and dwarves and stuff

[Pike]

I'm on a fantasy kick. And I'm reading a lot of like, 200k word Dragon Age fanfiction. Which is great but doesn't count towards my GoodReads yearly book count.

What are some good fantasy books aside from LotR/Hobbit (which I've already read and/or are reading) and ASoIaF (which is already on my backlog)? I really dig all those stereotypical fantasy tropes like elves and dwarves and magic and dragons so big bonus points if the book includes those.

[Freya]

68112Dragon Weather (Book one of the Obsidian Chronicles) by Lawrence Watt-Evans
I recommended this series to GXIII a while ago and he loved it so I hope other EoFFers would too! Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/498139.Dragon_Weather) link if you use goodreads.

Arlian had never left his home village in the Obsidian Mountains. The green hills, white peaks, and black glass were all he had ever known of life, and though he dreamed of travel and adventure, he knew deep in his heart that he would probably never leave.
Until the dragon weather came. Incredible heat, oppressive humidity, dark and angry clouds . . . and dragons. Dragons with no feelings, no empathy, no use for humans; dragons who destroyed his entire village and everyone in it. Everyone, that is, except Arlian.

Orphaned and alone, Arlian the child is captured by looters and sold as a mining slave. Seven years later Arlian the man escapes, fueled by years of hatred for the dragons, bandits, and slavers that took his youth away--and a personal vow to exact retribution from those who have wronged him.

As Arlian makes his way through life, he is obsessed with the concept of justice, and that obsession informs every task, every decision. Even Black, the man he befriends and grows to love as a brother, has little influence against Arlian's obsession. His entire life has one purpose, and one purpose only: to mete out justice.

But can one righteous man change the entire world for the better? Or is he doomed by his own actions to become as unjust as those he seeks to destroy?

It's easily one of my favorite book series of all time.

[Rez09]

Interestingly, about a year ago a started getting back into fantasy books after binging on science fiction for years, so I have some suggestions I can throw out there with Wikipedia links. :D

All of these are parts of larger series, but usually, The Shadow of the Torturer being the major exception, the first books stand well enough on their own to be read individually. Unforuntately, only Dragons of Autumn Twilight and Fallen Sun really meet the criteria you specified, both heavily involving magic, Gods, dragons, elves, dwarves, and halflings (known as kender), but maybe you will still find the others interesting as well. :)

The Shadow of the Torturer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_of_the_Torturer)

A Wizard of Earthsea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wizard_of_Earthsea)

The Eye of the World (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_World)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_of_Autumn_Twilight)Mistborn: The Final Empire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn:_The_Final_Empire)

Wizard's First Rule

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard%27s_First_Rule)'Dragons of Autumn Twilight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_of_Autumn_Twilight)

Dragons of a Fallen Sun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_of_a_Fallen_Sun)

The Black Company (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Company_%28novel%29)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_the_World)

[Del Murder]

I just finished Nine Princes in Amber, which is the first book in the Amber Chronicles. I really liked it and will continue the series. It doesn't have elves and dwarves to my knowledge but it does have a lot of magic and family drama!

[Wolf Kanno]

68120

[Bubba]

The Chronicles of Blood and Stone by Robert Newcomb are fantastic. The first book especially, The Fifth Sorceress is fabulous. Written in brilliant English, highly engaging and different from a lot of fantasy tropes. It's quite brutal.

Highly recommend!

68125

[Fox]

I second the Mistborn series, and even better (and a more 'fantasy-like' setting) from the same author is "The Way of Kings". Just note that it is part of a series that hasn't concluded yet (although the first sequel is out).

[Aerith's Knight]

Like Fox said, The stormlight saga I recommend to all. Better than Mistborn.

Kingkiller chronicles as well.

I know a ton of fantasy book series. But most of them were good or great, not excellent. So try it with the ones already mentioned. But anyone who needs inspiration, I think I've gone through... hmmm.. 120+ books by now in this genre, so you can always come for inspiration.

[Raistlin]

+1 vote for Death Gate Cycle. It's my favorite fantasy series. (you might want to read the beginning trilogy of DragonLance first in order to get some of the references, but it stands alone just fine)

The authors also wrote the main series for DragonLance (starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight), which would be a good fit because it starts out based on a D&D adventure, so you have all the fantasy tropes and races. Unlike Rez, though, I would strongly urge you to read the main DL books in the order they were written (Chronicles -> Legends -> Raistlin prequel Soulforge -> Dragons of Summer Flame -> War of the Souls -- if you care that much. Legends is the best trilogy).

More modern fantasy would be Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles, though god knows when the third book will finally come out.

[Loony BoB]

James Barclay's Raven books are my favourite books of all time. I will actually buy you Dawnthief to get you started if you PM me your address, Pike. More people need to be able to enjoy that series. Elves and dragons included.

[blackmage_nuke]

Raymond E Fiest's Magician, I found it to be a pretty solid read on it's own and there are a ton of books following it so you wont run out of content any time soon. There's elves but not much else in the way of fantasy races.

[Aerith's Knight]

James Barclay's Raven books are my favourite books of all time. I will actually buy you Dawnthief to get you started if you PM me your address, Pike. More people need to be able to enjoy that series. Elves and dragons included.

I looked at that one, but the reviews were not forgiving. It gave the impression of a Dungeons and dragons RPG campaign plot. You know, like the Malazan book of the fallen series. And I only read like 5 of those, because it didn't read as a story. The plot twists and battles were too reminiscent of DnD campaign stuff. Still enjoyable at some points though, but forgettable.

edit: Talking about elves and such, the Riftwar saga might be in your alley. I would classify them as good, and it has elves and dragons and magic and stuff. It kept me entertained throughout the three books.