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I see myself becoming very rapidly dissapointed if I continue to read Dragonlance books written by other authors about characters that I don't care about, so I may as well broaden my horizons a bit.
Being a female, I have rather particular requirments that most males probably don't share.
I would like a fantasy novel/series that contains:
Characters with realistic faults
Romance
At least a little bit of sex, but preferrably more than a little bit
Your recommendations are appreciated.
I dunno what's in them, but my friend (Dragonflame) reads The Wheel of Time books. I'm not sure what's in them, though.
The dark tower series by stephen king.
It's probably a little lacking in the romance department, though book 4 is almost completely devoted to a romance. I found it to be the most boring part of the series, but it was still pretty good.
It's a planned 7 book series of which 5 have been published. 6 and 7 will come out soon.
It's also not completely and pure fantasy. It's not similar to dragonlance at all. But the world that King writes about is completely facinating to me.
Also, if you don't know anything about this series, there's nothing remotely horror about it. It's not like most of his stuff. He started writing this thing in like 1979 and is just now finally getting it done.
Anyway, I highly recommend these books.
The description of what you want tells me you have almost the same tastes as I do, so I will recommend anything that's under the Forgotten Realms, TSR, adn Wizards of the Coast publishers. They are excelent reads (for me). Hope you like them too ;)
EDIT: Heh, cool, you and I were born almost on the exact day.
I would like a fantasy novel/series that contains:
Characters with realistic faults
Romance
At least a little bit of sex, but preferrably more than a little bit --ShlupQuack
Sword of Truth series, by Terry Goodkind. It could be set in our world; just happens to be set in a fantasy world. Characters are as real as I've ever found. And it's written for adults; a lot of adult things, but not gratuitously so. I could babble on for quite some time about why they're the greatest books I've ever read, but I'll spare you all.
I love fantasy, but I tend to lean toward the more... realistic type of fantasy. Where magic is a bit more mysterious, not widely used, and has many consequences, and strange creatures are few and far between.
I would recommend Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy to anyone. The main charactor, Fitz, is likely the best written and most realistic charactor I have ever read. He's stupid, he makes mistakes, and I love the guy to pieces. There is some romance, but I don't know what degree you speak of. Sex happens but there isn't much detail.
You probably won't like it, though, if wizards and balls of fire and magic swords and fairies and elves are a requirement for you. There are a few forms of magic, and dragons eventually, but the story focuses mainly on the charactors.
Another great one is George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, but it's also one of those stories that isn't gung ho on the sword and sorcery.
Those books by David Eddings...uh...I forget.
"good fantasy book" is an oxymoron.
Try Imajica by Clive Barker.
It mixes fantasy and reality together. Starts in London and the main character John Zacharias Furie, Furie for short, has to journey with his shapeshifting lover (cue half a dozen or so good sex scenes) across five dimensions. He meets loads of weird creatures, his arch enemy is his doppleganger and he has to save the world before all the 5 Dominions are reconciled (ie the 5 Dimensions become 1 again). Its an absolutely fantastic read and I couldn't recommend it more to you. Dark Tower was mentioned above, is also a very good read, lacks that romance you're after though where as Imajica gets a nice little love triangle going and there is a bit of magic thrown in there for good measure.
I just recently read a book named 'The Seer and The Sword' by an author named Victoria Hanley. It was good.
yeah have to agree on the A song of fire and Ice series it's brilliant if you want realistic characters and sex heck just read a jaime or a Cersei chapter for around twenty mentions of sex or in a game of thrones any of the danaerys chapters. still mostly it's focused on the political side of war but for action I suggest the Jon chapters set on the wall or the Danaerys chapters.
Other than that I say that the View from the looking glass by Ian Irvine is good and theres a second series I havent read yet on that.
"good fantasy book" is an oxymoron. --Doomgaze
"Fantasy" is a setting. So long as it's treated as just a setting, and not as the whole point of the book, fantasy books can be just fine. Most probably do treat the fantasy as the whole point of the book, but not all.
You've probably already read Death Gate Cycle (and if you haven't, why not?), so I'll have to back up the Forgotten Realms recommendation, namely R.A. Salvatore's work. Some of the books are blatantly better than others, but Drizzt is by far one of the best characters I've already read. (Although there's not a lot of sex in the early Drizzt books... but that changes later on).
Sword of Truth seems to be exactly what you're looking for, but I can't exactly recommend it personally since I haven't read much of the series yet. I'll probably do that after I finish The Da Vinci Code, which will likely happen later tonight.
I don't know if you'd consider American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, fantasy, but I recommend it to everyone. It takes place on Earth, in real places, even Gaiman tells the readers where to find those places, but the reality ends there. Good book. Pick it up.
EDIT: Oh yeah, there's sex. Some parts are quite strange, to say the least.
American Gods is fantastic, yep. Gaiman's Neverwhere, which as far as I remember doesn't have any sex at all in it, is also a great book. Gaiman's not traditional fantasy, which is why I forgot to mention him.