Recommend a Fantasy series that is beautifully written

[Quindiana Jones]

Wrote a massive and detailed reply. EoFF spazzes out. Reply lost. Will to live lost. God damnit.

[Citizen Bleys]

Oh! I can't believe I forgot about this!

You have *got* to read Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue by John Scalzi. It's short, but it is the utter pinnacle of masterful writing.

It was nominated for a Hugo on the strength of its balls-to-the-wall awesomeness

[ShunNakamura]

Hmm.. It wouldn't qualify as High Fantasy but Carrie Vaughn's Steel(only fantasy element is the magic that sends the MC back in time to a pirate ship, pretty interesting take on the age of pirates) and Voices of Dragons(it has dragons and modern tech, nuff said) proved interesting to me. Not the greatest things ever written, however, they are quick reads that have their moments. I seem to recall Voices of Dragons having some pretty scenes.

However, if Superheros are your thing, After the Golden Age has a fairly interesting take in my opinion.

[Freya]

Song of the Beast by Carol Berg. I read it in highshcool so it's been a while but it was beautiful book, as far as I remember. Here's the good reads page if you wanna look. Heck it SAYS music and harp and stuff.

From Carol Berg, acclaimed author of the Rai-Kirah series, comes the epic story of Aidan MacAllister, a musician beloved by the gods, whose voice and harp could transform the souls of men...

[Araciel]

Looks like I'll use this thread when I'm in a reading mood..

[Goldenboko]

Lord of the Rings

There are books too? Oh man, I loved the movies! I'll give this a try. THANKS!

There's also the hobbit, it's a prequel to the series.

If you manage to read the entire Silmarillion I respect you. Been trying forever.

[Miriel]

I've read the Silmarillion cover to cover at least 4 times. It's my favorite of Tolkien's work, and utterly beautiful to read.

The words give me shivers to read, even today. So lovely.

[Citizen Bleys]

You definitely need to read the Covenant books, though.

It can be a little offputting at first, since the main villain is literally named Lord Foul, which makes it sound kiddie, but it is anything but. I think you have to be of above average intelligence to appreciate Stephen R. Donaldson, and that tends to be a bit incompatible with dismissing some of the idiosyncracies unless you're forewarned.

TV tropes has a couple of amusing entries for it

I Have Many Names: Lord Foul. Parodied in the first book, where Covenant asks Lord Foul what his name is: Lord Foul the Despiser, The Grey Slayer, Fangthane the Render, Satansheart Soulcrusher, Corruption, and A-Jeroth of the Seven Hells. After that list of names he then proceeds to hit Covenant with 'We are not so different, you and I...'

So yeah, the protagonist is a dick. The story wouldn't work with a non-dick protagonist, though. I think what I like about SRD is his ability to write characters with real, non-trivial flaws.

Aerith and Bob: Mostly strange-sounding names, with a few ordinary ones mixed in. The ancient and revered High Lord Damelon Giantfriend is succeeded by High Lord Loric Vilesilencer, and he in turn by High Lord... Kevin.

Repeated in the First Chronicles with the High Lords Prothall, Mhoram, and Elena.

If you can get over the naming inconsistencies, though, it's a damned good read -- in my opinion the First Chronicles are the best fantasy trilogy ever written -- and I almost envy anyone who hasn't read it for their chance to explore The Land anew.

By the way, before you crack open Lord Foul's Bane, buy yourself a new dictionary. You will wear it out.

[Miriel]

I'll give it a try, but honestly, I don't know how well I'll like a book where the main character is a dick. :/

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh and for older, classic fantasy, Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle was one of my favorite fantasy series back when I read a troutton of the genre (admittedly many years ago). Great writing, great characters, and a powerful, if a bit corny, story. You might not appreciate a couple of the references one particular minor character makes if you don't know anything about DragonLance (the authors' biggest work), but DGC is an entirely separate, and substantially better, series in it's own universe.

I'm seconding this series. I generally don't read much fantasy writing either for largely the same reasons as you Miriel, but this was actually a pretty good series and one of the few fantasy series I could stomach the whole way through.

[Bunny]

I'll give it a try, but honestly, I don't know how well I'll like a book where the main character is a dick. :/

I'm almost positive you wouldn't like them. It is a shame, because they are insanely good books and everyone should read them at least once.

[Del Murder]

Maybe I'll screen it for her. I don't mind dicks.

[Citizen Bleys]

Just don't stop after Lord Foul's Bane -- the series gets a lot better in The Illearth War. I'm not advocating skipping LFB--The Battle of Soaring Woodhelven (Covenant's reprehensible behaviour in the aftermath and the most important character development Foamfollower gets) is one of my favourite scenes in the series.

Covenant is a very dynamic character; The Covenant at Soaring Woodhelven is very different than the one in the final confrontation at the end of The Power That Preserves.

[Miriel]

I read about 5 chapters of Lord Foul's Bane before I said NOPE NOPE NOPE. It's not what I was looking for and I don't think that it was well written at all.

I recently finished Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and a few pages in, I knew that however the story turned out, the writing at least was going to be excellent. And it was. I just thought the words flowed so smoothly. It didn't have that chunky forced medieval-ness about it. At least a dozen times it gave me shivers. And then I looked into the author and what do I discover. This dude actually helped edit The Silmarillion decades ago. Whaaaat?? No wonder he has such poetry in his words.

I didn't love the story or the characters but it was a good enough read, and engaging to the point where I was able to finish it within 3-4 days. It needed a much muuuch tighter edit though and it's one of those more violent/gritty/realistic type fantasy books that I don't really care for.

I read a lot of non-fiction and get more than enough brutality and horror (Unbroken, anyone??) there that I don't want it to be the focus of my fantasy books too. BUT STILL, the words were lovely. And I enjoyed it for the most part.

[Ouch!]

Not that I'm trying to string up Sanderson as an exemplar of quality writing, but to be entirely fair, the selection you picked out of Mistborn was written to be a part of a man's private journal and intentionally has a different tone and style than the rest of the book.

As far as examples of good writing in fantasy? I struggle to think of any that meet the standards you've set. Raistlin mentioned Rothfuss, and while it's certainly different (first person narratives are hardly a common structure for fantasy), I wouldn't say it's anything special otherwise. Better than most other fantasy? Sure. But the prose is hardly moving.

Frankly, I don't read fantasy to be stunned by an author's prose. I read fantasy for the stories. I read fantasy for the worlds. I read fantasy for the creativity of everything else and accept at least passable prose to deliver it. If I want to read something where the quality of the prose moves me, I'll pick up The Mezzanine. I think if I started enforcing standards for prose, I'd miss out on a lot of good stories that are more concerned about telling said stories than being a work of art.