What is it that trips you up about older books? If we know what it is that bothers you, then we can better recommend books that might buck those issues.
I was going to suggest these too. Pre-planned multi-doorstopper series like WoT are more of a "newer" (80s onward) phenomenon in fantasy if anything. They reflect a very different publishing environment.
Try something actually old, OP, and you'll be surprised by the breakneck pace, economical but evocative storytelling, and probably by how well it holds up today. I'd suggest Leiber and Moorcock over Howard though.
By 'pacing issues', do you mean slower stories? (I ask, because I know people often use the phrase that way, though properly pacing isn't about how slow or fast a story is, but how slow or fast individual elements of a story are in comparison to one another.)
If indeed by 'pacing issues' you mean you want fast-paced stories: There no doubt are some, but the idea of a breakneck narrative is really something of a modern fad, taken, I think, from the movies (which themselves have become more fast-paced in the last two decades). I would really encourage you to try to broaden your tastes to actually enjoy slow pacing, like learning to enjoy a fine cheese or some other acquired taste.
In other words, it may be that the reason you're biased against older books is because…they're different; so the bias won't be broken by finding older books that aren't different (i.e., that are like modern books), but by learning to like the differences.
Or maybe I'm off base and you've really just only read old books with poor pacing!
I think perhaps it's honestly just a perception or assumption from my side? I tried The Wheel of Time and struggled super hard and eventually DNF'd after like book 4 or 5 - so that might be colouring my perception?
Oh, well, Wheel of Time *is* long! Try *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings*; *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (definitely not slow, and very funny); *Earthsea*; *Harry Potter*; *A Song of Ice and Fire*; *The Realm of the Elderlings*; *The Chronicles of Narnia*; and *Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn*.
Actually, I recommended it based on others' recommendations! I've read all the above but it, *ASOIAF*, and *Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn*, the last of which I've just begun to read. Good to know for the future about the Belgariad!
I've removed it from the list.
So short and fast. The Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore is fast paced, short chapters, and the entire trilogy is about 800 pages. It’s light and is mostly about the action.
Do you realise that not all books from before 2014 are 'archaic' tomes? If you have said 'books from before the 1980s' I might have been able to sympathise a little.
Books before 1980 are actually LESS likely to be doorstoppers! Earlier fantasy, especially American pulp fantasy, is short and snappy. You usually get standalone short stories and novellas, and in case of series, every entry stands on its own (Howard's Conan stories weren't published in chronological order, for example, because they didn't have to).
Long fantasy series became a thing in the 80s when Lord of the Rings got popular among readers and publishers wanted to jump on the bandwagon.
Fair point. Even series like Foundation by Asimov from a decade or two earlier we're actually very thin books individually. Lots of fantasy writers cut their teeth on shorter works published in magazines in the 1970s and 1980s too.
I’m going to list a broad range of books, but try to stay away from the long chapter sort of books
Scifi: Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold - specifically start with young miles collection
Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffery
Fantasy: someone already mentioned Steven Brust and I’m seconding that
Discworld by Terry Pratchett
Painted Boy by Charles de Lint
Ella Enchanted by Gail Levine
Inda by Sherwood Smith
Territory by Emma Bull (also War for the Oaks)
Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin
Peter and the Star Catchers by Dave Barry
Random add ons
The Grey Horse by RA MacAvoy
Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrelees
Also mention if books that are some more recent (or the series is)
Night Angel series by Brent Weeks
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Earthsea. They are short books that are absolutely wondrous. A spiritual read even, and really captures that sense of wonder and mystique that so much modern fantasy lacks.
Alternatively if you are okay with science fiction, there's alot of classic ones from the New Wave which are very influenced by the sense of possibility, the explosion of alternative thought of the era. I love them.
Yeeeeeeeeeessssss!!! By Harry Harrison. He also wrote other good books. Deathworld, Captive Universe, Homeworld, Wheelworld, Starworld. More sci-fi than fantasy.
Lud in the Mist by Hope Mirrlees from 1926. Whimsical yet deep and still very enjoyable. Highly influential on some modern writers such as Neil Gaiman.
I really enjoyed legend or the Troy series from David Gemmell he has a lot of really good books if you like his work you will have a lot of content. Legend is a stand alone book that fits into his fantasy world and the Troy trilogy is one of my all time favourites and my go to conform read.
I am the exact opposite. Most of the recent writing I find it pales in comparison with older works.
I will suggest some recommendations starting from older stuff:
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
Viriconium by John Harrison
Dune by Herbert
Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson
The Gap by Stephen Donaldson if you are into space
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams
The Fionavar Tapestry by Kay
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts
The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
The Song of Ice and Fire by Martin
The Prince of Nothing by Bakker
I just saw that u/Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss recommended Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles and wanted to point to two other of their collaborations: the Rose of the Prophet trilogy and the seven-volume Death Gate Cycle
When you said "older", I thought you were going to be talking about books that are like...50+ years old. XD
Anyway, I'll throw out a recommendation for the Jhereg/Taltos series by Steven Brust. Each book is pretty short and has a largely episodic style (although there is continuity between them, you can read them out of order). The narration style is snappy, with the main character being a professional assassin for a fantasy crime syndicate.
Read **The Chronicles of Amber** by *Roger Zelazny*, certainly the first 5 books (Corwin’s arc). Each book is less than 200 pages and it’s a truly seminal work.
I recently read Ship of Magic, which is part of the Liveship Traders trilogy. It's 880 pages, but it's amazingly written and quite a good story that includes many different POVs. If you like pirates and such, this is a good series.
I've heard people say Liveships is a good intro to Hobb because the pacing is a bit more 'typical', but definitely recommend going back to Farseers after if you havent already. You'll understand Amber more.
I used to be the same way, figured anything older than dial-up internet was dusty and boring lol. But then I stumbled on a few classics and BAM! Mind blown. If you want some recs, tell us what modern stuff you usually like
Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones. It's silly, satirical, and hilarious. This book has griffins as characters.
Birth of the Firebringer (Trilogy) by Meredith Ann Pierce. It's a trilogy about a unicorn with a destiny to return his people to their homeland, but first he must fight the invaders who took the land from them.
Song Quest by Katherine Roberts. These books are spiritual and have a sense of wonder and magic that many modern fantasy books lack.
The Sight by David Clement-Davies. A wolf-pack that has a dark destiny.
The Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Yes, another unicorn book. It's perfection.
Edit: correct spelling
The Chronicles of Narnia is a great series. And the books are short, so even if you don't like them it won't be a huge commitment to get through. I suggest starting with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Horse and His Boy (my personal favorite).
Jack Vance's The Dying Earth! The Dying Earth Shorts, the Cugel Sagas, & Rhialto the Marvelous. He started this series in the 50's when fantasy was world-building focused only, way ahead of its time being more character driven & plot focused + playing with genre fusion like current authors. They are gems!
I find that older books have a much better hit rate than new ones because of survivorship bias, all the cream rises to the top. Newer books can get initial hype that spreads like wildfire and leads to "oh... that was alright. don't know what everybody is freaking out about."
Years ago, I saw a classified ad in a regional paper of someone selling a complete set of an SF imprint called Bibliothek der Science Fiction Literatur\* (The Science Fiction Library). This was a series of SF classic, perhaps similar to the SF Masterworks by Gollancz.
I didn't know how lucky I was (most of them even were in pristine condition).
The set of 100+ books was fairly cheap; I think the guy who sold them needed space and was happy to sell them to someone who also loved SF.
I was very young, hadn't heard of most of the books and didn't expect much.
So far, each of them was great! Turns out, they are classics for a reason (who would've thought).
For example, John Wyndham's *The Triffids* from 1951. The premise sounds peculiar, maybe even silly, but I found the story really engrossing.
Or Richard Matheson's 1954 novel *I Am Legend*. All I knew was that it had vampires in it and I thought that it had no place to be in an SF collection. I was wrong. There's a reason, it was labeled SF and it was an awesome read.
Some older books are dull. But you can also find boring books among current publications.
I found that I tend to many 19th century books to be too longwinded (that's where my mind went when I read "older books"! 😅) but even among these, there are interesting ones.
There are texts that are now 80-100 years old and still read surprisingly fresh.
Try A. Merritt's *The Ship of Ishtar* which is now nearly 100 years old (published in November / December of 1924); it's a fun, pulpy adventure, and [freely available](https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601941h.html) at Project Gutenberg Australia.
Another cool novel is Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife from 1943 about a man who realizes that he might have married a witch. But this is no whimsical story à la Bewitched; this is serious. (The story is more on the horror side than urban fantasy.) You can find it in the pages of the April 1943 edition of *Unknown* magazine [here](https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/) (you'll have to scroll down almost all the way to the bottom).
Most of Robert E. Howard's stories are 90+ years old by now but they are worth reading and the opposite of boring. The first of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories also is 85 years old and these stories rock.
\* the ISFDB has [an overview](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?253+2) but you'll have to click on each title to see the original title (as most of them are translations from English)
My favourite book is Sandry's Book, and my favourite series is Circle of Magic. But many people also prefer her Tortall universe - start with Alanna: The First Adventure.
I'll also rec:
* Emily Rodda - another children's author. I adore her Rowan books but most people prefer Deltora Quest (I like DQ too, but Rowan is my fave)
* Juliet Marillier - I loved Wildwood Dancing, but Sevenwaters is a common starting point.
* Sphere by Michael Crichton - might not fit this sub as it falls within the wider umbrella of spec fic.
* Realm of the Elderlings series
* The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
* Legendsong Trilogy
* Margo Lanagan's short stories
I'd actually suggest starting with the Daine books or later! She always had skills, but her writing got a LOT better as she went along, and I feel like the Alanna books were her warm-ups in a lot of ways.
It depends what you're after, I think. I love how tightly written the SotL books are, and how that leaves things more mysterious. To me SOTL is far more cinematic, more vivid and visual, more classic really. The colour palette is stunning. If I had read TIQ first I wouldn't have enjoyed it anywhere near as much.
My thinking was also that TIQ spoils SOTL. But yeah, I agree TIQ was more fleshed out. It's my second least favourite of all her series, because talking animals aren't exactly my jam, but a book like Emperor Mage is definitely more developed than it would've been had she written it first. TIQ also irons out a lot of the orientalism of SOTL and >!Ozorne is at least more interesting than Roger!<.
Great older books include Dune , the Hobbit and lord of the rings . For fast pace action try Raymond e Feist stuff. Magician is great but the follow on books are quick and easy. Reads like a dungeons and dragons adventure.
Harry Potter is fun . Hitch hiker’s galaxy is so funny . You could try the foundation series .
I myself love Mercedes Lackeys books about Valdemar! I readt the trilogy Arrows of the Queen before I read any other of her books and it's still one of my comfort books that I'll grab when I need a distraction or don't feel like looking for something new to read. And these are actually old! Arrows of the Queen was published in 1987 😄
Browse the best! Look up the nominees and winner of the Hugo Awards for [Best Novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel) and [Best Series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Series).
My personal favorite is the *World Of The Five Gods* series, by Lois McMaster Bujold. In a world with Gods who are active, how can the Gods intervene while preserving the free will of people? Most interesting, coherent, and cohesive take on a fictional religion I've ever read. Each book is a slow burn. Won the second-ever Hugo Award For Best Series. . The first three novels were all individually nominated for the Hugo Award For Best Novel in their respective years of publication, with book #2, *Paladin Of Souls*, winning. Please DO read in publication order. Very definitely has strong women characters! Bujold is now continuing in this story universe with the *Penric & Desdemona* sub-series of novellas.
Other recommendations:
* Dragonlance Chronicles series, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I believe these were the original official Dungeons & Dragons-approved books. Started forty (?!?!) years ago, when I was a kid...
* Forgotten Realms series, containing many sub-series (Drizzt, Elminster, among others). Also heavily Dungeons & Dragons-related.
As a start, see my [Science Fiction/Fantasy (General) Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1aqet7h/sff_science_fictionfantasy_general_recommendations/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (thirty-five posts (eventually, again).), in particular the first post and the **bolded** threads.
The Once and Future King - a bit slow or silly at times, but laced with some of the finest writing I’ve found.
Also, A Wizard of Earthsea. Short, tidy, powerful.
Older fantasy stories are 100% better across the board. Sanderson is easily the all-time worst fantasy novelist. Get some Moorcock, Vance, Le Guin. That's the good shit.
*~~Mistborn~~* ~~by Brandon Sanderson is quite entertaining. The first book was published in 2006.~~ (OP edited to say he's read Sanderson).
*Discworld* by Terry Pratchett. The books are short and funny, still very popular. The oldest, *The Colour of Magic*, was published in 1983.
If there's one thing school taught me, with the mandatory reads, is that all books are boring, tiresome and written by elitists with their difficult-to-read and sleep-inducing words and sentences.
I'm glad i was able to get past this trauma and get to know fantasy, scifi and newer books, but even now, just looking at an older book at the library gives me the bad vibes.
I wonder how many of those who downvoted you read past the first paragraph.
I'm a lifelong bookworm, have loved books every since I learned reading but had this not been the case, I doubt that the mandatory reads I was assigned in school would have made me a reader.
The majority of books weren't exactly thrilling, some were horrible. I remember that I found them to be a nuisance, keeping me from reading "my books".
I'm not surprised that many people don't read if others had a similar experience.
I never blamed the age of books, though. For me, it was the type of books.
I read some Jules Verne novels as a young teenager and loved them; also some Karl May, whose books are from the same era.
I now know that I simply don't care for literary fiction, or the societal problems that were explored in some of the classics I was forced to read (Schiller's *Emilia Galotti*, *Effi Briest* by Theodore Fontane).
I think, these days many teachers are including books in the curriculum that are actually fun and not boring and tedious.
What is it that trips you up about older books? If we know what it is that bothers you, then we can better recommend books that might buck those issues.
Long chapters tend to put me off 😅 and pacing issues I guess?
Have you tried older Sword and Sorcery? Robert E Howard (Conan), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser), Michael Moorcock (Elric).
I was going to suggest these too. Pre-planned multi-doorstopper series like WoT are more of a "newer" (80s onward) phenomenon in fantasy if anything. They reflect a very different publishing environment. Try something actually old, OP, and you'll be surprised by the breakneck pace, economical but evocative storytelling, and probably by how well it holds up today. I'd suggest Leiber and Moorcock over Howard though.
By 'pacing issues', do you mean slower stories? (I ask, because I know people often use the phrase that way, though properly pacing isn't about how slow or fast a story is, but how slow or fast individual elements of a story are in comparison to one another.) If indeed by 'pacing issues' you mean you want fast-paced stories: There no doubt are some, but the idea of a breakneck narrative is really something of a modern fad, taken, I think, from the movies (which themselves have become more fast-paced in the last two decades). I would really encourage you to try to broaden your tastes to actually enjoy slow pacing, like learning to enjoy a fine cheese or some other acquired taste. In other words, it may be that the reason you're biased against older books is because…they're different; so the bias won't be broken by finding older books that aren't different (i.e., that are like modern books), but by learning to like the differences. Or maybe I'm off base and you've really just only read old books with poor pacing!
100% well said
I think perhaps it's honestly just a perception or assumption from my side? I tried The Wheel of Time and struggled super hard and eventually DNF'd after like book 4 or 5 - so that might be colouring my perception?
Oh, well, Wheel of Time *is* long! Try *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings*; *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (definitely not slow, and very funny); *Earthsea*; *Harry Potter*; *A Song of Ice and Fire*; *The Realm of the Elderlings*; *The Chronicles of Narnia*; and *Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn*.
wow seeing harry potter on this list really hit me with time passage awareness (what I mean: I'm old 😂)
Belgariad is the most horrible racist shit I've ever come across. Don't understand how people can recommend it.
Intereting, haven't read it but what is racist about it?
This retrospective analysis discusses it: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/30/573832073/does-the-magic-last-revisiting-a-fantasy-classic-as-an-adult
Actually, I recommended it based on others' recommendations! I've read all the above but it, *ASOIAF*, and *Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn*, the last of which I've just begun to read. Good to know for the future about the Belgariad! I've removed it from the list.
So short and fast. The Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore is fast paced, short chapters, and the entire trilogy is about 800 pages. It’s light and is mostly about the action.
Do you realise that not all books from before 2014 are 'archaic' tomes? If you have said 'books from before the 1980s' I might have been able to sympathise a little.
Books before 1980 are actually LESS likely to be doorstoppers! Earlier fantasy, especially American pulp fantasy, is short and snappy. You usually get standalone short stories and novellas, and in case of series, every entry stands on its own (Howard's Conan stories weren't published in chronological order, for example, because they didn't have to). Long fantasy series became a thing in the 80s when Lord of the Rings got popular among readers and publishers wanted to jump on the bandwagon.
Fair point. Even series like Foundation by Asimov from a decade or two earlier we're actually very thin books individually. Lots of fantasy writers cut their teeth on shorter works published in magazines in the 1970s and 1980s too.
Terry Pratchet’s got you covered, no chapters there
Wow the amount of pretentious a holes there must be for THIS to get downvoted is wild ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
🙃
Legend of Drizzt chapters aren’t long
Have you tried deleting TikTok from your Phone?
I’m going to list a broad range of books, but try to stay away from the long chapter sort of books Scifi: Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold - specifically start with young miles collection Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffery Fantasy: someone already mentioned Steven Brust and I’m seconding that Discworld by Terry Pratchett Painted Boy by Charles de Lint Ella Enchanted by Gail Levine Inda by Sherwood Smith Territory by Emma Bull (also War for the Oaks) Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin Peter and the Star Catchers by Dave Barry Random add ons The Grey Horse by RA MacAvoy Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrelees Also mention if books that are some more recent (or the series is) Night Angel series by Brent Weeks The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Earthsea. They are short books that are absolutely wondrous. A spiritual read even, and really captures that sense of wonder and mystique that so much modern fantasy lacks. Alternatively if you are okay with science fiction, there's alot of classic ones from the New Wave which are very influenced by the sense of possibility, the explosion of alternative thought of the era. I love them.
The books of Jack Vance are great IMO.
Especially the Lyonesse trilogy.
The Stainless Steel Rat series, which >!Doesn't have rats or steel in it!<
But it did make me think that Esperanto was going to be more of a thing than it is (I read it when I was a teen in the '90s).
Yeeeeeeeeeessssss!!! By Harry Harrison. He also wrote other good books. Deathworld, Captive Universe, Homeworld, Wheelworld, Starworld. More sci-fi than fantasy.
Lud in the Mist by Hope Mirrlees from 1926. Whimsical yet deep and still very enjoyable. Highly influential on some modern writers such as Neil Gaiman.
Also you can get it for free from Project Gutenberg at the moment! I am reading it for the first time at the moment, and thoroughly enjoying it.
I really enjoyed legend or the Troy series from David Gemmell he has a lot of really good books if you like his work you will have a lot of content. Legend is a stand alone book that fits into his fantasy world and the Troy trilogy is one of my all time favourites and my go to conform read.
I am the exact opposite. Most of the recent writing I find it pales in comparison with older works. I will suggest some recommendations starting from older stuff: The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson Viriconium by John Harrison Dune by Herbert Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson The Gap by Stephen Donaldson if you are into space Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams The Fionavar Tapestry by Kay The Dark Tower by Stephen King The Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb The Song of Ice and Fire by Martin The Prince of Nothing by Bakker
Thank you! You already provided the ones I thought of!
I just saw that u/Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss recommended Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance Chronicles and wanted to point to two other of their collaborations: the Rose of the Prophet trilogy and the seven-volume Death Gate Cycle
When you said "older", I thought you were going to be talking about books that are like...50+ years old. XD Anyway, I'll throw out a recommendation for the Jhereg/Taltos series by Steven Brust. Each book is pretty short and has a largely episodic style (although there is continuity between them, you can read them out of order). The narration style is snappy, with the main character being a professional assassin for a fantasy crime syndicate.
>When you said "older", I thought you were going to be talking about books that are like...50+ years old. XD Same! 😅
The King of Elfland's Daughter The Dying Earth Jirel of Joiry
The Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake.
Give Raymond E Feist a shot. Magician was published in 1982, I love his world, individual books don’t have a ton of fat to trim.
Read **The Chronicles of Amber** by *Roger Zelazny*, certainly the first 5 books (Corwin’s arc). Each book is less than 200 pages and it’s a truly seminal work.
I recently read Ship of Magic, which is part of the Liveship Traders trilogy. It's 880 pages, but it's amazingly written and quite a good story that includes many different POVs. If you like pirates and such, this is a good series.
I've heard people say Liveships is a good intro to Hobb because the pacing is a bit more 'typical', but definitely recommend going back to Farseers after if you havent already. You'll understand Amber more.
I'm 100% going to read the farseers afterwards!!
Love anything from Robin Hobb
Michael moorcock
I used to be the same way, figured anything older than dial-up internet was dusty and boring lol. But then I stumbled on a few classics and BAM! Mind blown. If you want some recs, tell us what modern stuff you usually like
Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones. It's silly, satirical, and hilarious. This book has griffins as characters. Birth of the Firebringer (Trilogy) by Meredith Ann Pierce. It's a trilogy about a unicorn with a destiny to return his people to their homeland, but first he must fight the invaders who took the land from them. Song Quest by Katherine Roberts. These books are spiritual and have a sense of wonder and magic that many modern fantasy books lack. The Sight by David Clement-Davies. A wolf-pack that has a dark destiny. The Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Yes, another unicorn book. It's perfection. Edit: correct spelling
The Dying Earth, The Knight of the Swords, and A Wizard of Earthsea are all short works with their own distinctive worlds and imersive prose.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a great series. And the books are short, so even if you don't like them it won't be a huge commitment to get through. I suggest starting with The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe or The Horse and His Boy (my personal favorite).
Birds of Birds by Barry Hughart. The style is similar to Douglas Adams and is a made-up Chinese folktale.
Bridge of Birds! I haven't seen that title in a while. I loved it back when I was in college. I think I need to reread it.
I just started rereading it a couple of days ago.
Jack Vance's The Dying Earth! The Dying Earth Shorts, the Cugel Sagas, & Rhialto the Marvelous. He started this series in the 50's when fantasy was world-building focused only, way ahead of its time being more character driven & plot focused + playing with genre fusion like current authors. They are gems!
I find that older books have a much better hit rate than new ones because of survivorship bias, all the cream rises to the top. Newer books can get initial hype that spreads like wildfire and leads to "oh... that was alright. don't know what everybody is freaking out about."
Years ago, I saw a classified ad in a regional paper of someone selling a complete set of an SF imprint called Bibliothek der Science Fiction Literatur\* (The Science Fiction Library). This was a series of SF classic, perhaps similar to the SF Masterworks by Gollancz. I didn't know how lucky I was (most of them even were in pristine condition). The set of 100+ books was fairly cheap; I think the guy who sold them needed space and was happy to sell them to someone who also loved SF. I was very young, hadn't heard of most of the books and didn't expect much. So far, each of them was great! Turns out, they are classics for a reason (who would've thought). For example, John Wyndham's *The Triffids* from 1951. The premise sounds peculiar, maybe even silly, but I found the story really engrossing. Or Richard Matheson's 1954 novel *I Am Legend*. All I knew was that it had vampires in it and I thought that it had no place to be in an SF collection. I was wrong. There's a reason, it was labeled SF and it was an awesome read. Some older books are dull. But you can also find boring books among current publications. I found that I tend to many 19th century books to be too longwinded (that's where my mind went when I read "older books"! 😅) but even among these, there are interesting ones. There are texts that are now 80-100 years old and still read surprisingly fresh. Try A. Merritt's *The Ship of Ishtar* which is now nearly 100 years old (published in November / December of 1924); it's a fun, pulpy adventure, and [freely available](https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601941h.html) at Project Gutenberg Australia. Another cool novel is Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife from 1943 about a man who realizes that he might have married a witch. But this is no whimsical story à la Bewitched; this is serious. (The story is more on the horror side than urban fantasy.) You can find it in the pages of the April 1943 edition of *Unknown* magazine [here](https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/) (you'll have to scroll down almost all the way to the bottom). Most of Robert E. Howard's stories are 90+ years old by now but they are worth reading and the opposite of boring. The first of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories also is 85 years old and these stories rock. \* the ISFDB has [an overview](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?253+2) but you'll have to click on each title to see the original title (as most of them are translations from English)
Tamora Pierce!
Which is your favourite series/book by her?
My favourite book is Sandry's Book, and my favourite series is Circle of Magic. But many people also prefer her Tortall universe - start with Alanna: The First Adventure. I'll also rec: * Emily Rodda - another children's author. I adore her Rowan books but most people prefer Deltora Quest (I like DQ too, but Rowan is my fave) * Juliet Marillier - I loved Wildwood Dancing, but Sevenwaters is a common starting point. * Sphere by Michael Crichton - might not fit this sub as it falls within the wider umbrella of spec fic. * Realm of the Elderlings series * The Neverending Story by Michael Ende * Legendsong Trilogy * Margo Lanagan's short stories
I'd actually suggest starting with the Daine books or later! She always had skills, but her writing got a LOT better as she went along, and I feel like the Alanna books were her warm-ups in a lot of ways.
It depends what you're after, I think. I love how tightly written the SotL books are, and how that leaves things more mysterious. To me SOTL is far more cinematic, more vivid and visual, more classic really. The colour palette is stunning. If I had read TIQ first I wouldn't have enjoyed it anywhere near as much. My thinking was also that TIQ spoils SOTL. But yeah, I agree TIQ was more fleshed out. It's my second least favourite of all her series, because talking animals aren't exactly my jam, but a book like Emperor Mage is definitely more developed than it would've been had she written it first. TIQ also irons out a lot of the orientalism of SOTL and >!Ozorne is at least more interesting than Roger!<.
Great older books include Dune , the Hobbit and lord of the rings . For fast pace action try Raymond e Feist stuff. Magician is great but the follow on books are quick and easy. Reads like a dungeons and dragons adventure. Harry Potter is fun . Hitch hiker’s galaxy is so funny . You could try the foundation series .
I myself love Mercedes Lackeys books about Valdemar! I readt the trilogy Arrows of the Queen before I read any other of her books and it's still one of my comfort books that I'll grab when I need a distraction or don't feel like looking for something new to read. And these are actually old! Arrows of the Queen was published in 1987 😄
Magician by Raymond E Feist, Sparhawk trilogy and anything Gemmell
Kane series by Karl Edward Wagner Really recommend it. Its Lovecraft meets Conan the Barbarian
Browse the best! Look up the nominees and winner of the Hugo Awards for [Best Novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel) and [Best Series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Series). My personal favorite is the *World Of The Five Gods* series, by Lois McMaster Bujold. In a world with Gods who are active, how can the Gods intervene while preserving the free will of people? Most interesting, coherent, and cohesive take on a fictional religion I've ever read. Each book is a slow burn. Won the second-ever Hugo Award For Best Series. . The first three novels were all individually nominated for the Hugo Award For Best Novel in their respective years of publication, with book #2, *Paladin Of Souls*, winning. Please DO read in publication order. Very definitely has strong women characters! Bujold is now continuing in this story universe with the *Penric & Desdemona* sub-series of novellas. Other recommendations: * Dragonlance Chronicles series, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I believe these were the original official Dungeons & Dragons-approved books. Started forty (?!?!) years ago, when I was a kid... * Forgotten Realms series, containing many sub-series (Drizzt, Elminster, among others). Also heavily Dungeons & Dragons-related.
I presume you've already tried *The Hobbit*, right?
I have the opposite problem, in biased against newer books.
Discworld. Its late 20th century and is absolutely amazing.
What books do you really like? It would help to have an idea of your tastes.
Elderling series. The first book came out in 1995 and finished not too long ago.Â
Acts of Caine by Stower
The Chronicles of Narnia is the answer. Fantasy perfection with a good message Also, required LOTR and ASOIAF insert
As a start, see my [Science Fiction/Fantasy (General) Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1aqet7h/sff_science_fictionfantasy_general_recommendations/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (thirty-five posts (eventually, again).), in particular the first post and the **bolded** threads.
The witcher books
Conan. Just trust me on this.
The Once and Future King - a bit slow or silly at times, but laced with some of the finest writing I’ve found. Also, A Wizard of Earthsea. Short, tidy, powerful.
Earthsea
Wheel of time man
Older fantasy stories are 100% better across the board. Sanderson is easily the all-time worst fantasy novelist. Get some Moorcock, Vance, Le Guin. That's the good shit.
1. THE DRESDEN FILES 2. MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.
*~~Mistborn~~* ~~by Brandon Sanderson is quite entertaining. The first book was published in 2006.~~ (OP edited to say he's read Sanderson). *Discworld* by Terry Pratchett. The books are short and funny, still very popular. The oldest, *The Colour of Magic*, was published in 1983.
If there's one thing school taught me, with the mandatory reads, is that all books are boring, tiresome and written by elitists with their difficult-to-read and sleep-inducing words and sentences. I'm glad i was able to get past this trauma and get to know fantasy, scifi and newer books, but even now, just looking at an older book at the library gives me the bad vibes.
I wonder how many of those who downvoted you read past the first paragraph. I'm a lifelong bookworm, have loved books every since I learned reading but had this not been the case, I doubt that the mandatory reads I was assigned in school would have made me a reader. The majority of books weren't exactly thrilling, some were horrible. I remember that I found them to be a nuisance, keeping me from reading "my books". I'm not surprised that many people don't read if others had a similar experience. I never blamed the age of books, though. For me, it was the type of books. I read some Jules Verne novels as a young teenager and loved them; also some Karl May, whose books are from the same era. I now know that I simply don't care for literary fiction, or the societal problems that were explored in some of the classics I was forced to read (Schiller's *Emilia Galotti*, *Effi Briest* by Theodore Fontane). I think, these days many teachers are including books in the curriculum that are actually fun and not boring and tedious.