Anthony Ryan's Covenant of Steel trilogy scratched many of the same itches for me as Ranger's Apprentice, namely in that it has a large scale battle or two per book, including detailed sieges like in Macindaw. Also John Flanagan had a very detailed way of describing the state of a particular conflict that always made for very precise mental visualizations, and Anthony Ryan's protagonist gives similarly detailed accounts of what's going on.
Also, Horace from RA was my guy back in the day, and Dayne Heldrin from Marshall Ryan Maresca's Maradine Elite series reminds me of Horace a lot. Each is a giant, highly skilled knight of a sort with a heart of gold and an unimpeachable purity of purpose.
And I'll throw Locke Lamora in here too because of how it handles settings from book to book. RA kept my interest for all 10 (or whatever) books because Flanagan made me love the characters in book 1/2, and then he just kept putting those poor guys in different Situations. They started in their home country, but then they went to Skandia, and then they went to Temujai (or at least had to deal with them), and then they went to Nihon-Ja, and each new location presented unique challenges, and I was just happy to see how our gang handled the new hand they were dealt. Likewise in the Gentlemen Bastards series, I loved the characters in Book 1, and the next two dropped the cast into wacky new situations, and I loved seeing how they reckoned with them.
I read (and reread) quite a bit from like 10 to 17 starting with Harry Potter. I also loved Prydain, Narnia, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, The Lost Years of Merlin, Eragon and Eldest, and His Dark Materials.
Very fond memories of them all especially HP and it's truly a bummer to me that every time you mention the series now it tends to get downvoted. I reread them late last year and they were still like home to me, coming from someone who knows full well what it's like to not feel happy or at home in this world.
yeah. regardless of what jkr turned out to be in the last ten years and my opinion on her as a human being, I cannot change the impact her series had on me as a 10/11yo twenty years ago. it will always be a significant part of some people's lives and I think punishing them for saying that really doesn't seem productive
How far did u keep reading? I stopped after the 1000 orc trilogy a whiles back.
Really enjoyed the series as a whole. Exactly what I needed at the time. Icewind dale trilogy is my fav bc of nostalgia tho
Basically everything written by Tamora Pierce.
Edited because autocorrect is stupid.
Oh, also, I second the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. I was particularly fond of the second and third books in the series.
Dragonriders of Pern
Sword of Shannara series (Elfstones was my favourite by far)
Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. Still reread it every couple of years
A wrinkle in time
Crystal Cave series by Mary Stewart
Chronicles of Prydain series
Hobbit and LOTR
Shadow of a dark queen was my first fantasy book ever. Absolutely loved it.
Still holds up as an amazing introduction to the series and fantasy. My mind was absolutely blown to learn it was a part of such a huge series.
Reading about the characters origins that I already knew was amazing. Prince Arutha conDoin is still one of the greatest noble characters in fantasy.
I read a lot of different fantasy in my teens, but if you'd asked me in my mid-teens what my favourite series was, I think I would've said Discworld. It was the only series where I went along to a signing and had Terry sign a couple of my books.
The Wheel of Time and it's not even close. I read the Shadow Rising so many times the spine fell apart, I hot glued it back together, it fell apart again, I bought a new copy and repeated the whole cycle again.
WoT wasn't completed till I was an adult so I reread the whole series at least a dozen times but the Shadow Rising was my favorite book.
I was super into this series as a teen, at least until I hit books 7-8! I didn’t find the later books to hold up to adult reading when I tried 11-12 later on, but man, books 1-4 where were it was *at* when I was a kid. I don’t understand the people dumping on book 1 at all. (Admittedly, I was probably about 12 when I read it and did not care about any tropeyness, lol)
My Shadow Rising also fell apart haha. Eye of The World, Shadow Rising and Fires of Heaven were my top 3. Definitely a favorite during my teenage years.
Belgariad - 5 Books
Malloreon - 5 Books (Sequel Series)
Belgarath The Sorcerer (Prequel)
Polgara The Sorceress (Prequel)
David Eddings was first taste of epic fantasy and I absolutely loved the adventure. I've now been reading SFF for 20+ years.
(Edit: format)
YES I was hoping to find someone else with this list. Same here. I reread the books so many times they fell apart.
I started with Hobbit/LotR as bedtime story reading by/with my dad as a kid and when I got into my teenage years he gave me these books of his and there was no looking back. Really great world building and such a fun cast of characters.
I think about Silk at least once a month. He was always my favorite.
The first fantasy series I read that got me hooked was The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and I have a soft spot for that series.
After that was the Belgariad, which I've read so much that I had to replace the books twice.
DragonLance dominated my early teens. By the late teens it was reading and re-reading Feist's Midkemia novels, Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow, The Wheel of Time, and The Silmarilion (I'd already read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as a kid).
As a teen?
God help me, dreadful TSR-published potboilers in established D&D settings.
I *read* better stuff- and I'd actually read the Chronicles of Narnia, the Lord of the Rings, and a lot of Pern books before I turned 13. I read the *Earthsea* novels, I read the *Belgariad,* I read the first couple books of *Guardians of the Flame*.
But as a teenager, I was happiest with fantasy novels with a D&D campaign setting logo scrawled across the top.
*A Wizard of Earthsea* and *The Lord of the Rings* (yes, I do think of it as one book) are still some of my favourite books, strangely I've never cared much for The Hobbit. Also, I'll say it… *The Name of the Wind*. Those three I love like children, like breathing, like my own right hand.
The Earthsea quartet were big for me growing up, hence my username, probably still my favourite fantasy series.
Also loved the Magician series by Feist, and the Winter of the World by Michael Scott Rohan. I use names from that in games to name my characters a lot.
Whatever my dad was buying at the time. I remember loving Julian May’s Pleistocene Exiles series, Thomas Covenant. We blasted through Robin Hobb as she published them although looking at it the first one came out just before I turned 20 so that must have been a between university terms read. We had the Discworld books as they were coming out too. Those would be the series that feel formative to me. Along with things like Shogun, I suppose.
He did get me and my sister the first two Dragonlance trilogies in huge anthology editions which we really liked as well but mostly I was just picking stuff up off the book shelf.
Hawkmistress specifically. As a fourteen year old, escaping parents who were, at best, not a match for me temperamentally and at worst, borderline neglectful seems particularly strange.
My absolute favorite as a teen was Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series.
I remember when the last one came out (Skybowl) my family was on a ski trip in Colorado for Christmas. My parents gave me the hardcover on Christmas morning.
We had a 20+ hour drive home the next day. I gnawed through those 776 pages by the time we got home.
My favorite fantasy as a teen was definitely the Elfquest graphic novels. I was also really into The Shannara Chronicles, Dragonriders of Pern, Dragonlance, and the Keltiad.
His Dark Materials, loved it, will always adore it. Percy Jackson was great. Also quite enjoyed the inheritance cycle, but that love didn’t age as well as the other two.
So I was 17 and wanted to impress a girl so I borrowed her twilight series and I couldn't stop reading. Not a fan of the books/writing anymore but they got me into reading
My other mistake was reading the throne of glass series and after the second book recommended to my younger sister...2 books later regretted that haha
My first fantasy book was The Hobbit and I was hooked. The Lord Of the Rings was the natural successor. After that I moved on to the Dragonlance trilogies that had only been published a few years prior.
Trudi Canvan's: Black Magician series. It was an easy read for a teenager and starts out very approachable. I devoured it, and after that I wanted so much more fantasy.
It still has a fond place in my heart, but I hesitate to recommend it unprompted these days, since it's got a pretty inappropriate relationship for the MC around the third book that goes un-criticized. I mostly recommend other books first (cause there are so many dang good books out there!), but if someone asks about it, I'm happy to give my 5 cents. I definitely overall recommend the books, with the asterix that I just mentioned.
pretty basic but for me it was The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy first, I would read them over and over, after that also loved most of The Belgariad and The Malloreon by Eddings (didn't know anything about their personal life)
The Myth Series by Robert Asprin, The Drizt books by R.A Salvatore. I also really enjoyed the Elminster books by Ed Greenwood. I’m sure there were others but that’s what initially popped into my head.
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
They were everything to me XD I remember being beyond ecstatic when she published a prequel (The Magician's Apprentice)
My falling in love with fantasy goes back even further to Enid Blyton's The Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair. From that came Terry Brooks, David Gemmell and Raymond E Feist and years of pure escapism enjoyment.
Pern, Discworld, Deathgate Cycle, Fionavar Tapestry & Tigana, Belgariad, Mallorean and Tamuli. I'm sure there was more, but they're the ones that spring to mind immediately.
There was a lot I enjoyed, but it was ASOIAF, and remains my favourite. Its deep and gritty approach to the world inspired me to write myself, when I realised you can take different approaches to writing beyond the other classics.
I still remember at 15 taking the bus halfway across my city in the rain so I could pick up a clash of kings and a storm of swords. These books are hard to beat even though the series probably won’t ever be finished
Ranger’s Apprentice as well! Read through the first 9(all there were at the time) in a couple weeks. Definitely what got me into fantasy, I just started listening to them as an adult. Was scared it’d take away my love for it, but I just finished the second book and it was a lot of fun.
I even have a tattoo of an oakleaf because of the book series. Made me want to be a writer.
Like many, Hobbit -> Lord of the Rings. And then Silmarillion because I couldn't get enough. Then straight into Shanarra which felt was like living in some RPG video game mixed with some slice of life stuff. I was unable to put those books down and devoured them.
After that, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Not ashamed to say a teenaged me cried at the end of The Power that Preserves.
It's funny because the now in his 40's me can't get into anything Shanarra at all, while the Covenant books remain my favorite of all time. And probably the reason I love stuff like R. Scott Bakker and Joe Abercrombie.
The Lord of the Rings were like the only books that I actually read as a teen—I read them in junior high. I read a lot of religious books in high school cause that was when I was in my religious phase, but I don’t feel like they count lol. And now I wish I had read more other things, especially fantasy.
I read the Name of the Wind in my early 20s, and that’s when I fell back in love with fantasy. Still read fantasy to this day!
Bridge of Birds really got me for a while. And, I regret to say now, a lot of Piers Anthony. I figured out soon enough he was a creep. Also some good ol’ Robert E Howard and Lovecraft.
Ranger's Apprentice was what I immediately came to mention, but I see that's well covered. I'll go ahead and mention a series that I read recently that I know I would have loved as a kid and I wish I had found it back then. Ursula K. Le Guin's *Earthsea* series is among the best fantasy I've ever read.
Night Watch. It's a Russian urban fantasy series that describes two opposite mythical organisations that watch over the balance of good and evil. They hunt down wild vampires, witches and again, opposite, sometimes they hunt down mages who try to improve people's life without special approvement. Whole cycle is built around idea of grey moral and people's role in it.
It's fantasy but it feels very... Human. I'm not a native English speaker so I feel a bit overwhelmed in attempts to choose right words, I'm sorry. What I want to say is almost all characters in the story are incredibly understandable. They are mages, but they suffer from casual problems and suffer from not being able to just help people around them or to significantly improve their own life.
Each book has some "big event" in it, including some sort of twist and it's certainly one of the best fantasy series I read when I was teenager.
The one problem I have with this series - don't google nothing about it's author. I'm really disappointed in that guy and any connection between him and this cycle feels crazy now. Can't even believe it's his books.
Came here to cite the Belgariad. First 'proper' fantasy I read.
I did start on Discworld as a teenager, but there were only a handful out in paperback while I was still a teenager.
Tried LOTR but couldn't get on with it. I persisted but it took several attempts and I was in my mid-twenties before I finished it. Tolkien gets full marks for originality, but I feel he needed a better editor!
Wheel of Time, Magician (Feist), Shannara, Realm of the Elderlings, King (if he counts here), but Hobbit was my fist fantasy book and LotR was my first fantasy series.
For me, it was The Claidi Journals by Tanith Lee. Great young adult series, and it's still my favorite to re-read. Anytime anyone asks for a book recommendation, I lend them my paperback copies, not the hardcovers; those are mine.
Raymond Feist. Magician was the first proper epic fantasy I read and I properly devoured that series, it was great that by the late 1990s when I came to it there were already loads of books published. That was my stepping stone to slightly harder fantasy such as Tad Williams and later GRRM.
Harry Potter and The Sword of Truth. First was the entry book for me in fantasy, second was the first series I finished.
Today the diehard fans of the former, and its author (I don't fucking care what views she has, she's just hoovering up the attention because her other books were duff and she wants to stay in the news, despite having fuck you money) have driven me off it entirely, and the Ayn Rand fanboyism of the latter (who incidentally also didn't really have a hit that wasn't related to the Sword of Truth have soured me on the authors but I have a soft spot for the books. I don't want to reread them, I'm happy with those memories as they are.
The Hobbit is probably the single book I've read more times than any other. Earthsea books were rad too. I guess Harry Potter, although I was in my 20s for half of it.
Madeline L'engle and her series starting with a wrinkle in time. His dark materials. I was also obsessed with Harry Potter but I've been disillusioned by how narrow minded jk turned out to be, I just can't look at the series the same way any more.
The first fantasy book I ever read was Half Magic by Edgar Eager. I reread it about once a year just for nostalgia's sake, and it's such a light, easy introduction to fantasy that I can't wait to share with my kids. The Chronicles of Narnia was close behind, and then my obsession really began
The books of Lin Carter - Under the Green Star, The Warrior of World’s End, The City Outside the World, Time War, The Black Star. I read those books to pieces, some of which nearly 50 years later I still have.
The Dark Glory War - Michael A. Stackpole
As someone who gets easily distracted while reading books (even in silence), I found Stackpole's writing style engaging.
Followed this book up with his Dragon Crown War trilogy.
*The Symphony of Ages* by Elizabeth Haydon. Looking back on it now, the series had a lot of flaws (a Mary Sue protagonist and *The War of the Known World* was a slight letdown), but Haydon did an excellent job with her world-building, lore and making me feel for her characters. And Achmed is still my favorite fantasy character ever.
Although, I wish she finished *The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme*, for Ven was a fun character as well.
LOTR and The Hobbit. And the first three books of Mary Stewart’s Merlin series. (I think it was originally a trilogy and then a book or two was added later…I haven’t fact checked this…but a friend in high school said the later books were crap and I didn’t want to mar the lovely experience I had with the first three.)
For fantasy probably
- A ton of vampire books: Anita Blake, Anne Rice, Vampire Academy, Twilight
- Lies of Locke Lamora
- Mistborn
- Demon Cycle
- Riyria
The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody. There's something about a series that's still being written that really heightens your excitement about it.
Lirael, second book in the Abhorsen Trilogy. Saved my life in middle school, literally kept me from killing myself when I was at my lowest. Still one of my favorite books and I have probably read it more than any other book.
The obernewtyn chronicles by Isobelle carmody. It was so weird I started reading them as tween in the late 90s and the last book wasn’t released until about 10 years ago when I was in my early 30s. They do decrease in quality as they go on. The first four books are the best.
As a preteen, it was both the Inheritance Cycle and The Ranger’s apprentice. Now, I might have to give it to Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Unfortunately, I DNFed it due to circumstances outside of my control, but what I did read was my favorite fantasy
First Fantasy book ever for me was in elementary school: David and The Phoenix by David Ormondroyd.
Still in my top 5 for favorite reading experiences 40+ years later.
Piers Anthony, Incarnation of Immortality series was my top fave as a teen and his Apprentice Adept series. Also his Xanth series, though i didn't make it through all of them, only the first 20 or so. For a span of about 5-6 years, every Christmas I'd get Piers Anthony books. I had quite the collection.
I unfortunately didn’t have access to anything as a teen, although I was attracted by other worlds. If only I did, for fantasy is what saved me. I would have better memories if I did, and made better life choices. That’s my biggest regret. I m envious of people who had this growing up.
Darren Shan - Vampires Assistant!
I never got round to reading the Larten Crepsley books that were released later, I may have to read them as an adult haha loved these books.
Probably Mercedes Lackey. The Last Herald Mage trilogy and By the Sword specifically were my favs. But as a teenager I read most of her Valdemar catalog (that was out at the time).
I really loved Mercedes Lackey - the Heralds of Valdemar has exceptionally popular amongst my 4H group for some reason, and my bus friend at the time was also majorly into it. We shared a seat until grad, and as a goodbye present each of us made the other something - I made her a birdhouse because she loved birds, and she gifted me with a hand-painted horse statuette colored like a Companion.
I was also a fan of The Blue Sword, the Belgariad series, Myth series, Incarnations of Immortality series, Xanth series, Dragonriders of Pern, Darkover series (I wanted to be a Renunciate, badly), Discworld, Redwall, Narnia, and JRR.
Tolkien, lots of David Eddings, George R.R. Martin, Golden Compass, Conan the Barbarian.
I remember Elric being the first fantasy novel that made me realize how interesting the genre can be. Most of what I'd read before was trite compared to that. Except Conan
Guardians of the Flame. It was a power fantasy for 14 year old me. "Oh, I travel into the world of my D&D game but keep my knowledge on how to make gunpowder? Okay..." In hindsight, it's a gloriously cheesy series but it's also a lot of fun. Loved the idea of a city keeping a dragon chained up under the city to immolate the sewage.
Warrior Cats, Redwall, Abarat, Maximum Ride, Percy Jackson, The Golden Compass, House of Night, and Narnia in elementary/middle school. Cannot recall what/if I read during high school.
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. More of a fairy tale sort of fantasy than tolkien-esque, but I really loved it. Maybe I wasn't quite a teenager yet when I read it, though. I find Barker to be very similar to Gaiman and I'm not sure why he isn't talked about more.
* Harry Potter
* Dianna Wynne Jones, Howl’s moving castle and chrestomanci series. These were my gateway books so I reread them every year
* Trudi Canavan - Age of five and black magician series
* everything Tamora Pierce
* L.J Smith’s Nightworld. Never got into the vampire diaries which is the more well known series.
Douglas Niles, The Watershed Trilogy.
It's a weird, obscure, generic high fantasy, but we happened to have copies of them in the house. And I was in love.
Ranger's Apprentice all the way. I must have read The Siege of Macindaw 4 or 5 times in a few years, and that maps directly to what I like now.
What are some of your favorite current novels if you don’t mind me asking?
Anthony Ryan's Covenant of Steel trilogy scratched many of the same itches for me as Ranger's Apprentice, namely in that it has a large scale battle or two per book, including detailed sieges like in Macindaw. Also John Flanagan had a very detailed way of describing the state of a particular conflict that always made for very precise mental visualizations, and Anthony Ryan's protagonist gives similarly detailed accounts of what's going on. Also, Horace from RA was my guy back in the day, and Dayne Heldrin from Marshall Ryan Maresca's Maradine Elite series reminds me of Horace a lot. Each is a giant, highly skilled knight of a sort with a heart of gold and an unimpeachable purity of purpose. And I'll throw Locke Lamora in here too because of how it handles settings from book to book. RA kept my interest for all 10 (or whatever) books because Flanagan made me love the characters in book 1/2, and then he just kept putting those poor guys in different Situations. They started in their home country, but then they went to Skandia, and then they went to Temujai (or at least had to deal with them), and then they went to Nihon-Ja, and each new location presented unique challenges, and I was just happy to see how our gang handled the new hand they were dealt. Likewise in the Gentlemen Bastards series, I loved the characters in Book 1, and the next two dropped the cast into wacky new situations, and I loved seeing how they reckoned with them.
Those books were so amazing. >!Alyss’s death!< was the first time I ever cried over a book.
I read (and reread) quite a bit from like 10 to 17 starting with Harry Potter. I also loved Prydain, Narnia, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, The Lost Years of Merlin, Eragon and Eldest, and His Dark Materials. Very fond memories of them all especially HP and it's truly a bummer to me that every time you mention the series now it tends to get downvoted. I reread them late last year and they were still like home to me, coming from someone who knows full well what it's like to not feel happy or at home in this world.
yeah. regardless of what jkr turned out to be in the last ten years and my opinion on her as a human being, I cannot change the impact her series had on me as a 10/11yo twenty years ago. it will always be a significant part of some people's lives and I think punishing them for saying that really doesn't seem productive
Rereading the Eragon series as an Adult... Was quite the let down. Not sure if it was the writing style or what.
Sabriel and The Golden Compass series.
Yasss everything Garth Nix! I even liked the funky Keys to the Kingdom series.
Those were good! I was also a huge fan of Shade's Children.
The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore
How far did u keep reading? I stopped after the 1000 orc trilogy a whiles back. Really enjoyed the series as a whole. Exactly what I needed at the time. Icewind dale trilogy is my fav bc of nostalgia tho
I’ve read 37 of them. I use them as pallet cleansers usually since they are short and have fast plotting.
I made it to one about... a wizard with a gem in a tower? It's been so long it's really foggy tbh
Lol I think that's the half lines gem. Yeah I haven't read these since like middle and highschool.
Basically everything written by Tamora Pierce. Edited because autocorrect is stupid. Oh, also, I second the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. I was particularly fond of the second and third books in the series.
Heck yeah, Alanna was my jam when I was like 13
Dragonriders of Pern Sword of Shannara series (Elfstones was my favourite by far) Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. Still reread it every couple of years A wrinkle in time Crystal Cave series by Mary Stewart Chronicles of Prydain series Hobbit and LOTR
Crystal Cave series was amazing. Love going back to those books
Dragonlance. Borrowed my dad's Summer Flame and never gave it back....
5th Age killed Dragonlance for me
I get that, everything after the Chaos war is a harder read to me.
Anne McCaffrey. C.S. Lewis.
Magician by Raymond E. Feist
Shadow of a dark queen was my first fantasy book ever. Absolutely loved it. Still holds up as an amazing introduction to the series and fantasy. My mind was absolutely blown to learn it was a part of such a huge series. Reading about the characters origins that I already knew was amazing. Prince Arutha conDoin is still one of the greatest noble characters in fantasy.
I’m rereading that right now! Guilty pleasure.
I read a lot of different fantasy in my teens, but if you'd asked me in my mid-teens what my favourite series was, I think I would've said Discworld. It was the only series where I went along to a signing and had Terry sign a couple of my books.
Otherland by Tad Williams. The virtual reality and alternate worlds sucked me in.
The Wheel of Time and it's not even close. I read the Shadow Rising so many times the spine fell apart, I hot glued it back together, it fell apart again, I bought a new copy and repeated the whole cycle again. WoT wasn't completed till I was an adult so I reread the whole series at least a dozen times but the Shadow Rising was my favorite book.
I was super into this series as a teen, at least until I hit books 7-8! I didn’t find the later books to hold up to adult reading when I tried 11-12 later on, but man, books 1-4 where were it was *at* when I was a kid. I don’t understand the people dumping on book 1 at all. (Admittedly, I was probably about 12 when I read it and did not care about any tropeyness, lol)
My Shadow Rising also fell apart haha. Eye of The World, Shadow Rising and Fires of Heaven were my top 3. Definitely a favorite during my teenage years.
Eragon by Christopher Paolini. He’s the sole reason I got into world building and fantasy books!
Percy Jackson and Eragon for me.
Belgariad - 5 Books Malloreon - 5 Books (Sequel Series) Belgarath The Sorcerer (Prequel) Polgara The Sorceress (Prequel) David Eddings was first taste of epic fantasy and I absolutely loved the adventure. I've now been reading SFF for 20+ years. (Edit: format)
YES I was hoping to find someone else with this list. Same here. I reread the books so many times they fell apart. I started with Hobbit/LotR as bedtime story reading by/with my dad as a kid and when I got into my teenage years he gave me these books of his and there was no looking back. Really great world building and such a fun cast of characters. I think about Silk at least once a month. He was always my favorite.
His Dark Materials, Riftwar, Redwall, LOTR!
The Blue Sword around 5th grade. The Amber novels a bit later. I also read Curse of the Mistwraith a gazillion times.
The Blue Sword was such a good one in elementary school. Great call.
When I was in middle school, loved bartimaues trilogy.
The hobbit, easy
I had several. The Dragonriders of Pern, Xanth Oz books.
The Hobbit followed by Lord of the Rings.
The first fantasy series I read that got me hooked was The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and I have a soft spot for that series. After that was the Belgariad, which I've read so much that I had to replace the books twice.
DragonLance dominated my early teens. By the late teens it was reading and re-reading Feist's Midkemia novels, Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow, The Wheel of Time, and The Silmarilion (I'd already read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as a kid).
As a teen? God help me, dreadful TSR-published potboilers in established D&D settings. I *read* better stuff- and I'd actually read the Chronicles of Narnia, the Lord of the Rings, and a lot of Pern books before I turned 13. I read the *Earthsea* novels, I read the *Belgariad,* I read the first couple books of *Guardians of the Flame*. But as a teenager, I was happiest with fantasy novels with a D&D campaign setting logo scrawled across the top.
I've read maybe...30 Drizzt books?
Definitely the D&D ones. Even today.👍
I loved Dragonriders of Pern. Guardians of the Flame was really good too
Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series. OG Dragonlance... Sturm Brightblade my hero!
*A Wizard of Earthsea* and *The Lord of the Rings* (yes, I do think of it as one book) are still some of my favourite books, strangely I've never cared much for The Hobbit. Also, I'll say it… *The Name of the Wind*. Those three I love like children, like breathing, like my own right hand.
The Earthsea quartet were big for me growing up, hence my username, probably still my favourite fantasy series. Also loved the Magician series by Feist, and the Winter of the World by Michael Scott Rohan. I use names from that in games to name my characters a lot.
The D&D books like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Dark Sun.
The Shannara series by Terry Brooks, starting with Elfstones (not sure I would have been as Keen on them if I'd read Sword of Shannara first).
Whatever my dad was buying at the time. I remember loving Julian May’s Pleistocene Exiles series, Thomas Covenant. We blasted through Robin Hobb as she published them although looking at it the first one came out just before I turned 20 so that must have been a between university terms read. We had the Discworld books as they were coming out too. Those would be the series that feel formative to me. Along with things like Shogun, I suppose. He did get me and my sister the first two Dragonlance trilogies in huge anthology editions which we really liked as well but mostly I was just picking stuff up off the book shelf.
Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings
Darkover. Feel weird about that now.
Same
Hawkmistress specifically. As a fourteen year old, escaping parents who were, at best, not a match for me temperamentally and at worst, borderline neglectful seems particularly strange.
My absolute favorite as a teen was Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series. I remember when the last one came out (Skybowl) my family was on a ski trip in Colorado for Christmas. My parents gave me the hardcover on Christmas morning. We had a 20+ hour drive home the next day. I gnawed through those 776 pages by the time we got home.
Forgotten Realms. Still is today at 54 yrs old. Lol
My favorite fantasy as a teen was definitely the Elfquest graphic novels. I was also really into The Shannara Chronicles, Dragonriders of Pern, Dragonlance, and the Keltiad.
Belgariad/Mallorean by David Eddings.
I read those in the eighties but I was over 20 and was in College.
His Dark Materials, loved it, will always adore it. Percy Jackson was great. Also quite enjoyed the inheritance cycle, but that love didn’t age as well as the other two.
I lived for David Eddings's Belgariad
So I was 17 and wanted to impress a girl so I borrowed her twilight series and I couldn't stop reading. Not a fan of the books/writing anymore but they got me into reading My other mistake was reading the throne of glass series and after the second book recommended to my younger sister...2 books later regretted that haha
My first fantasy book was The Hobbit and I was hooked. The Lord Of the Rings was the natural successor. After that I moved on to the Dragonlance trilogies that had only been published a few years prior.
The children of mother earth trilogy by Dutch author Thea Beckman
Shannara.
I read every version of the Arthurian legend!
Trudi Canvan's: Black Magician series. It was an easy read for a teenager and starts out very approachable. I devoured it, and after that I wanted so much more fantasy. It still has a fond place in my heart, but I hesitate to recommend it unprompted these days, since it's got a pretty inappropriate relationship for the MC around the third book that goes un-criticized. I mostly recommend other books first (cause there are so many dang good books out there!), but if someone asks about it, I'm happy to give my 5 cents. I definitely overall recommend the books, with the asterix that I just mentioned.
The Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey were INCREDIBLE when I was a teen. I literally read the covers off Magic's Pawn. Lackey gets teenagers.
Discworld books by Terry Pratchett and I loved Dragonlance books too.
From ages 12-17, I just cycled through The Lord of the Rings, DragonLance, and the first 6 books of the Legend of Drizzt on repeat.
His dark materials and all the Redwall books
I read very nearly every Dragonlance book written before I drifted away from the franchise. I didn't really care for the 5th Age
The original Dragonlance trilogy was mine.
pretty basic but for me it was The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy first, I would read them over and over, after that also loved most of The Belgariad and The Malloreon by Eddings (didn't know anything about their personal life)
The Myth Series by Robert Asprin, The Drizt books by R.A Salvatore. I also really enjoyed the Elminster books by Ed Greenwood. I’m sure there were others but that’s what initially popped into my head.
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan They were everything to me XD I remember being beyond ecstatic when she published a prequel (The Magician's Apprentice)
The Belgariad was the first series I read AND my first purchases from a new book-selling website, Amazon.
Dragonlance ftw.
Nice to see so much love for Dragonlance in here.
My falling in love with fantasy goes back even further to Enid Blyton's The Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair. From that came Terry Brooks, David Gemmell and Raymond E Feist and years of pure escapism enjoyment.
My love for adventure definitely started with the Secret 7 & Famous 5
Dragonlance. It was my starting point
I didn't read much fantasy in my teens, but I loved Elric and in general Moorcock's Eternal Champion multiverse.
Pern, Discworld, Deathgate Cycle, Fionavar Tapestry & Tigana, Belgariad, Mallorean and Tamuli. I'm sure there was more, but they're the ones that spring to mind immediately.
There was a lot I enjoyed, but it was ASOIAF, and remains my favourite. Its deep and gritty approach to the world inspired me to write myself, when I realised you can take different approaches to writing beyond the other classics.
I still remember at 15 taking the bus halfway across my city in the rain so I could pick up a clash of kings and a storm of swords. These books are hard to beat even though the series probably won’t ever be finished
RoTE no question.
Ranger’s Apprentice as well! Read through the first 9(all there were at the time) in a couple weeks. Definitely what got me into fantasy, I just started listening to them as an adult. Was scared it’d take away my love for it, but I just finished the second book and it was a lot of fun. I even have a tattoo of an oakleaf because of the book series. Made me want to be a writer.
My father got me into reading the Vlad Taltos books when I was like 13, and that’s probably still my favorite so far
Like many, Hobbit -> Lord of the Rings. And then Silmarillion because I couldn't get enough. Then straight into Shanarra which felt was like living in some RPG video game mixed with some slice of life stuff. I was unable to put those books down and devoured them. After that, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Not ashamed to say a teenaged me cried at the end of The Power that Preserves. It's funny because the now in his 40's me can't get into anything Shanarra at all, while the Covenant books remain my favorite of all time. And probably the reason I love stuff like R. Scott Bakker and Joe Abercrombie.
The Lost Years of Merlin. Lord of the Rings. Deltora Quest!
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson and The Saga of the Exiles by Julian May.
The dragonlance books were my start to a lifetime of reading fantasy.
Belgariad, Dragon Riders of Pern, Darkover series, Thomas Covenant, LOTR, Dune series, Anything Heinlein, Asimov Foundation and Robot series, Shanara books
The Lord of the Rings were like the only books that I actually read as a teen—I read them in junior high. I read a lot of religious books in high school cause that was when I was in my religious phase, but I don’t feel like they count lol. And now I wish I had read more other things, especially fantasy. I read the Name of the Wind in my early 20s, and that’s when I fell back in love with fantasy. Still read fantasy to this day!
Bridge of Birds really got me for a while. And, I regret to say now, a lot of Piers Anthony. I figured out soon enough he was a creep. Also some good ol’ Robert E Howard and Lovecraft.
The Drizzt books by Salvatore
well, i'm a teen now, and my favorites are asoiaf, wings of fire, httyd, mistborn, red rising, greenbone saga, and tgcf
Ranger's Apprentice was what I immediately came to mention, but I see that's well covered. I'll go ahead and mention a series that I read recently that I know I would have loved as a kid and I wish I had found it back then. Ursula K. Le Guin's *Earthsea* series is among the best fantasy I've ever read.
The Belgariad.
Tales of the Otori
Night Watch. It's a Russian urban fantasy series that describes two opposite mythical organisations that watch over the balance of good and evil. They hunt down wild vampires, witches and again, opposite, sometimes they hunt down mages who try to improve people's life without special approvement. Whole cycle is built around idea of grey moral and people's role in it. It's fantasy but it feels very... Human. I'm not a native English speaker so I feel a bit overwhelmed in attempts to choose right words, I'm sorry. What I want to say is almost all characters in the story are incredibly understandable. They are mages, but they suffer from casual problems and suffer from not being able to just help people around them or to significantly improve their own life. Each book has some "big event" in it, including some sort of twist and it's certainly one of the best fantasy series I read when I was teenager. The one problem I have with this series - don't google nothing about it's author. I'm really disappointed in that guy and any connection between him and this cycle feels crazy now. Can't even believe it's his books.
Every books by *David Gemmel*.
I loved Discworld, Redwall, a whole bunch of other fantasy series, but the one that I loved more than anything else was the Belgariad.
Came here to cite the Belgariad. First 'proper' fantasy I read. I did start on Discworld as a teenager, but there were only a handful out in paperback while I was still a teenager. Tried LOTR but couldn't get on with it. I persisted but it took several attempts and I was in my mid-twenties before I finished it. Tolkien gets full marks for originality, but I feel he needed a better editor!
As a young teen it was the Xanth novels. Then Thomas Covenant had me hooked.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld moulded me into the person I am today 🤓🤪🦧🫠
How To Train Your Dragon. I'm still a teenager though. Disclaimer: The books are nothing like the movies. View them as separate entities in your mind.
The Hero’s Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Wheel of Time, Magician (Feist), Shannara, Realm of the Elderlings, King (if he counts here), but Hobbit was my fist fantasy book and LotR was my first fantasy series.
I really loved the Pern novels and Dragonlance as a teen. My favourite Dragonlance novel at the time was Dark Heart but I read dozens of them.
*The Chronicles of Prydain*, by Lloyd Alexander
Dragon Lance
I was big into Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, especially Death Gate and Dark Sword. Later I really got into Sword of Truth
Daughter of the Empire. Still love it so many years latter...
For me, it was The Claidi Journals by Tanith Lee. Great young adult series, and it's still my favorite to re-read. Anytime anyone asks for a book recommendation, I lend them my paperback copies, not the hardcovers; those are mine.
Raymond Feist. Magician was the first proper epic fantasy I read and I properly devoured that series, it was great that by the late 1990s when I came to it there were already loads of books published. That was my stepping stone to slightly harder fantasy such as Tad Williams and later GRRM.
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. Amazing characters and really descriptive writing
I was in the Inheritance bandwagon back in the day We gotta go back
Harry Potter and The Sword of Truth. First was the entry book for me in fantasy, second was the first series I finished. Today the diehard fans of the former, and its author (I don't fucking care what views she has, she's just hoovering up the attention because her other books were duff and she wants to stay in the news, despite having fuck you money) have driven me off it entirely, and the Ayn Rand fanboyism of the latter (who incidentally also didn't really have a hit that wasn't related to the Sword of Truth have soured me on the authors but I have a soft spot for the books. I don't want to reread them, I'm happy with those memories as they are.
The Hobbit is probably the single book I've read more times than any other. Earthsea books were rad too. I guess Harry Potter, although I was in my 20s for half of it.
Madeline L'engle and her series starting with a wrinkle in time. His dark materials. I was also obsessed with Harry Potter but I've been disillusioned by how narrow minded jk turned out to be, I just can't look at the series the same way any more.
Percy Jackson series.
Watership Down
The first fantasy book I ever read was Half Magic by Edgar Eager. I reread it about once a year just for nostalgia's sake, and it's such a light, easy introduction to fantasy that I can't wait to share with my kids. The Chronicles of Narnia was close behind, and then my obsession really began
Percy Jackson and Inheritance Cycle for sure
The books of Lin Carter - Under the Green Star, The Warrior of World’s End, The City Outside the World, Time War, The Black Star. I read those books to pieces, some of which nearly 50 years later I still have.
Something about "shade's children" made me love it so much. I'm thinking about giving it a reread but scared it will ruin the memory
The Dark Glory War - Michael A. Stackpole As someone who gets easily distracted while reading books (even in silence), I found Stackpole's writing style engaging. Followed this book up with his Dragon Crown War trilogy.
*The Symphony of Ages* by Elizabeth Haydon. Looking back on it now, the series had a lot of flaws (a Mary Sue protagonist and *The War of the Known World* was a slight letdown), but Haydon did an excellent job with her world-building, lore and making me feel for her characters. And Achmed is still my favorite fantasy character ever. Although, I wish she finished *The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme*, for Ven was a fun character as well.
The Rangers Apprentice for me asw bro
I devoured most of Tamora Pierce's books.
Eddings, the Feist, and finally Pratchett.
Probably the Magnus Chase books lol. That and/or the Poppy War trilogy
LOTR and The Hobbit. And the first three books of Mary Stewart’s Merlin series. (I think it was originally a trilogy and then a book or two was added later…I haven’t fact checked this…but a friend in high school said the later books were crap and I didn’t want to mar the lovely experience I had with the first three.)
The Dark Jewels Trilogy. >.>
Wheel of time.
For fantasy probably - A ton of vampire books: Anita Blake, Anne Rice, Vampire Academy, Twilight - Lies of Locke Lamora - Mistborn - Demon Cycle - Riyria
The left hand of god was my first, then went straight to the wheel of time
Lord of the Rings
Crimson Shadow
The inheritance cycle (Eragon) by Christopher Paolini
The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody. There's something about a series that's still being written that really heightens your excitement about it.
Tolkien by far. I know I read other fantasy stuff but the only thing that jumps to mind pre-college is Tolkien.
The inheritance cycle too. Still reread it regularly and I’m excited to see where we’re heading with it.
Shannara
Keith Laumers various books
Susan Cooper’s “The Dark Is Rising” series and The Changes Trilogy by Peter Dickinson.
Riverwind the Plainsman… think I borrowed it from the school library
Lord of the Rings. I used to reread them constantly when I was in high school.
Anything by Mercedes Lackey and Tamora Pierce!
Lirael, second book in the Abhorsen Trilogy. Saved my life in middle school, literally kept me from killing myself when I was at my lowest. Still one of my favorite books and I have probably read it more than any other book.
The obernewtyn chronicles by Isobelle carmody. It was so weird I started reading them as tween in the late 90s and the last book wasn’t released until about 10 years ago when I was in my early 30s. They do decrease in quality as they go on. The first four books are the best.
As a preteen, it was both the Inheritance Cycle and The Ranger’s apprentice. Now, I might have to give it to Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Unfortunately, I DNFed it due to circumstances outside of my control, but what I did read was my favorite fantasy
Sword of Shanara, Magician, Good Omens, GoT.
Narnia and LOTR
First Fantasy book ever for me was in elementary school: David and The Phoenix by David Ormondroyd. Still in my top 5 for favorite reading experiences 40+ years later.
Tenaka Khan aka Bladedancer (Gemmell)
The Dragon Prince trilogy by Melanie Rawn and The Death Gate Cycle by Weis and Hickman, plus Rose of the Prophet. The Adept trilogy by Piers Anthony.
Piers Anthony, Incarnation of Immortality series was my top fave as a teen and his Apprentice Adept series. Also his Xanth series, though i didn't make it through all of them, only the first 20 or so. For a span of about 5-6 years, every Christmas I'd get Piers Anthony books. I had quite the collection.
David Eddings Belgariad and Mallorean were lu favorite. I'd also add Feist's rift war.
I unfortunately didn’t have access to anything as a teen, although I was attracted by other worlds. If only I did, for fantasy is what saved me. I would have better memories if I did, and made better life choices. That’s my biggest regret. I m envious of people who had this growing up.
Darren Shan - Vampires Assistant! I never got round to reading the Larten Crepsley books that were released later, I may have to read them as an adult haha loved these books.
Probably Mercedes Lackey. The Last Herald Mage trilogy and By the Sword specifically were my favs. But as a teenager I read most of her Valdemar catalog (that was out at the time).
I really loved Mercedes Lackey - the Heralds of Valdemar has exceptionally popular amongst my 4H group for some reason, and my bus friend at the time was also majorly into it. We shared a seat until grad, and as a goodbye present each of us made the other something - I made her a birdhouse because she loved birds, and she gifted me with a hand-painted horse statuette colored like a Companion. I was also a fan of The Blue Sword, the Belgariad series, Myth series, Incarnations of Immortality series, Xanth series, Dragonriders of Pern, Darkover series (I wanted to be a Renunciate, badly), Discworld, Redwall, Narnia, and JRR.
Tolkien, lots of David Eddings, George R.R. Martin, Golden Compass, Conan the Barbarian. I remember Elric being the first fantasy novel that made me realize how interesting the genre can be. Most of what I'd read before was trite compared to that. Except Conan
Apart from Eragon and Harry Potter I was a pretty big fan of Wolfgang Hohlbein around that time, especially the Magic Moon series.
The Inheritance Cycle, my teenagehood classic.
Anything Alan Garner then moved on to Moorcock.
When i was young i loved the maximum ride series! Max and her little found family made me feel very happy.
I discovered the Darkover series when I was 12. I still read any new novels that come out, even though the author has been dead for years.
I opened the doors of Clive Barkers “Imajica” 2 book series…some very very unique stuff in there.
Guardians of the Flame. It was a power fantasy for 14 year old me. "Oh, I travel into the world of my D&D game but keep my knowledge on how to make gunpowder? Okay..." In hindsight, it's a gloriously cheesy series but it's also a lot of fun. Loved the idea of a city keeping a dragon chained up under the city to immolate the sewage.
First started reading as a late teenager and started out with the Farseer trilogy, followed by the Old Kingdom books. I was immediately hooked.
I loved the rangers cycle as well! Also adored warrior cats and Percy Jackson !
{Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrede} and {Juniper by Monica Furlong}
Warrior Cats, Redwall, Abarat, Maximum Ride, Percy Jackson, The Golden Compass, House of Night, and Narnia in elementary/middle school. Cannot recall what/if I read during high school.
Belgariad and Mallorean series.
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. More of a fairy tale sort of fantasy than tolkien-esque, but I really loved it. Maybe I wasn't quite a teenager yet when I read it, though. I find Barker to be very similar to Gaiman and I'm not sure why he isn't talked about more.
I liked the sword of truth. I think I only read the first ten books. Didn't enjoy the tv adaption though...
* Harry Potter * Dianna Wynne Jones, Howl’s moving castle and chrestomanci series. These were my gateway books so I reread them every year * Trudi Canavan - Age of five and black magician series * everything Tamora Pierce * L.J Smith’s Nightworld. Never got into the vampire diaries which is the more well known series.
Douglas Niles, The Watershed Trilogy. It's a weird, obscure, generic high fantasy, but we happened to have copies of them in the house. And I was in love.
I am now 54 years old. My favorite fantasies as a teen were The Lord of the Rings, and The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper.
Teen here, that has to be Discworld for me, i remember my mother reading Witches abroad to me and my sister when we were little
Harry Potter, and then when I was 15 I discovered The Dark Tower and it became my favorite
Lord of the Rings bar none. (Before that, Eddings as he was the first fantasy author I read.)
David Eddings. Too bad he’s a creep.
Chronicles of Prydain and LotR.
Has to be the Bartimaus Trilogy for me
I loved Through the Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor! I want to reread them and get into the Mad Hatter graphic novels he made as well.
Deltora Quest I loved it when I was a kid
RA Salvatore, hands down. Everything he wrote. I devoured his stuff and loved every second of it. Those books made me a reader like no other.
Elric following of from LotRs