Comments on: Fantasy Books Recommended For Dungeons & Dragons Players

By: Lou Anders

Lou Anders — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:18:28 +0000

Somebody please put out ebook versions of The Imaro sequence and The Traveller in Black!

By: Howard Andrew Jones

Howard Andrew Jones — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:23:48 +0000

The Imaro sequence from Charles Saunders

The Traveller in Black from John Brunner

Various by Clark Ashton Smith (I think he was left off Appendix N)

The Cossack series by Harold Lamb (huge influence on all sword-and-sorcery)

The Pastel City by M. John Harrison

Cyrion by Tanith Lee

Darrell Schweitzer The Mask of the Sorcerer

The Bard series by Keith Taylor (very under-discussed, very good)

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:21:29 +0000

I’d also add Michael Reaves’ Shattered World and its sequel, which have my vote as some of the all-time underappreciated gems. (And more importantly, if you read those books and don’t immediately want to campaign in the Shattered World, your soul is dead.)

And Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane books.

And maybe Michael Shea — the Nifft books or In Yana.

And last but not least, I can’t believe Gygax left H. Rider Haggard off of his original list, especially since he did include A. Merritt.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:06:14 +0000

Vance was mentioned in the original list in the DMG — the first two Dying Earth books in particular.

Cannot agree strongly enough about Professor Barker and Tekumel.

By: Abhinav (@abhinavjain87)

Abhinav (@abhinavjain87) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:31:09 +0000

I think tie-in fiction should definitely be on the list here. Warhammer Fantasy, Forgotten Realms, Magic The Gathering, Dragonlance. These are all settings inspired (in part or full) from D&D there is some absolutely stellar fiction in each (although I can’t really comment on MtG as I haven’t read anything set therein).

By: TW

TW — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 03:38:26 +0000

Everything…

I once ran a campaign which had its genesis in reading one of Pournelle’s War World Antholgies.

By: Joshua corning

Joshua corning — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:55:17 +0000

Not fiction but:

Histories by Herodotus

The Travels of Marco Polo

The Gallic War by Julius Caesar

The Persian Expedition by Xenophone

Reading through this short list it is pretty obvious many fantasy writers borrow heavily for these book.

After rereading parts of the Game of Thrones series and then reading Marco Polo right after it is very obvious George R.R. Martin borrowed more then a little from Marco Polo for Easteros.

Anyway you really can’t get more old school then reading books from 700 to 2400 years old and undoubtedly inspired fantasy fiction in the first place.

By: Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Bryan Thomas Schmidt — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:51:17 +0000

Well, the reason I mention it is they get stigmatized. And I used to do that. Until I read one. I couldn’t conceive how a decent novel would come out of a game with dice. But I was suitably impressed and have found a lot of really good stuff coming out since then and wanted to point out that if people really like the D&D style adventure, they might want to give them a shot.

By: Paul Weimer

Paul Weimer — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:27:06 +0000

Yeah, those I probably should have thought of. There was an RPG set for it too…

By: Paul Weimer

Paul Weimer — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:26:17 +0000

I haven’t picked up the RPG yet. MISTBORN is on Mount Toberead. Thanks for the recommendation.

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:27:15 +0000

Rothfuss and “Lies” are not there because of the date constraints. Maybe in the sequel list (post 2007)?

By: Paul S. Kemp

Paul S. Kemp — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:15:54 +0000

One more add and I’m done: Gemmell.

By: Rob B

Rob B — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:11:21 +0000

An excellent list, Paul. Especially pleased to see Greg Bear’s The Infinity Concerto/The Serpent Mage AKA SONGS OF EARTH AND POWER. I read that one years ago and enjoyed it immensely.

I think you could also add Brandon Sanderson’s MISTBORN novels, too. The first two fall into your criteria(2006 & 2007) – the magic system is exceptionally thought out and has inspired a licensed RPG. In fact, my brother-in-law created a character for our campaign (which doesn’t meet nearly enough) based on the magic system in MISTBORN.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:59:46 +0000

As you mention Joe Abercrombie who won a Gemmell award for his books,

David Gemmell – His Waylander, Druss or Jon Shannow series are standouts in the area of heroic fantasy

By: Paul S. Kemp

Paul S. Kemp — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:55:41 +0000

I think the Thieves’ World anthologies are more or less mandatory here (and thanks for the shout out, btw).