Fantasy Friday is my own feature, posted every other Friday. It’s pretty self-explanatory: I do a feature on something to do with the genre. Sometimes it will be a book recommendation, sometimes showcasing a book or series I’ve loved and other times it might be a discussion post. You’re more than welcome to join in with this feature, let me know if you make your own Fantasy Friday post!
Today I want to talk about: fantasy series I keep meaning to start.
You know how it is: you see a fantastic looking book, pop it onto your ‘to read’ list, and then either forget about it or put it off because there are so many other books that have been on there longer… and so many other excuses. As an avid reader of fantasy fiction, I feel that there are several series I should have already read, or at least started, and I wanted to make a note of them today. Let me know if you’ve read any of them, and any comments you have!
The Belgariad by David Eddings
The Belgariad series by David Eddings is a five-part fantasy series that has come highly recommended to me by two friends, who bought the first book for me for my birthday – and I’ll definitely be getting to it soon, maybe I’ll even have started reading it by the time this post goes up! I’m just amazed that I hadn’t even heard of it until they told me about it.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson
I got the very first book of Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever for free at London ComiCon, and then managed to pick up books two and three for £0.50 each in my local charity shop. Pretty good for a series that is so highly rated (and also highly recommended by my dad!)
The Original Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks
Whilst I’ve read the first book in The Dark Legacy of Shannara, and also own the first book of the Legends of Shannara series, I have yet to read the original books. Also, I’m really loving these 80s fantasy covers…
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons wrote one of my favourite books ever, so I am prepared to read ALL of his other books – especially the Ilium series, which is a sci-fi fantasy take on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Ancient mythology + Dan Simmons + sci-fi + fantasy = happy Rinn.
Rinn Reads 
I have always wondered about Eddings, but Brooks never really appealed to me. Looking forward to seeing some thoughts.
How come he never appealed? I only read one of his books for the first time last year – it felt a little different to the fantasy I know, but I still enjoyed it 🙂 I think that particular series I picked up might have been a lighter one.
Ugh, I am so guilty of this. Sometimes I go in spurts where all i want are giant fantasy series and other times when i just want a funny stand alone fantasy novel. So I’ve got a bunch of series I’ve been meaning to read…
Yes! I love the idea of reading a huge series all in one go but I always get distracted, and end up with several books – or years – in between…
When I was younger I used to read only fantasy, I have read the original Shanara Trilogy and quite some of the other Shanara books. I think my favourite was the trilogy with a voyage and a boat, I can’t remember the name and am still sad I got that trilogy from the library and don’t own it myself.
After a while the Shanara books got a bit repetitive, as I read trilogy afetr trilogy. I would love to go back to the Shanara series once.
I’ve sort of lost track of how many Shannara series there are, and although I don’t know if I’ll read them all, I’d at least like to finish the original trilogy, if only for a comparison to the newer ones that I own 🙂
The Belgariad – series was the one that got me addicted on reading fantasy when I was younger! My big sister had the entire series and I decided to read it because I didn’t really have anything else to read at the time. Really glad I did. Can’t wait to see what are your thoughts on it after you have read it. 🙂
Oh wonderful 😀 I’m actually reading it at the moment, although quite slowly because I’ve got a lot to do at uni at the mo. Enjoying what I’ve read so far though!
I want those Dan Simmons books!! The question is, what does Simmons do with Achilles and Patroclus? If he ruins my ship I S2G *raaaaage* Ehem. I’m calm.
I obviously need to read ALLLLLL the Sanderson this year. And I recently went a bit crazy on Amazon and bought a load of fantasy series starters. Ha.
I don’t know – we’ll just have to read them to find out 😉 He is SUUUUCH a good writer, you should read Hyperion too 😀
I need to catch up so I can read book 5 when it comes out! What series did you buy?
OH THE BELGARIAD! It’s my ultimate, definite favourite fantasy series and I’m so emotionally attached to it it’s unreal. I think it was the first adult series I ever read and I must have reread the whole thing four or five times now.
That’s a wonderful thing to hear, I’ve honestly heard nothing but good stuff about it now 😀
I have fond memories of The Belgariad and The Malloreon (the 5-book sequel to The Belgariad), which I read in my teens. You should definitely read them!
As for me, I’m looking to read Brandon Sanderson’s and Raymond Feist’s books. Have heard good things about them, but sadly, haven’t picked them up yet.
There’s a third series too, isn’t there? Or maybe it’s not set in the same universe…
Brandon Sanderson is amazing, but I have yet to read Raymond Feist – Magician is supposed to be fantastic.
By the way, Fantasy Friday is a good feature! I may join you. 🙂
Please do, and let me know so I can take a look! 😀
I read The Belgariad back in middle school I think, or maybe high school. I really enjoyed it! It’s definitely considered a classic fantasy series, I think, and while I’m not sure how it stands up to series being published today, it’s definitely worth having read.
I also started the Shannara trilogy years ago. I’m not sure how far I got in it, though. When you read them and post your reviews, I’ll have to see how much I remember about it!
I haven’t heard of the Thomas Covenant series, or the Illium series, but with the latter being a scifi retelling of Homer’s epic tales, I will definitely be looking into that. How cool!
It’s definitely a lot shorter than a lot of other fantasy series, which was a surprise!
Yep, Dan Simmons is a total master of SF, so I can’t wait to finally get round to them. It won’t be until after the summer though, as the books are back in the UK.
I’ve heard people praise both the Belgariad and the Thomas Covenant series, but I’ve never gotten around to them: thank for reminding me of some new books to add to my list! 🙂
This year I would also love to start on Daniel Abraham’s “Dagger and the Coin”: after enjoying his “Long Price Quartet” I look forward to some more of his works…
Ooh I’ve not heard of Daniel Abraham, I’m assuming he comes recommended? 😉
I would recommend him indeed! 🙂
“The Long Price Quartet” is an absorbing read: a fantasy with a very different setting that I found fascinating.
And Abraham is also half of the writing team that under the pen name of James S.A. Corey wrote the “Expanse” series (four books published until now), a sci-fi saga whose first book is being turned into a mini-series for tv. If you like thought-provoking space opera, I would also recommend this one.
I have been convinced! It also popped up as a recommendation on GR, so I just had to, right? 😉
I didn’t realise that! I loved the first Expanse book, and just saw the trailer for the series the other day.
I had been instructed to skip the first Shannarah book and start with Elfstones, which is what I did. That’s where the TV series will start as well.
Oooh, there’s going to be a series? 😮 I didn’t know that!
I started with Elfstones too. Really liked that one 🙂
Whoa, how have I not even known about any of these series previously?? I feel like my parents seriously failed to educate me in classic fantasy, haha! To be fair, I’ve probably seen them before but just don’t remember, sigh. In any case, thanks for showcasing them 😀
Hehe 🙂 I didn’t really hear of any of these until fairly recently – the Belgariad only a few months ago!