The Return of the King discussion

OK, this is a shameless plug for my own book, but I think my novel Wizard Blues would be an entertaining light snack to smooth anyone's come-down from LOTR. (Amazon ppb/Kindle/Smashwords
Sorry,
—Steven A. Simpson

My strong recommendation is one from this year that I love even more than Lord of The Rings (which now becomes my second favourite):

The Forgotten War by Howard Sargent (who is a new, virtually unknown author - although I feel certain he will not remain that way for long!)

You can purchase it as a Kindle book for less than £5 too!

Sam wrote: "I don't think anyone has mentioned The Well at the World's End by William Morris. I haven't read it myself yet, but it's on my TBR. Apparently, it and Morris' other wor..."

"The Well" is one of my favorite books. If anything, it's even longer, slower, and more travel-y than LOTR. I hear that complaint about LOTR a lot. Also love "The Worm" once you get past the cumbersome start. Tolkien undoubtedly read and was influenced by both these books. BTW, my LOTR-inspired book Wizard Blues is just $.99 for Kindle.

I have always like the Black Company books by Glen Cook. It is a gritty tale of a company of outcasts and criminals banded together. It is in no way on par with LotR's, however it is a good story.

Tolkien is a tough act to follow, but I would recommend these:

"The Mabinogion Tetralogy" by Evangeline Walton
"The Prince of Annwn"
"The Children of Llyr"
"The Song of Rhiannon"
"The Island of the Mighty"

"The Earthsea Trilogy -- by Ursula LeGuin
"A Wizard of Earthsea"
"The Tombs of Atuan"
"The Farthest Shore"
and

"Mulata"
aka. "Mulata de tal" -- by Miguel Angel Asturias
...I have no idea why there are so few GOODREADS ratings for "Mulata", an extraordinary (my opinion, of course) penning of the fantastic. Asturias won the Nobel Prize (...in 1967, I belive...) Where are his readers? Is 1967 really so long ago? Should you read "Mulata" and enjoy it, also try Asturias' "Men of Maize", where a visit to the home of the firefly wizards marks one of the triumphs in world literature.

I've scrolled down and have read lots of the suggested works. I'd like to add David Eddings. Sorry if he was suggested and I missed it. His later books can be a bit hit and miss, for me at least, but I really enjoyed the very first series, The Belgariad, and I've come back to it over and over in the years since.

Troy wrote: "and I have to think there would be much less of such a shadow if it weren't for the films. ,..."


Bingo. Troy nails it

Bob wrote: "..I have no idea why there are so few GOODREADS ratings for "Mulata", an extraordinary (my opinion, of course) penning of the fantastic. Asturias won the Nobel Prize (...in 1967, I belive...) Where are his readers?..."

Bravo Bob. The answer is that most of the reading public are simpletons who only follow contemporary trends (vampires, bondage, zombies, popes-jumping-out-of-helicopters, dystopics). They're only able to 'key in' to books which their co-workers, gal-pals, or hairdressers might mention to them. Idiots live only 'in the now' and never think about digging back to find any older book, no matter how great. They'd rather be caught dead than with a book in their hands which isn't current.

There was always this element--back in the day there was a reliable majority of dingbat reader who only read Jackie Collins or Sidney Sheldon. It's just exponentially so much worse nowadays.

Okay. Now I've just added Asturias to my list of Must Reads. Thanks? My list is WAY too long!


The Nibelungenlied is a choice if you've read Tolkien and are wanting more epic fantasy. Or Beowulf (not the modernized film versions). Now there's some great epic fantasy! The Norse and Celtic cycles are rich, and are what Tolkien adapted much of his work from.

Well if we grant Asturias, we may as well also admit

The Guyana Quartet by Wilson Harris; which is a fantasy set in the South American jungle

Thank you Feliks, I'm not familiar with Harris' "...Quartet". I'll chase it down at the library.

Feliks wrote: "Without doubt, you would want:
Titus Groan and Gormenghast (first two titles of a three -book trilogy by Mervyn Peake. Its an indescribable fantasy-world w..."

I second Homer. The Iliad and the Odyssey are some of the greatest stories ever written.

Just want to mention the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. Next to lord of the rings, I found this to be an amazingly well written and character prioritized series. And it takes enough time to give you a sense of the fantasy world, but not so much that you long for some action. An Excellent read, although somewhat different from Tolkien's work.

There have been so many great books already mentioned, especially a lot of great pre-2000 series. Just to jump in and add a few more recent publications that I've been devouring or recommending of late, I would suggest:
- The Witches of Eileanan by Kate Forsyth (A very underrated high fantasy series by an Aussie author set in a wonderfully rich Celtic land. Must read)
- Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
- The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett
- Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson (or realy most things he's written)
- The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence
- Raven's Shadow Series by Anthony Ryan
- Gentleman Bastard be Scott Lynch

To name a few. Hopefully I haven't doubled up with anyone else's suggestions. I might come back later and add some short descriptions and more books, but this should be good for right now especially since it would be a lot easier to write on a proper keyboard not a phone.
And lastly just one from the 90s that sprang to mind as I was writing this:
- The Wayfarer Redemption by Sara Douglas (This six book series was originally published as two trilogies, with the first book being published as either "Battleaxe" or "The Wayfarer Redemption".)

Later and Happy New Year

Troy wrote: "This conversation is interesting for the fact that, when I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings--and later The Silmarillion--during the 1970's, almost no one knew who Tolkien was. Well,..."

I read them just a bit earlier and, from my own experience, his shadow had a profound and powerful affect on readers, writers and the publishing industry. It was perhaps like the Harry Potter phenom for children's books, or Tom Clancy for military adventure fiction. Tolkien readers clamored for more and writers and publishers scrambled to supply, reissuing some older titles with Tolkienesque art and blurbs, and avidly searching for the next great fantasy writer--since there could be no more Tolkien, alas. LOTR was simply "the Trilogy" and we all wanted more and more.

I don't think the Tolkien shadow has that much to do with the movies, really. Rather, he didn't invent, but perfected the template for this type of heroic fantasy, world creation, character development and especially language and naming. No one has equaled him and I am sure his heirs in this field from Jordan to Le Guin to Weiss, et al, well understand the debt they owe JRR Tolkien.

Islandia is one I just stumbled across. Blurb certainly sounds good; and an interesting story behind how the work came to light...

Robert wrote: "Several of the other forums on Tolkien have threads discussing books similar to the great man's work. Other than the obvious, "big named" authors (Rowlings, Martin, et al.), I'd like to see if we c..."

I give my highest fantasy recommendations to anything by Ed Greenwood or Elaine Cunningham, just be sure that if you see something that it's not book 2 or 3 in a series. Greenwood has an extremely well-developed world (several actually) and works diligently to keep them consistent story to story. He also makes great use of strong male and female characters unlike many other fantasy authors. Cunningham writes stories with characters set in Greenwood's world or in a world devised by others and has a great grasp on the whole fantasy hero (sometimes reluctant or unlikely) genre. Both writing styles flow easily allowing the reader to get caught up and ride the tale through action and interaction to often riveting conclusions.

Here's a cute, charming little series:
The Elfin Ship
The Disappearing Dwarf
The Stone Giant
by author James. P. Blaylock