College Students! discussion

I realized that I haven't read much fantasy or science fiction. What are some of your favorites that I might like? And also..what is the difference between fantasy and science fiction?

Can't say that I have read much of either. I think i need to expand my horizons a little. I know there are alot of people in this group who do read it..so I'm sure they will have a nice list of good books to choose from.

Yay! I recently discovered my love of fantasy. I thought for my entire life that I didn't like it (I have no idea why, because I had never read much), but I realized that I love it!
Science fiction and fantasy can sometimes be blurred, but the general difference is that science fiction has more to do with the future (advanced technology and things like that), while fantasy has more to do with fictional lands/creatures/wizards/magic.
I haven't read much science fiction, but anything by Philip K. Dick is always great.

Some fantasy suggestions:
First of all, The Name of the Wind. It is the best adult fantasy book I've ever read. It will kind of ease you into the fantasy genre if you've never read much fantasy before. I recommend it to all of my customers (B&N).

Mistborn The Final Empire
Mistborn is a trilogy by a relatively new author, Brandon Sanderson. He also has a stand alone novel that is pretty great called Elantris.

A Game of Thrones
I think this series is fantastic, although it can be ultra dark and depressing. Another thing about this series is that it isn't finished, and the author takes a ridiculously long time to write. So you might want to wait until the series is finished (which might be awhile).

Poison Study
This is also a great series for the beginning fantasy reader. It also kind of eases you into the genre, and it has a wonderfully independent and kick ass main character, Yelena.

Neverwhere A Novel
For me, Gaiman is definitely a hit or miss author. I love some of his stuff and hate some of his stuff. I adored Neverwhere.

Inkheart
This is a fantastic kids fantasy series. I just read it recently, and it's definitely something adults can enjoy as well.

The Book of Lost Things
This one is also a pretty awesome stand alone novel.

If you enjoy vampire stuff, there's always Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels and Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series.

I think it goes without saying that The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia are must reads. Harry Potter as well. I'm an absolute Harry Potter fanatic, so I recommend it to everybody! =)

I could definitely go on, but I don't want to overwhelm everybody!

I second The Name of the Wind and the Game of Thrones whole-heartedly.
There's also The Golden Compass.

I agree with Kelsey. The Inkheart series is great, an easy read.

The Book of Lost Things is another fantasy book that I have read that I recommend to patrons at work.

Some others are:

Mercedes Lackey Tale of Five Hundred Kingdoms series. The First book is The Fairy Godmother. This series has a twist of fairy tales in it. The first one a lot like Cinderella in certain ways.

Beasty by Alex Flinn A modern day retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the Beast's point of view. *Note* Takes place in a New York Prep High School so it has the high school theme and feel in it.

The Golden Compass, Book one of His dark Materials

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo very easy children's fantasy book.

The Society of S by Susan Hubbard vampire fantasy.

Wrinkle in Time, considered both Fantasy and Science Fiction

I've heard such fantastic things about The Book of Lost Things.

I really think I need to venture out and start reading some fantasy books.

It is hard to find good fantasy books that aren't in a series. Which is what I like to read. I am on an anti series reading spree. Right now I want to read a book and have it end when the book ends.

There are loads of fantastic fantasy but most of the series have 10-15 books in the series. I want to read the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan but each book is about 900 pages and there are 13 books. That is intimidating to me.

It is pretty intimidating. I also heard that the WoT series gets pretty awful in the middle and then gets better at the end, so I'm not sure if I want to read 3000 pages of awfulness to get to the sweet stuff, but I've already read the first book and it was pretty good.
I totally agree with A Wrinkle in Time! Awesome book.
And Jamie, you should! Fantasy books tend to get a bad rap, but they're some of the best books I've ever read!

oh boy! I have alot to add to my shelf now!
Thanks everyone!

So my question is..what is it that draws all you fantasy lovers in?

Kelsey, would the Alchemist, the Magician, the Sorceress be considered fantasy? I enjoyed the first two, still haven't made it to the store to get the third. :) My will power is crumbling though.

I love the escapism that fantasy provides. I think it provides even more than regular literature.

The adventure draws me into fantasy books also. They tend to have more in them.

Also, sometimes I just like to read something that isn't tied to the modern world, something different and that doesn't have real life aspect in it. Escapism again.

There also tends to be strong character development in fantasy books, which I love.

They can just be really fun!

Along the same lines of what Melissa said, with Fantasy anything is possible. When writing the author can create new words, languages, powers, etc. and it is okay. You can't have that in non-fantasy without people thinking it is wierd.

Fantasy is my favorite genre! It always has been. I'm not exactly sure what it is that draws me to the genre, I've just always been a sucker for a good fantasy story. I agree with what Melissa said, its the escapism. Fantasy takes you into a whole new world. These are a few of my favorites:

Sabriel
This is the first book in the Abhorson Trilogy, its not like most fantasy books, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.

Poison Study
The first book in one of my favorite book series. I love this book, and haven't met a single person that has read it and not liked it. Great storyline with subtle hits of magic, an awesome lead character, and some hilarious characters.

His Dark Materials Trilogy
They seem to come in threes don't they? Another great book series.

A Great and Terrible Beauty
I wasn't sure about this book when I first picked it up, its written in present tense. (I am walking down the stairs. I am speaking.) But its different style made it that much more interesting.

Ender's Game
This is a science fiction book, and I usually don't care for that genre as much. However, Enders Game is excellent.

Young Wizards, Book 1 So You Want to Be a Wizard (20th) Twentieth-Anniversary Edition
Its written for a younger audience, but its good for any age. I started reading the series when I was 12, and its still in the top five of my favorite book series I've ever read.

Fablehaven
Such a cute book series! And each book just gets better. More of a fantastical feel to it. Its set in the real world, but suggests that magical creatures are all around us. We just don't look properly so we don't see them. (Similar to Spiderwick, but better in my opinion.

Peter and the Starcatchers
Love these books. They take the story of Peter Pan and tell you all the stuff you never knew about watching the movie.

Michael Crichton is another good science fiction writer. The Lost World and Timeline are some of my favorites.

Molly, I love fantasy basically because it's an awesome escape. Fantasy novels are usually so far removed from everyday life that I can totally get lost in them. So I agree with Melissa. Escapism.

Tami, I think those books would be classified as fantasy, although I haven't read them myself. I've heard they're good! =)

I read Neverwhere A Novel recently and it's one of the first fantasy books I've read. I really liked his style and will definitely be reading more of his books.

I don't read a lot of fantasy, but I did come across two really good books, that were part of a series, by Stephen Lawhead: Taliesin and Merlin. The books after these two go into more Arthurian legend and focus a lot on his battles, but Taliesin and Merlin both provide a reasonable level of fantasy built on top of Atlantian and Merlin's historical accounts.

yay fantasy! My first fantasy book was The Eye of the World (the Wheel of Time series) so i have to put that there.
Next A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

The Age of the Five series by Trudi Canavan

Just finished the Mistborn series which was fantastic, especially when everything is unravelled, you don't see anything coming at all.

I'm also into vampires (not Twilight), but nice gory ones. The Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake series was pretty good until the last books were less about the vampires and more about well...sex. Quite like Richelle Mead's Succubus series and the Storm series as well.

Don't read a lot of Sci Fi, but i did just read The Hunger Games and that was brilliant so i'd recommend that.

To be honest i quite like those with a bit of romance, (i'm a sucker for them!), they still have to be good books though.

Hey Roshio! I just finished The Hunger Games around an hour ago, IT'S AMAZING! I couldn't put it down!

Ha I know this is a few days later than your post Roisu, but I just finished The Hunger Games like two hours ago and also thought it was fantastic.

Other ones that have been mentioned that I wholeheartedly agree with: Sabriel by Garth Nix (as well as the rest of the series: Lirael, Abhorsen, and a short story in Across the Wall), Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and A Wrinkle In Time.

I have to add The Giver, The Dalemark Quartet by Diana Wynne Jones, and Sunshine by Robin McKinley (read it!!!).

I loved a lot of the ones that are mentioned. One of my favorite series is the Temeraire series. The first book is His Majesty's Dragon. Looking for the book online is odd for some reason, there's a collector's series and it seems like its $100 for the first book but just keep going...

Anyways, its about the Napoleonic wars as though there are dragons. There's not much fantasy beyond that, so it could be a good ease into fantasy (as in there's not like a bunch of magic or anything).

I love how in Fantasy everything is possible, and as already said by others that it is a great way to escape from everyday troubles. Plus I love magic and the epic battles.
Some of my favourites:
The Name of the Wind I loved the way Patrick Rothfuss tells the story and the characters are well-developed.

His Dark Materials Trilogy

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire I can't wait for the next book to come out!

Wizard's First Rule I loved the first couple of books in the series, but I'm now up to number 7 and I'm not sure about continuing

A Great and Terrible Beauty

The Bone Doll's Twin

The Lord of the Rings

I'm definitely a fantasy buff, so I completely understand how hard it is to find stand-alones, but here is my list, grouped by author, with notes.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
~ Brandon Sanderson is a wonderful writer. In addition to the two stand-alone novels I mentioned, he wrote the Mistborn trilogy and is finishing the Wheel of Time series because the original author died. He also has the first book to a new series of his own coming out in August, and I am dying to read it, even though I know I can't afford the hardback copy.

To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts
The Master of Whitestorm by Janny Wurts
~ I haven't read either of these, but I have the first book. Just about everybody I have spoken to who has read her work has had a hard time stopping.

The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
~ Another book I have no read but am planning on reading. I have also heard good things about this one.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
~ AWESOME. I loved this book. It's crazy because it doesn't ever really start, there is barely any action in it until the very end, and it's mostly political intrigue, but her writing is engaging enough that I didn't even notice.

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
~ Originally published as two novels, it is now published as one book in two parts, and I cannot get enough of it, so it is only natural that I would recommend it. She also has more recent books, but they're all part of a series starting with Inda.

The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Children of Húrin by JRR Tolkien
~ The Lord of the Rings is one book in three parts, Tolkien is tricky like that. There's a more recent one than Children of Hurin that is out, as well, and both of those two were finished by Tolkien's son. The Hobbit is obviously the prequel to Lord of the Rings. Not all fantasy fans like Tolkien, but I love him. Also worthy of note is The Silmarillion, but that is a much more difficult read due to how heavy the material can be. It is rather loaded with history from Middle Earth.

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
~ Stop whatever you are doing, get to the nearest bookstore in any way necessary (walking, borrowing the neighbor's car, hot air balloon, zeppelin, segway, etc.), and buy this book. Find the nearest place to sit (the floor in front of the cash register is fine, you can lean against the counter), sit there, and read it.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
~ Another I haven't read, and I've seen mixed reviews about it, but mostly because it's a thick book with a lot to get through. It's on my shelf to read, though, and it sounds very interesting.

Anything ever touched by Neil Gaiman. Period. Some examples are American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, and Stardust. He's the co-writer of Good Omens, which I mentioned above, and also writes graphic novels. Terry Pratchett is also great, and I've heard wonderful things about his Discworld books, which are technically all part of the same series, with different story arcs that each belongs to, but they can stand on their own. Gaiman is more urban fantasy with a fair amount of comedy thrown in and Pratchett is comedic fantasy.

Also, there are books by Guy Gavriel Kay that don't seem to be as well-known outside of the fantasy ring. Tigana, Ysabel, and A Song For Arbonne are some of his books. I've heard wonderful things about his writing.

I also have a lot of recommendations for duets, trilogies, quartets, etc. if anybody ever wants some more to read.

I love Brandon Sanderson. I loved Elantris and I just picked up the first Mistborn. And he's a local author, which I think is pretty cool.

My take on the difference between Sci-fi and Fantasy is that Sci-fi has to at least try to explain how the things in it happen, while fantasy doesn't have to. So if fantasy has magic or sorcery, that's ok, because it's fantasy, and we're taking it for granted that there will be some things like that. In science fiction, if you're going to have time travel or ray guns, you need to have some sort of explanation for how they work (going faster than the speed of light via warp drive, controlled plasma that shoots out of a gun, etc). Also, Science fiction doesn't necessarily create a new universe, but rather visits strange places and times in this one. Fantasy creates entire new universes with completely new rules. Also, since Sic-fi tends to be set in the future, it is often used as a commentary on today's society.
The quick rule for me is this: Ask "Is there anything in this book that cannot be explained as fitting in this universe?" If the answer is yes, it's Fantasy. If the answer is no, it's Science Fiction. That's why Lord of the Rings is Fantasy while Star Wars is Science Fiction.

I am personally a huge fan of the more literary side of Science Fiction. In my experience, I find that the writing tends to be better than in the fantasy books I've read, but of course that's just based on the books I've gone through. There are great books on both sides.
I would recommend The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, but then I would also recommend everything else she's ever written. The first of the two is utterly beautiful, while the second is slightly more exciting. Her writing style is always fantastic. The Lathe of Heaven, Four Ways to Forgiveness, and Always Coming Home are some of her other books that I've read and enjoyed, and her short stories are also great. Just stay away from her Earthsea books. They are really bad.
I also absolutely loved Snow Crash by Neil Stevenson. It's a wild ride of a book that touches on technology, virtual reality, hackers, language, religion, ancient Sumerians, and awesome samurai swords. Seriously, go read this book right now.
I'm not usually a huge fan of Micheal Crichton, but I did enjoy Next, which is one of his newer books. Prey and Congo were also pretty good.
For people who read and liked The Hunger Games, I've heard that Battle Royale is very similar, except that it's written more for adults, has a lot more characters, and is much more violent. It is totally on my TBR list, but I can't seem to find a copy of it anywhere.

For fantasy, you can't really call yourself a fantasy reader unless you've read The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien basically started the epic fantasy universe as we know it today, and I would argue that no-one has done it as well since. No-one, not even my beloved Ursula K Le Guin, can build a world like Tolkien can. The histories and languages he creates are incredible. If you get through the Lord of the Rings without getting bored, then I highly recommend The Silmarillion. Of course if you're looking for something more fun The Hobbit is still one of my all-time favorites.
I would also echo the other people in this thread and recommend the His Dark Materials Trilogy. They may be YA books, but I sure loved them when I read them. They're very exciting and action-packed. I also agree with A Great and Terrible Beauty, though I only read the first two. And of course there are the Harry Potter books, but everyone has read those, right?

I disagree with the people who recommended Ender's Game. I found it to be one of the worst books I have ever read. The writing was terrible, the characters were leaden and one-dimensional, and the plot was set up so that the characters had no room nor reason to grow, since they could not reasonably be held responsible for their own actions. Skip this one and read Stevenson instead.

In my children's literature class, we were talking about The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and my professor called it a fantasy, not because it took place in a magical world, but because there is no way that would EVER have happened in the past, thus it is not historical fiction. What do you all think about that? It's an interesting perspective, and my professor is an extremely intelligent woman.

Tahleen wrote: "In my children's literature class, we were talking about The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and my professor called it a fantasy, not because it took place in a magical world, but because ther..."

Eh. I guess that's a valid point of view. She's right that things like that would have never really happened, so it isn't really historical. But I always thought that Historical Fiction had the word fiction in it for a reason. I assumed that the genre had a little leeway. Maybe you could call it Historical Fantasy? Though I usually reserve that description for books that mix Historical Fiction with Fantasy, like A Great and Terrible Beauty, which is set in a historical setting but adds magic and such. But then who says a book can only fit into one genre? Maybe you could call it a little of both? I think if it were to fit into any one genre Historical Fiction would be the most accurate.

I thought so too, but now I don't think I would call it historical fiction. That genre should be reserved for fiction that takes place in history as the time period was, in my opinion, especially for children; otherwise readers might mistake what was going on at that time for something that actually could have happened. I'm not sure if I would go so far to call it fantasy, but historical fiction requires a lot of research to get the details to be believable.