[Robert]

Thinking about picking a new fantasy series to start reading. I re-read LOTR every few years or so but would like to get into something else. As for single books go, I think SK's The Stand is one of the best books I've ever read and that's why I also threw his Dark Tower series into the poll. I know nothing about the other two other than I've seen them both talked about in several different places.

[dano14041]

A Song of Ice and Fire is an excellent series, but the author has been promising the next book (the fifth) since he published the fourth in Oct 2007. He split the fourth book in two and published the first half, and promised to finish the second half and publish it in about a year. Nothing since then except excuses.

The Eye of the World starts out good, but then Jordan gets long winded and has three books that barely move the plot along at all. After that, he passed away and someone else is finishing the series from Jordan's notes. IMO Jordan could have condensed the action and plot in his last four books into one book. I haven't read the book put out by the finishing author.

The Dark Tower is an excellent series, but again long winded. I wouldn't classify it as an LOTR style series either. It is more of a contemporary fantasy.

I haven't really found a really good LOTR caliber fantasy series in awhile.

Good luck in your search.
Dano

[euge]

The Dark Tower is the gunslinger series. Pretty good and strange. Haven't finished them yet. But it's intriguing especially since King has written the novels over the course of his career.  
Raymond Feist does a pretty good fantasy epic.

I'm more of a scifi nut...

Neal Stephenson does a damn good historical fantasy epic called "The System of the World." If you read those three huge novels then the Cryptonomicon is required to round out the series. It was written first but takes place much later.

[tygo]

I'm a big Dark Tower fan.  And now they're coming out with with a movies/TV series directed by Ron Howard.

[a10t2]

Neal Stephenson does a damn good historical fantasy epic called "The System of the World." If you read those three huge novels then the Cryptonomicon is required to round out the series. It was written first but takes place much later.

I'd actually recommend reading Cryptonomicon first. There are a lot of references and subtle in-jokes in the Baroque Cycle (the trilogy) that don't make much sense otherwise. Plus when you get to the big twists in System of the World you get to go "ohhhhh..." as things from Cryptonomicon (which was written almost a decade earlier) are suddenly cast in a whole new light.

(I voted for Dark Tower but would like to change my vote to reflect euge's suggestion.)

[malzig]

Have you ever tried the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake?

Very different than LOTR, but, similarly, it describes a world that takes on a life of it's own.  Lots of dark characters, all human, with all the action taking place in an endless castle that's a character itself.

If you're in the mood for something light-hearted, there's always the Discworld novels by SIr Terry Pratchett.  They lovingly parody every fantasy cliche, while building a world that stands on it's own as a unique creation.

[loopy]

something similar but completely different. 

The Dark Elf trilogy by R A Salvatore .. at least check out the reviews
http://www.amazon.com/Homeland-Trilogy-Forgotten-Realms-Legend/dp/0786939532/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1

if you like forgotten realms, there are plenty of books set in the same world to go in different directions.  Literally tons of them.  If you dont like the setting, at this is a great series with good characters in a fantasy setting.  I read them in high school and forgot about them, re-read them recently - 20 years later - and forgot how much I loved the books originally. 

Some information on the author
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._Salvatore

[tygo]

something similar but completely different. 

The Dark Elf trilogy by R A Salvatore .. at least check out the reviews
http://www.amazon.com/Homeland-Trilogy-Forgotten-Realms-Legend/dp/0786939532/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1

Another of my favorites.  I haven't re-read them recently but this may motivate me to do so.  The Dark Elf Trilogy is also good backstory for the Icewind Dale Trilogy that follows it up.

[euge]

You know, I've thought long and hard about how I would read this set of Neal Stephenson's books if I was just coming into it fresh- brand-new.

I think there's plenty of ahaa moments if one reads the Cryptonomicon last. But I didn't read it that way. Like Star Wars you know how it ends but not how significant it everything is until one reads the beginning. But it'd be interesting...

Another fascinating read is the "Trilogy" by Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz. The first is "With Fire and Sword" and reads just like a modern fantasy novel- except it is based loosely on real events and real people. Quite a bit more historically accurate than the Cryptonomicon and it features lots of mead drinking, violence, wholesale slaughter of armies, a love story and the hanging of thousands of peasants. One reads on and on thinking: "this sh!t really happened!?" I think I have .mobi files of the first two Robert. Got a Kindle or a reader?

[euge]

Ahgg I hate double posting but I found links for e-reader files:

With Fire and Sword
The Deluge part 1
The Deluge Part 2

These are all great. And for free? Unbelievable. 

[animaldoc]

If you're willing to look at old "new" LOTR-type trilogies ...... my favorite of all time is The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.  It's the one I reread every few years ... whether or not he's releasing something new.  He's finishing the third trilogy .... which if read first would not be nearly as majestic as if read in order .....

Lord Foul's Bane
The Illearth War
The Power That Preserves

The best 3 of the nine (well, nine isn't out yet) but you won't want to wait to read the next one when you finish the previous one.

I haven't read the Dark Tower Trilogy (of 8 books) but I listened to them on audiobook ... unabridged and read by Stephen King himself.  Creepy good.

The Jordan series is quite long winded but you get seriously immersed in the world and the characters to a level that you don't get in any other series ...... and the book written by ?? was pretty good, slightly different feel but good character and story continuity.

Of course, you NEVER go wrong rereading LOTR

-- Scott

[akr71]

The Belgariad by David Eddings.  Then when you're done those 5 books and hooked, follow it up with the Mallorean for another 5 books.  It has many of the same characters and deals with the same general story arc (to an extent).

I just started re-reading them myself - I haven't read them in over 20 years, but I introduced my wife to them and she's read them at least twice (maybe 3 times) in the last dozen years.

[blatz]

The Belgariad by David Eddings.  Then when you're done those 5 books and hooked, follow it up with the Mallorean for another 5 books.  It has many of the same characters and deals with the same general story arc (to an extent).

I just started re-reading them myself - I haven't read them in over 20 years, but I introduced my wife to them and she's read them at least twice (maybe 3 times) in the last dozen years.

those are classics - been a long time since I cracked them though.

I love the Dark Tower, but admit its rather different than LOTR.

[narcout]

The Dark Tower, Song of Fire and Ice, and the Wheel of Time are all pretty fantastic. I'd work my way through all of them if I were you.

[Slowbrew]

Depending on how new you want to go.  The Hells Gate Series by David Weber is quite good.  A strange setup of 2 human populations in alternate universes using a series of portals the just appear between worlds.  Neither group has ever run into another sentient species until they encounter each other and that doesn't go well.  It's a mix of magic, military action and political maneuvering.  Only 2 books have been published yet but it's a good read.

Another newer series is The Detroyermen series by Taylor Anderson.  the storyline is about what happens when an aging WWI Destroyer is sucked through storm in 1943 into another Earth where we never develped but end up fighting a World War on the new world where our out dated ship is the most advanced piece of hardware on the sea.

Space Fantasy: The Legacy Series by Ian Douglas.  Marines in space taking on bada55 ancient aliens.

Just a few I've read lately.

Paul