I'm going to throw my hat into The Black Company series by Glen Cook. Going from the Game of Thrones series to it was very refreshing and surprisingly dense as the author doesn't fuck around. When he gives you a paragraph, he doesn't waste words but somehow makes sentences bare weight.
Kinda gives you a very epic feel even if you only read a few pages at a time.
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is sci-fi, but it's the kind of sci-fi that is very nearly fantasy and it throws around ideas and concepts both dark and enthralling like candy at Halloween.
I just finished Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen yesterday - the first book is great. Really, it is! Except for the first time you read it, it throws you into the setting with all these characters, never bothering to introduce anything, and then it just goes. It shows you all these cool things, but you have no connection to them and have no idea why you should care (so you probably won't). Gardens of the Moon isn't very effective, so I have to recommend that if you start this series, you pick up the second book, too - Deadhouse Gates is flat-out one of the bestest fantasy novels there is, and the series just keeps ramping up from there. Get through Gardens and you are golden.
Stephen King and Peter Straub wrote a book called The Talisman which is dark fantasy in a contemporary setting and it is excellent all the way through, in pretty much every way. King's Eyes of the Dragon is similarly great.
Every story about Conan written by Robert E. Howard is worth reading, especially because he forms the modern backbone of the entire "dark fantasy" genre.
When it comes to Moorcock's Elric stories, stick to his short stories and novellas - I love his work but Moorcock has a tendency to get unconscionably silly in his novels.
Edit:
Also Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana and the Sarantine Mosaic books are just about as good as it gets.
The best way to determine if Malazan is for you is to take the paperback of Deadhouse Gates, open to page 23, and read through page 38. Those fifteen pages communicate more about the series in both tone and subject matter than the entirety of the first book. if you like those fifteen pages, you need to read these books.
I am a couple days late with this but if you want dark The Book of Words trilogy by J.V. Jones is soul-crushingly dark at times. The first book is called The Baker's Boy.
I second the Black Jewels by Anne Bishop. For some reason those books have become something I will read over and over again. The possibly last one - at least the last one for a while - just came out last month. Whatever you do, don't read it until you've read everything else.
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
Okay, took a list and went to the NW regional library and began hunting.
Anything that was a series, I pretty much couldn't find the early books of; namely Black Jewels, Malazan, and Farseer. Coudln't find either of the G.G. Kay recommendations either.
I did manage to special order a Black Company book, so we'll see how that goes.
Two I picked up that really seem to my liking:
-Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman(couldn't find Coldfire)
-Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
I like the latter's writing style. Also found the Stephen King one, I need no introduction to his works, I'm sure it'll be good.
Okay, took a list and went to the NW regional library and began hunting.
Anything that was a series, I pretty much couldn't find the early books of; namely Black Jewels, Malazan, and Farseer. Coudln't find either of the G.G. Kay recommendations either.
I did manage to special order a Black Company book, so we'll see how that goes.
Two I picked up that really seem to my liking:
-Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman(couldn't find Coldfire)
-Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
I like the latter's writing style. Also found the Stephen King one, I need no introduction to his works, I'm sure it'll be good.
I find at my library that all the good fantasy books have several holds on them. So I generally have to go in place my name in the queue at wait for some time. Generally if my library doesn't have a book it can be requested from a sister / associated library.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
The oldest Malazan books weren't in the system at all, and I couldn't even find anyone named Gene Wolfe.
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Kinda gives you a very epic feel even if you only read a few pages at a time.
I just finished Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen yesterday - the first book is great. Really, it is! Except for the first time you read it, it throws you into the setting with all these characters, never bothering to introduce anything, and then it just goes. It shows you all these cool things, but you have no connection to them and have no idea why you should care (so you probably won't). Gardens of the Moon isn't very effective, so I have to recommend that if you start this series, you pick up the second book, too - Deadhouse Gates is flat-out one of the bestest fantasy novels there is, and the series just keeps ramping up from there. Get through Gardens and you are golden.
Stephen King and Peter Straub wrote a book called The Talisman which is dark fantasy in a contemporary setting and it is excellent all the way through, in pretty much every way. King's Eyes of the Dragon is similarly great.
Every story about Conan written by Robert E. Howard is worth reading, especially because he forms the modern backbone of the entire "dark fantasy" genre.
When it comes to Moorcock's Elric stories, stick to his short stories and novellas - I love his work but Moorcock has a tendency to get unconscionably silly in his novels.
Edit:
Also Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana and the Sarantine Mosaic books are just about as good as it gets.
Peter Morwood's The Book of Years.
Very low-key fantasy. Magic is rare and lethal - and that's just to the user! It's not all that dark, but I recommend it with enthusiasm.
It's four novels total - I have them collected in two books.
I second the Black Jewels by Anne Bishop. For some reason those books have become something I will read over and over again. The possibly last one - at least the last one for a while - just came out last month. Whatever you do, don't read it until you've read everything else.
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
Anything that was a series, I pretty much couldn't find the early books of; namely Black Jewels, Malazan, and Farseer. Coudln't find either of the G.G. Kay recommendations either.
I did manage to special order a Black Company book, so we'll see how that goes.
Two I picked up that really seem to my liking:
-Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman(couldn't find Coldfire)
-Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
I like the latter's writing style. Also found the Stephen King one, I need no introduction to his works, I'm sure it'll be good.
I find at my library that all the good fantasy books have several holds on them. So I generally have to go in place my name in the queue at wait for some time. Generally if my library doesn't have a book it can be requested from a sister / associated library.