EfU:M Reading List

[Howlando]

I echo various suggestions above.

Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber are both splendid, and have left palpable influence upon EFU.

[AGOTFANBOI]

A Game Of Thrones!!!! I would be remiss to recommend otherwise.  Read all 5 books and then join the hate waiting for the final one.

[DangerousDan]

Echo a lot of these suggestions.

The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell is pretty A+ for Mistlocke vibes. While he is pretty much a pulp writer for teenage boys and middle aged men, this series is Cornwell at his best. Misty Avalon, the Battle of Camlann and prophecy. Very Mlockey.

The Second Apocalypse series by R. Scott Bakker is also pretty seminal for me. I wrote the Order before I read his stuff, but the guy pretty much wrote anything I'd ever want to years before I ever knew how. Bakker is a big influence, and I would be willing to put up with a lifetime of snarky IRC swipes about ripping him off if it meant you'd all read and appreaciate this series.

[Cluckyx]

[xxWhisperingWindsxx]

Anything by Ted Dekker.   I started with the trilogy of "Saint", "Sinner", "Showdown".  The Circle series (Black, White, Red, Green - Not sure of the order now) is pretty good too.

[Teeth in a Bowl]

Thirding Mieville, and I'd also like to recommend Glen Cook's Black Company series.

[Pandip]

Despite the plethora of phenomenal suggestions already posted, I'm going to throw out The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. First book is Way of Shadows. It's one of the few newer fantasy series that's really been able to impress me, and I'd certainly recommend that anyone at least give it a chance.

[Jayde Moon]

The Deed of Paksennarion by Elizabeth Moon is an excellent trilogy that chronicles the journey from farm girl to soldier to paladin.

I'm a big fan of Gaiman as well, American Gods and Neverwhere are both good reads.

Recently been reading some Heinlein, right now about 2/3 through The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

[AKMatt]

Perdido Street Station Is the best fantasy book I have read.  I tend to prefer science fiction.

I'd recommend A Fire Upon the Deep and Hyperion very highly for "space opera" SF.

[UnholyWon]

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
A Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

The Belgariad Series by David Eddings
The Malloreon Series by David Eddings
The Dreamers Series by David Eddings

The Book of Joby by Mark Ferrari

The Hollows Series by Kim Harrison is a guilty pleasure of mine.

[TheMacPanther]

William Gibson's Neuromancer. Also the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradburry

[Calixto]

I found the Thraxas series awesome. The books tell the adventures of a detective fallen in disgrace, in his fourties, alcoholic, but nonetheless rather efficient in a world that ressembles mostly the typical "medieval-fantasy world" but in some aspects ressemble our own.

[Spiffy Has]

The Kingkiller Chronicles are utterly fantastic and a novelty of our time.

[Egon the Monkey]

Jim Butcher's series:
Dresden Files, a modern-day noirish private detective series with a wizard as the protagonist.
Codex Alera, a fantasy setting about a Roman civilisation that disappeared into another world and discovered magic. There's excellent politics plots and stuff like discovering Roman ruins and people not believing the use of cranes and siege engines rather than earth elementals.

Ken McLeod, The Star Fraction.
A cyberpunk-ish mystery/revolution novel set in a Britain filled with tiny micro-states, officially registered terrorist groups, and technology-policing Men in Black.

[Cerberus]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Steven R. Donaldson (9 books)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Lo Kuan-chung (2 books)