Tis the 25th of March, Tolkien Reading Day.

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolkien-reading-day-2020/

And I was reminded of a convo I had with my fellow Diablo 3 gamers last night about fantasy literature.

There was some surprise when I said that I don't like fantasy as a literary genre, and that's really based on how many fantasy novels I've read vs how many I've enjoyed. Which is to say I find most fantasy novels a right chore.

But there are those I loved. The Hobbit is one. I also enjoyed The Lord of the Rings and am one of those rare people who enjoyed The Silmarillion, but then I don't mind reading history books, which it sort of is. I think I'll read Concerning Hobbits later actually--- always cheers me up!

So, if you had to compose a Top Five of your personal favourite fantasy novels, what would they be?

Game of Thrones
Dune
Lord of the Rings

Just off the top of my head. I may add a couple more later

I'm going to cheat by including collected works, since they're often available in a single volume or boxed set.

1. The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
2. The Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman
3. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
4. Conan the Barbarian collected works by Robert E. Howard
5. Earthsea collectively by Ursula K. Le Guin

Honorable mention to Magic by the Numbers by Lyndon Hardy and The Black Magician by Trudi Canavan. But it is a top five, so they didn't make the cut!

But then I look at that list and think, "That's completely useless". They're all ridiculously long sequences of stories.

What if I had to pick out individual, succinct novels? My list would look a little different. Obviously Conan would be ruled out since they're short stories.

1. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
2. Black Sun Rising by CS Friedman
3. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
4. The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
5. Trollslayer by William King

Never read any Coldfire but just read the synopsis and it sounds interesting

And Earthsea.. need to reread those!

I must admit, I haven't read the very latest Earthsea book. Tbh it didn't sound very compelling.

Have the first 3 - they are Earthsea for me.

Oh! Actually I need to swap William King's Trollslayer. As much as I love Gotrek and Felix and Karak Eight Peaks (sort of like the heavy metal version of the Mines of Moria), I was entirely captivated by The Bear & The Nightingale recently, by Katherine Arden.

The Hobbit, by who? OH yeah...
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Jhereg by Steven Brust
Dune by Frank Herbert (the first 3 books)

I tend to read more sci-fi than I do fantasy I guess because every time I came up with a book, I had to say, no that isn't fantasy.

Jhereg.. yes that would be on my list!

Pande, you have read books 5 and 6? They are the best IMO but you do have to plough through God Awful (God Emperor) to get there.

Love the Jhereg series and Brust. Now, THAT would be a great setting for a game!

No I haven't read Dune 5 nor 6. I got stuck in the sand in 4 and gave up. Are you saying I should skip it and do 5 and 6, or do I have to put in my time?

I think Art in the Blood ran a game set in that world some time ago.

Better to skip and read 5 and 6 than not read them. I've read the series many times but God Awful only once.

95% of the book is not worth reading but there are some snippets that do help explain stuff in 5 and 6. This is from memory from ages back but I can list a few points that might help and save you reading it!

Leto drinks the waters of life and then raw spice and transforms into a sandworm. This gives him lots of powers and a massive life span, thousands of years. He rules with an iron thumb, squashing freedoms and people and as a result causes a gradual exodus from his realm. He creates the Fish Speakers, an army of women, to police his realm. All of these actions are deliberate. Leto can see thousands of years ahead and know he has to create stagnation in his realm but drive enough people from it who will then return one day (thousands of years late) to reclaim their homelands and to bring new, heretical beliefs and behaviours back into the realm, thereby ensuring humanity's long term survival. There is a lot of extra stuff including planning his own demise, Duncan Idahos and the Ixians but I think I have covered all the vital stuff.

The concepts are quite clever. I recognised in books 5 and 6 where many of the returning peoples had originated and why. The foresight that Leto must have had from a young age to engineer it all.

But I think you can now read books 5 and 6 and honestly you should!

I got as far as him becoming a worm and went... I just don't care. Thanks for saving me the pain.

No problem. If I remember I managed only one or two pages a day.. bit laborious!