I first got fascinated with fantasy as a very reluctant high school reader. I didn’t like to read all that much because I was a slow reader and it was a laborious task for me. A high school friend offered me a fantasy book to read sophomore year and I couldn’t put it down. That one book started me on a reading journey that has never stopped. I also studied English, became a teacher, and finally began writing my own fantasy. These books took a reluctant reader in high school to the man and author I am today. I hope my own work does the same for future writers.
When I was in high school, I didn’t like to read that much because I was a slow reader.
My best friend was an avid reader and he loved fantasy in particular. One day he handed me this book and said I needed to read it. He said the characters were amazing and the book was not one of the big thick fantasy tomes I refused to read.
I decided to try it and I read it cover to cover in about two days. I continued on and read the entire five book series, and then went on to read more from the author. This book turned a non-reader into a reader, then an English major, and finally into a teacher and an author. I still read slower than I would like, but this book and series set me on the path I still follow today.
The first part of a saga set against a history of 7000 years of struggles of gods and kings and men. Long ago, the evil god Torak sought dominion and drove men and gods to war. Belgarath the Sorcerer led a quest to reclaim the Orb of Aldur - but so long as it lay at Riva, men would be safe.
Once I began my reading journey in high school, I naturally gravitated to this book series.
It was recommended by a friend I played Dungeons and Dragons with from school. This was the mid to late 80s and Dungeons and Dragons was a bit controversial, but we knew it was harmless fun. My friend knew I loved magic, and he told me of Raistlin the magic user and his twin brother Caramon and how they were central to the plot. I was hooked.
This was another fantasy series I just couldn’t put down. I remember getting my younger brother hooked on these same fantasy books and being angry with him because he was a faster reader and he read ahead of me! These novels were easy to read and were a wonderful part of my teen reading journey. They take the reader away to another realm and you find yourself wishing you could also live there and partake in the adventure!
For a while, as you read, you do get to live there.
This Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy adventure is the first installment in the beloved Dragonlance Chronicles, set in the magical world of Krynn
Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned to Krynn. But with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods—and all healing magic. As war threatens to engulf the land, lifelong friends reunite for an adventure that will change their lives and shape their world forever . . .
When Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff see a woman use a blue crystal staff to heal a villager, they wonder if it's a sign the…
Edge of the Known World is a near-future love and adventure story about a brilliant young refugee caught in era when genetic screening tests like 23AndMe make it impossible to hide a secret identity. The novel is distributed by Simon & Schuster. It is a USA Today Bestseller and 2024…
As a reader, I was on the slow side. I tended to analyze the text too much, I think.
By the time I came across the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, I still shied away from the giant fantasy tomes because I was intimidated that they were too long, and it would take me too long to get through them. I looked for smaller fantasy books and I came across Terry Brooks. I was intrigued by his Sword of Shanara series, but I settled on the Magic Kingdom of Landover instead.
These books are about a lawyer who buys a magic kingdom and is ported away to the kingdom to have an adventure. Talk about wishing you could go to another realm! In this series, the protagonist literary travels to another realm. After I completed this series, I was becoming more confident in my reading, and I was just about ready to attack one of those giant epic fantasy volumes I had avoided for so long.
Here in his first non-Shannara novel, Terry Brooks has written a gripping story of mystery, magic, and adventure—sure to delight fantasy readers everywhere.
Landover was a genuine magic kingdom, with fairy folk and wizardry, just as the advertisement has promised. But after he purchased it, Ben Holiday learned that there were a few details the ad had failed to mention.
The kingdom was in ruin. The Barons refused to recognize a king, and the peasants were without hope. A dragon was laying waste the countryside, while an evil witch plotted to destroy everything.
This is the first book of the Incarnation series. What got me to read this book was the description. A man sees the incarnation of Death (the dark hooded grim reaper) and he shoots and kills him. Now that he has killed death, he must take Death’s place and become Death himself.
The second book in the series is about Chronos (time) and he lives his life backwards! The entire novel is written with time moving opposite of everyone else in the novel. I read these books in my early twenties and a lot of the series plot points still stick with me today. I have been influenced by it because in my series if one kills a mage, they must take their place as that mage.
I think The Doctor in Doctor Who and his wife moving opposite in time might have been influenced by the second book, I don’t know but it’s eerily similar. The incarnation of Time is moving opposite of his love interest as well.
I recommend this series, but I will warn you, Mr. Anthony does repeat a lot of the same descriptions and words. Every woman is “voluptuous” and when people are hesitant, they almost always “balk” but this is nit-picky. This series is so unique and fun to read.
In this first novel of the Incarnations of Immortality, Piers Anthony combines a gripping story of romance and conflicting loyalties with a deeply moving examination of the meaning of life and death. This is a novel that will long linger in the reader's mind.
Shooting Death was a mistake, as Zane soon discovered. For the man who killed the Incarnation of Death was immediately forced to assume the vacant position! Thereafter, he must speed over the world, riding his pale horse, and ending the lives of others.
Zane was forced to accept his unwelcome task, despite the rules that seemed…
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
After many years of avoiding large, thick fantasy books and series due to being a slower reader, I realized if I wanted to continue to read the best fantasy, I would have to break down and pick one up.
At the recommendation of a friend in the early 90s, I bought Eye of the World. I had a hard time getting into it at first, because I was intimidated. Then something happened in the book and I couldn’t put it down after that. I was amazed it read like a smaller book and I was amazed I finished in about the same amount of time as a smaller book.
Either I was becoming a faster reader (I was because I had been reading and that helps a lot) or I was so into the story I didn’t notice the time. Either way, I realized I did not have to be scared of thick books anymore. This book and the entire Wheel of Time book series inspired me.
A lot of my own epic fantasy has roots in this series although my own series takes a very different direction. Brandon Sanderson does a great job of finishing this series after the original author died in 2007.
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.
When a vicious band of half-men, half beasts invade the Two Rivers seeking their master's enemy, Moiraine persuades Rand al'Thor and his friends to leave their home and enter a larger unimaginable world filled with dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light .
The servant girl has a secret…and she’s hiding it in plain sight. Hana works for a well-to-do family who treats her well, but something is not quite right. The servant girl doesn’t act like a servant. She speaks multiple languages including high elvish, she is an accomplished musician, and she is a skilled artist. There is also another talent, but it’s a secret Hana guards closely. She can use blood magic.
She is in hiding because she knows that if she is found out, she will have to fight in the Tournament of Mages, a contest where she will be pitted against five other mages with different forms of magic. She has left everything behind, her family, her friends, and the one secret she dares not reveal.
This book is a spy novel with a satirical edge which will take you on a heart-pumping journey through the streets, mountains, jungles, and beaches of Colombia. Our Man in Havana meets A Clear and Present Danger.
I’m pretty sure I’m about to die in space. And I just turned twelve and a half.
Blast off with the four winners of the StellarKid Project on a trip to the International Space Station and then to the Gateway outpost orbiting the Moon! It’s a dream come true until…
