So I grew up very sheltered and isolated from society and as a result missed out on a lot of pop culture and other common things. I love to read, and I really enjoy fantasy and DnD and those types of things and I’m trying to find and catch up on the great fantasy books/series that every fantasy lover/nerd should know. I’m not as interested in sci-fi, but I’m willing to read the “great” ones too. What would you recommend?
Series I’ve read: The Lord of the Rings The Witcher The Dark Tower The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Dungeon Crawler Karl
Update to add also read: Wheel of Time Most of the Stormlight Archive The Hobbit
I’m just starting my first Discworld book.
Edit: Thanks everyone! Keep them coming, I’m going to make a list with all the suggestions and start working through them.
The mote in gods eye
A really cool story about first contact. It was written in the 70’s, and it shows in the gender and societal norms presented in the novel. If you can power through that, you’re in for a treat!
Dresden Files
A novel series about a wizard detective in chicago.
I despise Pournelle, his shitty conservatism always shines through his writing. But I will admit that The Mote in God’s Eye is a good novel, no doubt in large part thanks to Niven.
Another decent first contact novel is Learning the World: a Scientific Romance by Ken MacLeod.
Ya, he was a pos, even by the standards of the day. Dude loved his patriarchy…
Do the Dresden files get better as they go on? I’m on the 5th or 6th one and they’ve all been pretty samey and they’re not really doing it for me.
Also the way he talks about women is cringe as hell.
Yes and no? The treatment of women gets less cringey, but the books get more-and-more convoluted. That said, I just read the recently released 18th book, and I’m still enjoying them enough to not drop the series.