Well I'm craving something in this genre but I'm a bit overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. So many titles and yet I'm not sure what to read. Maybe you can help?
I'm looking for something in a high fantasy setting. I'm not too keen on heavy politics and war driven plots (though, I can read that ). What really gets me is interesting characters, good action and magical creatures.
I've loved anything Discworld and I've also enjoyed the First Law books by Abercrombie.
I'm finding that Tolkien, Sanderson and George RR Martin appear on every fantasy list I come across, so if you do recommend something I'd appreciate it be something other than that.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm curious about the last paragraph. You see, I found an Eddings audiobook and I started with it, considering I've seen the name recommended here a few times. I've been thinking it's well written but also really really boring. Is this why you say he hated the readers? Have you figured why he achieved idol status for you during your childhood?
He got into writing fantasy because he thought the people who read fantasy would read absolutely anything. He wanted to get as much money as possible for as little effort as possible, and since he didn't consider fantasy to be real literature he figured it would be easier than adventure books about rock climbing, which he had written before, because he had to do literally no research. Reading them as an adult it is obvious that they are very lazily written. Every character has a personality that can be boiled down to a single adjective like "grumpy", "sneaky", "funny", or in one very annoying case "having an axe". This lazy writing however means that because the characters never really have much to say about anything things can move at an incredibly fast pace. This is what I liked as a child.
Fast!? I've gone through over 2/3 of the first book and I was thinking the worst so far had been the slow pace. I do agree the characters haven't said much but I figured it was because they were keeping things a secret from the MC. Thanks for sharing your perspective though!
I think the first series he wrote may have a bit of a slow start. The one I'm hate reading is his latter work about the knight Sparhawk. I was convinced the plot of the first book would revolve around stopping the nefarious plot that he - I swear to god - just happened to overhear a villain just explain to an entire room in an inn. Like 8 or so chapters later and he is on a different continent, kidnapping an ambassador after having completely stopped the evil plot, fought in two major battles, adopted a child, commited arson, survived a shipwreck and infiltrated a cultist meeting. It's remarkable how fast things can happen if none of the characters have any personality you have to write around.