Did anyone read The Riftwar saga? Any thoughts about it.

Alternatively, any other good fantasy novels you'd recommend (that are easy to find in bookshops or libraries)? I just finished reading all of Discworld and I'm looking for something new. Came across Riftwar because I remember wanting to buy Betrayal at Krondor before realizing it's based on a book series.

So, any recommendations? My favourite series so far is the Witcher (in Polish). Discworld, in spite of not knowing it was a bit of a parody before I started it, was excellent, though the later novels become a bit too much preachy. Worst by far are R.A. Salvatore's books (other than The Sellswords, which was just okay; I gave up on them after that and didn't read anything published after it).

The first one (Magician) is excellent. I haven't read any of the rest yet.

Haven't read the book,but the games were great..

They start off pretty good. The Magician is a fantastic book, but the series really deteriorates as it goes on. The first couple of trilogies I really love, but after that it kind of jumped the shark and went mad. So much so that it used to be my favourite series, but the latter books were so bad I haven't even got the last few yet...

But I would definitely recommend reading the Magician as it is excellent.
The first Riftwar Sage is good, The Empire Trilogy is astounding (co written with Janny Wurts), Krondor's Sons and The Serpentwar Saga are quite good and the series starts to get bad after that. The Riftwar Legacy and the Legends of the Riftwar are okish (Honoured Enemy is great, the rest are hit and miss).

All the remaining trilogies are pretty sub standard fantasy. I'd read them only if you want to know what happens, but things get so crazy that they bare little resemblance to the first few trilogies.

Hope that helps :)

If you're young and/or haven't read much fantasy before you'll probably enjoy the Riftwar Saga. I certainly enjoyed Magaician very much when I was young and inexperienced, but was not very impresssed when I reread it a couple of your ago. If not it may feel rather juvenile. But I would definitely read the books prior to playing Betrayal at Krondor.

As for series to recommend, I'd start with the simple, more juvenile ones first. Dragonlance is another good example of that category.

If you read the more complex/mature series like A Song of Ice and Fire, Malazan and Prince of Nothing, it's hard to go back to the simpler stuff.

Wheel of Time is also quite a good series, at least the first 3-5 book. It's more advanced than Riftwar, but simpler than ASOIAF.
Lord of the Rings is a book that you should not miss.

Thanks for all the suggestions No to both. Not young, and I've read my share of fantasy. In fact one of the things I hated about Salvatore's novels: felt like I was reading stuff for a 5 year old. Especially compared to the Witcher. That said I don't mind stuff for younger readers as long as it's good. I've read Harry Potter (yes, I know it's not exactly fantasy) as an adult and didn't find it half bad. Read that. They were great but... overrated. My friends praised it like it was the fantasy book to end all fantasy books. And I think that's exactly what I will do. Start with the first books, and if they feel too juvenile I'll just read the ones published prior to the game, play the game and end it there.

Yeah, I vaguely remember reading it way back when it was released. As I recall, it was enjoyable at the time. Good suggestions here. I'll toss in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, Glenn Cook's Black Company series, and Dave Duncan's Man of His Word series (if you can find it).

I wouldn't say the DragonLance books are "juvenile." I've been re-reading them recently and I would say they're more "adventurous" than "adult" novels (which to me is just another way of saying "a bunch of boring politics with a smattering of action"). But that's just my opinion. Writing style has a lot to do with it; I don't like excessive description or so many characters you don't know who's who and you need a flowchart to keep track of what's going on.

To me it's more a question of "old school fantasy" as opposed to "juvenile or adult." I started reading fantasy in the mid-80's and things used to be a lot more "fun" in general. When authors started to try outdoing Tolkien, that's when things got dull. I'm sorry, but if you need to write ten or more books to tell a story you're really pushing it. Again, just my opinion.

Anyway, I love the Warhammer books. David Eddings. Thieves' World. Angus Donald. Michael J. Sullivan. Joe Abercrombie. Patrick Rothfuss. Simon R. Green. To name a very limited few.

Feist books are pretty decent.

The Magician, Riftwar, Serpentwar, etc, series are all top notch in my opinion. Flight of the Nighthawks/Talon series weren't bad, but I expected much more from them, I think.

I love R.A. Salvatore's books so let me know if you enjoy the Riftwar novels. Then I'll know to stay away from them because your tastes are very different from mine.

I really enjoyed the Rift War Saga. I would do what others suggest, and start with the first few and go from there. The trilogy that follows along side the Rift War Saga is Daughter of the Empire which I also enjoyed. You might also like the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, or The shinnara series by Terry Brooks. They both can seem moderately juvenile at times, but to be honest I'm not exactly expecting to feel like a mature adult while I read fantasy novels. I will say though A song of ice and fire is a damming good series. I haven't watched the series, so I can't tell you how on the mark it is, but I'm sure the books are much more thorough.

P.S. I loved Wheel of Time, and strongly recommend it also.

So how about first telling me which books you hated, so I can start on them immediately? :)

As for other series I can certainly recommend Joe Abercrombie's books and Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy (and tge Tawny Man and currently being written Fitz & Fool Trilogy)

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn books are good too. I would personally recommend steering clear of A Song of Ice and Fire, over hyped and stuffed full of gratitutous violence and sex..

Katherine Kerr's Devvery Cycle is an absolutely epic fantasy series well worth reading.

eh? Why would you think I was offended? I thought we were only joking.

EDIT: There, I added a smiley face to that post, so it's clear.