How to read your first fantasy novel

[Tanya]

Hey Guys!

I have been wanting to read fantasy for a while but I have always been daunted by it because I am afraid if I am not going to understand it or I'm going to find it hard to read.

I wanted to ask which books would you recommend that I should START with and I do not want just any fantasy recommendations because I have a lot of those.

Thank you for your time in reading this :)

I hope you can help!

Tanya

[Tommy]

My recommendation would be Harry Potter. It's set in modern times and eases into the fantasy, so it's pretty hard to get overwhelmed. Plus the books are just incredible.

[David]

A part of reading and enjoying fantasy is about accepting without prejudice the world that is being presented to you. There is a responsibility on the authors part here too, however, in that they have to build the fantastical elements of that world in a way that makes it easy for the reader to accept, by building the rules of that world/magic system and sticking with it, not breaking it for convenience sake.

I really enjoy some fantasy, but hate others, so it still comes down to reader taste in terms of plot and writing style preference. I enjoy stories in any genre that have an easy to digest writing style with believable and likeable characters. With that in mind, I'd suggest my favourite fantasy book Wizard's First Rule.

[Daniel]

I also don't really have the balls to try fantasy.
I hate that we are introduced to a world that we know nothing about, and we are left confused while the narrator or the main character knows everything that is going on. (I especially hate it when there's a whole bunch of terminology thrown at us that we don't understand.) I tried reading Incarceron and put it down almost immediately.
I loved Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but only because it's impossible to not like those series. Plus, in both of those series, the characters are just as confused and clueless in the beginning as we are as readers, so we are in the same boat.
I'd really like to enjoy this genre, so if you think you have a rec for me, please let me know!

[David]

Obviously, we all have different reading tastes, Killian. Personally I have no interest in the authors themselves. I either enjoy a story or not.

I'd definitely back up your recommendation of the mistborn series, though. I loved it, but it might be a bit complex and hard to accept for a reader who is not already a fan of fantasy.

Golden compass, too. Yep, agree with that.

[Daniel]

The reason I can't get into fantasy is because I'm pretty impatient. I don't want to be kept in the dark for so long; I want to know everything the characters know- and NOW. So I think that's why I can't really get into fantasy.

Thanks for the recs, I might give one of them a whirl at some point.

[Daniel]

Oh- I just remembered. As a middle schooler I read Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series and I remember liking it a lot.

[Daniel]

Killian wrote: "Daniel wrote: "The reason I can't get into fantasy is because I'm pretty impatient. I don't want to be kept in the dark for so long; I want to know everything the characters know- and NOW. So I thi..."

Not all the information, but at least enough to make me understand what's going on and to keep me going. I actually dislike it when everything is spilled in the beginning, because it kind of spoils the intrigue and mystery behind the series.

[[deleted user]]

similar to pjo. Its set in this world(ireland,london+++) so no new world to get used to, but the myth is very rich. its unpredictable,funny,scary everything a good book needs.
Otherwise I would say David & Tanya, thers lots of books out there that reads much more as contemporaries than fantasy. So they are easily read. examples,

then again theres lots of great books out there that are not fantasy,so thers no need to force yourself to read fantasy. I say read it if and when you want,not just because you feel presured to read it.