Recommend a Fantasy Series - Page 6

I know the series doesn't get a lot of love around here, but lately I've been listening to the audiobooks of the Wheel of Time series. It's been years since I had read them, but I do remember that the books were good until the 7th one. So far, I'm enjoying it and it makes my work day fly by. The final book of the series is supposed to come out in January so I should be set for that.

They should have picked some seven year old kid to read the audio book of Eye of the World, then kept bringing him back for each book as he got older and older.  It could have been the 7 Up of audio books.

I will say that listening to the audiobooks has made me realize how much of a lesser author Jordan was compared to GRRM, and others. Jordan couldn't seem to help himself from writing each book as if it was the first in the series, which led to LOOOOAAADSS of exposition and characters cutting/pasting exact dialogue/thoughts/phrases from earlier books. And I'm only up to the beginning of book 5. If he had a decent editor and cut out all that tripe, his books would have been half as long. Or maybe the series itself would have been done before he died.

I'm actually one of those few fantasy fans you'll find online who's not much of a Martin fan in the slightest.

Clve Barker's The Great And Secret Show and Everille hit my fantasy spot as well.

Now if Barker will just find the time to finish his Third Book of The Art.

Finally reading the latest Dresden Files book, Ghost Story, and am just burning through it.  Butcher is so compulsively readable.

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Originally Posted by felix 

Clve Barker's The Great And Secret Show and Everille hit my fantasy spot as well.

 

Now if Barker will just find the time to finish his Third Book of The Art.

Apparently, he's been writing like a man possessed since he almost died earlier this year. He's partway through Abarat IV right now, and he just tweeted the other day that, when he finishes, he'll go straight into Abarat V and then, when that's done, straight into the Third Book of the Art.

Low Town by Daniel Polansky isn't really new. You've seen fantasy used for the purposes of noir. specifically Glen Cook's Garret series. This one is about an ex-policeman turned drug dealer named The Warden in the slums of the metropolitian city Rigus. Life is okay until murdered children start showing up, making The Warden investigate what's happening on his turf. What makes the book interesting is how well written the cast of characters are, despite the somewhat generic setting. If they ever make a movie, there's a character callled Yancey The Rhymer that would be perfect for Donald Glover. It's a very good debut, just don't expect anything mind-blowing. For fans of Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie. The AV Club has a good review of it: http://www.avclub.com/articles/daniel-polansky-low-town,60853/
 

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Originally Posted by Geoff Foster 

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Originally Posted by eenin the first The Chronicles of Amber series was a favorite when I was a teen.

That's Roger Zelazny, isn't it? I've read a few of his SF books. Lord of Light being the best. Its spin on Hindu mythology with an advanced space fairing civilization impersonating deities in order to extort money from an unwitting middle-age society is hilarious.

i know is a bit late but the people impersonating the deities were the crew of "The Star Of India" and the rest were the descendants of the ships colonists ..the natives of the planet were the demons

i have to say though that your description of the book isnt the way i remember it at all

But hey any chance to talk about Lord of Light is great!

Because Lord of Light is so good.

Almost done with the first Amber book (the library had them with classic cheesy fantasy covers). It's a little all over the place, but pretty damn good so far. It's bursting with imagination, and the unique ways of it's world are intriguing.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaurenOrtega 

But hey any chance to talk about Lord of Light is great!

 

Because Lord of Light is so good.

Yeah, i liked it. Especially the way they mixed Buddhist Sutras And Hindu Mythology into the story.

Did you find the philosophy part difficult to understand? 

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Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes 

 

What is Lord of Light?

Hugo Award winning novel by Roger Zelazny, who also wrote the Amber series.

So yeah..we need more fantasy discussion on CHUD.

Because it's actually a vibrant genre with a lot of really great books in it's history.

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Originally Posted by LaurenOrtega 

So yeah..we need more fantasy discussion on CHUD.

 

Because it's actually a vibrant genre with a lot of really great books in it's history.

I just talked up Abercrombie's Red Country!

You did!

BUT I ALWAYS DEMAND MORE!!!

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Originally Posted by LaurenOrtega 

You did!

 

BUT I ALWAYS DEMAND MORE!!!

You heard the lady, gentlemen.

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Originally Posted by LaurenOrtega 

You did!

 

BUT I ALWAYS DEMAND MORE!!!

I love Bsrry Hughart's Master Li and Ten-Ox trilogy. It's Pratchett level funny and has a very unique setting that's half real ancient China and half myth, so much more interesting than the pseudo-Brittain of most fantasy lit. I have a lovely omnibus collecting all three books, because, individually, they are a pain to find.

What's the word on Sanderson's THE WAY OF KINGS or Rothfuss' NAME OF THE WIND?  I have both on my shelf and want to tackle one of them soon.  Which first?

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Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes 

I love Bsrry Hughart's Master Li and Ten-Ox trilogy. It's Pratchett level funny and has a very unique setting that's half real ancient China and half myth, so much more interesting than the pseudo-Brittain of most fantasy lit. I have a lovely omnibus collecting all three books, because, individually, they are a pain to find.

I know we've mentioned him in this thread before, but Guy Gavriel Kay is also good at coming up with pseudo-historical fantasies set in not-so-whitebread places.

What a wonderful series! I have the big collection and it easily remains one of my favorite fantasy series of the 80's.

Brandon Sanderson does nothing for me, but I'm not a big fan of those EPIC fantasy novels. And Sanderson always seems more concerned with how magic systems work* than actually crafting characters I'm interested in.

Rothfuss I just plain don't like whatsoever. I think he's the poster boy for these popular fantasy novelists who think they happen to be way smarter than they actually are. He's still spinning the same hero's journey horseshit but he thinks he's being subversive when he's like "AHAHAHAHAH BUT THE HERO DIDN'T GET THE GIRL! NOT LIKE THE STORIES!"

I'd just say read Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer series.

Guy Gavriel Kay is the only epic fantasy writer to make me cry.

*I do not care how magic works. It's magic, I find exhaustive details about it's strengths and weaknesses and abilites will put me to sleep.

I like Kay's treatment of magic. He throws in just a touch, and never explains.

And that Gene Wolfe series is amazing. I'm a word nerd and his etymological gymnastics are off the chain in those books.
 

Gene Wolfe is one of the best fantasy authors ever. And probably one of the few people who actually understands what "unreliable narrator" actually means.

Every Christmas, I give my stepmother a new fantasy book or two. Worked great for a while, but I've long since exhausted my own knowledge and have taken to internet research to find stuff she might like. Lies of Locke Lamora, as suggested on Chud, ended up being the biggest hit to date, so I'm coming back to the well. Should I go with Shadow of the Torturer, or is that as darkfuck as it sounds? Gardens of the Moon? Sword of Albion? She doesn't like anything too dark or challenging (she's quite content with the Dragonriders of Pern, if it came down to it).

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Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

Every Christmas, I give my stepmother a new fantasy book or two. Worked great for a while, but I've long since exhausted my own knowledge and have taken to internet research to find stuff she might like. Lies of Locke Lamora, as suggested on Chud, ended up being the biggest hit to date, so I'm coming back to the well. Should I go with Shadow of the Torturer, or is that as darkfuck as it sounds? Gardens of the Moon? Sword of Albion? She doesn't like anything too dark or challenging (she's quite content with the Dragonriders of Pern, if it came down to it).

Why not Scott Lynch's sequel Red Skies On Red Seas?

Yeah Red Skies On Red Seas is a really good idea.

Shadow of the Torturer is the type of fantasy book you read when you want something really DIFFERENT with the genre.

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Originally Posted by Turingmachine75 

The Kingkiller Chronicles . . . Patrick Rothfus? The first book was The Name of the Wind, can't remember the name of the second.

Wise Man's Fear.  A great series. 

I'd also recommend "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson.

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Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

Every Christmas, I give my stepmother a new fantasy book or two. Worked great for a while, but I've long since exhausted my own knowledge and have taken to internet research to find stuff she might like. Lies of Locke Lamora, as suggested on Chud, ended up being the biggest hit to date, so I'm coming back to the well. Should I go with Shadow of the Torturer, or is that as darkfuck as it sounds? Gardens of the Moon? Sword of Albion? She doesn't like anything too dark or challenging (she's quite content with the Dragonriders of Pern, if it came down to it).

John Meaney's Bone Song is good. It's like an Ian Rankin(As the main character is obviously a Scot) novel in Tim Burton's Halloween Town.

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Originally Posted by Turingmachine75 

The Book of the New Sun is the one book over the last ten years or so that I have read that I still think about quite often. Was going to suggest Severian in the literary characters thread . . . but his enigmatic nature makes that a bit of a barrier to discribe him in any way that makes it seem like it 'get' him.
I would love to read about the time period during the reign of Typhon/Pas on Urth. I was going to suggest him as well in the literary characters thread . . .
Finally started The Book of the Long Sun last year, but misplaced it a few chapters into Exodus and have not restarted it since it popped up during my last move.
Otherland by Tad Williams. It is sci-fi, but the story, told within a virtual reality world, allows for a lot of fantasy elements.

Tad Williams's new one, Dirty Streets of Heaven, an urban fantasy about angels (But not preachy, this book is about the nitty gritty and sometimes dirty or mundane work of angels on Earth, specifically San Francisco in this book) is great fun and he builds a unique world without getting buried under the details and forgetting to tell a good story.

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Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

Oh, she got Red Skies immediately after finishing Lies.

Tell your mom his new one is finally supposed to be out in July. Like I've told others hesitant to read fantasy (Like I usually am), his books are  gritty and fun enough for non-fantasy readers, with just enough world-building and detail to give it flavor, and it doesn't get in the way of the story. I may be talking out of my ass here, but Lynch and Joe Abercrombie, the way they write for readers that don't usually read the fantasy genre, are the future of the genre.

Chris Wooding's Retribution Falls is loads of fun. It's Firefly in a steampunk world with monsters and stuff.

And there's my newest love,  Joe Abercrombie's Red Country, a fantasy novel written and structured like a western. It's part of a bigger world, a trilogy I have not read yet, but Abercrombie's a good enough writer that Red Country stands really well on its own. I have a feeling that when I read the First Law trilogy, it'll just make me like Red Country even more. On their own, Shy and her step-father Lamb are great and instantly iconic characters.

Gene Wolfe, while great, is the exact opposite of light for Arjen's mom.

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Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes 

Gene Wolfe, while great, is the exact opposite of light for Arjen's mom.

Oh yeah. It's heavy, dense, allegorical and recursive.

I still beat the drum for Guy Kay. Arjen, your mom would love Tigana.

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Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd 

Every Christmas, I give my stepmother a new fantasy book or two. Worked great for a while, but I've long since exhausted my own knowledge and have taken to internet research to find stuff she might like. Lies of Locke Lamora, as suggested on Chud, ended up being the biggest hit to date, so I'm coming back to the well. Should I go with Shadow of the Torturer, or is that as darkfuck as it sounds? Gardens of the Moon? Sword of Albion? She doesn't like anything too dark or challenging (she's quite content with the Dragonriders of Pern, if it came down to it).

Changing tacks a little, Neil Gaiman has written three novels she'd love, the wild comedy Anansi Boys about two brothers who meet after years apart and the chaos that follows, it uses real world mythology really well, Stardust, a romantic comic adventure story that has a Jack Sparrow type years before the Pirates of the Carribean movie, and Neverwhere, where a normal guy in London finds himself in a world a lot like Alice's Wonderland.

Stardust is probably my favorite and Matthew Vaughn made a really good movie out of it.  It was just re-printed as a very nice hardcover in a slipcase.

I think Patrick Rothfuss is awful.

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Originally Posted by LaurenOrtega 

 

I think Patrick Rothfuss is awful.

YOU'RE awful (I get the hate, but I love Kothe's character voice and I think the series is a great examination of an unreliable narrator).

Trying to decide if I want to reread some/most/all of the Wheel of Time leading up to A Memory of Light's release.

I know Jim Butcher has a lot of fans on the boards - for my money, the fella to read in the 'Merlin, PI' genre is Mike Carey, whose stories featuring Felix Castor are reminiscent of Constantine.
 

Anyone read the OUTLANDER series by Diana Gabaldon?  BSG's Ron Moore is doinga TV show for Starz:

http://www.deadline.com/2012/11/outlander-tv-series-starz-ron-moore-sony/

Outlander spans the genres of romance, science fiction, history, and adventure. It follows Claire, a married WWII combat nurse, who mistakenly steps back in time to year 1743 where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world of adventure that sends her on the run and threatens her life. When Claire is forced to marry Jamie, a chivalrous and romantic young Scottish warrior, it ignites a passionate affair that tears Claire’s heart between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

This thread rocks, folks. I come here whenever I have an Audible credit to spend. Just picked up Tigana by Guy Kay, and from the sounds of it, he's right up my alley.

I'm almost done listening to The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks, which I picked up because it sounded pulpy, thiefy, and adventurey. Man is it ever overlong and needlessly complicated. One thing I've noticed about a lot of the more popular Fantasy writers is that they either get lost in a magic system or a political system. Thankfully Weeks doesn't get to far in the weeds with the magic stuff, but his political structure is a little too absurdly oppressive. One thing that the Locke Lamora books do really well is present a world where there are tons of people with real jobs that don't have to prostitute themselves. Lynch's world is a lot more brutal than our own, but in a believable way. It feels like everyone in Way of Shadows is some kind of prostitute, as if that were the only job training that this world had to offer. It makes one roll their eyes.

But Weeks is good at writing action, which is pretty admirable. If he were doing movies he'd be a great second unit guy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Subotai 

I know Jim Butcher has a lot of fans on the boards - for my money, the fella to read in the 'Merlin, PI' genre is Mike Carey, whose stories featuring Felix Castor are reminiscent of Constantine.
 

I like Jim Butcher, but Subotai's right, Mike Carey's Felix Castor is great. He's Matthew Scudder to Butcher's Spenser. The stories are darker and sometimes creepy with a sardonic sense of humor. Shit happens in the books and they weigh heavily on Castor.

He's one of the best writers in the genre. The Lions of Al-Rassan is a straight up masterpiece.

In addition to the fucking childish grimdark that infects so much of modern fantasy* every writer and their mother's obsession to overly describe the magic or political system makes me break out into hives.

Mostly because very rarely are the political systems that interesting in the first place. Kings? Roman-style Republics? Why does every single fantasy currently feature some master schemer who's cynical and sarcastic?* Why can't they be interesting?!!

I keep feeling that a lot of modern fantasy writers would have made a LOT of great books in the 70's when fantasy novels still happened to be 300 pages at max.

Mike Carey's just a great writer. I mean the dude wrote Lucifer which is kinda one of my favorite comics ever.

*By and by my hatred of GRIMDARK has little to do with me being unable to cope with how harsh the works are, and everything to do with the fact that most of these novels are super-neckbeardy and stupid. Richard K. Morgan's The Steel Remains actually feels like the work of some angry 16-year old dipshit from the suburbs who just found out that "Columbus totally killed the Indians man!'

*Wow! A bookish misfit in a society of warriors who uses his brainpower and cynically dry wit(TM) in order to get ahead! That's totally not how the author sees himself.

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Originally Posted by LaurenOrtega 

 

He's one of the best writers in the genre. The Lions of Al-Rassan is a straight up masterpiece.

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the fucking childish grimdark that infects so much of modern fantasy* every writer and their mother's obsession to overly describe the magic or political system makes me break out into hives.

 

Mostly because very rarely are the political systems that interesting in the first place. Kings? Roman-style Republics? Why does every single fantasy currently feature some master schemer who's cynical and sarcastic?* Why can't they be interesting?!!

 

 

 

 

I keep feeling that a lot of modern fantasy writers would have made a LOT of great books in the 70's when fantasy novels still happened to be 300 pages at max.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Carey's just a great writer. I mean the dude wrote Lucifer which is kinda one of my favorite comics ever.

 

 

*By and by my hatred of GRIMDARK has little to do with me being unable to cope with how harsh the works are, and everything to do with the fact that most of these novels are super-neckbeardy and stupid. Richard K. Morgan's The Steel Remains actually feels like the work of some angry 16-year old dipshit from the suburbs who just found out that "Columbus totally killed the Indians man!'

 

 

*Wow! A bookish misfit in a society of warriors who uses his brainpower and cynically dry wit(TM) in order to get ahead! That's totally not how the author sees himself.

You're gonna LOVE his new novel

http://www.amazon.com/The-Steel-Seraglio-Mike-Carey/dp/1926851536/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1353799584&sr=8-10&keywords=MIKE+CAREY

Oh good a fantasy set in my favorite location.

Why don't they just take my money?

The Curse of Chalion is a pretty good fantasy book by Bujold. I think there's 2 sequels to it but I haven't read them yet.

I actually really liked that book. As a matter of fact I enjoy Bujold's court intrigues WAY more than the bullshit Martin loves to pull.

And the first book is only 400 pages or so! This is good.