What the.... I have no idea what happened to my spoilered text.
I'll rewrite it in a new post
Books Fantasy Reads
- Thread starter Alock1
- Start date
What the.... I have no idea what happened to my spoilered text.
I'll rewrite it in a new post
Ok, so lets try this again:
1. Fin sent Thorn to attack Jason. The order that Thorn refers to is a sect of the desert folk who want to destroy all magic users. Fin essentially makes a deal where instead of destabilizing his city (now called Sandscript) they will go out and attack other realms.
2. Alexion and his partner lady show up at the end of the book to make a deal with Fin. They offer the gate piece they stole from Jason in exchange for an alliance against Jason. Super predictable since Jason is aligned with Water realm and lazy on the authors part.
3. Fin accepts the alliance because he needs Alexion both in game and in the real world. This is because he does get his wife "back" in the book, but to keep her form stable and he needs more fire mana pouring into his well (he has one like Jasons). The gate piece will help with this. He also needs Alex in the real world to help get him into the Awaken Online server room so he can download his wife's AI code.
2. Alexion and his partner lady show up at the end of the book to make a deal with Fin. They offer the gate piece they stole from Jason in exchange for an alliance against Jason. Super predictable since Jason is aligned with Water realm and lazy on the authors part.
3. Fin accepts the alliance because he needs Alexion both in game and in the real world. This is because he does get his wife "back" in the book, but to keep her form stable and he needs more fire mana pouring into his well (he has one like Jasons). The gate piece will help with this. He also needs Alex in the real world to help get him into the Awaken Online server room so he can download his wife's AI code.
Thanks. Looks like I may give this a whirl after all. I was hoping this would be a standalone and not ruin AO, but sadly not.
Alexion is one of the most pathetic antagonistic character in recent memory. Stereotypical bully with nothing to set him apart. What a waste!
Been binging Gaiman for the past couple of weeks. I finished American Gods about 5 years ago and it really put me off reading his stuff. I loved the idea behind it and I can understand why people consider it his best work, but it really didn't resonate with me.
I finished Good Omens not so long ago and liked it, but perhaps more because of Pratchetts influence. I then listened to the Sandman Audible exclusive and thought that was fun, so picked up Stardust and enjoyed the simplicity of that too. Then I finished Coraline and Neverwhere in the same day, and blew through The Ocean at the End of the Lane. He's as adept at writing fariytale as he is gritty theological fiction. I don't think there's a fantasy author out there who has the, for want of a better word, range he has. American Gods is as different to Stardust as could possibly be, and yet both are unquestionably Gaiman.
Now most of the way through Anansi Boys and I think it's perhaps his best work. The Graveyard Book is up next!
I finished Good Omens not so long ago and liked it, but perhaps more because of Pratchetts influence. I then listened to the Sandman Audible exclusive and thought that was fun, so picked up Stardust and enjoyed the simplicity of that too. Then I finished Coraline and Neverwhere in the same day, and blew through The Ocean at the End of the Lane. He's as adept at writing fariytale as he is gritty theological fiction. I don't think there's a fantasy author out there who has the, for want of a better word, range he has. American Gods is as different to Stardust as could possibly be, and yet both are unquestionably Gaiman.
Now most of the way through Anansi Boys and I think it's perhaps his best work. The Graveyard Book is up next!
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I've started on the Mistborn series, I'm about 130 pages into The Final Empire. It took a while to get going I have to admit, but in the last 20 pages or so I've begun to understand the world better.
Great series and fantastic magic system.
Thoroughly enjoying it. I have seen some complaints about Sanderson 's tendency to write paragraphs of info drops but it's helped me a lot, as someone who is fairly new to the genre.
Mistborn is fast-paced compared to most fantasy.
I have started the Burning God, the last book of the Poppy war trilogy.
I have started the Burning God, the last book of the Poppy war trilogy.
The Combat Codes (The Combat Codes Saga #1) by Alexander Darwin - 6/10
Interesting world, but the plot wasn't developed much in book 1. Characters also felt a bit generic and did not stand out.
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Dragon Mage (Rivenworld, #1) by M.L Spencer - 7/10
Good prose and plot, but uninspiring and underdeveloped characters. Couple of big events which fall short of common sense just to move the plot forward also drops the score a bit.
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The Lost War (Eidyn #1) by Justin Lee Anderson - 4/10
The author has tried to pack multiple movie elements into same book, zombies, alien like creatures bursting from cocoons, time alteration, memory alteration, demons and what not which was quite new. The themes work well in the story, but I'm not sure the plot is strong enough to weave them together. Overall, decent attempt...but there are just far too many plot mechanics that stretch believe to outright eye roll moments for me to take this book seriously.
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Savage Dominion by Luke Chmilenko and G.D. Penman - 5/10
Book of two parts. Initial 25% were just awesome. Loved the humour. It was refreshingly funny and made for an interesting start. Then after things got stale. It became a version of dungeon clearing with no plot progress and rise/repeat fights.
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Black Stone Heart (The Obsidian Path #1) by by Michael R. Fletcher - 7/10
Really good read. A tale of person who has lost his memory trying to find himself. What makes this unique is person he was was evil, person he wants to be now is good and he's utterly confused on what kind of person he is now. Really well done. Only negative is lack of a oomph-y climax.
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Pawn's Gambit (Mortal Techniques) by by Rob J. Hayes - 6/10
Good novel in wuxia setting. Plot is a bit light and many interesting characters are underdeveloped.
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Corpies by Drew Hayes - 8/10
A side story set in Super Powereds world. Better than the main series and really entertaining read. Climax could have been better.
Challenge (Unbound Deathlord #1) by Edward Castle - 3/10
LitRPG. Meh. DNF at 50%
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Currently Reading:
Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (Santiago #1) by Mike Resnick
Decent sci-fi western complete with a good universe, interesting characters. To be rated.
Finished the second book of the Lightbringer series, The Blinding Knife, last night. This book annoyed me. Slow, too long and the author describes female characters with all the maturity of horny teenager. This was book 2 of 5, so I've got a decision to make. Why do so many fantasy writers fall into the trap of making their books so god damned long and full of pointless shit? Sometimes I wonder why I'm even a fan of this genre at all, sigh. The weird thing is this book is very highly rated on Goodreads. I feel so out of touch sometimes.
It gets worst from there. For the final book, I skimmed/skipped half of it.
That doesn't sound good. I like some of the characters so I'm not giving up completely yet. My problem is I have a hard time abandoning a series after I've committed to it. I struggled through the last 3 Malazan books almost hating each page, and all of those were close to or over a thousand long.
Recently bought the Fid trilogy one of you recommended ages ago.
One of these years I may even get around to reading it
One of these years I may even get around to reading it
Would you recommend some low fantasy book or writer?
I don't usually read fantasy books and I am not exactly sure which books correspond to that genre.
I am currently reading Misborn: the final empire.
I like the world but I don't care too much about the magic system, and I'm afraid that as the plot progresses it will gain more weight.
I read the kingkiller chronicle but abandoned it, mostly because of the writer's style.
I guess I'm looking for a pathetic medieval world, prioritizing battles and court affairs, with drops of magic.
I don't usually read fantasy books and I am not exactly sure which books correspond to that genre.
I am currently reading Misborn: the final empire.
I like the world but I don't care too much about the magic system, and I'm afraid that as the plot progresses it will gain more weight.
I read the kingkiller chronicle but abandoned it, mostly because of the writer's style.
I guess I'm looking for a pathetic medieval world, prioritizing battles and court affairs, with drops of magic.
Hmmmm, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’.
The First Law, Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and The Coin also might fit your requests.
Lawrence's Broken Empire.
Maybe Gentleman Bastards too.
But none of the suggestions are medieval or have much courtroom drama. They're just fantasy adventure with low magic.
Priory of Orange Tree might fit your criteria but I haven't read it and not know how much magic it has.
Maybe Gentleman Bastards too.
But none of the suggestions are medieval or have much courtroom drama. They're just fantasy adventure with low magic.
Priory of Orange Tree might fit your criteria but I haven't read it and not know how much magic it has.
Hmmmm, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’.
The First Law, Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and The Coin also might fit your requests.
great, thanks for all the material
I took a look and it seems to fit what I'm looking for
@carvajal asked around some and here's what I got:
Mary Gentle's Ash
Daniel Abraham's Dagger and Coin
Abercrombie and Gemmell
John Gwynne
Samantha Shannon's Priory of the orange tree
I'd throw in Bradley Beaulieu Song of the Shattered Sands. Middle east rather than classic medieval but has battles and politics.
Mary Gentle's Ash
Daniel Abraham's Dagger and Coin
Abercrombie and Gemmell
John Gwynne
Samantha Shannon's Priory of the orange tree
I'd throw in Bradley Beaulieu Song of the Shattered Sands. Middle east rather than classic medieval but has battles and politics.
I just finished the third book in Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series. The first two are very medieval fantasy with political intrigue, spying and unevolved magic systems, and no heavy world expositions. For what they are I think they're pretty good. Book three is less action packed, and more intrigue based, but probably my favourite. Characters are pretty good too.
I've been pleasantly surprised by them, picked them up from a charity shop pre-covid, and I've really enjoyed the daft fantasy romps.
Thank you, it looks nice too.I will check it now, and thanks again @Edgar Allan Pillow for that list
I will second @Edgar Allan Pillow's recommendation of the Gentlemen Bastards series. The first book, The Lies of Locke Lamora, is my favorite book of all time.
A Practical Guide to Evil (it's a web serial. Writing is a bit weak in the first few chapters but it gets significantly better as it progresses, by book 6 it becomes stunning. Push through the first 10 chapters or so
)It's not exactly what you're looking for but it's free, it's awesome and i'm trying to get more people to read it
Lots of very well written battles and quite a bit of politics. It is fairly heavy on the magic, though the spin is pretty cool and runs on metanarrative
Plus the characterization is amazing and it has great humor
I mean
“I’ll be honest, Chancellor – revenge is the motivation for over half the decrees I’ve made.” – Dread Empress Sanguinia II, best known for outlawing cats and being taller than her [/QUOTE]
The Red Knight by Miles Cameron is the story of a leader of a company of mercenaries. There are lot of battles but magic still play a large part though most of the human fighters don't have magic.
I second your recommendation (for everyone to read). It isA Practical Guide to Evil (it's a web serial.
Hoping so much for bettter news from Rothfuss this year
The experience with Martin taught me to not even start Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind despite all the popular acclaim when it came out. Now, I'm glad I didn't, and I won't read until the series is complete, that is to say, never.
Same reason I am not inclined to start Gentlemen Bastards series. I am currently reading only 3 series that are unfinished - Sanderson's Cosmere books, Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files and The Expanse series - and am vary of starting any new series that is still unfinished.
Have given up hope that Martin will finish ASOIAF. Winds may get finished and published, but dont have any hope of the last book ever seeing the light of the day.
Just read the first book in the Liveship Traders series by Robin Hobb and enjoyed it thoroughly. Think the author did a great job of developing the characters. On to the next book! Guess part of the enjoyment was the great translation in my language, which is a rare occasion these days.
Best trilogy in the entire series!Just read the first book in the Liveship Traders series by Robin Hobb and enjoyed it thoroughly. Think the author did a great job of developing the characters. On to the next book! Guess part of the enjoyment was the great translation in my language, which is a rare occasion these days.
Are they set in the same world as the Farseer books? I read the first trilogy years ago and can hardly recall a thing...
Yeah, the entire series is called Realm of the Elderlings. The reading order is The Farseer Trilogy --> The Liveship Traders Trilogy --> Tawny Man Trilogy --> The Rainwild Forest Chronicles (4 books) --> Fitz and Fool Trilogy.
Of these you can actually skip the Rainwild Forest Chronicles or just read a blurb/wiki on them. All the remaining books are excellent. I think I will go into spoiler territory if I say more
Book 7 is supposed to be the last. But then again so was book 6
Also, new chapter today and Cat looking back to her best
I'm with you on that. So many authors seem to fall into the trap of thinking the book needs to be long in order to properly flesh out their world. I've been reading and rereading so shorter classics recently and it's been a refreshing change. I finished Neil Gaimans back catalogue, reread Egg and Dunk, and currently flying through Earthsea. Le Guin in particular does a magnificent job of giving her world plenty of body without wasting too much page doing so. I love that she couldn't give a shit about 'show don't tell.' if she wants half a page of proposition to expand on something, then she damn well writes it. No pussyfooting around trying to drop the info in a faux organic way. Ged stops at an island. We get what we need to know about the island, and then he moves on. Done.
Grazie @giorno .I will check it too
I was a little scared by the 1400 pages hehe, but I was reading a lot last night and I really like it
Thank you Celia. I will get it too, although unfortunately has not been translated yet. Let's see if it's not very difficult.
since it was your favorite book I decided to start with it .
I was a little scared by the 1400 pages hehe, but I was reading a lot last night and I really like it
They are.
I echo the others saying that it is the best trilogy in the series (and I do not think it is particularly close).
It's Tawny Man for me. It hits the sweet spot between political intrigue and emotive development of the characters. The falling out between Fitz and the Fool is beautifully well written. I think most fans have these two trilogies as their top two.
Let me know!
And yeah, lies of locke lamora is basically fantasy ocean's eleven. Great fun
I skipped the Rain Wild Chronicles as well, and I don't think I missed much.
Has anyone read her Soldier Son trilogy? Nobody mentions it because it not set in the Realm of the Elderlings. I would like opinions on whether it is worth reading.
Liveship for me by a wide margin.
I didn't particularly like Tawny Man because The Fool happens to be my favourite character in the series, and I didn't like how Fitz treated HER one little bit.