Books Fantasy Reads

So in part 3 of Tigana and there are issues:

1. prose is way too flowery and pompous
2. Incest. Like really? Maybe it “pays off” later, but it was pointless and so very cliche.
3. With point two I am not comfortable with how the women are written

again, maybe there is a point and I will feel like an idiot, but so far it’s a 3/5
 
Okay, finished the first book in Bakker's Prince of Nothing series...not sure on it. Authour is clearly smart, decent prose but there's a whhhhooolllleeee lot of inner monologue and very little happening. Can't quite decide if it's worth continuing tbh.
 
Beachryan said:
Okay, finished the first book in Bakker's Prince of Nothing series...not sure on it. Authour is clearly smart, decent prose but there's a whhhhooolllleeee lot of inner monologue and very little happening. Can't quite decide if it's worth continuing tbh.
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If you like the crusades and have a very high tolerance for sexism, racism, gore, rape and just general awfulness, keep going. The plot itself is actually great. Too bad about literally everything else :lol:
 
giorno said:
If you like the crusades and have a very high tolerance for sexism, racism, gore, rape and just general awfulness, keep going. The plot itself is actually great. Too bad about literally everything else :lol:
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To be fair, Prince of Nothing has all of them, but it gets significantly more extreme in the second saga. At some point it was becoming too much even for me.

However, after reading this, the perception for grimdark changes. Abercrombie or Lawrence are puppies in comparison.
 
I have been reading Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, and while it is definitely readable with some interesting themes and and solid world-building I am rather underwhelmed in the main. Strong ideas, excellent setting and he builds towards climaxes well, but the prose is so workmanlike, unlike some of my other favourites in the genre I can never see myself going back to a certain passage and just luxuriating in the writing, it is very much a tool to drive the plot with few frills,

Reading this has really solidified some of the issues that I had with his ending for WOT(despite gratitude that he shouldered that burden) his characters are just missing something to make them compelling, Dalinar is the closest in SA. Everyhting is a bit formulaic and mechanical.
 
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Finished Tigana and I guess it was ok. The story was decent but there were way too many characters and the story was chopped up. By the end I didn’t care at all about the person(s) I think I was supposed to. There was no depth to the emotions because the author crammed a trilogy into one book. This was a world with great potential that was done a disservice by its creator. 2.5 out of 5 I guess.
 
Just revisited and finished Acacia, book 1. It's a lot worse than I remember it being. Not gonna bother with the next two books. Before Acacia, I finished Angus Watson's West of West trilogy, which was fun but by the end of book 3 I was happy when it ended. His style can wear thin after a while. In general, finding it harder and harder to find a really good, really enjoyable fantasy these days.
 
SmashedHombre said:
Just revisited and finished Acacia, book 1. It's a lot worse than I remember it being. Not gonna bother with the next two books. Before Acacia, I finished Angus Watson's West of West trilogy, which was fun but by the end of book 3 I was happy when it ended. His style can wear thin after a while. In general, finding it harder and harder to find a really good, really enjoyable fantasy these days.
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Good, cause they (especially the third part) suck.

Bought the latest Abercrombie's book. Hopefully will start it tonight.
 
How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps
- Andrew Rowe

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A delightful p*sstake on fantasy tropes that had be laughing from get go. It was a delightful read where every trope surrounding heroes, villains, quests and sidekicks are roasted fully and without mercy. Has a bit of GameLit elements thrown in just to add to the fun!

More of a novella at 160+ pages, but was so satisfying! If you're looking for a change of pace or a palate cleanser from big reads or just simply looking for a fun read,I can recommend this.

8/10
 
If you struggling to find good reads, here's a below list of Self/Indie published books that I recommend:

Mortal Techniques series by Rob Hayes - It's a Japanese Anime inspired series that's fun to read. Heroes and Villains, Gods and Demons all come to like in a over the top, larger than life book. If you loved Samurai Champaloo type anime's give this one a go.

Paternus Trilogy by Dyrk Ashton. Literal definition of "epic". A unique take that plays on common elements and bring mythological characters from all over the workd into one single story. Starts off a bit slow, but then picks up pack in a roller coaster action ride.

Manifest Delusions by Michael R Fletcher. - Most "grimdark" of all grimdark books. Criminally underrated!

Grey Bastards by Jonathan French - Sons on Anarchy on Wild Hogs (the animal). Set in the unique world of Lot Lands, it's about a band of hog riding orc warriors. I haven't read a world as unique or similar to this. Good story to boot.
 
Bobski said:
I have been reading Sanderson's Stormlight Archive, and while it is definitely readable with some interesting themes and and solid world-building I am rather underwhelmed in the main. Strong ideas, excellent setting and he builds towards climaxes well, but the prose is so workmanlike, unlike some of my other favourites in the genre I can never see myself going back to a certain passage and just luxuriating in the writing, it is very much a tool to drive the plot with few frills,

Reading this has really solidified some of the issues that I had with his ending for WOT(despite gratitude that he shouldered that burden) his characters are just missing something to make them compelling, Dalinar is the closest in SA. Everyhting is a bit formulaic and mechanical.
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Same issue I have with Sanderson. His ideas are fabulous but his writing leaves a lot to be desired. I understand he wants to put emphasis on the story and not the prose, but there's no reason he can't still give it some elegance!
 
I am 200 pages into Warbreaker and I am not overly enthusiastic. Better than Codex Alera which I read before, but overall pretty average and nothing that gets me excited.
All in all Sanderson is not really a bad writer, but I am just not that much into his stuff it seems. I do not really get the hype.
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
I am 200 pages into Warbreaker and I am not overly enthusiastic. Better than Codex Alera which I read before, but overall pretty average and nothing that gets me excited.
All in all Sanderson is not really a bad writer, but I am just not that much into his stuff it seems. I do not really get the hype.
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Blasphemy! ( :wenger: )

The backstory of that series bumps it up to GOAT level.
 
Pretty difficult to find something that is on par with the big genre hitters like ASoIaF/Got, LotR, The Witcher.
Abercrombie writes entertaining stuff, but somehow the books do not satisfy my urge for epic fantasy. They feel more like fast paced, gritty thrillers with a lot of dark humour than classic fantasy.

A lot of books feel either bland, or ridiculously over the top or just strange. On top of that I am looking for stuff that has been translated to German in its entirety and publishers tend to brutally stop series in the middle if sales figures are not what they expected.
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
Pretty difficult to find something that is on par with the big genre hitters like ASoIaF/Got, LotR, The Witcher.
Abercrombie writes entertaining stuff, but somehow the books do not satisfy my urge for epic fantasy. They feel more like fast paced, gritty thrillers with a lot of dark humour than classic fantasy.

A lot of books feel either bland, or ridiculously over the top or just strange. On top of that I am looking for stuff that has been translated to German in its entirety and publishers tend to brutally stop series in the middle if sales figures are not what they expected.
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As I mentioned last page I am a huge fan of the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. The only issue is that it is unfinished and Lynch may be going Rothfuss on us. He is an amazing world builder but I would not consider his content epic fantasy. Not sure about translation, but the English audiobooks (narrated by Michael Page) is fantastic.
 
Just blazed through all 4 books plus short stories of Good Intentions by Elliott Kay

urban fantasy/romance with several twists. Have to say I am like exactly the audience those books are written for :lol:

Amazing series, now i have withdrawal symptoms while waiting for book 5 :lol: :(
 
Finally finished The Burning God, it was such a letdown from book 2, at least it was kind of surprising even if if the stakes didn't seem to really be there because there is an unbalance of power.

Finished Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells. That was a fun interesting episode.

I quite enjoyed The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman, maybe because the side characters seem less some puppets than in Practical magic. Though the "love" life of a character made me uncomfortable because of his age and the age of the other people.
 
WI_Red said:
As I mentioned last page I am a huge fan of the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. The only issue is that it is unfinished and Lynch may be going Rothfuss on us. He is an amazing world builder but I would not consider his content epic fantasy. Not sure about translation, but the English audiobooks (narrated by Michael Page) is fantastic.
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Yeah Lynch is a good writer, although I have so far only read the first one in the series. There are some great newer authors as well like e.g. John Gwynne. His books are really fantastic and his style reminds me a bit of Gemmell mixed with Tad Williams, although quite modern in approach and with more detailed worldbuilding. One issue I have is that characters are mainly good or bad and there are not many layers of grey. However, anyone looking for an epic tale of traditional fantasy should at least give him a try.
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
I am 200 pages into Warbreaker and I am not overly enthusiastic. Better than Codex Alera which I read before, but overall pretty average and nothing that gets me excited.
All in all Sanderson is not really a bad writer, but I am just not that much into his stuff it seems. I do not really get the hype.
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For what is worth, I think that is his worst Cosmere book. Well, either that or Elantris. Both suck big balls.
 
Ok so I can skip Elantris. I read the Mistborn trilogy long ago and have them saved as being pretty decent in my memory.
I have started James Abbott (pseudonym of Mark Charan Newton) - The Never King.
Despite the bad reviews this is really good stuff so far. Very much a tribute to Gemmell, but I am fine with that.
 
So someone previously recommended City of Stairs and I am giving it a go. I am about an hour into the audiobook an having a hard time getting into it. Is it worth sticking with?
 
WI_Red said:
So someone previously recommended City of Stairs and I am giving it a go. I am about an hour into the audiobook an having a hard time getting into it. Is it worth sticking with?
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Yes
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
Ok so I can skip Elantris. I read the Mistborn trilogy long ago and have them saved as being pretty decent in my memory.
I have started James Abbott (pseudonym of Mark Charan Newton) - The Never King.
Despite the bad reviews this is really good stuff so far. Very much a tribute to Gemmell, but I am fine with that.
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One thing though, characters from Warbreaker appear in Stormlight. Not terribly important for the story, but still.
 
I'm about to start Kim Harrison's Hollows series. One of the things that made me want to read this series is that all the books have titles drawn from Clint Eastwood movies. Shows some imagination on the part of the author, to try and stand out. My question is, are the books worth reading?
 
I've gone for the Lord of the rings audiobook read by Andy Serkis. He's a very good narrator and I am itching to hear him do the full Golem voice.

I've only ever seen the movies and could never get into the print books for some reason.
 
So I have ordered copies of the first two Raven's Mark books as well as Adrian Selby - Snakewood and Peter Newman - The Vagrant. I am always on the search for something with that Dark Souls kind of vibes.

Speaking of which Christopher Buehlman himself reads his book "Between Two Fires" for free on YouTube. I have yet to check it out, but it is often recommended for fans of Dark Souls or medieval fantasy with a horror touch in general.

Here is part one in case somebody is interested:
 
GaryLifo said:
I've gone for the Lord of the rings audiobook read by Andy Serkis. He's a very good narrator and I am itching to hear him do the full Golem voice.

I've only ever seen the movies and could never get into the print books for some reason.
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Print books for me were always the best because sometimes I'd refer back to the maps, family trees and illustrations when I was a kid to keep track :lol:

My favourite rereads this summer were the Mortal Engines series if anyone read those as a kid, Peter Jackson really destroyed them in his film adaption though (as he did the Hobbit) which had the potential to be an all time epic series in my eyes.
 
I have been re-reading The Sword of Shadows series from J.V.Jones (a far more interesting series than the title or the book covers suggests) and it strikes me again just how remarkable an improvement the author made from her earlier work and even as this series progresses. Imagine GRRM basing pretty much all of ASOIAF around the Wildings as a setting, hard cold north, a number of fabulous characters, and a seedy filthiness to the magic systems that I am unused to.

Just a pity that it is unfinished and it has been 10 years since the last book, but still plenty to enjoy.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Book 1 was excellent. Book 2 wasn't and out me off from reading book 3.
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Fair enough - I liked the 3rd book as it closed the story thread (satisfactorily?) and made up for the "bloody mess" of book 2. I'd give it a go mate - especially as you seem to be able to read a whole book in under an hour! :)
 
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