No idea, read them in Kindle.
Books Fantasy Reads
- Thread starter Alock1
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I am probably the biggest audiobook fanatic there is, but someone I trust told me to read this in paperback and I can’t express enough how glad I am that I followed that advice. Do yourself a favor and grab this one at a book store or library.
Thanks for the advice from all 3 of you
If you are looking for a safe bet for your credit, and you have not already listened to/read both, I would heartily recommend City of Stairs (the first of the Divine Cities books) or The Lies of Locke Lamora. Both are fantastic stores with great narration.
Thanks. I got about a third into the kindle version of lies of Locke Lamora about a year ago but I never got further due to various life events. Having had a long break from it I went back recently and had no idea what was going on and I can't face starting over.
Your other suggestion might be the one to go with.
In other news, the first Hyperion book is included with my kindle unlimited subscription, which is a bonus.
The DC trilogy is fantastic, and the narrator is really good. She was a new one for me, so it took a few chapters to get comfortable with her but she's fantastic. Kindle is better than audiobook for Hyperion, but there was something about reading it on paper that seemed to add something on my read.
Lies is my favorite novel of all time, so I am biased, but I would recommend giving it another go especially since you only got a third in. It gets better and better as it progresses.
Thanks. Will do that.
So I persisted with the Farseer trilogy after all and finished it yesterday evening.
That was equal parts brilliant and frustrating. I have a lot of problems with it, especially the final book and its conclusion. I found it deeply unsatisfying, even in the knowledge that there's a lot more story after this.
If I had to sum up my thoughts on Robin Hobb based on this, I would say: excellent world-building, deep characterizations, beautiful prose but disappointing storytelling. The positives are enough to keep me reading beyond this trilogy, but I do hope the storytelling improves.
Next up is Liveship Traders, which I gathered focuses on a different set of characters. Which is a good thing, as I could do with a break from Fitz.
If I had to sum up my thoughts on Robin Hobb based on this, I would say: excellent world-building, deep characterizations, beautiful prose but disappointing storytelling. The positives are enough to keep me reading beyond this trilogy, but I do hope the storytelling improves.
Next up is Liveship Traders, which I gathered focuses on a different set of characters. Which is a good thing, as I could do with a break from Fitz.
I think Liveship Traders is the best trilogy in the Realms of Elderlings.
For me its up there amongst the best trilogies ever.
I have taken an extended break and barely read fantasy books in the last couple of years. So, time for recommendations. I have read the following:
GRRM - ASOIAF and all its spin-offs.
Jordan - Wheel of Time
Abercrombie - Everything
Sanderson - everything in Cosmere
Hobb: everything in Realms of the Elderlings
Tolkien: LoTR and the Hobbit
Lynch: Gentleman Bastards
Rothfuss: Kingkiller
Ryan: Raven’s Shadow
Sullivan: Riyria Revelations and The First Empire
Bakker: everything in The Second Apocalypse
Abraham: Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin
Durham: Acacia
Weeks: Night Angel and the Lightbringer
Islington: Licanius
Cook: The Black Company
Scull: The Grim Company
Eriksen: Malazan book of the Fallen (gave up after the third one)
Staveley: Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne
Jemisin: The Broken Earth
Lawrence: The Broken Empire and The Red Queen’s War
Butcher: Codex Alera
Sapkowski: The Witcher
Gaiman: Neverwhere and American Gods
Kay: Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan
Books given on random order. Preferably recommend from new authors. Can be both grimdark (like Abercrombie, Martin, Lawrence), high fantasy (Jordan, Sanderson) or anything in between. Preferably ended series but alright if they are ongoing as long as the author is productive.
GRRM - ASOIAF and all its spin-offs.
Jordan - Wheel of Time
Abercrombie - Everything
Sanderson - everything in Cosmere
Hobb: everything in Realms of the Elderlings
Tolkien: LoTR and the Hobbit
Lynch: Gentleman Bastards
Rothfuss: Kingkiller
Ryan: Raven’s Shadow
Sullivan: Riyria Revelations and The First Empire
Bakker: everything in The Second Apocalypse
Abraham: Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin
Durham: Acacia
Weeks: Night Angel and the Lightbringer
Islington: Licanius
Cook: The Black Company
Scull: The Grim Company
Eriksen: Malazan book of the Fallen (gave up after the third one)
Staveley: Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne
Jemisin: The Broken Earth
Lawrence: The Broken Empire and The Red Queen’s War
Butcher: Codex Alera
Sapkowski: The Witcher
Gaiman: Neverwhere and American Gods
Kay: Tigana and The Lions of Al-Rassan
Books given on random order. Preferably recommend from new authors. Can be both grimdark (like Abercrombie, Martin, Lawrence), high fantasy (Jordan, Sanderson) or anything in between. Preferably ended series but alright if they are ongoing as long as the author is productive.
Indeed. The climax is really fantastic.
Not read Dresden Files?
Nope. In general, I do not like reading fantasy books set in our world, unless we are talking post apocalyptic ones.
Sounds good, I think this will keep me busy for a while looking at the page counts.
Mark Lawrence The Book of the Ancestor maybe?
Divine Cities Trilogy
@Revan Terry Pratchett?
First book of the Disc World series is hilarious, but if you want a good stand alone book: Small Gods.
First book of the Disc World series is hilarious, but if you want a good stand alone book: Small Gods.
Ok. So. Nona the Ninth. Loved the first book. Thought the second was reliant on a ridiculously obvious 'trick' but decent.
I'm 50% of the way through Nona and it's gone so far out there I'm not sure what to say. Should I have to wait to 50% of a book (or God knows when) to enjoy it?
Anyone else read it?
I'm 50% of the way through Nona and it's gone so far out there I'm not sure what to say. Should I have to wait to 50% of a book (or God knows when) to enjoy it?
Anyone else read it?
Absolutely loved the first book but could not finish the second...it was just meh and missed the spark of the first.
GtN is a masterpiece but I liked HtN a lot to be honest. Nona the Ninth is definitely a very different book, but, it's impossible not to love Nona
I liked it pretty much almost from the start so don't know what to say.
The finale pushes the plot forward in a BIG way, and the book gives a lot of background about John
Ok ,won't touch the spoiler bit for obvious reasons, but I don't ever not finish a book. Am just baffled as to why the authour is so reluctant to give us a relatively straight-forward narrative - she has really good world-building and characters, but the last two books feel very 'I'm totally not doing a normal book, look at MEEEE' imo.
I think you might enjoy web serials. The best three, all significantly better than most published books are:
- Worm, by Wildbow (John C. McCrae)
- A Practical Guide to Evil, by ErraticErrata (David Verberg)
- Mother of Learning, by Nobody103 (Domagoj Kurmaic)
I would also recommend the crack of progression fantasy stories, Cradle, by Will Wight.
Just bought the first book on Kindle. Thanks!
Thanks for the recommendation, did not hear about it before.
Reading Book 3 of Coiling Dragon, Baruch Rising. The story started very, very slow, with the MC as a young boy of 6! But the story has picked up considerable steam now and it is moving at a pretty good pace. Here's somebody whose cultivation pace is even faster than Lindon of Cradle!
And amazingly, it never stops. It's pure fun all the way to the end of the series!
Gideon was just brilliant! Harrow was a bit meh, as I guessed the plot from the get go, but the climax was a mind bender, so many details dumped. I really need to read the climax again before diving into Nona.
Will love to get your thoughts tbh. I liked exactly a third of that book, predictably, the stuff that actually had any meaning to the story
That is an extensive list of most of the big hitters.
Would add JV Jones's Sword of Shadows series, especially if you enjoyed the Northern parts of ASOIAF, rich characters and lore. There is an earlier series that leads into it, but it is not necessary to read, and it is nowhere near as good. However, fair warning the series may never be finished.
Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series is solid.
Thomas Covenant series, can ignore the last 3 books but the first 6 are very strong. A lot of people dump the series after a controversial early chapter and the main character, to put it mildly is not very likeable but the people and places around him are.
Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is incredibly good, if slow and a huge influence on ASOIAF ( Count the stuff that GRRM lifts directly and puts into Westeros). beautiful writing and if you can handle the slow pace and a young lead character actually acting like a dumb (but maturing) kid there is so much to love in it.
Some older stuff that is still excellent, Earthsea by Le Guin, McKillips Riddle Master of Hed, Katherine Kurtz's Denyri stuff.
Currently reading Jade City by Fonda Lee and it is shaping up to be a fav.
I was just about to add that.
Also the Rift Wars books by Raymond E. Feist.
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If you're willing to branch out from Western fantasy and try something new I would recommend the Legends of the Condor Heroes series by Jin Yong which now has the story completely translated officially into English. I haven't read this specific translation myself - I read the fan translations available 10+ years ago - but it's a high production value so should be a quality translation (although some of the names are different than the original/fan translations iirc).
You would have to unlearn some Western conventions especially if you aren't familiar with wuxia conventions but the stories are iconic as it gets for "martial arts fantasy" with numerous adaptations in film and TV (every 10 years or so all the Jin Yong stories get a new adaptation). Pretty much the entire Chinese influenced parts of the world know all the Jin Yong stories. Personally I strongly prefer wuxia to western fantasy but I know some of the conventions will feel different (external skills vs internal cultivation techniques as opposed to western wizard magic with "spells").
Now some way into Book 6 of Coiling Dragon ("The Four Divine Beasts"), but in the last couple of books a glaring inconsistency has been bugging me. Maybe you have an explanation:
In books 3-4 it was explained that the God level is reached by mastering one or more of the 6 'Profound Mysteries' underlying one of the Elemental Laws, and that the Highgod level is reached by fusing two or more of the Profound Mysteries. However, in Book 5 Linley managed to fuse about 3 of the Profound Mysteries in the Elemental Laws of the Wind, and in Book 6 he managed to perfectly fuse 3 of the Profound Mysteries in the Elemental Laws of the Earth. He is able to easily defeat 6-star Highgod Fiends (e.g., Ganmontin), and yet he remains at the God level? Is this just so Linley can hide his level from other potential opponents, or is there a rational explanation?
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Okay, I've read further into Book 6 and have now cleared up my misunderstanding above.
In order to reach Highgod one has to master all the Profound Mysteries in one Elemental Law. But, Linley learned that the Profound Mysteries are extremely difficult to fuse the further along one is to mastering them, and fusing the Profound Mysteries increases your battle strength in their application. So Linley has so far been more focused on fusing the Profound Mysteries together than in mastering them all. Fusing 4 of the Profound Mysteries within an Elemental Law increases one's power to the level of a 7-star Fiend, which is why Linley can easily defeat even other 7-star Fiends even though he still remains at the God level.
Good. I binge read it all early last year and don't really recollect the details! 
So I was doing a best reads of 2022 and here it is:
.
The Best:
A Practical Guide to Evil by Erratic Errata - One of the GOAT books that very few have read. A dark humour epic fantasy where the tropes are the plot themselves. Unique and spectacular!
The Rest (in no particular order)
Forge of Destiny by Yrsillar - A Asian fantasy that has some spectacular worldbuilding!
Desolate Era by I Eat Tomatoes - A stunning Cultivation/Progression fantasy that is simply a roller coaster fun read.
Portal To Nova Roma by J.R Matthews - A LitRPG lite of a AI who ends up time travelling back to Alternate Universe Rome.
Dreadgod (Cradle #11) by Will Wight - The penultimate book that left me begging for more!
Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer - A slice of life fantasy that super engaging and absolute joy to read.
Dead Star by Simon Kewin - Stellar epic sci-fi that won my heart in SPSFC competition.
Morcster Chef by Actus - A food based light LitRPG. Always puts a smile on me!
.
The Best:
A Practical Guide to Evil by Erratic Errata - One of the GOAT books that very few have read. A dark humour epic fantasy where the tropes are the plot themselves. Unique and spectacular!
The Rest (in no particular order)
Forge of Destiny by Yrsillar - A Asian fantasy that has some spectacular worldbuilding!
Desolate Era by I Eat Tomatoes - A stunning Cultivation/Progression fantasy that is simply a roller coaster fun read.
Portal To Nova Roma by J.R Matthews - A LitRPG lite of a AI who ends up time travelling back to Alternate Universe Rome.
Dreadgod (Cradle #11) by Will Wight - The penultimate book that left me begging for more!
Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer - A slice of life fantasy that super engaging and absolute joy to read.
Dead Star by Simon Kewin - Stellar epic sci-fi that won my heart in SPSFC competition.
Morcster Chef by Actus - A food based light LitRPG. Always puts a smile on me!
I agree with your choice of APGtE as best read of 2022, though in my case it is close to a 3-way tie with Cradle #11 and Mother of Learning
Next on my list, now that I'm about to finish Coiling Dragon, is Desolate Era. Forge of Destiny is still on-going is it not?
The final book in Mistborn 2nd era was alright. It finally explicitly mentions the main antagonist (although pretty much everyone was expecting who it is), and it did an alright job in finishing the series.
Saying that, I do not think it ever went near the heights of the first trilogy, and the stakes were nowhere that high (at least did not feel like that). I think it is several levels below Mistborn 1 and Stormlight, or maybe it is just the Cosmere fatigue on me.
Saying that, I do not think it ever went near the heights of the first trilogy, and the stakes were nowhere that high (at least did not feel like that). I think it is several levels below Mistborn 1 and Stormlight, or maybe it is just the Cosmere fatigue on me.
I think it is guaranteed that Autonomy will be the main villain in Mistborn 3, and might be the overall final villain in Cosmere. Many thought that Odin is the main villain, but it has been discussed for years that Autonomy is the main villain of the story. Kelsier on the other hand will play a larger role in the next sagas IMO, and I wouldn’t rule out if by the end of Cosmere, he will be the new Adonalsium. Although, I would have preferred if he had remained dead.
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Desolate Era is finished. FoD is still ongoing, with 3 or 4 books out.
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I think you mean Mistborn Era 2. Cosmere is just the universe in which his major books are situated.
By "Cosmere fatigue" do you mean for all his Cosmere books or for just Mistborn?
Yep, Mistborn Era 2, sorry.
Having a bit of Cosmere fatigue at this stage. Have read everything in that universe, but to be fair only Mistborn Era 1 and Stormlight were great, and in case of Stormlight, I think Book 4 was considerably weaker.
My favorites are Mistborn Final Empire and Stormlight The Way of Kings which happen to be the first books in their respective sagas.