Books Fantasy Reads

23 (counting too the one serie I am updated)

I was expecting a worse score with all the first-book-only I have read.


Reading a french fantasy book and I am now quite suspicious of all the blogs I read that praised it since the first chapters were so stereotyped, it's a wonder nearly noone seemed to notice it. Still reading the Dragon Griaule, I am not sure if I liked better the stories 3 and 4 because I accepted more the kind of stories they are or that they were more interesting. If I don't like it enough, I should probably do something else than browse the list of "Fantasy Masterwork" of Gollantz and pick a name because it sounds nice.
 
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And i cheated a bit with movies of the book and books i gave up mid way through.
Expected it to be lower really
 
I just got the new Michael Moorcock fantasy/autobiography, The Whispering Swarm.
Anyone here read it yet?
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Simon R Green's Secret Histories seems interesting. Anyone has read that?
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OK, just finished the first book, The Man with the Golden Torc. James Bond meets fantasy. Literally. The lead characters undercover name is Shaman Bond! Fancy cars with machine guns and flamethrowers fighting against elves and monsters! The characters are named so Janissary Jane, Mad Molly, villains are called Dr. Delirium Mr. Stab etc. Absolutely cannot take this seriously! I'd grade it for YA's. No depth to characters or story

Since I spend time getting this to my phone, I read the 2nd book "Daemons are forever" half way. Can't do it no more guv. Goodbye Simon R Green.

Don't bother!
 
Finished Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth, kind of historical book that includes the retelling of Rapunzel. Quite interesting even if I liked better the fairy tale than the french and more realistic part.

I have started Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb.
 
The Path of Daggers is taking me forever. Some of the sections are interesting, but then they cut to a different set of characters and it takes me a while to get back into that character's story. Usually I have no problem with that, but the cuts are really jarring here.
 
celia said:
Finished Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth, kind of historical book that includes the retelling of Rapunzel. Quite interesting even if I liked better the fairy tale than the french and more realistic part.
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This reminded me of a book that i read years ago. Really cant remember its name now though and its going to drive me nuts for the day.
Its a novel about a family in midwest america (probably) who adopt a whiskey drinking duck. Its kind of a modern fairytale.
Title was the name of the duck and was like 4 letters or something.
Puck? ... nah. Thats going to really annoy me.

It was good anyway, I should read that again.
 
caid said:
going to drive me nuts for the day.
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It did and it will.
On the upside i did find a guide to slapping your children right.

Ah well it was a crap recommendation for a fantasy thread. I'm reading the last 2 books of game of thrones atm. I started at the first but just skipped a bunch.
Its a good read second time through, a lot of foreshadowing, a lot of funny little references you'd miss the first time.
A pretty strong reminder of how crap the last season of the tv show was too though.
 
Finished the Riyria Revelations. The story is great and is fast paced, the Main Characters are quite good, but there is the constant feeling of it lacking something.
Was it ever mentioned how Royce lost his amulet or was it lost before he was born as he didn't seem to recollect ever possessing it.
 
harshad said:
Finished the Riyria Revelations. The story is great and is fast paced, the Main Characters are quite good, but there is the constant feeling of it lacking something.
Was it ever mentioned how Royce lost his amulet or was it lost before he was born as he didn't seem to recollect ever possessing it.
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Sounds about right, I'd say it mostly lacks a bit of originality and depth, but then again it's not intended to have either of those.
Can't remember very clearly, but wasn't it taken by Hadrian's dad when he was a baby because he thought Royce had died along with Royce's parents?
 
I've finished the first book, Hawkwood's Voyage of the Monarchies of God series by Paul Kearney and I have to say it's pretty good. War, politics and religion. It's also quite short which was why I picked it up. The series has got some good reviews and so far I can see why. Well worth reading. I think you'll like this @Revan

caid said:
I'm reading the last 2 books of game of thrones atm. I started at the first but just skipped a bunch.
Its a good read second time through, a lot of foreshadowing, a lot of funny little references you'd miss the first time.
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The last 2 books feature some of his his best writing imo. The Septon Maribald bits in Feast and especially the Theon arc in the Dance are some of the best pieces of writing I have seen. Also, Euron's monologue in the Kingsmoot is just all kinds of awesome!
 
Akash said:
The last 2 books feature some of his his best writing imo. The Septon Maribald bits in Feast and especially the Theon arc in the Dance are some of the best pieces of writing I have seen. Also, Euron's monologue in the Kingsmoot is just all kinds of awesome!
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Septon Maribald just showed up in last chapter i read and didn't really pay much attention to him the first time out.
He's a good character alright. Funny who much i missed and didn't pay attention to.
I guess when some characters are dying between chapters (like the priest dwarf brienne meets in ... duskendale i think) its easier when you know 'oh that guys importantish'
 
caid said:
It did and it will.
On the upside i did find a guide to slapping your children right.

Ah well it was a crap recommendation for a fantasy thread. I'm reading the last 2 books of game of thrones atm. I started at the first but just skipped a bunch.
Its a good read second time through, a lot of foreshadowing, a lot of funny little references you'd miss the first time.
A pretty strong reminder of how crap the last season of the tv show was too though.
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You following the 'Boiled Leather Reading Order' for the joint reading of Feast and Dance?
 
caid said:
Never heard of it but i guess i will now
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Oh. I misread. For some reason I thought you were re-reading the last two books of ASOIAF.

If you are reading it for the first time then read Feast first and then Dance. For re-reading, following the Boiled Leather Reading Order would be better as you already know what to expect.
 
harshad said:
Oh. I misread. For some reason I thought you were re-reading the last two books of ASOIAF.

If you are reading it for the first time then read Feast first and then Dance. For re-reading, following the Boiled Leather Reading Order would be better as you already know what to expect.
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No i've read them before, just didn't know the term.
I'm about half way through a feast for crows now so a bit late to start. Its a good idea though.
 
The fantasy forum I'm a member of is starting to run a series of tournaments which should be pretty fun. Anyone is welcome to come along and vote or join the discussion, and I thought I'd post the link here since some of you might be interested.

They're knockout competitions just like cups in football, and the first one is "favourite fantasy series". Forum members nominated their favourites, and then that list of 100+ series was cut down to a list of 32. Future tournaments include favourite sci-fi, favourite fantasy standalone, favourite characters, etc. Here's the table for the first one:

2cncgaf.jpg
 
Raptori said:
The fantasy forum I'm a member of is starting to run a series of tournaments which should be pretty fun. Anyone is welcome to come along and vote or join the discussion, and I thought I'd post the link here since some of you might be interested.
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Blocked in office. Will vote in site later...

A - Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
B - I think ASOIAF is the darling of mainstream fantasy fans and will win.
C - Farseer
D - First Law vs Night Angel is tough. Loved Night Angel, but First Law takes the vote.
E - LotR
F - Lightbringer (though I haven't read it it gets the vote because I hate Narnia)
G - Mistborn vs Black Magician is another that is quite close. Trudi Canavan's series was ver very good. Mistborn shades it...slightly.
H - WoT vs Stornlight Archive is so not fair. Love both. But will vote WoT simpley because the series is complete.
I - Haven't read either.
J - Dresden Files
K - Haven't read either.
L - Malazan
M - Kingkiller (though I love Harry Potter too) Tough draw for Harry!
N - Discworld (I'm just starting on Earthsea).
O - Haven't read either.
P - Haven't read either.
 
Raptori said:
The fantasy forum I'm a member of is starting to run a series of tournaments which should be pretty fun. Anyone is welcome to come along and vote or join the discussion, and I thought I'd post the link here since some of you might be interested.

They're knockout competitions just like cups in football, and the first one is "favourite fantasy series". Forum members nominated their favourites, and then that list of 100+ series was cut down to a list of 32. Future tournaments include favourite sci-fi, favourite fantasy standalone, favourite characters, etc. Here's the table for the first one:

2cncgaf.jpg
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There isn't a single match when I have read both of the series, so would be a bit unfair if I vote. I'll predict ASOIAF defeating Malazan in the final.

Very strange to not see Prince of Nothing there. It is one of the most rated series from the elitists (similar to Malazan).

I guess that the matching wasn't random. Wheel of Time vs Stormligh, Harry Potter vs Kingskiller. Very similar books paired to each other.
 
@Edgar Allan Pillow I'm gonna go with:

A - Liveships (haven't read Thomas Covenant).
B - Powder Mage (haven't read ASOIAF) - though I'm pretty certain ASOIAF is one of only a handful of series that could win the entire thing.
C - Farseer.
D - Haven't read either.
E - No vote - haven't read Codex Alera, don't consider LotR a favourite.
F - Haven't read either.
G - Mistborn (haven't read Black Magician).
H - Stormlight, probably because I'm currently at the worst point of WoT so that's colouring my impression of it!
I - Gentleman Bastards. Hated Amber with a passion, GB was fun.
J - Riyria (haven't read Dresden).
K - Haven't read either.
L - Long Price. Tried Malazan once but couldn't get through it, want to try it again some time though.
M - Harry Potter. Didn't like the second Kingkiller much.
N - No vote - I didn't really like Earthsea much and I've only read one Discworld novel.
O - HDM (haven't read Dragonlance).
P - Ketty Jay (haven't read MST).

Revan said:
There isn't a single match when I have read both of the series, so would be a bit unfair if I vote. I'll predict ASOIAF defeating Malazan in the final.
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On that, the guy running it said this:
The question that has come up is how you should vote if you haven't read one of the series in the poll.

Scenario #1 - You have read one series and it's a legitimate favorite but have not read the other.
In this case where one of your legitimate favorite series is in the poll go ahead and vote for it. We all want our favorites to move on and so I have no issue if you vote that way.

Scenario #2 - You have read one series and it's OK but would not consider it one of your favorites.
This is a bit of a grey area as it deals with degrees of likes and dislikes but personally I would abstain in this case.

Scenario #3 - You haven't read any of the series.
This is a pretty obvious don't vote.

Scenario #4 - You have only read one series and really disliked it.
Another tricky area but I would also abstain because you may dislike the other series more.
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So if I were you I'd go in and vote for your favourites as he said! Can definitely see that being the final, two really popular series.

Revan said:
Very strange to not see Prince of Nothing there. It is one of the most rated series from the elitists (similar to Malazan).
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I don't think it even got a single nomination actually, it's not in the spreadsheet at least!

Revan said:
I guess that the matching wasn't random. Wheel of Time vs Stormligh, Harry Potter vs Kingskiller. Very similar books paired to each other.
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All 32 series were ranked from most nominations to fewest nominations, and then seeded according to that (the seed number is on the left of the series title). Really weird that there are several that match so well.
 
A - Liveships wins this hands down, even though the Thomas Covenant books aren't bad either.
B - Song of Ice and Fire is very good, but I haven't read Powder Mage.
C - Farseer, not read the other one.
D - Not read them.
E - LotR.
F - Nope.
G - Really hard choice. Neither series is perfect, but both are fantastic reads. Black Magician Series just shades it for me.
H - Stormlight Archive is another excellent series. Not read WoT.
I, J, K - Nope.
L - Long Price Quartet. I haven't read it, but I did start Malazan and didn't like that one at all.
M - Tough one, but I'd have to go with Harry Potter.
N, O - Discworld and His Dark Materials are both pretty decent, not read their respective opponents
P - Nope, again.
 
@ctp you should go join and vote. ;)

Night Angel vs First Law is really close, Liveships vs TC and Farseer vs Eli Monpress are really one sided (roughly 5:1 vote ratio), and ASOIAF is actually only winning by 2:1 over Powder Mage at the moment - though that last one has the most votes so far so it'd take a lot for Powder Mage to win. Aside from the first one I expected all of those four to be pretty one sided, the more interesting ones come later. :cool:
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
You're missing out big time. Both are really good books. As is Dresden Files. Get into them if you get time.
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Actually we bought the First Law recently, just haven't had a chance to get to them yet since I'm in the middle of both WoT and Gentleman Bastard! Looking forward to it. Night Angel I've read a bit of but ended up reading something else instead, plan to give it another go sometime. Always been dubious about Dresden though, never been a fan of UF, but everyone seems to enjoy them so I'll probably give them a chance at some point. :)
 
One thing for this forums is that somehow they have only similar posters. For example, in pretty much every forum ASOIAF would be in top 3-4 (and almost certainly in the first place), but here it seems to have been the series with the 16th most nominations. I would give a guess that this forum adores Hobb.

In ASOIAF main forum, Abercrombie and Bakker seems to be regarded as demigods, but Jordan and Sanderson are very underrated.

The best one is probably reddit cause the posters seem to be very different to each other. There was a strtaight voting competition some time ago, when unsurprisingly ASOIAF won, with the likes of LOTR, WoT, MBotF and Kingskiller being in top 5. In fact, it is very likely that this 5 series are by far the most rated fantasy series in average. But then it depends, oldies would probably like LotR, nerds would like Malazan etc.

Also, a voting for the best series ever which despite having 32 entries don't have The Black Company, shouldn't be taken seriously, right?
 
A - No vote, reading Ships of magic, the first book of the other serie is in my long TBR
B - No vote, gave up ASOIAF after the 2nb book, haven't read any of the 2nd serie
C - Farseer trilogy, Legend of Eli Monpres is on my TBR
D - No vote, will skip it since I only read the first book of First law and didn't really like it
E - LOR
F - Narnia
G - Obviously Mistborn. I find the other partly predictable (The first book drags too long to go where it would obviously go
I was waiting for Sorcha being finally caught and send to learn magic nearly from the start, and it happens at half of the book
I am usually annoyed when the author hints too strongly something than the MC fails to see and I just wait that she understands, moreover it kills all tension when you know the MC isn't in the danger she believes she is.) and I was hoping a better book.
H - I will go for Stormlight only because I read two books against one.
I - Gentlemen Bastards, only read the first book of each
J - No vote, read the first book of each, didn't like either
K - Haven't read either
L - No vote, only read the first book of Malazan, but won't vote for it
M - HP since I feel more inclined to reread HP than read the 2nd book of KC.
N - Discworld (though I dislike more the first book of Disworld than the first of earthsea)
O - Dark Materials
P - Haven't read either

No Dragon Temeraire either. I am really surprised by Eli Moonpress, I thought it wasn't a really well-known book, I only know about it because of another not-fantasy book of the author.
 
Revan said:
One thing for this forums is that somehow they have only similar posters. For example, in pretty much every forum ASOIAF would be in top 3-4 (and almost certainly in the first place), but here it seems to have been the series with the 16th most nominations. I would give a guess that this forum adores Hobb.

In ASOIAF main forum, Abercrombie and Bakker seems to be regarded as demigods, but Jordan and Sanderson are very underrated.

The best one is probably reddit cause the posters seem to be very different to each other. There was a strtaight voting competition some time ago, when unsurprisingly ASOIAF won, with the likes of LOTR, WoT, MBotF and Kingskiller being in top 5. In fact, it is very likely that this 5 series are by far the most rated fantasy series in average. But then it depends, oldies would probably like LotR, nerds would like Malazan etc.

Also, a voting for the best series ever which despite having 32 entries don't have The Black Company, shouldn't be taken seriously, right?
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Not really, there are loads of people there who can't stand Hobb for example, and pretty much everyone there likes ASOIAF. Not sure why it only received an average number of nominations - it came in joint sixth. I guess there just happened to be fewer ASOIAF fans in the smaller section of people who were around when the nominations happened. I'm pretty sure the series you mention will be the ones that reach the top, since those are the ones that are most popular on the forum (and everywhere else).

It's not meant to be "best series ever" since it's impossible to work out criteria for that, which is the reason they called it "favourites" instead. If it was "best series" I'd be torn if LotR was matched with one of my personal favourites, but since this is just about what you enjoyed the most it makes it a lot easier. And besides, one of the reasons they're doing it is to draw more people to the forum. :)
 
Raptori said:
Not really, there are loads of people there who can't stand Hobb for example, and pretty much everyone there likes ASOIAF. Not sure why it only received an average number of nominations - it came in joint sixth. I guess there just happened to be fewer ASOIAF fans in the smaller section of people who were around when the nominations happened. I'm pretty sure the series you mention will be the ones that reach the top, since those are the ones that are most popular on the forum (and everywhere else).

It's not meant to be "best series ever" since it's impossible to work out criteria for that, which is the reason they called it "favourites" instead. If it was "best series" I'd be torn if LotR was matched with one of my personal favourites, but since this is just about what you enjoyed the most it makes it a lot easier. And besides, one of the reasons they're doing it is to draw more people to the forum. :)
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People just might not have nominated it in favour of some more obscure book they enjoyed.
Polls are just a bit of fun anyway
 
caid said:
People just might not have nominated it in favour of some more obscure book they enjoyed.
Polls are just a bit of fun anyway
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Yep, and since most people nominated similar stories but all had a couple of random ones, there were a handful with loads of votes and then dozens with just a couple, so it's easy for something more unknown to get in. There are a few people there who really love Eli Monpress for example, so it got three nominations and made the cut even though the majority won't have read it. :p
 
A - Liveships
B - ASOIAF
C - Farseer
D - No vote
E - LOTR
F - No vote
G - No vote
H - WOT
I - Chronicles of Amber (by a mile)
J - No vote
K - No vote
L - Malazan
M - Potter
N - Discworld
O - Dragonlance
P - No vote
 
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