Books Fantasy Reads

Firefight - Brandon Sanderson
(Sequel to Steelheart in the Reckoners Series)

Brilliant sequel, though story drops pace with some teenage romance, just a page or two here and there....but it shows. Cliffhanger ending, that makes you eagerly await the final book next month.

Rating: 7.5 / 10
 
Reading "The Born queen" (fourth and final volume of Kingdom of Bone and Thorne) by Greg Keyes right now. All in all a very good series.

Next one from the pile might be Acacia trilogy (have read 1+2 some years back and recently bought book 3 so might do a reread) or Bloodsong.
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
Reading "The Born queen" (fourth and final volume of Kingdom of Bone and Thorne) by Greg Keyes right now. All in all a very good series.

Next one from the pile might be Acacia trilogy (have read 1+2 some years back and recently bought book 3 so might do a reread) or Bloodsong.
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Cannot stress this enough: either read just the first book of Raven's Shawod (Blood Song), or avoid it like the plague.

The first book is brilliant and has complete closure. Every reader should stop there.

Second book is acceptable, but it doesn't have closure so then it requires to read the third book. Which is absolutely horrific, one of the dumbest piece of shit I have ever had the misfortune of reading. Imagine the worst book in Wheel of Time, make it 20 times less complicated, make every character there dumb with writing which would get a poster banned from the Caf, and with an ending which makes the Mass Effect 3' ending look brilliant. That bad? Absolutely no. It is actually far worse.

So, read the first book and stop there. Brilliant book and it has more closure than reading the end of the trilogy.
 
Revan said:
Cannot stress this enough: either read just the first book of Raven's Shawod (Blood Song), or avoid it like the plague.

The first book is brilliant and has complete closure. Every reader should stop there.

Second book is acceptable, but it doesn't have closure so then it requires to read the third book. Which is absolutely horrific, one of the dumbest piece of shit I have ever had the misfortune of reading. Imagine the worst book in Wheel of Time, make it 20 times less complicated, make every character there dumb with writing which would get a poster banned from the Caf, and with an ending which makes the Mass Effect 3' ending look brilliant. That bad? Absolutely no. It is actually far worse.

So, read the first book and stop there. Brilliant book and it has more closure than reading the end of the trilogy.
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Haha thanks man. So Blood Song is basically a standalone?
 
Thoughts on the Broken Empire trilogy?
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
Haha thanks man. So Blood Song is basically a standalone?
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It works well as a standalone.

Basically, it was made as a standalone and was self published. It has some good success and then later some publishing company got the rights of the book and so Anthony Ryan made a contract to continue the story for another two books. From everything I read in those book, I think that Blood Song was definitely meant to be a standalone, but after its success they decided to milk it.
Waldner said:
Thoughts on the Broken Empire trilogy?
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Jorg - the main character - is absolutely fantastic. The writing is good, the story is decent, the characters are quite good. Overall, a quite enjoyable trilogy.

Saying that, it is absolutely dark and grim so it might not be for everyone. Imagine a less polished and interesting version of Abercrombie, but slightly darker.
 
Finished The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron [Traitor Son Cycle 03]. So I saw it isn't a trilogy anymore like it was expected at first. A more satisfying book than the 2nd (mostly bc the 2nd spent lot of pages setting things for the 3rd).
 
So I'm trying, for the third time now, to read WoT. I've never before made it past book eight and so far I'm on book four. I really want to finish it as it's such a great story and I admire Jordan's vision but my god, every character is so incomprehensibly dumb. Their complete inability to put 2+2 together or see what's right in front of their eyes is just too frustrating.
 
SmashedHombre said:
So I'm trying, for the third time now, to read WoT. I've never before made it past book eight and so far I'm on book four. I really want to finish it as it's such a great story and I admire Jordan's vision but my god, every character is so incomprehensibly dumb. Their complete inability to put 2+2 together or see what's right in front of their eyes is just too frustrating.
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In what book you're now?

Remember that Sanderson fixes it. Book 9 and 10 are the only ones which I struggled to read.
 
Revan said:
In what book you're now?

Remember that Sanderson fixes it. Book 9 and 10 are the only ones which I struggled to read.
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Halfway through book 4. But I've lost count of the number of genuinely stupid conversations or plot lines that have taken place. For example the most recent one I read; they're discussing the Forsaken after just killing two in Tear. Moraine points out that there's very likely to be a Forsaken infiltrating the leadership of almost every country.

IN THE VERY NEXT CONVERSATION Elayne and Egwene talk about the new mysterious Lord who seems to be manipulating Queen Morgase, leader of Andor and how he came out of nowhere and it's all very mysterious. But not one person, not even Moraine, seems to link this new mysterious Lord infiltrating the leadership of Andor to the fact that the mysterious Forsaken are infiltrating the leadership of all the other countries. How can no one pick up on the fact that this new Lord might just possible be a Forsaken? Instead it's just a casual conversation about boys and marriage. Hurrr durrr.

Not to mention the fact that two minutes later Egwene is meeting with Rand and says 'I think you're probably as strong as me' (in channeling). Yeah, the lad has already killed two Forsaken at this point and is destined to fight the Dark One plus, you know, he is the reincarnation of the most powerful source wielder of all time. Yes Egwene, I'm sure you who haven't even made it to Aes Sedai yet are at least as powerful as the Dragon Reborn. No doubt.
 
SmashedHombre said:
Halfway through book 4. But I've lost count of the number of genuinely stupid conversations or plot lines that have taken place. For example the most recent one I read; they're discussing the Forsaken after just killing two in Tear. Moraine points out that there's very likely to be a Forsaken infiltrating the leadership of almost every country.

IN THE VERY NEXT CONVERSATION Elayne and Egwene talk about the new mysterious Lord who seems to be manipulating Queen Morgase, leader of Andor and how he came out of nowhere and it's all very mysterious. But not one person, not even Moraine, seems to link this new mysterious Lord infiltrating the leadership of Andor to the fact that the mysterious Forsaken are infiltrating the leadership of all the other countries. How can no one pick up on the fact that this new Lord might just possible be a Forsaken? Instead it's just a casual conversation about boys and marriage. Hurrr durrr.

Not to mention the fact that two minutes later Egwene is meeting with Rand and says 'I think you're probably as strong as me' (in channeling). Yeah, the lad has already killed two Forsaken at this point and is destined to fight the Dark One plus, you know, he is the reincarnation of the most powerful source wielder of all time. Yes Egwene, I'm sure you who haven't even made it to Aes Sedai yet are at least as powerful as the Dragon Reborn. No doubt.
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:lol:

Yep, there are moments like that.

To be fair to Egwene, Rand was able to channel only when he was in some type of trans. He couldn't control it yet to channel as good as Egwene.
 
Revan said:
:lol:

Yep, there are moments like that.

To be fair to Egwene, Rand was able to channel only when he was in some type of trans. He couldn't control it yet to channel as good as Egwene.
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There are too many moments like that. Mat taking the dagger for instance. Moraine warned them that Mordeth would have tainted everything in Shadar Logoth and that everything was dangerous. Rand finds out Mat stole a dagger from Mordeth as well as noticing Mat's mood changing and him becoming darker and darker. Yet Rand seemed incapable of connecting the two incidents. I mean come on.

Bleh I'm just not a big fan of the female characters tbh. Moraine is awesome and I like Perrin's bird (pun intended). And the spear sisters are cool. But the trio of Egwene, Elayne and Nyneave I mostly speed read through their chapters. They're all so stuck up. Especially Nyneave who is just a total bitch. I don't know why any of them puts up with her.
 
SmashedHombre said:
There are too many moments like that. Mat taking the dagger for instance. Moraine warned them that Mordeth would have tainted everything in Shadar Logoth and that everything was dangerous. Rand finds out Mat stole a dagger from Mordeth as well as noticing Mat's mood changing and him becoming darker and darker. Yet Rand seemed incapable of connecting the two incidents. I mean come on.

Bleh I'm just not a big fan of the female characters tbh. Moraine is awesome and I like Perrin's bird (pun intended). And the spear sisters are cool. But the trio of Egwene, Elayne and Nyneave I mostly speed read through their chapters. They're all so stuck up. Especially Nyneave who is just a total bitch. I don't know why any of them puts up with her.
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Moiraine was really awesome. My favorite character in any fantasy saga.

Nyn is a total bitch, but she improves later (similar to Aviendha). I also thought that Egwene improves, though a lot of people seem to dislike it more later. On the other side, I couldn't stand Elayne in the last few books, despite that she started better than Egwene and Nynaeve.

Rand is totally dumb, so no surprise that he didn't find it. On the other side, Moiraine not understanding the identity of that guy who controls Morgase is out of the character. Moiraine is the Sherlock Holmes of that world. Maybe she was busy preparing for Lanfear (with that vision she had) and couldn't think much for other things.
 
SmashedHombre said:
There are too many moments like that. Mat taking the dagger for instance. Moraine warned them that Mordeth would have tainted everything in Shadar Logoth and that everything was dangerous. Rand finds out Mat stole a dagger from Mordeth as well as noticing Mat's mood changing and him becoming darker and darker. Yet Rand seemed incapable of connecting the two incidents. I mean come on.

Bleh I'm just not a big fan of the female characters tbh. Moraine is awesome and I like Perrin's bird (pun intended). And the spear sisters are cool. But the trio of Egwene, Elayne and Nyneave I mostly speed read through their chapters. They're all so stuck up. Especially Nyneave who is just a total bitch. I don't know why any of them puts up with her.
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If its of any help, as the story progresses Nynaeve keeps getting better and Egwene keeps getting worse.
 
Revan said:
Moiraine was really awesome. My favorite character in any fantasy saga.

Nyn is a total bitch, but she improves later (similar to Aviendha). I also thought that Egwene improves, though a lot of people seem to dislike it more later. On the other side, I couldn't stand Elayne in the last few books, despite that she started better than Egwene and Nynaeve.

Rand is totally dumb, so no surprise that he didn't find it. On the other side, Moiraine not understanding the identity of that guy who controls Morgase is out of the character. Moiraine is the Sherlock Holmes of that world. Maybe she was busy preparing for Lanfear (with that vision she had) and couldn't think much for other things.
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From what I can remember of Elayne, most of her chapters just involve her trying on different dresses. But it's been a while since I last read the series so I've forgotten most of it. Rand should just hook up with Lanfear. She's way better than Elayne. I know she's evil through and through, but at least she has personality. Or just hit on Moraine. It's what I would do. (I actually have no idea if any of this happens, I haven't read the series in a good 8-10 years.)

Moraine and Lan are dons. The story should have just been Rand, Mat, Perrin, Thom, Loial, Moraine and Lan taking on the dark forces. It'd be infinitely better.
 
SmashedHombre said:
From what I can remember of Elayne, most of her chapters just involve her trying on different dresses. But it's been a while since I last read the series so I've forgotten most of it. Rand should just hook up with Lanfear. She's way better than Elayne. I know she's evil through and through, but at least she has personality. Or just hit on Moraine. It's what I would do. (I actually have no idea if any of this happens, I haven't read the series in a good 8-10 years.)

Moraine and Lan are dons. The story should have just been Rand, Mat, Perrin, Thom, Loial, Moraine and Lan taking on the dark forces. It'd be infinitely better.
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Yep, Rand with Lanfear would have been awesome. She's hotter, less stupid and more powerful than Elayne.

Elayne is always like that. Making plans in the heat of the moment which pretty much always fail.

Moiraine and Lan are really great. I also liked Siuan Sanche a lot. It is quite interesting how Jordan was from unspectacular to bad when it comes to protagonists (bar the latter version of Mat, of course), but was very good when it comes to supporting crew (Moiraine, Lan, Thom, Siuan, Min, Logain etc).
 
Revan said:
Yep, Rand with Lanfear would have been awesome. She's hotter, less stupid and more powerful than Elayne.

Elayne is always like that. Making plans in the heat of the moment which pretty much always fail.

Moiraine and Lan are really great. I also liked Siuan Sanche a lot. It is quite interesting how Jordan was from unspectacular to bad when it comes to protagonists (bar the latter version of Mat, of course), but was very good when it comes to supporting crew (Moiraine, Lan, Thom, Siuan, Min, Logain etc).
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Ah yeah I forgot about Min. She's cool so she can stay in my newly remoddled WoT series. I didn't realise Logain became a strong supporting character though. That's interesting. You're right though, most of the main protagonists are the worst characters. Perrin I like but he's just so mopey (can't we just replace him with Elyas instead?), Mat is a moron for 3/4 of the story and the girls are just awful most of the time. If Jordan just removed all the girl's pointless arguments the series would probabaly only be six books long. Like he originally planned.
 
SmashedHombre said:
Ah yeah I forgot about Min. She's cool so she can stay in my newly remoddled WoT series. I didn't realise Logain became a strong supporting character though. That's interesting. You're right though, most of the main protagonists are the worst characters. Perrin I like but he's just so mopey (can't we just replace him with Elyas instead?), Mat is a moron for 3/4 of the story and the girls are just awful most of the time. If Jordan just removed all the girl's pointless arguments the series would probabaly only be six books long. Like he originally planned.
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He is anything but a moron in the series. He just doesn't want to get tangled with Rand and his destiny. In fact, its around Book 4 and 5 that he really comes into his own.
 
harshad said:
He is anything but a moron in the series. He just doesn't want to get tangled with Rand and his destiny. In fact, its around Book 4 and 5 that he really comes into his own.
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He's on Nynaeve level of being a bitch/moron until the book 5 (Fires of Heaven). But from book 5 and later, he is the best character in the serie.
 
harshad said:
He is anything but a moron in the series. He just doesn't want to get tangled with Rand and his destiny. In fact, its around Book 4 and 5 that he really comes into his own.
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Well I'm only on book 4. I like Mat but he has been a moron up until this point. I've no doubt he gets better, you can see right from the off how Jordan is painting Mat's character arc. Dumb kid to master general (or whatever title he gets, I can't remember at this point), but that doesn't change the fact that for four books you do have to put up with him as a dumb kid. Which is fine. Most kids are dumb. Fortunately Thom's character does counteract that.
 
Revan said:
He's on Nynaeve level of being a bitch/moron until the book 5 (Fires of Heaven). But from book 5 and later, he is the best character in the serie.
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Yeah I vaguely remember him being my favourite apart from Moraine. It takes a hell of a long time to reach the point where he becomes my favourite though!
 
Revan said:
He's on Nynaeve level of being a bitch/moron until the book 5 (Fires of Heaven). But from book 5 and later, he is the best character in the serie.
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Yeah until Fires of Heaven he doesn't have much control over which direction he wants to go and suddenly finds himself surrounded by people channelling the One Power. He also doesn't recollect a major chunk of recent events and he blames all the misfortune that befalls him on people channelling and trying to control him. He just doesn't want anything to do with the One Power and people using it.
 
SmashedHombre said:
Well I'm only on book 4. I like Mat but he has been a moron up until this point. I've no doubt he gets better, you can see right from the off how Jordan is painting Mat's character arc. Dumb kid to master general (or whatever title he gets, I can't remember at this point), but that doesn't change the fact that for four books you do have to put up with him as a dumb kid. Which is fine. Most kids are dumb. Fortunately Thom's character does counteract that.
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I think you are being too harsh on him by seeing him as a dumb kid for the one act of taking the Dagger. But then I guess I am just biased towards Mat.

I do hope you complete the series though. It gets better toward the end and picks up proper pace from Book 10 onwards.
 
Revan said:
I also thought that Egwene improves, though a lot of people seem to dislike it more later.
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She just transforms into a small town bitch to a global head of women channelers bitch. I especially hate her during the below segment...

During the reuniting of two towers part where she orders penance to rebel Aes Sedai, but says she herself is not just a rebel, but represents the tower as a whole or something like that. How stuck up your own ass do you have to be to say that?

Her only redeeming act was to reinvent to flame of tar valon when dying.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
She just transforms into a small town bitch to a global head of women channelers bitch. I especially hate her during the below segment...

During the reuniting of two towers part where she orders penance to rebel Aes Sedai, but says she herself is not just a rebel, but represents the tower as a whole or something like that. How stuck up your own ass do you have to be to say that?

Her only redeeming act was to reinvent to flame of tar valon when dying.
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She also saved the Tower when Tuon decided to attack.

Killing Messana who has been controlling the tower.

Together with Mat winning the final battle.

And of course, helping Rand in the end.

She acted the bitch for some time, but lets not forget that she was 19 years old and one of the most powerful person in the world, in a very difficult situation.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Every main character was about the same age, right?
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Rand, Perrin and Mat were around 1.5 years older than Egwene/Elayne, with Nyn being around a decade older than the others IIRC.

To be fair, all of them acted the twat at some stages. Elayne being the worst of them near the ending.
 
Finished Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke. It is a first contact book (like all Clarke's books) with a bit of mysterious stuff behind it (like all Clarke's books).

Very nicely written though. And quite enjoyable.
 
Revan said:
I am at the middle of the third book now.

I think that the first two books were quite good, especially the second. The main character is a Reynolds wannabe, and the second book has a fantastic character. I think that the writers did quite a good job on building the 'world' while they also kept some mysterious feeling. The writing is decent, but not more than that.

It certainly isn't a masterpiece, but I am finding it quite enjoyable. Anyway, there isn't much good sci-fi (compared with fantasy) so I would recommend it.

A TV adaptation of it has started (the pilot was this week), while the next episode will be on December 12. I thought that they did a very good job on pilot, and it looks to be like the live child of Battlestar Galactica and Firefly.
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I finished the first two. First was interesting, second was very good. About to start on 3rd one tomorrow.

I think the main character is a bit poorly written. He doesn't fit any mould. He's an impulsive hothead who's in over his head one moment to a reluctant hero who volunteers to go charging into his death the other. From caring captain one moment to a unthinking and reckless the other. Also sad that they've not gone into the backstory of main characters in detail even after 2 books.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
I finished the first two. First was interesting, second was very good. About to start on 3rd one tomorrow.

I think the main character is a bit poorly written. He doesn't fit any mould. He's an impulsive hothead who's in over his head one moment to a reluctant hero who volunteers to go charging into his death the other. From caring captain one moment to a unthinking and reckless the other. Also sad that they've not gone into the backstory of main characters in detail even after 2 books.
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I'm still halfway through the first and Holden just comes off as kind of an idiot for most of it so far.

I saw the first episode of the TV show too, it was actually not bad and pretty faithful as far as TV shows go.
 
Holden is a idiot, esp in 1st book. His character reminds me of Thomas Covenant. I don't find his POV that interesting at all. Bumbling stupid.
Avasarela is a far interesting POV character and best of first 2 books. Her political battles with Errinwright were quite interesting imo.
 
Just finished Words of Radiance, book 2 in the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Man oh man was it good, the last tenth or so of the book was just brilliant non stop frantic action. Was absolutely gutted to learn the next one won't be out until late next year.

I'm going to have a break from fantasy epics now so I'll probably read an autobiography or something but when I come back what are the Mistborn books like? I've been recommended them by people in this thread before and I've loved these first two Sanderson books I've read.
 
celia said:
Finished The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron [Traitor Son Cycle 03]. So I saw it isn't a trilogy anymore like it was expected at first. A more satisfying book than the 2nd (mostly bc the 2nd spent lot of pages setting things for the 3rd).
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One of my favorite newer series.
 
So I have started a reread of Acacia 1 and 2. Book 3 has finally been published in German but I do not remember much of the first 2 books except I really enjoyed them.
 
Riz said:
Just finished Words of Radiance, book 2 in the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Man oh man was it good, the last tenth or so of the book was just brilliant non stop frantic action. Was absolutely gutted to learn the next one won't be out until late next year.

I'm going to have a break from fantasy epics now so I'll probably read an autobiography or something but when I come back what are the Mistborn books like? I've been recommended them by people in this thread before and I've loved these first two Sanderson books I've read.
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Mistborn (1-3) are good but not nearly as good as the Stormlight books. I'm going to read the second set of Mistborn books after I read a few non-fantasy books (Live and Let Die, El Narco).
 
Sir Matt said:
Mistborn (1-3) are good but not nearly as good as the Stormlight books. I'm going to read the second set of Mistborn books after I read a few non-fantasy books (Live and Let Die, El Narco).
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That's what I was afraid of, aside from Game of Thrones I'm a bit of a newcomer to these sort of books so any suggestions are welcome cause they're my favourite things to read now. I got Ship of Magic free from Amazon which I might give a go at some point.
 
Just finished the fourth book in The Expanse.

Seriously, it has become now too repetitive. The antagonists are very similar in each book. They are completely cartoonish.

The plot of the books are very similar too. It is the same formula, not even Dan Brown writes the same book over and over again as Abrahams/Franck. It is still entertaining, but quite predictable and cliche. Franck being GRRM assistant for a long time should know better.

I am going to read the fifth book, but it is more out of obligation rather than pleasure.
 
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