Books Fantasy Reads

Dancer's Lament
Path to Ascendancy Bk1 (Malazan Prequel)

This book introduces the readers to the background of Kellanved and Dancer. It's told from Dancer's pov and also sheds brief light on youth of Dassem, Shimmer & K'azz of the Crimson Guard. Good story, but somehow the plot wavers a bit and not as strong as Erikson's books. The changing of Dancer from an apprentice assassin to a hard experienced one plus his relationship with Kellanved could have been dealt better.

The sheer breadth and scope of the Malazan world always leaves me astounded. So many characters and we still don't know about most of them despite the number of pages of story written till now.

Good read. 7/10
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Dancer's Lament
Path to Ascendancy Bk1 (Malazan Prequel)

This book introduces the readers to the background of Kellanved and Dancer. It's told from Dancer's pov and also sheds brief light on youth of Dassem, Shimmer & K'azz of the Crimson Guard. Good story, but somehow the plot wavers a bit and not as strong as Erikson's books. The changing of Dancer from an apprentice assassin to a hard experienced one plus his relationship with Kellanved could have been dealt better.

The sheer breadth and scope of the Malazan world always leaves me astounded. So many characters and we still don't know about most of them despite the number of pages of story written till now.

Good read. 7/10
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I'm currently near the end of Memories of Ice (book 3 of the main series) and I already think this is one of the richest fantasies I've ever read. Still a dizzying amount of pages to come. Erikson is a genius.
 
Reading the second book in The Acts of Caine. This serie of books is good and unique.
 
Ainu said:
I'm currently near the end of Memories of Ice (book 3 of the main series) and I already think this is one of the richest fantasies I've ever read. Still a dizzying amount of pages to come. Erikson is a genius.
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Yup. Gardens of the Moon, Memories of Ice and toll the Hounds are my personal favorites. It's such a massive world and so many interesting characters, that after so many books plus 2 prequel series (wip) there's so much more to explore.

Revan said:
Reading the second book in The Acts of Caine. This serie of books is good and unique.
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Really? I started on Bk1 and gave up after about 25 pages...

Where he cuts off the kings head and tries to sneak it out
 
Revan said:
It will be finished before the third book.
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:(

He's bottled it completely. He's read all the forums and either his story and twists have all been revealed already or he's realised that what he has written isn't going to satisfy his readers and he's terrified of releasing it...

Or the TV deal he signed has forbidden him to reveal the ending before they do as it will create far more buzz if it's still a mystery.
 
Pexbo said:
:(

He's bottled it completely. He's read all the forums and either his story and twists have all been revealed already or he's realised that what he has written isn't going to satisfy his readers and he's terrified of releasing it...

Or the TV deal he signed has forbidden him to reveal the ending before they do as it will create far more buzz if it's still a mystery.
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Yep. And the worst thing is that he isn't even talking about the book anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't even started writing it.

Mark my words, 'The Winds of Winter' will be released before 'The Doors of Stone'. And Scott Lynch who is also a slow writer while fighting depression will release 'The Thorn of Emberlain' before any of Martin/Rothfuss will release their new book.
 
Just finished the second book of the malazan books of the fallen. Deadhouse Gates
Very good, really enjoying it. Jumps around a lot and can be hard to figure out the surroundings but carries it off well despite it.

Doors of Stone feels a very long way off. Cant imagine Winds of Winter taking that much longer surely? Like it must be on the verge of being finished at this point.
 
I got the first Wheel of Time book for my birthday and now, a month and a bit later, i'm nearly finished with the fifth in the series. I'm enjoying them immensely.
 
Revan said:
Yep. And the worst thing is that he isn't even talking about the book anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't even started writing it.

Mark my words, 'The Winds of Winter' will be released before 'The Doors of Stone'. And Scott Lynch who is also a slow writer while fighting depression will release 'The Thorn of Emberlain' before any of Martin/Rothfuss will release their new book.
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I think the worst thing about it is what a dick he's turned out to be. Reading the KC Reddit is painful, there is so much brown nosing "yeah but imagine how difficult it is for him".
 
Reading 'Babylon's Ashes', the new Expanse book. It is quite good and read on this evening almost half of it.
 
caid said:
Just finished the second book of the malazan books of the fallen. Deadhouse Gates
Very good, really enjoying it. Jumps around a lot and can be hard to figure out the surroundings but carries it off well despite it.

Doors of Stone feels a very long way off. Cant imagine Winds of Winter taking that much longer surely? Like it must be on the verge of being finished at this point.
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I'm one book ahead of you in Malazan, just finished Memories of Ice. In my opinion it wipes the floor with the first two books, it's perhaps the greatest fantasy book I've ever read. I'm almost sad I've finished it, but then I remember I've still got 7 mammoth volumes ahead of me. If you liked the first two you'll love this one, so enjoy!
 
Revan said:
Finished the Acacia trilogy these days. The first book was quite good, but the sequels were a bit poor, barely tolerable. Save yourself time, and don't read it.

The I read a couple of Star Wars new EU books. Bloodline was focused on Princess Leia a couple of decades after the events of the old movies, and how Leia left the New Republic to create the Resistance. Ahsoka novel (as the name implies) was focused on everyone's favorite Padawan, around a year after the events of RotS, and how she started directing the intelligence for the Rebel Alliance.

Neither was that great, but both were decent readings.
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Really? Acacia has to be one of my alltime favorite trilogies. I thought book 2 has been the strongest. The last one is a bit lacking.
 
Revan said:
Finished The Prince of Nothing trilogy, and while I liked it, I didn't find it nowhere as good as asoiaf forum suggests. I also found the books getting worse.

I loved the setting. Despite that it is basically a copy of real world (The main Empire being Byzantine Empire, Maithanet being the Pope, Tusks being Christians with their Prophet apparently having had a similar life to Jesus, the others being Arabs and so on) with added magic, it felt a very good setting.

The main problems IMO were the philosophical ramblings (like in Dune books, they get worse with each book) and Kellhus. The problem of Kellhus is that the author tells but doesn't show. You hear everyone masturbating in his/her love for Kellhus, but you barely ever see a strong argument from Kellhus. What you see is some pointless metaphysical rambling that would (probably not) make the God Emperor of Dune proud. In addition I didn't find the Dynaun mysterious, just that the author didn't give any info on that.

On the other side, I think that I liked the 'transformation' (if it is the right word) of Kellhy Sue. Despite that it was obvious from the very beginning that he's more some type of Antichrist/Dajjal rather than Jesus/Prophet, it is interesting how at the beginning he looked nice and was making people love him, but by the end he was massacring tens of thousands and was becoming more evil and evil (in reality, he was the same from the beginning, but just his behavior changing).

I didn't have problems with the rape happening there (more than in any other books?), neither with women being second class citizens. The society is very similar to Europe a millennia ago, and those things were present there too.

I am going to read the following books.
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While I really liked that trilogy (as you can see from my user Name) it is the Kind of stuff I can only read max. once a year. Bakker tries really hard to Show everybody that he has studied philosophy.
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
Reading book 4 of Monarchies of God by Paul Kearney right now. Fantastic series.
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The first 4 books are excellent albeit the latter two seem to forget the main plot of the first two (the voyage).

Fifth book is absolutely awful though. Like Kearney just realized he had some plots to close up and hurries through it with no sense of logic. Hope you're reading the newer Omnibus edition of the series, where Kearney tries (and fails) to improve on the 5th book. If you forget the voyage ever happened then you can stop at the 4th book and be quite content.
 
Do you guys have any sci-fi recommendations? I'd love an immersive world, I'd love to read something like Dune. Not anything specific, just anything sci-fi that's really good?
 
Ainu said:
I'm one book ahead of you in Malazan, just finished Memories of Ice. In my opinion it wipes the floor with the first two books, it's perhaps the greatest fantasy book I've ever read. I'm almost sad I've finished it, but then I remember I've still got 7 mammoth volumes ahead of me. If you liked the first two you'll love this one, so enjoy!
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I dont know.
Im going to miss Mappo and Icarium I suspect.
Its on the way anyway, looking forward to reading over christmas
 
caid said:
Icarium
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What a character! I wish there was a trilogy on his origins, history and actions.

Ainu said:
I'm one book ahead of you in Malazan, just finished Memories of Ice. In my opinion it wipes the floor with the first two books, it's perhaps the greatest fantasy book I've ever read.
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It really is. I wanted to trace out a bit that I read before and ended up reading the whole book again. Keep on...Bonehunters and Toll the Hounds are nearly as good.
 
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
Really? Acacia has to be one of my alltime favorite trilogies. I thought book 2 has been the strongest. The last one is a bit lacking.
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Liked the first book quite a lot, but I think that the following two books lost direction and I didn't enjoy them.
Cnaiür urs Skiötha said:
While I really liked that trilogy (as you can see from my user Name) it is the Kind of stuff I can only read max. once a year. Bakker tries really hard to Show everybody that he has studied philosophy.
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Definitely. And personally, I think that he sucks at it. Or well, I am just not that big fan of it (see my reviews for Dune books).
 
Taxx said:
Do you guys have any sci-fi recommendations? I'd love an immersive world, I'd love to read something like Dune. Not anything specific, just anything sci-fi that's really good?
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Hyperion Cantos is my all time favorite. There are 4 books, separated into two dualogies. The first book is easily the best sci-fi ever, despite its weirdness. The second book concludes the store. Then the following two books are set 300 years later, and while some people don't like them, I really loved the fourth book, and it arguably has the best climax I have ever read. The entire quadrology is very balanced with a great story, great characters, great action and enough philosophy/religion which makes you enjoy those parts instead of giving you the urge to punch babies.

If you go for Dune, I would highly recommend to stop after the first book. The first book is great, but after that it seemed to me that the sole purpose of the author was to show that he loves philosophy. I found the second book barely tolerable, I almost killed myself while I read the third book, and while the story of the fourth book gets better, the philosophical rambling gets worse. Then I stopped, because I would have become a mass murderer if I would have continued reading those books.

The Expanse is a very good series. Much more lighter than the other two, and for the most part is just action (with some politics) and no philosophical bullshit. I think that it lacks in characters development and suffers a bit from some pointless POV.

Robots and Foundations are decent from Asimov. However, they have aged terribly and probably aren't as good as they were half a century ago.

If you are a Star War fan, make the world a favor, and read 'The Thrawn Trilogy'. It is the only sci-fi saga that I love as much as Hyperion. It is really really good, by any standard. There are more Star Wars recommendations in Star Wars EU thread here.

The first book of 'The Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy' is funnier than all the other books ever written combined. Everyone should read it at least once, regardless if he loves sci-fi or books in general. The others are much weak and you can stop there.

From standalones, my recommendations would be 'The Childhood's End' which is freaking awesome, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' which is very amazing, and 'The Martian' which is just amazing.
 
Edgar Allan Pillow said:
Have you read the books? I'm yet to watch the TV series, but just love the books.
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I didn't even know it was a book lol :)

TV Series is very promising, think most sci fi takes a while to get going and settle but 2 episodes in im enjoying it a lot.

Heres a link to them philip k. dick short stories
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Lie...id=1481302572&sr=1-11&keywords=philip+k+dicks

oh and Mother Horse Eyes is pretty amazing (as much for how it was produced and distributed as anything else)
https://www.reddit.com/r/9M9H9E9/wiki/narrative
 
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You guys are awesome! Thanks for the tips, I'll check some of these out :)
 
@Taxx

The Left hand of Darkness by Le Guin is one of my favorite books. It belongs to a serie but the books can be read independently, they belong to the same universe but happen with different characters in different planets. I made the mistake to start with the first one that bored me so much I took time to give a try again with this author. Others I enjoyed are the Word for world is forest and the Lathe of Heaven. The Dispossessed is also a praised one but is a drier reading IMO.

I like too Ender's game and its sequel Speaker for the dead. But the rest of the books aren't really good. I read the rest more bc I am fond of the serie.
 
Finished Babylon's Ashes. A good book but not as good as Nemesis Games (or even Caliban's War or Leviathan Wakes). Still a decent reading.
 
Akash said:
The first 4 books are excellent albeit the latter two seem to forget the main plot of the first two (the voyage).

Fifth book is absolutely awful though. Like Kearney just realized he had some plots to close up and hurries through it with no sense of logic. Hope you're reading the newer Omnibus edition of the series, where Kearney tries (and fails) to improve on the 5th book. If you forget the voyage ever happened then you can stop at the 4th book and be quite content.
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Well I finished book 4 yesterday and can see what you mean. This book would be a good finish if you forgot about the voyage part.

However, I have bought the whole series (as I am reading in German only the original Version is available) so I will read book 5 now. Reading some critics this seems to be one the worst final books in any series ever.
 
Right Kingkiller chronicles.. having a read about it, seems like a potentially good book. Please let me know if you would recommend..
 
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