Kaladin's chapters have been a great readDropped Jonathan Strange and started the first book in the Bartimaeus series (The Amulet of Samarkand). Enjoying it so far.
More exciting chapters from Oathbringer.
They sure have. Are you one of the Oathbringer commenters on the TOR forum? I am.Kaladin's chapters have been a great read
I have. The first book is amazing, the second one is decent and the final one is arguably the worst book I have ever read (and everyone who has read it hates it, its status in asoiaf forum is similar to Fellaini's status under Moyes here).
Either do not read it at all, or stop after the first one (it was meant to be a standalone either way, so it works by itself).
Iron Age is very good, I've read all of them.
I am reading A Crown for Cold Silver at the minute. It's.......odd. Set in a fantasy world yet the prose is reminiscent of shit you might see on an online forum at times. "That no good punk, ass kicked", that kind of thing. It hasn't really agreed with me and I'm finding it a bit of a slog. It's an interesting world he's built, though.
It isn't an actual line, but both appear in the book. I don't expect to see that kind of contemporary slang in a fantasy book. Not saying I demand the kind of flowery bollocks which is prevalent in Farseer, either. It's just a little jarring.Great, I'll start with Angus Watson then.
Is that actually a line from the book? If it is I think I may just skip ACfCS altogether. A bit petty maybe, but bad prose is such a turn off. I refuse to read any Brandon Sanderson because I read about 3 pages of one of his books once and just couldn't look past the terrible writing.
It isn't an actual line, but both appear in the book. I don't expect to see that kind of contemporary slang in a fantasy book. Not saying I demand the kind of flowery bollocks which is prevalent in Farseer, either. It's just a little jarring.
Sandrson's writing post Wheel of Time is decent. Stormligh Archive has totally acceptable writing.Great, I'll start with Angus Watson then.
Is that actually a line from the book? If it is I think I may just skip ACfCS altogether. A bit petty maybe, but bad prose is such a turn off. I refuse to read any Brandon Sanderson because I read about 3 pages of one of his books once and just couldn't look past the terrible writing.
I'm just over halfway through the first Nevernight book. It has a really interesting setting and has been quite enjoyable so far. Only issues I have are the slightly generic league of assassins, although they do have interesting elements, and the tendency to feel a bit....young adult, at times. It's hard to describe, it's almost Abercrombie-lite for much of it and is usually very adult orientated. It just goes a bit too far into the direction of teenage power fantasy at times. It's quite good in spite of that though and I'm quite enjoying it.Read the first book and agree that it was a really good read. Got about midway through the second and gave up on it, as the quality had really dropped. Should have followed your advice!
Started on Luke Scull's Grimm Company trilogy instead, but again I am noticing I enjoyed the first book a lot more than the second.
Anyone read any of the following? I have added them all to my read list but not sure which to start with.
David Dalglish - Paladins Series
Adrian Selby - Snakewood
James Islington - The Licanius Trilogy
Jay Kristoff - Nevernight
Alex Marhsall - A Crown for Cold Silver
Ed McDonald - Blackwing
Angus Watson - Iron Age Series
Sandrson's writing post Wheel of Time is decent. Stormligh Archive has totally acceptable writing.
Mistborn has bad writing, but really awesome story. Elantris and especially Warbreaker's writing is like the writing of that kid on the sixth class who was writing a book and thought that he's doing a good job on it, but actually it was so bad that it wasn't even funny. Warbreaker in particular is 'The Room' of fantasy books.I can't remember which book I read tbh. I think it may have been the first in the Mistborn series. I'm not exactly a prose snob (David Gemmell is still one of my favourite authors) but the first pages of the book I read were enough to put me off for life.
Wait a bit and digest the material. Definitely try to avoid something similar for some time, because it won't compare well with it (Stormlight Archive is the closest thing we have to Wheel of Time).Well, I just finished the Wheel of Time series for the first time. Absolutely loved it throughout, think it's probably my favourite series of books. Proper commitment to read them all like, but really worth it. Although now I'm kind of like 'shit, what do I do now?'
Are those two similar?Wait a bit and digest the material. Definitely try to avoid something similar for some time, because it won't compare well with it (Stormlight Archive is the closest thing we have to Wheel of Time).
I would say go for something totally different next. Something like The First Law or The Black Company.
The Black company is written in annal form and recounts the journey of a mercenary company. The POV changes from book to book and the characters all recount history quite differently. It doesn't have the humour or gore factor that The First Law does, but it's certainly dark.Are those two similar?
I read a little about it. One criticism that stuck with me was the supposed tendency to skip over large events. For example, say there is a large build up to a battle. The actual battle itself might be dealt with in a line or two.The Black company is written in annal form and recounts the journey of a mercenary company. The POV changes from book to book and the characters all recount history quite differently. It doesn't have the humour or gore factor that The First Law does, but it's certainly dark.
That can be the case on occasion with Cook, but it's very much in keeping with the style of the book. The POV will write about what interests them most. Sometimes when the POV character changes to another in a new book they might recount it in a little more detail.I read a little about it. One criticism that stuck with me was the supposed tendency to skip over large events. For example, say there is a large build up to a battle. The actual battle itself might be dealt with in a line or two.
Not having read it I can't say if that is accurate or not.
Wait a bit and digest the material. Definitely try to avoid something similar for some time, because it won't compare well with it (Stormlight Archive is the closest thing we have to Wheel of Time).
I would say go for something totally different next. Something like The First Law or The Black Company.
Black Company is the series which pretty much created the grimdark fantasy subgenre, but it is very different to Abercrombie. In fact, it is very different to anything bar Malazan (and I would say that Black Company is much better than it). Still, there are some similarities, and both are quite realist and very non predictable. Much more real word-ish than LotR and its clones.The Black company is written in annal form and recounts the journey of a mercenary company. The POV changes from book to book and the characters all recount history quite differently. It doesn't have the humour or gore factor that The First Law does, but it's certainly dark.
It is quite accurate. The first book is definitely problematic cause for half of it, you don't have any idea what is going. But it is quite great.I read a little about it. One criticism that stuck with me was the supposed tendency to skip over large events. For example, say there is a large build up to a battle. The actual battle itself might be dealt with in a line or two.
Not having read it I can't say if that is accurate or not.
So I took up one of the recommendations I got in this thread (after I read The First Law and the Rothfuss books): The Gentlemen Bastards.... I thought it was a trilogy. Turns out the guy has written three books and is expected to write another four!!! So F that. What next? I still think The First Law is my favourite fantasy series to date.
Any further planned or is the story wrapped up in two?If you liked Gentlman Bastards you should check out Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick. They're a similar vein, but there are only two books.
This is a fair reflection of the series, but the second sentence isn't entirely accurate. While there are a few changes of Company Analyst (and narrator) over the 40-year annals of the company recounted to us, the changes are not quite as drastic as appears from the above quote. The series covers 10 books, and are told from the POV of the following annalists:The Black company is written in annal form and recounts the journey of a mercenary company. The POV changes from book to book and the characters all recount history quite differently. It doesn't have the humour or gore factor that The First Law does, but it's certainly dark.
Any further planned or is the story wrapped up in two?
I'll check that out. Thanks for replying.Sounds vaguely like his dark materials?
Okay, I'm quitting A Crown For Cold Silver. The tipping point was "hanging out in this freezing river wasn't doing his feet any favours" closely followed by "he was just glad he didn't have to throw down with her".Yeah it's a huge sin for me too and just causes a huge disconnect. Nothing takes you out of the book faster than a piece of jarring modern slang in a fantasy setting. It's so out of place and there's never any excuse for it.