[Illuyankas]

Oh dude, you skipped the best ending out of books 7-10 and went straight to the worst book in the series?! Go back to book 9 and read the last chapter or two, then just skip to book 11.

[korik]

Just finished Blood and Iron by Tony Ballantyne and I really enjoyed it.... got me back into reading after feeling washed out after tCG

[Fid]

Joe Abercrombie - blitzed the series before digging into Heroes. Now thinking what to read for Easter hols

[Mulch]

Gone for Joe Abercrombie too. Now half way through before they are hanged

It's filling the void nicely!

[polishgenius]

Not really. Like Jitsukerr, I pretty much got straight into Wise Man's Fear.

I have phases where I find it difficult into getting into 'okay' reads anyway, and I've had one of those since Wise Man's Fear, but it's got nowt to do with either book; I've had it since David Eddings broke my brain a few years ago with the second book of the Dreamers or whatever it was called. In fact I usually use the books that do drag me in, like SE or Rothfuss, to give me momentum to read the good-but-not-enthralling ones, so basically the total opposite to all of you...

[Steel General]

I had no problems jumping right into another series, guess I'm the exception rather than the rule.

Love the Black Company, looking forward to the new ones (if they ever come out). The Garret P.I. books are also good for a easy, fun read.

[Powder]

Neocount Cicero, on 10 April 2011 - 07:12 PM, said:

Powder, on 10 April 2011 - 06:37 PM, said:

I was 7 books into the WoT when I got tCG. Put the 8th book down halfway through to read tCG. Struggled through the rest of book 8 after tCG, completely skipped book nine, and I currently find myself mired in book ten and am almost unwilling to read on. WoT started strong but just does not compare. It just feels too simple. I want more Post-Modern fantasy.

-Powder

Just curious, why did you skip book 9 rather than 10? Winter's Heart is far from my favorite, but man, compared to Crossroads...

My friend that told me about the series said jump 9 and go to 10. Crossroads is equally awful. I have not read a whole chapter since the start of the book. I really cant get over how bad the WoT is train wrecking atm. PS why is Elayne preggers?

-Powder

[Ceda Cicero]

Powder, on 12 April 2011 - 06:15 PM, said:

Neocount Cicero, on 10 April 2011 - 07:12 PM, said:

Powder, on 10 April 2011 - 06:37 PM, said:

I was 7 books into the WoT when I got tCG. Put the 8th book down halfway through to read tCG. Struggled through the rest of book 8 after tCG, completely skipped book nine, and I currently find myself mired in book ten and am almost unwilling to read on. WoT started strong but just does not compare. It just feels too simple. I want more Post-Modern fantasy.

-Powder

Just curious, why did you skip book 9 rather than 10? Winter's Heart is far from my favorite, but man, compared to Crossroads...

My friend that told me about the series said jump 9 and go to 10. Crossroads is equally awful. I have not read a whole chapter since the start of the book. I really cant get over how bad the WoT is train wrecking atm. PS why is Elayne preggers?

-Powder

Honestly I don't think there's any way your friend was anything other than mistaken... I am almost sure he meant to say skip 10 and go to 11. Crossroads is bad enough in its own right, but the only potential redeeming quality (as I see it anyway) is that it gives you a chance to have multiple perspectives on what happens at the end of Winter's Heart. And of course if you haven't read Winter's Heart, well then, that makes it all the more useless.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Doesn't

Spoiler

Rand cleanse Saidin

in Winter's Heart? That doesn't strike me as skippable material...then again, none of WoT is skippable material to me, but hey.

Also, why do you think Elayne is pregnant? That's a bit of a strange question. That all happened in Winter's Heart, though.

[Traveller]

I didn't feel the way you did when I finished the CG, probably because I had just read the first 'Black Company' books, and took a break to read it.

It would undoubtledly have been different had I been re-reading SE up until the CG; instead I was itching to get back to Cook. And, while I was waiting for the second book in the series from amazon, I read 'The Wise Mans Fear' on the Kindle, which I also thoroughly enjoyed.

I'm looking forward to a future read throught the whole malaz series, but right now there are a lot of other great books demanding attention.

If you want something as engaging as SE, I really recommend the Chronicles of the Black Company. It clearly had a major influence on SE's ideas and writing - great stuff.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 13 April 2011 - 07:27 AM

[Ceda Cicero]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 12 April 2011 - 09:27 PM, said:

Doesn't

Spoiler

Rand cleanse Saidin

in Winter's Heart? That doesn't strike me as skippable material...then again, none of WoT is skippable material to me, but hey.

Also, why do you think Elayne is pregnant? That's a bit of a strange question. That all happened in Winter's Heart, though.

Yes he does. Which would be unskippable in its own right. The fact that Crossroads is more or less a rewind/catch-up book to evaluate that pivotal event from different perspectives is what makes skipping 9 for 10 even more nonsensical.

[Powder]

Neocount Cicero, on 13 April 2011 - 01:28 PM, said:

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 12 April 2011 - 09:27 PM, said:

Doesn't

Spoiler

Rand cleanse Saidin

in Winter's Heart? That doesn't strike me as skippable material...then again, none of WoT is skippable material to me, but hey.

Also, why do you think Elayne is pregnant? That's a bit of a strange question. That all happened in Winter's Heart, though.

Yes he does. Which would be unskippable in its own right. The fact that Crossroads is more or less a rewind/catch-up book to evaluate that pivotal event from different perspectives is what makes skipping 9 for 10 even more nonsensical.

Went back and read the end of WH. Skipping to the end of crossroads tonight. He may have told me to skip the next two, instead of one. He spoiled bits of both of these books so I could read on and get to a meatier part of the series. Not to be a total fan boi, but the only reason i am finishing the WOT is because I read 8 books already I and don't like not finishing things. Robert Jordans idea of female character development consists of 1. Sniffing, 2. Folding their arms under their breasts, and 3. putting their hands on their hips.

-Powder
(and no I probably wont recommend WoT to anyone else)

[UnknownSoldier]

I too just finished TCG a few minutes ago and I can't see myself picking up another book for the next week. I know exactly what some people mean by the hollow feeling after finishing the book. The MBotF has been the backbone of my reading habits for years, and it's going to be hard to fill that gap.

I do have Wise Man's Fear sitting here, but I'll need to re-read Name of the Wind first (though I recall thoroughly enjoying that). Also got Dance With Dragons coming out this summer, so I'll need to re-read that entire series as well to refresh myself... which shouldn't be so bad because that was my favorite series before I picked up MBotF.

It's funny you guys mentioned Wheel of Time, because I was re-reading that series before I started in on TCG. I haven't touched the two newest books, but I figured it was time to get at them. For anyone struggling through, while reading the series I've been following the re-read available at TOR. It's probably the only thing that's kept me sane as I get into these later books. I think I'm up to Path of Daggers. If worst comes to worst you can just read through the recaps and chapter comments there, which I'm tempted to do myself.

[Risca]

Could not agree more with everything people are saying here, had a feeling it would be hard, been slowly reading and rereading books from the Malazan universe for around 4 years now and well, even having tried pacing myself through the final installment (failed miserably) i am now finished.
Read alot of Terry Brooks work before i started on Erikson's and still enjoy them however it just lacks the depth and dark intrigue that the Book of the Fallen had as mentioned earlier in the post (sorry forgot who it was that said it and cant find it again ) it feels almost cartoonish in comparison, not taking anything away from Brooks or other writers but as the title of this thread says 'How the heck do i follow that?' I may have to change genres temporarily least then i wont be constantly comparing it to the Malazan book of the fallen.

That being said i could just as easily pick the series up again and do another reread, it just never gets dull, not many series out there you can say that about, truly a masterpiece!

[UnknownSoldier]

Risca, on 15 April 2011 - 11:50 PM, said:

That being said i could just as easily pick the series up again and do another reread, it just never gets dull, not many series out there you can say that about, truly a masterpiece!

I'm highly tempted to do that. I know there's a re-read going on over at tor. Might be nice to read along and discuss chapter-by-chapter with fellow fans.I think they're up to Memories of Ice.

This post has been edited by UnknownSoldier: 16 April 2011 - 03:58 AM

[Mentalist]

School helped with filing the void. I read TCG, about a week later I read "Changes"--the latest installment of Dresdencrack. seeing as i've been off it for a few months, it helped.
THen I read Kay's "Under Heaven", which was excellent, because it put just enough spin on a story i already know--which is probably why I enjoy Kay's pseudo-historical stuff so much.
Now i'm onto Asher again, in the quick breaks I give myself between exam cramming.

can't wait to be home to do a full MBOTF re-read though....

[Risca]

UnknownSoldier, on 16 April 2011 - 03:30 AM, said:

I'm highly tempted to do that. I know there's a re-read going on over at tor. Might be nice to read along and discuss chapter-by-chapter with fellow fans.I think they're up to Memories of Ice.

Vaguely remember reading about that somewhere myself, may dig out my password and join in with that, cheers for the reminder.

[Fayth]

I read TCG then immediately followed it with The Wise Man's Fear. I tried reading some other fantasy on my to read list but I couldn't get into them and am instead reading the Sherlock Holmes novels.

[braders1234]

Has anyone read the hugh cook books - Chronicles of an Age of Darkness? I read these maybe 20 years ago, I read this thread and it got me thinking about those 10 books, amazingly I have not read teh 10th and have ordered it yesterday. I rwas reminded of Cook when I first started reading Erikson but not as dark and more satirical.

Others may have read them and disagree but I strongly remember it being such a different type of fantasy novel than Eddings and Fiest that were all the rage back then.

Title of the first book is cheesy - The Wizards and the Warriors but well worth a read if my memory serves.

I was also saddened to read that he died of brain cancer 3 years ago, very sad, the intial plans (according to Wiki) were for a 60 book series!

Would be interested in hearing any feedback from thoise who have read his novels?

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

braders1234, on 18 April 2011 - 10:42 AM, said:

The Wizards and the Warriors but well worth a read if my memory serves.

That's an awesome title! More books should have strange and slightly comical titles like that.

EDIT: Jokes aside, did you say 60? Sixty? A sixty book series? Comprising...sixty books? How big are these books? Sixty? Are you serious? That, sir, is insane!



...sixty?

This post has been edited by Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast: 18 April 2011 - 11:42 AM