[theocean]

Im all finished the malazan series so far and asoiaf.. so wheel of time next or can someone suggest something better.

[worry]

Might as well WoT it, you aren't getting any younger.

[Overactive Imagination]

Give it a shot... lots of people like it.

Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and Bakker's Prince of Nothing series are the two I would recommend.

[Aptorian]

I thought the Wheel of Time was highly overrated, or maybe just outdated, when I originally read the first 3½ book some years ago.

If you've grown accustomed to Eriksons level of detail and skill in crafting characters and a plot, WOT reads like a generic young adult novel. But again maybe that's just because it started 20 years ago when all those character types hadn't grown old yet. Anyway you put it, I was bored and stopped at book 4.

EDIT:

Might I suggest the DARK AND GRITTY assassin novels written by BEST SELLING FANTASY AUTHOR BRENT WEEKS, THE DAVID GEMMEL AWARD NOMINATED NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY.

This post has been edited by Not Brent Weeks: 11 December 2013 - 06:44 AM

[Obdigore]

Maybe you could tell us a little more about what you are looking for? If you are looking for a Long, Epic series, you've already read the best two so far.

I would suggest Glen Cooks' Black Company and a ton of other stuff before reading WoT after you have read those two series.

[Stormcat]

When I first started WoT I loved it. About book 5 it started getting almost painful to read. I forced my way through it just because I wanted to know what happened. I don't mind long descriptions of places and people and I enjoy detailed descriptions of magical systems but it got to be too much. I think Sanderson breathed new life into the series.

[D'iversify]

Second Prince of Nothing. If you fancy a more science fantasy series, I recommend highly Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.

[Kaamos]

Neither WOT nor Black Company impressed me. Sanderson did blow a spark of wavering life into the previous, but his original writing fares much better. Never want to see another mindless trollock clone again.

Try: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (10 books, grimdark/for lovers of dictionaries and purple prose) or Sanderson's Mistborn (easy) or his Stormlight Archive (part II coming soon). And Pratchett's Discworld (30+ books, humor); regrettably the newer volumes suffer from a downward spiral in quality due to his Alzheimer's.

This post has been edited by Kaamos: 11 December 2013 - 08:32 AM

[Rictus]

Mark Lawrence's Thorns series hit the spot for me. Black Company vibes and a bastard of a protagonist? Gimme more!

[Hocknose]

I tried WOT and gave up on about book 6...its not that great...

I will second the Thorns series

also the Robin Hobb books are pretty good...

[QuickTidal]

I only got around to starting the WOT around the publication of Brandon Sanderson's first book in the series, so I read it all recently (last couple of years)...and after finishing it...I can honestly say I'm sad I wasted a lot of my time to get to that ending.

I sold the books. I won't ever feel the need to read it again.

You're better off with another series.

If you liked Malazan (and even though I don't personally like it all that much) I agree you should try Bakker's PRINCE OF NOTHING series...but be warned the guy is a philosopher, and there is a lot of navel gazing.

[Kaamos]

I've only read the 1st volume of Thorns, but it wasn't bad; have the 2nd audio book already purchased. In my opinion, however, Jorg has a Stu-ish flare to him.

This post has been edited by Kaamos: 11 December 2013 - 02:06 PM

[champ]

There is nothing that can really compare to Malazan...

I didn't like WoT (gave up during the 4th book - bought 6) and I wasn't a fan of Bakker either, didn't read further than the 3rd book.

Maybe a change of style of books, some great series/books:

Mark Lawrence as mentioned above - The Broken Empire

Jim Butcher - Dresden Files

David Gemmell - Drenai books

Matthew Stover - Acts of Caine

Mixed bag above but if you go with any of the above series you will not go far wrong!

[Spoilsport Stonny]

I won't sugget another series, but I will present some inside knowledge of WOT. Having read WOT I can't conceive a reality where it doesn't have SOME effect on me, but I can't see how not reading it would ruin you. Its not without its flaws, but is a good epic story of light and dark, and everything in between. There are characters you'll love and characters you'll hate. It certainly is more traditional than many other series mentioned here, but if you pay attention, you can certainly get some nice rewards, i.e. foretold prophecies coming to pass in well-written ways, characters with arcs that make sense (although can lead you to blindness via endless eye-rolls). I am happier for having read it, although I wish it were a few books shorter. For a series that took twenty-some years to finish, it only takes up a few years in the lives of the characters. And because there is such a large and disparate cast, it follows many tangents that a large amount of readers found to be tedious at many times, and sometimes the supporting cast can be two-dimensional. Also, I wasn't entirely thrilled with the way the series wrapped up, although most of that blame lies at the authors feet.

In short, its longer than it had to be, but because so many fantasy titles exist as a result of its influence, whether those authors were specifically trying to subvert the series' tropes and archetypes or whether they were influenced by the epic scope, grandeur and tone, its certainly worth consideration. And it's not all fluff, either. It certainly has its moments of darkness, violence and bleak imagery. So, why not? Jump in! I don't think you'll regret it (at least until the dreaded Circus) and you may actually be pleasantly surprised.

[Abyss]

Ahhhh WoT... such a divisive series, equally venerated and denigrated...
I suppose the bottom line theocean is that you probably should try WoT and make up your own mind.
Moi, i liked the start, despised the meandering middle and enjoyed the flaming fucksteaks out of the end. I will likely never re-read them, but i'm glad i did read them and my genre-lit brain is more complete for the experience. That said if you start and bail out your life will still be ok for the lack.

Some great suggestions upthread tho', including a bunch that are substantially shorter than WoT. Coming off of Malaz and SIF, something a little less massive may appeal.
I'll cheerfully second Butcher, Stover, Lawrence and Bakker.

[Grief]

There's is a lot of depth to it if you look, but for the most part it reads as pretty generic, very trope heavy, fantasy, with a rather high ratio of boring to interesting characters (that last one is subjective, but I doubt even fans would argue against it being very trope heavy/traditional for very large parts. Since I'm being subjective, another note would be that I don't think his prose is great, it's not bad, but it doesn't fare well in comparisons to others mentioned in the thread). It also gets quite repetitive and drags badly for a few books.

Trope heaviness isn't necessarily a bad thing, but know what you're getting into. Personally I don't think it's particularly well executed as these things go, but YMMV there, a lot of people rate him more highly (though anecdotally I feel part of this is because he was a lot of people's formative fantasy, and benefits from this much like Tolkien or Eddings).

There are probably more interesting book you could read, particularly if you've read much fantasy (and WOT's a pretty different sort of thing from Erikson or Martin, in that I'd say usually people read them the other way around). I'd second the recommendation of Prince of Nothing. China Mieville's Crobuzon books are another constant recommendation of mine (start with Perdido Street Station), they're dark, fantastical in a weirder way than most, and very compelling. Guy Gavriel Kay would be another one I'd recommend on a large scale, he's again a bit more interesting, than Jordan. I'm not sure I should recommend a particular one, always seems to start an argument about which is best, but...Sarantine Mosaic seems the one most people agree on?

If you want something a bit more in the traditional fantasy vein, Gemmell is a faster read and does it better, but isn't on the same level of scale. Basically, read something else, the recommendations of this thread are mostly good.

[End of Disc One]

It's one of my favorite series. But I admit it's probably not as good if you've already read epic fantasy released after the 90s.

[HiddenOne]

Weis & Hickman - Deathgate Cycle

Greenwood - Elminster series

All the Conan books from Howard, de Camp & up thru R. Jordan

Salvatore's Dark ELf books




just a couple for you to review

Edit: Glen Cook - Dread Empire series

This post has been edited by HiddenOne: 11 December 2013 - 05:27 PM

[Abyss]

HiddenOne, on 11 December 2013 - 04:18 PM, said:

Weis & Hickman - Deathgate Cycle
...

ooo good one!

[Spoilsport Stonny]

Grief, on 11 December 2013 - 04:05 PM, said:

Guy Gavriel Kay would be another one I'd recommend on a large scale, he's again a bit more interesting, than Jordan. I'm not sure I should recommend a particular one, always seems to start an argument about which is best, but...Sarantine Mosaic seems the one most people agree on?

I haven't read Sarantine MOsaic, but Tigana seems to be a popular recommended place to start with GGK. I liked it alot. Its stand-alone and well-written. Dense, too.