[End of Disc One]

Overactive Imagination, on 21 October 2016 - 04:50 PM, said:

Can anyone recommend the best series out right now apart from Malazan, GRRM, Bakker? Those are the three I've enjoyed the most. Looking for something else to start. Didn't like Abercrombie.

Acts of Caine, Stormlight Archive (or Sanderson's works as a whole).

[Maark Abbott]

Early Sanderson, yes. Stormlight 1 was the worst book I've read in my life (and I survived the KJA Dune books) so avoid that at all costs.

Recently I've been enjoying Kate Elliott's debut series (Crown of Stars) and Bakker. Tried Rothfuss but he's incredibly overrated, if not objectively bad like SLA1 was.

[polishgenius]

Miles Cameron's Red Knight series (officially Traitor Son, but even the author doesn't call it that) is probably my favourite of the current crop of epic fantasy. New book coming out next week, woohoo.

Also right up there is Col Buchanan's Heart of the World series.




If you haven't read Stover, though, you owe that to yourself. Daniel Abraham too. (I guess they're both current writers, but both are between series at the moment...)

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 21 October 2016 - 06:34 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Abraham's Long Price Quartet was good. I need to get some of his more recent output in my life.

[acesn8s]

I just finished Wexler's The Shadow Throne and immediately bought The Price of Valor.

[Tiste Simeon]

I've not actually read any Sanderson. I think I might have Mistborn somewhere. Is it worthwhile?

Edit I need some light and not too complicated stuff for the foreseeable future because work is so busy and I don't have as much time to read as i used to.

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 22 October 2016 - 05:54 PM

[Gabriele]

Tiste Simeon, on 22 October 2016 - 05:54 PM, said:

I've not actually read any Sanderson. I think I might have Mistborn somewhere. Is it worthwhile?

Edit I need some light and not too complicated stuff for the foreseeable future because work is so busy and I don't have as much time to read as i used to.

Have you tried Butcher's Codex Alera or Jen William's Copper Cat books?

[Mentalist]

Overactive Imagination, on 21 October 2016 - 04:50 PM, said:

Can anyone recommend the best series out right now apart from Malazan, GRRM, Bakker? Those are the three I've enjoyed the most. Looking for something else to start. Didn't like Abercrombie.

Shadows of the Apt is a recently-finished 10 volume epic. At teh start, there's some extremely poor characterization, but the action is solid throughout and characterization improves in leaps an d bounds after Bk2.

Twilight Reign by Tom Lloyd- starts out incredibly "poor boy becomes THE CHOSEN ONE™ ", and I absolutely hate said character, but the world-building and the background plot is quite fantastic, and it goes on to become a much more intricate plot that actually plays off a lot of themes in MBOtF

Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone by Greg Keys- very ASOIAF-esque 4 book series, that's arguably even darker. Book 4 suffers from being a rushed ending to a very serious build-up of stuff, where there's a somewhat anti-climactic ending. But the first 3 books are as good as the first 3 ASOIAF books, imo.

Not Fantasy, but Neal Asher's Polity books (Cormac + the Spatterjay trilo) are amazing epic fun. I used read one after each new Malaz book to follow up Malaz awesome with more awesome.

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle is a MASSIVE alt-history/info-dump/adventure romance mashup... thing that's a must-read if you liked Erikson's archaeological/geological/anthropological asides in the MBToF. The quasi-sequel Cryptonomicon is set in modern times (mostly) and is a neat adventure novel in its own right, as well as primer of cryptography.

Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mosaic , as well as some of the other non-Fionovar books (except "Ysabel", which is almost universally derided, and "Tigana", over which opinions vary A LOT)

Also, my traditional exotic recco: read Godsdoom by Nick Perumov in e-book form. It's the only author I found who throws out as many angles and players into the plot as Erikson, with the same WTF is going on? feeling as the first 200 pages of GoTM.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 22 October 2016 - 09:20 PM

[amphibian]

Godsdoom is terrific and plays out like an action packed Yugi vs Kaiba trap card duel for so long. But somehow it didn't sell enough to get translations for the rest of Perumov's books in English (meaning I can't read any more by him).

[Abyss]

Overactive Imagination, on 21 October 2016 - 04:50 PM, said:

Can anyone recommend the best series out right now apart from Malazan, GRRM, Bakker? Those are the three I've enjoyed the most. Looking for something else to start. Didn't like Abercrombie.

Matt Stover's CAINE puts the epic in dark fucking epic. SF/ fantasy mashup. Complete in four books.

[Macros]

@ment.
I disliked Tom Louise first book so much that even though I had the second book on my shelf I gave it away to a charity shop unread.
Should I try again?

[Gabriele]

I Got Crabs, on 22 October 2016 - 07:29 PM, said:

Ments Shadow of Apt and Greg Keyes reco are great. The Briar King is one of the most epic/fun bks I've read. I'd almost reco to just read bks 1-3 and leave 4 alone. It's the shittiest series ender ever and I'm unsure if the ball was dropped on Keyes part naturally or if it was a protest "fine here you go fuckers" to his company over something.

My guess is a combination of pressure from the publisher to end the thing in One More Book because the series didn't sell out - which is at least partly the publisher's fault for not pushing it enough - and the fact that the media tie ins which Keyes now writes pay a damn lot better than an underappreciated series.

[Mentalist]

Macros, on 23 October 2016 - 08:34 AM, said:

@ment.
I disliked Tom Louise first book so much that even though I had the second book on my shelf I gave it away to a charity shop unread.
Should I try again?

Hard question. I can't answer it without a pretty major series spoiler.
I also did not like Bk 2 the first time I read it. It introduces a set of new characters, and a very interesting "villain". But the plot feels VERY derivative from SE (the main plot device is "convergence"
-then I read the Bk 3 prologue, which features the kind of plot stupidity I hate, so I gave up on the series for good.

Then, sometime later, when browsing in a store, Iread the blurb of Bk 4 and spoiled myself to the fact that

Spoiler

Isak dies in Bk3

.
This made me want to give the series another chance. I re-read Bk 2, and liked it a lot more (I guess the first time I read it was soon after a new Malaz novel, which is why it didn't compare well). And Bk 3 sold me, by completely taking the focus off Isak, expanding the world-building, and making a whole bunch of better characters (both "good" and "evil") take center stage.

So, it's a hard series to recommend, because the first 2 books are mostly about Isak, and I hated Isak. Imho, the series improves drastically (and takes the focus off Isak, thank God), by book 3, but I can't say without reservation that it's worth slogging through for everyone. I have a tendency to forgive a lot of stuff, if world-building is iinteresting- and in this case, it certainly was. Even so, I can't describe characterization in BK1 anything other than "atrocious drivel". Bk 2 improves to be a solid 3/5, because it introduces more side-plots. Bk 3 takes the series to Ericson-like places.

But whether it's worth trying to get there- I can't speak for everyone.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 24 October 2016 - 01:23 PM

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

@Ment. Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is my re-read record holder. 20+ times. My favorite book all-time, with Snowcrash not far behind.

[Tiste Simeon]

OK I found The Final Empire, The Week of Ascension and The Hero of Ages on my Kindle. That's the original Mistborn right? Think I'll start reading this.

[End of Disc One]

Tiste Simeon, on 23 October 2016 - 02:52 PM, said:

OK I found The Final Empire, The Week of Ascension and The Hero of Ages on my Kindle. That's the original Mistborn right? Think I'll start reading this.

Correct. Hope you enjoy.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Mentalist, on 23 October 2016 - 01:37 PM, said:

Macros, on 23 October 2016 - 08:34 AM, said:

@ment.
I disliked Tom Louise first book so much that even though I had the second book on my shelf I gave it away to a charity shop unread.
Should I try again?

Hard question. I can't answer it without a pretty major series spoiler.
I also did not like Bk 2 the first time I read it. It introduces a set of new characters, and a very interesting "villain". But the plot feels VERY derivative from SE (the main plot device is "convergence"
-then I read the Bk 3 prologue, which features the kind of plot stupidity I hate, so I gave up on the series for good.

Then, sometime later, when browsing in a store, Iread the blurb of Bk 3 and spoiled myself to the fact that

Spoiler

Isak dies in Bk3

.
This made me want to give the series another chance. I re-read Bk 2, and liked it a lot more (I guess the first time I read it was soon after a new Malaz novel, which is why it didn't compare well). And Bk 3 sold me, by completely taking the focus off Isak, expanding the world-building, and making a whole bunch of better characters (both "good" and "evil") take center stage.

So, it's a hard series to recommend, because the first 2 books are mostly about Isak, and I hated Isak. Imho, the series improves drastically (and takes the focus off Isak, thank God), by book 3, but I can't say without reservation that it's worth slogging through for everyone. I have a tendency to forgive a lot of stuff, if world-building is iinteresting- and in this case, it certainly was. Even so, I can't describe characterization in BK1 anything other than "atrocious drivel". Bk 2 improves to be a solid 3/5, because it introduces more side-plots. Bk 3 takes the series to Ericson-like places.

But whether it's worth trying to get there- I can't speak for everyone.

Can one just start at book 3?

[Abyss]

I Got Crabs, on 23 October 2016 - 05:21 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 23 October 2016 - 02:52 PM, said:

OK I found The Final Empire, The Week of Ascension and The Hero of Ages on my Kindle. That's the original Mistborn right? Think I'll start reading this.

Yep and then there's another 3 after that's just as enjoyable. You ll have fun if you get to all back to back

Isn't it Alloy of Law, then another trilo?

[End of Disc One]

Abyss, on 23 October 2016 - 05:34 PM, said:

I Got Crabs, on 23 October 2016 - 05:21 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 23 October 2016 - 02:52 PM, said:

OK I found The Final Empire, The Week of Ascension and The Hero of Ages on my Kindle. That's the original Mistborn right? Think I'll start reading this.

Yep and then there's another 3 after that's just as enjoyable. You ll have fun if you get to all back to back

Isn't it Alloy of Law, then another trilo?

Yeah that's how Brandon sees it. But the last book isn't out yet and a reader could look at it as a 4 book series IMO.

[Chance]

Done with House of Chains re-read and it is a great book but doesn't have the "did that just happen" moments of MoI and DG at the same time these books rock after a decent interval as re-read material way to complex to keep the details in mind unlike many other books.

Currently going into Midnight Tides and I'm liking it hope it continues on that way it has usually been my least favorit but people change and I certainly don't react the same way to these books as the first time I read them.

This post has been edited by Chance: 23 October 2016 - 06:22 PM