Books, baby!
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Idly, back on other books. Just recently read the first 4 books in Peter V. Brett's Demon Cycle series and they were pretty great. Along the lines of your typical Wheel of Time-y Fantasy sort of stuff kind of but with some unique representations that I haven't seen done before. The ending of Book 3 made me want to slap somebody, but in a good way. Went out and spent 30$ on Book 4 (which is still relatively new I guess and only in hardcover), when I pretty much just always buy paperback. (I can't do the e-reading. Give me a fking book pls.)
If anybody has any Fantasy series to recommend, lemme hear 'em.
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@Tempest The similarities between the Demon Cycle and the Wheel of Time are pretty astounding, aren't they?
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@Arkandel In some ways yes. Most blatantly, the Krasians might as well be Aiel in almost every way, and hilariously as the books go on the small number of things that made them different from the Aiel starts to disappear. But part of it is I just think the fact that there's so many fantasy tropes. The whole small village spawns the prophecied hero thing/etc.
I wanted to burn book 3 in a fire for starting with like 210 pages straight of Inevera's childhood (who I hated at the time), but amazingly, the character has grown on me. That itself reminded me of numerous chapters in WoT I gave zero shits about, like the hundreds of pages a certain bird-named woman spent imprisoned and her wolfman spent looking for her. (Strange because I like that particular female character, but goddamn that is a painful chunk of book to struggle through.)
Other books.
I'm sure they're both already hugely popular with everybody who pays any attention to the Fantasy genre, but.
Brandon Sanderson is my favorite author. Mistborn made me fall in love with him (Been hesitant to read the post-original-trilogy book, anyone have comments on it?). Just recently read the Stormlight Archive books (only two out, sadly), which are, again, Wheel of Time-esque in nature, but pretty amazing and it sucks that book 2 was JUST really getting into things. (Book 1 spends a lot of time with the main male character in some situations that weren't particularly exciting to read about, I hate to say.) Or the very boring and numerous chunks that tend to come from Egwene/Nynaeve/Elayne POV chapters.
Patrick Rothfuss' 2 books were pretty fun, though I'm not really a fan of the story-teller telling stories style of writing.
I'm actually in the middle of working back through the WoT (between other books) because I still haven't read the final 3 (done by Sanderson and not Jordan of course), and figured I needed a refresher.
Currently debating if the Sword of Truth is worth another read or not. I left off somewhere around like book 8 or something.
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For another high fantasy tale, I liked Codex Alera by Jim Butcher.
Some others:
Graceling by Kristin Cashore (only read the first one).
Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian TchaikovskyCouple of urban fantasy:
Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka
Courts of Feyre series by Mike Shevdon -
@Tempest I highly recommend The Broken Empire series. It's a bit grimdark and very cynical but so well written, and self-contained. A follow-up series is midway now in the same setting but reading the first isn't needed.
Alternatively The Lightbringer series is more traditional fantasy, with a pretty original magic system. It reminded me of Sanderson a lot in that the author clearly spent a great deal of time developing it as a building block to base his plot on.
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@Glitch said:
For another high fantasy tale, I liked Codex Alera by Jim Butcher.
I liked these much more than the Dresden Files books, and I liked the Dresden Files books well enough (they play into my weakness for detective fiction).
Someone ages ago was talking about making a Codex Alera game, and I still hope it materializes one day.
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Some of those definitely look worth a peek, thanks folks.
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For fantasy, I always recommend Michelle West's books (The Sunsword series, the Huntbrother two, the House War books - they're all in the same universe around the same time, and it's pretty epic in scale).
Also, Glen Cook's Black Company stuff. I usually don't like my fantasy dark or very gritty, but it was such a novel premise (the main characters are the bad guys is what I can say without spoiling) and so well written I couldn't put any of it down, really. All of his stuff is good, but the Black Company is worlds above the rest of it.
I probably said all this before. Enh.
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I've been looking for a link exactly like this for so long.
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The Paper Magician series is a short, fast read with a good payoff. The magic system through manufactured materials is a neat deviation.
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If anyone hasn't read King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, it's an oldie but a goodie. I picked up my copy back in the early 80s when Scholastic Book Services book purchase flyers were being regularly distributed in elementary schools. I think it's the only book I acquired that way.
