Syhle Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Hi everyone, I'm new here and I would like to get recommendations on what to read now that I've read ASOIAF. I'm 27 and I've read quite a lot since I was a child and started reading fantasy when I was a teenager : Harry Potter first then His Dark Materials, Robin Hobb (The Liveship Traders are my favorite), Ursula le Guin (loved Earthsea), Terry Goodkind (liked it at first then hated it, too cliché and poorly written), of course TLOTR and The Silmarillion, Zelazny (enjoyable), Eddings (meh)... I knew ASOIAF was an excellent series but I didn't want to start reading since I knew it wasn't finished and I would be more than eargerly waiting for the following books. Well then the TV series started, and I wanted to watch it (I would have seen character's faces anyway in the media and maybe spoilers), and I hate watching a movie/TV series without having read the book (can't properly imagine the characters in my head if I've already seen them), so...I've read the books. Man was I hooked. One of the best series I've ever read. I read it 3 times, discovering new things each time (prophecies and little details and stuff, R+L=J...). I've started coming here to see what the theories were and what people thought about the books, the show... And now I don't know what else to read in fantasy. I've tried The Wheel of Time since I saw some recommendations here but it took me 2-3 weeks to finish book 1 because I found it so boring and cliché. I also read The Pillars of the Earth (fun to read but not that good) because I realised that what I like now in fantasy is the medieval-ish world more than the magic and goblins and trollocs and whatnot.So I've read several threads in this forum and I've come with a list of series but it's very long (I've excluded the ones I've already read and some that didn't seem to fit my liking). Here it is (some are rated since they seem to come up a lot) Greg Keyes' The Kingdom of Bone and ThornAcacia trilogy by David Anthony Durham +++First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie +++Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series +Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch ++ The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott LynchDaniel Abraham's The Dagger and the CoinPrince of Thorns by Mark LawrencePhilippa GregoryMalazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson ++The Prince of Nothing R Scott Bakker ++ The Second Apocalypse - R. Scott BakkerSara Douglass - Wayfarer Redemption trilogyColdfire Trilogy by C.S. FriedmanAnn McCaffrey, PERNElizabeth Haydon, Symphony of AgesJacqueline Carey's Kushiel Trilogy +++Juliet Mariller's Sevenwater's trilogy Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, Thorn seriesPaul Kearney's The Monarchies of God seriesMonarchies of God by Paul KearnySunsword (Michelle West) ++Ursula Le Guin's Gifts/Voices/Powers trilogy +++Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint & Privilege of the SwordThe Book of the New Sun By Gene WolfeThe Fencer Trilogy - KJ Parker I am french and I can't peruse the books in a library or bookstore to see if I like the writing or the storytelling (I want to find them in english and our foreign libraries are not very extensive - and even if I wanted to read them in french I don't know if all of these series have been translated anyway). So I would like to select some (4-5) out of that list. I'd like your advice on this :- first what I really, really like is when the story is told from multiple points of view - I also like good and extensive character building and world building (preferably a medieval world)- not too dark/gritty- nothing poorly written (english is not my mother tongue so I can't always judge but stuff like Terry Goodkind made me cringe)- little magic or fantasy beings, more political plots and war, evolving rapidly (and I don't mind about romance if it's not too cheesy)- a writer that doesn't hesitate to kill off characters (it's so boring when you know that the main characters will always escape) Thank you very much for your help (sorry if this post was too long or too descriptive about me but I really need to start another fantasy series that I like since I'm going crazy over thinking about ASOIAF - I do read other books, classics mostly, but I like to alternate between them and fantasy books). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 I think Dagger and Coin might fit best with what you are looking for. Medieval setting. Low magic. Multiple viewpoints. (Also consider Abraham's other finished work, The Long Price Quartet.) First Law also meets those criteria. I like Gentlemen Bastards, but there aren't a ton of viewpoints in that. Similarly, I enjoyed the Warlord Chronicles by Cornwell, but there is just the one viewpoint. I enjoy Malazan and Bakker quite a bit, but they are both very high magic settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errant Bard Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Commenting on the following, I have not read the rest:Greg Keyes' The Kingdom of Bone and ThornAcacia trilogy by David Anthony Durham +++First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie +++Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series +Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch ++ The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott LynchMalazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson ++The Prince of Nothing R Scott Bakker ++ The Second Apocalypse - R. Scott BakkerAnn McCaffrey, PERNPaul Kearney's The Monarchies of God seriesEllen Kushner's Swordspoint & Privilege of the SwordThe Book of the New Sun By Gene WolfeElimination game: good and extensive character building and world building (preferably a medieval world) nothing poorly written evolving rapidly (and I don't mind about romance if it's not too cheesy) None seem out, really, though some worlds are less medieval than others (looking at you PERN and New Sun), and well written is very much a opinion varying for person to person, for best sellers like this. Multiple point of views, are out:Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series +Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch ++ The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (hey, It has some shifts, but I don't think it meets with the spirit of "multiple PoVs" thing)Ann McCaffrey, PERNEllen Kushner's Swordspoint & Privilege of the SwordThe Book of the New Sun By Gene Wolfenot too dark/gritty. Oh boy, here we go. Are out:Greg Keyes' The Kingdom of Bone and ThornAcacia trilogy by David Anthony Durham +++First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie +++Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson ++The Prince of Nothing R Scott Bakker ++ The Second Apocalypse - R. Scott BakkerTad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, Thorn seriesPaul Kearney's The Monarchies of God seriesThe Fencer Trilogy - KJ Parker (havent read it, but damn, it's KJ Parker!)little magic or fantasy beings. Are out:Greg Keyes' The Kingdom of Bone and ThornAcacia trilogy by David Anthony Durham +++Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series +Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson ++Ann McCaffrey, PERN (borderline but, heck, the whole story is about mfing dragons teleporting around)Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson ++The Prince of Nothing R Scott Bakker ++ The Second Apocalypse - R. Scott Bakkermore political plots and war, Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series +Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch ++ The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott LynchAnn McCaffrey, PERN (what war?)Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint & Privilege of the Sword (it's romance with some swordsplay, ffs)The Book of the New Sun By Gene Wolfe (there is *some* politics, but "politics and war?" nope, not the books you're looking for)a writer that doesn't hesitate to kill off characters (it's so boring when you know that the main characters will always escape) Seems to contradict your "not too dark/gritty". If you are seeing main character deaths, you are not in carebear land anymore. Anyway, most of those I've read kill some characters, notable exceptions being:Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series +Ann McCaffrey, PERNEllen Kushner's Swordspoint & Privilege of the SwordThe Book of the New Sun By Gene WolfeSo, that means you should not read any of the books I have read.... Mais bon, franchement, ça serait dommage de ne pas lire au moins TLOLL, qui est un roman de cape et d'épée, à la base, avec des éléments fantastique, et super fun à lire. Le reste, bah, si tu ne veux pas de truc trop noir ou déprimant, c'est sûr que je ne vais pas recommander de lire Abercrombie, Bakker, Kearney, Erikson ou Parker, bien que ce soit les gros auteurs dans la catégorie "epic fantasy". Durham et Keyes sont en dessous au niveau qualité, je trouve. Je dirais qu'au delà de Lynch, Abraham peut être un bon choix avec sa série The Long Price, bien que ça manque de PoV et de batailles que tu retrouverais dans les bouqins plus noirs. I'll say, if you must choose five, choose them because they don't meet your criteria, each in a different way, and maybe one will hook you like ASOIAF did. In my opinion you should try, for example:Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch ++ The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott LynchAnn McCaffrey, PERNPaul Kearney's The Monarchies of God seriesUrsula Le Guin's Gifts/Voices/Powers trilogy +++The Book of the New Sun By Gene WolfeAnd see what floats before going to the usual Abercrombie/Bakker/Abraham and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Your list includes a lot of quality work, and it is also very popular work. Eventually you might also want to include some more obscure books that I think fit your criteria and are well written. Two good books from Gene Wolfe are his Soldier series, about Latro the Hellene who has a form of amnesia.Soldier of the Mist (1986) Locus Fantasy winner, WFA nominee, 1987; Nebula nominee 1988Soldier of Arete (1989) Locus Fantasy and WFA nominee, 1990 Lois McMaster Bujold has a series set in an Iberian pre-Renaissance world with limited magic.The Curse of Chalion (2001) Hugo, Locus Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 2002Paladin of Souls (2003) (sequel to The Curse of Chalion) Hugo, Nebula and Locus Fantasy Awards winner, 2004The Hallowed Hunt (2005) Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2006 Harry Harrison's three books with "John Holm" (Tom Shippey) of the Hammer and the Cross are another good option, featuring politics and maybe a clash of the gods or maybe just a clash of cultures in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages. The Hammer and the CrossOne King's WayKing and Emperor Harry Turtledove, writing as Dan Chernenko, has written The Scepter of Mercy series. Like a lot of his fiction, the stuff he writes under his pen names seems to be of better quality than the popular works sold under his own name. The Bastard KingThe Chernagor PiratesThe Scepter's Return Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckwheat Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Welcome to the forum. :) I have not read that much fantasy either, so I just want to comment on your mentioningPhilippa Gregorybecause as far as I know, none of her work counts as fantasy. At least I would not call any of her novels I have read as fantasy. I have read her The Other Boleyn Girl, White Queen, The Queen's Fool, The Boleyn Inheritance and a half of that novel about the gardener that I just looked up and seems like the original title is Earthly Joys (I read most of them in translation). And as far as I can remember, only the White Queen had some sort of a magicky mythical backstory that might be described as a fantastical element, but it really does not have any impact on the plot.Only the Boleyn Inheritance fulfills your requirement for mulitple POVs.And I do not find them to be really well written and realistic in the description of politics either, especially I think in the White Queen I remember thinking that the main character was less of a competent politician than dear Queen Cersei Baratheon, and she still somehow ended up well all the time, so :dunno: The Other Boleyn Girl might have been the best of them. (Or maybe it is just that I have read it first, years ago and my taste in literature has developed somewhat before I have read the others.) They are good entertainment, but not very high quality literature. So yeah, if you are trying to find a good fantasy series with multiple POVs and realistic mediaeval setting and character building, you might want to scratch that off your list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
End of Disc One Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 It seems a lot of people get into fantasy with ASoIaF and then they want something similar. You're better off looking for something else. There's tons of great fantasy out there, and I think you would enjoy books that don't fit all of your criteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 I am french and I can't peruse the books in a library or bookstore to see if I like the writing or the storytelling (I want to find them in english and our foreign libraries are not very extensive - and even if I wanted to read them in french I don't know if all of these series have been translated anyway). So I would like to select some (4-5) out of that list. I'd like your advice on this :- first what I really, really like is when the story is told from multiple points of view - I also like good and extensive character building and world building (preferably a medieval world)- not too dark/gritty- nothing poorly written (english is not my mother tongue so I can't always judge but stuff like Terry Goodkind made me cringe)- little magic or fantasy beings, more political plots and war, evolving rapidly (and I don't mind about romance if it's not too cheesy)- a writer that doesn't hesitate to kill off characters (it's so boring when you know that the main characters will always escape)From outside your list I think Adrian Tchaikovsky's recently-completed 10 book series Shadows of the Apt seems to fit quite well with your criteria, although it might depend on your definition of fantasy beings, it certainly doesn't have traditional fantasy beings. I agree with other people's recommendations of The Dagger and the Coin, Long Price Quartet and Chalion series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Characters don't die in New Sun? Are you sure we read the same books? O.o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 I agree with other people's recommendations of The Dagger and the Coin Wait, this is the one with dragons, 12 races, magic swords, talking human dog hybrids, spider blooded priests, and magic mind control, right? Just want to make sure we are clear on the 'light' magic elements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Wait, this is the one with dragons, 12 races, magic swords, talking human dog hybrids, spider blooded priests, and magic mind control, right? Just want to make sure we are clear on the 'light' magic elements. Nah all those have been proven to actually exist by science. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Your list includes a lot of quality work, and it is also very popular work. Eventually you might also want to include some more obscure books that I think fit your criteria and are well written. Two good books from Gene Wolfe are his Soldier series, about Latro the Hellene who has a form of amnesia. Soldier of the Mist (1986) Locus Fantasy winner, WFA nominee, 1987; Nebula nominee 1988 Soldier of Arete (1989) Locus Fantasy and WFA nominee, 1990 Lois McMaster Bujold has a series set in an Iberian pre-Renaissance world with limited magic. The Curse of Chalion (2001) Hugo, Locus Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 2002 Paladin of Souls (2003) (sequel to The Curse of Chalion) Hugo, Nebula and Locus Fantasy Awards winner, 2004 The Hallowed Hunt (2005) Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2006 What about these books are obscure? I think you mean 'different'. They are far from obscure and, as the litany of awards behind the names suggest, very popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 But they don't have threads here so they have to be obscure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologdin Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 the iliad fits the criteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 What about these books are obscure? I think you mean 'different'. They are far from obscure and, as the litany of awards behind the names suggest, very popular. As Darth Richards said, these aren't the sort of books that are the source of endless streams of threads on this forum. But you are correct, they are not, or at least were not when published, obscure. Perhaps I should have used the phrase "currently popular on this site". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 Wait, this is the one with dragons, 12 races, magic swords, talking human dog hybrids, spider blooded priests, and magic mind control, right? Just want to make sure we are clear on the 'light' magic elements. I'm interpreting the request as being for something with a similar level of magic to ASOIAF and although it's perhaps debatable I'd say the D&C series is roughly comparable. ASOIAF also has dragons, non-human races, supposedly magical weapons and priests with magical abilities although some of those elements might be more obvious in the D&C books (particularly the non-human races). It's definitely a lot lighter in terms of the magical elements than some of the other series they mentioned in their post like Wheel of Time or Malazan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Yeah, I was thinking in terms of world destroying fireballs and such... D&C is light on those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Yeah, I was thinking in terms of world destroying fireballs and such... D&C is light on those. Sure, take out the scene with a dragon in flight lighting the fuck out of a bunch of spider priests attempting to brainwash a king which their magical mind controlling powers, and I'll agree with you. It's not Malazan level KEWL magic use, but it's still there. The same goes for george. People try to down play how much, or how important magic is in Westeros, but it's pretty damned important, and much more prevalent than people want to admit. I think they want to try and assign some literary significance to ASoIaF and they can't do that when it's just a book about dragons, magic swords, and and creepy ice zombies. It's there, and it's not downplayed, it's pretty damned important. Saying that, i'll agree, there are varying degrees of magic 'use' in the genre, and his is a little more sophisticated, but it's not hidden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowborn Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 After reading ASoIaF I went through a "oh my god what am I going to read next" phase, three years ago. What got me out of it was the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It's different from ASoIaF in that the characters are way more grey, while on GRRM's series you can tell which side is the "good" side pretty easily, in First Law world that's a lot harder to do. Who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys? Abercrombie's battle scenes are excellent, very well written and not hard to follow. His book follows six PoV characters, each chapter is told from one of those PoVs, like in ASoIaF. The magic usage is low, and the world is gritty, most of the characters are very cynical. There's a dry humor in these books that I really enjoyed. From what you said, I think you'll like this series, if you don't mind the grittiness. As for wanting a sample of the books you want to read, you should check Amazon's "look inside" feature, clicking on the cover of the book. Even if you don't have a Kindle, you can read the first few pages of a book to get a feeling of the style and the story. I do have a Kindle, but being able to read a sample of the books I'm interested in helps me decide what to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victarion Chainbreaker Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 May I suggest the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson? It's got 3 POV characters, is so light on the magic that it could classify as historical fiction, and is a little gritty without being too dark. It's well written, but some readers don't like it because it's a little too intellectual: One of the POVs focuses on science and another focuses on trade, only the third focuses on adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yersinia Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 As Snowborn said, Amazon is a good source of samples. In fact, you can download a Kindle sample (usually a couple of chapters) and read it using a free Kindle Reading App on your computer or phone. This is usually enough to give you a good feel for a writer's style and whether or not you want to read the book. I find it really useful, because I also lack easy access to physical copies of English-language books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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