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Fantasy Recommendation, heavily character driven


Circle_breaker

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Hello all, I'm looking for some recommendations for a new book to read, so i figured this forum would be the best place to ask around.

I hope character drivin in the correct term but I'm looking for a book that is centered around an ensemble of characters. If anyone has read the Tales of Ketty Jay or even Lies of lock lomore, a book similar to those with a 'crew', 'gang', or company working together. I am open to spread out POVs but it would not be my ideal choice.

The Chathrand Voyage series by Robert VS Redick is perfect for all this. It has a very large and diverse cast of characters, with just about every one of them having very unique and interesting backstories, motivations and ongoing personal storylines within the series' larger narrative. For a series with such a huge scope and so much complex intigue and scheming involving so many players, it's amazing just how well the characterization is handled, both quality and quanity wise. It definitely avoids the pitfalls of shallow or repetitive characters that other series with such large ensembles sometimes have.

It also has the "crew or gang type group working together" element you're looking for. A large part of the story is set aboard a ship and there's a core group on the ship working together to unravel an overarching conspiracy, fight various threats from within the ship and without, hatch schemes and plans of their own, and generally survive all the crazy shit happening to and around them. .

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The Chathrand Voyage series by Robert VS Redick is perfect for all this. It has a very large and diverse cast of characters, with just about every one of them having very unique and interesting backstories, motivations and ongoing personal storylines within the series' larger narrative. For a series with such a huge scope and so much complex intigue and scheming involving so many players, it's amazing just how well the characterization is handled, both quality and quanity wise. It definitely avoids the pitfalls of shallow or repetitive characters that other series with such large ensembles sometimes have.

It also has the "crew or gang type group working together" element you're looking for. A large part of the story is set aboard a ship and there's a core group on the ship working together to unravel an overarching conspiracy, fight various threats from within the ship and without, hatch schemes and plans of their own, and generally survive all the crazy shit happening to and around them. .

Those books…. So bad. So bad.

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If you mean "bad" in a LL Cool J "I'm Bad", meaning completely awesome, way, then I agree. Otherwise, you're crazy

Those books are freaking horrible. That first one with the willow like pixies and shit? Awful. The dialog is choppy as shit, and the pacing of the first book is all fucked up.

Middling at best. On par with sanderson, sure, but nothing great.

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Just to add two:



Lois McMaster Bujold - Curse of Chalion which is the first of a trilogy (I only read the first, however it does read well as a standalone.)


Ian Graham - Monument - Unfortunately the only Fantasy he wrote.



Both were not your typical fantasy and had protagonists with interesting character development.



Slightly more controversial:



Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn has a "crew" or "gang" although I don't think character development is Sandersons strong point - I found the first of the Trilogy the best of the three.


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Those books are freaking horrible. That first one with the willow like pixies and shit? Awful. The dialog is choppy as shit, and the pacing of the first book is all fucked up.

Middling at best. On par with sanderson, sure, but nothing great.

The dialogue's actually quite good in these books. Redick's great at giving the different characters distinctive voices that ring true to who they are and the world they live in, imbues the dialogue in general with a lot of style and flair that makes it fun to read, much like Scott Lynch does in Lamorra, and also like Lynch, is great at using it for humor when appropiate.

I guess you might be able to say that the pace of the first book takes a little while to kick into gear, but that's true for most series of this scope that require setting stuff up and once this series does kick into gear, it doesn't let up.

Pretty sure Michael Jackson was "Bad" before LL Cool J was.

Even if he was first, I wouldn't want to use him as an example of "bad" after he turned his moonwalking, music video knife-fighting "badness" into Jesus Juice, prepubescent sleepover Badness.

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Those books are freaking horrible. That first one with the willow like pixies and shit? Awful. The dialog is choppy as shit, and the pacing of the first book is all fucked up.

Middling at best. On par with sanderson, sure, but nothing great.

I wouldn't have recommended them in this topic necessarily because they're not particularly charaacter driven and the two leads are pretty generic (though I really like most of the supporting cast, especially as the series develops), but I much prefer them to Sanderson, personally.

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I wouldn't have recommended them in this topic necessarily because they're not particularly charaacter driven and the two leads are pretty generic (though I really like most of the supporting cast, especially as the series develops), .

Yeah, but the OP doesn't seem to be using the term character-driven the way I normally see it used. It seems to be describing stories focused on a diverse group of characters interacting in close proximity. I mean, when I see a topic with the words "character driven" and then this:

I think I'll Abraham a try next. Do you guys recommend Mistborn or Price Quartet first?

I would normally say Abraham. But given the actual body of the first post, I'd say Mistborn. Though I'd still say they should branch out and try Long Price Quartet afterwards.

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I'm looking for some nice fantasy, I read most of the, say, big authors and I'm looking for something with really morally challenged protagonists or better yet POVs. Not you classic dark fantasy anti-heroes or orphan/bastard boys/girls who happen to be thieves or assassins, I had my share of those.



Closest I ever got was Abercrombie's Best Served Cold, with Morveen and Cosca, so think in that direction. They don't have to be delusional or crazy, just plain bad. Straight fantasy is preferred, no parody or ham-handed subversion in the venue of "how is to be dark lord in high fantasy" and how he is just misunderstood. Gritty realism is my first choice but if it's good and what I ask for, elves, magic, clean white cities, everything is OK.



I am just stunned I never stumbled across something like this, I mean people wrote stories with clearly bad or to say evil, protagonists since people started writing, why fantasy seems devoid of it is beyond me.

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I'm looking for some nice fantasy, I read most of the, say, big authors and I'm looking for something with really morally challenged protagonists or better yet POVs. Not you classic dark fantasy anti-heroes or orphan/bastard boys/girls who happen to be thieves or assassins, I had my share of those.

Closest I ever got was Abercrombie's Best Served Cold, with Morveen and Cosca, so think in that direction. They don't have to be delusional or crazy, just plain bad. Straight fantasy is preferred, no parody or ham-handed subversion in the venue of "how is to be dark lord in high fantasy" and how he is just misunderstood. Gritty realism is my first choice but if it's good and what I ask for, elves, magic, clean white cities, everything is OK.

I am just stunned I never stumbled across something like this, I mean people wrote stories with clearly bad or to say evil, protagonists since people started writing, why fantasy seems devoid of it is beyond me.

Have you tried the Broken Empire series?

Also "The Heresy Within" (I forget the name of the series) has some of what your looking for.

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Have you tried the Broken Empire series?

Also "The Heresy Within" (I forget the name of the series) has some of what your looking for.

Yeah I heard of them, didn't read them though, maybe now I will give them a try

They are both Brits so I expect dark humor aplenty.

We'll see how they hold on.

Thanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson.

Malazan, while being a brilliant series, is not all that character driven with almost 200 POV characters.

To the OP:

What comes to mind first would've been the Kingkiller Chronicles, but you've already read them I'll give you some others that I've enjoyed. :D

As you liked ASOIAF, I might recommend...

The Wheel of Time (147 POVs, of which perhaps six can be counted as main POVs, and most of the story focuses on these six characters.),

Malazan Book of the Fallen (Nearly 200 POVs, with perhaps 40 or so main POVs. Not exactly the Wonderland of Characterization, but I liked it.),

The Stormlight Archive (Four Main POVs and occasional random POVs, together forming a total of perhaps 10 or 12.).

All are three brilliant series, and, together with ASOIAF, form my list of the four best book series I've ever read.

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Malazan, while being a brilliant series, is not a "heavily character driven" story at all.

To the OP:

My only real option would've been the Kingkiller Chronicles, but you've already read them I'm out of ideas. :D

However, as you liked ASOIAF, I might recommend The Wheel of Time, Malazan Book of the Fallen and The Stormlight Archive, but they're not exactly "heavily" character driven. WoT and TSA are pretty balanced, while Malazan is perhaps a bit on the side of story driven. All are three brilliant series, and, together with ASOIAF, form my list of the four best book series I've ever read.

These are....middling works.

Pick them up, but top tier? Hardly. Maybe for YA (except maybe Malazan, although it does read like a 90's comic book).

Some other good 'group' novels:

The Macht books by Kearney

A Land Fit for Heroes by Morgan

And as mentioned above, Abrahams book.

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