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Can't decide what to read: Long Price vs Mistborn vs Dagger and Coin


Pino Proxy

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I know these books have received more than enough attention here, but I'm really trying to avoid spoilers and I don't think I can get the answer I'm looking for without making this thread of my own.

As much I love fantasy, I am fairly new to the genre. I've read A Song of Ice and Fire and The First Law, and that's it sadly (I only became an avid reader recently). The three series listed in the title are what have caught my eye, but for the life of me I cannot determine what series would be the most suited to what I'm looking for.

What I'm looking for is a series with very well developed characters, ones that I can really get attached to. I want an emotional story that just may make me cry, not necessarily because it's sad, but because the conflicts experienced by the characters are significant and relatable. I just recently played Undertale, and I'm kind of hoping a series I read can impact me as powerfully as that game.

I really like political intrigue, like what is present in ASOIAF and TFL. And oh shit, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I very much like romance. I love it so much, I get ridiculously invested in it sometimes. It'd be a huge factor if a series had romance in it.

I also like multiple POVs, so that's a factor too. I want the series to have 3-5 books in the series (that's just what I'm willing to read at the moment). And I really liked the role that magic played in ASOIAF and TFL. It's important and quite powerful, but it doesn't make constant appearances.

So which of these three series best match my current preferences? Or is there perhaps another series that fits better?

As a side note, in regards to The Long Price Quartet, I hear the books are standalone, but is there a significant connection between the books? Are they disconnected stories that so happen to take place in the same universe, or is the series a cohesive story?

Thanks.

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Firstly, shout out to Ergo Proxy :)

 

I can't speak for other two for I haven't read them so far; but Mistborn has pretty much everything that you ask for:

- immersive characters and story. At least from my own experience, I was so hooked up that I read 300-400 pages a day

- well developed several main characters you can easily get attached to

-multiple POVs, though few are more common then the rest

-romance plot (and come on, there's nothing embarrassing about liking it)

-3 books in the series

-lots of intrigue and mystery, political and otherwise.

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Long Price is really not standalone if you ask me.  There might be a mini-resolution that makes a good starting and stopping point between the books, but it's written to be all one continuous story. 

I've mentioned this in other threads, but I'll just say that I think Long Price is backloaded with the latter half of the series being stronger than the opening half. 

I've only read the first Dagger & Coin book and enjoyed it.  Would have started the next one by now if B&N had a copy, but they didn't. 

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I would recommend TLPQ. What I enjoy about the series are the following:

1) it's a finished series. I hate waiting on series. I've been burned by the usual suspects in that regard. 

2) each entry is relatively short for the genre(may be a plus or negative for you). It was refreshing for me.

3) the characters are really the strongest aspect of the series. Their progression is central to the story. I love Otah and Maati. They are two of the most fleshed-out and realistic characters I've read.

4) a truly unique magic system, and very low fantasy. The andat are such an interesting concept.

5) a very interesting setting. I grew tired of the overdone, generic quasi-medieval Europe setting in the genre. The setting of TLPQ has a very eastern feel to it and blends beautifully with the magic system.

As far as meeting your requirements:

1) It well exceeds your desire for well-developed characters

2) The story is very emotional, but mainly the last two books.

3) The political intrigue present tends to be slightly more economic in the first entry and becomes more political as the series progresses. However, the intrigue is the relationship between the novels key characters.

4) There isn't a great deal of romance. There are relationships but there isn't much wooing and swooning in it.

5) There are multiple povs but much less than in ASOIAF and a much smaller cast

6) as far as magic, see #4 of what I enjoy about the  series.

 

I hope that helps :)

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Thanks for the responses guys.

I think what I'm leaning towards the most is the emotional aspect (that's just what I'm into right now). With that said, beforehand I think I was slightly leaning towards The Long Price, but it's close. I've seen very strong cases for Mistborn and Long Price (here and elsewhere), but does anyone have any input on Dagger and Coin?

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From the one book of Dagger & Coin I've read it's got a lot in common with ASOIAF but just isn't as good though that's not a criticism as just about nothing is. 

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Well-developed characters: Either of the Abraham books. There are three Mistborn characters I'd say are well-rounded, the others grow in the next couple books in the series but in the first book especially are more archetypical.

Political intrigue: Probably Dagger and Coin. Mistborn and Long Price- it's there, but not with the same scope.

Romance: Mistborn probably fits best here. In some ways it's juvenile, but while Abraham has some relationships in his series, they're not really what I would call romance.

Number of books: Any of the three. Unless Dagger and Coin grows.

Magic: Least present in Dagger and Coin, but that may change. More of a background there: there are multiple races due to historical magic, but no one really using much magic in the present day. There is one exception in some priests who show up. Mistborn and Long Price both have magic as a big driver of the world from the start. Magic in Long Price is more interpretive but has a large effect on trade and politics, while Mistborn has a rule-bound system but is very often used by main characters. Given your criteria, Dagger and Coin fits the magic criterion best, Mistborn least.

 

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Dagger and Coin is great and hits everything you're looking for.  It's got romance, a tragic villain, politics, multi POVs that are well developed.  

Long Price is the only series that's ever made me actually cry.  It's absolutely great.

Mistborn is okay.  Sanderson's dialogue makes me cringe, though, and his characters are very immature.  I don't recommend him though there are plenty of people that think he's great.

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What I'm looking for is a series with very well developed characters,
 

 And I really liked the role that magic played in ASOIAF and TFL.  It's important and quite powerful, but it doesn't make constant appearances.

These two points cause me to say stay away from Sanderson.  I enjoyed Mistborn well enough but the characters are pretty one note.  The single biggest draw to Sanderson IS his 'magic systems,' which will be explained in excruciating detail and permeate almost every page of the story.

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Long Price is really not standalone if you ask me.  There might be a mini-resolution that makes a good starting and stopping point between the books, but it's written to be all one continuous story.


Yeah. The first one would work if you stopped there, I guess, but it's all definitely one story overall.

It's not very long however - I don't think the entire series is much longer than aSoS on its own - so it's not really a biggie.

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I've only read Abraham's books. I'd usually say Long Price as it's finished (and I do like it more than Dagger and Coin so far). Then again Dagger and Coin is a lot more like traditional fantasy (Daniel admitted early on this is his all-out embracing of the genre) and given your interest in Mistborn it may be the best one to go for?

I've only read short stories in the mistborn world and they didn't convince me to try more.

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It seems to me like you'd like Mistborn, which more or less meets every requirement you mentioned. The characters aren't as good as Martin's and the magic is way more prominent, but neither to the point where it distracts from the story. Based on what you wrote I think you'd like it.

I can't vouch for the other two because I haven't read them (yet).

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I really like political intrigue, like what is present in ASOIAF and TFL. And oh shit, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I very much like romance. I love it so much, I get ridiculously invested in it sometimes. It'd be a huge factor if a series had romance in it.

You really should stay away from Mistborn IMO. The political intrigues there are laughably bad, and the romance isn't much better.

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Of the three you list, Dagger and Coin definitely hits the most of your pre-requisites. The characterisation is excellent (one of the POVs is one of most intriguing villains I've read in a long time), there's shedloads of political and economic intrigue. Not much in the way of "romance" (there's a gloriously fucked up unrequited love, a very well-characterised long-term marriage and not much else) but plenty of emotional resonance. Magic is pretty low-key in the present day. 

Long Price would also fit reasonably well, but I'm baffled by people suggesting Mistborn. I like the books, but the magic is front and centre and continually focussed on. Given your criteria, it's comfortably last on the list.

Somebody else suggested Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, which I'd second. Inherently political, relatively low-magic, amazing characters and relationships, all round excellent books. Hobb generally writes in loosely-connected trilogies as well, so the initial chunk is within your 3-5 book range but there's plenty more (12 more, currently) if you get a taste for it.

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I'd go with Long Price if I were you. Dagger and Coin is also good, but LPQ is finished and imo a little better (so far). Here is a rating of each by your criteria (scale of 1-5):

Mistborn:

Developed Characters: 1. Most of the characters were flat and the few that did get some development were boring.  I actually gave up reading the third one and read the wiki to see how it ended because I just did not care about anyone in the book after a while.

Emotional Story: 2. The story itself is kind of interesting but I find it hard to engage with a story on an emotional level if the characters aren't good

Political intrigue: 3. There's some of this but it's really simplistic compared to something like ASOIAF

Romance: 2. This has the most romance out of the three but it's really poorly written and incredibly juvenile

Multiple POVs: 3: It has several POVs but they are concentrated on a few characters, and some people who you've seen throughout the book will occasionally get a random POV section, which I found annoying. It wasn't like 'oh, cool, here is Melisandre's POV' but more like he couldn't figure out how to write a scene from one of the established POVs so he threw this one in there. 

Magic: 1: Magic is pervasive throughout the novel, and described in excruciating detail. This is actually one of the things many people like most about the book, but I don't think it fits your criteria

Dagger and the Coin:

Developed Characters: 4. This has a few great characters, including at least one really unique take on a traditional fantasy archetype. I enjoy several of the side characters as well.  A couple of the main characters do feel a little stock though.

Emotional Story: 3. This could be a 4 depending on how it ends up. The story is very interesting, but I haven't really connected to any particular character yet.

Political intrigue: 4. Several of the POVs revolve around political and economic maneuvering, usually done well though occasionally some of it is a bit forced and you can see the author's hand at work

Romance: 1. Not much romance at all, what there is isn't very engaging

Multiple POVs: 5. POV structure is similar to asoiaf

Magic: 4. Magic plays a large role in shaping the world but is not as important in what happens in most of the story.

Long Price Quartet:

Developed Characters: 5. I really loved the main characters in LPQ, and even some of the ones introduced later in the series stayed with me long after it was over.

Emotional Story: 5. For the reasons above this was easily the most emotional read of the three. A great story with a really satisfying ending. 

Political intrigue: 2. No complex machinations on the level of asoiaf, but there is some smaller scale intrigue

Romance: 2. There is some but it's not really an important part of the story

Multiple POVs: 4. Multiple POV structure, but a smaller cast than asoiaf

Magic: 4. The whole story is driven by the andat, but magic is not pervasive and it is used in an interesting way.

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I've only read the first Mistborn trilogy and first in the Dagger and the Coin series, but the latter is far far superior to Sanderson, with a richly built world, great political (and economic!) intrigues and well developed characters each with distinct personalities. I'd have torn straight into the following book if my to read pile were not so damned big

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I would absolutely recommend LPQ or Dagger and Coin over Mistborn. You don't feel the same emotional connection with the characters in Mistborn, and LPQ/D&C hit all of your other criteria, I'd say (although romance is less of a big deal to Abraham...not that Sanderson's romance is anything more than one-note). Overall, LPQ and D&C are much higher quality than Mistborn, which is just a fun (and somewhat gruesome, sometimes) fantasy romp -- nowhere near the same emotional resonance. 

Downside to D&C is that it's not completed yet. I believe the final book is set to be published next spring? 

I'd definitely third the Farseer Trilogy. More traditional fantasy than Daniel Abraham, but has the romance and emotional resonance I think you're looking for, as well as low levels of political intrigue. I'd say: 

Long Price Quartet = Farseer > Dagger and Coin >>>> Mistborn 

*** I do want to be fair and say that I really enjoy Mistborn, but I don't think it's what you're looking for. 

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I was torn between TLPQ and D&C from your initial post, but

Thanks for the responses guys.

I think what I'm leaning towards the most is the emotional aspect (that's just what I'm into right now). With that said, beforehand I think I was slightly leaning towards The Long Price, but it's close. I've seen very strong cases for Mistborn and Long Price (here and elsewhere), but does anyone have any input on Dagger and Coin?

This really says TLPQ to me.  Reading it has been a unique reading experience for me, it's this carefully drawn tale that is beautiful and full of emotion.  It doesn't have much by way of current romance, in large part because you skip over the formation of the relationships with the big time skips between books, but it doesn't have a deep love in it both romantic love and familial.  The last book in particular was full of bits that just tugged my heart out of my chest and I can't even think of the epilogue without tearing up, it's the most I've ever cried from any media ever.

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