Stuck on what to read while waiting for Winds

[Ser-Arthur-Dayne]

So after finishing ADWD, I was really looking forward to The Winds of Winter, but I know I'm gonna have to wait a while. So I'm gonna see what I should read in the mean time. So if anyone can help me out, I made some research and narrowed it down to these. If you have read all of them, which ones are good? bad? best? worst? And if you read some, then list ONLY the ones you've read. Also, an explanation of why some thing is good or bad would help alot :)

Robin Hobb – The Farseer Trilogy (and her other works)

Steven Erikson – Malazan Book of the Fallen

Stephen Donaldson – The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

Raymond Feist – The Riftwar Cylce

Tad Williams – Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Robert Jordon – Wheel of Time

[Lord Toblerone]

Robin Hobb is well worthwhile.

I tried Thomas Covenant. I slogged through 150 ish pages before I gave up on it.

[The Pita]

I've only read Hobb and some Erikson.

I'll go into their pros and cons:

Hobb:

Pros:

An easy read.

Excellent characters and characterization.

Some deeply touching scenes.

Some of the best prose out there.

The ending of the first trilogy is perfect (Up there with The First Law, in my opinion, as far as "best series ending". Not as cynical, not as dark, and not as "fuck you", but it's just absolutely perfect), the second is good, and other two somewhat bad.

Cons:

The main character is an emotional teen, with all of the baggage that implies. Many people can't stand him, and Hobb only gets worse with each trilogy.

The villain is one of those villains who pretty much gets in the way of the plot, instead of being central to it. It's much better to read it as a trilogy of trilogies, since the main problem of the first trilogy only gets a true resolution at the end of the third, but that ending is very wrong. It doesn't diminish from the power of the first ending, but it does feel bad, looking back.

Erikson:

Pros:

The man has redefined epic. A mortal man beating the crap out of a god who pissed him off? This shit happens all the time. A character is revealed to be the long lost whatever? Once a book, at least. And it doesn't feel forced at all, or wrong. It feels like what epic fantasy should be.

The power of mages is taken seriously. A lot of novels have these fireball summoners who, for some reason, don't completely own every simple sword and plate warrior they see, in a complete breach of logic. Not these books.

It's grim, to a similar degree to GRRM and Joe Abercrombie. This can be a pro or a con, but I think of it as a pro. down with happiness!

A few amazingly touching scenes. The end of the Chain of Dogs arc, in my opinion, is sheer brilliance, and the fact that it's being worked into a movie gives me much joy.

Cons:

It's so fucking hard to get through. I gave it up, I'm on book four. I have the next five in the series on my bookshelf, mocking me, and I just can't deal with them any more. It's fucking killing me. I can't read them, but I can't let it be. If Esslemont and Erikson are found dead in their beds, I can only claim "the books are watching me the books are watching me the books are watching me the books are watching me"

[SamanthaofHodorsfield]

Riftwar cycle is very much a mixed bag. The earlier works are much, much better than the later ones in my opinion. I think the last 'set' I read and enjoyed was the Talon/Exile set. The earlier ones though - Magician, Silverthorn, Darkness at Sethanon, and the ones that follow - are worth a look. Also, once you've read the three named ones, I would then recommend the 'Empire Trilogy' which was cowritten between Feist and Janny Wurts. Now if you do get into the series and start wading your way through it, I find the later ones bad because I simply don't he's put the effort in. The same tired story line, cookie cutter characters which no development whatsoever. I dunno. A part of me thinks I should get buy the final trilogy (he's just started it from what I'm aware) just to see how the entire Cycle ends, but I do think he should have wrapped it up and moved on to something else a long time ago.

Robin Hobb is very much worthwhile. Mileage varies with her non-Farseer trilogy (Soldier Son). I personally enjoyed it, but its the Marmite trilogy of her works - you either like it or you don't. She does write in 1st person most of the time; if its not something you enjoy, stay clear.

Wheel of Time - well, if you enjoy reading about three women who all the love the same man so much they're willing to share him. And not only that, get along perfectly well together, then this is your book.....Okay, I'm probably not doing WoT any justice whatsoever, but I'm not a fan. I got to about book 9 and just gave up. I'm completely biased against WoT so you might be better waiting for somebody more partial to come in and give their opinion. :D

[jdiddyesquire]

I've read all of these in their entirety except for the Donaldson stuff - I think.

Riftwar is awesome in parts, fairly abysmal in others. The first 6 books or so are quite good including the Empire Trilogy he co-wrote with Janny Wurts.

Malazan is the best of what you've listed, but it's a serious investment not just in time but in mental resource. It's not easy or fun to read at times. But I loved it.

WOT is WOT. Standard, but it does standard well for the most part. I'd be put Tad William's series is this category too.

Hobb is good, first person, kind of whiny at times. She's a beautiful writer. If Fitz doesn't bug you, you should love the series.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

Skip all that and read the Ruin Mist series by Robert Stanek. It is seriously the best fantasy being written today.

[NymeriaStark]

Absolutely Robin Hobb - but you have to read it, as the other poster suggested, as a trilogy of trilogies... meaning it is a 9-book series. That might seem daunting but it is WELL worth it. Everyone to whom I've suggested read aSoIaF, I suggest Hobb next and they thank me just as much. :)

I slugged through 200 pages of Malazan Book of the Fallen and I absolutely hated it and could not proceed any further.. it was torture, IMO.

Don't even get me started on Wheel of Time. Blurgh. By Book 3 I felt like I was reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. You know.. those kind of authors where every single book is exactly the same and has the exact-same formula? No thanks, lol.

I haven't read anything else on your list.

----------

Not on your list, but what I consider must-reads:

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I don't know what I can say about this book other than you should do yourself a favor and read it if you haven't. Rothfuss is the new Martin (okay, no one can top Martin, but at least Rothfuss is amazing and pumps books out faster, lol). BRILLIANT story-telling here!
  
  
• Kingdom of Thorne and Bone series by Greg Keyes (Book 1 = the Briar King). It is always compared to Martin's books on a smaller scale, though I don't know why. Very enjoyable, though.
  
  
• the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Freidman
  
  
• His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. Made for kids? Maybe. Awesome? Heck yes.

[Grack21]

Skip all that and read the Ruin Mist series by Robert Stanek. It is seriously the best fantasy being written today.

I dunno, I think Runelords by Farland is slightly better.

[TerraPrime]

So after finishing ADWD, I was really looking forward to The Winds of Winter, but I know I'm gonna have to wait a while. So I'm gonna see what I should read in the mean time. So if anyone can help me out, I made some research and narrowed it down to these. If you have read all of them, which ones are good? bad? best? worst? And if you read some, then list ONLY the ones you've read. Also, an explanation of why some thing is good or bad would help alot :)

Robin Hobb – The Farseer Trilogy (and her other works)

Steven Erikson – Malazan Book of the Fallen

Stephen Donaldson – The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

Raymond Feist – The Riftwar Cylce

Tad Williams – Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Robert Jordon – Wheel of Time

I've read all of them, except for Erikson (only read 4 of the books in the series).

You will find the archetypical high epic fantasy in Jordan, Erikson, Williams, and Feist. Of the 4, Erikson's world is the most high in magic. Followed by Jordan and Feist, with Williams' world the lowest in magic. So if you like lots of splashy magic, go for Erikson. Erikson's story is also not quite sequential and jumps around a bit (if you read the books in the order that they're released).

Jordan's been the gold standard for epic fantasy, and there's a reason for that. Despite the poor quality of some of the books in the middle (say, books 7 to 10), it is still a mighty good yarn over all.

Feist tells a good story, but I find the characters and the situations too bland and generic for my taste.

Donaldson's story features an anti-hero who started the book with an act of unspeakable horridness. If you're into anti-heroes and a somewhat depressing world, then go for it.

Williams' work is epic in scale, as well. I found the last book to be too plodding and slow, and I personally found the ending to be rather weak, but the journey is quite worthwhile.

Hobb gives a fresher take on epic fantasy, imo, and the Farseer trilogy has a lot to offer in terms of story.

To be honest, all of the stuff you listed are fairly standard canons in modern fantasy. You can't lose to get through all of them. If nothing else, you'd become much better aquainted with the landscape. Then you can start broadening out to read Mieville, Rothfuss, Abercrombie, Gaiman, Bakker, Lynch, etc.

[DrownedCrow]

Out of that list, for the love of God read Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. GRRM cited it as a major influence on ASOIAF. What else do you need to know?

[John W]

I'm currently reading Dan Simmons The Terror and Alan Moore's From Hell

[Black Wizard]

Definitely read Feist. The more recent books have been a little odd and characters have been recycled but pretty much everything up to and including the Serpentwar Saga is really good.

Recently I've been reading Robert V.D. Redick's Chathrand Voyage novels which starts with The Red Wolf Conspiracy. The Chathrand is a ship, the biggest in the world (Alifros), and the story follows the Chathrand's journey from the capital of the Empire of Arqual to the island Simja, part of Arqual's historical enemy the Mzrithini Pentatchy, on a peace mission. Or so most of the passengers think. ;) I definitely recommend this series.

[pat5150]

So after finishing ADWD, I was really looking forward to The Winds of Winter, but I know I'm gonna have to wait a while. So I'm gonna see what I should read in the mean time. So if anyone can help me out, I made some research and narrowed it down to these. If you have read all of them, which ones are good? bad? best? worst? And if you read some, then list ONLY the ones you've read. Also, an explanation of why some thing is good or bad would help alot :)

Robin Hobb – The Farseer Trilogy (and her other works)

Steven Erikson – Malazan Book of the Fallen

Stephen Donaldson – The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

Raymond Feist – The Riftwar Cylce

Tad Williams – Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Robert Jordon – Wheel of Time

You'll have time to read a lot more than 6 series, I reckon. . . ;)

Patrick

[Silversun]

Skip all that and read the Ruin Mist series by Robert Stanek. It is seriously the best fantasy being written today.

This is just cruel.

From your list all I've read is the Farseer Trilogy and Hobbs The Tawny Man Trilogy. Both are excellent (Farseer is by far superior). Fitz, however, I find to be very annoying but his supporting cast make it worthwhile.

I'm reading the City Watch books from the Discworld just now as a light hearted alternative to the serious fantasy I've been reading for the last 2 years and they are great. Can't believe I hadn't read them before.

[williamjm]

Steven Erikson – Malazan Book of the Fallen

It's a series that divides opinions, so I'm not sure how much to recommend it. There were some very good bits in it (books 2 and 3 were particularly good), but there were also some long sections later in the series that were quite tedious to read through, although the ending to the series is good if you can make it that far.

Stephen Donaldson – The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever

I read the first book, I didn't like it. It's a potentially interesting concept, but I found the main character incredibly annoying to read and I didn't really care what happened in the story.

Raymond Feist – The Riftwar Cylce

The first few books (particularly the Empire series he wrote with Wurts) were good, but the quality has been declining for the last decade and I've given up on it now, I'd suggest stopping when you get to Rage of the Demon King.

Tad Williams – Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Perhaps the closest to A Song of Ice and Fire out of your list, although it's closer to being a traditional Epic Fantasy than Martin's books. It's a reasonably good series, although the pacing is far too slow at times, particularly in the first book.

Robert Jordon – Wheel of Time

Could have been one of the best Epic Fantasy series if it was only about 6 or 7 books long, but it's at least twice the length it should be and the pace slows ridiculously towards the second half. There's still quite a lot of good stuff in there, and at least it's nearly finished now.

[Myshkin]

If you're reading these to kill time while waiting for GRRM's next book my suggestion is to stop narrowing down your list. Read them all, and when you're down come back and start reading the stuff in the rec threads.

[Grack21]

It cracks me up sometimes how people make the jump from "I like ASOIAF" to recommending Bakker. Have some of you people actually READ any Bakker? His works and ASOIAF are nothing alike, even remotely. Now, I'm currently reading The White Luck Warrior and loving it, but it really boggles my mind how anyone can relate the two. Just because two things are shelved in the same part of the bookstore doesn't make them alike.

Ok, mini rant over.

Read Glen Cook.

[Yuki_no_Jon]

well, I haven't read all of those books you mentioned, but I enjoyed The Riftwar Saga.

Actually, I think you should read the 3 books. The Magician.Silverthorn, Darkness in Sethanon by Feist.

Other than that, I think you should try out the Inheritance Cycle by C. Paolini. (the 4th and final book will be out on 11/08)

I know, none of these are like ASOIF but I don't think that we really like to read exact the same thing in different versions!

[Noir Dove]

I hear Tyra Banks has got a new book coming out.

:commie:

[Lannes]

I'm making my way through the 5 books of Gene Wolfe's 'Book of the New Sun' series and it is awesome....but it is not light reading by any stretch. Come prepared with your thinking cap on. :read: