Calibandar Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 18 hours ago, Ghjhero said: As someone who has read Tolkien, GRRM (obviously), Malazan and Bakker what comes next? I really enjoyed all of the above except for Malazan which I have no desire to revisit. Robin Hobb the only remaining author worth the read at the moment? I've heard good things about Abercrombie and Rothfuss, but the ending of the former was spoiler for me a while ago and I don't want to dive into another unfinished series with the latter. I haven't heard much about Abraham and his work, would he be worth a shot? Hobb, certainly, but I would strongly suggest moving on to Guy Gavriel Kay as well. Tolkien's Silmarillion, if you haven't already. Also, JV Jones' Sword of Shadows series, even though unfinished, there are 4 books out there. Clearly you've not really been spoiled for Abercrombie's first trilogy so please feel free to proceed with that and the 3 standalones after that You could look into some of David Gemmell's work. Tad Williams and Jack Vance' Lyonesse have been mentioned, classic in the epic fantasy genre. I would suggest reading a sample of all of these books before buying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghjhero Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 3 hours ago, Calibandar said: Hobb, certainly, but I would strongly suggest moving on to Guy Gavriel Kay as well. Tolkien's Silmarillion, if you haven't already. Also, JV Jones' Sword of Shadows series, even though unfinished, there are 4 books out there. Clearly you've not really been spoiled for Abercrombie's first trilogy so please feel free to proceed with that and the 3 standalones after that You could look into some of David Gemmell's work. Tad Williams and Jack Vance' Lyonesse have been mentioned, classic in the epic fantasy genre. I would suggest reading a sample of all of these books before buying. That is encouraging news to hear. It seems The First Law is more complex than I had first assumed. I'll certainly check out Kay and the Silmarillion is already a favorite of mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstark Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 I would also recommend Jemisin's recent book which is the conclusion of the Broken Earth trilogy, extremely well written and satisfactorily concluded .. But seriously, The Long Price Quartet is waiting to be discovered by any who has not read it, I certainly can't praise it enough. It is surpassed in my opinion only by the best efforts of Grrm Hobb and probably Bakker .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 Not Daenerys from Herbert's Dune (the dragons come from Ann McCaffery and Robin Hobb), it's the Kwisatz Haderach that GRRM grabbed for both the prophecy of the Azor Ahai, and Bran - 3 Eyed Raven, who can see everything throughout time, though when it comes to the future things get confusing, which is really important in the second, third and fourth books in the Dune series. Personally, the longer time passes since my first reading of the initial Dune novel (by far and away the best of them), the more brilliant the book appears, which cannot be said for a lot of other books. GRRM grabbed from every fantasy series he could -- I was there when he was in the process of researching which books and series worked best for fans, making them the best sellers. Then he added zombies (which weren't a thing yet when he was doing this on the first sf/f media space, the dial-up Genie, and at cons, etc.). Which is a big part of the problem with finishing the books, and which is revealed more starkly in every HBO season -- there is just Too Much Stuff. So Much Stuff that it can't all be reconciled into a satisfying whole. Just more stuff and more stuff and more stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
End of Disc One Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 I heard that GRRM developed a program that pulled from the Google books database. The program cross analyzed every popular fantasy series, figured out what made them popular, and spit out an outline for ASoIAF. He added the zombies because he was a Walking Dead fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redeagl Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 8 minutes ago, End of Disc One said: I heard that GRRM developed a program that pulled from the Google books database. The program cross analyzed every popular fantasy series, figured out what made them popular, and spit out an outline for ASoIAF. He added the zombies because he was a Walking Dead fan. This. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 1 hour ago, Zorral said: Which is a big part of the problem with finishing the books, and which is revealed more starkly in every HBO season -- there is just Too Much Stuff. So Much Stuff that it can't all be reconciled into a satisfying whole. Just more stuff and more stuff and more stuff. Pfft. I've been doing a Malazan re-read (my first full one since the series finished, first time reading some of these books for ten years (!)) and I can confindently say that aSoIaF doesn't have Anywhere Near Enough Stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted August 30, 2017 Share Posted August 30, 2017 I don't think he could have pulled the dragons from Hobb unless he can travel through time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 On Wednesday, August 23, 2017 at 6:10 PM, Let's Get Kraken said: Well, that's not an entirely uncommon reaction. I've met a lot of people who read it and don't get what all the hype is about. I think it's a similar phenomenon to reading Tolkien after reading all of the fantasy writers who imitated his work in the 80s and 90s. I actually ditched it half way through my first read, but then was blown away when I tried it again years later. Personally, I think Frank Herbert was a genius. He's got political, spiritual, and philosophical truths in his work that are timeless, and he weaves them masterfully throughout the novel. I love the humanist message of Dune, and the way that it transcends the vision of what our technological future was at the time and has themes that are just as applicable today as they were when he first wrote it. As I said though, your mileage may vary. The proper order for reading Dune is as follows: 1) Dune. 2) Dune Messiah. 3) Children of Dune. 4) God Emperor of Dune. 5) Heretics of Dune. 6) Chapterhouse Dune. Following this you'll want to keep an eye out for the Brian Herbert prequel novels, which should go directly from the shelf to a garbage can of your choosing. Frank Herbert was planning a seventh novel, but he died before he had the chance to write it. However, as we learn from Dune, "Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife--cutting off what is incomplete and saying 'Now it is complete, because it ends here.'" The proper order for reading this series is 1) Dune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 11 hours ago, Let's Get Kraken said: May thy knife chip and shatter. Been there. Dune that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 14 hours ago, maarsen said: The proper order for reading this series is 1) Dune. QFT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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