Altherion Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I often wonder how differently it will feel for people who start the series when it's all finished and so the "new" POVs are, from their perspective, introduced midway through the series.I think it's about the same. For example, I read The Black Company all in one go and I still had trouble warming to the new characters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolivar Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I'll also throw in for The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errant Bard Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 You are right, I'm 3/4 of the way through the first book of LPQ and I really like it.I am happy to have been wrong about your tastes. Since most find the first book the weakest in the Long Price series, there is a statistically good chance you like all of them, too. Good. (I guess it's one point for accidental reverse psychology) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maithanet Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I am happy to have been wrong about your tastes. Since most find the first book the weakest in the Long Price series, there is a statistically good chance you like all of them, too. Good. (I guess it's one point for accidental reverse psychology) Agreed, I thought that Shadow in Summer was well written, but mostly a ticket to dullsville. The rest of the books are much better, and I'm glad I stuck with it (halfway through book 4 now). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Gogol Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 I find it refreshing after reading through WOT and ASOIAF. Kind of zen... Thanks Errant Bard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Agreed, I thought that Shadow in Summer was well written, but mostly a ticket to dullsville. The rest of the books are much better, and I'm glad I stuck with it (halfway through book 4 now). Heathens. I think ASIS is one of the best of the series, certainly 2nd place. It's so different feeling from other fantasy but so great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayx Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Non gridmark fantasy I recommend is: L.E. Modesitt Recluce and series ans Corean Chronicles series. Not everyone likes his style, but world building is excellent, protagonists are diverse, and a story about each protagonist is usually wrapped up in 2 or 3 books and occurs in a different era of the shared universe, so that what are legends/rumors/ruins of the lost civilization in one subseries is a setting in another one, usually from unexpected angle (ie bad guys were actually not so bad and opposite) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Gogol Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 I finished the first book last night. It was good. I am now reading the second book. Great prose, fascinating world, and interesting characters. No hairy barbarian with an axe to be seen so far, which is a good thing imho. No swords either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Heathens. I think ASIS is one of the best of the series, certainly 2nd place. It's so different feeling from other fantasy but so great.I have never understood the 'it gets better line.'. I loved the series right from the start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ᴛɪᴍᴏᴛʜʏ Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Same, and I liked A Betrayal in Winter about the same and An Autumn War is my least favorite. But then The Price of Spring is probably the best of all of them, so I don't know. Speaking of, I can't think of another SFF series offhand where the last book is my favorite. I wonder about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Everything Daniel Abraham touches is gold. GOLD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Gogol Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 Speaking of, I can't think of another SFF series offhand where the last book is my favorite. I wonder about that. For me, the trilogies I've read mostly ended on a strong note. But longer series seem to lose steam the longer they go. The best books of WoT are they 6 first, then it gets weaker and weaker. ASOIAF has 3 great books, then 2 that are not as good. I've read that Malazan is not so good after the 5th book. Harry Potter was great for a few books, then it became repetitive IMHO, at the ending was predictable. Maybe it's because of how the story is built? WoT promise you the Last Battle, as soon as the 1st book. Then you wait 14 books for the last battle. And when it comes, it's kind of a battle, and not much more. Longer series requires stronger ending I would think. A spectacular climax. But most of the time, it can't be as good as what people expected. In the Long Price Quartet, I have no idea where he is going. Maybe I'll change my opinion when I've read the last book, but it seems to me he does not announce to you what will happen at the end. It's been a while now, but I seem to remember that Farseer trilogy was a bit like that. It was not clear what the climax would be from the beginning. Lord of the Rings continued for a while after the climax, so again, not the ending you expected. Even further in my memory are the first 2 DragonLance trilogies. The first one didn't end on the expected huge battle, and the second ended pretty differently from what I expected too. Maybe it's because in a shorter story, you have more room to go in a different direction. In a long running series, you keep on building, and building, and tightening you story, putting in lots and lots of details, which leaves you with less opportunity to go in an unexpected direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Errant Bard Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Everything Daniel Abraham touches is gold. GOLD.While I liked Leviathan wakes, I really am not too keen about the Black Sun's Daughter series. Or do you mean only the books written under the Daniel Abraham name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Reckoner Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 Dresden Files, Riftwars seem like what you're looking for. The only thing in Erikson's Malazan novels that was hard to get through were some vivid pictures of cannibalism in Memories of Ice, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 In the Long Price Quartet, I have no idea where he is going. Maybe I'll change my opinion when I've read the last book, but it seems to me he does not announce to you what will happen at the end. The LPQ books aren't standalones (the character development throughout the series is a key part of the story) but they are very episodic with big time gaps between them (I think it's probably at least 50 years from the prologue of ASIS to the epilogue of TPOS) so it's a very different type of series to something like the Wheel of Time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svardineni Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I find it refreshing after reading through WOT and ASOIAF. Kind of zen... Thanks Errant Bard! Zen is a good way to put it. After I finished ADWD a few years ago, I went straight into LPQ. It was an excellent palette cleanser to say the least. I almost wish I could wipe my memory and read it like it was the 1st time. Based on your initial question, I'd highly recommend the Dagger & Coin books. I just can't get enough of Daniel Abraham. Even the Sci Fi series (The Expanse) that he co-authors with Ty Franck is excellent, if you are into space opera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigei Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Roger Zelazny's Amber? There's plenty of arsehole characters, but no gratuitous dark-for-the-sake-of-dark. This. Martin Scott's entire Thraxas series bridge of birds by barry hughart Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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