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Best recent fanatsy debuts (or thoughts on these books)?


End of Disc One

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Blood song and The thousand names are on top of my to-buy list. Staveley and McClellan are not translated to German as far as I know. Might give Ben Peek a shot although the Reviews (related to the German Version) are mixed and not as euphoric as the ones for Ryan and Wexler.


Blood song has only been published s Hardcover with an asking Price of more than 25 EUR.



The grim Company is on my pile already.



And I would like to throw in David Hair. Really liked Mage`s Blood (first book of The Moontide Quartet).


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I haven't seen Peter Higgins' Wolfhound Century mentioned yet. It's some very good Mielville-like fantasy, definitely worthy of being in any discussion of the best recent fantasy.

It's a very intriguing series, I recently picked up books 1 and 2 but haven't been able to start yet.

The 3rd and final one, Radiant State, is due in May 2015.

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It's a very intriguing series, I recently picked up books 1 and 2 but haven't been able to start yet.

The 3rd and final one, Radiant State, is due in May 2015.

While I am not a person who refuses to start a series until it is finished ( quite the opposite really) this is one of my few exceptions. Had more than one tell me that the first book just ends; no minor resolutions or transitions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So having read 3/4 of the books in the OP. I'd probably go with Blood Song. Then Thousand Names. Promise of Blood would be the third, then, by default, but the problem is that I read it last year and recall nothing. I trust the fact that I wasn't motivated to purchase the sequel to mean that I didn't enjoy much.



So, of the books in the OP, the only one I haven't read is the Emperor's Blades. Is that worth reading?


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  • 2 months later...

So I've noticed a trend in those books I posted in the OP. All except Blood Song are supposed to have a really good second book, which improves upon the first in every way. On Goodreads now, I keep seeing people talk about how awesome Staveley's second book is.



New authors should release shittier books. I don't have time for this.


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Weird, I was just thinking about this topic. I have The Godless sitting herre on my small list of books I brought on vacation, and I just started The Emperors Blades(which so far is decent, but holy hell its...gross. I'm not a prude by any means but damn dude, we get it, its grim, and dark).



Also for what its worth I really liked Tower Lord, but it seems to be a book that no one has a mild opinion on. Everyone I know either loved it or hated it.


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Also for what its worth I really liked Tower Lord, but it seems to be a book that no one has a mild opinion on. Everyone I know either loved it or hated it.

I didn't finish it. Wouldn't say I hated it, but I got about two-thirds of the way through and decided I didn't care enough to continue. Which is a shame, 'cos Blood Song is right up there amongst my all-time favourite books. I'll probably go back to it one day, seeing as the synopsis for the final book in the series sounds pretty damn good. Then again, the synopsis for Tower Lord reads pretty well, and you wouldn't know from reading it that Vaelin is relegated to a relatively minor character.

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This idea that Vaelin is relegated to a "relatively minor" position in Tower Lord's cast puzzles me a little. I mean, it is perhaps literally true, since in Blood Song the guy is basically the axis around which the entire world turns, whereas in Tower Lord he shares the stage, and we learn that there are in fact people in Ryan's world other than Vaelin who can accomplish worthwhile things, but he is still super, super important and awesome. I can see how people who like Vaelin a lot were a little thrown, since, alright, fair, we only get his perspective for 25% of the book or so, but he's ... still pretty crucial, you know.



I'm pretty positive about Tower Lord. I enjoyed it. I think it has issues -- it lacks Blood Song's pure pacing drive, about that I agree with people, one of the pov characters has big problems with agency for about half the book, and I found the structure started to keep the true nature of the threat / enemy / plot of the overall Raven's Shadow story opaque for too long after a while. But I enjoyed it. I found the addition of more pov characters helped me invest in Ryan's series as a well-rounded epic fantasy much more -- many people have not found this -- I found Vaelin improved hugely as a character in this one, and the action's still great. That being said this is coming from someone who thought Blood Song was ridiculous, hugely fun and readable absolutely but a corny macho brofest lacking in meaning and interiority and with a plot that could best be summed up by singing the chorus of the Robinhood Men in Tights song. I had enormous fun with Blood Song, do not for a second regret reading it and will probably do so again one day, but do I think Tower Lord is a better book? In most respects yep, for sure, by some distance.


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That being said this is coming from someone who thought Blood Song was ridiculous, hugely fun and readable absolutely but a corny macho brofest lacking in meaning and interiority and with a plot that could best be summed up by singing the chorus of the Robinhood Men in Tights song.

With that comparison, you're the one being ridiculous.

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Quite possibly. I do mean most of those things, but the Robinhood Men in Tights song thing was deliberate exaggeration. Though there is absolutely an episode in the book during which they roam around the forest looking for fights.

Yeah, to be fair, there is. It is quite funny, now that I think about it. :cheers:

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OwaynOTT: Are you in the States by any chance? Amazon US seems to have a kindle version of Schafer's Whitefire Crossing. I've just been to her website and there are links -- I found them in a blog as a convenience for people reading the post but I'm sure they're somewhere more logical like a "books" section as well -- to a Kobo edition and I believe IBooks. Sounds like it's a good time to be catching up on that series, as Schafer seems to be planning to launch her kickstarter for the final book, The Labyrinth of Flame, in February [the book is fully drafted and revisions sound like they're in an advanced state.]



That is good to know about The Emperor's Blades picking up. I read an excerpt last year and assumed I could safely pass it by. I shall reevaluate!


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