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What's currently in? fantasy only


Lady Winter Rose

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Two "female-centric" authors I have read and would personally be happy to discuss are S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad series as well as Melissa Caruso's Swords and Fire series.  Both place greater emphasis on character development than on "action" and both have excellent world-building.  Both have published entries in June 2020.  In general if you want to discuss novels on this forum the threads that get the most action tend to be ones where new novels are published or expected.  So from that perspective here's the diet of upcoming fantasy books (some of which are sequels) I plan to consume in the next year upon publication: 

1. Empire of Gold (S A Chakraborty): currently reading

2. The Black Song (Anthony Ryan): if you don't like Abercrombie you probably won't like this. 

3.  Peace Talks (Jim Butcher)

4.  Ashes of the Sun (Django Wexler)

5. When Jackals storm the Walls (Bradley Beaulieu): this has a female protagonist and is underrated as a series. 

6. The Trouble with Peace (Joe Abercrombie!)

7. Piranesi (Susanna Clarke)

8. The Trials of Apollo 5 (Rick Riordan)

9. The Kraken's Tooth (Anthony Ryan)

10.  Forged (Benedict Jacka)

11. Battle Ground (Jim Butcher)

12. The Invisible Life of Addi Rue (Victoria Schwab): you may also find her colors of magic series of interest. 

13. The Saints of Salvation (Peter Hamilton)

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I don't know if its just me but I've seen alot of hype surrounding Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I've personally haven't read it yet, but it does sound interesting though! 

I'm interested in reading the author's previous books before commiting to an ongoing series though (even if he hasn't written any fantasy before).

 

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I think Baxus was joking with the Tchaikovsky reference. :P 

There’s also Karl Wagner, wrote the Kane sword and sorcery series. Any other fantasy writers with composer names?

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7 minutes ago, aceluby said:

I'd second Robin Hobb's Realm of Elderlings.  Not as much hype, but everyone I've gotten to read the series has absolutely loved it.  It's my favorite series of all time.

And if you find one of the old Robin Hobb threads and post in it, you're almost sure to get a lot of engagement. 

Same probably is true for a lot of series, e.g. Daniel Abraham threads tend to get a lot of discussion when they pop back up to the first page of Lit. 

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53 minutes ago, john said:

I think Baxus was joking with the Tchaikovsky reference. :P 

There’s also Karl Wagner, wrote the Kane sword and sorcery series. Any other fantasy writers with composer names?

Honestly, I've never heard of this author and since he was mentioned right after Witcher series I really thought it was a mixup with Slavic last names.

So, it seems I owe an apology to @Derfel Cadarn. Sorry, man.

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It does feel like the age of major, era defining fantasy series’ is in a bit if a slump.

My progression was broadly:

David Eddings (as a kid who also enjoyed Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf books)

Raymond Feist,

Robert Jordan,

George RR Martin,

with the late David Gemmell as my personal idol stretching across all of them.

Inbetween, to fill the time, there was the less appealing Katherine Kerr Deverry series, Kurtz’s Deryni books, Wurtz’s Mistwraith stuff and various partially successful attempts at reading high quality, but slower paced Tad Williams, Robin Hobb and Tolkien stuff.

A surprisingly enjoyable interlude was Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series and then some of the Malazan books, although that became a chore.

Right now, there doesn’t seem to be anything of the era defining nature of some  of those major 80’s and 90’s series’ I grew up with.

The Rothfuss mania I honestly don’t understand. Mediocre stuff at best.

Abercrombie is a great writer, if you’re of the Grimdark persuasion, but I have always been partial to Gemmell’s more heroic, Louis Lamour inspired characters. Not as popular anymore in this cynical age, I guess. Or maybe people still crave heroes, and are just waiting for the next talented writer to fill that niche.

Edit

Almost forgot Haplo and his dog on their wonderfully entertaining Death Gate Cycle adventures, back in the day. Always liked the fierce Patryns way more than the musical, nerdy Sartan.

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14 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

It does feel like the age of major, era defining fantasy series’ is in a bit if a slump.

I think we are in the let a 1000 flowers bloom phase.  I think the WoT series, if done properly, has the ability to bring a whole new generation to Robert Jordan's books.  And LOTR the second age may have the same result for the Silmarilion, the Lost Tales etc that only us Tolkein geeks have read.  

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2 minutes ago, Gaston de Foix said:

I think we are in the let a 1000 flowers bloom phase.  I think the WoT series, if done properly, has the ability to bring a whole new generation to Robert Jordan's books.  And LOTR the second age may have the same result for the Silmarilion, the Lost Tales etc that only us Tolkein geeks have read.  

I enjoyed the Silmarillion much more than the main series, frankly. Ulmo the Loner is my favourite. Even Melkor feared the ocean’s wrath.

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2 hours ago, baxus said:

Honestly, I've never heard of this author and since he was mentioned right after Witcher series I really thought it was a mixup with Slavic last names.

So, it seems I owe an apology to @Derfel Cadarn. Sorry, man.

mate, you’re in for a treat. Check out Children of Time, a great SF book.

edit - actually Derfel did say Tchaikovsky wasn’t well known so really you vindicated him.

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3 hours ago, baxus said:

Honestly, I've never heard of this author and since he was mentioned right after Witcher series I really thought it was a mixup with Slavic last names.

So, it seems I owe an apology to @Derfel Cadarn. Sorry, man.

I realised on typing the msg that it might look as if I was linking Tch to the Witcher. :/

I’ve for Tchaikovsky’s Cage of Souls, still to read it. Never read any of his books yet.

Hobb definitely good, though never liked the Soldier Son books.

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50 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Oh? Thought this was out at the end of the month...

Indeed, in the US.  One of my small pleasures is global amazon arbitrage so I can read the books I want when they come out.  In the past I've bought books from amazon.jp, amazon.au, amazon.fr and amazon.de.  But in this case all it takes is an amazon.co.uk account: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Gold-Daevabad-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B07W4DZ552/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PP8ABCQCPF3Y&keywords=empire+of+gold&qid=1592252360&sprefix=eempire%2Caps%2C591&sr=8-1

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How about Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet ? Hardly any action scenes. Terrific characters and style, a reader can really fall into that world. I was just yesterday telling my mother, a lifelong reader wholly uninterested in the fantastic or speculative, that if she ever Had to choose a current fantasy series to read, It'd be those. Perhaps my memory is fresh as Im just finishing my re-read.

Another vote for Robin John, though. Certainly.

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6 hours ago, john said:

There’s also Karl Wagner, wrote the Kane sword and sorcery series. Any other fantasy writers with composer names?

I was going to suggest Rachel Bach, although I think maybe she's only used that surname for her space opera not her fantasy.

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