Jump to content

Fantasy and SF Recommendations: Series


Datepalm

Recommended Posts

A newbie when it come to the genre but would make some recommendations (my favorite is ASOIAF, obviously):

The Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) - I absolutely loved it. It is the most epic saga I have ever read. I think that it gets a lot of stick from some people, and most of it is unwarranted. Saying that, it has some problems and if you decide to read it, then be warned, book 9 and book 10 aren't good. But on the end, I was extremely satisifed.

The Kingkiller Chronicles (Patrick Rothfuss) - Only 2 books so far. The first book 'Name of the Wind' is absolutely fantastic, on par with ASOIAF. The second book is decent too.

The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien) - I didn't like it that much, but it needs to be read even if it is for historical reasons. It is quite a decent reading but IMO not as good as ASOIAF/WoT and a few others. I regretted reading The Hobbit, absolutely hated it.

A Raven's Shadow (Anthony Ryan) - Two books so far. I liked the first book a lot, and the second one is quality too. It has a similar narrative structure as The Name of the Wind and so got compared to it, which I think helped its sale.

Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson) - Sanderson is the best author when it comes to creating magic systems. He is also very good at making shocking moments, twists and has some decent characters. The writting isn't that great and some things are oversimplified though.

The First Law (Joe Abercrombie) - Probably the closest thing to ASOIAF, although it is much simpler (less characters etc). It is griddy, dark and has a lot of black humour. The characters are even more gray than in ASOIAF.

To do list:

- Half a King

- The Black Company

- Tigana

- Malazan Book of the Fallen

- The Broken Empire

- The Stormlight Archive

- Gentleman Bastards

- Night Angel

- Prince of Nothing

- The Dark Tower

I'm going to have to check out this First Law thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know, unJon.

I don't know the poster peterbound, but I would recommend that he/she familiarizes themselves a bit more with the SFF genre before trying First Law. It incorporates some themes and tropes that could be jarring to the uninitiated reader. To wit, rather then using traditional black and white narratives, it is more "grey" in that it's not crystal-clear who is good and who is bad. It also attempts to subvert some other traditional narratives, and I actually suspect that the author did this deliberately.

I guess I shouldn't say more, but I would just hate to see a reader take on too much too soon if that makes sense.

Sound advice.

Mayhaps I will take the advice of the kind poster up thread and delve into the 'tie in' novels people speak so highly of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Night Angel is YA that gets progressively worse with each volume. If you are interested in Weeks, check out his Black Prism. I recommend A Land Fit for Heroes by Richard Morgan. Book one is The Steel Remains. Excellent sword and sorcery.



Yes, oversimplification is what made me put down The Way of Kings.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Piers Anthony Incarnations of Immortality Series.



Yes it's the famous/infamous author of the Xanth series. But this series is from his earlier works which is above average so don't dismiss it too quickly.



It's fantasy with some sci-fi elements. Particularly like the book on Satan (Evil). It's about humans who are recruited to hold the below "jobs" for a period and be the Incarnations or personnifications. You get a book for each. They are still humans despite them doing such an important job, so it affects how the job is done. I recommend reading in sequence.



Death - Went on strike and refuses to collect souls to save his girlfriend. As a result no one can die.


Time - He has to live backwards in time. So he is actually taking over from his predessor. This is one of the most interesting sci-fi cum fantasy book conceptually. And it works.


Fate - They weave the tapestry of fate. 3 women, the maiden, the mother and the crone has to share 1 body. (IMO this is a shit job.)


War -


Nature - All powerful. Got seduced by Satan iirc.


Evil - The next person replaces Lucifer and calls himself Satan.


God -




Add: There's another one for Night. It's published long after the series ended and I just discovered it.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Night Angel is YA that gets progressively worse with each volume. If you are interested in Weeks, check out his Black Prism. I recommend A Land Fit for Heroes by Richard Morgan. Book one is The Steel Remains. Excellent sword and sorcery.

Yes, oversimplification is what made me put down The Way of Kings.

I'm not sure what kind of YA you read, but Night Angel is definitely NOT YA. The protagonist is a YA, the prose is immature, but I wouldn't be comfortable giving it to a YA and it's definitely not marketed as such. With that said, I enjoyed it for the fast pace and interesting concepts; despite the very obvious flaws.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Night Angel is YA that gets progressively worse with each volume.

I really haven't read Night Angel beyond the series first two chapters.

These two statements are completely irreconcilable - you either read it and it got worse, or you didn't read past the first two chapters - an alternative might be you are just making this stuff up based on Goodreads and popular opinion?

I think Assassins Apprentice is closer to YA than Night Angel, but still definitely not YA.The opening to Nights Angel sees some child mutilation - not really what I would call YA...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I cannot find a single thing to read since Song of Ice and Fire and the Dunk and Egg novels. Martin seems to have ruined me for fantasy. Previous to Martin my favorite books were LOTR, and I'd been searching all of my life to find something that held a candle to Tolkien.
I've read tons of fantasy books but all of them, including WoT, just seemed like copies of Tolkien or Howard until I read Martin.
Enter Malazan Book of the Fallen. It was recommended on several sites for Martin fans...and I just don't get it. There are people out there who actually think this book is better than Martin's?
I mean...the guy TELLS, not shows...unless we need to know something to make us understand what's going on, and then he TELLs us nothing.
Is there any reason I need the "Little did 'Sail know that her boyfriend would be dead in 2 hours."
With sentences like those, he not only steps out of 3rd person limited and suddenly is omniscient...but why did we need to be told like we are hearing a "Three Little Bears" narrative from our grandmother?
That's not post-modernism. It's just poor writing- I would get a D- in creative writing 101 if I stepped out of my chosen POV AND deliberately TOLD instead of using some foreshadowing at least.
But we don't even need to have any foreshadowing for this particular instance; Erickson tells us what's going to happened and then describes it happeneing- we really only need one or the other.
I'm sure Erickson's world-building is awesome like everyone says it is- but can he WRITE?
Switching back and forth between character viewpoints and between limited and omniscient view point, deux ex machinas en masse, telling when he should be showing and silence when he should be telling...I just don't think he'd pass the writing courses I've gone through. I've heard him comaperd to post-modernist like Pynchon but I've read Pynchon and I can tell you that when he plays with literary convention it has a PURPOSE and you can tell immediately. When Erickson does it I wonder where the editor to this series was, and how a publishing house looked past it when accepting the work.
But at least it gives me hope to get my fantasy work published...if you don't even need to know the rules of Creative Writing 101 and can still employ deuc ex machine in a modern work and have it published...if you don't even need to have character development or even any explanation of what the book is ABOUT in the first 1000 pages...hell I've got a shot after all!

Plus ...I'm told he finally explains his magic system in the third book or so? Until then we just have to drudge through it like it's a lazy solve-all, akin to Batman's never-ending supply of Bat tools, premade for every situation under the sun? And there's different schools of magic but they all seem the same just from different Wards (whatever those are)? Someone help me out here...I'm on page 100 and thinking of looking for another book with which to await Winds of Winter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

snip

Erickson is not for everyone. I don't like it either, but a friend of mine thinks they are the best books ever written, regardless of genre.

Have you tried Robin Hobb, Joe Abercrombie, Daniel Abraham, Scott Lynch, or Mark Lawrence? I loved all of these and would put them on the same level as Martin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you guys for the recommendations.


I've been trying to get into Best Served Cold by Abercrombie and the first Malazan book.


Got farther along on the Abercrombie, then went back to rereading Martin. Then went back to Malazan.


I always seem to start looking for something else when I hit a Sansa chapter- they were all good the first time but the second time it's a little laborious.


I think I may have started with the wrong Abercrombie story- great writing but it seems to just be a revenge tale.


At least I know Abercrombie understands why we don't skip points of view mid-paragraph and tell the plot before it happens!


I'll check out Bakker, thanks! What is Abercrombie's best work?



I really liked Thomas Covenant except for some of the stupid names like Lord Foul...names like Darken Maul also really irk me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you guys for the recommendations.

I've been trying to get into Best Served Cold by Abercrombie and the first Malazan book.

Got farther along on the Abercrombie, then went back to rereading Martin. Then went back to Malazan.

I always seem to start looking for something else when I hit a Sansa chapter- they were all good the first time but the second time it's a little laborious.

I think I may have started with the wrong Abercrombie story- great writing but it seems to just be a revenge tale.

At least I know Abercrombie understands why we don't skip points of view mid-paragraph and tell the plot before it happens!

I'll check out Bakker, thanks! What is Abercrombie's best work?

I really liked Thomas Covenant except for some of the stupid names like Lord Foul...names like Darken Maul also really irk me.

Start with The First Law trilogy for Abercrombie. Also, check out the Assassin's Apprentice by Hobb. It was what I read after Martin and absolutely delivered for me. Lies of Locke Lamora is an awesome tale with great writing and only a couple POV's. I absolutely LOVE the Dagger and the Coin series and feel it's right up there in both writing and tone to Martin.

Martin isn't the only game in town, just need to find other stories that get you. BSC IS a revenge tale, but like most of his stories, while the overall story can be summed up that way, it is delivered in a way that's still fresh and exciting IMO. That's a big skill of Joe's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Heroes is Abercrombie's best book, and imo, Best Served Cold is his worst (but it's definitely his most divisive). I'm also of the opinion that they should be read in publication order, but that isn't necessarily necessary.



If Martin has ruined you for other fantasy, then you really need to read more fantasy. Bakker is a great recommendation, and some other authors you should look at are Daniel Abraham and Felix Gilman.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...