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The Half-Blood Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey+Andre Norton - I enjoyed this trilogy quite a bit, quite a bit of character progression.
The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix - This trilogy is amazing. A very different take on traditional fantasy.
The Avatar Trilogy is in my opinion the best of the forgotten realms. If you can find it that is. It chronicles the time of troubles in which the very gods of the realms walked the earth.
If you like more action than intrigue, I recommend R.A. Salvatore and in particular his Sellswords trilogy. Entreri and Jarlaxle are waaay more interesting than Drizzt and company.
Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings is the start of a new gigantic series promising to rival the wheel of time. The first book was absolutely fantastic.
I also enjoyed reading the Lies of Locke Lamora quite a bit. It's a heist/fantasy, set in a violent and dark underworld of a city not unlike early Venice.
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Yeah I'm working on Way of Kings atm
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So i was wondering..
What's the best place to start on Warhammer 40k books? I really like the universe, and want to get more in depth on it, however there are so many different novels, i cant decide which to read, any suggestions?
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The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson. Fantastic books. There are three "chronicles". First one is three books and can be left as a single unit, the second chronicles which leave a lot of questions unanswered, and the final chronicles which will be finished in the fall (35 years since the release of the third book). Be warned though, bring a dictionary 
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I thought Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino was great.
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Just read lives of tao, was a very enjoyable read
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Just finished the second half of "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Mans Fear" in about a week after not having time/motivation to read in a while.
Those books are just so compelling and hilarious at times.... I'd recommend them to anyone in an instant.
A while back I also read the first books of the Mageborn series. It's a less popluar "coming into power" series with a magican that I picked up at an amazon sale. I quite liked it, even though the background and the characters sometimes just don't fit in a medieval setting from time to time (at least in my opinion).
Can anyone suggest a book or series with a badass mage/sorcerer like Harry Dresden, Kvothe or Ged/Sparrowhawk? I'm still at book four of the "Wheel of Time" series but I can't seem to motivate myself to continue reading (mostly since I know that there's still about 10 books afterwards ^^).
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Definitely recommend The Expanse series. Not the deepest and most complex Sci-Fi, but it's a great setting and good characters. The first one has been mentioned in the topic, Leviathan Wakes. It's then followed by Caliban's War, followed by Abaddons Gate.
The series has been doing quite well and 3 more books are in the making and 5 novellas have been planned as well (set in the same universe).
As for what it is, it's basically semi-hard scifi set in a not too far of future. No FTL travel, just this solar system. It's basically Earth vs Mars vs The Belt going on. The books put quite a lot of effort into explaining issues one might not expect from Sci-Fi, such as how they handle varying gravity (on different planets/asteroids, but also during ship burns etc).
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On August 19 2013 22:42 xlep wrote:
Just finished the second half of "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Mans Fear" in about a week after not having time/motivation to read in a while.
Those books are just so compelling and hilarious at times.... I'd recommend them to anyone in an instant.
A while back I also read the first books of the Mageborn series. It's a less popluar "coming into power" series with a magican that I picked up at an amazon sale. I quite liked it, even though the background and the characters sometimes just don't fit in a medieval setting from time to time (at least in my opinion).
Can anyone suggest a book or series with a badass mage/sorcerer like Harry Dresden, Kvothe or Ged/Sparrowhawk? I'm still at book four of the "Wheel of Time" series but I can't seem to motivate myself to continue reading (mostly since I know that there's still about 10 books afterwards ^^).
The Iron Druid Chronicles read quite similarly to Dresden, but personally I thought they were more whimsical and less deep. Still, an entertaining read when there's nothing to be had. Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams though not strictly about a wizard (it's a Constantine-esque battle of Heaven versus Hell) it's quite similar in tone to a more beaten up Harry Dresden I feel. There's also The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It's been likened to a darker, more adult and cynical Harry Potter but I think that it's well-written enough to be judged on its own merits.
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On August 19 2013 23:00 Tobberoth wrote:
Definitely recommend The Expanse series. Not the deepest and most complex Sci-Fi, but it's a great setting and good characters. The first one has been mentioned in the topic, Leviathan Wakes. It's then followed by Caliban's War, followed by Abaddons Gate.
The series has been doing quite well and 3 more books are in the making and 5 novellas have been planned as well (set in the same universe).
As for what it is, it's basically semi-hard scifi set in a not too far of future. No FTL travel, just this solar system. It's basically Earth vs Mars vs The Belt going on. The books put quite a lot of effort into explaining issues one might not expect from Sci-Fi, such as how they handle varying gravity (on different planets/asteroids, but also during ship burns etc).
Yea The Expanse was awesome. Unfortunately the next trilogy is supposedly in the distant future, so no more Holden + Rocinante crew =(.
Since this thread got another bump, I'll do another rec. The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. I'm always wearing about picking up new stuff, but this kept getting flagged on my goodreads account so I gave it a go. I'm bad at giving quick summaries, but basically it's a military fantasy book (magic exists but it's secretive, guns are prominent) detailing a campaign the Vordanai empire wages on some desert folks. The POVs are mainly told through two officers of the empire and slowly over the course of the books you're given information of the true purpose of the war. My complaints are 1) one character kinda has a bit of a Jesus syndrome (think Khellus in Bakker's novels) and 2) the ending made the book feel like one giant prologue. Still, all things considered, I definitely enjoyed this book and will pre-order the next one.
If anyone's familiar with The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, there's some semblance of that in The Thousand Names. Cynical, gritty, but fairly lighthearted.
Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan is another military fantasy with guns, but it's too much Brandon Sanderson (who I find solid not great) for my taste.
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Recently read the first two Kingkiller chronicles, and then i started the first law trilogy (just started book 3 last night).
I recommend both to any who likes fantasy.
If you don't like arrogant, can't lose badass type characters you might not be a big fan of kingkiller. Basically all first person, which kind of leaves some character development lacking beyond Kvothe, which he does well. But if you don't like his character then it is tough luck because you are stuck with him.
I am curious how the future will be for rothfuss. Not really a spoiler, but it does tell how the story is written and how the trilogy is set up.+ Show Spoiler +The first trilogy is meant to be of kvothe telling his past, thus the present time is in third person but while telling the story is in first. The second trilogy is meant to be about the present time, so is it safe to assume that the second will be in third person to keep consistency? It could have a greatly different feel to it that way. But that shouldnt be a worry for quite a while.
as for The First law trilogy, the end of book two left me feeling a bit dissapointed, particularily because
+ Show Spoiler +Bayaz and the group basically accomplished nothing for the story. There was obviously a lot of character development but surely that could have been accomplished elsewhere while contributing to the story more than their waste of an adventure across the land. Perhaps my thoughts will change once i get into the third book more.
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definately read book 3 it's a great
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The Old Man's War series by Jon Scalzi is great:
* Old Man's War
* The Ghost Brigades
* The Last Colony
(Apparently there's another book, a prequel called "Zoe's Tale", but I haven't read it)
I enjoyed Forever War by Joe Haldeman as well.
If you're into slightly cheesier scifi (based on video games or movie IP), here are some great ones:
Arthas, Rise of the Lich King (Christie Golden)
Aliens: Earth Hive (Steve Perry)
Aliens: Asylum (Steve Perry)
Aliens: The Female War (Steve Perry)
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On August 19 2013 22:42 xlep wrote:
Just finished the second half of "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Mans Fear" in about a week after not having time/motivation to read in a while.
Those books are just so compelling and hilarious at times.... I'd recommend them to anyone in an instant.
A while back I also read the first books of the Mageborn series. It's a less popluar "coming into power" series with a magican that I picked up at an amazon sale. I quite liked it, even though the background and the characters sometimes just don't fit in a medieval setting from time to time (at least in my opinion).
Can anyone suggest a book or series with a badass mage/sorcerer like Harry Dresden, Kvothe or Ged/Sparrowhawk? I'm still at book four of the "Wheel of Time" series but I can't seem to motivate myself to continue reading (mostly since I know that there's still about 10 books afterwards ^^).
With a badass mage? Most of a the characters in Malazan Book of the Fallen could level continents. The only reason they can not is MAD. Mutually Assured Destruction. Theres just so many insanely OP people that there will always be someone to stop you. It is kind of awesome (proper use of the word).
Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap make a pretty nice trilogy. Its written by a rocket scientist, literally. Proper acceleration based travel, chemical rockets, fission drives, fusion drives... Then things just get crazy.
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On July 21 2013 09:26 Garfailed wrote:
So i was wondering..
What's the best place to start on Warhammer 40k books? I really like the universe, and want to get more in depth on it, however there are so many different novels, i cant decide which to read, any suggestions?
Try the Horus Heresy series, it's by far the richest and offers the best insight into the universe of WH40k. It can be a bit disjointed at times, so you'll probably do some wiki surfing if you want to stay up on everything. Gaunt's ghosts, Last Chancers, Ravenor and the Night Lords series are pretty good too.
Dan Abnett, Graham Mcneil, Sandy Mitchell and Aaron Dembski are the best authors out of Black Library in general. Stay far, far away from anything written by C.S Goto. If the name Matt Ward appears anywhere, throw the book away and burn it at earliest opportunity.
Edit: just saw it was an old post, but I'll leave it in case anyone else was interested.
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Anyone have any recommendations for Asian Fantasy? Preferably something in a series and more dark (along the lines of the Basilisk manga/anime). It seems like there's not much to choose from outside of YA stuff.
I've read the two by Guy Gaviel Kay and liked them well enough. The Braided Path was okay and Tales of Otori was a bit cheesy.
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Canada5565 Posts
On October 19 2013 01:20 TheAura wrote:Recently read the first two Kingkiller chronicles, and then i started the first law trilogy (just started book 3 last night). I recommend both to any who likes fantasy. If you don't like arrogant, can't lose badass type characters you might not be a big fan of kingkiller. Basically all first person, which kind of leaves some character development lacking beyond Kvothe, which he does well. But if you don't like his character then it is tough luck because you are stuck with him. I am curious how the future will be for rothfuss. Not really a spoiler, but it does tell how the story is written and how the trilogy is set up. + Show Spoiler +The first trilogy is meant to be of kvothe telling his past, thus the present time is in third person but while telling the story is in first. The second trilogy is meant to be about the present time, so is it safe to assume that the second will be in third person to keep consistency? It could have a greatly different feel to it that way. But that shouldnt be a worry for quite a while. as for The First law trilogy, the end of book two left me feeling a bit dissapointed, particularily because + Show Spoiler +Bayaz and the group basically accomplished nothing for the story. There was obviously a lot of character development but surely that could have been accomplished elsewhere while contributing to the story more than their waste of an adventure across the land. Perhaps my thoughts will change once i get into the third book more.
I heard that he's going to continue writing stories set in The Four Corners, but not about Kvothe. I don't know anything about another planned trilogy. Where did you see that?
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Canada5565 Posts
On October 19 2013 05:47 ssxsilver wrote:
Anyone have any recommendations for Asian Fantasy? Preferably something in a series and more dark (along the lines of the Basilisk manga/anime). It seems like there's not much to choose from outside of YA stuff.
I've read the two by Guy Gaviel Kay and liked them well enough. The Braided Path was okay and Tales of Otori was a bit cheesy.
I heard good things about Stormdancer but I haven't read it.
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On October 19 2013 12:34 Xxio wrote:Show nested quote +On October 19 2013 05:47 ssxsilver wrote:
Anyone have any recommendations for Asian Fantasy? Preferably something in a series and more dark (along the lines of the Basilisk manga/anime). It seems like there's not much to choose from outside of YA stuff.
I've read the two by Guy Gaviel Kay and liked them well enough. The Braided Path was okay and Tales of Otori was a bit cheesy. I heard good things about Stormdancer but I haven't read it.
Oh I remember seeing this. I wasn't sure what to make of this one as the goodreads ratings seem to go from one extreme to the other lol. I'll see if I can get a cheap used copy I guess, need something to read after finishing Republic of Thieves.
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EPT
