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On April 10 2011 02:19 redviper wrote:
In order of personal preferences for series I'd say
1. George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. However I'll be dead before the series is done so maybe good for people being born this year.
3. Prince of Nothing + Aspect Emperor trilogies by R Scott Bakker. Judging Eye was the worst of his books so far and even that was fun to read (despite no Kellhus). The best characters of all fantasy because no one is good, no one is evil, everyone is selfish and deceptive. Awesome stuff.
I'll second that. (except that i liked The Judging Eye)
After reading "The Lies of Locke Lamora" i would strongly advise
The gentlemen bastard squence (by Scott Lynch)
except i read a lot of opinions that "Red seas under red skies" could not hold up the high level of writing. Guess i'll have to convice myself of it personally..
If all 7 planned books would have the quality of "lies of locke lamora" i'd recommend it to everybody without even thinking...but well...we'll see :/
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Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke.
Its basic setting is about an massive asteroid in trajectory of our sun. Then it is discovered that this asteroid is perfectly symmetrical and hollow and most likely an space vessel of hyper advanced civilization. And things start to take strange turns...
If you love science fictions but are disgusted by laser pistol toting heroes then this is the book for you.
Edit: Has someone mentioned Horus Heresy? A bit cheesy (and thus opposite of Rendezvous with Rama) but fun books especially if you played Warhammer 40k games. At least the first book 'Horus Rising' is a good read for soft science fiction fans.
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On April 10 2011 02:29 Twistacles wrote:
Also, Modesitt's Saga of Recluse is under-rated
I couldn't finish it. I liked it in the beginning, but after 6 books I lost interest. The Angels vs Rationalists thing didn't do it for me, it was a while ago but I seem to remember not liking the main characters. I am going to try it again someday, because I really like worlds with fleshed out histories.
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On April 10 2011 02:19 redviper wrote:
In order of personal preferences for series I'd say
1. George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. However I'll be dead before the series is done so maybe good for people being born this year.
actually i just wanted to point out theres a release date scheduled for martin's next book and i believe its around june/july or somethng. check amazon, it probably has alot to do with the fact that now HBO picked up his series, theres more incentive to finish it.
and while im at it, i love book threads. I picked up the first book of the kingkiller chronicles so i'll definitely be starting that. Im currently reading a scifi book ( A fire upon the deep by Vernor Vinge) and am still in the early chapters of the book but so far its pretty interesting.
I hate to derail this thread to sci-fi but since ender's game was mentioned and some asimov, i HAVE to HAVE to recommend a series that took me a couple of days to finish because it was that good. Old Man's War by John Scalzi. http://www.amazon.com/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi/dp/0765315246
Seriously, BUY IT! If you liked Ender's Game, then get this series, i would put it either on par if not ranked HIGHER up than ender's game. And all the books are good, the quality doesnt die out like it does with a few of the ender's series. Another good thing is that right ff the bat it hooks you, it doesnt take a couple of chapters, chapter one and boom your hooked.
Read the books in this order:
Old Man's War
Ghost Brigades (has nothing to do with ghosts, thats just the name of the infantry unit)
The Last Colony
and when ur done you can thank me ;]
books im looking forward to reading:
kingkiller chronicles
hyperion
deepness in the sky
foundation
but i was seriously sad when i finished old mans war 
hopefully these can match up at least
edit: also, id like to add that its not totally unbelievable sci fi, like when they just invent some super technological feat with absolutely NO scientific background or explanation. These books provide at the very least believable reasons as to how and why things are achievable in the future. (an example of what i dont like is the Ancible used in ender's game)
(and example of justifiable scifi: noting that faster than light travel is impossible, and the only way to travel vast distances is to bend space time so that you are transferred to a different location but in a parallel yet very very similar universe where the differences are very subtle and unnoticeable) Its obviously more complicated than this but while there are a couple of minute things that u might not like as typical of any sci fi book, they are not overwhelming to the point that the story is unbelievable.
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On April 10 2011 03:06 HeavenS wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 02:19 redviper wrote:
In order of personal preferences for series I'd say
1. George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice. However I'll be dead before the series is done so maybe good for people being born this year.
actually i just wanted to point out theres a release date scheduled for martin's next book and i believe its around june/july or somethng. check amazon, it probably has alot to do with the fact that now HBO picked up his series, theres more incentive to finish it. and while im at it, i love book threads. I picked up the first book of the kingkiller chronicles so i'll definitely be starting that. Im currently reading a scifi book ( A fire upon the deep by Vernor Vinge) and am still in the early chapters of the book but so far its pretty interesting. I hate to derail this thread to sci-fi but since ender's game was mentioned and some asimov, i HAVE to HAVE to recommend a series that took me a couple of days to finish because it was that good. Old Man's War by John Scalzi. http://www.amazon.com/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi/dp/0765315246Seriously, BUY IT! If you liked Ender's Game, then get this series, i would put it either on par if not ranked HIGHER up than ender's game. And all the books are good, the quality doesnt die out like it does with a few of the ender's series. Read the books in this order: Old Man's War Ghost Brigades (has nothing to do with ghosts, thats just the name of the infantry unit) The Last Colony and when ur done you can thank me ;] books im looking forward to reading: kingkiller chronicles hyperion deepness in the sky foundation but i was seriously sad when i finished old mans war hopefully these can match up at least
Will definitely get Old Man's War as if it is even half as awesome as you claim then it will be totally worth it. Is it more like original Ender's war or its sequels (eg. Speaker of dead) as I really didn't find sequels that interesting.
And seriously READ the Foundation series it is awesome. First three books (Foundation,Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation) are among the best SciFi I ever read though sequels are not as good.
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Old Man's War isn't similar to Ender series. It is good, just not similar to Ender.
Anybody else a fan of Darkover? The author isn't the best, but the setting is great.
Oh and Trudi Canavan is one of my favourite modern authors. Those books are never boring, not spectacular, but well worth the time. They don't really have any downsides, but lacks something to become a classic.
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+1 to the wheel of time. Greatest fantasy series ever. I would recconmend listening on audio book as the series is very long, but using it to kill travel time is awesome.
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really? you didnt find it similar at all? lol i dont wanna give too much of the plot away but you can definitely see some VERY obvious similarities to ender's game.
anyways stalking, to answer ur question yea its more like ender's game, in my humble opinion of course 
there's politics, military battles/training, a little world building. check it out.
and thanks for the foundation suggestion, thats all i actually needed to put them higher on my priority reading-to-do list. i depend heavily on amazon reviews and ratings to find my next good read so that helped ;p
and i should read them in that order i presume?
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On April 10 2011 03:27 HeavenS wrote:really? you didnt find it similar at all? lol i dont wanna give too much of the plot away but you can definitely see some VERY obvious similarities to ender's game. anyways stalking, to answer ur question yea its more like ender's game, in my humble opinion of course there's politics, military battles/training, a little world building. check it out. and thanks for the foundation suggestion, thats all i actually needed to put them higher on my priority reading-to-do list. i depend heavily on amazon reviews and ratings to find my next good read so that helped ;p and i should read them in that order i presume?
Yes and No. Though this is the order in which books were written, later Asimov added some more books to set up the background of the story.
I would however, recommend reading these 3 and in that order and then read other books as they are not as good. Think of them like 'Origin of XYZ' they are more enjoyable when you already know the characters. There are some books set in a even further into future and they are all connected to the 'I robot' series by Asimov so to make a long story short stick to these 3 and if you have time then expand your reading.
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-1 to the Wheel of Time series. I know a lot of people like this series, but I just can't stand it. The series definitely has it's moments, but if the author would just chop about half of it off, it would make these books infinitely better. I've read to 10 or 11, just couldn't force myself anymore. I think there are what like 10,000+ pages of this series, and really like 4-5k of it are not needed for the story line.
I've read most of the fantasy books mentioned here, and I generally like everything. Favorite new fantasy would have to be the Kingkiller chronicles, The way of Kings.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned The Painted Man/ The Warded Man, great series as well, if you like Kingkiller chronicles you would enjoy these.
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No one mentions Anne Mccaffrey Dragonriders of Pern or Crystal Singer? Both good series, with pern being my favourite.
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On April 10 2011 02:35 stalking.d00m wrote:
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke.
Its basic setting is about an massive asteroid in trajectory of our sun. Then it is discovered that this asteroid is perfectly symmetrical and hollow and most likely an space vessel of hyper advanced civilization. And things start to take strange turns...
If you love science fictions but are disgusted by laser pistol toting heroes then this is the book for you.
Edit: Has someone mentioned Horus Heresy? A bit cheesy (and thus opposite of Rendezvous with Rama) but fun books especially if you played Warhammer 40k games. At least the first book 'Horus Rising' is a good read for soft science fiction fans.
If you liked that, check out some of Larry Niven's works especially Protector, Ringworld and Neutron Star, (the latter being a compilation of short stories rather than a novel). He has a similar style and the stories involve interesting problem solving rather than shooting (as you said this is a great method of story telling). He also wrote the large majority of his works around the same time as Rendezvous with Rama.
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actually i just wanted to point out theres a release date scheduled for martin's next book and i believe its around june/july or somethng. check amazon, it probably has alot to do with the fact that now HBO picked up his series, theres more incentive to finish it.
July 12th is the release date and I have it preordered. But there are atleast 2 more books left in the series. Its frustating beyond belief to wait for such an amazing set of books.
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Not sure if anyone has mentioned The Painted Man/ The Warded Man, great series as well, if you like Kingkiller chronicles you would enjoy these.
Oh totally. I can't believe I didn't mention it. Warded Man and Desert spear are two of my most re-read books. Amazing stuff.
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Due to several recommendations of The Sword of Shannara, I figured I would give it a try after passing it up in the past because I've heard how closely it copies LOTR. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm wondering how people read this book? I grew up reading LOTR many times over and really put it on a pedestal for fantasy books, and it's just insulting that someone would so blatantly copy another person's story. I know a lot of fantasy can resemble tolkien's work, but seriously you might as well rename this series, "A Parady of LOTR". Do things change up at all, or can you guess exactly what happens throughout by having read LOTR?
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On April 10 2011 15:04 Kvothe wrote:
Due to several recommendations of The Sword of Shannara, I figured I would give it a try after passing it up in the past because I've heard how closely it copies LOTR. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm wondering how people read this book? I grew up reading LOTR many times over and really put it on a pedestal for fantasy books, and it's just insulting that someone would so blatantly copy another person's story. I know a lot of fantasy can resemble tolkien's work, but seriously you might as well rename this series, "A Parady of LOTR". Do things change up at all, or can you guess exactly what happens throughout by having read LOTR?
Well iirc the saying goes "The highest form of complement is to be copied" or something of that sort. I personally would say unless you are just getting into fantasy or if you prefer the basic "good guy saves the world" where everything is black and white, you would most likely want to look for other books with a style that you would prefer, perhaps do some research, this thread is a good start if you read it all you will see that some people like The Sword of Shannara and some people hate it. When I read it in middle school i really liked it.. but nowadays not so much. So really its a matter of taste on the readers part.
Also nice name, it sounds like you like Patrick Rothfuss 
R. Scott Bakker- i saw some people commenting on him, when it comes to the fantasy i read hes certainly my 3rd favorite series at the moment : 1)A song of Ice and Fire 2) The Way of Kings 3) R. Scott Bakker's 1st trilogy The Prince of Nothing. I have to agree that his 2nd trilogy started off.. not nearly as good as his first but I will leave judgement untill after he continues the story some more, some series a bad egg contained within a good story so I wont totally discount him (especially after those first 3 amazing books)
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On April 10 2011 15:10 sc14s wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 15:04 Kvothe wrote:
Due to several recommendations of The Sword of Shannara, I figured I would give it a try after passing it up in the past because I've heard how closely it copies LOTR. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm wondering how people read this book? I grew up reading LOTR many times over and really put it on a pedestal for fantasy books, and it's just insulting that someone would so blatantly copy another person's story. I know a lot of fantasy can resemble tolkien's work, but seriously you might as well rename this series, "A Parady of LOTR". Do things change up at all, or can you guess exactly what happens throughout by having read LOTR? Well iirc the saying goes "The highest form of complement is to be copied" or something of that sort. I personally would say unless you are just getting into fantasy or if you prefer the basic "good guy saves the world" where everything is black and white, you would most likely want to look for other books with a style that you would prefer, perhaps do some research, this thread is a good start if you read it all you will see that some people like The Sword of Shannara and some people hate it. When I read it in middle school i really liked it.. but nowadays not so much. So really its a matter of taste on the readers part.
I've read basically every book mentioned, besides 1-2 series. I think the big problem for me is how many times I've read tolkien, I know the books very well, so its even more disappointing when reading Brooks.
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On April 10 2011 15:16 Kvothe wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 15:10 sc14s wrote:On April 10 2011 15:04 Kvothe wrote:
Due to several recommendations of The Sword of Shannara, I figured I would give it a try after passing it up in the past because I've heard how closely it copies LOTR. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm wondering how people read this book? I grew up reading LOTR many times over and really put it on a pedestal for fantasy books, and it's just insulting that someone would so blatantly copy another person's story. I know a lot of fantasy can resemble tolkien's work, but seriously you might as well rename this series, "A Parady of LOTR". Do things change up at all, or can you guess exactly what happens throughout by having read LOTR? Well iirc the saying goes "The highest form of complement is to be copied" or something of that sort. I personally would say unless you are just getting into fantasy or if you prefer the basic "good guy saves the world" where everything is black and white, you would most likely want to look for other books with a style that you would prefer, perhaps do some research, this thread is a good start if you read it all you will see that some people like The Sword of Shannara and some people hate it. When I read it in middle school i really liked it.. but nowadays not so much. So really its a matter of taste on the readers part. I've read basically every book mentioned, besides 1-2 series. I think the big problem for me is how many times I've read tolkien, I know the books very well, so its even more disappointing when reading Brooks.
well yeah, that just means its time to do more research. I had been at a dead end untill i started this thread.
A place you might want to check out is :
http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/ I found it recently and has a good list of reviews on many new fantasy/sci-fi coming out,
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On April 10 2011 15:17 sc14s wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 15:16 Kvothe wrote:On April 10 2011 15:10 sc14s wrote:On April 10 2011 15:04 Kvothe wrote:
Due to several recommendations of The Sword of Shannara, I figured I would give it a try after passing it up in the past because I've heard how closely it copies LOTR. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm wondering how people read this book? I grew up reading LOTR many times over and really put it on a pedestal for fantasy books, and it's just insulting that someone would so blatantly copy another person's story. I know a lot of fantasy can resemble tolkien's work, but seriously you might as well rename this series, "A Parady of LOTR". Do things change up at all, or can you guess exactly what happens throughout by having read LOTR? Well iirc the saying goes "The highest form of complement is to be copied" or something of that sort. I personally would say unless you are just getting into fantasy or if you prefer the basic "good guy saves the world" where everything is black and white, you would most likely want to look for other books with a style that you would prefer, perhaps do some research, this thread is a good start if you read it all you will see that some people like The Sword of Shannara and some people hate it. When I read it in middle school i really liked it.. but nowadays not so much. So really its a matter of taste on the readers part. I've read basically every book mentioned, besides 1-2 series. I think the big problem for me is how many times I've read tolkien, I know the books very well, so its even more disappointing when reading Brooks. well yeah, that just means its time to do more research. I had been at a dead end untill i started this thread. A place you might want to check out is : http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/ I found it recently and has a good list of reviews on many new fantasy/sci-fi coming out, \
Nice, thanks, that looks good. I was trying to find a good site for new fantasy.
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I've only read Lord Foul's Bane (the first of the Thomas Convenant Chronicles) so far, but I definitely recommend it. Actually found it lying around at my mother's house one time and randomly decided to start reading it. Good little piece of luck in the end, because it's great stuff.
Another you might wish to consider checking out is A Wizard of Earthsea. I must admit I read it in my early teens (which is 10+ years ago  ) so there may be some 'rose coloured glasses' action going on here, but I definitely enjoyed it back then.
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EPT
