He ALMOST did something different in The Elenium, but fell back on formula by the middle of book 2 or so.
Still, I think his one template is pretty entertianing once.
I’m with you. I haven’t found anything she’s written that I found remotely palatable.
Oh, I disliked The Name of the Wind, too, and am not sure what people see in it. The small handful of pages that were taking place in the Present were pretty entertaining, but adolescent Kvothe pining over the least interesting woman he’s ever met and generally being more talented than he has any right to be was just annoying. And that was like 96% of the book.
I just discovered Abercrombie in July and have read them all. Thank goodness he has something else coming out in October.
I started reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch earlier this week after I finished Abercrombie’s Heroes. It’s very good fun so far. I have Amazon to thank for this recommendation. Edited: Oops, Lynch was your #9 and I did not even realize it.
Gene Wolfe is pretty much the best. I’d actually recommend not starting with Book of the New Sun despite the above suggestion and the fact that it was the first Gene Wolfe I ever read. Start with Pirate Freedom. If you like that (and you assuredly will), read The Wizard Knight books. These take a little more effort than Pirate Freedom, but it is a pretty natural progression from the former to the latter.
About 200 pages into Mistborn. Seems like a workable concept for a video game, but it’s too gimmicky and sloppily written to work as a book. I might finish it anyway.
My local Barnes has The Briar King, which will be next if the beginning does not induce involuntary cringing. Otherwise LOTR.
If anyone has more suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Low fantasy is generally better
Think of it as part one of a longer book, since the whole trilogy makes up one story. There are some neat twists along the way that change the way you view things.
Ah. I finished Mistborn, and haven’t bothered to pick up and read the sequels. I really don’t want to know that someone is pushing or pulling this or that metal, every single time. A one time explanation is good, with maybe some reminders, but I don’t need the details of how something works (in either magic or technology) every time it’s used.
David Palmer informed the reader of every single adjustment that the narrator made to her airplane in “Tracking”. Most people aren’t pilots, and neither know nor care that his narrator turned this a tenth of a degree, and pulled that lever. This serial was what finally motivated me to quit renewing my subscription to Analog, because I figured that the editor should have done some editing and cut out about 90% of the technical stuff and focused on the story.
And that’s what I want. I want the story to have enough details to make sense, but not so many details that it’s an instruction manual.
Harry Turtledove can be quite good: The Misplaced Legion, Agent of Byzantium, and The Case of The Toxic Spell Dump. Avoid the Krispos series. I didn’t enjoy his World War series.
Martin Scott’s Thraxas books are a fun quick read.
I finished Mistborn. It boggles my mind that this has 4.5 stars on Amazon. The fantasy class war is handled considerably better in the Geneforge series (indie computer RPGs, strongly recommended - all five on Steam for $20 iirc; Mac versions exist but are much pricier).
Currently re-reading Perdido Street Station (which is a lot better than I remember it - I have even less sympathy for Mieville’s politics now, but my English was inadequate the first time around) and The Blade Itself. Looking forward to the new Abercrombie and maybe Tom Wolfe.
The “Briar King” starts off great and is very strong for the first 3 books.
Then it falls off a cliff for book 4.
I don’t know what the hell happened. Did he lose interest, did he mean to write a six book series but the publishers insist he wrap it up, i don’t know, but it’s so dissapointing i honestly couldn’t recommend starting it.
I’ve recently finished Acacia (in the US, Acacia: The War With the Mein) by David Anthony Durham and enjoyed it a lot. Big fantasy with 7 or 8 point of view characters. I found it engrossing but I’m taking a break to read some other stuff before starting volume 2.
Here’s his webpage with some reviews of it.
Finally got around to the Briar King. Halfway through the first book and will not be buying the second. The writing feels weak (perhaps as a consequence of reading it concurrently with a run through Abercrombie) and I do not care for the characters at all.
While not strictly Fantasy C.J.Cherryh’s Foreigner series reads much like a fantasy. She also writes many fantasy novels although they are mostly aimed at young girls. Another sci-fi author I like who also writes fantasy is L.E. Modesitt Jr.
See I had the opposite experience. I thought it was cool the way the good guys and the bad guys slowly switched places. Yeah it was cliched but I thought it had a lot of interesting twists, and I remember buying the last book and staying up that night finishing it. One of the few books I’ve read in one sitting. Disclaimer: I haven’t read it since I was a teen, and some (but not all) of the stuff I liked back then I’ve re-read recently and it sucked - most of the Forgotten Realms books, Dave Eddings and RA Salvatore come to mind. So my taste in books has changed and broadened much since. But I do remember it as being a cut above most run of the mill fantasy.
Recently I’ve read JV Jones’ Sword of Shadows series, which I thought was pretty good. The last book wasn’t the expected conclusion though, so I’m not sure if there’s more or if it’s just supposed to be really open ended. It’s the sequel to the Baker’s boy series, which I also liked. Her stuff is a bit dark but the characters feel more realistic that most fantasy cliches.
