SF&F recommendations

Cafe Society
41

I liked the First Law trilogy better than Critical1. It’s by Joe Abercrombie and the books are The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings. Most of the first book is spent developing the characters – it’s all set-up, and the action doesn’t get going until the end. The next two books are almost non-stop action, with even more character development.

I liked Joe’s writing style. It’s modern without being anachronistic, and he writes excellent fight scenes.

I’d recommend R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of Nothing trilogy, but he ruined it for me by excessive rumination in the third book, and generally inane and dense philosophizing in the others. But when he wasn’t doing that, the books were pretty good.

42

Looking at the OP, I’d recommend checking out Jack Chalker - his work seems to be in the same ballpark. Start with his Well World series (Midnight at the Well of Souls is the first book and works as a stand-alone novel). The downside is that Chalker died in 2005 and most of his books are out of print, so you’ll have to hunt down used copies.

43

just the 2 are there? I spotted them in Tesco at 3 for a tenner.