Fantasy Books

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I liked the Soldier Son more than The Liveship Traders. If the Liveship Traders hadn't been set in the same world as the other series I would have stopped after book 1. It was only for otherwise making the later series harder to understand I pushed through. I haven't finished the Rain Wilds series yet, but the Assassins and Tawny man have been my favourites of Hobb's work, so looking forward to Fitz and Fool.

Throwing another one out there and an Aussie to boot. Jennifer Fallon. The Demon Child and Hyrthrun Chronicles were good trilogies (those two really a series of six books). Only read book one so far of The Second Sons, but enjoyed that. My favourite though is The Tide Lords series of hers, which is the one she's currently part way through.
 
Andre I only have one Fallon book- Wolfblade. Should I start with the first in the Demon Child series instead??

Did you know that she is the 9th child of 13 girls?? :eek: (according to the Fantastic Fiction website- had to double check it as i remembered she was from a huge family) I thought she had completed the Tide Lords Series..

I also struggled with Liveship Traders- don't know why, as I read it long ago. I loved the books she wrote as Megan Lindholm, though- in particular the Windsinger series. (read them back in the 80s so please don't ask for a summary :) I just remember that I liked those books).

If anyone has teenage or pre-teen daughters and wants to get them into reading fantasy, try Tamora Pierce. Her books are great for upper-primary and older kids
 
Teriyakicat said:
Andre I only have one Fallon book- Wolfblade. Should I start with the first in the Demon Child series instead??
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The Hythrun Chronicles - Wolf Blade is the first, so start with that. Ah, yes Tide Lords is finished. I haven't gotten book 4 yet (damn kids taking all my money). Also now see another Hythrun trilogy starting later this year. Plenty of good books to keep me entertained.
 

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Andre said:
I liked the Soldier Son more than The Liveship Traders. If the Liveship Traders hadn't been set in the same world as the other series I would have stopped after book 1. It was only for otherwise making the later series harder to understand I pushed through. I haven't finished the Rain Wilds series yet, but the Assassins and Tawny man have been my favourites of Hobb's work, so looking forward to Fitz and Fool.
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I understand what your saying, the fitz books are more exciting. For me I think it's I just really enjoy her writing style. So unless you really need to understand all thats gone before when you start the next fitz series I wouldn't read the Rain Wild Chronicles. It starts a bit slow, probably takes 1 and a half books to get right into the story, but it does shed more light on everything previosly.

Anyway 150 pages into Words of Radiance now. Enjoying it and looking forward to a bit of hardcore action later on.
 
Crapulous said:
Anyway 150 pages into Words of Radiance now. Enjoying it and looking forward to a bit of hardcore action later on.
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Finished Words of Radiance yesterday. The last 150 pages is go go go. Now the wait for book 3.

On Hobb's work have you read The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince novella? I enjoyed that as a bit of backstory on why they don't like those who can 'bond' with animals.
 
Probably not for the faint-hearted, AA? Sounds like you need to sit and read that one for hours at a sitting, in order to take it all in.

Was it a bit of a tough slog, as indicated in the review?
 
Teriyakicat said:
Probably not for the faint-hearted, AA? Sounds like you need to sit and read that one for hours at a sitting, in order to take it all in.

Was it a bit of a tough slog, as indicated in the review?
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Definitely tough. Many times where I didn't know what was happening or why and it overwhelmed but just kept reading and figured it'll make sense later. And I knew that would happen because I'd read reviews and it still hit me. There must be a s**t ton of casual readers who've never finished book 1. Most stories start with everything calm and normal. That was years ago for every character in this story.
 
I found Gardens of the Moon one of the harder reads to understand and follow and from memory it took a second try to get through. It seriously reads like there's a trilogy or two that comes before it that noone's ever heard of. It definitely pays off in the long run though, I read 6 or 7 of both the Malazan and A Song of Ice and Fire series and I ended up preferring Erikson's The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The world building is pretty impressive once you're seeing enough of it to start making sense of it and there are some really great characters.

Being able to read them in one run would help a lot as well, it's probably not the easiest series to read a book and then wait a year or two for the next one.

Useless trivia: Same as Feist's Midkemia the world started off as a setting for a table top RPG game.
 
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Thanks for the recommendations, people :) I'm just going back to Markus Heitz's Dwarves series - starting #3- but I'm filing these titles away for future reference.
Looks like I'll need a month of solid reading to attack the above Malazan books.

And Quokka- I hadn't realised that about Feist's work :) Interesting.
 
Andre said:
On Hobb's work have you read The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince novella? I enjoyed that as a bit of backstory on why they don't like those who can 'bond' with animals.
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Just saw this. Sounds interesting, will have to give it a go. Like to try and read everything related to a series or world. When I last read Wheel of Time (last time ever or for at least 20 years) I forgot to read the prequels, was a bit spewing. After I finish WoR I'll have to go grab it. Thanks for the heads up


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I read the first 3 Malazan books 10 or so years ago and found them difficult going. If I remember correctly there was so much going on. I think a break between books put me off them cos they would be to hard to pick up after a year and just keep going.

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I really liked how they did the gods in the Malazan books and the magic as well, any time someone goes to the trouble of creating a magic system that goes beyond Merlin throwing fireballs around it gets a few extra points with me.

Anyone read The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Rücker_Eddison

It's a bit of an oldy being first released in 1922 but it'll be so familiar to anyone who's read heroic/high fantasy, a small group of heroes traveling together and saving the day, its a storyline that's still selling plenty of books today. Talk of the Malazan books made me think of it as its another hard one to start with because the whole thing is written in Archaic English but once I got into it I found I was able to follow it easy enough and good storytelling is good storytelling.

I usually hate not finishing a story even if it's a bad one but this is one of three I have on the shelves (all older stories) that I still want to go back and reread start to finish. I finished a good scifi one the other day and was thinking about buying something new but instead I think I'll go back and give this one another go.
 
Quokka said:
I really liked how they did the gods in the Malazan books and the magic as well, any time someone goes to the trouble of creating a magic system that goes beyond Merlin throwing fireballs around it gets a few extra points with me.
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Brandon Sanderson's ability to come up with unique and detailed magic systems is quite amazing.
I don't know how he does it while also churning out books at an alarming rate.
 
Found my old copies of "The Fionavar Tapestry" by Guy Gavriel Kay, two days in and I'm on the second book - if you haven't read them do so, yes, that is an order!;) If you haven't read them for ages, read them again!
 
Teriyakicat said:
Have you read the Last Chronicles, Anfield? I've started collecting the series but don't think I've got all 4 yet.
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Sorry about the late reply, no I haven't read the last chronicles & I'm unsure if I ever will. Loved the first series, will read again soon, struggled through the second & the thought of the Last Chronicles depresses me.
 
This Is Anfield said:
Found my old copies of "The Fionavar Tapestry" by Guy Gavriel Kay, two days in and I'm on the second book - if you haven't read them do so, yes, that is an order!;) If you haven't read them for ages, read them again!
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Suppose I'm gonna have to read it then :) Just got myself an ebook copy, in the middle of something else but will read it next.
 
This Is Anfield said:
Sorry about the late reply, no I haven't read the last chronicles & I'm unsure if I ever will. Loved the first series, will read again soon, struggled through the second & the thought of the Last Chronicles depresses me.
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Why? Because you didn't like the 2nd? or because it's the "LAST"?
If I get started on them soonish and they're any good, I'll let you know.

I have notifications sent from this thread so don't stress if it takes you a month to get back and reply :)
 
Picked up the Peter Brett series from the library, "The Painted Man" "The Desert Spear" and "The Daylight War".
Halfway through the second book, thoroughly enjoying them.
 
Just finished the first 3 books in The Gentlemen Bastard series. Next one is due later this year. Really enjoyed them and can't wait for the next. A lot of funny dialogue and a very interesting story. Get on it.
 
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