Books Fantasy Reads

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Anyone read Senlin Ascends? It's really good, not like many other books I've read recently. (https://www.amazon.com/Senlin-Ascends-Books-Babel-Book-ebook/dp/B074M62D7Y/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2G2ZTD2JLHCEL&dchild=1&keywords=senlin+ascends&qid=1586954629&s=books&sprefix=senlin+ascne,aps,169&sr=1-1)

It's fantasy, but realistic and the protagonist is pretty inept at everything. Decent change of pace anyway.

I gave up about 25% into book 1. It felt like a travelogue by a idiot traveler. Amazing he lacks basic common sense for a teacher. Felt author concentrated more on portraying the world than the plot. Will pick it back up sometime later....

Having tried different Gamelit/litrpg books (Awaken Online, Chaosseed, Mage Errant) without getting the "bug", i finally found a book I can recommend: Land of the Undying Lord - J.T. Wright.

Around 400 ratings on Goodreads, with 4.7 in average. Sufficient sample space to assume it is not being inflated by fake users.

Some spelling errors and one or two annoying characters, still a fun book, with banter, leveling, classes and a potentially interesting expanding plot. Next book in the series should be out by the end of the month.

Best Gamelit/litrpg i have read so far. 9/10.

Thanks. I'm on a LitRPG roll now and will pick this up next.

Surprised you didn't like Awaken Online. Thought that was a gem in the rubbish permeating this genre.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Thanks. I'm on a LitRPG roll now and will pick this up next.

Surprised you didn't like Awaken Online. Thought that was a gem in the rubbish permeating this genre.

I like the stats, levelling, progression etc, I just can't stand the "in and out" of the game element. I know this is a major part of this genre but this is a dealbreaker for every book I have tried so far. While Cradle can be viewed as a "simulation", it is still "real", Awaken online is within a game. Just not for me I guess.

 

[Beachryan]

I gave up about 25% into book 1. It felt like a travelogue by a idiot traveler. Amazing he lacks basic common sense for a teacher. Felt author concentrated more on portraying the world than the plot. Will pick it back up sometime later....

Maybe it's a touch over the top as setting up his arc, but having had a close uncle was a headmaster at a small school...he's definitely writing from someone who knows what they're like!

I've just stared the 3rd book and really enjoying it. His world building is great, and so far the plot has been somewhat unpredictable.

SOaB! Thought it was a trilogy, so I'd be finishing up..wrong. 4th book to come next year.

 

[DMacgraw]

New microfiction (#4) posted on Jim Butcher's website

 

[Beachryan]

So i dropped the licanius trilogy for now and took up The Priory of the Orange Tree

It's over a 1000 pages long, i started it today and i'm halfway through. Couldn't put it down. A thing of stunning beauty

Read it if you haven't already

Just got through this - what a book. It's like an alternate GOT all in a single place, with clear start,middle and ending. Definitely best of that genre I've read in a long while.

Ending did feel slightly rushed, and the world a little small, but other than that very few complaints.

 

[The Cat]

Just got through this - what a book. It's like an alternate GOT all in a single place, with clear start,middle and ending. Definitely best of that genre I've read in a long while.

Ending did feel slightly rushed, and the world a little small, but other than that very few complaints.

I'm reading that now - taking my time trying to remember all of the characters.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Just got through this - what a book. It's like an alternate GOT all in a single place, with clear start,middle and ending. Definitely best of that genre I've read in a long while.

Ending did feel slightly rushed, and the world a little small, but other than that very few complaints.

Is it really that good? I've been tempted a few times, but I get put off by the reviews and comments that go on about feminism. If they're talking about politics instead of the story then it makes me think the story isn't that good.

 

[The Cat]

Is it really that good? I've been tempted a few times, but I get put off by the reviews and comments that go on about feminism. If they're talking about politics instead of the story then it makes me think the story isn't that good.

I am roughly 100 pages into it and there are more female characters in the most important positions I guess but I can't see it as anything to change the enjoyment of the story so far. They are well written and all very diffrent which is far more important.

 

[Edgar Allan Pillow]

Everyone I know who've read it has liked it. But the consensus is that it could have been so much better, esp the ending. Still looks to be a fabulous read. It's on my TBR list...

 

[giorno]

Is it really that good? I've been tempted a few times, but I get put off by the reviews and comments that go on about feminism. If they're talking about politics instead of the story then it makes me think the story isn't that good.

As he said, the ending feels a bit rushed and doesn't quite pay off as much as it should, at least for me

But yes, it really IS that good

Edit: to be clear, the ending is quite good. It's just that the 4/5th that precede it are such a fecking stunning masterpiece that it ends up feeling underwhelming. Similar to the Malazan experience, somewhat. Though at least this is a standalone and didn't leave me hollow afterwards

 

[Beachryan]

Agreed, the scene setting is better than the payoff, but there's like 900 pages of good stuff first.

It's less feminist, more that most lead characters are female which is rare. Didn't feel like any overt politics though, just that in that world there are lots of queens.

 

[Art Vandelay]

@The Cat and @giorno cheers, I'll have another look at it tonight I should be finished the book I'm on then.

 

[Revan]

The third book in ‘The Grim Company’ has officially become my most hated fantasy book of all time, surpassing the final book in Raven’s shadow trilogy.

I didn’t even think it was possible to make a book this bad. It is like the author really tried hard in that direction, and made every mistake you can make. He even introduced a dragon for around two minutes who did absolutely nothing, disappeared immediately, and no one ever talked about it again. The entire book was like a random bunch of fantasy cliches that had nothing to do with each other, and each character changes its own character every chapter.

I was always tempted to raise every rate that I have as 1 (out of 5) in goodreads in order to have this as a category on its own. The crazy thing is that the first two books were actually decent. Not fantastic by any means, but had interesting consistent plots, original world building, good characters and in general were enjoyable to be read.

That’s what happens when I came back to the genre after a hiatus of 4 months.

 

[celia]

I didn't like the Priory even if I managed to complete it. The story isn't complex enough for a so lengthy book. Too many of happy coincidences like the bad guys decided to come at the good moments for the MCs or a thing that seems dumb and weird is just here to help later the MCs. I was totally baffled by one scene that probably sounds spectacular but the POV of this scene has nothing to do here except being a witness that should have been too dumb to live (a sane character would have stay sheltered and it isn't like he did something that mattered).

 

[Art Vandelay]

The Lost War: Book One by Justin Lee Anderson

I think I got this free and saw a lot of glowing reviews for it. It's taken me a while to get through because I didn't overly like the characters to be honest, but by the end I didn't want it to end and wanted to see what was coming next. I was kind of predicting the ending and vaguely got it right, yet it still surprised me and is fairly clever I must say. If the second book was out I'd have bought it right away. It's nothing groundbreaking and I wasn't overly impressed by the action scenes, but it's a good adventure with a few twists and turns. The characters are much more likeable by the end.

Although I've not overly dissected it for plot holes so far given the nature of the overall story it would be a bit pointless until it gets a bit further along. I did find the character of Rasa a bit too convenient and heavy handed. She seems to be more plot device than character so far making things just a bit too convenient and then being fawned over by everyone. If her character is going where I think it is then the message is very heavy handed.

It's also got a bit of the old WoT problem where men are idiots and women are there to tell them so. Yet unlike WoT it never really goes back the other way, women are just always right and men are mutton headed fools always needing bailed out by the very smart women folk. So far it's the men who are more fleshed out, but Sammily is pretty bad ass even if she is a bit too bad ass at times.

Overall though it was very enjoyable and after getting to 50% over a fairly long time due to not reading much I finished the rest in a few days which is unusual for me. It's not even particularly short. I can't really go too much into the positives due to spoilers, but I'd recommend it.

8/10

I downloaded a sample of Priory of the Orange Tree and it's kept me engaged so far, so I'll give that a go. Although all the review excerpts at the start almost every other one is going on about feminism. Call me weird, but I tend to buy books based on liking the sound of the story, not how they line up with someone's political ideals. I just find that going on about politics tends to be a shield to hide a bad story behind, but maybe that's just in films and games and hasn't made it's way to books yet.

Given the size of the fecking thing and my reading speed it might take me months to get through, then I've got the second Poppy War book and possibly squeeze something else in before Joe Abercrombie drops his next book in September.

 

[The Cat]

The third book in ‘The Grim Company’ has officially become my most hated fantasy book of all time, surpassing the final book in Raven’s shadow trilogy.

I didn’t even think it was possible to make a book this bad. It is like the author really tried hard in that direction, and made every mistake you can make. He even introduced a dragon for around two minutes who did absolutely nothing, disappeared immediately, and no one ever talked about it again. The entire book was like a random bunch of fantasy cliches that had nothing to do with each other, and each character changes its own character every chapter.

I was always tempted to raise every rate that I have as 1 (out of 5) in goodreads in order to have this as a category on its own. The crazy thing is that the first two books were actually decent. Not fantastic by any means, but had interesting consistent plots, original world building, good characters and in general were enjoyable to be read.

That’s what happens when I came back to the genre after a hiatus of 4 months.

The Beating of his Wings gets my vote

 

[Revan]

The Beating of his Wings gets my vote

Haven’t read it. We should really discuss on this thread about the books we hate. When I was frequenting Westeros forum, Queen of Fire was a usual candidate.

Anyway, I think that I am taking another hiatus after this. Seems that I have finished anything good (or even ok) in the genre (except Malazan that I stopped after 3 books). If someone knows about a good finished series that is not that popular, I would be grateful. Otherwise, there are some ongoing series that will release new books this year and probably stick only with them for a while (this year for example there will be released the latest book from Abercrombie, the new Stormlight, the new Gentleman Bastards and the new/final Expanse).

 

[Mr Pigeon]

What's a good starting point for a newish fantasy reader? Only ever read ASOIAF and Tolkien work. I've got the first Wheel of Time book in my shelf as well but haven't read it yet.

 

[celia]

So mostly high-fantasy?

For a new reader to fantasy you have started with some of the lengthy and big ones.

I personnally like :
- Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
- City of stairs (it is more a kind of detective story in a city where gods died)
- Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb

Some other popular choices are :
- The Kingkiller Chronicle (but people are waiting for the 3rd and last book and the 2nd one was out 11 years ago)
- The Stormlight Archive (3 books out of 10 out but the author said the 5 first make a part and he writes quite regularly)
- Gentleman Bastard by Scott Lynch
- Malazan Book of the Fallen (harder to follow IMO)
- Discworld books (try first Mort or Guards, Guards! because the first wasn't his best and some of the books can be read without reading before the previous ones)

See this chart to see what different categories there are :
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/wiki/flowcharts/introtofantasy

 

[Revan]

Mist born and Kingkiller Chronicles are pretty safe choices for the people who are just entering the genre.

 

[harshad]

Haven’t read it. We should really discuss on this thread about the books we hate. When I was frequenting Westeros forum, Queen of Fire was a usual candidate.

Anyway, I think that I am taking another hiatus after this. Seems that I have finished anything good (or even ok) in the genre (except Malazan that I stopped after 3 books). If someone knows about a good finished series that is not that popular, I would be grateful. Otherwise, there are some ongoing series that will release new books this year and probably stick only with them for a while (this year for example there will be released the latest book from Abercrombie, the new Stormlight, the new Gentleman Bastards and the new/final Expanse).

No love for Dresden Files?

 

[Revan]

No love for Dresden Files?

Hmm, I kind of prefer real fantasy to books set in our world with some fantasy elements.

How does it stand to Codex Alera (from the same author). I found Alera pretty enjoyable though never fascinating, and probably the only series ever that each book was more or less the same quality as the others.

 

[giorno]

@Mr Pigeon Try any of these

-Gardens of the Moon (This might be one of the weakest books here, certainly weaker than locke lamora and city of stairs, but it's book 1 of the greatest fantasy saga ever written, so i strongly suggest it)
-The lies of locke lamora
-The blade itself
-City of Stairs
-Jhereg
-Seven blades in black
-Sandman Slim

 

[harshad]

Ah.... That makes sense i suppose. Urban Fantasy is an entire sub-genre.

I have enjoyed Dresden Files more than Codex Alera. It’s a different genre and different writing style with entirely from a singular perspective with each book having a self contained story, which connect over 5-6 books. It’s really well done.

 

[Revan]

@Mr Pigeon Try any of these

-Gardens of the Moon (This might be one of the weakest books here, certainly weaker than locke lamora and city of stairs, but it's book 1 of the greatest fantasy saga ever written, so i strongly suggest it)
-The lies of locke lamora
-The blade itself
-City of Stairs
-Jhereg
-Seven blades in black
-Sandman Slim

Proposing Gardens of the Moon to someone who is entering the genre, is like proposing to watch Stellaris to someone who hasn’t watched movies before.

This is beside the fact that Malazan is kind of shit in its entirety.

 

[harshad]

What's a good starting point for a newish fantasy reader? Only ever read ASOIAF and Tolkien work. I've got the first Wheel of Time book in my shelf as well but haven't read it yet.

If you liked Lord of the Rings then read Eye of the World. Jordan wrote it to be similar to Lord of the Rings before taking them on a different journey.

 

[ivaldo]

What's a good starting point for a newish fantasy reader? Only ever read ASOIAF and Tolkien work. I've got the first Wheel of Time book in my shelf as well but haven't read it yet.

If it's high fantasy you're after, then Wheel of Time is your next logical step.

For grimdark I recommend The Prince of Thorns/The Blade itself

For a character-centric series then you really can't beat Realm of the Elderings.

For prose The King Killer Chronicles

For Urban fantasy The Dresden Files/Rivers of London

Post-Modern The Magicians (Lev Grossman)

For comedy then Disworld

Honourable mentions: Gentleman Bastards, Earthsea Cycle, The Black Company.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

If you liked Lord of the Rings then read Eye of the World. Jordan wrote it to be similar to Lord of the Rings before taking them on a different journey.

If it's high fantasy you're after, then Wheel of Time is your next logical step.

For grimdark I recommend The Prince of Thorns/The Blade itself

For a character-centric series then you really can't beat Realm of the Elderings.

For prose The King Killer Chronicles

For Urban fantasy The Dresden Files/Rivers of London

Post-Modern The Magicians (Lev Grossman)

For comedy then Disworld

Honourable mentions: Gentleman Bastards, Earthsea Cycle, The Black Company.

Thanks folk!

 

[Art Vandelay]

Thanks folk!

I wouldn't bother with Wheel of Time. It's 15 massive books and many of them are just boring.

I'd go for The Blade Itself or The Lies of Locke Lamora.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

The Beating of his Wings gets my vote

I was going to say this as well.
So much potential from the two first books. The author obviously did not want to finish the series/write the third book and did the bare minimum to fulfil is contractual obligations to the publisher.

 

[The Cat]

Haven’t read it. We should really discuss on this thread about the books we hate. When I was frequenting Westeros forum, Queen of Fire was a usual candidate.

Anyway, I think that I am taking another hiatus after this. Seems that I have finished anything good (or even ok) in the genre (except Malazan that I stopped after 3 books). If someone knows about a good finished series that is not that popular, I would be grateful. Otherwise, there are some ongoing series that will release new books this year and probably stick only with them for a while (this year for example there will be released the latest book from Abercrombie, the new Stormlight, the new Gentleman Bastards and the new/final Expanse).

I've seen Scott Lynch's book is due in September (hopefully) I've enjoyed that series, this one will be a little different by all accounts and might upset some die hard fans.

 

[Revan]

I've seen Scott Lynch's book is due in September (hopefully) I've enjoyed that series, this one will be a little different by all accounts and might upset some die hard fans.

From a brief one sentence description, I have a bad feeling about this. Not bad as in it is gonna be a bad book, but that something bad might happen.

Does anyone expect Locke to eventually get magical powers?

 

[Art Vandelay]

I've still not finished the last one. I loved the first two, but I really didn't care for the third. Sabetha I just don't get the appeal of and I didn't care for random political machinations or putting on a play. Every time I go to finish it I end up reading something else instead.

 

[Revan]

If it's high fantasy you're after, then Wheel of Time is your next logical step.

For grimdark I recommend The Prince of Thorns/The Blade itself

For a character-centric series then you really can't beat Realm of the Elderings.

For prose The King Killer Chronicles

Honourable mentions: Gentleman Bastards, The Black Company.

This is a very good list/recommendation (removed those I haven't read and so cannot comment on them).

 

[Revan]

I've still not finished the last one. I loved the first two, but I really didn't care for the third. Sabetha I just don't get the appeal of and I didn't care for random political machinations or putting on a play. Every time I go to finish it I end up reading something else instead.

I liked Sabetha, but then I like bitch-girls in fantasy settings who torment the protagonist(s) (Denna in Kingkiller, Ardee in The First Law, Lady * in The Black Company and so on).

Well, she's quite different to the other three.

 

[giorno]

Proposing Gardens of the Moon to someone who is entering the genre, is like proposing to watch Stellaris to someone who hasn’t watched movies before.

This is beside the fact that Malazan is kind of shit in its entirety.

Yeah, your every post is inane and often wrong bs that should be ignored by all

Thanks folk!

Don't. Seriously, wheel of time stands to LOTR like 3 weeks old rotten, rancid cut of beef stands to filet mignon. It's technically still meat, but that's about it

 

[celia]

Haven’t read it. We should really discuss on this thread about the books we hate. When I was frequenting Westeros forum, Queen of Fire was a usual candidate.

Anyway, I think that I am taking another hiatus after this. Seems that I have finished anything good (or even ok) in the genre (except Malazan that I stopped after 3 books). If someone knows about a good finished series that is not that popular, I would be grateful. Otherwise, there are some ongoing series that will release new books this year and probably stick only with them for a while (this year for example there will be released the latest book from Abercrombie, the new Stormlight, the new Gentleman Bastards and the new/final Expanse).

I would advise as finished not that popular series.

- Fencer Trilogy by K.J. Parker
- The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron

 

[DMacgraw]

- Fencer Trilogy by K.J. Parker
- The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron

Just to be clear, these are books you hate, consider them to be the worst in the genre, correct?

 

[celia]

Just to be clear, these are books you hate, consider them to be the worst in the genre, correct?

Thanks for pointing out my mistake.

Fortunately, hate is a bit too strong for most of my fantasy readings, I disliked the Black Company but it may be I am not into grim dark, hated the beginning of Red Rising (but isn't it SF?), I don't like a lot of YA fantasy but that is because I also read too many YA fantasy, especially from new authors. So maybe I will go with a Sword of Truth book I read.

 

[DMacgraw]

No problem. I just wanted to be clear that you were NOT recommending those books.