New series recommendation

[Stedding Tofu]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:38 PM, Sir_Charrid said:

I have never read any of his other books, no idea why, are they as good as Thomas Covenant? 

 

IMO, yes indeed.  Mordant's Need is a fantasy series that follows a character from our world into another world in conflict but it doesn't resemble Chronicles in any other way.  The Gap series is sci-fi rather than fantasy but I consider it his best work as he has a compelling story and winds up the tension and peril the characters are in to fever pitch, quite an achievement over a five book series (the first book really being a short story).

 

If you like Donaldson's style and stories - and both the First and Second Chronicles are meaty trilogies in depth, scale and length - I would recommend these.

[Blackbyrd]

Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemison is excellent

 

Tad Williams in general but really Memory, Sorrow and Thorn 

 

RA Salvatore has picked up recently but who knows.

 

Mike Brooks is a good start. It's a little slow -these are only 500 page books lol- so we'll see but this has a ton of potential

 

Melissa McPhail probably is the closest to the grandiosity to Jordan and Martin but there are certain moments of glaring weakness that annoy me in the writing- but if you are craving an epic world with epic characters this is the most comparable one I've seen.

 

And Name of The Wind is pretty great though I would just read it as a stand alone. I don't think there's any future in the series

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Blackbyrd

[ConorReads]

On 12/8/2022 at 1:35 PM, DojoToad said:

Ha!  I hear that Patrick has almost as bad a reputation as GRRM regarding finishing a series...

Yes, if not worse! There has been some controversy recently with him promising a chapter read if his followers did X, and they did, and he withheld the read. There are a lot of theories as to why it is taking so long for the third installment. 

However, if it's as beautiful as the second book (or more so) then it will be worth the wait. 

[Blackbyrd]

I just finished the first Amber Quintet by Zelazny and if you are a big RJ fan and have not read it I would absolutely tell you that you should put it in your list of things to read ASAP. Obviously RJ took from Tolkien, and I've seen people say he took a lot from Herbert but... wow did he take from Zelazny in spectacular style. There are more than a few things that will make you lol when you read it

 

THe first quintet is pretty solid as well. Very smooth series for all its mystery though I found the writing of the 1st book to be so on point and clever that it made me want- for as the series went on the perspective, I felt, was not quite as sharp and fluid

Edited January 24, 2023 by Blackbyrd

[DojoToad]

1 hour ago, Blackbyrd said:

I just finished the first Amber Quintet by Zelazny and if you are a big RJ fan and have not read it I would absolutely tell you that you should put it in your list of things to read ASAP. Obviously RJ took from Tolkien, and I've seen people say he took a lot from Herbert but... wow did he take from Zelazny in spectacular style. There are more than a few things that will make you lol when you read it

 

THe first quintet is pretty solid as well. Very smooth series for all its mystery though I found the writing of the 1st book to be so on point and clever that it made me want for as the series went on and the perspective I felt was not quite as sharp and fluid

He also took from Eddings.

[Blackbyrd]

Oh definitely, but I think he took nearly as much from Feist as from Eddings, though probably a touch more from Eddings. And, Obviously Tolkien is one of the baseline influences, esp books 1-3, but the Zelazny influence through the all of WoT can't be missed

 

I think I've mentioned previously- I would love to have chopped it up with RJ, or Harriet for that matter not on Wot in particular but on what they thought of other things. Truly masterful readers

Edited January 24, 2023 by Blackbyrd

[Asthereal]

The Amber books are pretty cool indeed. I remember very little of them, as it's been over 20 years since I read them, but I remember especially the first few being excellent.

 

I recently finished Dune Messiah, and it got me excited enough to pick up Children and God Emperor as well, after which I'll probably re-evaluate whether I still like the series. Book 4 is especially weird, as I hear, but it might just be my kind of weird. Who knows? 🙂 

[Scarloc99]

On 1/24/2023 at 2:23 PM, Asthereal said:

The Amber books are pretty cool indeed. I remember very little of them, as it's been over 20 years since I read them, but I remember especially the first few being excellent.

 

I recently finished Dune Messiah, and it got me excited enough to pick up Children and God Emperor as well, after which I'll probably re-evaluate whether I still like the series. Book 4 is especially weird, as I hear, but it might just be my kind of weird. Who knows? 🙂 

I read the entire Dune series front to back years ago but it never grabbed me in a way to make me want to go back and read the whole thing. I will re read Dune happily, although, my biggest issue with Frank Herbert's writing is how much he leaves off the page. For instance in Dune it always felt like he got halfway through the book and decided that, in order to get it all out in time, he would just ignore describing any big set piece moments. One moment Paul is planning to attack the city, then he is there and in passing you get the briefest description of the attack, you hear about his children dying in a sentence with no POV of that attack. I am really looking forward to the movie showing those scenes in detail that are never described in the book. 

[Asthereal]

2 hours ago, Sir_Charrid said:

... my biggest issue with Frank Herbert's writing is how much he leaves off the page.

 

Very fair. A friend of mine also complained how in Dune things would start to get interesting, only for Herbert to skip said interesting stuff to time jump his way forward. I feel like this happened less in Messiah, which felt a lot more detailed and thoughtful. No idea how I'll like the next two though. Also, I decided to read Tigana first, which I had planned to read during the holidays, but the delivery of my copy was delayed a month.