Book tips

[Braus]

Been a fan of WOT for along long time. Though im not really a fan of fantasy generally, its the books themselves i like not the genre. So while ive read through Brandons Elantris to get a taste of him for the coming books(which was decent) and recently picked up misborn(which is abit better than decent, actually rather good but not genious like wot >.< imo once again) Im looking for more books that i might be interested in. Doesnt matter really if its fantasy or not, aslong as its well written.

 

Last summer i read a good bit of Harlan Coben, about his character Myron, which was rather good. Ive also recently read two books that are named I, Cladius and The God, Cladius, which is about a roman emperor(a ceasars) rise to power and how it was before, from the time of August(the guy who came after the real Julious Ceasar) until his own crowniation. Also read a good deal of swedish books, a series following a number of people in a poor family as they lived and died working and living in the swedish capital during the 1850ish-1930.

 

Not sure if this helps me at all finding someone who can give advice, but if someone got any advice of a book i could pick up, please go ahead :) As said im a big fan of the WOT world, though it wouldnt matter that much to me really if they removed the magic from it, its more the characters and the books themselves that i like.

[Werthead]

Been a fan of WOT for along long time. Though im not really a fan of fantasy generally, its the books themselves i like not the genre. So while ive read through Brandons Elantris to get a taste of him for the coming books(which was decent) and recently picked up misborn(which is abit better than decent, actually rather good but not genious like wot >.< imo once again) Im looking for more books that i might be interested in. Doesnt matter really if its fantasy or not, aslong as its well written.

 

Last summer i read a good bit of Harlan Coben, about his character Myron, which was rather good. Ive also recently read two books that are named I, Cladius and The God, Cladius, which is about a roman emperor(a ceasars) rise to power and how it was before, from the time of August(the guy who came after the real Julious Ceasar) until his own crowniation. Also read a good deal of swedish books, a series following a number of people in a poor family as they lived and died working and living in the swedish capital during the 1850ish-1930.

 

Not sure if this helps me at all finding someone who can give advice, but if someone got any advice of a book i could pick up, please go ahead :) As said im a big fan of the WOT world, though it wouldnt matter that much to me really if they removed the magic from it, its more the characters and the books themselves that i like.

 

Wheel of Time minus magic plus far cooler characters = A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin (first book: A Game of Thrones)

 

:)

[Braus]

Ah yeah been unsure about that, didnt know that world lacked magic, sounds cool. Was gonna try all those series that people talked about a while ago and started with the brandon sanderson books, but after seing the first few episodes of the legend of the seeker i got abit hesitant to try anymore fantasy books. Except Robin Hobb which ive heard good things about.

 

But a song of ice and fire is still fantasy right?

[Werthead]

Ah yeah been unsure about that, didnt know that world lacked magic, sounds cool. Was gonna try all those series that people talked about a while ago and started with the brandon sanderson books, but after seing the first few episodes of the legend of the seeker i got abit hesitant to try anymore fantasy books. Except Robin Hobb which ive heard good things about.

 

But a song of ice and fire is still fantasy right?

 

Yes. Basically there was a cataclysm four centuries before the books begin and magic ceased to exist. It's still around in remote parts of the world and there are signs it might be seeping back into the world, but it's more like a medieval myth than the full-on One Power battles of WoT. The amount of magic does increase marginally over the course of the series, but even by the latest book it is nowhere near the level of WoT.

 

Modern fantasy comprises several distinct fields. You have the somewhat corny old-school fantasy series like Sword of Truth/Legend of the Seeker, Terry Brooks' Shannara, David Eddings' Belgariad and so on. You probably don't want to bother with these (Raymond E. Feist is the only one of these authors who is half-fun to read now, and he goes off the boil later on). Then there's the 'New Weird' fantasy which is more out-there, mixing up SF, fantasy and alternate history. There's some really good writers in this field like China Mieville, but it's a mixed bag.

 

Then there's the 'new fantasy', which is traditional secondary-world fantasy with a bit of a twist and, crucially, written for adults. George RR Martin's series is really the vanguard of that and probably the most approachable. Joe Abercrombie's mildly satirical take on traditional fantasy, The First Law Trilogy, is also a lot of fun. You might want to read a few more in that vein before looking at people like Scott Bakker (who is a lot more serious and philosophical) and Steven Erikson (who is totally mental and over-the-top with way, way more magic than Jordan, but still interesting and fun to read).

[Braus]

Ill try out song of ice and fire once im done with the mistborn then. And yeah, im not really that into elves/dwarfs/dragons/magic etc. Im proberly more interested in the 1000-1300th century kind of ages, though i usually like them abit more cleaned up, like it is in WOT forexample, since in our world it was rather poor and miserable at that time :) And disgusting with people emptying their chamber pots, be it rich or poor all over the city.

[Verbal32]

A suggestion:  work your way up to A Song of Ice and Fire (Martin) and Malazan Book of the Fallen (Erikson).  I had started to get into these, and realized that if I tried to go back and read something like Feist, I would not have enjoyed it.  As it is now, I've read all of Feist's books, and enjoyed them.

 

Here are a few series that I recommend that could be seen as building blocks to aSoIaF and the rest of the "big boys":

 

~Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist (there are subsequent sagas in here that are decent, but the best is the Empire Trilogy co-written with Janny Wurts)

 

~Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams (solid and a good building block in my opinion)

 

~Dune by Frank Herbert (if you don't mind old school SF...this is the best in my opinion.  Just make sure you only read the 6 books that Frank wrote himself - the ones with his son and Anderson suck.....bad)

[Rogaine 4 Ewoks]

A Song of Ice and Fire is a must read. It's certainly one of my favorites. Also a new series that I just got into and is quickly moved up to the top is Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. That series does the exact same thing that RJ did with channeling/magic. Totally new magic system but still feels familiar enough that it isn't to far out there.

 

Rogaine 4 Ewok's Must read list. I won't include WOT as that would be silly.

 

1. Codex Alera (Jim Butcher)

2. Song of Ice and Fire (George R.R. Martin)

3. Harry Potter (JK Rowling) [Yes I said Harry Potter]

4. Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (Robert Rankin)[Hard to Find]

5. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

6. The Dark Tower Series (Stephen King) [Odd but Awesome]

7. Odd Thomas series (Dean Koontz) [Odd made me remember]

8. Dragonlance (Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman) [Easy read maybe between books]

9. Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy (Timothy Zahn)

10. Star Wars The X-Wing Series (Stackpole/Allston) [stop reading Star Wars books after these two series it gets pretty repeatitive from there out.]

11. Dragoncrown War (Michael A. Stackpole) [Another one prolly hard to find]

12. Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan) [Oops I did include guess I'm silly]

These books are all backed by my word that I liked them.

 

I won't give you a list of books to stay away from. Certainly wouldn't mention either of the authors with Terry as their first name.

[Verbal32]

OMFG you have the best screen name ever.

 

 

Carry on.

[Rogaine 4 Ewoks]

Why thank you. I almost got banned from one place because they thought I was a spammer.

 

I remembered another one.

 

13. Artemis Fowl series (Eoin Colfer)

 

I'm prepared to defend my claims. I just started the Malazan Series so I'll let you know if it gets added.

[Phariah]

Michael Moorcock's Elric series and Eternal Champion series 

Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant 

Frank Herbert's Dune 

and for something differant these aren't fiction but theology still quite good reads

Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods and Sign and the Seal

 

( i have a belief that the desert warriors in Dune are Aiel that made it to another planet  :o )

[senorita]

Sorry guys i don't have any Books Tip.I have a little Experience to share with you all.Hey i have a craze of just reading books and recently i am reading the Harry Potter Books from its series and found it very Much Interesting.

[Mr Ares]

Doesnt matter really if its fantasy or not, aslong as its well written.

Despite you saying this, I see a distinct preference for fantasy and science fiction among the suggestions given so far. So I would like ot recommend the following:

The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road by Iain Banks,

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy,

The Flashman Papers by George MacDonald Fraser.

I think that you're covered on the well written front.

 

Ive also recently read two books that are named I, Cladius and The God, Cladius, which is about a roman emperor(a ceasars) rise to power and how it was before, from the time of August(the guy who came after the real Julious Ceasar) until his own crowniation.

I, Claudius was also turned into an excellent TV series by the BBC, starring Derek Jacobi as Claudius, with, among others, John Hurt as Caligula, Brian Blessed BRIAN BLESSED as Augustus and Christopher Biggins as Nero. Check it out if you ever get the chance, it's very good.

[Braus]

Cool, appreciate the non fantasy suggestions, gonna get a few of those and most proberly the Stephen King serie(since ive never read a book by him, only seen some crazy vampire cannibal movie when i was abit younger which didnt exactly motivate me to look his books up, but i will now)

 

And yeah im gonna give the ice and fire a try aswell since ive seen alot of people talking about it on various forums.

 

Anyway ill ofc appreciate more suggestions. Once again i dont know if other people is in the same situation like me and can use any of the suggestions, but go ahead and keep posting if any of you want. At least i wont mind.