After Wheel of Time

[Mubz]

As Wheel of Time is soon coming to an end, what series are people moving onto. So lets see if we can help each other out and give people an idea of a new series that is not finished and is going on at the moment.

 

I'm quite picky when it comes to choosing new series. I only seem to like High/Epic fantasy, even then can be very picky. Any help would be great!!!

[lolguy26]

well Brent weeks (lightbringer series) is a nice read (it maybe not be that subtle but it does pack a few surprises)

[bigdoug1971]

A song of ice and fire is really good. But George RR Martin don't get in any hurry with the next book!

[ozimandias]

Stormlight for me. Really loved Way of Kings.

[Morden]

Stormlight for me. Really loved Way of Kings.

definately gotta agree with you there, I enjoyed songs of fire and ice, but to be honest I cant see him ever finishing it and if he does it will be another decade or so for a couple of books, which I dont think will be enough to cover the story fully. In a way he's written himself into a massive writers block.

[Mubz]

Stormlight for me. Really loved Way of Kings.

definately gotta agree with you there, I enjoyed songs of fire and ice, but to be honest I cant see him ever finishing it and if he does it will be another decade or so for a couple of books, which I dont think will be enough to cover the story fully. In a way he's written himself into a massive writers block.

 

I'm reading them at the moment, have to say that they are amazing..!!

[Mubz]

A song of ice and fire is really good. But George RR Martin don't get in any hurry with the next book!

 

Not the biggest fan of the, I read them but not my cup of tea

[Hagazussa]

I have not really made any plans, I should sit down and read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn since that is my hubby's favorite fantasy series. I also should probably read A Song of Ice and Fire but generally I like high fantasy more than low fantasy so I have waited with it. There is a media tie in series for Stargate Atlantis the Legacy series that I want to read, it is sort of like a season six in book format. If someone is looking for something that is similar to Wheel of Time in many ways I recommend Sword of Truth and Dune though, which remind me that I should get my ass in gear and finish reading some of the Dune prequel novels, I have just been very slow in reading them as they are not as good as the originals. Other than that I read allot of literature on the occult so there is always something for me there to read.

[Knivy]

I enjoyed Tad Williams work, but I dont think I ever finished the otherland series because I kept getting interrupted...

 

Another series I enjoyed was the Glasswrights series.

[Pilz]

I have tried many fantasy series lately, but I don't think any will compare to WOT. GRRM is awesome, but it is a different type of story and waiting for 2-3 more books over ten years or so. I tried the Malazan series, the Drizzt series, Landover, Thomas Covanent, Her Majesty's Dragon, and many others. I like Robin Hobb (Farseer and Liveship), and the new Rothfuss is pretty good. Waiting for the second one to come to paperback. I will probably try the new Sanderson one, although Mistborn was only OK.

[Shaidar]

Does anyone know of good post-apocalyptic fiction that is (1) not ridiculously corny / cliched as most of it is regrettably and (2) is a series?

[SylvanFox]

Does anyone know of good post-apocalyptic fiction that is (1) not ridiculously corny / cliched as most of it is regrettably and (2) is a series?

 

The Dark Tower series. Well, it has parallel universes, but most of them have already basically been through some apocalypse or other.

[lhsmommy]

Does anyone know of good post-apocalyptic fiction that is (1) not ridiculously corny / cliched as most of it is regrettably and (2) is a series?

 

I liked the SM Stirling Emberverse series for the most part. First book is 'Dies the Fire', It's 6-8 books or more now.

[TristanWebb]

The Obernewtyn Chronicles is a nice post-apocalyptic series, but it is very young adult so if you didn't start reading it when you were 13 like I did you might not like it much.

[Shaidar]

BTW, to answer the OP question, I will be continuing with Sanderson's Stormlight Archive and any further Mistborn universe books. I read Game of Thrones, but hesitate to delve further into GRRM's world - what if his infamous writing block prevents him from ever finishing the series? Perhaps in 5 years or so, when the future of ASoIaF will be clearer.

 

Thanks all for the post-apocalyptic suggestions. I did not like the first Dark Tower book, but I heard it improves a lot later, so I might download the second book and continue with it. The Emberverse concept sounds really interesting so I've already bought Dies the Fire for Kindle just a few minutes ago - thanks for that suggestion! BenevolentCow, you're probably right about Obernewtyn Chronicles.

[batcaver]

I would warn anyone away from The Dark Tower series, especially if you didn't like the early novels. The last few were the worst of the series, and in general some of the worst fiction I've read. I've been thinking of starting a thread about it, but if I do it'll be a spoiler rampage public service announcement to warn others away and convince anyone recommending it of their great toh.

[Suttree]

Does anyone know of good post-apocalyptic fiction that is (1) not ridiculously corny / cliched as most of it is regrettably and (2) is a series?

 

Not sure if it has been mentioned but most people seem to really like "The Passage Trilogy" by Justin Cronin.

 

For a single book you can't beat "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

[avernite]

I'm currently sticking with the Malazan series a bit more; the 'main' story is done, but unlike with WoT, this never felt like that big a deal. More on the level of the cleansing than on the level of defeating the dark one.

 

Also Feist's riftwar is about to end, though that one by now is more grandfathered in (I read so much of it already I just keep reading).

[Sagacious Lu]

China Mieville is writing some of the best (and most original) sci fi/fantasty around. Not only that he's a fairly young guy so if you like his writing it's reasonable to expect him to keep it up for a long time to come.

[Centauri25]

I have always been a big fan of WoT, Tolkein, but also Thomas Covenant. And I have really enjoyed the Third Chronicles set - which also ends next year. SO i will likewise be wandering around the desert without aim.

[Balefire to da face!]

I would warn anyone away from The Dark Tower series, especially if you didn't like the early novels. The last few were the worst of the series, and in general some of the worst fiction I've read. I've been thinking of starting a thread about it, but if I do it'll be a spoiler rampage public service announcement to warn others away and convince anyone recommending it of their great toh.

 

I thought the first four books were excellent.

 

For those who may have read the first book and it turned you off, there are two versions of that book. The original version is like some older fiction, where it's a collection of shorter stories that were sold individually to magazines originally. That's not to say they aren't connected, they are, but it can be jarring. The original version is also pretty much unchanged from the original writing, which at it's earliest stages was written when King was just 19.

 

He himself was bothered enough by the style(and continuity problems) that he wrote a revised edition. Which might be a better fit for those just starting the series. As it's easier to read and it fits better in both style and content with the rest of the series.

 

Personally I read the original The Gunslinger when I was only about 13, and I have loved it ever since. I consider it's uniqueness to be one of it's charms, and is one of the few books that I can just pick up and read for just the hell of it. I've read through it about 20 times.

 

The real problem with the series is, indeed, books 5-7. King had his accident, and stared death right in the eye. I think he became worried that he would die before the series was finished, and rushed the last 3 books a bit. Not in the writing, which is quality, but in the plot. 5 is still a great book, but it felt detached from where the series had been heading prior. It had a more mundane and less metaphysical answer for everything. 6 suffered heavily from being the middle child in what became the trilogy to finish the series. I think book 7 ended on mostly a good note. Some of the pay off didn't pay offy enough, but I think the main plot of Roland himself paid off well.

 

No doubt with the 4 decades or so that King spent cobbling together the story and twists of the series will not appeal all that much to fans of something as intricate as WoT. The Dark Tower has a few good ones, made all the more impressive that King had absolutely no idea he was going there when he wrote previous books, but for the most part there are continuity errors that would make any WoT fan howl.

 

I would still recommend the series.

 

For me, I am not sure what I'll read next. I don't read much fiction nowadays. I read Brandon's Mistborn series and thought it was very well done, if no where near as complex as WoT. I still need to read Alloy of Law. I tried Elantris, but a dirty little secret of mine, considering I am on a Fantasy message board, is that I can't really stand High Fantasy. WoT appealed to me exactly because of how much it defies the genre standards. So I didn't like Elantris much, and it's one of the few books I've started, but never finished.

 

I do plan to try out Stormlight, but I am not interested in waiting decades for a series to end again. I am not going to wait until it's finished, but I want to at least wait to see where it's going until I dig in.

 

I think next up is David Eddings. I keep getting suggestions for it, and I have The Belgariad, so I may finally force myself to dig into it.

[Centauri25]

I enjoyed the Eddings work as a younger person, but having recently picked it up again to get my own kids interested - whoa. Kinda like the Hobbit compared to Lord of the Rings - Eddings to RJ. Good story and great characterization, but much lower lever overall.

[batcaver]

Yeah, we gotta do a Dark Tower thread. I didn't know there were so many around here who had read it, but I'm pretty curious to see what people thought of a few certain plot points. I agree that books 1 and 4 had some pretty great stuff in them. Enough to give me the appetite that would later let me die of hunger.

 

I quasi-reviewed The Passage in another thread, and so did another guy. I'm halfway through the sequel right now, but the jury is still our for me. It seems like an amalgam of vampire and post-apocalyptic fiction, but I'm not sure it has anything original to it. It's also gotten really religious as it's gone on. It has had some cool moments, though.

 

I'm curious about the Malazan (is that right?) series everyone keeps talking about...what kind of stuff is this? Fantasy, I know but is it geared more toward an adult fantasy reader or something more like Sanderson's stuff that seems a little more adolescent? I keep seeing a lot of praise...

[Suttree]

I'm curious about the Malazan (is that right?) series everyone keeps talking about...what kind of stuff is this? Fantasy, I know but is it geared more toward an adult fantasy reader or something more like Sanderson's stuff that seems a little more adolescent? I keep seeing a lot of praise...

 

Def more adult, although it isn't my favorite I enjoyed it. It is super complex and is possibly hurt a bit by how far out it takes things in that direction. Erikson lost control and overall it turned into something of a mess(a glorious mess, but one none the less)New characters are constantly introduced so you really have to pay attention to keep track of the story lines.

 

Speaking of more adult fantasy not sure if you have tried R. Scott Bakker yet? Huge Blood Meridien influence in his work, he has his own version of the Glanton Gang! My fav fantasy author by a wide margin at the moment. Start with "Prince of Nothing" series and then move on to "The Aspect Emperor" of which two books are finished. Also really enjoy Abercrombie's "First Law" Trilogy, he subverts the genre in a very smart way. Things get twisted far away from what you originally think until you begin to see hints of a far greater conflict. It's pretty awesome.

[batcaver]

I will check those out. What I read first will probably depend on what I find on audiobook first, but I had been curious about the Bakker stuff since I'd seen you mention it a few times. Thanks for the suggestions!