The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 45

Okay I'm starting my reread immediately. I'd completely forgotten about that, haha.

Man, these books really had a huge impact on my whole life, now that I think about it. A huge part of the trajectory of my life overall came from the fantasy books I read as a teen, and Dragonlance was a huge part of that. Shaped my tastes and worldview a little too.

 

Yup. I went Lord of the Rings > Wheel of Time > Dragonlance.

 

Same

 

I'm trying to get work done here but all I can think about it fantasy books, haha. Story of my life.

For me it was LOTR > Shannara > David Eddings > Dragonlance > WOT and then just a huge explosion into everything else.

 

Yeah, I'm having a physically present, mentally not day at the office myself. About to go squeeze in a ten mile run before my second job (freelance writing).

 

Oooh, that looks fun. Mine will be super weird.

Harry Potter was my first, I know some people wouldn't count it but I feel it fits > Lord of the Rings (way too young to read it) > Dark Tower > Eragon > 15-20 year break > Game of Thrones > Sanderson > WOT > Malazan > Lord of the Rings (but for real this time)

 

I need a run myself haha. Been too long cooped up inside in my pajamas.

What kind of freelance stuff?

Be sure to get some good fantasy audiobooks in during your run to make it count.

 

This is currently an article on data privacy. And then I have another article on talent management. Typical corporate lingo stuff.

Sadly, I need to listen to this other book first. But yeah... I've hit over 100 books the last two years because of running. Including my WoT re-read.

 

Cool cool. My day job is essentially legal/scientific writing. No carryover to fiction except it keeps my fingers limber lol.

Running was huge for me in terms of audiobooks as well. And, uh, general health, haha.

 

My day job is a paralegal who also, by virtue of being the only Millennial in the office, runs the website/our social media/newsletter. So I feel that.

 

Dude I didn't read Harry Potter until I was 27, that train completely passed me by.

I was raised by the Redwall books. I borrowed one from the library in middle school because it had a badger in armor on the front and I thought it looked awesome then went on to read almost all of them.

Tbh I'm not very good at reading these days (still going through Hyperion from our exchange) and seeing the speed with which everyone here goes through books makes me feel like I'm missing out lol

 

I was trying to remember what the rat series I read some books of when i was a kid was! Redwall, good call. I read a few.

 

Audiobooks I fly through. Physical books? Weeks. Find what works for you. I prefer physical, but they don’t really work in my life as much as I wish they did.

 

Damn did I miss the sale? Was there a link or did you just have to search for individual titles

 

Still going on for like three days I think. If you're a $15/month Audible member, you can just search individual titles, it's a site-wide thing.

And it's crazy good, haha.

 

Just made my purchase. Whittled it down from initially like 80 books to an even 30. Came out to $4.90 after tax for me too.

It was surprisingly hard to eliminate stuff. I had to focus on books that I actually wanted to own (versus getting them from the library) and books that I wanted to listen to (versus read), and even then it was tricky.

But I got a bunch from Weis & Hickman, Ian C. Esslemont, Poul Anderson, and Pierce Brown, then a bunch of individual SFF titles, as well as some linguistics and culture stuff. Very satisfied with this purchase.

 

It might be worth it to me to pay for a month just to get a bunch of books on sale

 

It ends in like 4 hours or so, just fyi.

but if you like audiobooks I honestly think it’d be worth it, it’s a really great deal

 

I wish there was an easy way to show everyone our audible libraries.

But then everyone would see my random af collection and side contemp romance habit.

 

More than once I’ve thought about printing out a binder of book covers that I have on audiobook just to display them, haha. Would also be funny to see some of the weird stuff I have on Audible.

 

I just finished reading Crooked Kingdom.

I am heartbroken.

 

I have finished 2 series lately with differing feelings on the endings.
The Realm of The Elderlings - Amazing, fantastic, solidified it as my favorite series, and Robin Hobb as my favorite author. Planning a fantasy tattoo sleeve and this will be front and center.
The books of Babel (Senlin Ascends series) - For a closing novel, not great at wrapping up the story threads. Definitely felt disingenuous to sell it as a conclusion, as it left so many things open while asking more questions. I hope we revisit this world. The relationships between the characters, and the prose was as good as ever, and I highlighted so many passages, but story wise I'm disappointed. Still would consider a reference to it in my tattoo as I am a big fan of the world, and think the author has some of the finest prose I've read (next to Hobb).

Reading now:
The Sun Eater series - Book 3 - The Demon in White & Book 4 Kingdoms of death is out 3/22 and I am so excited!
It's more sci-fi, though it would definitely appeal to fantasy fans. The first book is rough, but I liken it to wheel of time. A tropey, derivative first outing that explodes into it's own early into the 2nd book. I'm about a 3rd through book 3 and absolutely love it and can't wait for 4 (which is part A with part B coming out in December). Then the 6th book will wrap it up (unless that gets split to - part of the split was the paper / printing problems - 4 & 5 are both shorter books compared to book 3 I'm reading now).
Here's the good reads link. I really want to promote this series as it's relatively unknown.
The Sun Eater Series by Christopher Ruocchio

 

Interesting...I read the first Sun Eater book a few years ago, it was an early attempt at finding another Sci Fi series after reading Three Body Problem. I was interested because of the covers. I was absolutely bored to death with the first book and didn't like it at all so I never thought to return. Reading your thoughts on book 2 have me intrigued, especially if you had similar feelings about book one. I think I'm gonna have to go back.

 

It depends what you didn't like. The writing style doesn't change nor does the narrative tone of the main character, but it gets more into galaxy politics, and world building vs a retelling of name of the wind mixed with dune. I don't read much sci-fi, so perhaps the 2nd book is equally as derivative for those that do (though the goodread reviews would indicate otherwise). All I can say is that I liked enough about the 1st book to give a new author a chance and I'm happy I did, but your opinion may vary. Trying to be a hype man here, I'd say it's worth a shot to try it. It is far more expansive in it's world building and lore at the very least and there is way more action.

 

If you haven't read this one, you're going to want to. Starting the sequel (it's a completed trilogy) immediately. It's what I wanted Name of the Wind to be, with a heavy dose of Wheel of Time scope and worldbuilding.