The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 64

Ah I see Amazon has them as part of the same series, but they're not. I guess he planned a sequel called Cypher, the draft didn't work out, he wrote Ymir instead. Annex still looks cool though.

 

I finished Last of the Renshai! Those final 100 pages were insane.

 

Hell yeah! Makes me want to read it again lol

 

Not sure if anyone else reads this but I am one again encouraging you all to read Ryan Cahills The Bound and the Broken series. Book 3, Of War and Ruin, is out on the 19th. Currently reading an ARC and its so excited to find a great modern fantasy story that just feels classic. Prequel novella can be downloaded free on the website: https://ryancahillauthor.com/the-fall/ and even that is a brilliant novella in itself and really sets it all up. All books on Kindle Unlimited too!

No promo or anything here. I just really enjoy this series haha!

 

Thanks for the reminder about this one, I've got a shortlist of series I think I can catch up on this year in time for the next book to release, and he's on there. I won't make it by release date but I should get to it in a few months. Looks excellent.

 

On that note:

This year I’m planning to catch up on a couple of series I missed in time for the next books. So far, Ryan Cahill, Richard Swan, Chris Wooding, Justin Call, Andrea Stewart, and Gareth Hanrahan are my list. What others should I put on there?

Also, I need to pick a long series to work on after I read Rhythm of War. Contenders are Malazan, WOT, Wars of Light and Shadow, Essalieyan, Osten Ard, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Valdemar, Adrian Tchaikovsky. I am open to persuasive arguments and options I have overlooked lol.

 

Always and forever Malazan. I mean you have some great shit on there, but nothing holds a candle to it. Plus, Erickson is one book into his sequel trilogy, so it also fits your catch up parameters. Then I'd say WOT, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Osten Ard, Wars of Light

Wait no, either The Gap or Thomas Covenant, you need to check out Donaldson. Hell, The Great God's War isn't a terrible choice either, that trilogy just ended and it fucking ruled.

 

wait you haven’t read WoT?!

 

Haha I’ve read through Crossroads of Twilight, which I read upon release, but then kinda lost track of the series and haven’t gone back. (So it’s been 20 years, sheesh.)

I’ve read the first few books multiple times, actually, but have been meaning to do a proper read through and finally finish.

 

oh man. Knife of Dreams… now that’s a damn good book.

 

I actually plan on reading Osten Ard this year too. Never read it, think i've read Dragonbone Chair but that's it. Wars of Light and Shadow is a vastly underrated series and Janny Wurts deserves a lot more credit.

Wheel of Time will always be my #1 pick though.

 

I appreciate the feedback! Osten Ard is tempting since the next book will be out at the end of the year. It's a balancing act, though—this "catch up on short series/read long series" stuff is just part of what I want to read this year. It's also one I think really hits my fantasy sensibilities.

Donaldson is a good recommendation too. I'll add it to my list. I own The Seventh Decimate now too, so that'd be a good place to start.

I'll let you know what I end up picking. All good stuff. Maybe I'll pretend they're all in a massive multiverse and just roulette them.

 

Laird Barron: hospital costs, medication costs, organized by Mike Davis

Not exactly the place to post this, but still.

@Vivatoto

 

I just finished Ordinary Monsters by J.M Miro and I thought it was absolutely incredible. Almost 700 pages and I flew through it and am actually really sad that I've finished it now.

 

I always see this in bookshops and it always intrigues me!

 

I was listening to the audiobook for Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind after having read the book in my early teens (I got it from one of those mail-order membership club things that sent mini-hardcover books at a discount price) and I had completely forgotten / blocked out the fact that the main bad guy's father is basically named Penis...

 

I always heard that series was a huge WoT ripoff. Is it any good?

 

I've only read the first book. I never made it any further than that, but I've always thought of it as a book I enjoyed. I had this cover -->

 

I've heard that the main character is incredibly unlikable and that there's a lot of graphic stuff that borders on torture porn

 

I haven't read Goodkind's books since I was a teenager (mid-teens, so still an idiot, but not as big of one).

I thoroughly enjoyed them at the time. Yes, the graphic stuff was a lot in retrospect, but I think at the time I kind of glossed over it, not really imagining/visualizing it as much as I might now. And a fair amount of it felt gratuitous rather than grimdark/gritty. And yes, a lot of it is derivative, although I don't think I'd compare them straight across to WoT, but instead to just any popular 80s/90s fantasy/S&S series. And yes, Goodkind himself, RIP, was a bit of a dick. And yes, the Objectivist philosophy elements are pretty heavy-handed.

With those hefty caveats out of the way: I did quite enjoy them, and think of them fondly now, and still have them on my shelf, and plan, at some point, to do a reread of the main series and then the follow-up series (I read the main 12/13 books, but there are at least 10 after that that I haven't read). It'll be down the road a ways, and I could very well end up realizing I don't like them anymore, but we'll see.

Again, I should emphasize, I really enjoyed the books and still think about a lot of the plot points and magic, even more than a decade later. I think some of the criticisms about specific plot points/tropes (later in the series) is kind of unfair, tbh. Yes, the Objectivist stuff is heavy-handed, but it wasn't complete nonsense; there were actually a couple cool takeaways for me as a reader. I think a decent amount of the series is interesting and readable.

I probably wouldn't recommend them to people who've already read stuff like Malazan, WoT, ASoIaF, etc., because I think under than context and without nostalgia the flaws would be prominent and the strengths minimized. But I still like them. I read the first half of the series over and over until the pages were falling out when I was waiting for the next book, and that says something, at least.

 

After getting completely sucked back into The Wheel of Time listening to The Great Hunt audiobook I picked up a used copy of The Dragon Reborn and that's what I've been actively reading now. I have started the series many times and stopped after a few books, but I can't remember exactly how many I've ever read and it was years and years ago the last time I tried. At the moment I am completely enthralled with the story so we'll see if I go the distance this time.

 

I think I stopped at book 4? I can't remember. One day I'll finish it

 

I am loving The Dragon Reborn right now, and I don't recall feeling that way in the past, so I'm hopeful this time. I absolutely love the world and always have. It's probably my #2 favorite fantasy world out of all the books I have read.

 

So I finished the Lies of Locke Lamora. Loved the second half, more than I was expecting. As i mentioned before, I'm not a fan of the heist genre, but I think there are very specific parameters I'm giving to a larger category (I do the same with YA). In my head, I imagined this book was Ocean's 11 but in a fantasy world. What it ended up being was a very grim, and very blood revenge tale, which are my favorite, and the main characters happens to be part of thieves guild. I'd seen it on grim/dark lists before but didn't pay it much mind since I still had Ocean's 11 in my head. I feel like "thieves guild" can almost be it's own category of fantasy, recently seen it a lot in Riftwar. The reason I mentioned loving the second half was not because I disliked the first half, but I hadn't really settled into the plot for awhile, and the first half feels a lot like the "High-Finance" fantasy I've been reading recently, which is fine, but not exactly something that grabs ahold of my primitive needs. I worried that this would be a book where I enjoyed the world more than the actual plot surrounding the characters, from the start the world is brilliant, like the group of all female shark hunters? Dope as fuck. Thankfully though I started to dig everything once the plot was really set in motion.

So yeah, long story short, would not call it a heist book and if that was holding anyone else back, and a bloody revenge story sounds good to you, than I'd pick it up.

@theagentcoma thanks again!

 

I had read this book around the time the second book in the series was published and loved it, but I remember thinking I was gonna wait it out and read them once they were all out. Picked the wrong series to do that with!!!