The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 41

No, I don't think I've ever come across that name. Worth looking into?

 

For sure. I think you'd really like him. Bradley P. Beaulieu, his site is Bradley P. Beaulieu – Website of the epic fantasy author of Twelve Kings in Sharakhai. He's got a couple great epic fantasy series and some neat sci-fi stuff. His latest is a decopunk novel called Absynthe that I want to check out soon. But I'd bet you'd really like the Song of the Shattered Sands series, it's a six-book (as well as some novellas/short stories) epic fantasy that just finished up this past year. I've only read the first book; I loved it and immediately grabbed the next three, haha.

 

stop making recs I’m behind thanks

 

Much like yourself, really looking forward to the Starless Crown, had that on my radar for a while. Sanderson, obviously. Have still to read Empire of Silence by Ruocchio. Um.... Justice of Kings by Richard Swan, Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham are coming out soon. Really i'll be looking to try a lot of books on my TBR that i have just forgotten like The Poppy War or Jade City

I got a new phone that came with a 12 month Audible subscription so trying to do those again. Listened to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo on a recommendation and, whilst it had its flaws, was great!

 

I have 80 audiobooks to read this year to get "caught up," including 5 that I need to buy to finish out a series (your novellas shouldn't be priced the same as a full price audiobook, Mr. Sanderson). Maybe not going to get through them all this year...

 

I come here occasionally and leave with wayyyyy to many recommendations; I'm complaining about it but i'm also not complaining about it.

 

@OwainGlyndwr Just finished The Runelords. It was excellent. I adored it. Raj Ahten is the villain I've been looking for. I loved how brutal the magic made everything. The scene where Raj first stands in front of the walls of Longsmot and gets shot at, then flicked a dagger at the person that shot him was one of the cooler scenes I've read since Malazan.

 

<whew> Glad you liked it so much! That moment is such a cool one. I also remember being really impressed by the whole serpent ring stuff and the way the final fight(s) went. And Sir Borenson was a favorite of mine too.

But yeah, such a cool book, and I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. The magic is really unique and honestly kind of terrifying.

 

I can't remember who it was but someone in here mentioned Between Two Fires a while ago and wow, just.... wow. I did not know I needed this in my life until now.

 

If you have an Audible membership, the first eight Runelords novels are included at no extra cost/credits, btw. @OwainGlyndwr @Vivatoto

 

I got a new phone that came with 12 months audible so this is actually great since i was looking into it anyway!

EDIT: can't find it in UK :(

 

Wow. That's crazy. I'm pretty sure I own most/all of them in paperback, but having them in audiobook format would be great too. Nice find, thanks!

 

Do you guys have the Plus Catalog like we do? It’s in that.

I was going to put the first one of my wish list to keep track of it and then was like

 

Yeah but it's not included :( i should probably stop adding things to my TBR anyway haha

 

Oh yeah, I loved the concept of the Serpent Ring. He was really smart about the way he wrote his magic system, and when he decided to dole out information on it. Like that concept was brought up very late in the book, but it was explained succinctly and made perfect sense with everything we've already learned about the way magic works. And although I'm not advocating fantasy books not having glossary's, he did a fantastic job of having a complex magic system but not needing one, simply because he was so damn good at explaining everything. I was super impressed by the way he handled all of that.

Ooh and the Flameweavers were cool.

As far as Sir Bornenson I did not expect that book to go that dark. That shit was brutal. I'm still a little shocked it happened, and can't wait to see how he continues with those burdens. That was some real David Gemmell shit

 

That was me. Hell of a book, right? Total surprise for me. I picked up his newest book in a kindle sale recently, looking forward to it. I believe it's the start of a full on fantasy series.

 

I read Blacktongue Thief first and that witty and great but this is a whole different ball game!

 

Yeah it was sold to me as a horror novel so the fantastical elements were a very nice surprise.

 

my wife is obsessed with the sarah j. maas books. they aren't as bad as I thought they'd be, while still not being very good lol

but it does have me in the mood to continue with some fantasy once I complete them. might do wheel of time.

 

My other half also wants me to read SJM books and, whilst they might be a bit more romantic than what I read they seem to be great stories; from what i've heard anyway.

 

yeah, they're not too bad plot/story-wise and it's easy enough to skip over the smut lol

 

The ACOTAR trilogy (I believe there is now also a novella and book one of a second trilogy, but I only read the trilogy) is very blah with a heavy emphasis on the romance side of the fantasy romance genre. The smut was… hilarious. It’s so cringe I have no idea how anyone finds it sexy or seductive. The wing-gasms made me laugh so hard tears formed.

The seven book Throne of Glass series is extremely bad (books one and two), enjoyable enough (book three), got MUCH better but added in unnecessary smut out of nowhere (books four and five), and somehow became actually excellent (books six and seven). Absolutely fascinating to see the quality jump so much over the space of seven years. Book Six is by far the most interesting of the lot (and in large part because it abandons the main character of the other six who is a Mary Sue to the definition).

I’ve heard that her new series is even smuttier than ACOTAR so I never went to check it out. I like my every six months random romance novel I’ve heard good things about to be contemporary at this point.

But as Pat just said, and pretty obvious by the fact I read (see: listened) to ten; they’re pretty easy to rip through. (My friend had them in her audible account when I was unemployed and she let me log in for books when I couldn’t afford to buy books a few years back. I read so much I wouldn’t buy normally during that year because of this.)

 

yeah, it certainly wasn't the most engaged I've been with a fantasy series, but it was easy to rip through and I guess it'll put me ahead for when the show comes out on hulu that my wife will want to watch lol

 

I know a few people, including myself, have picked up The Runelords. It’s a sad state that there’s news now that David Farland has passed.

 

Yeah, I just saw that myself. This is a major loss for the writing community, to say nothing of the impact on his family and friends. I'm waiting to see something that looks like more of an official source to really confirm it, but a lot of his close writer friends have been sharing the news.

Beyond being a fantastic writer, the judge of Writers of the Future for years, and a writing teacher for a lot of big names in the industry (Brandon Sanderson, Stephanie Meyer, Brandon Mull), Dave was honestly just a really great guy. I had the pleasure of attending several of his limited writing retreats and he was incredibly kind and thoughtful and a lot of fun to be around. He always took the time to chat and ask for updates on my life when I'd bump into him at conventions over the years. Really sad to hear of his passing.