TBB Book Recommendation Superstation !!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB Book Recommendation Superstation !!

Scrubber: Feb 23, 2001; I'm just arguing for leniency; all she did was kill her friend.

Looking for a fantasy recommendation. The kind of fantasy where technology doesn't exceed early-mid renaissance, unless it is left over from a vanished civilization. Unfortunately, I am mostly looking for stuff that is available on audiobook, to help with my commute.

Ideally something exactly like ASOIAF Books 1-3.

Recently read/listened to:

code:

Loved:                                         Wasn't too excited by:
The Worm Ouroboros (Librivox)                  Red Seas Under Red Skies
ASOIAF 1-3                                     The other Black Company Books
                                               The Desert Spear
Liked:                                         The Dying Earth
The First Law Series                           Fafrhd and the Gray Mouser
ASIOAF 4-5                                     
---Significant gap here----                    Trying next:      
The Lies of Locke Lamora                       Kingkiller Chronicles    
The Black Company Books w/ Croaker as analyst                              
The Warded Man

ASOIAF 1-3 style political maneuvering is preferred. Large scale battles are a solid second place. Abercrombie style fight scenes are definitely acceptable. Too much focus on line by line descriptions of scimitars twirling is not what I'm looking for.

Characters dying and bad stuff happening without a lot of build up / telegraphing / making it special is definitely appreciated. Speaking of stuff happening, I generally prefer it when stuff happens. I'm not necessarily talking about tons of action, just a high ratio of important stuff happening to skirt smoothing, filler and world building.

As far as setting, lower magic is definitely preferred. If present at all, video game style magic really ought to be very rare and ideally not a power the protagonist has. Generally, a relatively grimdark setting is preferred, but it is nice to have some noble elements struggling against it (not too successfully). A final key aspect of the setting is creating an authentic pre-modern feel; much fantasy is a bit disappointing in this aspect, the character and cultures tend to feel a lot like modern people in their values and attitudes.

As far as dislikes, I definitely want to avoid books where the author is blatantly trying to make a real life political point. Also, I didn't really like the graphic sex scenes in ASOIAF, but that kind of thing isn't necessarily enough to make me skip a book unless it is really bad / common.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2011 03:09

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:13

Scrubber: Feb 23, 2001; I'm just arguing for leniency; all she did was kill her friend.

I'm looking for fantasy that feels like historical fiction and/or historical fiction that feels like fantasy.

For example, an author might write a work of historical fiction and incorporate the superstitions believed by the people of that time. But the author might leave it a bit ambiguous as to whether or not anything supernatural actually happened.

I've seen this done before and it was pretty effective in spicing up a genre that can feel a bit limited.

Alternatively, I'd also be interested in very low magic fantasy where the societies presented feel extremely authentic and the author has obviously done a lot of research into real world societies before he started creating his fantasy societies.

I've already read ASOIAF and everything I'm interested in by Bernard Cornwell.

P.S. Nothing involving guns please, unless they're extremely primitive and ineffective.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2012 03:39

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > TBB Book Recommendation Superstation !!