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Black Griffon posted:I really enjoyed the Powder Mage Trilogy. Weird, fun, magical gun fantasy with cool rear end bullet bending. There was a sequel trilogy, wasn't there? Anyone know if that was any good? Did it involve the same characters?
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Mar 5, 2020 14:56
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Strom Cuzewon posted:How are the later books in Traitor Son Cycle? I'm halfway through The Red Knight, and it's pretty good so far - I like the little slice-of-life vignettes, the characters are kinda broadly drawn but fun, wizard-fights are nicely apocalyptic - but dear god does it take ages to get anywhere. I swear we've had 8 different military sorties during the siege, a dozen tense moonlight meetings with the sexy nun, etc etc. I really enjoyed the series, and I'd say the pace picked up as it went along. It's been a little while, but I feel it would be fair to say it keeps getting bigger and crazier as it goes on, while retaining the kind of enjoyable vignettes you're talking about. I think it's worth it to keep reading if you end up enjoying The Red Knight
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Jun 15, 2020 18:55
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foutre posted:I've read the Dragon's Path and I can't remember a single thing about it. Apparently afterwards I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads, fwiw. I think it's pretty generic. Dragon's Path didn't blow me away when I read it, but the series gets pretty interesting as it goes on, particularly when it starts to become in large part about founding banks and monetary policy, and the good guys fighting the bad guys in ways very unlike the typical fantasy series it seemed to start out as. That might not make it sound like an awesome fantasy series, but after I finished the whole thing I realized that a fantasy series about monetary policy had been just what I was looking for.
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Jul 14, 2020 02:05
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Captain Monkey posted:I really enjoyed the Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell miniseries. Is the book as good/better? I liked it better, in large part because the format of the book allowed for much more detail, like interesting footnotes and asides. If you enjoyed the show at all, the book is definitely worth reading, particularly at the current Kindle sale price.
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Aug 21, 2020 04:47
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Sarern posted:Does anyone know of other successful mediocre LOTR ripoffs of the era? I'm having trouble thinking of others, that's always the example I use. The Terry Brooks Shannara series is the first one that would come to mind. The trilogy certainly reminded me a lot of LOTR when I turned to it as a kid looking for a next thing to read after Tolkien. And feel like I've read somewhere that the Del Rey's found the book after looking around and realizing that people didn't want to read more fantasy books kind of like LOTR, but rather wanted more books that basically were LOTR. And I assume Shannara was super successful for Brooks given how many more of those he cranked out.
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Sep 10, 2020 17:22
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quantumfoam posted:
This is amazing, and LOTR will never be the same for me again.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:03
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Come to think of it, if someone wants to put together a separate thread on free book resources right now, that'd be great. A friend recently sent me a link to this website -- Standard Ebooks -- whose missions appears to be taking public domain books and turning them into nice looking ebooks, cleaned up and better formatting than what one generally finds on Gutenberg. I can't vouch for all of it, but there's a decent amount of stuff there, and the Dunsany and Hodgson books they have all look great: https://standardebooks.org/
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Sep 29, 2020 14:52
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HopperUK posted:Is there a physical book I can get with the Lord Dunsany stuff in it? Everything on Amazon looks shady or low-quality or weird. The Penguin Classics edition "In the Land of Time: And Other Fantasy Tales" is a decent collection. Not as nice as finding a hard copy of The Gods of Pegana or The Book of Wonder, but better than nothing.
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Oct 3, 2020 23:58
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:He's got a new book coming out this week, I believe. Nice -- looks like it's a sequel to Ghosts of Gotham, which was a fun read. I don't know how that guy cranks them out so fast.
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Oct 13, 2020 00:21
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I really enjoyed K.J. Parker's "Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City," and am enjoying even more his short story collection "Academic Exercises." What should I read next by him if I've enjoyed those? Some of his other series folks have mentioned here sound like they're real downers, and my appetite for fiction that's a downer is significantly diminished in 2020. What else by him is similar to the two books I've liked? Is "The Father of Lies" worth reading?
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Nov 13, 2020 21:00
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ToxicFrog posted:This actually sounds like the kind of thing I'd really enjoy, but I punted on Engineer partway through the second book because both the main characters (Genocide Man and his sidekick Rapist Lad) were utterly loathsome, and the recurring theme of the book was this superhumanly skilled sociopathic manipulator feeding all the remotely likeable and sympathetic characters into the meat grinder. Yeah, based on your description of the Engineer trilogy I'd say 16 Ways is a lot better -- sounds positively lighthearted and frothy in comparison to what you describe. I guess the 16 Ways sequel is a good idea -- I'll check that out next. Really enjoying the short stories in Academic Exercises, so maybe I'll line up another Parker short story collection after that.
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Nov 13, 2020 22:00
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Can anyone recommend any KJ Parker novels that are like the short stories in Academic Exercises related to the Studium? I really liked 16 Ways, which I presume is set in the same world as much of the rest of Parker's fantasy, since Saloninus is mentioned, but I particularly like the short stories in Academic Exercises featuring people from the Studium, which were a little different from 16 Ways. Anything else by him that directly relates to the Studium and its members?
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Dec 7, 2020 22:54
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Ccs posted:Yeah these were my favorite bits of Parker writing. I even wrote an entire fantasy novel with a similar premise and then when I read Academic Exercises I was like "Ah! He already wrote it, just as a bunch of short stories!" The "magic" system is so good and there's so much potential within the strange bureaucracy of the Studium. I wish he'd return to it. Thanks. Next up for me is his collection "The Father of Lies," which I'm hoping will check some of the same boxes Academic Exercises did -- at the least it has some more Saloninus stories, so that should be good. I'm going to check out the Scavenger and Fencer trilogies at some point as well. It just doesn't seem that there are any actual Studium novels, from what I can tell. Which is too bad -- I would definitely read anything else by Parker that was in the vein of those magic-focused stories from Academic Exercises. I want more weird, inexplicable stuff with the rooms.
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Dec 8, 2020 17:09
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Ccs posted:On a previous page someone was asking if KJ Parker had any more books like Academic Exercises. He has a new story in the same vein that was published online recently which I happened on by chance. Not quite as good as the ones in Academic Exercises though, or maybe its just the difference of reading a story on a phone vs kindle. That was me -- thanks for the heads up.
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Dec 21, 2020 00:42
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Leng posted:Bought this on sale when it was recommended earlier in the thread but I've been putting off reading it because...reasons. Anyway, I decided I would finish it before 2020 and... If you enjoyed that short story I suspect you would definitely enjoy Academic Exercises and Parker's other short story collection "The Father of Lies". They're both similar in tone, and not really downers I would say.
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Jan 1, 2021 04:29
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KKKLIP ART posted:I really am at an impasse of what I want to read next. Did a full Sanderson reread and read RoW, read Orcanomics, the Goblin Prince, all of the Baru books. I feel like I want to read a big drat space opera next, but the latest Expanse book isn’t out. I have read some of the Terms of Enlistment series but I can’t remember which one I left off so that’s a bummer. Have you read The Dagger and The Coin series by Daniel Abraham (who is 1/2 of James S.A. Corey)? It's a five-book fantasy series that is in large part about monetary policy and politics (plus a bunch of other stuff), and it's great. The first book is The Dragon's Path.
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Jan 3, 2021 16:05
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StrixNebulosa posted:Has anyone in here read Miles Cameron? I realized he has a five book mega-chonk series called the Traitor Son Cycle and I might be in the mood for a long big military fantasy adventure. Is it worth it? I read all five books and really enjoyed the entire series. I'd say certainly the first one is worth a shot, and particularly if you enjoy the really fantastic elements in it -- the magic and weird creatures who at the frontiers in the first book, and who become increasingly prominent as the series continue -- it's worth sticking with it. I thought across the give books Cameron did a good job of expanding the scope, introducing new characters, and working his way up to a pretty compelling finale.
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Jan 16, 2021 04:17
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pradmer posted:
Tremendous. I hadn't realized there was an ebook of this, and my paperback copy is getting all beat after my kids got their hands on it and read through it. Looks like there's no Kindle version of Vampire$, though, which is a bummer. I'm not even sure where my paperback copy of that is, but I recall that being fun, and better than I had expected it would be going into it.
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Feb 4, 2021 21:44
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Ccs posted:So I finished Between Two Fires last night. It was good! My favorite part of the book is still the bits where the devils are deceiving everyone, and even the protagonists aren't sure exactly what's true and what's false, although they usually have more of an inkling than everyone else. But eventually there has to be a climax and outright conflict, and I thought it was well handled. Thanks for the info on this one, and the update upon finishing. Adding it to my reading queue - sounds like it would check a number of boxes for me. I don't know if you've read Mark Alder's "Song of the Morning," but it sounds similar in concept -- it's set at the start of the Hundred Years War, as the forces of France and England each attempt to invoke God's aid in fighting each other, and angels hang out in the court Philip VI and what not. I'm just realizing there was a sequel I never got around to reading, which I guess I'll add to the queue also, but I recall enjoying it at the time. Might be worth checking out.
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Feb 10, 2021 17:46
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Is there anywhere to read a synopsis of the blood song series by Anthony Ryan? I was thinking of grabbing the sequel series but all I can remember from the first one is that book 1 was good, and the others sucked. I couldn't find one when I looked around as I was about to start the sequel series. But having read the two books in the new series, I'm not sure it's all that necessary. I went in with a good memory of the first book, and that served me well enough to remember most of the significant characters who show up again. From the second and third Bloodsong books, it seemed to me the main things to remember would be (1) that Vaelin is now the Tower Lord up north away from the main kingdom; (2) that he's lost his blood song powers; (3) he's the guardian (I think) of Reva Mustor, who I recall had a big role in the third book, but the upshot for this seemed to me mainly to be that she's Vaelin's ornery ward; and (4) whatever big bad mystic thing that happened with the black stone at the end of the last trilogy is vaguely still going on. I enjoyed the two new books well enough with basically that background. I didn't think they were as good as the first Blood Song book, but I enjoyed them about as much as the next two -- maybe a little better since they're a little more focused, this being a two book series instead of a trilogy. Having said all that, as I just tried to remind myself of who exactly Reva was, I came across this fan wiki which appears to synopsize the first three books. I didn't read these going into the new series, but they might be what you're looking for.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:31
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branedotorg posted:Would have to agree, the new series had the same characters but it's not that reliant on remembering the first set. I did, and I enjoyed them well enough -- the world he built there was interesting, and although I didn't find many of the characters all that memorable it held my interest through to the end of that trilogy. Did not enjoy it as much as Blood Song, which remains my favorite novel by him, but it was worth the time it took to read it.
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Feb 11, 2021 22:36
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Mr. Nemo posted:Can someone post the usual "read this books by Parker if you liked "sixteen ways to defend a walled city"" list? I've seen it a couple times in this thread. No need to repeat the "they have sad endings" disclaimer that usually accompanies the list. I already got "Rule an empire" lined up. I like myths and related stories, and I see whe has a lot of those, but I'm not sure which ones are considered good. Based on my relatively limited experience with Parker, I suggest reading his two short story collections next: Academic Exercises and The Father of Lies. A number of the stories -- most of them, I'd say -- felt similar in tone to me to 16 Ways, and if you enjoyed that one, I suspect you'd enjoy the short stories.
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Feb 28, 2021 23:56
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coathat posted:Elizabeth Boyer wrote a good number of Norse influenced fantasy books. Yes -- her four book "Wizard's War" series, starting with "The Troll's Grindstone" is great, although sad to say it doesn't appear to be available as an ebook anywhere. I suspect this would fit the bill for anyone looking for Norse-influenced fantasy that's not really in the Tolkien tree. Looks like the paperbacks may be hard to find, at least on Amazon, although I feel like I've bought and rebought them several times since first reading the books in high school. I wish there would ebook versions -- my paperback copies are pretty old and ratty.
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Mar 3, 2021 18:41
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freebooter posted:That's really interesting - I read The Wild Shore a few years ago and liked it well enough, but it felt like a Memory-of-Whiteness-esque early novel and left me with no urge to read the rest of the trilogy. But I have heard good things about them and should get around to it. I believe he taught at John Muir College at UC San Diego at some point, so yeah, that sounds about right. Not sure about the ponytail, though.
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Apr 14, 2021 14:59
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:So did this guy ever do anything good again, after Blood Song? I remember people hating hard on Queen of Fire. He wrote an unrelated trilogy about dragons and trade that I thought was reasonably enjoyable -- quite a different feel from Blood Song. Also he recently write a two book series following up on the Blood Song trilogy. It was better than Queen of Fire but not as good as his first book, I thought.
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Apr 28, 2021 15:02
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Ccs posted:Did people in this thread like Foundryside? I'm looking for a solid book to read before The Blacktongue Thief comes out and I've enjoyed some of Robert Jackson Bennett's other works, though I always feel he fumbles the endings a bit. I enjoyed it, although not as much as I enjoyed City of Stairs and its two sequels. In that trilogy, I really enjoyed both the world Bennett created and gradually revealed, and the characters in the books. Foundryside had some characters I liked, but the world being built up didn't interest me quite as much. The first book was fun enough, though -- more like a heist book than anything in the Cities books-- and the end was pretty satisfying -- it would work as a standalone book. The sequel is definitely a middle book, and ends on a cliffhanger, for what it's worth.
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May 3, 2021 19:34
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BurningBeard posted:I'm just about to finish The Company by Parker and holy jeez these are some awful people. Where's the next place to go with Parker. I know there's some big fans in this thread.the only other one I tried was the first in the Scavenger trilogy or something? Protagonist with amnesia. Loved the style, didn't care for the plot. If you've read nothing else by him, I'd suggest 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City. That seems generally to be well received by most folks here who've read it. There's a sequel, but it functions well as a stand alone book. If you'd prefer short stories, both Academic Exercises and Father of Lies are great -- I'd recommend them both equally.
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May 8, 2021 00:31
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Ccs posted:I just finished the first book in his Fencer trilogy, Colours in the Steel. It was pretty good but I'm not sure I want to continue. Reviews say the second book is aimless and there were a lot of moments that felt like missed opportunities for drama or more insight into the characters. Lots of very detailed descriptions of engineering and fencing though. Hmm. That leaves me torn. The first thing you say makes it sound not that interesting to me, but "detailed descriptions of engineering" sounds exactly like one of my two favorite things in a Parker novel. I don't suppose there's anything about the Studium or the Rooms in that book, is there?
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May 26, 2021 17:51
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ToxicFrog posted:Which one is this? I've only read Declare and The Anubis Gates (and bounced off Epitaph in Rust like twice) On Stranger Tides.
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Jun 2, 2021 00:41
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StonecutterJoe posted:Now I really want to read a novel about a paladin of the God of Trade, who seeks to grow an ethical and sustainable business. It's not exactly about a paladin of the God of Trade, but Daniel Abraham's fantasy series "The Dagger and the Coin" (first book is titled "The Dragon's Path") is in large part a fantasy series about monetary policy, with the protagonists inventing systems of credit and banking to defeat the main bad guys. The whole thing is a pretty good read, and that part of it in particular works pretty well, I think.
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Jul 30, 2021 04:45
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Works for me. I own that book on Kindle, but the link above works for me, and I see it listed as $6.99 for the Kindle edition. This link shows me Academic Exercises for Kindle (which I also own, also at $6.99): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M6BXQVQ/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_448KP15R5Y47NCJ2RYAG Strongly recommend both, if anyone is interested in reading Parker. I've liked these best of the things I've read by him.
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Aug 3, 2021 18:21
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Kestral posted:I've recently discovered there's a term for a fantasy genre I've been struggling to define for years, after falling in love with the vibe of the Tiffany Aching books: "Hearth Fantasy," which the person who coined the term defines as: Kind of makes me think of James Blaylock's The Elfin Ship and its sequels, which are a lot of fun.
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Aug 7, 2021 15:19
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Ccs posted:Since I'm out of KJ Parker books I went back to his Scavengers series, skipped the second and went straight to the third. As usual with Parker's early trilogies, it's possible to ignore the middle volume and pretty much know how things turned out and not be totally out of the loop in the third. It's better, there are more things happening and knowing that the conclusion is nearer is keeping me reading. Such an aimless series though, he really learned how to make his narrative's pace work in Engineer and in his later books. Maybe some day we'll get a whole actual novel from Parker, or even better a trilogy, about the Studium and the rooms.
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Sep 27, 2021 18:27
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Hungry Squirrel posted:I'm looking for ideas for my daughter's Christmas book list. She wants fantasy books, but she’s not being more specific than that. All the earlier suggestions are great, and I'd also add Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising Sequence" (first book is "Over Sea Under Stone") and Colin Meloy's Wildwood trilogy.
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Nov 4, 2021 15:34
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Jedit posted:They're good, but I always preferred Alan Garner, particularly The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. It's probably because Garner was writing about places I knew; Elidor even opens at a famous landmark in my home city (that is now long gone). Never heard of this, but now I'm going to track it down, ostensibly for my kids (but really for me).
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Nov 4, 2021 20:45
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coathat posted:Elizabeth Boyer wrote very Norse myth fantasy. Goes much deeper than just the normal Viking inspired stuff. Came here to recommend the Boyer books -- particular the Wizard's War series (first book is "The Troll's Grindstone"). These are really good, and still stand up -- I dug out my beat paperbacks recently and it was still a fun read. Unfortunately they don't appear to be available as ebooks or have been republished recently, so you'll probably have to track down the old Del Rey mass market paperbacks.
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Nov 10, 2021 18:00
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pradmer posted:The Pariah (Covenant of Steel #1) by Anthony Ryan - $2.99 I also liked it. Not as much as Blood Song (which is probably Ryan's high watermark for me) but more than his trilogy with the dragons. It didn't really seem to so anything new but it was an enjoyable enough read and I'm looking forward to the next book. Which it being Ryan I'm reasonably confident we'll see next year. If you've liked other books by him, I'd say it's well worth $3.
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Nov 27, 2021 05:06
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bravesword posted:Can anyone recommend any good treasure hunt fantasy? Exploring new locations, piecing together clues, dodging traps, fending off rival claimants? I’m in the mood for something Indiana Jones/National Treasure-ish. I don't think this will check all your boxes, but there's a fantasy trilogy on Kindle unlimited by Mike Shel -- first book is called "The Aching God" -- which is mostly about treasure hunters exploring dangerous, haunted ruins. It doesn't really have rival claimants and is a little more grim than Indy, but it's a decent read, and the price is right if you have Kindle Unlimited.
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Dec 10, 2021 16:00
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Aardvark! posted:Any specific recommendations on either Zahn or Elizabeth Moon? I only know of Zahn from Star Wars (which I'm not reading Zahn's "The Icarus Hunt" is a fun sci-fi novel. Totally stand alone, no sequels and not part of a series. Just a good read. I haven't read Moon's "The Deed of Paksenarrion," but I feel like that is what one often sees recommended when her name comes up
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Jan 25, 2022 00:46
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) and Elizabeth Moon is a blank spot for me apparently. Becky Chambers I've read and enjoyed
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uPen posted:Is Anubis Gates worth reading? Only Powers book I've read was Declare but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's pretty good. I didn't like it as much as Declare (which is one of my favorite books) or The Stress of Her Regard, but I thought it was a fun read.
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Feb 6, 2022 22:15
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