Requesting reccomendations based on my previously read books :)

[Lukin]

So yea here I am with nothing to read and all this spare time now that it's summer.... That won't do, that won't do at all. So since I've been "lurking" around the forums for a while now, I thought let's ask the good people here if they have some reccomondations. I've picked up the "Songs of Fire and Ice" series through a reccomondation on another thread and not to my dissapointment I might add.

Alright... to give an indication as to the previously read books I mentioned in the title of the thread I will put down a short list of what I have read and most importantly of course enjoyed.

Discworld Series - Especialy the Rincewind and The Watch related books
Songs of Ice and Fire - Was expecting more Magic, but the political aspect was very nicely done
Wheel of Time - Tho seeming to drag on and on at some points I did enjoy them
Shannara - Definitly an interesting series, although it became somewhat repetitive during the last few books
Sword of Truth - Very nice series indeed, there seems to be somewhat of a political undercurrent in the series with references to the "real" world
Drizz't Do'urden Series - First books I aquired and still loving them as much as the first time I read them
Chronicles of Pern - Talking Dragons by the dozens, where can it go wrong ?
Tales of the Malazan Empire - A bit heavy on the gore sometimes but a very good read non the less
Rama Series - very nice SciFi series, a good dose of "believable" and interesting developments both character and story wise
Ender Series - Very refreshing look at the SciFi genre
Feist Books(?) - Magician,Silverthorne etc etc, were a decent read nothing great tho the first book was good but the rest were not as good
Foundation Series - Nice SciFi books, reminded me a bit of the Rama Series
The Black Magician Trilogy - Good read nothing Great tho

That pretty much sums it up right there. Hopefully with this list you can somewhat get an idea as to what series/books I might like to read. I'm currently thinking of picking up the Dark Tower series but I've been a little hessitent on the matter since someone described them as Horror/Thriller. Anyway any suggestions are apreciated and thanks in advance

Oh and since I'm "new" here: Hi!

 

[Sell Sword]

Greetings, Lukin!

I heartily recommend the below:

John Marco - Tyrants and Kings trilogy
The Jackal of Nar
The Grand Design
The Saints of the Sword

John Marco - Akari Spirits
The Eyes of God
The Devil's Armor
The Sword of Angels (forthcoming - September)

R. Scott Bakker - The Prince of Nothing
The Darkness That Comes Before
The Warrior Prophet

James Clemens - The Banned and the Banished
Wit'ch Fire
Wit'ch Storm
etc.

Sarah Ash - Tears of Artamon
Lord of Snow and Shadows
Prisoner of the Iron Tower
Children of the Serpent Gate (forthcoming - September)

Winds of the Forelands by David B. Coe
Book 1 - Rules of Ascension
Book 2 - Seeds of Betrayal
Book 3 - Bonds of Vengeance

 

[direstraits]

Songs of Ice and Fire - Was expecting more Magic, but the political aspect was very nicely done

Welcome!

When you said "was expecting more magic", I totally understand what you mean. I recommend The Earthsea Cycle, by Ursula Le Guin. Plenty of magic, lovely stuff. Starts with A Wizard of Earthsea.

Also recommended, Lois McMaster Bujold's Curse of Chalion. There's magic, but not wizarding magic. Lovely story.

Guy Gavriel Kay doesn't do a lot of magic, but is a matured and fulfilling read. Shows you exactly how high fantasy can soar. Mostly standalone novels, like Tigana or Lions of Al-Rassan, but also has series like The Fionavar Tapestry and The Sarantium Mosaic.

ds

 

[Ainulindale]

The whole point of A Song of Ice and Fire is that magic had been lost and through the series has been slowly building up again - note the return of Dragons, the power of necromancy returning to the Mel, and Beric's band, the powers returning to the population where Dany is, the Others returning, the pyromancer of King's Landing are now effective. . It's all returning. there is so much more to Martin's work, that isnt reliant upon "greatest swordsman" and "ridiculous wizards" that just appeals to me. I find it fitting that Martin has used a malformed, stunted, human-dwarf , and made him into perhaps the greatest character in the history of epic fantasy IMHO, in Tyrion.

For me, I found it as a breath of fresh air, as generally IMHO magic has been used much to often by lesser authors (many listed above) to hide their inability to put together a meaningful plot, and even worse to put a end to a plot, deux ex machina.

The only 2 instances I have read recently that use and abundance of magic and actually thought were good, were Erikson's work in his Malazan work, and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, the best book released last year IMHO.


As to recomendations, by looking at what you like; you may want to try out Robin Hobb's Farseer trillogy, or JV Jone's Sword of Shadows series (thus far Cavern of Black Ice, and Fortress of Grey Ice, Sword of Red Ice forthcoming, although no one knows when).

I'd second the Bakker recomendation, The Prinve of Nothing its one of the best epic fantasies out - but from your comments it may not be the thing you would most enjoy.

If you like easy reads like Salvatore, you may want to look into Gemmel who Salvatore enjoys himself. These stories are linear point a to point B, and predictable, full of fights and large scale bettles etc.

 

[Lukin]

That was pretty fast. Thanks for the reccomendations!

That's quite a number of books that got reccomended there, excelent!
Even tho it might not be what I would enjoy most The Prince of Nothing books do look to be a decent read. The Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell novel also seems to be an interesting book.

Yea, Tyrion is DEF my favourite character in the Songs of Ice and Fire series, John comes a close second tho.

I'm not sure about Earthsea, now you may want to kick me in the arse if I'm wrong, but the SciFi channel made a mini series out of them(or the first book?). And I have to say I found it kinda dull, now it may be the medium or the actors but for some reason it wasn't very apealing so I'm holding of on that for now.

About Gemmel, I looked him up, but all I get where some german sites with weird names and when I did find an auther called Gemmel, the books were for ehm.... kids under 5 or something heh. Did you mention that name as in comment to the simplicity with which salvatore writes or am I just not getting the right author?

Anyway here is what ordered :

The Darkness That Comes Before
The Warrior Prophet
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
The Saints of the Sword
The Grand Design
The Jackal of Nar

I'm hoping that will last me a week or 2, I'm not made out of money so I'll have to check out the other suggestions later, or maybe hop down into the library and pray I can get a copy of them in english . I always like to read it the authors own language and not some translation if I can help it. When they get here I'll be completly done with school this year and can spend as mucht ime reading as I'd like.

 

[pwilson]

I believe the problem might be in the spelling. His name is David Gemmell. Hope that helps.

As far as Jonathan Strange goes you'll have to let us know what you think. I absolutely loved that book. It's a very unique work and it seems like most people either love it or hate it. Sword and sorcery it's not but it presents a really original view of magic and the writing is absolutely mesmerizing.

 

[Lukin]

Will do after I've read it heh, delivery takes 5-7 days unfortunatly. Yup it was indeed the spelling doh! Now I've got a nice Bibliography which I bookmarked for future examination, thanks.

 

[Ainulindale]

I believe the problem might be in the spelling. His name is David Gemmell. Hope that helps

.

Yeah it's Gemmell, my fault

I wasn't recomending Jonathan Strange and Norrell to you, jsut pointign to it as an example of a high amgic book that was actually well written, as pwilson say, not all people peopel will like it - although it was Time Magazine's Fiction novel of the year, the peope ldon't like it can't ead a novel that doesn't have a sword swinging elf in it, thats all At any rate I thought it was fantastic.

Bakker I think is an amazing author, for more info on the series, I interviewed him last month Here

I'm not sure about Earthsea, now you may want to kick me in the arse if I'm wrong, but the SciFi channel made a mini series out of them(or the first book?). And I have to say I found it kinda dull, now it may be the medium or the actors but for some reason it wasn't very apealing so I'm holding of on that for now.

Ursula Leguin was absolutely livid and voiced her displeasure publicly and at multiple times about the adaptation. All SCi-fi channel adaptations are terrible anyway IMHO.

 

[Lukin]

Reccomended or not it sounded like a nice change of pace from as you put it "The Sword Swinging Elf" type of fantasy which is always nice. That's why I liked the Discworld series, combine the somewhat unusual fantasy setting with a strong dose of humour. I guess you "could" compare Practhet's Discworld series to Adam's HitchHiker's series.

Good to know the books are better then the damn mini series, you are rigth tho, not a lot of books get transfered onto the small/big screen and do the book justice. Tho latetly there have been a few successes in my opinion namely: Lord of The Rings ( The only beef I had with this was the ending on movie 3 :| ) and of course the previously mentioned Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Just read the interview, looking forward to reading the books