What Are You Reading?

Thargor

If he thinks GoT was boring I dont think he'll make it through the Malazan books, some of the best moments and characters Ive ever read but when they start to drag they can seriously be a grind for some chapters.

OwaynOTT

Thargor wrote: »

If he thinks GoT was boring I dont think he'll make it through the Malazan books, some of the best moments and characters Ive ever read but when they start to drag they can seriously be a grind for some chapters.

Yeah Sanderson, Gemmell or Mark Lawerence would be better recommendations if looking for excitement and faced paced novels.
Or Crossroads of Twilight by Jorden.

OptimusTractor

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Yeah Sanderson, Gemmell or Mark Lawerence would be better recommendations if looking for excitement and faced paced novels.
Or Crossroads of Twilight by Jorden.

On my 3rd re-read of the Wheel of Time. It's probably my 3rd favourite series. Might take a look at the Shannara books.

Thargor

OptimusTractor wrote: »

On my 3rd re-read of the Wheel of Time.

OptimusTractor

@Thargor: Is that good or bad?

Thargor

I love fantasy but I just cant read WoT, cant believe you've read it three times, so Im backing away from giving you recommendations seeing as our tastes are so different

keane2097

Wheel of Time is so bad. Reading it three times would just be soul destroying.

Even if it was good, why not read some other books, there are a lot of good ones.

Kovu

keane2097 wrote: »

Wheel of Time is so bad. Reading it three times would just be soul destroying.

Even if it was good, why not read some other books, there are a lot of good ones.

Everyone has their own tastes, I'm a sucker for Eddings for easy reading!:o

Have you read 'The Deed of Paksenarrion' Optimus? I remember really enjoying it and it's on my re-read list for this year.

OptimusTractor

keane2097 wrote: »

Wheel of Time is so bad. Reading it three times would just be soul destroying.

Even if it was good, why not read some other books, there are a lot of good ones.

I found reading the Discworld novels to be soul destroying. They were a big disappointment.

keane2097

Kovu wrote: »

Everyone has their own tastes, I'm a sucker for Eddings for easy reading!:o

Have you read 'The Deed of Paksenarrion' Optimus? I remember really enjoying it and it's on my re-read list for this year.

Some of Eddings stuff is most enjoyable. The Elenium is a right good yarn for one.

WoT is a rambling, badly written mess of hordes of irrational characters behaving inanely described at great length in bad prose. Can't believe I read as much of it as I did.

Buford T. Justice XIX

OptimusTractor wrote: »

I found reading the Discworld novels to be soul destroying. They were a big disappointment.

I found them slightly amusing at times:o

Most of my friends, who have much the same sense of humour as me, love them but, for me, they are very meh.

I enjoyed the early WOTs but it became an 'I'll finish this even if it kills me' to read the later ones. As keane2097 said, it turned into a huge rambling mess by the end.

One series i really enjoyed, well the early ones anyway, were The Runelords by David Farland(an epic fantasy surname:D). It really went to hell in a handcart in the later ones.

ronoc 1

read elantris by brandon sanderson,really enjoyed it,has a good story and a great character in it called hrathen.i like also that its a standalone novel,when you think about it there arent that many in fantasy.

probably will reread brian mcclellans power mage books since the third one is out in a couple of weeks.normally dont reread books but i have such a bad memory.

ixoy

keane2097 wrote: »

Wheel of Time is so bad. Reading it three times would just be soul destroying.

Not sure it's entirely fair - it was good up to I think the sixth book. Then it got very bogged down, to the nadir of "Crossroads of Twilight". Picked up a bit for Sanderson's final three.
For me though it's partially that I think the fantasy genre evolved during "Wheel of Time". What started off exciting seems more clichéd as time went on, the characters flatter, and the prose weaker. Newer writers were more inventive, went to the sort of grim-dark route popularised by elements of "Game of Thrones". Magic systems thought out carefully, politics fleshed out in a way I don't think WoT can do now.
A product of a particular time I think: Not something I'd ever read again but not one I regret reading. Just don't mention braid tugging. Blood and ashes I just did!

Thargor

Ive got to reccomend Neal Ashers Polity Universe again, Ive read a dozen books in the series now and they're all some of the best sci-fi Ive read in years:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/49128-polity-universe

Moving on to his Owner trilogy now, different universe.

daUbiq

Thargor wrote: »

Ive got to reccomend Neal Ashers Polity Universe again, Ive read a dozen books in the series now and they're all some of the best sci-fi Ive read in years:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/49128-polity-universe

Moving on to his Owner trilogy now, different universe.

I'd like to second this - I've read few of the Polity books - excellent stuff.

OwaynOTT

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I found them slightly amusing at times:o

Most of my friends, who have much the same sense of humour as me, love them but, for me, they are very meh.

I enjoyed the early WOTs but it became an 'I'll finish this even if it kills me' to read the later ones. As keane2097 said, it turned into a huge rambling mess by the end.

One series i really enjoyed, well the early ones anyway, were The Runelords by David Farland(an epic fantasy surname:D). It really went to hell in a handcart in the later ones.

Sorry but can you send back your fantasy thread member card and your gold plated bookmark, you're outta the club, this is now a No Buford's Club.
Liking Runelords and dissing WoT and it's a small o in WoT.
And saying Discworld is 'very meh', for shame!




WoT gets unfairly criticised. It reads much better than Magician and Dragonbone Chair and their ilk when you go back to it and it done more for the fantasy field than Feist, Brooks etc.
it opened the field up bringing us away from the farmboy crap, all though Rand was one. It tried at bringing in new types of characters to fantasy and to bring in grey characters. It also attempted to have female characters that weren't just love interests. And multiple viewpoints.
It also avoided the bloat and slowdown far better than Martin, Brett, Rothfuss etc.
the books have their failings but it was a pioneer in many ways.
We wouldn't have Martin, Hobb and Sanderson writing their fantasy stuff today if Jordan hadn't made popular large multi-book stories.

Buford T. Justice XIX

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Sorry but can you send back your fantasy thread member card and your gold plated bookmark, you're outta the club, this is now a No Buford's Club.
Liking Runelords and dissing WoT and it's a small o in WoT.
And saying Discworld is 'very meh', for shame!




WoT gets unfairly criticised. It reads much better than Magician and Dragonbone Chair and their ilk when you go back to it and it done more for the fantasy field than Feist, Brooks etc.
it opened the field up bringing us away from the farmboy crap, all though Rand was one. It tried at bringing in new types of characters to fantasy and to bring in grey characters. It also attempted to have female characters that weren't just love interests. And multiple viewpoints.
It also avoided the bloat and slowdown far better than Martin, Brett, Rothfuss etc.
the books have their failings but it was a pioneer in many ways.
We wouldn't have Martin, Hobb and Sanderson writing their fantasy stuff today if Jordan hadn't made popular large multi-book stories.

Pah!!!!

My bookmark is red, PURE RED, i tells ya, and well you know it:cool:

I agree that Jordan was a pioneer and did expand the type and perspective of characters in fantasy novels but the female characters were pure 2 dimensional ones. Take Nynaeve(please, someone take her!) for example. She never graduated from braid tugging through the whole series.

And, yes, the series was bloated. It could and probably should have finished after 8 books without adding in even more characters just to carry a quarter of the plots in a book and then being left hanging as he tried to find some place in the plot finale for them.

The whole middle of the series just meanders along, bouncing from one side of the continent to the other with little diversions to bring in minor plots and places with little plot progression.

There are far better series out there now but, in fairness, they probably wouldn't have had a chance without WoT(happy now:p)

Bits_n_Bobs

daUbiq wrote: »

I'd like to second this - I've read few of the Polity books - excellent stuff.

And thirded - and he has a new one out today

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Intelligence-Transformation-Book-One/dp/0230750729/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422532253&sr=8-1&keywords=neal+asher

ShaShaBear

Haven't read in a while, but might go back and re-read Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince series. It's pretty much an annual thing now, can read them with my eyes closed but it never gets boring!

OwaynOTT

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Pah!!!!

My bookmark is red, PURE RED, i tells ya, and well you know it:cool:

I agree that Jordan was a pioneer and did expand the type and perspective of characters in fantasy novels but the female characters were pure 2 dimensional ones. Take Nynaeve(please, someone take her!) for example. She never graduated from braid tugging through the whole series.

And, yes, the series was bloated. It could and probably should have finished after 8 books without adding in even more characters just to carry a quarter of the plots in a book and then being left hanging as he tried to find some place in the plot finale for them.

The whole middle of the series just meanders along, bouncing from one side of the continent to the other with little diversions to bring in minor plots and places with little plot progression.

There are far better series out there now but, in fairness, they probably wouldn't have had a chance without WoT(happy now:p)

Yes.
I just think it's unfair how little credit it gets.
It has it's faults but if you ignore all them one would be hard pushed to deny it's place as the best fantasy series ever!

In case anyone was wondering, yes I was a massive WoT fan back in the day.

Sleepy

keane2097 wrote: »

What's the general consensus on whether that's worth a read or not? Remember a lot of people not liking it at first...

I have to admit, I'm loving it. It's not quite as strong as Blood Song but my eyes are currently bloodshot from a "one chapter more, then I'll get some sleep" session last night!

Nody

OwaynOTT wrote: »

It has it's faults but if you ignore all them one would be hard pushed to deny it's place as the best fantasy series ever!

You can make the same argument for Belgarion series as well; just ignore everything that you don't like and it's the greatest thing eva!

And no, it is far from the best fantasy series ever even if you remove the bloat.

OwaynOTT

Nody wrote: »

You can make the same argument for Belgarion series as well; just ignore everything that you don't like and it's the greatest thing eva!

And no, it is far from the best fantasy series ever even if you remove the bloat.

That was a bit tongue in cheek on my part.

But if you did remove it faults, not bloats, it wouldn't be far off being one of the best.

david75

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

Re-read it last week and currently reading / struggling with...) the sequel Wise Mans Fear.

The superman levels of intelligence, musac skillz and McGyver magix invention mixed with overwhelming levels of arrogance is more than irritating the ass off me. It is well written and zips along but it doesn't warrant the monstrous levels of acclaim it gets.

Ok so im a good bit into The Wise mans fear and its come back in a good way. Enjoyable again.

This is basically Harry Potter for slightly older kids, no bad thing but its glaring too

Nody

OwaynOTT wrote: »

But if you did remove it faults, not bloats, it wouldn't be far off being one of the best.

Not really because it fails at a few key points:

1) Character development being non existent and consistently set to stupid heroic mode (male)
2) Female characters utter lack of development (even the main female characters were parodies by comparison to their male counterparts)
3) Constant reuse of the same phrase over and over (If only Mat/Rand was here they got such good hands with women, arranging of skirts, Men! etc.)
4) Lore; there were hints and glimpses of some great potential here but honestly 99% of it is ignored (i.e. what about all the creatures, magical devices etc. created from the previous age, what about the Empire politics and how they got there etc. there's no history of it available ala Silimarion and it's hurting the series)
5) Trying to tell to much in too few books time (yes I'm going there); if it was split into three or four series that are all tied in to each other over oh 20 odd books it would work a lot better (and be a lot less bloated!) as you could get a much more focused narrative in each series to move things along

I think in many ways he wrote himself into a corner early on by wanting to tell every idea he had on every topic and his editor did not cull him down to size ending up with the sprouting spread that's there. I think if they had instead written four series of 5 books focused on let's say Aiel, Empire, Dark side and our main heroes (who would come and go through all the books but only be main characters in the heroes series) with an additional 2 or 3 books to tie up all the four series it would have worked out way better. It would have allowed deep diving into the lore and let the stories move a lot faster rather than having 26 chapters with 26 different main protagonists. He could then have done another set of series to build on the lore such as old times or the foundation of the Empire across the sea to fill in lore gaps and you'd have a really epic world and series to talk about.

david75

Im gonna get killed for this but I attempted WoT once and was just boggled and buggered by the third book..it just isnt that good..


has anyone re-read Feists Magician series recently? i remember loving it but he also goes cave diving up his own arse and gets lost by about book 4..

Zapp Brannigan

david75 wrote: »

Im gonna get killed for this but I attempted WoT once and was just boggled and buggered by the third book..it just isnt that good..


has anyone re-read Feists Magician series recently? i remember loving it but he also goes cave diving up his own arse and gets lost by about book 4..

I'm reading Magician for the first time, I'm on the third book now (can't remember it's name) Fairly bog-standard stuff. Too many jumps in the timeline for me.

A year has passed and Pug is basically a God now, oh and so is his friend Tomas. Yay!

Buford T. Justice XIX

Just started 'Half a King' by Joe Abercrombie on Kindle. 24% in and enjoying it so far.

Also nearly finished 'Ren of Atikale' by David Adams from a recommendation on here. It's good for free but I can't see myself buying the sequels unless the story picks up a bit.

Trojan

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

I'm reading Magician for the first time, I'm on the third book now (can't remember it's name) Fairly bog-standard stuff. Too many jumps in the timeline for me.

I think that apart from a macro level where the fantasy genre has grown and evolved since that was written, at a micro level even Feist himself dramatically improved his own writing. After A Darkness at Sethanon, he started co-writing the Mara series with Janny Wurts, and he attributes a lot of credit to her in helping him write better.

keane2097

After an aborted first effort at getting into Toll the Hounds I started again yesterday and am finding it much more gripping this time around.

I think I was Erikson'd out last time as I'd read straight through from 1->7 in a couple of months.

I believe it's meant to be one of the best in the series so looking forward to getting properly into it. The chances it beats Bonehunters are very slim though IMO!