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Rothfuss' book topped another list of best fantasy novels (of the 21st century.) https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/04/the-50-best-fantasy-novels-of-the-21st-century.html?p=2 There are a lot of actually good entries on the list, like Perdido Street Station, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and Pratchett's Nightwatch, but somehow BOTH of Rothfuss' books in an incomplete trilogy get higher rankings.
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Apr 15, 2018 16:22
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i don't want to live on this planet anymore
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Apr 15, 2018 18:57
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Rothfuss runs a feminist soup kitchen. Just kidding it's actually a skimmer charity.
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Apr 15, 2018 19:35
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Ccs posted:Rothfuss' book topped another list of best fantasy novels (of the 21st century.) https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/04/the-50-best-fantasy-novels-of-the-21st-century.html?p=2 The rest are insulting but this is aggregious.
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Apr 15, 2018 20:40
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I'm just gonna quote the mini-reviews as they're pretty short. At number 14 (of 50) in best books of the last 18 years:quote:Book Two in what we all hope will eventually be a trilogy, The Wise Man’s Fear continues Kvothe’s tale of how he went from orphaned musician to feared magician to king-killer to humble innkeeper. After defending a charge of Consortation with Demonic Powers, he takes a break from his studies at the University, and his adventures include a trip to the land of the Fae, where he’s been seduced by the nymph-like Felurian. It may not be quite the masterpiece (which you’ll find below), but it’s still one of the great books of fantasy literature and more than enough to have fans scouring for every hint of a publish date for Book Three. —Josh Jackson And coming in at number 1, allow me to highlight my favorite part: quote:Kvothe’s tale, reluctantly told by the old innkeeper himself, is as gripping, emotional and imaginative as any fantasy story put to paper. Born into a family of traveling musicians, Kvothe’s world is upended when the mythical Chandrian murder his family. He becomes a directionless pickpocket and thief before learning more about his parents’ killers and resolving that the ultimate answers can only be found by attending the University. His years there are filled with young love, rivalry with wealthier classmates and music. Kvothe the narrator is a world-renowned magician, musician and sword-fighter, but his autobiography is a coming-of-age story with full of hardship and drama. And Patrick Rothfuss is the kind of writer that transcends genre qualifiers. The prose is masterful with rich characterization exhilarating storytelling. Not a word feels out of place. This is the kind of book you recommend to anyone, whether or not they think they like fantasy. And then they can join you in waiting impatiently for the third installment in the Kingkiller Chronicle following 2011’s The Wise Man’s Fear. —Josh Jackson Not a word feels out of place. Not a word.
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Apr 15, 2018 23:17
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PJOmega posted:The rest are insulting but this is aggregious.
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Apr 16, 2018 00:04
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Ccs posted:Rothfuss' book topped another list of best fantasy novels (of the 21st century.) https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/04/the-50-best-fantasy-novels-of-the-21st-century.html?p=2 Shocking to hear that a list of bad books has a bad book at the top
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Apr 16, 2018 01:59
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Sham bam bamina! posted:This is pretty drat egregious. I want to know what I did to autocorrect for egregious to autocorrect to aggressive. That's what I get for quick fixing without actually proofing.
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Apr 16, 2018 08:23
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Ccs posted:Rothfuss' book topped another list of best fantasy novels (of the 21st century.) https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/04/the-50-best-fantasy-novels-of-the-21st-century.html?p=2 To be clear, the #4 book on that list is not even a novel; it's a collection of short stories. I think you can safely ignore the majority of that awful, awful list.
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Apr 16, 2018 22:29
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""Patrick Rothfuss Calls The Kingkiller Chronicle a “Prologue,” Implying More Temerant Novels"Me, in 2012 posted:It seems to me like the third book is heading toward him graduating, meeting Bast, killing the king, and then getting into some sort of scrap with the Chandrian where he likely takes one of them out (maybe the king in question is a Chandrian, for the purposes of narrative economy).
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Apr 16, 2018 23:16
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PJOmega posted:The rest are insulting but this is aggregious. I wish we were getting a Night Watch series instead of a TV an film adaption of Kvothe Tuition Adventures. Ccs fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Apr 17, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 01:24
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How do you make a best of list for Fantasy and leave out The Wizard Knight? 
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Apr 17, 2018 06:34
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50. Storm Front by Jim Butcher (2000) Jim Butcher layers fantasy elements on top of hardboiled mysteries, following magician-for-hire and Chicago P.D. consultant Harry Dresden—more Philip Marlowe than Albus Dumbledore. In the debut entry of the Dresden Files, 2000’s Storm Front, our gum-shoe wizard must solve a series of murders to avoid having the blame pinned on him—or becoming the next victim—all while trying to overturn his bad luck with women and his inability to pay his bills. It’s a gritty, pulpy, fun genre-romp that spans 15 books in 15 years. —Josh Jackson 42. The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (2014) While the shorthand description for Lev Grossman’s Magicians trilogy was “Harry Potter for grown-ups,” that ignored two facts: 1. Harry Potter was already for grown-ups. 2. Despite its magical school setting, the series owed more to the wonder of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series than to J.K. Rowling’s books. There’s plenty of college-age angst in the first entry, but as the focus shifts from Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy to the fantastical world of Fillory, captured in a set of children’s books that have long fascinated young protagonist Quentin Coldwater, Lev Grossman opens up his heart. Each book cares a little more deeply about its characters—who face the same struggles for meaning and purpose that the rest of us do—culminating in 2014’s The Magician’s Land. Magic corrupts as much as it helps pull its practitioners out of their melancholic existences. The nostalgia for the stories of Fillory can’t hide the darkness at its heart. The loss of that innocence—getting expelled from his own fantastical Garden of Eden—sends Quentin spiraling out of control in a convoluted sequence of events that end up weaving together in unexpected ways. The SyFy TV series based on these books is a fun, at-times sharply written spin on Grossman’s characters, basic plot points and broad themes, but it misses the density and complexity of the modern human struggle found in this trilogy. —Josh Jackson 40. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (2009) Scott Westerfield’s alternate history, dystopian steam-punk trilogy is also full of fantastical beasts, which is enough to qualify it for this list. But it’s his imaginative re-telling of World War I from the perspectives of the young heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire and a girl pretending to be a boy in the British Air Service that makes it worthy of a spot. The Clankers (Germans and other Central Powers) rely on steam-powered robots and futuristic machines to battle the fabricated animals Darwinists (the UK, France, Russia and their allies) employ as weapons in the war. Written for young adults, Leviathan and its sequels Behemoth and Goliath are entertaining for all ages. —Josh Jackson 30. Lirael by Garth Nix (2015) When Sabriel came out in 1995 and, through Sabriel’s bell-wielding “Chosen One” Abhorsen, introduced readers to a wholly novel, deeply humanist, alarmingly weaponized way to imagine necromancy, it was clear that a modern classic had been born. What was not clear, at least until Nix returned six years later with a legacy-building sequel following Sabriel’s yet-undiscovered half-sister through her failed training as a Clayr and discovery of her own necromantic powers, was that the world of the Abhorsens had so many more quietly harrowing stories to tell. Thankfully, Lirael and all her messy, anxious necromantic/remembrancer powers did appear, and with them, all the elements needed to keep a great fantasy epic ticking indefinitely. —Alexis Gunderson 23. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (2015) Everything about Rainbow Rowell’s “Hogwarts, but gay” standalone, Carry On, seems impossible—it is Rowell’s novel-length slash-fic finale to the fictional Simon Snow “Chosen One” wizardry school series she created for the main character of her contemporary New Adult novel, Fangirl, to write anonymous fan-fic of—and yet, it gloriously, gleefully, gaily does work, almost like a literal charm. Simon and Baz, for all they are there mainly to pin a whole novel’s worth of slash-fic hopes and dreams to, are compellingly multi-dimensional, their star-crossed romance managing to be both earnestly swoony and necessary to make any sense of the greater magical plot, whose shape in this, the finale to a series that doesn’t exist, the reader is mostly left to infer from the rest of the narrative’s negative space. Not that the plot matters all that much in the end—you are just supposed to have fun spending some time in Simon and Baz’s wizardly world. And in Rowell’s magical hands, you do. —Alexis Gunderson 14. The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (2011) Book Two in what we all hope will eventually be a trilogy, The Wise Man’s Fear continues Kvothe’s tale of how he went from orphaned musician to feared magician to king-killer to humble innkeeper. After defending a charge of Consortation with Demonic Powers, he takes a break from his studies at the University, and his adventures include a trip to the land of the Fae, where he’s been seduced by the nymph-like Felurian. It may not be quite the masterpiece (which you’ll find below), but it’s still one of the great books of fantasy literature and more than enough to have fans scouring for every hint of a publish date for Book Three. —Josh Jackson 13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (2005) In the 2000s, the Harry Potter novels became the rare series read by fantasy fans and non-fantasy fans, book lovers and non-book lovers, basically everyone on planet Earth. Harry, Hermione and Ron captured our collective hearts even as they bickered and lost trust in each other. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the coming-of-age story mined all the difficulties of adolescence from young love to overconfidence in one’s own widsom to seeing the world in unblinking black and white. Harry comes to believe his dual nemeses at Hogwarts—Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape—are in direct league with Lord Voldemort, something he gets only partly right. Snape has finally won the job he’s coveted all these years—Defence Against the Dark Arts professor—and Malfoy brags about a mission that the Dark Lord has entrusted to him. Meanwhile, Harry relies on a mysterious former student’s notes in his Potions book, and Ron’s jealousy leads him into his first meaningless romance, putting a wedge between himself and Hermione. The books grew up along with their characters and their readers, raising the stakes and emotions in the best-selling book series in history. —Josh Jackson 3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (2007) The culmination of the Harry Potter series was, it has to be said, pretty overweight—a competent copy editor could’ve removed a hundred pages from the manuscript without doing a thing other than deleting repetitive lines and phrases. But the voracious readers of the series would’ve forgiven a lot more than imperfect prose styling: We were dying to see Harry’s search for the Horcruxes and his final showdown against Lord Voldemort. And we got that plus a lot more: In the conclusion to the seven-book series J.K. Rowling not only continues to evoke the magically vivid secret world of Wizards living unnoticed under the noses of the non-magical, but she also does some of her best character development work as Harry is forced to confront his own death, his relationships with loss, with power, with bereavement, with knowledge gotten too late, with questions that didn’t get asked, and with love. It largely dispenses with the good-versus-evil paradigm that characterized the earlier books; as Harry has grown up, he’s learned that no one is truly 100% one or the other (though Voldemort’s still pretty close). An archetypal, alchemy-suffused coming-of-age tale set in a highly clever and lavishly realized alternate world, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the kind of book you read over and over, simply because the culmination is so satisfying. A flawed piece of prose but a wonderful finale to a thoroughly marvelous concept. —Amy Glynn 2. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (2010) Brandon Sanderson is a master of many aspects of the fantasy genre: epic world-building, coherent systems of magic and unforgettable character development. All those are in peak form in his masterwork, The Way of Kings, the first of his three-book-long-and-counting series The Stormlight Archive. Roshar is a world where magic is rare, but spren—the spirits of just about every object or idea—are common. A few magic items like soulcasters, shard blades and shard plates are remnants of a grander age. In nations like Alethkar and Jah Keved, light eyes are revered, while those with dark eyes remain a lower caste. The Way of Kings is told from the points-of-view of four loosely connected characters, but the main focus is on Kaladin, a darkeyed soldier betrayed by his light-eyed commander and sold into slavery. With every shred of humanity and defiance beaten out of him, his final indignity is getting forced to carry bridges to the frontlines of an endless war—a death sentence. But his fellow crewman of Bridge Four find brotherhood and redemption in the most hopeless of places. The other two books of the Stormlight Archive are fantastic, but nothing compares to Kaladin’s original heroic journey in The Way of Kings. —Josh Jackson 1. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (2007) Kvothe’s tale, reluctantly told by the old innkeeper himself, is as gripping, emotional and imaginative as any fantasy story put to paper. Born into a family of traveling musicians, Kvothe’s world is upended when the mythical Chandrian murder his family. He becomes a directionless pickpocket and thief before learning more about his parents’ killers and resolving that the ultimate answers can only be found by attending the University. His years there are filled with young love, rivalry with wealthier classmates and music. Kvothe the narrator is a world-renowned magician, musician and sword-fighter, but his autobiography is a coming-of-age story with full of hardship and drama. And Patrick Rothfuss is the kind of writer that transcends genre qualifiers. The prose is masterful with rich characterization exhilarating storytelling. Not a word feels out of place. This is the kind of book you recommend to anyone, whether or not they think they like fantasy. And then they can join you in waiting impatiently for the third installment in the Kingkiller Chronicle following 2011’s The Wise Man’s Fear. —Josh Jackson ed: The 10 Best Albus Dumbledore Quotes from the Harry Potter Series ed2: 22 Differences Between the Ready Player One Book and Movie Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Apr 17, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 07:14
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I should reread Sabriel and the lot to see if my teenaged memories of the series hold up. I picked up Clariel and Golden Hand as audiobooks and they weren't bad but it certainly wasn't as magical as I remember the original three being. Also Golden Hand ends with some weird implied barbarian victory sex that hit a little too close to some Rothfussian ninja sex camp.
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Apr 17, 2018 14:14
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Turns out you don't need to go to college to write an internet blog.
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Apr 17, 2018 21:48
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I will credit him for properly recognizing that The Magicians Land is the best book in the series Also, lmao, I like Butcher, but lol at Storm Front being anywhere near a top 50 book in anything, it starts the series, but is incredibly weak. There is a reason why the Butcher thread tells people to skip the first 2 books
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Apr 17, 2018 23:57
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The Glumslinger posted:Also, lmao, I like Butcher, but lol at Storm Front being anywhere near a top 50 book in anything, it starts the series, but is incredibly weak. There is a reason why the Butcher thread tells people to skip the first 2 books
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Apr 18, 2018 02:02
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Reminds me of a clickbait 14 Electronic Albums You Need To Hear list I once saw that listed the Kraftwerk debut as an essential recommendation. You know, the one that doesn't feature any synthesizers and was disowned by the band. The debut actually does have a bit of synth on it, and the first two albums are both good even though the band doesn't like them now.
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Apr 18, 2018 02:06
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I cant wait for book 3 to come out and make all the haters eat some crow. Kvothe rules!
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Apr 18, 2018 03:53
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I read the City of Brass, and it wasn't that great? I just remember endless pages of discussing how our heroine as the last of the superduperawesome ruling birthright had a totally sweet powerset that she'd master someday and got a free magic boyfriend. Kinda surprised Daniel Abraham didn't make the list.
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Apr 18, 2018 06:06
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A human heart posted:The debut actually does have a bit of synth on it, and the first two albums are both good even though the band doesn't like them now. 
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Apr 18, 2018 06:41
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Brandon Sanderson. What more needs to be said?
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Apr 18, 2018 11:43
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As someone that read all the Butcher books lol at it being "best of" anything. I mean it's definitely good to pass the time but I'd bet not even Butcher thinks it's aiming to be much more than crazy wacky poo poo happening with magic stuff.
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Apr 18, 2018 12:14
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City of Brass was alright. It needed some polish, and I expect the next one to be better in that respect. As for Sanderson I finally picked up the first Stormlight book on the recommendation (read: constant loving badgering) of a friend and I'm about 250 pages in and I'm wondering when the plot actually starts to happen or when a character I give a poo poo about will appear. It's bad enough that he's apparently TurboMormon and I won't see any gay people in the drat books, c'mon.
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Apr 18, 2018 12:36
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Reene posted:City of Brass was alright. It needed some polish, and I expect the next one to be better in that respect. You should have started with Mistborn. I love the Stormlight Archive books, but right now only three of the planned ten books are out, with the rest planned to be released over the next 20 years! Besides, there are minor gay characters both in the Mistborn and Stormlight books. He's no Terry Goodkind, he won't push his political/religious beliefs on you through his books. His works do deal with religion, but which fantasy books with proven-to-exist gods don't? The only noticeable influence of his Mormonism otherwise is the absence of explicit sex scenes, and an inability to write realistically about people being drunk. I don't mind the latter, and I appreciate the absence of rape and overly graphic violence. You might still think the books suck, but as a gay dude, I think these books are all right for LGBT people. And if you look at Wayne and his ease in (even internally) assuming the identity of women when going undercover, plus his unconcern with his shapeshifter love interest sometimes physically being a man (and technically being genderless to begin with), I think Sanderson's writing is all right for queer people. Torrannor fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Apr 18, 2018 |
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Apr 18, 2018 12:58
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Ya, Torrannor hit the main things in that he does not write sex scenes and writes drinking badly. Frankly I am perfectly fine not having to read sex scenes in fantasy novels as most are pretty drat cringe worthy.
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Apr 18, 2018 13:53
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Reene posted:City of Brass was alright. It needed some polish, and I expect the next one to be better in that respect. Yes, hello, that will never happen. The Stormlight books never get interesting, as of at least the last current book in the series. I got so bored I actually just dropped the book and didn't bother finishing the last 100 pages. The Mistborn trilogy was definitely better and more engaging, but this is my personal opinion subject to bias etc. etc.
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Apr 18, 2018 14:20
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Mistborn moves faster but contentwise it's closer to two books worth of plot and one book giving you a step by step process every time magic is used. Out of curiosity what books do deserve to be on a best of 21st century fantasy list?
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Apr 18, 2018 14:35
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The Edge Chronicles: The Curse of the Gloamglozer.
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Apr 18, 2018 14:56
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Relax Or DIE posted:Mistborn moves faster but contentwise it's closer to two books worth of plot and one book giving you a step by step process every time magic is used. If normal people enjoy it it doesn’t get to be important literature. I’d say the only ‘good fantasy’ that gets suggested here I enjoyed was The Habitation of the Blessed.
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Apr 18, 2018 14:59
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Return to the Whorl by Gene Wolfe
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Apr 18, 2018 15:04
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M_Gargantua posted:If normal people enjoy it it doesn’t get to be important literature. I’d say the only ‘good fantasy’ that gets suggested here I enjoyed was The Habitation of the Blessed. People who read books that don't have a Magic System: high-falutin' weirdos
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Apr 18, 2018 15:17
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Sham bam bamina! posted:The Edge Chronicles: The Curse of the Gloamglozer. Last of the Sky Pirates or gtfo. I don't care that they're kids books, Edge Chronicles is one of the few fantasy series that isn't ashamed to be fantastical, instead of "pre-Renaissance, but with wizards"
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Apr 18, 2018 15:25
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M_Gargantua posted:If normal people enjoy it it doesn’t get to be important literature. This is simply false, M_Gargantua
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Apr 19, 2018 00:47
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It’s hyperbole because of how often popular books get thrashed in here. Bonfire of the genres and all that. For a book to be great it must be enjoyable to the bulk of the people who would be interested in the subject matter. Yet there is still noticeable elitism about genre fiction and certain popular authors. Mostly it’s unfounded snobbery. The rest of the time it’s right (eg Rothfuss)
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Apr 19, 2018 05:48
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M_Gargantua posted:It’s hyperbole because of how often popular books get thrashed in here. Bonfire of the genres and all that. For a book to be great it must be enjoyable to the bulk of the people who would be interested in the subject matter. Yet there is still noticeable elitism about genre fiction and certain popular authors. Mostly it’s unfounded snobbery. The rest of the time it’s right (eg Rothfuss) This is moronic. A book does not need to popular (that is what you mean) to be great, or even good. Accusations of snobbery over genre fiction are false populism. There is no actual inequality at play, it's simply dishonest defence from well-off people.
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Apr 19, 2018 06:02
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M_Gargantua posted:For a book to be great it must be enjoyable to the bulk of the people who would be interested in the subject matter. Edit: M_Gargantua posted:It’s hyperbole because of how often popular books get thrashed in here. Bonfire of the genres and all that. Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Apr 19, 2018 |
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Apr 19, 2018 07:46
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I am an influencer.
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Apr 19, 2018 07:52
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Sham bam bamina! posted:This is a surprise to me. I had no idea that BravestOfTheLamps, the second-most-ignored active user on the forums, had such clout in The Book Barn that his thread about bad fantasy and his other thread about bad fantasy could define the board's zeitgeist in spite of the megathreads about The Dresden Files, A Song of Ice and Fire, Warhammer 40,000, Brandon Sanderson, and Star Wars. Most book forums are strangely positive about all fiction and generally frown upon trashing any book, with the occasional exception of 50 shades/twilight or this author has bad politics it's almost never seen. This forum is way more negative on books, and generally I find it way more fun to be angry at a poster for having a different opinion than everyone being all happy together.
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Apr 19, 2018 15:12
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Sham bam bamina! posted:This is why Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer are the great authors of our time. You’re being disingenuous to my premise. Just because a book is popular doesn’t mean it’s great. But equally just because a a few people gush oversome obscure book doesn’t make that book great either. You can have the opinion that a book is fantastic, and that you wish it were popular. But unless that book actually appeals to a majority of readers who would normally appreciate the generalized content of the book then it cannot be great. To say that your opinion is better than that of peers regarding the same type of content is textbook elitism. I’m not referring to the megathreads in general. Nor to BotLs thread, although it’s a good example because it got a ton of posts from lots of people about their thoughts on literature. There is a notable number of posts to some variant of ‘author/series X is bad and you should just not read it despite it being often recommended.’ I love to read substantive criticism of books I enjoyed, but hollow scorn is depressing.
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Apr 19, 2018 18:37
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