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Also, Myke Cole has a series out, two books so far, Urban/Modern Military fantasy, that starts with Shadow Ops: Control Point. I'm not sure what the title has to do with the book, I think I remember reading that it was something decided entirely by the publisher and he had no idea what it meant either. Anyway, it's much better quality than I expected, definitely a worthwhile read. I haven't grabbed the second yet, though, because I have a huge backlog.
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Jul 5, 2013 11:48
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Seconding Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksenarrion and Paladin's Legacy series. Start with Sheepfarmer's Daughter and you won't stop until you get current.Lex Talionis posted:Even more conspicuous is the absence of Patrick Rothfuss, whose work I don't actually like but everyone else seems to love. I really don't understand how people think they're alone in not liking Rothfuss when the dude gets all kinds of hate in this very thread.
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Jul 24, 2013 11:44
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Hrm, maybe I should give it another chance and re-read it assuming it's a deconstruction. It just uses a lot of stuff that's very clearly drawing on the 1st Edition D&D manual, but I hadn't considered the possibility she was trying to deconstruct the idea. Even better is that the followup series, Paladin's Legacy, which was started after like a twenty year break, isn't on the same single-person scale that Deed is. It's mostly about rulers of countries and institutions in the wake of the stuff that happens in Deed, with only a relatively small part being adventurer-scale stuff. And Paksenarrion is no longer the protagonist.
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Jul 25, 2013 00:50
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I mostly wonder why y'all keep talking about Sanderson's magic systems when none of his novels contains one. There are fantastic natural systems that work in ways our universe doesn't, and they're treated by people the same way people treat natural systems in our world. By doing their absolute best to find out the rules that drive it and exploiting them mercilessly for whatever benefit they can get. If you want traditional "nobody knows how the gently caress anything really works", you should be looking exclusively at Stormlight, because it appears a hell of a lot of knowledge actually HAS been lost there, and people are going to have to figure it out through experimentation. I'm not trying to be pedandic here, this is just a fundamental difference in how most people think about magic and how Sanderson thinks about and works with magic in his books. If it's the way the universe works, then it can be studied, and people will discover the laws behind it and use them. He isn't saying "It's magic, lol.", he's saying "Here's how this universe works, what can/will people do with that?" NinjaDebugger fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 22:07
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Dryb posted:Why does he need a kickstarter? He's a previously published author writing a book, for gently caress's sake. He's a previously published author writing a book. That's a pretty good reason in and of itself. Also, his last series got cancelled for lack of readership, dinnit?
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Sep 19, 2013 22:08
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LmaoTheKid posted:So I started reading The Gap series. I'm halfway through the first book and I have a question... That's kind of like asking about Asimov and robots, or Chalker and body-swapping. No, they're not ALL of that magnitude, but it's a recurring thing with Donaldson.
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Dec 7, 2013 16:05
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The last thing I read by Hines was the first book in the goblin series. Hines has two reasonably popular series in progress and has been very active in attempts to make the SF/F community less toxic for anybody that isn't a straight white man. The "black people are aliens" thing is pretty much a racist idiot trying to put the blame on anybody but himself for there not being more people of color involved in SF/F by saying that the community is by nature welcoming to anybody, because they'd all love to meet aliens, so obviously instead of trying to make the community less toxic, Hines and others like him should be trying to recruit more.
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Dec 7, 2013 16:25
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specklebang posted:I just discovered that Jack Chalker's Well World and Four Lords Of The Diamond series are on audible.com. I haven't heard the narration but I'm pretty excited about these. I have all the original books and I've read them at least 3 times in my life. Might be worth taking a look. Man, I love those, but The Wonderland Gambit is on there, and that should be #1 on the Jack Chalker list.
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Dec 12, 2013 23:24
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Echo Cian posted:The only series I don't recommend is Bridge of D'Arnath; the first book was good, but the second had bad pacing and turned into a slog to get through. I haven't started the third because of it. It didn't get any better beyond that, and was bad enough that I haven't read any of her other stuff.
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Feb 10, 2014 01:01
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Vulpes posted:What is it with Stephen R. Donaldson and Look, do you ask Asimov what's with all the robots? Do you ask Chalker what's with all the body swapping?
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Feb 10, 2014 12:46
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, jeeze.
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uberkeyzer posted:I read Memory Sorrow Thorn when I was reading constantly and probably motoring through a book a week, and I remember it even then being an endless slog. The third book in the "trilogy" got split into two separate paperbacks because it was so long and it just ended up being horrible and tedious. The world itself was pretty interesting, which made how bad it got really frustrating. Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn combines all the worst parts of Tolkien and Robert Jordan, basically.
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Mar 27, 2014 11:51
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Alec Eiffel posted:I just got Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb for 50c at the library thanks to this thread (mostly the NPR map at the beginning). The character names, judging from the back, are ridiculous: "Prince Chivalry", "King Shrewd" Not any more absurd in principle than Faith, Hope, Charity, August, Earnest, Clement, or any number of other virtues used as names in any language.
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May 8, 2014 00:21
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I ran out of books by Stanislaw Lem. Then I ran out of books by PKD. Jack Chalker, maybe?
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May 14, 2014 11:43
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funakupo posted:Agreed that her fairytale retellings skew young. But Hero and the Crown I have a soft spot for and try to push on anyone remotely interested. Seconding this, it's a great book.
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Mar 3, 2015 13:21
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I need to read the Kushiel series at some point just so I can know if it's worth recommending for these kinds of polls. It's not.
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Mar 9, 2015 19:52
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A3th3r posted:Have any of you book mavens read "Theft of Swords" by Michael J. Sullivan? A decent attempt to ape Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but ultimately not entertaining enough to keep reading.
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Apr 5, 2015 22:20
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:We should make our own awards Why would anybody show up for an award called the Goonies?
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Apr 11, 2015 15:56
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Drifter posted:I'm trying to find some new books for a friend, and I know he really loved the Magic Kingdom of Landover series by Terry Brooks. Hell, when I was a kid I really liked them too. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct....96782255,d.cGU The Cross Time Engineer seems like-and you just posted about it. Awesome. Seconding Guardians of the Flame, a number of people love and/or hate The Magicians, by Lev Grossman, and its sequels, which is half Harry Potter, half Narnia, and half Game of Thrones (the bad half). He liked Landover, so there's a fair chance he'd also like the Spearwielder Tales, by R.A. Salvatore, which is almost exactly the same thing, except with spear and magic helmet instead of castle and magic knight.
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Jun 24, 2015 22:35
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There is no recommendation of The Deed of Paksenarrion (and the followup, Paladin's Legacy) that is too hyperbolic.
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Dec 4, 2015 01:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Best novel about your first edition AD&D paladin ever More like the best D&D fiction ever written, license or no license. Though allegedly Paks wasn't an actual character, just an idea of one inspired by some nerd talk, and is more of an OD&D paladin. Also, Paladin's Legacy, the followup series that was written like 30 years later, centers on other characters. Paksenarrion shows up occasionally, but isn't a POV character.
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Dec 4, 2015 02:42
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Wild Cards involves literal corpse buggery and many other awful things, amid which are a few pieces of actual good writing.
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Feb 17, 2016 21:21
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FoldOgey posted:Talking about books that haven't aged well, I recently reread "Midnight at the Well of Souls" by Jack L. Chalker, and boy howdy did that fall flat. I remember it mostly as an adventure across a world filled with different environments and species (which it is). But there is a lot of ham-fisted philosophy, a weird fetish for body-changing and a literal deus ex machina at the end of the book. I may have to continue reading the series to see how deep the well of suck is. If you're not a fan of body swapping, you should probably not be reading Jack Chalker. That's his thing.
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Feb 18, 2016 02:05
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Jedit posted:It's an institutional problem, not a personal one. Jedit posted:Which female SF author was it who used her initials over her full name because books by women didn't sell as well? Two consecutive sentences that contradict each other. Not bad.
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Aug 23, 2016 12:52
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cptn_dr posted:The Janny Wurts series sounds pretty interesting. I might see if I can track the first book down. I grabbed that, Star of the Guardians, and the first david sullivan book off barnes & noble for pretty cheap. I know Star of the Guardians is pretty worth it.
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Sep 23, 2016 13:40
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ToxicFrog posted:The fantasy equivalent would probably be books set in contemporary Earth where the "secret world" of magic is suddenly revealed to the world at large in a way impossible to ignore and the fallout from that is then dealt with, but IME it's similarly rare there; stuff tends to end with the revelation, promising a future in which everything changes without needing to show it (e.g. Revisionary). Stross's Laundry series is the only one I can think of offhand where it looks like it'll keep going for a while after the lid comes off. There's also Kim Harrison's Hollows series (romancey as they can get, complete with cringey sex sometimes), which eschews showing the reveal and the state before, and is set entirely after the revelation.
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Feb 13, 2017 20:28
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Gluten Freeman posted:I don't know any of the other authors, but the Butler books are worth it for the whole thing imo. Those are two of her best books, and they're terrifyingly appropriate for the modern political atmosphere. The only thing I'd note is that they've got them in the wrong order for some reason -- the one in the $1 bundle is the sequel. Robin McKinley is fantastic and The Hero and the Crown is a great loving book.
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Mar 23, 2017 14:09
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Forum accident posted:I'm a new author and I just self-published my first epic fantasy novel, The Warlord's Crown, and since I'm brand new to this I have no idea how to get the word out! I read bad books for fun and I'm still not touching this. Still probably better than the last vanity published book I ended up jumping on to save my comrades. It featured the awe inspiring battle cry "BONSAI!"
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May 1, 2017 17:54
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Have any tvtropes authors ever actually been published? I don't mean self published or put out as an Amazon e book. I mean has a publisher ever looked at one of these stories and said, "yes we will invest in this" TVTropers are the kind of people who would hand you a bowl containing a spoon, a jug of milk, a bag of flour, a couple eggs, and some cocoa, and happily say "I made you a cake! Isn't it great?"
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May 8, 2017 16:17
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Khizan posted:These are the ones I've gotten/guessed. Gonna guess "Still Waters Run Deep" and "This Rough Magic"
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Nov 27, 2017 12:38
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General Battuta posted:Everybody read this story so you can try to help me figure out what the gently caress. It's real short. Not sure what's not to get. Hieronymous Alloy posted:I see two readings of that story: It's definitely the second, because whatever it is, it's contagious, that's what the very end is about. There is absolutely something. Well, perhaps less 'contagious' and more 'parasitic'. Note how he didn't see the smear until he touched the body.
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Mar 9, 2018 21:28
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Do these tags mean it actually was at some point that high in sales ranking or is it completely arbitrary It's easy to be #1 for a moment when it's a niche category. It's a common sales tactic, put your book in a super niche category, rack up a few sales, and bam, you're #1 for a day.
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Apr 2, 2018 15:12
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crazyvanman posted:I think I know the answer to this, but if I am reading the final installment of the second Thomas Covenant Trilogy, and finding it hard to get through, am I going to feel differently about reading the 'final chronicles'? I read books 1-5 a few years ago, enjoyed them enough but then got distracted by other series. For some reason I'm now finding the depressive gloom of 'White Gold Wielder' is getting to me. However I previously picked up the omnibus addition of the final books. Given that they were written a bit later, does his writing style change or should I expect more of the same? Don't read the final trilogy. Don't keep making a mistake just because you already spent time and money on making it.
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May 17, 2018 20:36
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:It's always a bad warning sign when a book starts with a pronunciation guide, especially if it's a science fiction or fantasy book. What the gently caress are you reading?
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May 23, 2018 13:15
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A human heart posted:I'm pretty sure it's illegal for an author's last name to just be a horse of a particular colour Wow, thanks for the authentic Indian experience!
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Jul 6, 2018 04:37
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Ammonsa posted:Just finished reading The Poppy War by RF Kuang. Really good book. Reminds me a lot of The Traitor Baru Cormorant by the end, particularly with the protagonists Genocide on not-Japan and you realise she is too far gone in her actions to step back, that she only has one path left, that of the monster, that of what she was fighting against to begin with. Seconding this, book started out extremely generic YA fantasy except for the setting and the protagonist being a girl, but went great and terrible places. Will definitely be getting the sequel.
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Aug 12, 2018 19:23
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StrixNebulosa posted:Today I learned something, thanks. I still hate that cover and I'm stunned that a Baen cover could be better, but here we are. That's because Jack Chalker is fantastic and makes you like walking into his magical realm.
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Feb 17, 2019 20:31
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StrixNebulosa posted:Zero! I thought this was a thing with him, but so far, nope. Body swapping is his thing, not transformation, generally. Transformation happens sometimes, changing to a new body happens all the time.
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Feb 18, 2019 02:40
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Thranguy posted:People getting transformed into sex-addicted barely sentient quadrapeds, with the same happening ultimately to the guy who first started doing it, comes up in at least two different series. Sure, but then there's the wonderland gambit.
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Feb 18, 2019 03:32
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