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Antti posted:Heads up that there's a new Humble ebook Bundle available, including Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold and Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Also if you haven't read The Last Unicorn, get that poo poo. It's great.
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Jul 3, 2013 22:36
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Echo Cian posted:The Nightrunner trilogy by Lynn Flewelling also focuses on male characters, but the female characters are well-done, important to the story, and don't exist to be love interests, which is a bit more than I can say for Berg. I enjoyed her Tamir trilogy as well. Same universe, few hundred years earlier. Bunch of female characters with interesting differences.
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Jul 9, 2013 04:54
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Everyone disappointed by American Gods can try The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. A similar setup, except by Douglas Adams, so it's great.
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Jul 11, 2013 21:21
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General Battuta posted:Read the next two books Might as well read the next three, really. Tales from Earthsea came out after Tehanu, and one of the stories in it sort of leads into The Other Wind. Also, it's really good. Tehanu felt like a pretty big departure from the original trilogy, and Tales sort of brings it back home. Sidenote, when The Other Wind came out, I went to a book signing in Berkeley since LeGuin was going to be there. She read from it, and did all the voices, it was amazing 
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Jul 15, 2013 22:07
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RE: Robert Silverberg chat, I just reread his book A Time of Changes, and it was even better than I remembered. It's from '71, and really reminiscent of LeGuin. I'd strongly recommend it if you're a fan of either one of them.
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Jul 19, 2013 22:31
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Sionak posted:After reading Wheel of Time, I think Hobb's more grounded fantasy kingdoms would be a reasonable next stop. Mad Ship's pretty fun, but I think Assassin's Apprentice is a fine place to start with Hobb's stuff - and if you don't like her writing/plots, you'll be able to tell pretty quickly. Seconding this. Also, her last trilogy(+1)finished up a few months back, so if you're a Hobb fan, you can go read The Rain Wild Chronicles complete. I don't feel it was quite as strong as her Liveship trilogy, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Don't attempt unless you've read/enjoyed the Liveship books.
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Jul 25, 2013 23:01
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^^^How much can you flip it for on ebay, though  I just finished a four book series by Megan Lindholm (from before she became Robin Hobb), the Ki and Vandien Quartet. Not as good as her Hobb stuff, but it's really interesting to see her developing ideas to use later. There were human/nonhuman relationships that are both beneficial and morally questionable, people pouring their emotional memory and lives into works of art, and people metamorphosing and getting all scaly by getting a bit too close to powerful nonhumans. As well as some other stuff. Not sure I'd recommend the books to anyone but a Hobb fan. They're a bit more pulpy than her regular stuff. Each book is pretty self contained, but also varies widely in tone from the previous one. The last one ends with a badass fencing tournament, though, so that's cool. This has been Hobbchat, thanks for joining me.
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Aug 20, 2013 06:20
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Hugochat has reminded me of a pretty sweet set of articles, Revisiting the Hugos. Written by (Hugo winning) author Jo Walton, it's a look at all the Hugo winners year by year, from its creation to the year 2000. It's worth checking out if you haven't already. Each year she looks at what won, what was nominated, and which ones should have been nominated but weren't. Also includes the Nebula after that starts up. Her opinions can obviously be pretty subjective (like when she writes of a book 'haven't read it, w/e') but it's a great resource if you're looking for new books to try. It's also pretty entertaining.
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Sep 4, 2013 23:32
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Harrow posted:Who are some other writers/what are some other books that portray magic in... well, not necessarily a similar way, but a similarly enthralling way? First one that sprang to mind was The Magicians, by Lev Grossman.
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Sep 14, 2013 05:02
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Azathoth posted:Finally, I would also give a recommendation to A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's worth reading just for her wonderful use of language alone, but it's a quick read and you'll know really fast if you're going to like it. Seconding this. Then read the sequels.
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Oct 14, 2013 03:13
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Fremry posted:Reposting from the recommendation thread because I didn't get much there: Robert Silverberg's The Face of the Waters fits the bill pretty much exactly.
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Dec 18, 2013 20:23
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paradoxGentleman posted:Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided I'll try my hand at Le Mort D'Arthur, and I'll try something simpler if it proves to be too much for me. It can be pretty tough going, depending on how much it's been edited; the grammar and vocabulary take a lot of getting used to. The Once and Future King works really well as a stepping stone to it. Also it rules, one of my favorite books.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:10
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Speaking of MZB, I've just been rereading some of her Darkover books. Two To Conquer is pretty fun, the main character is practically the hero of most fantasy books. Strong dude, courageous, a clever guy. But also a rampant misogynist, who basically uses telepathy to rape chicks. Eventually, a lesson is learned! Still, a good read, if you like cheesy 80s era fantasy stuff.
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Jan 23, 2014 10:39
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Forgall posted:Recommend me some good lighthearted non-depressing fantasy. Something like earlier Pratchett. L. Sprague de Camp is the author you're looking for. The Fallible Fiend is as good a place to start as any.
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Jan 31, 2014 21:39
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EdBlackadder posted:Now I've my exam out the way (hopefully for good) I've bit more time to read. I picked up what turns out to be the second Corum anthology Corum: The Prince with the Silver Hand and I am thoroughly enjoying it as I have all of the odds and ends of Moorcock I've read over the years. Yeah, the Corum books rule. Anthologies are good, but then you miss out on the amazingly rad covers. Look at this poo poo:  The Runestaff series is also pretty great, if you haven't checked it out yet.
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Feb 3, 2014 08:22
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There's always the Sword of Truth series 
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Feb 6, 2014 00:41
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Megazver posted:Robin Hobb's books are basically for people who get off on the self-pity and sense of superiority they receive when they identify with the protagonist's incessant victimization. That's my take. I'd disagree. Not saying there's some truth in what you say; but basically her books start with flawed people in really bad situations. They go through a lot of poo poo, but at the end of the day they're better people and get stuff done. Yeah there's a lot of 'woe is me my poo poo is hosed', but that makes it all the better when they finally turn things around. It's a nice change from 'hero troubled by a dark past, but he makes some quips and kills a shitload of people with amazing skill and has sex with the beautiful ladies'. At least in my opinion, YMMV. I do feel that her Liveship Trilogy is a fair deal better than her other series, the Assassin books do get a bit victim-heavy.
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Feb 7, 2014 06:08
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The Mieville chat reminds me that I enjoyed his YA book Un Lun Dun. Not for the 'oh boy alternate magical london' because that's been done quite a lot, but actually because of his politics in this case. It seems like in a lot of books written for kids the ending has something like 'an authority figure steps in and fixes things' and everything turns out fine. Un Lun Dun, not to spoiler too heavily, is like yeah sometimes the system can help you but just because someone's in power doesn't mean they aren't corrupt.
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Mar 5, 2014 10:53
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Cardiovorax posted:That's an accurate description. I didn't enjoy it very much, but it's not actually bad, just tedious. The ending is also kind of dumb. Pretty much my feelings, although maybe I enjoyed it a bit more. There's parts with neat stuff, and an okay setting, but a lot of hard slogging and protagonist getting hosed up. I seem to recall there was a dude with a knife who was pretty hilarious though.
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Mar 25, 2014 20:48
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The Budayeen Series by George Alec Effinger in also pretty good, bonus points for middle-east cyberpunk.
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Mar 29, 2014 22:55
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Damo posted:Just wondering if I should read the first two and skip Robots of Dawn. If you like the first two, read the third, is my advice.
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Apr 23, 2014 04:17
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Hel posted:Can anyone recommend a fantasy(any type) book / series(preferably finished) where the main character isn't super awesome at their job stuff and where the biggest female character doesn't turn out to be/or turn evil? I think Robin Hobb might be the author for you. Multiple finished series, main character usually not super competant, female characters not evil. Also some of my favorite books, although doesn't seem to be the majority opinion around here 
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May 1, 2014 02:09
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Captain Mog posted:How does everyone feel about Ursula le Guinn? I'm currently halfway through Rocannon's World and, while creative, I'm finding it a bit dated. The character development seems non-existent and there are weird time jumps that occur in single sentences. I think the book would've benefited much more from more character interaction or more description of characters because I'm getting them mixed up and that literally never happens for me. I also have a difficult time picturing this weird place; it reads like someone describing the colors of a tree but never saying what shape the tree is or what kind or what the leaves look like. I almost feel bad saying this because she's a fabulous writer and the plot was surely creative for its time but I honestly don't know what to think. It's like one of the very first books she ever published. She was still working out the setting, storytelling, etc. There's two other early novels that follow Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile and City of Illusions. Not as good as her later stuff, but still interesting. As mentioned prior, her big books SF books are The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness. They're pretty much required reading, if you want to look at serious science fiction. Also they're super good!
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Jun 26, 2014 23:00
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apophenium posted:Bout to finish up Tehanu after reading the Earthsea books, so I'm looking for a recommendation on what I should read next. Something fantasy, preferably standalone. I was thinking about finally breaking into Forge of Darkness, but I think I'd rather wait until we're closer to the release of Fall of Light. So yeah, fire away. Any reason you're not going for Tales of Earthsea and The Other Wind? If you're finishing Tehanu, might as well go whole hog.
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Nov 13, 2014 00:49
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