The Books/Reading Thread

[no country for old wainds]

part of that is just that it's the first time you aren't starting from scratch with a mostly new set of characters tbh. the second one can be a bit of a slog first time around (not exactly unintentionally, it must be said--these characters' lives are a slog) but i found that rereading it after i was already familiar with the characters was quite a different experience. regardless, the third is much more of a page-turner i'd say, i hope you go back to it sometime.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

tried to re-read DR Jekyl and MR Hyde
and OMFG the first page is the most annoying text ever

 

[Anom@nder Rake]

apparently erikson is writing a series centred around karsa orlong, yespls

and he won't appear in the first book. I started reading the Kharkanas books a few weeks ago. It took a bit to re-familiarize myself with all the characters but the quality didn't drop from the main series.

 

[no country for old wainds]

have you read any of the esslemont ones?

 

[Anom@nder Rake]

no. it's on my to-read list but isn't a priority. Night of Knives is a short novel so I might get around to it in the next year or so. Esslemont has been cranking them out. He has 9 books published with another trilogy on the way

 

[Dak]

One of the best books I think I've ever read.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

part of that is just that it's the first time you aren't starting from scratch with a mostly new set of characters tbh. the second one can be a bit of a slog first time around (not exactly unintentionally, it must be said--these characters' lives are a slog) but i found that rereading it after i was already familiar with the characters was quite a different experience. regardless, the third is much more of a page-turner i'd say, i hope you go back to it sometime.

I've probably said it before but I liked Deadhouse Gates right out of the gate (no pun intended) and didn't find it as much of a slog as I've seen some say about it. I even prefer it to Memories of Ice by a slight margin. I'll be starting House of Chains sometime in the near future.

 

[no country for old wainds]

house of chains is primarily a continuation of deadhouse gates so you’ll probably enjoy! and yeah i absolutely love dhg personally but i know some people seem to struggle with it. all the central plot strands are really strong imo.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I've read the first three and I too like Deadhouse Gates the most. I was really invested in the chain of dogs stuff.

 

[Einherjar86]

I remember reading Deadhouse Gates and being within two hundred pages of the ending, and thinking to myself--What the fuck is going on? It was then that I put it down, and haven't picked it up since...

I'd like to give it a try again, because part of me thinks maybe too much other shit was going on in my life to really pay attention (this was over a decade ago, so I would've been finishing undergrad and trying to figure out what the hell I was doing next. And I'm really unimpressed with all other fantasy I've tried, other than Bakker. To hell with GRRM at this point.

 

[Dak]

I think Feist writes solid fantasy, but it's nothing groundbreaking.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

I think Feist writes solid fantasy, but it's nothing groundbreaking.

make a list of books that can be called both "fantasy" and "groundbreaking"
not being sarcastic or snarky
actually asking for a list of "groundbreaking fantsy"

 

[EternalMetal]

make a list of books that can be called both "fantasy" and "groundbreaking"

lol

 

[Einherjar86]

Reading this, as soon as I graduate from Powers's The Overstory and Halliday's Asymmetry:

I think Feist writes solid fantasy, but it's nothing groundbreaking.

Yeah, I think I'm past "solid" fantasy. I read a short story by Feist in an anthology years ago, which I liked. I also think GRRM writes solid fantasy, but I just don't get anything out of it anymore. Bakker manages to infuse some semantic apocalypse and genre-bending stuff into his work, which I find interesting.

 

[Dak]

R
Yeah, I think I'm past "solid" fantasy. I read a short story by Feist in an anthology years ago, which I liked. I also think GRRM writes solid fantasy, but I just don't get anything out of it anymore. Bakker manages to infuse some semantic apocalypse and genre-bending stuff into his work, which I find interesting.

I like that Feist often mostly focuses on the human side of things in his books, with magic often either being in separate books or being treated as a rarer thing. I like Gemmell for the same reasons. Also liked A Song of Fire and Ice early on for that reason, before the series went to shit.

 

[no country for old wainds]

I remember reading Deadhouse Gates and being within two hundred pages of the ending, and thinking to myself--What the fuck is going on? It was then that I put it down, and haven't picked it up since...

I'd like to give it a try again, because part of me thinks maybe too much other shit was going on in my life to really pay attention (this was over a decade ago, so I would've been finishing undergrad and trying to figure out what the hell I was doing next. And I'm really unimpressed with all other fantasy I've tried, other than Bakker. To hell with GRRM at this point.

yeahhh i don't think erikson is great for stop-start reading with long hiatuses haha. they're pretty dense and self-referential as well as ridiculously huge in scope, so it's not that easy to follow, especially as he just kind of drops you in the middle of it and drip-feeds you the lore.

something else i'd recommend is richard k. morgan's a land fit for heroes series. you might've read or seen the adaptation of altered carbon which is his more well known sci-fi work, but his fantasy is quite interesting and unusual too IMO, i keep meaning to read the second book. i would strongly recommend mieville too, i tend to think of him as at least borderline 'fantasy', but i think you're already a fan. there's always stephen donaldson as well, i'm a big fan of everything he's ever written (except maybe his latest series which i didn't get into) but he tends to be pretty polarising.

i own a whole bunch of other fantasy books that i've been told are original and distinctive, i should probably get around to reading some of those. stover's heroes die looks cool for example.

 

[Einherjar86]

Yeah, I love Mieville--one of my favorites. I guess I don't usually classify him as fantasy; I usually describe him as spec-fic, mostly because he's all over the board generically speaking (sci-fi, fantasy, detective fiction, historical fiction, etc.) but always with a speculative flair.

Never read any Morgan, but I thought Altered Carbon (the show) was cool. Maybe I'll check him out when I have a chance.

 

[Sirjack]

oh my god Altered Carbon is the best sci-fi debut since...ever!

 

[Manic Ferocity]

yeahhh i don't think erikson is great for stop-start reading with long hiatuses haha. they're pretty dense and self-referential as well as ridiculously huge in scope, so it's not that easy to follow, especially as he just kind of drops you in the middle of it and drip-feeds you the lore.

Yeah, I took a pretty long hiatus between Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice. I'd definitely recommend anyone in general to read a synopsis before continuing and/or visiting Tor for the "Malazan Reread of the Fallen" guide. Helped me a bunch.

 

[The Ozzman]

Finished this just in time for the miniseries to start on Hulu. Definitely picked up on a lot more now than I did when I read this ~20 years ago:

Also finished this:

I had only read Slaughterhouse Five before this

Digging more into this now. I had started it a while ago and stopped to finish Catch-22: