Mangler's awesome book thread.

[Nettle]

Tuf Voyaging by GRRM is good too. Sci-fi and snark.

[Callesa]

Have a few long flights coming up and I want something to pass the time instead of watching movies the whole way. Haven't read much fantasy recently but do you guys have really solid recommendations for something to make time fly by?

Really the only fantasy I've read is WOT and GOT. Please help! You guys have posted so much stuff on this thread which I skimmed through but I'm really looking for a consensus on 1 recommendation. A trilogy would be great, even if there are tons of books after the initial trilogy in the same world.

There is no consensus possible

My recommendation: R.E.Feist, start with the Magician (book one of the Riftwar Saga, which is a trilogy. There are more booksto continue with, if you like it)

[Jestin]

Finished Assassin's apprentice. It was solid and what I asked for - definitely a page turner. Wouldn't say it was incredible but it was good. Something was bugging me after I finished it, can anyone answer? Spoilers ahead:

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When Burrich takes away Nosy at the beginning, why does Fitz lose connection with him and think he died? It's not distance is it? Because when he's far away from Smithy he doesn't lose connection with him until Smithy dies?

Thanks for any answers!















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[Arkan]

I don't know how to reconcile the statements made by one person saying Stormlight is meh while also promoting crap like Robin Hobb, which very much enjoys deus ex machina. The writing was just awful and plodding. I fell asleep plenty reading that.

Other stuff to avoid:

I've read Gentlemen Bastards and there are some decent aspects, but they spend half the book talking about how clever they are, yet generally come across as rather un-clever. It's like when you read someone tweet that they are a stable genius and then threaten nuclear war.

Powdermage is ok, but you'll probably be pretty frustrated that the powder mages can't figure out how to use their powers very well.

Malazan, as Vaen mentioned, wasn't so good. I hated it. The quality of the dialogue was something along the lines of a harry potter fan fiction that got shot up by a few guns.

Rothfuss, I give more leeway to. Book 1 was fun, Book 2 had tons of holes in it, and I get the sense that book 3 isn't going anywhere because rothfuss thinks that in order to be good, it has to take forever. I've listened to him talk and that's just the sense I got from him. Like good epics need epically long waits (he did try naming the series virtually the same as SoiaF, though I can't find the old links). So the point is, if you rarely read fantasy, don't bother with this one, but if you read a lot, might as well.

There's simply more bad fantasy than there is good fantasy.

The first three mistborn make for a nice trilogy and you don't have to read any other books since it's pretty wrapped up, so that's what I'd recommend.

Unless you want to go with a sci fi route and try out Old Man's War that someone else recommended. Scalzi is fantastic. There are more books, but the first three are a nice trilogy.

Dan Simmons kind of went off the deep end in the last few years, but he has some pretty interesting and well-written material in Ilium/Olympos or his Hyperion series. It can really make ya think in cause it's so weird, interesting, and chalk full of this and that.

Uh... ain't read The Hobbit? Takes an afternoon or two depending on your speed and is quite enjoyable.


Edit: Well, apparently you liked Assassin's Apprentice, so just read all the stuff that I said sucked

[Firimei Lang]

Hobb is a great writer. I've never seen appeal in Sandersons books. In my opinion Hobb couples real character engagement with earthy ...real.. magic. Her writing is deeper than the basic fantasy writers cashing in on Tolkien.

[Jomin]

Lois McMaster Bujold's Sci-Fi, from a non-mainstream viewpoint, VorKosigan series has always pleased me over the years, though, like Anne Mccaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, the novels and novellas are not always published in time-line sequence. There are more than one suggested reading order on her own Website's bibliography and even now I realised there are unread books in my list of titles...

[Petra]

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REDACTED

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It's been ages since I read the original trilogy, so I'm hesitant to give an answer as I think the reason is revealed through important plot elements in later books.

[Astolfo]

The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor. The movie with Spenser Tracy is great too.

[Alaina]

The Shadow of What was Lost by James Islington was pretty good--I've just finished reading it. Looking forward to picking up the second book!

[cael]

I wrote a long post a few days ago, and it seems to have either been deleted or removed, not sure... anywho... LitRPG....

Basic premise is that a protagonist gets moved to an alternate universe where RPG rules take place, stats, leveling, user interface, exp etc....

so far I've read The Land - Aleron Kong - 7 book series so far
Wraiths Haunt - Hugo Huesco - 2 books so far


Please to enjoy.