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Any extremely well written fantasy out there?
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i haven't read the Amber ones, actually. i do love pulp stuff so i suppose i should get on that.
Lord of Light isn't pulpy at all though, it's just wonderful
/brofist
I enjoyed The name of the wind, but would hardly characterize it as 'well-written'. Wise man's fear or "Kvothe's cool summer adventure" wasn't that great. On the other hand, Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator are masterpieces.
But when I got to the end I wondered why about 100 pages of the magic college and hand-wringing about Kvothe's debts couldn't have been trimmed, and maybe some of that time spent on the book's supposed villains, or awesomeness to live up to the speech Kvothe uses to start his story that they use on the back of the book ("Perhaps you have heard of me...")
I hoped that the second book would be where we finally start getting to see some of that, as the end of TNotW was some pretty good adventuring. But then I heard that The Wise Man's Fear doesn't show any particular inclination to get things in gear either and that instead we're subjected to more of the epic rivalry with Draco Malfoy or whatever his name was and how great Kvothe is at sexing and I pretty much lost interest.
I'll get around to reading it sometime I guess.
This this this.
Start with the Mistborn original 3. then "The way of kings". You can eat his other delicious candy afterward but those two are fantastic fantasy.
This guy knows his shit.
Glad I asked!
Agreed. I picked up The Way of Kings because I loved the Mistborn trilogy, and it was equally awesome. I can't wait for the next book in the series.
As far as Rothfuss goes, I love his writing, but agree that The Wise Man's Fear had problems. The Name of the Wind to me was a fantastic setup for a story and well written, but considering its supposed to be a trilogy, the second book sure didn't move the plot forward much, I feel like he is writing himself into a corner and is going to take multiple books to tell the rest instead of just one, completely destroying the original books assertion by Kvothe the tavern keep that he would tell his story in 'three days'. Because yeah, while indicating the length of your series within the context of your own story is a neat touch, if you are going to do so, you better have the overall plot planned out and moving at a pace that will keep up and wrap up within that time.
Saga. Saga of the Volsungs.
And yes, it's insight into Norse mythology is what heavily, heavily influenced Tolkien. I myself though much prefer the various Icelandic Sagas. Some are mostly true stories (all are at least partially based on a truth), and even the ones that are mostly made up are still built upon the actual societal structures of the time. Sometimes there's magic and undead, too, and a lot of people get killed brutally, pointless, and abruptly. "What's that, you're a badass berserker and you've been going around bullying farmers? Well, you just got your leg cut off... which kills you instantly, because apparently your leg getting cut off was your only weakness."
Depends on what you're in to, I guess. I'm a huge fan of George RR Martin's Song of Ice And Fire/Game of Thrones series, but if you're after elves and orcs and magic you'll be mostly disappointed. Though it does get a little more "fantasy centric" later in the books, with the world being a little more than just the middle ages in a different dimension. Not heavily, but a little magic here, a giant there, a boring ass Bran chapter after that...
I wont spoil anything but Alloy of law sets the stage for a grander plan involving familar characters.
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It's modern urban fantasy, about a wizard/detective in Chicago. Each book stands mostly on its own (barring the last two and the next one, which form a loose trilogy), but several plot lines run through the series. They're also funny as hell, not because the events of the books are so funny but because the first person narrator is extremely sardonic.
Guy Gavriel Kay is good; Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, the Lions of al-Rassan, the Sarentine Mosaic, The Last Light of the Sun, and Under Heaven are all worth reading.
The Braided Path by Chris Woodingvwas quite good if I recall; I'm going to be re-reading it for the first time in a few years soon.
R. Scott Bakker is dark, but writes decent novels.
Daniel Abraham is excellent, but is more about politics than swords and sorcery.
Think of S&S, the original Conan stories by Robert Howard are worth reading.
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I agree and would say the same about Brandon Sanderson, honestly. While entertaining, I don't feel like they fit the requirement of having great or particularly deep prose.
The way I see Butcher's prose in the Dresden Files, it's the voice of a guy essentially telling a story over a beer. Basic prose, used reasonably well. It's not Ulysses, and it's not trying to be.
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The funniest thing for me is that a lot of Wheel of Time fans feel that Brandon "Tempest" Sanderson doesn't match up to the epic majesty of Robert Jordan's brilliant prose. Or something like that.
And of the two, i actually find Sanderson the better writer, and I've been a very long term Wheel of Time fan.
I think that Sanderson has better prose and pacing, but I think that Jordan had better world building skills.
I do think that the editing hasn't been as tight on Sanderson as on Jordan, but then, he's not sleeping with the editor.
I don't mean that every character needs to die, it's just that I find it annoying in most fantasy when the consistently put the blatantly obvious main character (ie. Harry Potter) in these SUPER TENSE situations, and you're supposed to be all "oh man! is he going to make it?!?!" but you know it's book one and he's obviously never going to die so this is stupid.
Kinda like James Bond whenever the bad guy has him dangling above a shark tank. We all know he isn't going to die. Removes all the tension.
I like reading GRRM and always wondering HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY is he going down or WHAT IS HAPPENING
Not to sound like a broken record, and this might be a little bit of a spoiler, but I'll say it anyway just to suggest it.
The Lies of Locke Lamora. Go read it!
The Malazan Book of the Fallen is also a great series, written in the tradition of Glen Cook's Black Company. It has a huge cast of characters, larger than ASOIAF, for sure. I am a huge fan of ASOIAF, and I think Malazan Book of the Fallen is better for the most part. I can't attest to Esslemont's books because I haven't read them.
I would suggest Rhinegold by Stephen Grundy. It is a re-telling of the Saga of the Volsungs, and is an awesome book.
I like my Pratchett but he's getting to a point where you have to read the older more satirical books to get to know the characters to then get into their minds. Unless you want to start with Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky, which introduce a new character into the world but bulk it up with his world. It is worded for younger audiences. I did love Snuff though.
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