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The First Law - and other new fantasy novels
Librarian
The face of liberal fascismRegistered User regular
The face of liberal fascismRegistered User regular
In case there already was a discussion on these books that I missed I do apologize, but since there are several threads on George R. R. Martin's ongoing series which won't end in the near future(both discussions and series), I wanted to point out this little gem to the collective fantasy nerddom:
The truly beautyful thing about this series is that you can buy all three books and read the damn thing from start to finish without having to wait for a couple of years while the author goes on a cruise from convention to convention or writes lots of stuff about football on his blog.
Abercrombie is more to the point than most fantasy authors, he won't dwell on endless descriptions of scenery and sometimes you will be surprised at how much happens on just a few pages.
Judging from interviews he is also a bit of an arrogant prick, at least he seems to think his books are da shit, but hey, this stuff is very entertaining to say the least.
Characters include among others:
Inquisitor Glokta, former goldenboy of the Empire who ended up as a prisoner of war which left him both crippled and misantrope deluxe. Together with his two jolly henchmen he fights crime in an unorthodox way, often involving pliers and drills.
Jezal dan Luthar, arrogant young noble, who is currently on the verge of becoming the next big thing in high society and follow in Gloktas footsteps
Logen Ninefingers a.k.a. The Bloody Nine, Northman on the run from former allies, with a tendency to go berserk in situations of extreme stress, which can be a bad thing for friend and foe.
There's also an evil empire, a couple of mages(but the world is really not magic heavy, they are relics from the past, this is very much like ASoIaF)and lots of gore.
Chapters are point of view, a practice many of you will already know and all of the characters are at least interesting and some are totally fascinating(as in awesome and badass).
This series is well worth it if you dig fantasy and want something with a new angle, I especially liked the ending, which really strays from old paths and the story had some other interesting twists and turns.
There's also a really nice ongoing theme in the books.
Abercrombies next book will be called "Best served cold", is set in the same world and will be published in 2009.
So, has anyone else read those? What do you think about this series?
And if you haven't you should go and buy them now, if only to pass the long wait till the Dance with Dragons begins.
The truly beautyful thing about this series is that you can buy all three books and read the damn thing from start to finish without having to wait for a couple of years while the author goes on a cruise from convention to convention or writes lots of stuff about football on his blog.
Abercrombie is more to the point than most fantasy authors, he won't dwell on endless descriptions of scenery and sometimes you will be surprised at how much happens on just a few pages.
Judging from interviews he is also a bit of an arrogant prick, at least he seems to think his books are da shit, but hey, this stuff is very entertaining to say the least.
Characters include among others:
Inquisitor Glokta, former goldenboy of the Empire who ended up as a prisoner of war which left him both crippled and misantrope deluxe. Together with his two jolly henchmen he fights crime in an unorthodox way, often involving pliers and drills.
Jezal dan Luthar, arrogant young noble, who is currently on the verge of becoming the next big thing in high society and follow in Gloktas footsteps
Logen Ninefingers a.k.a. The Bloody Nine, Northman on the run from former allies, with a tendency to go berserk in situations of extreme stress, which can be a bad thing for friend and foe.
There's also an evil empire, a couple of mages(but the world is really not magic heavy, they are relics from the past, this is very much like ASoIaF)and lots of gore.
Chapters are point of view, a practice many of you will already know and all of the characters are at least interesting and some are totally fascinating(as in awesome and badass).
This series is well worth it if you dig fantasy and want something with a new angle, I especially liked the ending, which really strays from old paths and the story had some other interesting twists and turns.
There's also a really nice ongoing theme in the books.
Abercrombies next book will be called "Best served cold", is set in the same world and will be published in 2009.
So, has anyone else read those? What do you think about this series?
And if you haven't you should go and buy them now, if only to pass the long wait till the Dance with Dragons begins.
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Is there any braid pulling?
What title?
Btw, I have until now avoided the Malazan books, because they seem to have the same problem a lot of fantasy books share, too many books total and not all of them out yet.
And they come out once every year, and theres only 8 of them, several of which can be read independently of the others.
Anyway I'll have to try these books because I am getting angsty for some fantasy. Good to know there's only three books.
Malazan's way way too much into magic for me to like. I typically hate most fantasy because of this. Conversely, this is why I love GRRM- it's brutal, and no one can Deus Ex Machina their way out of getting killed (or at least, very bad things happening).
Your OP says low magic, which interests me. I may have to look into this.
My only problem was that
now, I'm not going to try to deny that Malazan has a shit ton of crazy magic shit in it.
but the bolded part above leads me to believe that you have not read much of the series
I would agree with this, though I thought the books were still entertaining. I'm also extremely confused by the thread title as Abercrombie isn't that close to ASoIaF unless you consider all gritty fantasy to be like ASoIaF. Also if you happen to be some one who doesn't like to read unfinished series Last Argument of Kings won't be released in the US till September.
I've been told they get better but the first book is fucking horrible.
but yes read the 2nd
Deadhouse Gates is so good
I am not sure if it's true, but I heard that the first book is based upon his former roleplaying group and I can imagine how that turned out....
And I actually chose the tread title this way to give people a general idea of what this is about, while similarities to George Martin's work are not that obvious, I still think Abercrombie has more in common with Martin than with what I would call "classic" fantasy.
But I am willing to change the title to broaden the base for discussion...
I also don't think that Abercrombie is just trying to be different for the sake of it, please don't read on if you don't know the books and wanna read them.
And the motif that a personal change is not possible and everyone just stays what they are no matter how hard they try was really nice, compared to the way your classic Bildungsroman fantasy novel works.
And Glokta is the only one who gets a happy ending....how awesome is that?
Double click on the index page or click edit, then go advanced and you should be able to.
huh?
Separated at Birth?
What?
In general good written fantasy, even if it's magic heavy, doesn't use it as a short hand Deus Ex Machina. Any well written fantasy will have rules and standards, what you're complaining about isn't the use of magic, it's bad writing.
You are correct in that I haven't read much of it (mostly because I don't like the way it's written), but Deus Ex Machina has happened. The part that sticks out in my mind was
Edit: I should also clarify that Deus Ex Machina isn't the only reason I don't like heavy magic. The rest of it has to do with it feeling pretty hokey most of the time (and perhaps good writing can save this, but I've yet to see it).
You really should give that a try.
Would I be missing anything? I'm always afraid of that when the idea of skipping even single chapters in books is brought up.
However, I've also been inexplicably drawn into Shadow & Claw. I usually don't like "far future = fantasy" trope, but it's so subtle it's barely noticeable. The writing is good in a way that seems effortless. The author doesn't lean on genre conventions or anti-conventions, but you get a sense that his world existed far before the book started.
Ha, did you figure out that Severian doesn't always tell the truth? Gene Wolfe writes onions, not novels. There are layers upon layers upon layers. One little detail hidden away that you have to really pay attention to catch on your own-I didn't- is that the entire thing takes place in
A lot of people on this board love this series, myself included. It's the best argument that genre fiction can and sometimes is just as good as "literature".
Tried reading the first book today while at Chapters and couldn't get more than 20 pages into it.
Is there something you could compare it to? I had the same experience with the Black Company books, I heard so much about how awesome they were and I only got like 2 chapters into the first book because the writing was so stilted.
You ever read anything form Harry Turtledove? That level of bad dialogue. That's the only comparison that instantly came to mind.
I'm cautious:
What about sniffs, snorts, smoothings of dresses, and gratuitous spankings?
One thing I definetly do enjoy is the universe in these books. It's not too over the top, but combine a
Spoiler from the 2nd book:
"Shit on that." "She shit on it?!"
Gene Wolfe is awesome. The Book of the New Sun isn't an easy read, but it's definitely one of those books you can read multiple times and getting more meaning out of it. A deep book, I guess, although I usually hate talking about that kind of shit.
And I really like the Dying Earth setting because he actually considers some of what it would mean to live on a planet that's been inhabited by humans for millions of years.
Seriously, I come from a language background were Umlaute are common, but having to read names like Cnaiür ürs Skiothä(or however he is called) all the time just seems to me that he is just trying to be exotic for the English speaking audience.
And Gene Wolfe is a whole league of his own of course. Just reading Book of the New Sun for the third time and I am still discovering new shit, but I found that First Law was very entertaining without being too dumb, the dialogue is cheesy at times and he never fails to insert "cool" oneliners whenever he can, but it's just good popcorn fantasy.
Right now I am looking for more of that, because I need a change from Wolfe and can't get myself to start anything from my dedicated Wolfe bookshelf of roughly 100 books I still haven't read.
I recently bought Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, which might turn out another pain in the ass, because it is book 1 of 3 and 2 has not been published.
I also ordered Lies of Locke Lamorra because of all the praise.
Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is also on my list and waiting on the shelf and I have not read more from Mieville apart from Perdido Street Station, so many books, so little time.
No, see, that wasn't a Deus Ex Machina moment. I don't deny there are such moments in the Malazan books, but this wasn't one of them. In these books, gods and ascendants are active players in the game. Paran being stabbed and then brought back from the brink of death was a move on the part of Oponn, one which eventually came back to bite him in the ass. The stabbing wasn't the culmination of Paran's story, nor was it even remotely near the end. It was just another plot twist.
But people do die in the book. Often. Brutally. You should read the Chain of Dogs part, where
People occasionally do get saved at the end of the book just before dying (or after), but it always makes sense in context, and no one gets saved just because. There is always a reason. And no one escapes unscathed.
The point of the Malazan books is the vast scale on which it operates. There are wars going on that cover several continents, a struggle in which gods interfere. There are mortals more powerful than gods and capable of incinerating entire continents.
So, yes, heavy magic. It's an acquired taste. But it's not used badly. The focus is always on military campaigns or individual stories. On people. The magic helps create this grand scale. And it's not like the system is easily explained within the first chapter. There are contradictory explanations and people keep discovering more.
[Edit] I couldn't get through the prince of nothing books. They are huge, like, having a grativity well that sucks up lesser books. And the writing is often tedious. And whatshisname is just so very clever and better than everyone else. And I was bothered by how much women were abused/raped. It happened almost continuously, in great detail. This was just the first book, mind you. I didn't dare start the second.