Sci-Fi / Fantasy Books

[Talvalin]

Is red seas under red skies worth a read?

Yes if you liked the character interaction between Jean and Locke, but it is basically a retread of Lies with little that moves the major story arc onwards (stuff regarding the island of evil sorcerers and his ex-girlfriend for instance). With seven books planned, I'm not sure I'm interested enough to keep reading.

Abercrombie on the other hand is ace and I can't wait for Best Served Cold later this year.

[Talvalin]

DP

[TheShend]

I was recommended 'Slan' by A. E. Van Vogt but after a good rummage in a few 2nd hand book stores I could only find 'The Weapon Makers' by the same author. I'm somewhat hesitant to start as I think it's part of a trilogy and sadly I think this is the 2nd book.

The guy who recommended me 'Slan' was extremely passionate about it as a the best thing he's read in the genre.

[poppa_f]

Is red seas under red skies worth a read?

Sort of. Starts well, but the seafaring bits drag on and the whole book feels like it was a rushed finish to hit some sort of publisher's deadline (would be interested to hear from the author if this was indeed the case).

For anyone who enjoyed the Joe Abercrombie books, I'd recommend "The Fade" by Chris Wooding (not as good but worth a read) and also "The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski.

In other news it looks like the "new" George RR Martin will finally be released this year. Toying with the idea of re-reading the first 5 books which I really loved first time round, but then will be stuck waiting for the 7th book to come out (probably in 2021 or something)

I guess I should just wait for the 7th book to be given a solid release date and then read the 7 back-to-back.

[PaB]

I am reading the Malazan Book of the fallen series at the moment by Steven Erikson, and blimey, they are really good -Halfway through the fourth book now and each book has been better than the last.

Right up there with Song of Ice and Fire. (With the added advantage of Steven Erikson not being a lazy fucker and managing to write more than one installment every decade)

[Mr Cochese]

I just read (or rather re-read)The Book Of The New Sun. Completely baffling but awesome far future para-literary nonsense.

[footle]

I am reading the Malazan Book of the fallen series at the moment by Steven Erikson, and blimey, they are really good -Halfway through the fourth book now and each book has been better than the last.

Right up there with Song of Ice and Fire. (With the added advantage of Steven Erikson not being a lazy fucker and managing to write more than one installment every decade)

Nah, it's far better than the Song of Ice and Fire. And his co-creator also writes books in the same world filling in bits of detail.

[davidcotton]

Nah, it's far better than the Song of Ice and Fire. And his co-creator also writes books in the same world filling in bits of detail.

Got the first (Gardens of the moon) sitting on the shelf, looks like thats next to be read.

Cheers.

[Kyouma]

My two favourites series are ASoIaF and the Sword of Truth. Wheel of Time any good?

[Sirloin]

First couple are, it starts to wander a bit then...

For about 11,000 pages...

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Stay clear of Wheel of Time. It's got some good ideas but they're not supported by the writing or the story or any of that, for the most part.

[csuzw]

I am reading the Malazan Book of the fallen series at the moment by Steven Erikson, and blimey, they are really good -Halfway through the fourth book now and each book has been better than the last.

Right up there with Song of Ice and Fire. (With the added advantage of Steven Erikson not being a lazy fucker and managing to write more than one installment every decade)

That's the great thing about the Malazan books, they're of a consistently high standard (even the couple of books written by the other guy are pretty good). SoIaF is half the number of books and already going downhill (I thought the last book was terrible). I really hope it doesn't go down hill as fast as the WoT series did.

I'm still working my way through Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever and still enjoying it. I love Donaldson's writing style and Covenant is a fascinating character.

[Kyouma]

First couple are, it starts to wander a bit then...

For about 11,000 pages...

Stay clear of Wheel of Time. It's got some good ideas but they're not supported by the writing or the story or any of that, for the most part.

Cheers Any recommendations?

[PaB]

And his co-creator also writes books in the same world filling in bits of detail.

Yeah, I have "Night of Knives" sitting here to read, and will pick up "Return of the Crimson Guard" when it gets released in Mass paperback format

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Cheers Any recommendations?

Have you read Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy? If not do so. Trilogy begins with The Blade Itself.

[Aardvark]

I just read (or rather re-read)The Book Of The New Sun. Completely baffling but awesome far future para-literary nonsense.

What's baffling you? I mean I can't promise to answer the question (and Wolfe did sneak in some obvious solutions to things just to trip people up) but a lot of stuff just takes some careful reading to figure out.

[poppa_f]

Cheers Any recommendations?

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is worth checking out (albeit sci-fi rather than fantasy), The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, David Gemmell's back catalogue is also worth checking out if you want something a bit more pulpy (pretty much the same thing happens in every book, Winter Warriors is a good one to start on, classic Gemmell )

[Sirloin]

Cheers Any recommendations?

The Abercrombie books that Rudi mentioned, the Assassin books by Robin Hobb are enjoyable as well, although I didn't like her other trilogies much.

[Captain Novaforce]

That's the great thing about the Malazan books, they're of a consistently high standard (even the couple of books written by the other guy are pretty good). SoIaF is half the number of books and already going downhill (I thought the last book was terrible). I really hope it doesn't go down hill as fast as the WoT series did.

I'm still working my way through Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever and still enjoying it. I love Donaldson's writing style and Covenant is a fascinating character.

I love these books, quite apart from how good they are and their regularity, each one usually has enough in it to be satisfying adventure all of it's own.

Wheel of Time would've been ace if Jordan had an editor to force him to hurry up and cut out all repetitive filler.

I swore out load every time he used the phrase "they stared at each other like a pair of strange cats" whenever two woman were in the same room, usually once every 6 chapters. Its a shame because it had such potential, the battle scenes were outstanding, and it was deep enough that it drew you in to the point where I actually began having dreams I was in that world. The sections set in the past were utter genius as well. Kinda wish someone would take all the good bits from the dozen odd books and compress them down to 4 though. For instance, as far as I can tell NOTHING happenend in Crossroads of twilight, Matt just walked up a road with a caravan.

[themanyhs]

Nice to see the Malazan books getting a mention as they always seem to be sidelined in a lot of lists for the Songs of Ice and Fire series.

To add some of my own favourites which i can't see previously mentioned:

Paul Kearney - Monarchies of God series (5 in series shortish pageturners, recommended by Erikson)

Glen Cook - Dread empire and Black Company series (these are cited by Erikson as part of his inspiration, they can be a bit hard to get hold of but I think have been reprinted recently so should be available through amazon uk/us).

Guy Gavriel Kay The Fionavar Tapestry

[Lovelyman]

On the subject of gene Wolfe. I always love his writing and enjoy the first three quarters of each series he writes, then I lose the plot completely and never finish anything. Does he make the last parts of his works bizarrely inpenetrable or is it me not paying attention?

[toonfool]

I love to read Bob Shaw books. I particularly recommend the Land and Overland trilogy, though I admit I haven't read the third book yet. I read the first two when I was in my teens from my local library then couldn't get the third (It wasn't written yet). I forgot the name of the author and the books, it was only a couple of years ago that K helped me work out what I'd read, he pointed me back in the right direction.

I found the first book and re-read it, it was wonderful. I've read loads of other Bob Shaw books (looking at my bookshelves, I have a few duplicates now) since then. He's a great writer, get some of his works.

[The Grand Pursuivant]

No love for Russel Kirkpatrick? I really enjoyed the Undying Man trilogy, and he's much better at letting you keep track of where the characters are in the world than most authours. He does it without being overly repetitive or constantly forcing you to spend ages looking at the maps.

I wish he'd hurry the fuck up with his next book though. To say he left the last one on a bit of a cliffhanger is an understatement.

[Silent Runner]

Guys, I fancy reading some fantasy but I've no idea where to start. So I'm going to ask for advice on titles but I have a few conditions.

- Ideally I want a self contained book, I don't fancy committing to a trilogy at the moment. So is there a fantasty equivelent of the Culture novels?

- I just want a World of wizards, dragons, warriors and all that. I played D&D for years so something in that vein. I read one of the Dragons triologies (Autumn Twilight maybe) and I thought it was pretty great.

- The only other fantasy books I've read are The Lord of The Rings books and the Hobbit. I started the Thomas Covenant books but couldn't get into them.

Thanks in advance.

[Stig]

Fantasy novels are all I seem to read, my favourite being His Dark Materials. I did enjoy the Harry Potter series too and I have read 3 out of the 4 books by GP Taylor, although he's pretty lacking when it comes to the other stuff I've read. At the moment I'm reading The View From the Mirror quadtrilogy by Ian Irvine and really enjoying it, I'm about half way through the 3rd book. After that I'm gonna start on his follow up books the Well of Echos.

Has anyone read The Wheel of Time by Roberst Jordon? I've seem them in WHSmith's before and always thought I'd give them a go, but it's an 11 (soon to be 12) book series and wanted know if anyone had any thoughts on it before commiting to such a lengthy read.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Yes. Avoid.

[smac]

Guys, I fancy reading some fantasy but I've no idea where to start. So I'm going to ask for advice on titles but I have a few conditions.

- Ideally I want a self contained book, I don't fancy committing to a trilogy at the moment. So is there a fantasty equivelent of the Culture novels?

- I just want a World of wizards, dragons, warriors and all that. I played D&D for years so something in that vein. I read one of the Dragons triologies (Autumn Twilight maybe) and I thought it was pretty great.

- The only other fantasy books I've read are The Lord of The Rings books and the Hobbit. I started the Thomas Covenant books but couldn't get into them.

Thanks in advance.

You read any Pratchett? The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are his first couple of books, and the nearest to a gentle mocking genre fantasy/roleplaying convention as you can get, but any of his stuff is recommended. Look for Rincewind and maybe Vimes as the protagonists (and Pratchett was a D&D player decades ago). Edit: all self-contained, but there are short cycles within his output.

Try China Mieville - Perdido Street Station is probably a good bet, then maybe The Scar. Not so heavy on dragons, wizards and warriors, but another writer who draws on his GM background to give a world that is textured like a good campaign world; his city felt like a GM's city to me. Also a good, gutsy, modern writer, like Banks.

The most overtly D&D 'inspired' books I have read are probably Raymond E Feist's Riftworld books - D&D quests by the numbers; almost the first scene includes a classic 'Cleric makes roll on turning the Undead', as I recall, and one entire book is your standard wilderness trip to a dungeon full of traps, with stop-over encounter where the heroes have to defend a keep on the borderlands, etc., etc. But a trilogy, so maybe not.

Actually, you have all of the Dragonlance books, which I guess are officially inspired by D&D and published by TSR, but as I've never read any of them I'll leave them to others to comment.

The Belgariad is also a writeup of a D&D campaign, as I recall, but even more books in the series. And if you're over 15 maybe not, once more.

You could try some of the classics - I wouldn't go for Conan, but would recommend the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser books, by Fritz Leiber; all short stories or novellas; they do vary a lot in tone and style, but they were written over a period of 40 years.

[Stig]

Yes. Avoid.

Any particular reason?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Often very poor writing, entire books where nothing at all happens, author-self-insertion main character, and to top it all off Robert Jordan died without finishing the series.

There are one or two nice ideas but they're not worth reading the books for.

[Talvalin]

Try China Mieville - Perdido Street Station is probably a good bet, then maybe The Scar. Not so heavy on dragons, wizards and warriors, but another writer who draws on his GM background to give a world that is textured like a good campaign world; his city felt like a GM's city to me. Also a good, gutsy, modern writer, like Banks.

This. Mieville is fucking ace. Modern sensibilities and doesn't pander to genre cliches. His imagination is a disturbing thing and he creates a load of new races that are distinct and different to the usual round of elves, dwarves and orcs. Read PSS now!