The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 26

yoooo I'm on Book 2 of The Lightbringer series and holy fuck it's good

 

Well I've never read any of her YA stuff. But for 5 bucks I'll give it a shot.

 

As controversial as he was lately, any death is sad and one can argue that he was a staple in the genre at one point.

Was any more information released to say what happened? It felt very sudden.

 

I was pretty sad to hear the news about Goodkind yesterday. I guess he was 72, so it's not entirely unexpected, but it does seem pretty sudden. Still, by all accounts he had been living the kind of life he wanted to for decades at this point, so hopefully it wasn't too terrible an event for his family. And, I suppose on the plus side, he recently had two books come out (just in the last couple months I think) that concluded his two ongoing series; I always wonder in cases like that if he just felt his work was done.

I've been intending to do a Sword of Truth reread at some point. Will definitely bump that up in the schedule if I can. Also, just realized that there are 25 books in the series now, and I've only read the main 11. Lots to go through!

Sad news though: like him or not, he was definitely a major part of the genre and a formative influence for a lot of readers.

 

Organized my fantasy book collection, thought you guys might appreciate thanks for always having good recommendations!

 

So I'm reading Christopher Paolini's new book which has me thinking about Eragon. It was the first fantasy book I read, maybe the longest too at the time, though I was reading a lot of Stephen King, I might have read IT by that point, I remember it being a huge deal for me because my childhood dream job was being an author and until that point I'd never heard of someone from Montana (where I live), especially someone so young, publishing a book. He's also I'm pretty sure the only author I've ever actually met. Anyway I never actually finished the series and now I'm wondering if it holds up. I also find it weird that despite loving it, it was apparently not a gateway into fantasy for me since that came much later. Wonder what the deal with that was...must have just been my obsession with horror.

 

I never finished the Eragon quartet. I can’t see it holding up remotely well.

Conversely, I’ve heard nothing but praise on his new one.

 

It's pretty damn good so far. Reminds me of Venom. I don't know how spoilery that is.

 

TIME has posted its 100 best fantasy books of all time and its full of some of the usual suspects but Evan Winters Rage of Dragons made the list! Stormlight didn't, as far as i can see but Mistborn did. A few i haven't read that i'll be adding to my TBR.

The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

 

No Malazan no care

But really, what a weird list lol. You got James And the Giant Peach next to NK Jemisin. Some big omissions in there too!

 

Yeah, that's what i was thinking. Some really obscure novels but also some big-hitters missing from it. Can't remember from the top of my head but there were a few series added. Like Tombs of Atuan and Earthsea. I'd have liked a 1 book per series thing. Could have got more books in then.

 

There are some truly terrible books on that list.

 

So crazy seeing James and the Giant Peach next to LOTR

 

Yeah that's a truly bizarre list. I'm actually fine with something like James and the Giant Peach making it—I actually really enjoy that book, and it hits a subgenre often overlooked in fantasy—but if you're going to include that, it makes the other omissions so much more glaring. Some of the selections are so weird. I haven't read them yet, but why did both of Ken Liu's novels make it on there? I mean, I'm sure they're fantastic (staring at me balefully from my shelf as I type this), but like, there was nothing else in the whole genre that could've taken one of those spots? All three LOTR (well deserved) but no Hobbit? Nothing by, like, Moorcock, perhaps? And then some books on there that I just really did not enjoy at all (The Wrath & the Dawn comes to mind) that I can't see anyone liking that much.

After a quick count I've read about 25 of them. There were a handful, maybe a dozen, that I already planned on reading eventually; and a few others that look interesting that I hadn't heard of. But yeah, a weird list.

... Though honestly, I'll take the whole list and sing its praises based solely on the fact that The Dark Is Rising is on there. That novel is absolutely wonderful and deserves far more accolades than it receives.

 

Yeah that's a pretty strange list.

 

I've only read 16 of those lol

 

It is pretty weird but also pretty cool in some ways

 

Anyone have Sci Fi recs? Want to mix it in with my fantasy and horror reading (ideally I rotate) and after finishing Acts of Caine I'm struggling to find a new series. Sci Fi is really hit or miss with me, I absolute LOVE the Hyperion Cantos, Three Body trilogy, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, and Ilium/Olympos..... But do not like The Expanse or Sun Eater. And Dune was good, but didn't compel me to read the rest of the series. Basically I like Sci Fi to either blow my mind with concepts I couldn't even dream up, or scary evil aliens are good too. Also something that shares the epic nature of fantasy.

Sorry if it bugs anyone that I'm posting about Sci Fi in this thread but I trust Ya'll on recs more than gen pop

I'd rather no YA but I do love Skyward so if it's crazy good I'd be will to give it a go.

 

I'm not the most well versed in Sci Fi, but have you read anything by Neal Stephenson? Like Snow Crash? Or the Maddaddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood? I liked the Silo series by Hugh Howey. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

 

No on all of them but Atwood, which I read the first book of and did not like. I'll look these all up though, thanks. I've heard Silo before so that might be a way to go.

(Funny enough, I was like, why did Silo make me think of Wool, which I remembered was a sci fi book and I looked it up on Amazon to lo and behold)

 

Also more looking for things in space (space opera, or whatever) as apposed to dystopian Earth, which I generally put under a different category unto itself.

 

I love sci-fi TV shows and movies but I never really found a book that interests me. No idea why.

 

Okay well of those then the sparrow is the only one that goes to space. Have you read the "classics"? Dune, Foundation, 2001, etc? Never read him but I know John Scalzi is popular and writes a lot of space sci fi

 

I still think I might just read Wool next though, ha. Only Dune, which I thought was fine. Like fantasy I'm sort of dipping my toe into the newer stuff before going to the classics. It's still not a genre I'm 100% on, but when it works for me, it really works.