The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 55

Ooh, good call on the sale, I was going to wait until I read another Riftwar but I'll just snag that now.

 

Started Sons of Darkness, and yeah the prologue rules. I'm also intrigued by the initial plot of secretly moving a nation. That's something I haven't seen before.

 

Glad you're enjoying it! I'm a few chapters in but that prologue really started it well.

 

Just finished the third book of Malazan, Memories of Ice, and it was my favorite one so far. I'm breaking up the books with either a Discworld or Star Wars book. Finished Brotherhood by Mike Chen in about 24 hours after Memories of Ice and loved it. Now onto House of Chains and oh boy it's already confusing right out the gate.

 

I saw some discussion of Chorus of Dragons earlier. Absolutely loved it. Jenn Lyons is so damn clever (too clever sometimes) - I love a deadly glitter bomb. I didn't mind book 4 as much as it seems others did. Final book was great though. Hope we get more of them in the future.

 

Hell yeah Memories of Ice is my favorite as well (this would probably change on a reread). The siege of Capustan is intense, and Itkovian is one of the most memorable characters in the series.

And yes, House of Chains is definitely a curveball right out of the gate. I think I remember reading that Erikson was criticized for not being able to write a strong character without an ensemble cast and thus, Karsa Orlong was born. Top 5 - maybe 3 - most badass characters in the books.

 

Currently reading Marlon James's Black Leopard, Red Wolf for my class and it's terrific. Extremely graphic, but so engaging and thrilling at points. So far I've noted clear references/homages to Star Wars, LOTR, the Avengers, and even Malcolm X (I think)--and I'm only halfway.

After this I think I'm going to dive back into LOTR and try The Two Towers. I read The Hobbit and Fellowship last year, and they felt so cozy. After all this violence and terror with James, I need a pleasant palate cleanser.

Last I want to dive back into The Dark Tower. I read the first two books last summer. The Gunslinger was definitely a dry read, but The Drawing of the Three was incredible. Stephen King is too good sometimes.

 

I see this everywhere when i go to bookshops and i want it but ive got too much to read haha (in reference to Marlon James). Glad to see that it's going good!

 

I was about to say, is it even a question that he's in top three, but than I remembered what series I'm talking about and there are multiple characters that could break the world simply by waking up, so...

 

Lol whoops I posted this in the Book Thread because I saw a @GBlades post and just assumed.

Just finished Sons of Darkness. It's fantastic. Everyone should read.

The last 100 pages are pure joy. If you looked at the table of contents you can guess why.

I liked it more than I usually enjoy the first book in a series.

(Also learning just now that this series is called The Raag of Rta and I have no idea what that's referring to, but it's awesome)

 

I'm reading this right now. It's been on my wishlist for literally years but it never went on sale so I just never got it. But obviously this post was the kick I needed.

I didn't read the synopsis beforehand so for like the first 20 pages or so I was like, am I reading a Rumplestilksin adaptation? Lol. It's great though.

 

Haha yeah that was a book that jumped out at me at the library and I also really was not expecting how it started. Excited for you dude! I thought it was phenomenal. Let me know what you think of it overall.

Unrelated, but did you ever read the fifth Wit'ch book? I think I saw that you finished the fourth but I wasn't sure if you'd read the last one too.

 

Glad you enjoyed it! I'm not finished yet (got sidetracked by The First Law) but im loving it so far! Exciting to see where it goes though, I think it's a trilogy but also no idea what Raag of Rta means, which may be ignorant of me.

 

Nope. Same with Shadows of the Apt. I sometimes like putting some space between the penultimate and final books of series, unless it's something like Malazan or Wheel of Time, where the last 2 or 3 books are actually 1 book. Adds a little bit to the epicness for me, having some time to sit with it, since I tend to barrel through most of the series.

I will soon though.

 

That makes sense. I do enjoy preparing for/savoring a finale and making sure I'm really capturing everything on that first readthrough, so I get it.

 

I finished Shadow of the Gods a day or two ago. Fantastic book, definitely got me on board to read all of Gwynne's stuff. I've got the audiobook for Hunger ready to go, I'm just taking an audiobook break for a couple days to do some physical copy reading haha, but I'll be diving into that soon.

Also Shadow definitely had some twists I didn't see coming. There were a few revelations I kind of expected, but Orka's role in the Bloodsworn wasn't one of them at all, even though I knew she had to be hiding something in her past.

 

Glad you enjoyed it!! Strongly recommend his The Faithful and the Fallen series. Really great take on fantasy that offers a little something different in terms of tropes whilst still keeping the standard Gwynne-Viking battle scenes.

 

I’ll second Faithful and Fallen. It’s a good time.

 

Any of you read anything by Ed McDonald? His newest, Daughter of Redwinter, just came out and is on my radar, but I decided to start back with his first book, Blackwing. I'm only a couple chapters in but it reminds me a fair amount of Beyond Redemption @Vivatoto, though it's not nearly so grimy and dark. I'm really enjoying it so far.

 

Sweet, I feel like maybe I've seen the name but might just be confusing the common last name. I'll check it out. I just got Speaking Bones in the mail so I'm pumped to finish that beast of a series.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I've always liked his covers, and thought about checking him out, sweet.

 

Just finished the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. A fun and quick read with an interesting take on different dimensions/worlds.

 

I just finished The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and think it had an absolutely killer ending. He really stuck the landing in my mind.

My one critique of the overall trilogy though is - and this could be a personal failing on my end - even towards the end of the third book, he would bust out a name of a character in a manner that made it seem like I should know who that character is, and I didn't have the foggiest idea in hell who it was and had to try to go back and figure out the significance. Oddly enough, most of the time this seemed to be with a character whose name began with the letter 'A'.

 

Started reading On Lavender Tides and the emotion I got with Balt's first imprint was amazing haha!

 

Yeah it rides the nostalgia button hard, but not in a way that feels cheap—it's a good story on its own. I really enjoyed it. Book two comes out in September too.

 

You're right. I think pokemon-fantasy can sound a little "cheap" but it's actually a great story!