The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread Book • Page 77

Count me in for it.

 

Testing the waters but hopefully we get a good number (not just from Chorus) to do it. I'll likely re-read it soon anyway.

 

If it's a spoiler free open for beginners read along, I'd love to jump in.

 

I was planning on doing a thread for spoilers (for those who have read it before) and another for new readers so spoiler-free

 

Outside of the official cover art, there isn't any fan-art unfortunately. The Empire of Silence Diamond Edition he just ran the kickstarter for will have some new art from other artists at least. Need people who can draw more than stick figures to hurry up, read the series, and pump out some art already!

Also, the novellas are fantastic. I thought doing Lesser Devil between EoS and HD then doing Queen Amid Ashes between HD and DiW were the way to go. His short stories in the world are REALLY good too (Tales of the Sun Eater Vol. 1 and 2 are currently available).

 

About to finish The Book That Wouldn't Burn from Mark Lawrence and it's very good.

 

Didn’t want to bump the ASOIAF thread and give people heart attacks haha. George you son of a bitch you knee m what you were saying with that opening line

 

Glad this got a second season

 

Damn Ashes of Man was great. I still think my favorite was Kingdoms of Death, what a glorious trip through hell that that was, but this was a great follow up. My favorite scenes are consistently either between Hadrian and the Emperor, or Hadrian and Alexander...which I really wish there was more of, he was such a big part of Demon in White but although he's still important to the plot hasn't been in it as much as I would like

 

Has anyone read Elric of Melibone series? It came up when i googled books like Final Fantasy haha but it's also a classic fantasy.

 

I have not read Elric—yet! they're on my shelf—but I have read some Moorcock. He's fantastic. Are you looking for something like Final Fantasy specifically, or ?

 

Moorcock is responsible for inspiring one of my favorite bands of all time

 

I think I’ll give that a read at some point. And yeah, I was haha. Which is a hard one to really rec.

 

I would absolutely recommend reading some Moorcock. He's pretty foundational to the genre, and his influence crops up in ways you wouldn't expect. I can actually kind of see the FF comparison—in that FF plots and worldbuilding can be all over the place from game to game, and Moorcock's aesthetic is kind of this edgy psychedelic brooding antihero weird sword & sorcery kind of thing (in the best way) that leaves its mark in a lot of different places (D&D, Nightblood, ASOIAF, grimdark as a whole even). So a lot of the steampunk/bladedancing/terrifying evil gods/chaos magic that crops up in some FF games (and other SE games) definitely feels like Moorcock even though they're not exactly in the same camp as a whole.

Not sure if that makes any sense haha. But Moorcock's stuff is great, well worth reading.

 

It’s on the TBR. Was thinking of starting as soon as I finish a few ARCs!

 

RE sun eater: Just finished Ashes of Man, and id put it 2nd behind DIW and definitely ahead of KOD, though no issues or complaints with those of you who felt otherwise. Splitting the story was done really well, as they both felt like 2 separate books and not half books.

My only complaint of this book specifically is that some of the events towards the end, were so heavily telegraphed, that to me, they lost a bit of impact.

As far as for the series overall, i have 2 complaints.
1) hes a bit repetitive as an author at times, and i noticed lots of phrases reused so often that they became distracting (one example being 'i didnt realize the words spoke were my own' whenever Hadrian is in shock / grief).
2) theres so much that happens 'off screen', and so much book interconnectivity now, that i have a hard time knowing if a referenced event happened in a past book or at a time between books that were just learning about. It took me a while to get into book 2 as i thought id missed an entire book because of that.

I just started the new James Islington trilogy, the will of the many. Only a few chapters in. Ill share thoughts either when something batshit happens that its like 'read this book now!' Or when done.

 

Agree with your points. I will say I highly recommend his short stories and novellas. They don't all directly connect to the events in the mainline books but they add great context to the world. I will say you should read "Royal Game" (currently exclusive to issue #34 of Grimdark Magazine on Kindle) as it has direct ties to Book 6.

Also on book 2, he purposefully wrote the beginning of book 2 to be confusing and disorienting as he wanted you to feel Hadrian's confusion from waking up from fugue. It's a common thing I've seen other readers bring up and he's commented that it's intended to be that way.

Almost done with Will of the Many, and my goodness it's a substantial improvement over Licanius (I ended up not finishing that series because I felt Islington severely needed a better editor and it was too convoluted for me, and it didn't help that I did audio. Kramer really needs more voices). I picked this up because it's approaching 1,500 reviews on Goodreads and it's still sitting at a 4.72/5 which is pretty rare for a book 1 of a new series, so I was curious. I honestly feel like it's a new author in the best way. He is handling single POV first person better than most, and this is coming from someone who loves Red Rising, and has written a super tight plot and great characters.

 

I just finished this last night (staying up way too late). I enjoyed the book, I’m not the biggest fan of first person POV but I feel like he nailed it. My head hurts a little thinking about the things that happened at the end but I’m looking forward to book 2.

 

Thankfully there’s some good Reddit discussions that helped a little bit. Excited to explore some of the implications from the ending

 

Going to start an ARC of Blade of Dreams by Daniel Abraham. Enjoyed Age of Ash so hoping to do the same.

 

I'm 20% in and really enjoying the pacing and intrigue so no real comments on the story other than everything I liked about Licanius is present here in fresh new packaging. Regarding the POV:
1) I like it, because it adds to the mystery that everything Vis knows, he's only going to tell us when he needs to, and it avoids any exposition and info dumps and is making it feel organic in its world building so far.
2) but I don't like it (and this may show how little I read) is that it took me a minute to get into the present tense 1st person POV as I'm so used to 1st person past tense (especially after all the Robin Hobb and Sun Eater I read). I read the first red rising a long ago and totally forgot that was the POV there as well. Either way, it seems less typical, and a little more awkward to read than past narration. This far into it, it's fine now but at first, I was taken aback by the style.

 

Yeah I was a little taken aback by the present tense 1st person POV as well. I haven’t read very many books using that style but once I got into it I didn’t really bother me.

 

Trying threads for my books and would like some bookish(and non) pals!

The Wulver's Library ⚔ (@thewulverslibrary) on Threads

 

Followed! I'm considering doing the same--making my account more about books/music I'm into than anything else.

 

Malazan update: in Midnight Tides. Still waiting for anything to actually click, which feels like a bad sign for the remaining 15 books I own/have yet to read.