Help me decide what to read next

I'm on the 2nd book of the First Law trilogy, pretty decent so far.

You ever read the Asia Saga series by James Clavell (I think it is)?

Including the Shogun, Tai-Pan, and Gai-Jin.

It's actually 6 books and they're loosely related to one another. Read the first 4. Pretty solid books.

I always come with the same recommendations in these threads:

Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series (the basis for the Last Kingdom show on Netflix). It's set in 9th century England during the Viking invasions.

Cornwell also did an incredible King Arthur trilogy. It's not the classic Camelot etc from Le Morte d'Arthur. It's a gritty, reality based story set during the Saxon invasion circa 6th century England. It masterfully incorporates the characters and some of the tales that we all know, with a splash of ambiguous magic that never detracts from the realism.

Other miscellaneous books I love:
Congo
Sphere
Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allen series for some Israeli espionage

The Bible

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Kvothe

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Kingkiller

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These are what I'm considering:
-Stormlight Archive reread
-Raven's Shadow trilogy
-First Law trilogy
-Kingkiller Chronicles
-Red Rising trilogy

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Of those, I have read Ravens Shadow, Red Riding and Kingkiller (which remains unfinished).

Raven's Shadow book 1 (Blood Song) is the best book out any of the books in any of those 3 series. Yes, it's better than Name of the Wind. But Raven's Shadow peters out in book 3. It is still a good book, but books 1 is a masterwork and book 2 is legitimately great. Book 3, the finale, just bites off more than it can chew.

Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear are both better books than any of the Red Rising Trilogy or any other book Ravens Shadow except Blood Song. But Rothfuss has gone full blown GRRM on this series and there is no clear date for finishing the series in sight.

Red Rising is a wonderfully fun series that is well realized and complete and ends well. It is not going to blow you away with its inventiveness or writing, but it will sweep you up in an epic tale with characters with whom you can relate, though not nearly as well the characters in the other series.

So, I would say either go with Red Rising if you want a complete series that is tied up well or go with Ravens Shadow if you want a complete series that is tied up less well, but ultimately is more compelling. I would say Kingkiller is last because (a) Rothfuss is a dick and can't finish the series and (b) the books are highly overrated, which might lead to disappointment. They are good, but people blow Rothfuss for them as if they are on the level of fricking Tolkien and they aren't close.

Ranking the books individually:

1. Blood Song



2a. The Name of the Wind
2b. A Wise Man's Fear
3. Tower Lord
4a. Red Rising
4b. Morning Star
5. Queen of Fire
6. Golden Son

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The Bible

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Great work of fiction honestly

Little Women

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Raven's Shadow trilogy
-First Law trilogy

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One of these two. or Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy

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I just finished the second in the series and honestly, I wish I'd waited until the third (and supposedly final) comes out. Yes, it's very well written and is about as good as anything in the genre. But there is one element of the plot that is really starting to piss me off and hopefully the third book will eliminate that, it pretty much has to

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Without getting into detail, the thing that pisses me off about Rothfuss is his inability to tell a tight story. Perhaps he's using that to indicate how Kvothe embellishes or gets stuck on a topic that he particularly likes, but Jesus frick chapter after chapter is devoted to side stories that have very little point.