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re: Book recommendations for non-ASOIAF medieval fantasy?

Posted on 5/21/16 at 12:25 am to
Posted by tigervet4
Member since Sep 2006
2343 posts
Posted on 5/21/16 at 12:25 am to
quote:

All the Sanderson works


It really is amazing how prolific he is. He finished the WoT, did Mistborn, Steelheart, Stormlight, Elantris, Warbreaker, Rhithmatist, Legion....

The guy is only 40 years old. Simply amazing.
Posted by tigerfan88
Member since Jan 2008
8186 posts
Posted on 5/21/16 at 10:11 am to
Don't really have a ton to say because everyone else has already covered it extremely well but I love this topic so I'll give my two cents.

1. Kingkiller Chronicles by Rothfuss is my absolute favorite fantasy series to date. Very different from ASOIAF in many respects, but mainly in that it worldbuilds through one character's perspective and not 30 people's. Also more concerned with "everyday" life than any other fantasy series I've come across, but in an extremely fun way. He does seem to be falling into a George RR pattern though in regards to taking forever to right the third book, and shoehorning himself into finishing in a certain amount of books even though narratively it seems like it should be at least two more.

2. Wheel of Time-As everyone else has said, my first real foray into high fantasy. When we were waiting for the books to come out it really seemed like books 8-10 were realllllly slow, but now that they're all out upon rereads I would say only 9-10 are really that bad. Even 9 has a lot good moments. There's no explicit sex or gore I suppose, but I wouldn't really call it juvenile or cartoonish as some people have. Just more in the Tolkien vein than the Martin vein. But so many great characters, Mat Cauthon is a legend, a super rich world with a rich and developed in world history just like ASOIAF. Much more magic based but with a very logical and easy to follow magic system for the most part.

3. Gentlemen Bastards-Basically the Ocean's movies set in a Renaissance world. And I mean that in the best way. Think it suffers from the worst magic system and the worst world building of the these three series, but again the sort of con artist/thief background of all the stories is really unique and really fun.

4. As someone else mentioned, if you like Medieval Fiction with a touch of fantasy as opposed to straight up High Fantasy then you can't go wrong with Bernard Cornwell, particularly his Saxon Stories and Arthurian Trilogy. Both would probably be classified as historical fiction, but the Arthurian trilogy especially have some fun Druid/Merlin/prophecy stuff that's definitely not purely historical.

5. I've personally never read Weeks or Sanderson's stuff, except his finished GoT, but I have friends who've read them and have really enjoyed them. They also both have finished series, as well as having reputations for fast workers compared to the first three guys I listed. So you're likely not going to wait 5 years for a book if you get into their series.
This post was edited on 5/21/16 at 10:15 am
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