re: Fantasy Book Discussion Thread (Please keep spoiler free)

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The Gentleman Bastards Sequence by Scott Lynch

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The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

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Chronicles of Amber - Zelanzy

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Farseer Trilogy (starts with Assassin's Apprentice) by Robin Hobb

Broken Empire Tilogy (starts with Prince of Thorns) by Mark Lawrence


I've read a shite-ton of fantasy over the last 30 yrs. These are all excellent.

Mistborn series is fantastic so far. Currently what I am reading...

Red Rising series was great. One you can't put down.

Steelheart series was ok but nothing great.

Excited to try out the kingkiller

Love ASOIAF.

Need to start reading the Saxon Chronicles soon. Not technically a "fantasy" series but it's the series that The Last Kingdom
is based on.

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ASOIAF

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I have heard about it. It would probably make a good tv show.

Give anything to be able to "unwatch" GOT and remove it from my brain and rewatch it. Then repeat over and over

If you are a fan of audiobooks then I suggest listening to the following:

First Law Series (and the 3 stand alones) by Joe Abercombie (N: Steven Pacey)
Red Rising Series by Pierce Brown (N: Tim Gerard Renyolds)
Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson (N: Michael Kramer)
Magic 2.0 Series by Scott Meyer (N: Luke Daniels)
The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne (N: Luke Daniels)
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (N: James Marsters)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (N: Wil Wheaton)

The narration of these books is excellent.

I agree that first Kingkiller was a little slow, but it got really good at the end and I knew it was establishing the characters. I was actually kind of surprised with how abruptly it ended. I guess the author signed on for the trilogy when getting this one published. Very cool book. One thing I like about it is that the magic is rooted in science and doesn't rely on the crutch of fantasy. Like it doesn't require a ton of suspension of disbelief and just say "oh it's magic, that's why." Like they explain the metals and chemicals and shite. I liked that element of it.

Yeah, I didn't want it to end. It was well written and you are correct that it was more about establishing the characters. I still haven't read the second book.

I read the first two books and have been waiting since 2011 for the third in the series (The Doors of Stone). Here's the funny thing...when he released the The Wise Man's Fear, the third book was SUPPOSEDLY already written. That was 5 years ago and I'm not holding my breath for its release in the next few years. In fact, it kinda pisses me off when authors release books so sparingly (I'm looking at you George RR Martin!). I may not read it as a personal protest.

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Mistborn series is fantastic so far. Currently what I am reading...

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It's awesome although I didn't love the ending, still very good.

For me, the Red Rising Trilogy (assuming we'd consider that fantasy and not sci-fi) is as good or better than anything mentioned so far IMO. It's an incredible world with awesome characters.

They also do a fantastic job of truly creating a trilogy with a true end. This is my biggest pet peeve with fantasy as 90% of them never give you true conclusions as they're always looking for the spinoff. There were still some things that could be addressed after the Red Rising Trilogy ended, and I'd probably ready whatever they put out next; but they gave me a true, satisfying ending, and I appreciate that these days when it comes to fantasy works.