re: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendation & Discussion Thread

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I'd like to read a little more flintlock fantasy.

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Sounds like Powder mage should be your call then. Wexler's shadow campaigns is very good too, but not quite as good as powder mage. And I think I like the second powder mage trilogy a bit better than the first.

Silmarillion - it takes some serious focus/memory OR pauses between segments to absorb what you read. To me it is by far more epic (thus far) than the main lotr trilogy.

Shannara series (despite its obvious first book being a copy/paste of fellowship)

Yeah, I was impressed with McClellan across the board really. He managed solid world building, solid plot, solid writing, and really interesting characters. Taniel and Ka-Poel are awesome.

He's definitely one of the top few new authors I've read over the last decade.

Funny how he took Sandersons writing course I think. I remember Sanderson talking about him when I listened to the ones they put up on youtube from like 2016.

Just saw they have a more recent version up on youtube now

I love old fashioned slow sci fi things. Millions dead on the first page turns me off. I prefer adventure well described stuff. The death of one character that you know a bit about elicits more of a response than the death of a world you know by name only. Thats why I read and write ole school space opera.

Just finished Prince of Thornes by Mark Lawrence, looks like amazon is backed up and wont be delivering the next two in the trilogy until may or so.

I'll have to take a look at the willful child books, love Malazan and have been meaning to get into some of the other books in the malazan world - saw one of his sci fi on the shelf last time i went to Barnes & Noble but didn't look at it too much

I ordered a bunch - just got in Crimson Campaign, but its the 3rd book of Powdermage trilogy so doesn't help much but at least they will be trickling in.

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Also about to finish Broken Empire trilogy - author does a great job of making a pretty terrible group of characters somewhat sympathetic and using them as a protagonist.

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Yeah, Jorg is one of the more interesting characters in fantasy due to that. Lawrence does a great job with him and having a really great backstory for why he is the way he is. It's like the crew of the Black Company ramped up to 10 and without Croaker glossing over the negative details. The only other character I can compare to Jorg to in terms of having so many scenes of being a terrible person and still being sympathetic is Angus Thermopyle from Stephen R Donaldson's gap cycle series.

Have fun reading Powder mage, I just got done reading two newer urban fantasy books by McClellan, his new Valkyrie collections series, which were quite good. I'd recommend them to anybody who likes Dresden Files or the Iron Druid series.

Yeah, Lawrence's book of the ancestor trilogy and his most recent impossible times trilogy (sci fi set on Earth) are both very good.

He was already pretty much there already, but reading the impossible times trilogy moved him into my immediate buy when his books come out category no matter the topic/setting.