re: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recommendation & Discussion Thread

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The prism/gavin guile is awesome, and iron fist is fairly cool, as are karris and teia. I never liked Kip all that much, or his relationships, which was one of the reasons I don't rate that series as highly as some. That plus the last two books tanking compared to the first three.

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SPOILERS


I saw the Gavin / Dazen thing coming, not sure if it was supposed to be a big surprise reveal or not. And I suspected that he and the general had been in on it. The only thing that really caught me off guard, and I just got to this point, is when the king they are fighting reveals his sort of secret weapon being karris' brother. Thinking back that was really the most obviously foreshadowed twist I feel like. If the author tells you this guy is dead several times it means there is a 2/3 chance he is coming back into play.


I've also been working on building up a world and writing this story where the magic is used in a similar type way (very different type of magic that isn't an extensively explained and hard system for the most part). It is used for the daily operations necessary to service a big expansionary empire (food, etc.) - but at a major detriment to the health / cost of most of the users.

That aspect seems to be in here - the touched on it about halfway through this book - but they don't seem to be focusing on it yet in the same way I want to look at it. I'm looking at is more of an uprising / revolution of the masses type deal. Taking some inspiration from Shadow Campaigns and also trying to sort of twist the magic school trope where it has been sort of usurped and turned into an exploitative institution which only serves the elites of the empire.

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Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson for example has a somewhat similar magic system to Lightbringer with color based magic where color is drained from awakened objects to use magic (Warbreaker came out slightly before black prism).

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Sanderson actually mentioned that in a podcast I listened to recently.

I've kicked it around a lot and over the past few years I just sometimes just find the zone where things in my story start coming together. Tonight, I've been writing in a legal pad since I made that last post - I have thought for a while that cause of the way my magic system works (its going to be somewhat loose, I have some specific ways it works in mind but not super tight rules and it won't be explained a ton in that way) it functions in the brain and so the sort of cost if you overdo it, do it consistently, etc. is going to mimic the progression of CTE in football. And so now knowing how some of the characters I've defined are going to degrade mentally over time, I am able to put some limits on their abilities and also explain why some of them start doing volatile, and crazy things that aren't exactly rational, and then potentially and eventually into major mental decline, dementia, parkinsons like symptoms, etc.

But back in high school, I would like think up random cities - or get excited and wright down a certain idea - just generic bullshite really once I thought about it. But then a few years ago I had a real "aha" moment - it was about how to devise sort of a last battle of the universe type scenario without just a generic dark one and where both sides have real and understandable motivations (this was before avengers end-game lol and it has a much different reasoning and more defined what is possible within the world not just snap infinity stones and time travel). And I went on my first tera writing for several hours in a notebook.

So over the last few years I've just had notebooks and I've been writing down interesting ways I saw stuff handled in tv and movies and books - also interesting non-fiction stuff, ancient technology, planetary stuff, animals and some character ideas in a notebooks along with an ever-evolving plot line. Plus I've been listening to the Brandon Sanderson lectures and his writing excuses podcast and taking notes, editing my ideas.

Tonight I have just sort of written down a broad chronological outline that I am really happy with, have a good number of character Ideas in there, some setting, a lot of major event points. Some of the last little section is a bit hazy, but I have a good idea of what I want the finale to be - how I want to get there, its just figuring out a good transition at the 3/4 mark - a good turn into the conclusion.


The story mimics the Wheel of Time in some ways - getting ready for the final battle and having sort of earth type decedents - it doesn't take place on a future earth. But that wasn't the intent and it comes about in a very different way but just mimics final battle epic fantasy because that is what I love the most. Essentially for "backstory reasons" there is a pretty homogeneous type culture of humans - descendants of today's earth, who did some space stuff (not crazy far future warp drives, etc.) were able to colonize this planet - but they were not able to bring high technology with them - they colonized it through combined use of science and then magic to make the final leg - and only really have their knowledge and local resources and there are other intelligent beings.

Fast forward and we have a planet with a couple main continents involved in the story i'm thinking in some sort of flintlock era fantasy, not sure to what level really, they are sort of run by direct control and pulling strings by some of these remaining original colonizers (think First Law Wizard guy, and that Zelazny book the name escapes me now type of machinations). So down the line, when my actual story starts, we have seen a formerly moral nation / empire of humans turn into a oppressive regime as I described previously due to some backstabbing, etc. The story really starts with the story of the popular takeover and as a result, the masses no longer support their continued colonial efforts, due to spending, death, war, various in-country reasons, So the the second continent, where they had a loose foothold but it has money and resources is thrown into a power vacuum / chaos.

So then the main story is sort of like those national level machinations but where characters are pulling strings for the last battle - but it would be more like you were looking at it if right before the last battle a big empire (not as big as Hawkwing but a major one) was corrupted and sort of splintered into a few pieces - and as a result the seanchan continent (which also will be important in the last battle) was thrown into chaos as people fight for power and money as they are no longer supported by their main empire, and more characters pull strings and events over there boil over - with some of that intentional for ... reasons related to the last battle.

So through all of that noise, we get to imminent final battle, which is fought through a few books. (I need to explain some things here and first the "good guys" have to do some infiltration and stuff to give them an advantage and set things up). But we look at that, get a better look at these bad guys as we have'nt really seen much, just some nods and hints so gotta figure out how to make them not come out of nowhere, we also get some ambiguity as to if either side is really right or really wrong in their conclusions for why they have to have this last battle - and then after I feel like I've earned it to land right hopefully - throw out the classic, all out, last ditch effort fight for the fate of humanity with an epic showdown at the end.

So I have a really good feel for most of the chronology necessary outside of the transition into the final battle. And, as a final point, the story doesn't revolve around "gotta get ready for the final battle, fulfill prophecy" like Wot, it has a much different focus and events which lead up to the final battle sort of set up and finish, but arent' intended to get ready for it.



Tl;Dr

Now that I look at all of that, it is more of last battle machinations in Malazan, twisted into a more Wheel of Time type setting I think, maybe mixed with some nice peoples revolution action, throw in a few twists on tropes and a little last battle uncertainty as to who you should really be rooting for, both sides kind of have a legitimate point here.

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I just started To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

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What did you think of it? I just finished it. Pretty good book but I found some of it to be really over the top. Maybe the guy is on drugs. I dunno.

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Just finished the Greatcloaks.

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What did you think?


I finished up listening to first book of Lightbringer, started book 2 but couldn't really get into it so will probably return it and fire it up again sometime down the line. It was certainly good and well put-together with an interesting magic system, but I am not really fan of kip and something about the convoluted familial nature of the story just wasn't exactly what I'm looking for at the moment. I think it would be an incredible series for a movie because of all the colors and set-pieces.

Also finished Making Money - it was another great book in what I am discovering is Pratchett's style. Trying to decide if I want to go to Mort / the Death storyline or the City Watch books next.

Ya, it wasn't a super in depth world building series, not a whole lot of info on the surrounding countries or religions - but enough for the story it was telling I thought.

Probably my favorite new series read of the year.

I think I might be the only person on this board who enjoyed lightbringer all the way through. That shite entertained the hell out of me

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I think I might be the only person on this board who enjoyed lightbringer all the way through. That shite entertained the hell out of me

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Its not that I didn't like it, I certainly enjoyed the 1st one. But ..

SPOILERS


The whole convoluted family squabble, brothers / father / son / uncle / love triangle with her brother now being the evil ruler thing was just too much for me at the moment. Definitely still going to listen to the next 4 here in the next month or two.

I thought the ending could be better but as a Stephen King fan I’ve learned to enjoy the ride regardless of the destination.

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I'm kind of the same, I can't really think of a single ending to a series that I have just loved.

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Didn't love the Malazan ending?

I'd agree that it's typically more the journey than the destination, there is a big difference between an ending that is merely satisfactory and one that is poor.

Though I can relate to Cotton's comment about being used to that with King novels, dude is amazing with ideas but can't finish books to save his life. Unless it's a short story or novella, you can almost always count on a crap ending with him.

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Though I can relate to Cotton's comment about being used to that with King novels, dude is amazing with ideas but can't finish books to save his life. Unless it's a short story or novella, you can almost always count on a crap ending with him.

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I fricking love King though. He’s easily my favorite writer of all time because when he gets it right he knocks it out of the fricking park regardless of his endings.