Fantasy/Sci-fi Book recommendations revisited

the malazan series is fucking awesome and by the end a lot of stuff comes together. there are other spin off books by ian casselmont that tie in and explain other things. and there are like 2 other trilogies planned. stick with it.

anyways im on book two of Greg Keyes' Kingdom of Thorn and Bone. its mediocre but ill stick it out.
 
Window said:
I had a lot of trouble getting through the first malazan book, not a fan of novels with all-powerful characters/gods walking around that basically make any normal human insignificant
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Though there was a lot of gods-toying-with-mortals in the 1st (and subsequent) books, it's also clear they're not omnipotent. In fact many of the gods in the pantheon end up being unduly manipulated by the very same mortals they're trying to influence.

I'm currently starting Midnight Tides (Malazan book 5) and it's becoming clear the books are very loosely interconnected. Only one name listed in the "Dramatis Personae" -Trull Sengar- is a repeat character and so far he appears, chronologically, earlier than he did in previous books.

Neither chronological order nor progressing storyline seem to be a major focus of the series - not that it makes the books any less engaging, but if you don't expect subsequent books to pick up where the last one left off or to tie up any loose ends, you may enjoy them more as stand-alone novels.

Aside from understanding the pantheon, which you basically get from book 1, a reader could reasonably read these books in any order they chose.
 
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-=TTC=-Serpreme said:
no shit, those were the set before the void series? I love the void series. I've read most of his books. Those two books are currently sitting on my book shelf. Maybe its time to brush them off.
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Oof, reading the Void series before reading the Commonwealth series sounds like it'd suck :( So many characters in the Void series who were important 3,000 years before during the Starflyer war! Hell, even the end reveal of who The Lady was at the end of book 3 was only significant if you'd read the Commonwealth books

I recommend going back in time and slapping yourself for not reading the Commonwealth books first. Its the only way.
 
And then tell Hamilton he should write his new Void books sooner rather than later

I admit it. I don’t like enforced breaks from writing. Especially not when I’m in the middle of a book which is going well. There’s also the notes to take into account. Right now in addition to writing Great North Road I’m developing the Fallers trilogy, which will probably be the next SF project -that’s the one set in the Void.
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Blog 025 - May 2011
 
If you've read Deadhouse Gates you'll get it.

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Phydeaux said:
Neither chronological order nor progressing storyline seem to be a major focus of the series - not that it makes the books any less engaging, but if you don't expect subsequent books to pick up where the last one left off or to tie up any loose ends, you may enjoy them more as stand-alone novels.

Aside from understanding the pantheon, which you basically get from book 1, a reader could reasonably read these books in any order they chose.
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I disagree with this.
 
Dead Ben said:
I disagree with this.
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Fair enough. As I said I'm only on book 5 so I shouldn't extend that comment to the entire series. However I believe at least books 2 through 5 could be read out of order without making the series any more confusing that it already is. The first 5 books have very disparate storylines.
 
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Darklord said:
Are the Malazan ones worth reading?

I just finished the Safehold series by Weber and Snuff, which quite possible could be Pratchett's last book =(
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Yeah, it was worth it. I think I just got disconnected during the 5th or 6th book where all of a sudden we're dealing with a complete different set of characters/locations at an earlier time. Even though things sort of come together again, I couldn't shake the feeling that he should stop introducing so many new characters (often of little importance) all the time. More and more arcs keep being created and some get pretty shitty or non-existent ends. Despite all this, it is only in these later books that Tehol and Bugg appear, and the interactions between those two characters make any reading worth it really.
 
Finished dance over the weekend. Fucking GRRM.
Spoiler


Need to find something else to read.

He's probably not going to get the next one done this decade...
 
"has been called Harry Potter for adults" ... I guess I'll give it a try if I don't find anything else.
Just hoping it doesn't have elves and goblins etc.

I should really go through this thread again. I've read some amazing books that were suggested and surely some of them must have had sequels released since.
There was one particular I've been meaning to look into... it was the first book of a new series (Sanderson maybe?), some elements of magic/alchemy and power armor. That book was great.
 
pZ II Birdy said:
Finished dance over the weekend. Fucking GRRM.
Spoiler


Need to find something else to read.

He's probably not going to get the next one done this decade...
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As has been stated elsewhere, Dance was mostly just the chapters cut from Feast when it got too long. So he separated the books by character, and then released Feast without certain viewpoints. Dance had just a couple Arya and Cersei chapters to fill out the book
 
Oh... shows how long it's been since I read Feast. I thought the three characters that had been omitted from it were Jon, Dany, and Arya. My mistake.
 
Since this thread (or one just like it) I have read the entire WoT series and all of The Dresden files books.

I thought Dresden was good up to the end (though i didnt love the last book). WoT was great with Jordan writing it but kind of sucks after he dies. Have a couple books to sneak in now before i get into a new series, namely Snow Crash and a couple random books i've been given to read and putting off then i think I will start Codex and maybe something else.
 
Yeah I'm hoping the next Dresden book is better

Spoiler
 
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