Sigh. I know that: I read the book. It was hyperbole, to encourage folks to read it. After all, that is his legend, and as they say in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Anyway, the book really is worth reading!
I've read a lot more than three Discworld books (must be closing in on twenty now) and Sir Pratchett is a very, very, very inconsistent author. Some of his books are great, some are merely good, others are dire.
I've been looking for some good seinen or shounen manga for awhile. Tried Deadman Wonderland today and I was pretty disappointed with how shallow and forced the characterizations were. I guess I am a bit spoiled after reading Monster, 20th Century Boys, Gantz, etc. I really like horror manga also, if anyone knows of stuff beyond Junji Ito, Kazuo Umezu, and the usual people who get suggested.
If you're after a more thematic read (which may still be interesting in its own right) I can recommend Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) and Fly Away Peter (David Malouf). The former has much stronger plot development, but I enjoyed both because of the thematic concerns they both address.
Here. Good author of Fantasy books. Some gets a bit repetitive, but how can it not in high fantasy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_S._Friedman In particular I suggest this trilogy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldfire_Trilogy I gave up on the genre years ago for the most part after reading the drivel that is R.A. Salvatore's "Dark Elf BS." I may have been tolerable if the books started with the following warning: "Drizzt is invulnerable and his farts smell of roses. He is a fucking deity and cannot be defeated. By the end of this series of books he will be riding fucking unicorns and one-shotting deities. I shit you not." I am open to other points of view, but mine will not change. Good day to everyone.
Larry Correia: Monster Hunter International series. Because it bears repeating, just like the books. I read through the first book probably 5 times, enjoying it each read. It does fantasy monsters in modern day setting right. Basic premise: Bounty hunters who hunt down monsters, which the public isn't allowed to know about(men in black and all). The monsters are really dangerous, and the hunters need good teamwork and weaponry, guns lots of guns. The main character ends up with a custom full-auto 12 gauge shotgun, with underslung grenade launcher. Since the public isn't allowed to know, they mainly recruit from those who survive monster attacks. For the main character, it all starts with his boss turning into a werewolf... It is a rivetting read, and the author knows how to build suspense. It has a healthy dose of humour, without making it into a comedy, and there's romance involved. Think Jim Butcher crossed with John Ringo, add more gun nut, stir.
...Yeah, Drizzt... Let's just say there's a reason Dual Wield is what it is, and leave it at that. (Also, Dark Elves have become a race entirely composed of rebels from their dark blardeblurgl if the sheer volume of PCs is anything to go by.)
I've played a drow twice, LARPed it actually. I was a high mage. I was also evil. The second time I went was the most memorable one. In the first 15 minutes of arriving, I had convinced a group of "evil men" to be my underlings(completely in character). The backstory for the LARP was that there was going to be a competition to see who became the new magic god. I decided to cut down on the competition, so on the second day I took one of my underlings as a bodyguard, walked into the wood elves camp, telling them I wanted to talk to their mages. I was let in, and then I told them it was mage business, for their ears only, I was left alone with them(apart from my bodyguard, oddly enough), and then while we were talking, I used some non-verbal cues for my bodyguard, and we coordinated and slit both their mages throats. Then we walked casually away, until the alarm was sounded, and we legged it to safety.
The thing with Drizzt is that you're signing up to read about a PC. Modern fantasy is more about the NPCs, or the PCs in lower magic, grittier campaigns, if that makes sense.
I just read a book with a Mr. Diggle. He is a big, burly cook, so I imagined a Muscle Diggle with a chef hat baking zwieback all day. It made me smile whenever I read the name. It was "Terror" by Dan Simmons btw.
Best fantasy I've read lately has been, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Good story told from a very personal, first person perspective. A nice change of pace from what's become the stolid norm in fantasy these days. For something a little wilder and darker try anything by Joe Abercrombie. He creates very fascinating characters who are neither all bad nor all good. I love the villains and hate the heroes in equal parts. An astounding writer. Read 'The Three Laws' trilogy to get your foot in the door. All of his fantasy so far takes place in the same setting, though some of the stories aren't strictly connected.
Not sure if you're reading a translated version or not, but the English-language name for Abercrombie's series is "The First Law", and there's three books in it, but he's expanded it with a bunch of standalones.
Ah, excuse me. You have it right Althea. It's been a year or so since I read them. Thanks for catching that.
The trilogy is awesome, Best Served Cold (first standalone) was a letdown though. All the characters feel like drafts for the original trilogy and it's very samey. The Heroes is pretty good again, though the recurring characters appear kind of warped in comparison to their appearances in the books before. Nice reflection about war in general though. I'm desperately waiting for the third book of "The Name of the Wind" and I do hope he gets a more coherent narration than the second, still super awesome book, "The Wise Man's Fear". During my vacations I got started on John LeCarrre. I usually don't like thrillers or detective novels, but this is something else... An intelligent, believable spy novel with likeable villains with real motives and heroes that use very questionable means to achieve their goals. Will have to get more of that I read "The Dragonfly" btw.
The third book in Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London serries arrived at the library yesterday and I read it in about five hours. If you haven't checked this serries out yet, I highly recommend it. The first book, Rivers of London (or Midnight Riot for those of us in the States) is a must read. I didn't like the Moon Over Soho quite as much, but Whispers Under Ground is just as good as the first one. Note that the second book isn't bad, it's actually quite good. But one of the primary characters from the first novel was missing (for totally valid reasons) and I think it hurt Moon Over Soho's character dynamics a bit. For those wondering, the serries features one Peter Grant, a Police Constable in the London Metropolitan Police Department, who is still something of a rookie, having just finished his probationary period. On his last day before his assessment and assignment out of his probationary position, he meets a ghost who is a material witness to a murder. Once Peter accepts that he's talking to a ghost, and discovers his story checks out, Peter does what any self respecting cop would do. He goes for a follow-up interview. He's found in the middle of his ghost hunt by Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightengale. Career: In the crapper. Except it turns out that Inspector Nightengale, in addition to being in charge of Economic and Special Crimes Section Nine, just so happens to be the Last Wizard In England, and he's decided it's time to take an apprentice. New Career Goals: Learn magic, avoid fatal stroke from the same, develope working theory of why magic ruins all known forms of microprocessors, master conjegation of latin verbs (very important.) There's a lot of running themes in the Rivers of London serries, including the eponymous rivers themselves, and yes, London used to have more tha one. The gods of those rivers are still around, giving Peter headaches, even if their rivers are built over these days. But what really makes the serries tick is the fast paced writing as Peter works his way through his day to day investigations, the wonderful character dynamics, particularly between Peter and Inpsector Nightengale and Peter and Leslie May, another rookie cop who joined the force around the same time but didn't meet a ghost. Oh, and there's intrigue, references to Nazis (Nightengale is nearly a century old, although he looks forty, and fought in WWII), foot and car chases, roof top fights with telekenises and fireballs and pretty much anything else you might want out of a fantasy thriller. I highly recommend checking it out.
The translated versions of Christian Jacq's Ramses novels are out of sight. They're honestly the most epic historical fiction novels I've read recently. You have to read those. No, seriously. Also, read the Ahhotep series by the same author, set in the time of the Hyksos occupation. Highly recommended from a voracious reader. YMMV though.
I just finished reading a really good book -- it's been on my reading list for a bit, but out of the blue a friend told me how he had just read it and how good it was so it moved to the top of my list: It's Wool Omnibus (Wool volumes 1-5) by Hugh Howey. You can actually get the first volume of it for free through Amazon. Anyway, it's a science fiction story about people have lived for many generations in a huge silo underground, because the atmosphere has been poisoned with toxic gases. "Wool" refers to the fact that periodically, criminals in the silo are sentenced to go outside with a piece of wool to clean the scientific instruments that are left there to measure the atmosphere -- these people inevitably die as the gasses manage to eat through the suits that they wear. Anyway, it's very good, and I highly recommend it. I picked it up because it had 5* reviews from Amazon (I'd never heard of the author before) but the book sounded interesting to me. I'm glad I did. If you are unsure, pick up the first volume (and the free Kindle reader, if you don't have it, or own a kindle yourself) -- it's free, and will probably hook you the way it did for me. /Edit Wow, just found out that there is a volume 6 out now (a prequel). Instant purchase. from me. I'll let you know how it is when I'm done. http://www.amazon.com/First-Shift-L...t&ie=UTF8&qid=1347768839&sr=1-3&keywords=wool
I am an avid reader myself, mostly reading fantasy or Sci-Fi of some kind. I'm currently re-reading Tolkien as preparation for The Hobbit movie in December. (For the record, I liked The Silmarillion). I don't know if I have any one favourite story or author, but I can agree to many of those already mentioned, however, I will mention a bit myself. George R. R. Martin has been mentioned, but in addition to his ongoing epic (which is great, and got me into Martin's books in the first place), I would like to praise both his earlier novels and in particular his short stories. Some of them are absolutely brilliant (though many are quite dark). In case anyone wants specifics I would recommend Meathouse Man, A Song For Lya and The Second Kind of Loneliness. (Also, obviously, his earlier novels Fevre Dream, Dying of the Light and the Armageddon Rag) Andrej Sapkowski's Witcher stories (or at least what I have read of them, being Last Wish and Blood of Elves) are great as well. Geralt is a terrific character and the world isn't just your typical fantasy world. Even if it has dwarves, elves and humans. Joe Haldeman's The Forever War is a story about war in space inspired by the Vietnam war. It really tells a great story and brings up some very intriguing issues. Justin Cronin's The Passage might not be as literarily great as the above, but it tells an exciting story of a post-apocalyptic America. I would also recommend Jan Guilleau's spy thrillers about Carl Hamilton to anyone fortunate enough to speak a language to which they have been translated.
