Page 3 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 41 to 60 of 62

Thread: Fantasy Book Thread

  • Share
    • Facebook
  • Thread Tools
  • Display
  1. #41
    Just finished A Series of Unfortunate Events, though I don't think it's necessarily fantasy. Either way, I enjoyed it. I never finished it as a child, I fell away from them over time, but this time around I made it all the way through and very much enjoyed it. More so than as a child, I think, possibly because its signature narrative style reminds me of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

    I liked its ending. It was exactly as bleak as promised throughout the series, without becoming mere melodrama. Life doesn't match most peoples' bizarre sense of fairness, disaster can strike for no reason, there's no such thing as good or evil, people are stupid, there are rarely satisfying answers to life's questions and you have to just get on with things as best you can anyway.

    It was a better ending than I expected from a children's series (I know, I should know better, but modern YA is so idealistic and naive despite its superficially bleak promises and it's lowered my expectations), and I'm quite impressed by Daniel Handler's willingness not to condescend to children with the ending. Yeah, the story had bleakness throughout, but until the ending there was always a sense that there would be a satisfying conclusion, as is traditional, and this along with the narration's sense of humor diluted the message, made it more palatable and less effective. The end discarded the humor, talked to the reader seriously and respectfully about some unpleasant truths and managed to instill a lesson without feeling like an Aesop's fable.

    Definitely a favorite children's series. Give it a go - it starts off episodic but the longer story arc kicks in toward the end of book five, so if you try it, get at least that far. Highly recommended.

    I've moved on to The Chronicles of Prydain now. I never read these as a child so it's a first time for me, but I loved the horribly forgotten Disney adaptation (regardless of how unfaithful I've heard it to be) and Welsh (or British in general) mythology, so I have high hopes.

  2. #42
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    Uprooted was great. A single book and a darker fairy tale. I loved it. Going to try the Red rising trilogy. Waiting for the first Red Rising book to come back in as I have a hold on it in the library.

  3. #43
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    Read Red Rising. It was very good. A sci fi dystopian version of Hunger Games although there are enough differences to keep it fresh. Quite a few interesting characters and it didn't feel like a YA book.
    4.5/5

  4. #44
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    Just finished Golden Son - 2nd book in Red Rising trilogy. Often the second book is the weakest in a trilogy but this one was great. The first book was a lot like Hunger Games but that didn't bother me. This book had a totally different setting as the main character moves into an adult role but it's fast paced, action packed but still has great characters and some cool plot twists.

    I know Jeff loves science fiction so I'm sure he would love these books. Even though many consider it YA and compare it to Hunger Games or other YA books I think it stands out on its own and it doesn't feel like YA. It's just a very interesting and a solid book.

    This series is near a 5/5 for me. Hope the finale finishes strong (I've heard good things).

  5. #45
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    It's been awhile since I updated anything in this thread.

    The Red Rising Trilogy was great. It's not a true YA series but a good sci-fi book that is being made into a movie.

    I read the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. This was considered by many to be one of the newer grimdark style books. The author's twitter handle is Lordgrimdark I believe. I didn't find it overly dark after experiencing Game of Thrones. This is a lot tamer than that. The book centers around 3 characters and it's been a while since I've read it but it was well written and solid. I often find books smartly written/realistic or fun. Hard to find one that covers both. This was in the smartly written section and could have used a touch more fun. It's heavier and at times slow but very well done.

    Read the Ryria Revelations. This trilogy doesn't have bad language or anything overly sexual so it can be read by a younger set of readers as well. This falls into the fun category. Not that realistic or gritty but a lot of good characters starting with the two main thieves (more in the Robin Hood sense) that have a fun adventure. Light hearted and entertaining. Worth it. This is not a high fantasy type of book so don't expect different races, dragons or a lot of magic.

    Just finished the Codex Alera 6 book series. This was a lot of fun. It's an epic fantasy that isn't overly realistic. It's also a high fantasy type of book with magical elements like "furies" that were allegedly a dare to the author to mix fantasy and Pokemon. That sounds strange but it was a fun, fast action and fast paced ride. Quite a few characters, a bit of a coming of age story due to the main character but a perfect mix of different POVs to keep you from getting confused. Don't expect epic realism as there are a couple things you will shake your head at but I enjoyed them.

    I did read the City of Stairs and it was decent. But not enough for me to continue on. A little slow and different for my tastes. Slow is fine but I need to be hooked.

    My library has been on strike for 4+ months now. Hoping to get back into Wheel of Time after reading the first book. That is old school but also serious writing. After finishing a bunch of light hearted and faster paced books I'm looking forward to getting into something different.

    Just checking Goodreads and it says I've read 24 books this year already and almost 13,000 pages. That's easily my most reading in the last 4 years when I have started. Love my Paperwhite. That's pretty good for me. Baseball fans with a love of stats should check out "The Only rule is that it has to Work". Similar to Moneyball in how the premise is based on stats but the book is enjoyable because of the story.
    Last edited by Rudy; 11-07-2016 at 07:20 AM.

  6. #46
    Heisman morsdraconis's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Huntington, WV -------------Michael Guthrie
    Posts
    8,305
    Man, I haven't read a book in ages. Last one I "read" was Jingo, part of the Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett (I say "read" because I listened to it on audio book). I need to get back into doing that again now that I'm traveling 30ish minutes to and from work again.

    I'm really bad about reading books physically or through e-books. I get home and I just want to play video games/watch youtube videos and turn my brain off.

  7. #47
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    As long as the books are interesting I find myself reading more than gaming as I'm burnt out on some things in that area. I'll bring my Paperwhite to work and read at lunch too. There are a ton of good fantasy books as well as some sci-fi. A great backlog problem to have.
    Last edited by Rudy; 11-07-2016 at 08:16 AM.

  8. #48
    Heisman morsdraconis's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Huntington, WV -------------Michael Guthrie
    Posts
    8,305
    Quote Originally Posted by Rudy View Post
    As long as the books are interesting I find myself reading more than gaming as I'm burnt out on some things in that area. I'll bring my Paperwhite to work and read at lunch too. There are a ton of good fantasy books as well as some sci-fi. A great backlog problem to have.
    My problem is, I have such a HUGE backlog of games, I feel terrible not doing something with them when I get a chance to do so, which means I don't have much in my time table for sitting down and reading a book. First world problems, am I right?

  9. #49
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    You bet!

  10. #50
    Heisman morsdraconis's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Huntington, WV -------------Michael Guthrie
    Posts
    8,305
    I just finished "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini. Probably the fastest I've ever read a book. I don't want to give too much of the book away, but it's about depression, anxiety, and all of that fun stuff. It's really god damn good and it spoke to me in a way that a book about the subject hasn't done ever for me. It's a very real take on depression and anxiety and what it feels like from within.

  11. #51
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    Is that fiction or non?

  12. #52
    Heisman morsdraconis's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Huntington, WV -------------Michael Guthrie
    Posts
    8,305
    Quote Originally Posted by Rudy View Post
    Is that fiction or non?
    It's fiction, but very much written from the author's experiences in life.

  13. #53
    What happened to the book thread? No one reading anything, I am stuck at a " I don't know what I want to read" moment.

  14. #54
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    I'm on book 9 of the Wheel of Time. I have been reading this series exclusively now and hope to finish all 14 books by the end of the year.

    I've bought good deals on the Vagrant, Age of Myth and Tad Williams first book (Dragonbone Chair: Memory and Sorrow or something). I want to read the Fifth Season yet. For SciFi the first book of the next trilogy in the Red Rising Trilogy is out later. I really enjoyed Brian Stavely trilogy the Emperors Blades and he has a standalone just released called Skullsworn based on Pyre from his trilogy. She worships the God of Death and I found that cult weird. This book is supposed to be good.

    As for Wheel of Time the middle really bogs down. Book 8 was weak with very few memorable things and the start of book 9 was bad. At least they are shorter. Have one more book that is slow and then books 11-14 are supposed to be really good.

  15. #55
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    American Gods starts today on Amazon Prime or Starz. I'm very curious about this show. They have a decent amount of names in it. I quit reading the book because I thought it got too weird but maybe the TV format will do it well. Hopefully watching episode 1 tonight. The first season is 8 episodes.

    I'm not sure how much they will deviate from the book or what their plans are. This wasn't a trilogy. It's a single book 560 pages long. For Game of Thrones it was pretty much 100+ pages per episode. So I don't know how they can stretch this book out into multiple seasons unless they veer from the source material.

    Well, I just watched the first episode, which was rated R and just over an hour. Much like the book it has cool characters but very weird crap. I will watch the next one but I think I will quit sooner than later. Posted this in tv thread.
    Last edited by Rudy; 05-01-2017 at 07:57 PM.

  16. #56
    Quote Originally Posted by Rudy View Post
    I'm on book 9 of the Wheel of Time. I have been reading this series exclusively now and hope to finish all 14 books by the end of the year.

    I've bought good deals on the Vagrant, Age of Myth and Tad Williams first book (Dragonbone Chair: Memory and Sorrow or something). I want to read the Fifth Season yet. For SciFi the first book of the next trilogy in the Red Rising Trilogy is out later. I really enjoyed Brian Stavely trilogy the Emperors Blades and he has a standalone just released called Skullsworn based on Pyre from his trilogy. She worships the God of Death and I found that cult weird. This book is supposed to be good.

    As for Wheel of Time the middle really bogs down. Book 8 was weak with very few memorable things and the start of book 9 was bad. At least they are shorter. Have one more book that is slow and then books 11-14 are supposed to be really good.
    I read the dragon bone chair already , it's old fantasy so the world building can be a bit much at times. Typical slow start , epic ending. Not sure I have ever heard of vagrant I'll have to check that out.

    I have no interest in reading the wheel of time series , that has pretty much falled into the malizan series with me to big for there own good.

    Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

  17. #57
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    I only read one book of Malazan. It was OK. I wasn't willing to invest all that extra time in that series. The WOT should have been a lot shorter. Jordan gets out of control with characters, political meetings, etc. But I will finish it!

  18. #58
    Quote Originally Posted by Rudy View Post
    I only read one book of Malazan. It was OK. I wasn't willing to invest all that extra time in that series. The WOT should have been a lot shorter. Jordan gets out of control with characters, political meetings, etc. But I will finish it!
    I did read this series Free the Darkness (King's Dark Tidings Book 1) and it was pretty good if you like light fantasy by a self published author. It was an easy read and pretty enjoyable without all the heavy backstories and filler.

    I am actually looking forward to book three.

    Edit: This series was decent as well. Nightblade
    Its like a asian samurai type fantasy story, names are kinda crazy but over all story was pretty good. Another self published author so again expect fantasy light.

  19. #59
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    I've heard people say good things about Kings of the Wyld. Has humour and there have been sales on the Kindle US but not Canada.

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...gs-of-the-wyld

  20. #60
    Heisman Rudy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Kingsville, ON
    Posts
    7,304
    Finished Wheel of Time! 14 books with 12 of them this year. Took me less than a year I guess. A good series that dragged in the middle. Only for the hardcore fantasy reader and you have to like old school fantasy - lots of magic, evil trollics/orcs, epic good vs evil. Glad I read it.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •