What did you just read?

chaos said:

What do you guys recommend? Finished the Dark Tower series. Game of Thrones is never going to complete. So I'm looking for a decent new series. I like sci-fi of course so I was leaning towards The Expanse series since I like the TV show, but I have always been more of a fantasy guy so I had a thought about Sanderson since I've never read any of his stuff.

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Lots of good stuff if you haven't already read it. Stormlight Archive is probably Sandersons best, but the more recent mistborn books are also top notch. For the mistborn ones though you really should read the first trilogy first. They are still pretty good but not as good as the more recent stuff.

For epic fantasy that has already been completed there's Malazan, Wheel of Time (finished by Sanderson), Black Company (personally never could get into it). Probably others I'm missing.

Expanse is pretty good, this from someone who rarely reads sci-fi. Dresden Files by Jim Butcher is also really good if you like urban fantasy (set in Chicago). I also really liked Butchers completed series Codex Alera.

And on an unrelated note, fuck ebook pricing, especially for older books. Why the fuck are 20 year old books $10

Campbell1oo4 said:

Red Army by Ralph Peters - The Soviet Union decides to invade Western Europe in 1988/1989. The book follows a collection of company/field-grade commanders of parachutists, tanks and fighter jets as they struggle during the three day blitzkrieg into Central Germany. In a neat twist, the story is told from the perspective of the Russians and it does a decent job of supplying the reader with characters we want to see survive, get home and get back to their lives. Written as hard fiction, the book has an abrupt end that defies the conventions of fiction in order to deliver a more realistic view of what could have been. 7/10

War in 2020 by Ralph Peters - A new Japanese empire invades the Soviet Union and a regiment of US heavy cavalry (equipped with helicopter gunships the like of which have never been seen before) is sent over as an expeditionary force to help the Russians. There's also roguish South Africans, a plague, KGB interrogations, magical computers and girls who smoke too many cigarettes. 8/10

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I want to look into these but not in kindle

chaos said:

What do you guys recommend? Finished the Dark Tower series. Game of Thrones is never going to complete. So I'm looking for a decent new series. I like sci-fi of course so I was leaning towards The Expanse series since I like the TV show, but I have always been more of a fantasy guy so I had a thought about Sanderson since I've never read any of his stuff.

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Did you ever read the Honor Harrington series? Some good books for a while there, but gets too bogged down near the end. Also the Alexis Carew series (first book is Into The Dark) is interesting and fast reads.

chaos said:

What do you guys recommend? Finished the Dark Tower series. Game of Thrones is never going to complete. So I'm looking for a decent new series. I like sci-fi of course so I was leaning towards The Expanse series since I like the TV show, but I have always been more of a fantasy guy so I had a thought about Sanderson since I've never read any of his stuff.

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Between those two, I'd say start Sanderson with Way of Kings. It's his big series, it has a book and a larger novella coming out later this year, so it's a good time to hop on and there will be lots of discussion over the new developments.

Nothing against The Expanse, it's a good series, but the TV show is better and no book has yet to top the first, which you'll have already seen.

Ritley said:

And on an unrelated note, fuck ebook pricing, especially for older books. Why the fuck are 20 year old books $10

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Because the publishers got full control of the pricing when they renegotiated with Amazon early last year...or late 2015, can't remember. But anyway, they've jacked all the prices up to support print sells. Getting really bad, $15 for most new books, more if youre a big name, new Stormlight is $17 for example.

The Deep by Nick Cutter. Was good, if you like psychological horror/insanity tied in with plenty of body horror.

Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan. I enjoyed the authors Riyria series and decided to give one of their self-published books a go. Time-travel novels are always a guilty pleasure and this one goes into the future, quite far into the future. It was not bad, but there is a lot of SJW/Progressive stuff tied to the main story. I can see where the author was going, but it felt heavy-handed.

Homecoming by R.A. Salvatore. I got the first 'Drizzt' book when I was 9. With the novel division of WotC being shut down, it looks like this is the 'end' of the series (33 books long). I thought it should have ended when the vast majority of the characters were killed off nine-ish books before the last trilogy. This was a good send-off, but it amuses me that it took the near death of the TSR division of WotC to finally finish off the Drizzt story.

Sand by Hugh Howey. I loved the Wool series, easily one of my favorites from the last decade. Sand was more of the relative same, but felt sort of rushed due to how short it was (350ish pages).

Likely going to finish the month out with 'The Troop' by Nick Cutter.

Rofl The Way of Kings is a 45 hour audio book. Holy shit dude.

TWoK and WoR are pretty big books, not surprised by that lol

I recently went back and finished the 3rd mistborn book, was a nice reminder of how cool sanderson does his magic shit. I cant wait for the 3rd stormlight book~ i've never actually tried an audio book but going through both TWoK and WoR would be cool if they're decently done

For Sanderson, I would actually recommend reading in roughly release order. All his stuff is good, but he is one of those authors who gets stronger the further he goes on, so backtracking might feel like a step down in quality.

If you go that route, then you're looking at: Elantris, Mistborn series, Warbreaker, Wax and Wayne series, Stormlight series.

The Devil's Garden by Ralph Peters. When an American aide worker goes missing in Baku, a military attache from the American embassy has to navigate a criminal underworld of heroin kings, foreign businessmen, European spies and corrupted soldiers.

Different from the two other Peters' books that I have reviewed in this thread as the author limits the scope of his plot from a continent ravaged by war to a single city on the Caspian sea. He also downplays his habit of creating alt-historical plots that border of the fantastical (such as Russian paratroopers holding a bridge against British tanks, or American cavalrymen fighting Japanese commandos in Siberia) in order to tell the story of an American kidnapped by religious zealots among a civil war. Very basic plot. Realistic characters, but they're standard fare for a Peters' story.

If you do not know this author (you probably do not, except for interviews he does on Fox news) but you are interested in picking up something akin to Tom Clancy, then start with War in 2020. Do not start with this one. 6/10

Just finished The Blood Mirror (lightbringer #4) by Brent Weeks. Still enjoying the series. I like the magic system and his writing has gotten better since Way of Shadows.

Randin said:

For Sanderson, I would actually recommend reading in roughly release order. All his stuff is good, but he is one of those authors who gets stronger the further he goes on, so backtracking might feel like a step down in quality.

If you go that route, then you're looking at: Elantris, Mistborn series, Warbreaker, Wax and Wayne series, Stormlight series.

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Picked up Elantris today, thanks for the advice.

Make sure you get the updated version (automatic on Kindle). He cleaned it up and updated some parts of the story for the 10th? anniversary recently.

I enjoyed the His Majesty's Dragon/Temeraire series, but I do agree that when it swaps from being Dragon Wars to political intrigue and dragon's rights activism that it gets rather bogged down. I finished it. Book six was not terrible, Book Seven is better, but still nothing like the early series. Book Eight was hot garbage for the most part, involving parting the two main characters for a considerable swathe of the novel, then introducing unnecessary drama just to try and make it 'interesting'. The final book was a luke-warm conclusion, but it left lots open for a sequel series if the author ever feels like it.

I am a sucker for Alternate history, though.