Excellent book series to tide you over while Sanderson, Rothfuss, RR Martin

6,672 Views | 60 Replies | Last: 9 yr ago by bangobango
Ark03
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quote:
Really really hoping Sanderson comes out with a new way of Kings book soon; as the first two books are some of the best I've ever read; even better than his Mistborn series.

What on earth is up with Sanderson starting "series" and "trilogies" and not finishing them before starting another. Off the top of my head, I can think of the Reckoners Trilogy, the Rithmatist Series, the second Mistborn series, and the Stormlight series that all have at least one book published, with more on the way.

I can not think of another author that has had so many series, and it's driving me crazy. I wish he'd pick one and finish it!
bangobango
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Sanderson pumps out books quicker than anybody I've ever seen. If you're impatient with him then stay far, far, away from the Song of Ice and Fire series.
Ark03
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quote:
Sanderson pumps out books quicker than anybody I've ever seen. If you're impatient with him then stay far, far, away from the Song of Ice and Fire series.
Yep, I'm waiting on the next one there too. While I'm not going to look up the time now, I do recall waiting quite a while on the last Wheel of Time book by Sanderson, especially considering Jordan planned to end it with one volume, not the three more that Sanderson felt the need to crank out. However, closing that series was a tall order and Sanderson did it justice.

I'm not complaining about the speed in which he writes, I'm complaining that I'd rather he finish a series, rather than get me sucked into multiple series before he can manage to close one out.
MW03
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Has anyone done the Dresden books on tape? I'm looking for a new book to listen to that way, and I'm debating between them and the newest Ken Follet book.
jbsj9698
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Yes, the Dresden series is excellent on audiobook. James Marsters from the Buffy series is the narrator.
mid90
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quote:
quote:
Sanderson pumps out books quicker than anybody I've ever seen. If you're impatient with him then stay far, far, away from the Song of Ice and Fire series.
Yep, I'm waiting on the next one there too. While I'm not going to look up the time now, I do recall waiting quite a while on the last Wheel of Time book by Sanderson, especially considering Jordan planned to end it with one volume, not the three more that Sanderson felt the need to crank out. However, closing that series was a tall order and Sanderson did it justice.

I'm not complaining about the speed in which he writes, I'm complaining that I'd rather he finish a series, rather than get me sucked into multiple series before he can manage to close one out.


The thing with Sanderson is the variety of books he writes keeps him from burning out on one series or another, at least according to him. I'm willing to give that to him because he's such a prolific writer.

Rothfuss claims he doesn't want to focus solely on the Kingkiller Chronicle and get burnt out, yet he publishes almost nothing on the in between (a Novella about Auri, short story about Bast, and a couple creepy children's stories). I'm much less willing to concede that point to Rothfuss.
Texags is garbage
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For you Kindle types...I wish I would have seen this beforehand. No charge to sample the first few bits of each.

Brandon Sanderson's 'Mistborn' and 'Way of the Kings' Sampler
bearamedic99
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I assume people have read the first few books of the Sword of Truth series, the Midkemia series by Raymond Feist, the Belgariod by the Eddings, The Runelords series by David Farland, either series by Brent Weeks, and either series by John Marco. And I will always recommend the stand alone mil scifi book Armor by John Steakley.

The Tower Lord was not a bad book; just different from the first book by Anthony Ryan with more points of view. Pat Rothfuss's new book (novella really) may not be worthy buying (borrow instead); I enjoy the character of Auri but this book is much too short.

I just started reading the Expanse series by James S. A. Corey (really two authors ) and the first book was great with more to follow. Also just finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Short (though not too short) and excellent.
G.I.Bro
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I finished the "River God" thanks to the OP's suggestion last night. What a great book. I was assuming that the ancient Egypt series was a continuation of storylines, but the fact it isn't works in my favor as I don't have access to anymore at the current time. I'll be picking up the rest of the series soon.
jlb2957
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As to OP's question...

Jim Butcher is the first one that comes to mind. He has a fully completed 6 book "Epic Fantasy" series that (in true Butcher fashion) gets better with each book. Then you have 16 Dresden Files books to catch up on. With the Dresden Files, they start out good... then start to get better and better to the point that you read them so fast the middle 6 books blur together as if one big story.

Scott Lynch's Gentleman *******s series is good and I love the characters. However, my biggest beef with Lynch is his 3 pages of descriptions of everything. He needs to just leave more to the reader's imagination sometimes. But they are fun books to read.

These are the series I am caught up on and would recommend to anybody:

Jim Butcher:
The Dresden Files - Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty, White Night, Small Favor, Turn Coat, Changes, Ghost Story, Side Jobs, Cold Days, and Skin Game
The Codex Alera - Furies of Calderon, Academ's Fury, Cursor's Fury, Captain's Fury, Princeps' Fury, and First Lord's Fury

Scott Lynch:
The Gentleman *******s - The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and The Republic of Thieves

Patrick Rothfuss:
The Kingkiller Chronicle - The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear

Anthony Ryan:
Raven's Shadow - Blood Song and Tower Lord

Brandon Sanderson:
Mistborn - The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages, and The Alloy of Law
Stormlight Archive - The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance

I just bought book 1 of the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks as my brother told me it is very good. I also still need to catch up on Sanderson's other books as well.
bangobango
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I think Brent Weeks is a much weaker writer when compared to these other authors mentioned, but his Night Angel Trilogy is kind of fun and it has some satisfying moments. Pretty dark, too.
Prime0882
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http://www.amazon.com/Troy-Lord-Silver-Trilogy-Book/dp/0345494571/ref=la_B000AQ70T8_1_2/189-9513449-1037913?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416102740&sr=1-2

Going to keep posting this guy's work until I hear that someone's read his books. Very good author.
bearamedic99
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His books about Druss and Waylander were fun fluff but this does not seem to interest me.


Looking for scifi- try the Deathstalker series, I think by Simon Green
rhoswen
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Is the Spellmonger stuff by Mancour Kindle only?
MaroonStain
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Bookmark
maverick2076
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I think the Spellmonger stuff is Kindle only, now that I look at it. Its definitely worth picking up, though. And I'm glad you asked and forced me to look. I just realized he released a 5th book that I hadn't picked up yet.
MW03
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Been through 2 Dresden audiobooks already. Pretty solid stuff. Thanks for the recommendation.
jlb2957
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quote:
Been through 2 Dresden audiobooks already. Pretty solid stuff. Thanks for the recommendation.
He gets better as the books progress; becomes more comfortable with the characters and reading in general.
Longhorn Nation
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If you like historical fiction, I would recommend either of the Conn Iggulden series: Conqueror (Genghis/Kubla Khan) and/or Emperor (Roman empire). I think there are 5 books in each series.
LawAg05
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quote:
Jim Butcher:
The Dresden Files - Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks, Blood Rites, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty, White Night, Small Favor, Turn Coat, Changes, Ghost Story, Side Jobs, Cold Days, and Skin Game
The Codex Alera - Furies of Calderon, Academ's Fury, Cursor's Fury, Captain's Fury, Princeps' Fury, and First Lord's Fury

Scott Lynch:
The Gentleman *******s - The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, and The Republic of Thieves

Patrick Rothfuss:
The Kingkiller Chronicle - The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear

Anthony Ryan:
Raven's Shadow - Blood Song and Tower Lord

Brandon Sanderson:
Mistborn - The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages, and The Alloy of Law
Stormlight Archive - The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance

Read everything here except Scott Lynch. All very good reads and have recommended them to others. Just finished River God because of this thread. Also a good book, although I am curious as to how much of the story is fiction v. fact. I assumed mostly fiction until the epilogue. Regardless, I will pick up the remainder of the series over the holidays.

Now here is the hard part -- how would you rank these series? Just based my personal enjoyment, I would go with:

1. Dresden Files
2. Stormlight Archive
3. Kingkiller
4. Raven's Shadow
5. Mistborn
6. Codex Alera

*Pretty close call between 1-3. All very good for different reasons.
**Cannot rank Scott Lynch on here because I haven't read it. Maybe someone else can help out on that.

jlb2957
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Now here is the hard part -- how would you rank these series? Just based my personal enjoyment, I would go with:

1. Dresden Files
2. Stormlight Archive
3. Kingkiller
4. Raven's Shadow
5. Mistborn
6. Codex Alera

*Pretty close call between 1-3. All very good for different reasons.
**Cannot rank Scott Lynch on here because I haven't read it. Maybe someone else can help out on that.

Pure enjoyment?

1. Kingkiller
2. Dresden Files
3. Ravens Shadow
4. Codex Alera
5. Stormlight Archive
6. Mistborn
7. Gentleman *******s

The space between these is very small because I really enjoy them all, but this would be my order, gun to my head. Also, I am ranking these off of my favorite books in each series. Really, many of the books from these series would be ranked over other books from other series', even though I would choose the series as a whole over the other.
mwp02ag
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If you like thrillers the Jason Bourne books by Robert Ludlum are some of my favorites.

I also really like the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. The movie adaptation sucked but the books are really hard to put down.

If you liked the Bourne series and haven't read his stand alone book The Parsifal Mosaic, pick it up. Great book.

I am currently on book 5 of the Wheel of Time series and the fantasy genre is all new to me after reading the Game of Thrones books. I've got a lot of reading to do based on this thread...
SQXVI
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glad to hear that the Dresden file is so universally liked on texags, i read the synopsis and it sounded kinda hokey; but i'll check it out. After that i'll probably try and tackle the malazan decology
jlb2957
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quote:
glad to hear that the Dresden file is so universally liked on texags, i read the synopsis and it sounded kinda hokey; but i'll check it out. After that i'll probably try and tackle the malazan decology
My favorite character in any book is Harry Dresden... followed by Michael Carpenter (of the Dresden Files)

The books are not hokey in the least and are actually fairly dark. Butcher does a great job with character building, each one being very multidimensional. Even the bad guys have depth and story to them.

They start out good and get great when butcher hits his stride around book 3.

Edit: Speaking of Michael Carpenter... holy ****... Skin Game... gave me one of those seldom found "cheer out loud" moments.
LawAg05
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quote:
quote:
glad to hear that the Dresden file is so universally liked on texags, i read the synopsis and it sounded kinda hokey; but i'll check it out. After that i'll probably try and tackle the malazan decology
My favorite character in any book is Harry Dresden... followed by Michael Carpenter (of the Dresden Files)

The books are not hokey in the least and are actually fairly dark. Butcher does a great job with character building, each one being very multidimensional. Even the bad guys have depth and story to them.

They start out good and get great when butcher hits his stride around book 3.

Edit: Speaking of Michael Carpenter... holy ****... Skin Game... gave me one of those seldom found "cheer out loud" moments.
Agreed. They start out as popcorn detective stories -- really quick and easy to knock out in a few days without much plot deviation. At first they are slightly above average. Then Butcher seems to hit a stride with both character development and witty banter. Dresden probably has some of the best one-liners in any series I have ever read.

I think his most recent stuff is his best starting with Changes. He really became an excellent writer over the years, so it is somewhat interesting to see the author and characters develop over time. I don't think Butcher is as good of a writer as Sanderson, but I haven't found an author who can approach Butcher for witty banter.
jlb2957
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I think his most recent stuff is his best starting with Changes. He really became an excellent writer over the years, so it is somewhat interesting to see the author and characters develop over time. I don't think Butcher is as good of a writer as Sanderson, but I haven't found an author who can approach Butcher for witty banter.
One of the reasons I love Harry Dresden. Dresden's inner monologues (literally, when faced with his sub-conscious) is ALWAYS entertaining.

Changes and Cold Days are freaking crazy good. I love how the more powerful Dresden gets, the more badass the enemies (and frenemies) get. Also, I love seeing some of the wizards letting loose in some of the later books.
bangobango
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The concept of the Dresden books is hokey as hell, but Butcher does a pretty good job of somehow not cheesing it up too much.
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