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Tacuazin | 12 comments Books like GRRM's saga? That, my friend, is the question we all want answered.

Some time ago, I gathered some recommendations from other groups. I've read some, but not all, so I cannot give my opinion about the entire list.

* Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy and Tawny Man trilogy. I am in the middle of the Farseer one, and so far I like it. It is no SoIaF, but it's not bad either.

* Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. This one I've read, and I loved every bit of it.

* R.Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy. It is in my to-read list.

* Steven Erikson's Malazan books. I've been struggling with the first book, and so far I've been defeated. But many others love it, so I personally will give the guy another chance. Sometime in the future.

* Wheel of time has been mentioned before. I have no idea because I've not read even 1 page of it.

* Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince. No idea either.

* Lord of the Isles by David Drake.

Never read any of them so I really don't know, but that was gleamed from a forum that had a thread asking if anything was as good as aSoIaF, and sadly the resounding answer was no.

message 6: by Tacuazin (new)

Feb 01, 2011 12:57am

I've read the bold ones.

Robin Hobb's Farseer/Tawny Man was pretty good. Overly focused on the intricacies of court sometimes, but good for all of that. I read most of these between book 3 ('99) and book 4 ('05) of asoiaf. Wasn't disappointed.

Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy +2 stand alones. Well written multi-perspective novels. Major perspectives: A pompous ass and future king, a pure Conan type, a royal torturer, an escaped slave, many additional minor ones. Oh, and there are mage wars brewing. Read these this year, not bad. Entertaining and different.

Steven Erikson's Malazan series. Extremely complicated, sometimes too difficult to understand, utterly dark and chaotic. I struggled mightily to finish the first half of the first book, after that it took off. Tip: don't worry about spoilers, refer to the cast of characters listed early and often. Books 3 and 4 are some of the best fantasy I've ever read. It was occasionally a struggle to get there.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. First book was really good. It seemed to slowly decline after that. I quit after book 4 or 5 because the series became too repetitive for me.

I read some of David Drake's science fiction back in the late 80s-early 90s. It was okay, but simplistic. Some writers get better with age, others not so much. I need to check out Lord of the Isles.

(not mentioned in the quoted portion)

Sherwood Smith's Inda trilogy. Land based martial theme, court intrigue, some really good pirate sequences. Picked it up as filler between novels I'm currently waiting for and it was surprisingly good.

Out of the above, I would recommend Abercrombie's First Law to try first. If you can deal with his writing style, Erikson is really good, but not for everybody.

I would recommend Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series (The Name of the Wind, A Wise Man's Fear) before any of the aforementioned. He has a little GRRM in him though. There is extended downtime between publishing books.

Forever War isn't available on kindle, I had to buy the actual book (Barnes and Noble). How dare he make me read it the old fashioned way! I'm about halfway through. Great book for it's time, still relevant (as long as you have an "I believe" button that works), and the author has a much more modern view than Heinlen. Simple straightforward sci-fi so far. Not quite on the level of Heinlen, but still very good. Head and shoulders above anything being published now.

Gordon R Dickson's Dorsai-Childe Cycle is a good series if you prefer military style, killemall sci-fi. It's been 10-15 years since I read it (back when I was still in the military). I need to go back and see how it reads now that I have a much more "civilian" view of things.

Originally posted in the thread that got lost back in Feb. Some stuff not already mentioned. (if it was, I missed it)

Sci-Fi:

-Gordon R Dickson's Dorsai series, bibliography here.

-Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series, bibliography here. <-pure sci-fi, he later wrote some fantasy books, but I never liked them as much as his sci-fi. If you think he's ripping sombebody off, read the copyright dates.

Some others - Roger Zelazny, David Niven edit, meant Larry Niven, not the actor David

Fantasy:

-Steven Erikson's Malazan series, bibliography here. Aquired taste, but worth the struggle. Very chaotic, very dark.

-Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind. This is book 1, book 2 is due soon. Best fantasy book I've read in a long, long time.

-Gail Z. Martin's Necromancer series, bibliography here. Teaches at UNCC btw.

-Misty Massey's Mad Kestrel. This is a bit of pulp novel, but good reading nonetheless. I read it in two sittings. Good storytelling, also a local (NC) girl.

-Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, hard to find, bibliography here

Some others - Robin Hobb (first 6 books only, after that, it's like she forgot how to write), Eric van Lustbader (Sunset Warrior, Dai-San, etc.), Tad Williams' Green Tower.

Of all those, I'm eagerly awaiting the next books from Erikson, Rothfuss and Martin. Started reading Gail Z. by accident. The wife picked it up in error, thinking it was George R. R.