teeray

Finished The Way of Kings last weekend. Well worth it. Good stuff. Like with any book #1 it is slow out the gate, but the last half of the book is REALLY good, and sets up well for whole series. Now I just have to hope I am not 70 by the time all 10 books are finished. Brandon Sanderson's style is very different from GRRM, it seems to have more "Fug yeah" than "holy poo" moments. But the "fug yeah" moments are so awesome it is worth it. It is not better or worse, just different. Also, for what will be a big world it is narrowly focused on basically 4 major POV characters. The result is less world building and confusion, which allows more character development. He teases the reader with some other POV characters but only briefly to give a glimpse of what lies ahead. Kaladin was by far the star of the novel! Just a really great read. There are some minor things to nitpick (to me none of the characters were as good as Vin from Mistborn, or Logen Ninefingers from First Law), but overall it was awesome, and I am excited to see where this story is headed.

Also, I think these guys let the scope get away from them. I was watching a podcast with several good fantasy authors, and they generally have an ending in mind and kinda work backwards. I think sometimes they come up with cool ideas, start wanting to explore new characters they created, then end up with a mess and struggle to get it all back together in a satisfying way. So they get kind of stuck. They also talked about writing organically which allows the story to come together as they write. I think that too gets them off the main track and they get stuck. One good thing about Stormlight Archive is that so far it has been about only basically 4 POV characters, so it has kept story tight so far. At some point though Sanderson is going to have to stretch out the world and characters, and that is when I worry that it will get off track.

Brandon Sanderson is a really good writer. I just read the Mistborn trilogy, and The Way of Kings and both were awesome. I am not sure he could get the tone of ASOIAF correctly. His books are usually not as dark and gritty as ASOIAF. Joe Abercrombie or maybe Patrick Rothfuss could possibly do it. But GRRM is such a unique writer, that I think it would be hard for someone to just step in and finish it up.

I am only 60 pages in, but I am excited about starting it. I have heard nothing but good things about it. I am worried about how long it will take Sanderson to finish a 10 book 10,000+ page epic story like this one is planned to be. I hope I am not 60 years old by the time it is finished. But the reviews have been so good I decided to go ahead and take the plunge. Plus Brandon Sanderson is such a good writer. Have you read book 2 yet? Also, any other completed series you would recommend?

I also just started The Way of Kings. It has had great reviews on Good Reads, so I am checking it out. I also bought The Name of the Wind, but I am holding out hoping the third and final book comes out soon

I just finished the Mistborn trilogy. Pretty good read. Interesting magic system. The main characters are really well developed especially the main protagonist Vin. First book was a little slow as it spends a great deal of time explaining the magic and introducing the characters. But it ends strong. The second book I enjoyed a lot, and I burned through the third book anxious to see how it all ended. It doesn't hold up to some of the others I have read, but it was a pretty strong series. Brandon Sanderson is a great story teller and does a good job making you excited to see what is going to happen next. Mistborn would make for a good movie trilogy I think.

I liked the end even if everything doesn't get wrapped up into a happy ending for all with all loose ends tied. The ending also helped spurn his other books in the same world. I just finished "Red Country" which expanded one of the stories of a main POV character (I don't really want to give it away even though it is pretty obvious after a couple of chapters) It was more like a western than fantasy, but it was really good. I would recommend. There is a book I am about to read about Black Dow and his reign. I am sure there are more books from the First Law world coming. His books are different and dark, but that is what I like about Abercrombie, and some of the dialogue is awesome.

BTW, have you read the First Law trilogy yet??

Apparently I have absent mindedly become an exclusively Brandon Sanderson reader for the next several weeks. I went to Barnes and Noble to try and pick up "Red Country" by Joe Abercrombie as it is a stand alone novel that takes place in the First Law world that extends the story of one of my favorite characters. Anyway, Barnes and Noble didn't have the book, but I had a gift card so I figured I would pick up something new. I finally decided to pick up the "Mistborn" trilogy because I had heard it was pretty good. Then I was trying to decide between the first novel of the The Kingkiller trilogy and "The Way of Kings" but then heard the third book of "Kingkiller" had been pushed back. Everywhere I had read on the internet kept saying how good "The Way of Kings" was. I knew it was just the beginning of a supposed 10 book series, but finally I was like "fug it. I will read these 4 books, and then whenever the final book for the Kingkiller trilogy is out I will pick up the whole trilogy and knock that out then. It was only after I got back to the house that I realized every book I bought was a Brandon Sanderson book. Point of that overly long story being, I have "The Way of Kings" and will read it after I finish the Mistborn trilogy. I will let you know if it lives up to the hype, and I really hope I like Brandon Sanderson because that is all I am reading for the next several weeks lol

There is definitely more magic than ASOIAF. One of the main POV characters is an old and powerful wizard. But it isn't a series focused on magic. It is a character driven series that has a bit of everything but is more military and political based rather than magic based. All the characters are well written and interesting because they are seriously flawed. The setting is similar to Thrones. Kind of a gritty mideival time. There is magic but very few people use it and it isn't a story about the magic. The characters drive the story. A barbarian that is only good at killing people but now wants to be a better person. A former great soldier who is now a cripple who is a torturer. A self entitled noble born jerk. A wizard who has a bad temper. And on and on. And none of them are as they seem, even to themselves. All of them think about themselves differently than they actually are. I don't know. It is similar in ways to ASOIAF but also completely different. But by book 3 I was completely invested in all the characters and the third book doesn't disappoint IMO. And not to spoil the ending, but not everyone gets what they deserve. It is a gritty bloody realistic (at least as far as a fantasy goes) world. And Logen Ninefingers from these books is one of my favorite book characters of all time.

I just read the First Law trilogy. If you like ASOFAI I think you may like it. Has some gritty realism with several flawed heroes. It is not as good and doesn't have quite as many holy poo moments. But a real good read

Has anyone read The Way of Kings?

http://m.deadline.com/2013/07/new-regency-20th-century-fox-tv-to-adapt-kingkiller-chronicle-for-tv/

I read somewhere that the Kingkiller Chronicles is being adapted to a TV series. I haven't read these yet, so how do you feel about that?

Just finished the First Law Trilogy. Can't recommend it enough. I loved it. It had some of the gritty darkness and realism that a George Martin book has, it had great POV characters that you really care about. None of them are inheritably good, as they all have dark flaws. One is a barbarian and mass murderer, one is a torturer, one is self centered asshole, etc. If you like ASOFAI, you would probably like these 3 books. Really it is just one big book in 3 volumes. The last book was impossible to put down for me. Good stuff. Would recommend. ETA: this trilogy also had one of my favorite characters in recent memory. Logen Ninefingers, none as the "Bloody Nine". He is a badass

Finished up the Beyonders series about a month ago. I just happen to pick it up on a whim at Costco, and I had never heard of them before, but I like fantasy fiction so decided WTF. It was meh. It was a young adult book (which I didn't realize), so was an easy read . The overall story was pretty decent, or maybe even good, plus Brandon Mull has an amazing imagination. But, the dialogue was extremely sophomoric and cheesy as was the overall writing. But then again, that is what you get with YA novels. The lines of good and evil are clearly drawn in the story, and therefore there was only one character that was truly intriguing because he was the only grey character in the books, and you were never sure where his loyalties were. Wouldn't really recommend it for anyone on here who seem to like more mature books, but there are certainly worse book series out there. I didn't love them, but then again I read all 3 books so.... Today I got the FIrst Law trilogy written by Joe Abercrombie. Going to start "The Blade Itself" today. I think a couple people have said that they have read this trilogy, I was wondering what people thought of it. Online reviews seem mostly positive. I will give my opinion (not that it matters, but whatevs) once I complete the trilogy!!

I feel like WrestleMania is tomorrow night!!!

Two gold dragons?

Him and Jon Snow will have that in common

I don't think the call exonerates anyone, but it certainly muddies the waters

If he is telling her not to tell anyone, why call 911? "You better not tell anyone about this!! Now... let me get the police up in here" Defies logic.

This is going to end up being a he said/she said deal.

Hardy called 911 first. If he was beating the poo out of her I don't know if he would have called 911

Or Bill Burr

Damn dude. I hate that anyone has to do something like that to anyone, female or not.