If you look for fantasy, it's truly sad you haven't read any of Michael Moorcock's stuff. His most well known(and influential) series is Elric, but the Corum, Hawkmoon, Von Bek, and other Eternal Champion series are worth reading as well. It's worth noting that ALL his series have certain connections, due to his multiverse concept(which was later used in their own versions by Marvel, DC, Stephen King, and a host of other sci-fi and fantasy works) and certain characters(or incarnations of them, at least) appear in more than one of the various series. I suggest starting with Elric(the original Elric series was 6 books, he later wrote 2 more, then more recently he wrote another trilogy) or Corum(6 books), then you can read the others from there if you want more.
Malazan is very good, although the first book really starts in the middle of things and takes a while to make sense of. It's also huge and complex. I'd actually recommend an aspiring Malazan reader try the first Black Company book by Glen Cook first - if you like that, you'll probably like Malazan. (And The Black Company is a pretty quick and straightfoward read, with a good ending, although it also has a huge set of sequels.)
"In today’s America, conservatives who actually want to conserve are as rare as liberals who actually want to liberate. The once-significant language of an earlier era has had the meaning sucked right out of it, the better to serve as camouflage for a kleptocratic feeding frenzy in which both establishment parties participate with equal abandon" (Taking a break from the criminal, incompetent liars at the NSA, to bring you the above political observation, from The Archdruid Report.)
Brian Lumleys necroscope saga is awesome.
Just so you know, the Malazan Marines are clearly influenced by the Black Company by Cook. Erikson himself has even said so.
Although the Stormlight Archive is good, we need to see where Sanderson is going to take it before we can say it dethrones the current king of Epic Fantasy, Malazan.
If you want something easier or more popcorn-y, there are a number of good suggestions in this thread, including The Dresden Files, The Culture Series, and you can go with The First Law trilogy or even the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy.
No Idea if you like sci-fi or not, but the black library (wh40k) has some actually pretty well written books, including the Gaunts Ghosts series.
Mark Lawrence is a pretty good 'newish' author, but his series is pretty hardcore and the protagonist (if you can call him that) of the first series is... not a good person.
I bought the first 2 Malazan books together. First book confused the shit out of me, but it was still great. Same with the second book. After i finished, i immediatly reread both of them and suddenly everything made sense, or rather, it always made sense, but it takes some time to properly understand everything, since the series so far (im only at book 4 unfortunately) is very different from any other fantasy series i have ever read, seen or played.
Thank you for the suggestions! I just finished the Mistborn trillogy. Now it's time to pick something else from the list.
Thanks again, everyone.
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I was looking up Malazan and see there is a published order and chronological order.
http://malazan.wikia.com/wiki/Suggested_reading_order
Assuming I check out this series, what one do you (those who mentioned it) suggest?
Bandwagon sports fans can eat a bag of http://www.ddir.com/ .
i always recommend a series from my childhood for those that have never read them. if you dont mind some easier reading as they are targeted at teens. the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. ive just started going back to read through them again and they are still good. easy reading though like i said. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanth
If your a fan of sci-fi i highly suggest The Old Man's War Series by John Scalzi and if ur into the whole post apocalyptic world trend i suggest Wool (Silo Series) by Hugh Howery.
I have just finished the first 3 moontide quartet (Mages blood, scarlet tides, unholy war) by david hair, they are 6 - 700 page books and I read them in a month and half.
I generally do not have much time to read but I got addicted and made time for these.
I though ASOIAF was boring at times (FFC, the first quarter of the last one), the pacing for this is immaculate and they have like 200 page crescendos at the end of each book. The amount of times I finished a chapter and thought 'shit!' has never happened in another book.
I honestly think that this has passed completely under the radar and the final one comes out in novermber which I cant wait for (my GF is going to get me the set for Christmas if it comes out woot!!!)
Also 'john dies at the end' is a good comedy horror, think a jaded ghostbusters and 'apathy and other small victories' is a book where I sat back and thought 'shit the lead character is me'. both are hilarious
cant believe I am replying to myself, sorry for reopening an older thread.
I just wanted to say that the malazan books are amazing. I started reading earlier this year and am halfway through the third one.
I would definitely read these before mages blood I suggested above, I don't understand how people find them difficult to read? The only trouble I have is that warrens are not explained well but i just accept that they are the source of magic and you can walk through them? I have more ideas the more i read but it doesn't seem that difficult?
This, completely. While my game characters generally are Wheel of Time inspired, Sanderson is probably even better and I haven't read a single book of his I didn't like yet. SA are awesome, Misborn trilogy (as well as the followup trilogy after that), as is Steelheart etc. Even the small novels are good, if different. Highly recommend Sanderson
The man is also a beast, writing incredibly fast, no matter who you compare him to.
Not sure how into Modern Fantasy you are, but the Iron Druid Chronicles is a very good series, though not yet completed.
If you like post apocalyptic with some humor, then I suggest the Zombie Fallout series. Mike Talbot is a hilarious character.
If there's post apocalyptic with very small amounts of humor, but a little bit more dramatic, then I suggest the A New World series by John O'Brien.
I...I tend to like the modern fantasy and zombie/apocalypse settings.
I might try them but I need to get out of fantasy before I go full geek :P
The last six or seven books I have read have been fantasy (moontide quartet and 3 of the malazan) and I am also starting the name of the wind by Patrick rolfuss which I have heard good things about ... another fantasy
Try Traci Harding - The Ancient Future trilogy. if you like time travel and kung fu, you will enjoy it.
Hi
I will get that, just because I can honestly say I have NEVER read a kung fu book and am interested to see how that would work I honestly have no idea.
Hmm thinking about it, I read the Lincoln lawyer set last year, they were relly good but that might be because I like writing from the first person perspective (Fear and loathing, john die at the end etc)