i just signed up today after some lurking for a week or so. i just started this thread from the beginning, so a lot of the recommendations i would make, weren't published at the time. i am now seeing some newer stuff i really like, so my suggestions may be mentioned in pages to come, and if so, i apologize, so based on what you like try: Daniel Abraham - The Dagger and The Coin & The Long Price Quartet
Please don't ever put the show ahead of the books. Do yourself a favor and devour the books before ever watching another minute of the show.
loved The Long Price, and Abraham's new series The Dagger & The Coin. and for Norse try Mark Laurence's follow up to The Broken Empire trilogy, called The Red Queens War. lots of Norse based lore.
Anthony Ryan - Blood Song (Book 1 Raven's Song trilogy). This fits the military style a bit. Daniel Abraham - The Dagger & The Coin
I love the Abraham series, but wouldn't say it's "action packed", but very interesting. And if you liked Dresden, try: Kevin Hearn - The Iron Druid Chronicles and for more action type: Kelly McCullough - The Fallen Blade series
i know this is years old, but i just joined and am going through this to see if anything new can be found for me. what was your issue with Prince of Thorns? just curious? i'm always curious about where people draw the line of "ridiculous", especially in a fantasy world.
i really like them. as of now, am only awaiting the last book. i hope by now you have also read and enjoyed them.
I have! I probably won't read the last book though, I've kind of had my Iron Druid fix .. wasn't a huge fan of the last book.
I am hoping the collective wisdom of the forum can help me choose my next book, but I suspect it won't be easy. I devoured a ton of fantasy books when I was a teenager (a depressingly long time ago) and it all pretty much followed the pattern of "reluctant hero is told they are the only person that can stop the evil empire using a mysterious weapon they don't know how to use but somehow manages it in the end" i.e. Tolkien, Brooks, Eddings etc etc. I got frustrated with this format, though I loved the Thomas Covenant books because even though they roughly follow the pattern, they were different enough. I like worlds with diverse areas, the weirder the better. I'm definitely not interested in one set of humans against another and magic is a must. Having said that, I loved GRRMs aSoIaF books but it would have been a lot better for me if it focused more on the threat beyond the wall. Any ideas?
I think you would probably like the Traitor's Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. It has an imaginative world where men fight against the Wild. There are definitely various areas, with some resembling medieval England, others the Middle-East and again others Steppe country. The magic system is also very imaginative. Then there is the Wheel of Time. I'm sure you've heard of that series as well. Have you ever read that?
Thank you very much for the recommendations. I have Miles Cameron in my TBR list but was a little put off by a lot of the Amazon reviews that talk about "medieval realism". I'll give it a more thorough look. I never read the WoT books and have always been put off by the fact that every review says that a huge chunk of the series isn't very good. Without wishing to start some kind of holy war, is that true or are they not that bad? EDIT: I keep reading reviews that are pushing me towards "The Malazan Book of the Fallen". It does sound like my kind of thing but immensely complicated?
On Cameron; I can understand where the nomer medieval realism is coming from. Cameron is a historian, a historical reenactor and he served in the armed forces. As such, he knows his stuff. The details about armour, weapons, battle tactics etc are astoundingly accurate. Don't let such talk put you off though. These things serve as embellishment of the fantasy story, not vice versa. On WoT: This series is really really good. It's among the best epic fantasy out there. Jordan's prose is just okay, but the scale of the world and the story and the awesome magic system will blow you away. The negative talk is about books 7 through 10 that are slower in pace and in which the story meanders a bit. When the books were released this irritated fans (who had waited 1 or 2 years on the new book) no end. Still decent books though taken in and of themselves.
I'm so-so as a fan of Cameron, but he fits what you say you want better than just about anyone else I can think of. Lots of people accuse Wheel of Time of having a swampy middle - but lots of people, possibly more, just love the series. Sometimes in spite of it, sometimes they disagree. Worth a shot - I think its gets more criticism than most series simply because more people know of it. Something that might grab you is the Serpentwar by Raymond E Feist. There's no chosen ones, the action takes part over most of a world and some corners of reality, and while some of is human vs human, a lot of it isn't. There's some pretty high falutin' magic there too. Finally, and you'd need someone who knows them better than me, but the Black Library books about the Warhammer game setting might contain a few good gems for you in terms of weird magic and human vs non-human.
Thank you @Silvion Night and @Peat. I will make the first installments of WoT and TSC my next two books to read. I shall let you know what I think. WRT Feist, I read Magician a long time ago and really liked that so that was a nice reminder to check out what else he has done.
OK so I've finished The Wheel of Time which gets a solid 4/5 from me. The Tolkien influence is huge and obvious but it's a good story and I will be reading more of them. I debated moving straight on to book 2 but I did say I would give The Red Knight by Miles Cameron a go and so that will be my next book. Let's see if you guys have hit gold again
