I’m new to the fantasy community, but I’m glad to see it here on Lemmy as well! I would say my favorite novel/series so far has been Mistborn, but it’s kind of the only one I’ve read so far (although it was fantastic). I’d like to gauge all of your responses too!
Dragonlance Chronicles was my favourite growing up. Then it was the Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E Feist.
There’s lots of awesome books like everything Cosmere, ASOIF or Dune, but I’ll give a more underrated response: The Divine Cities trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett.
Deeply character-driven story, great worldbuilding and exploration of themes such as imperialism, religious oppression and family. Each book follows a different perspective, but the trilogy weaves them together masterfully for a really emotional finale. IMO, it’s one of the GOAT series now.
The first Mistborn trilogy is probably my favourite. I wasnt too much a fan of the second era stuff.
If you like longer stuff then Stormlight Archive is really good. Also obligatory WoT insert… there was a bit of a slump somewhere in the middle, for me, but overall Id always recommend sticking to it!
And then Stuff not related to Sanderson… Im currently on the Black Company and im digging it so far, although it might not be everyones cup of tea.
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
Read all of the First Law series last year and man… Its good stuff. I think Logan Nine-Fingers is one of my favorite characters ever.
Its definitely more dark and grimey than a lot of the fantasy I’ve read, but I think the characters are more interesting because of it.
I just finished The Blade Itself last week. I really liked it! Going to dive into the rest of the trilogy (and the other books after) soon.
Logen is a fun character. One thing I noticed that I feel Abercrombie does particularly well is the reading tone, style, and just general flow changes by a fair amount depending on who the POV character is. It made me think about it in other books and I concluded it’s something I haven’t given other authors enough credit for doing too… Abercrombie did a particularly good job at it.
It’s almost certainly just a case of me not being far enough into the books yet, but I only really felt like Glotka and his surrounding details was particularly dark.
Think it might end up my favorite series of the year, at least.
Abercrombie is definitely very good at this. Most if the time I could tell from a couple of sentences who’s perspective we were following just from the vibe change. Other writers definitely do this as well, but in this series each character has their own distinctive flavor that is so well defined that he makes it seemless.
You’ve got a way to go, but man is the ride is wild.
Love to see some First Law praise here!
I don’t think I’ve read an Abercrombie book that I haven’t loved, his characters jump off the page and his style of writing is visceral and hilarious. People criticise the worldbuilding (or lack thereof) but that’s because the Circle of the World isn’t a character in these books, it’s the backdrop. Besides, if you’ve read all the books, you’ll realise that there’s actually a shit ton of worldbuilding in there!
Also, Abercrombie is extremely fortunate that he has Steven Pacey narrating his audiobooks. The literal GOAT of audiobook narration (Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge aside).
