Best epic fantasy books according to redditors
We found 5,415 Reddit comments discussing the best epic fantasy books. We ranked the 1,244 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 5,415 Reddit comments discussing the best epic fantasy books. We ranked the 1,244 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
It's this one. :)
Its for young adults mostly. You are 18 now and officially a man. Its time to read some MANLY fantasy
You can get the box-set right on amazon for a reasonable price.
I agree, I had to get the set as soon as I saw it. Help yourself.
Hey all! Sufficiently Advanced Magic is the first book in my Arcane Ascension series, and it's currently on sale for $1.49 in the US Kindle store.
The sequel, On the Shoulders of Titans, just came out earlier this week, so it's a great time to pick it up if you're interested.
For those of you who aren't familiar, Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a mix between a dungeon crawler novel and a magical school story. It focuses on Corin Cadence learning magic and attempting to climb the Serpent Spire, a colossal tower that his brother vanished into five years before.
Stylistically, the series is heavily inspired by Japanese role-playing games like Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, the Tales series, and The Legend of Zelda. The magic system is strongly inspired by the job class system in some of the Final Fantasy games and Bravely Default.
This means the story deliberately includes a lot of game-like elements, but explains them within the context of the setting. So you'll see justifications for things like respawning monsters, ever-changing dungeons, and analogues to character classes and leveling up.
If you like game-like fiction, you might enjoy this. If you tend to prefer for your magic to be more mystical and unexplained, you probably will not like this book. There's a huge emphasis on learning the rules of magic and figuring out tricks with them, which isn't for everyone.
Thanks to everyone who has supported my books so far, and I hope anyone who checks the books out enjoys them!
Mistborn Trilogy if you haven't read it yet. The mass market paperback is $15.44.
http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Trilogy-Boxed-Hero-Ascension/dp/076536543X
I would recommend:
Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind
Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, or his newest series The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive).
If you made it all the way through Sword of Truth series, you probably will enjoy Jordan's Wheel of Time.
Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora is also very enjoyable.
If you are looking for another big one, enjoy the gritty and dark elements from Martin, Stephen Erikson's Malazan series might be up your alley. The first book is a little difficult to get through, but it picks up after that.
The Cradle.
Good Western Wuxia, good writer and a good intro to the genre without the... oddities... of translations.
Try Frank Herbert's Dune for starters. A more modern author would be Neal Stephenson, maybe start with his Cryptonomicon.
I really enjoyed Nancy Kress' Beggars in Spain as well, though I haven't read anything else by her.
My native fantasy world litRPG recommendations:
Dante's Immortality has a strong zero to hero theme for a native to his fantasy world. The MC is worse off than a beggar at the start. Has some magic academy parts. Well written. Some of book 2 is on Royal Road but the author has been re-writing book two for a long time so it may or may not ever be completed.
Threadbare is a quirky litRPG story about a stuffed bear and his attachment to his girl and the friends he makes along the way. This story is full of puns, some clever and some more on the nose but I had a good chuckle several times and had a lot of fun reading this series. As lighthearted as this story appears at first, it does have some grimdark elements and tells a good story. The series actually has a conclusion which is rare enough in this genre so it gets major points for that.
The City and the Dungeon has one of the more interesting magic systems I have seen in litRPG. The characters are all native to the fantasy world. This series is a bit different in that it is written in the form of the MC retelling past events to his sister kind of like how Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles are written as a flashback. The story itself features old school dungeon diving party mechanics which I happen to really like. The fairly original magic system and strength ranking system are very interesting. I did find myself wishing that the author would give more details on stats, character builds, etc., but the plot skips events and advances too quickly. At the same time it over-explains superfluous details like various branches of dungeon religion theory and courtroom law procedures. That was my main complaint, but overall I enjoyed the story. Not sure on status of book 2.
Arcane Ascension This one is strongly represented on the r/ProgressionFantasy subreddit but has some light litRPG elements too. No user interface and on the soft end not having many stats. The world is a native fantasy world with tall RPG like puzzle towers that people try to climb. These books feel more polished and professionally written than most books in the litRPG genre. It is a hybrid story that bounces back and forth between school life (magic academy) and dungeon (tower) diving. I really loved the focus on the Tower exploration and the puzzle solving that was required. The magic academy part of the book is cool as well but I think for specifically litRPG readers it won't be the main appeal.
The magic system is pretty deep, with over 50 different "classes" of magic ability called attunements. For example, Guardian attunements are melee fighters who can strengthen themselves, while Elementalists wield Fire, Air, and Lightning. It is also possible to gain more than one class as well and we see glimpses of characters that are god-like in power while the MC, a first year student, is incredibly weak in comparison. The MC makes the most of his attunement though and crafts clever items to help cover his weaknesses and relies on his friends to fill the other gaps. Crafting magic items is a major focus for the MC which I found entertaining and satisfying.
The credits roll to completion after episode 10 of season 6, the closing music concludes as well. The crackling of a fire can be heard against the black screen. There is a now shot is of Kit Harrington sitting in a chair in front of a hearth in Winterfell. A the fire is roaring, and Ghost is sitting at his feet. He is looking down, reading a book. The camera pulls into a mid-shot and he looks up at us, breaking the fourth wall and says:
"I hope you enjoyed tonight's episode, and this whole season. Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss wanted to thank you, our fans, for watching and we look forward to an even more exciting and compelling season seven." [he shifts his weight and closes the book in his lap] "But really I am here to tell you that Mr. George RR Martin has given me permission to announce that--" The tip of an ice spear bursts through his chest. Ramsay, now a walking ice-corpse, is at the other end of the spear. Ghost immediately leaps onto him to tear out his throat. In the ensuing kerfuffle the camera shakes and tumbles to the ground. The book falls into frame, just out of focus, but the cover is somewhat visible...
Was it Hyperion?
Quick! Distribute the Holy Heinlein!
Maybe not all of you are fans of classic sci-fi literature, so here's more insight.
The book Yuki Nagato gives Kyon is the Hugo-award-winning Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's a story in the style of the Canterbury Tales, where numerous travelers each tell their tales of the weird occurrences they survived on the eponymous planet. There's interstellar politics, undying clones, time travelers, memories of a destroyed earth, other races of aliens and things far beyond the control of the main character and one of the most terrifying beings in all of literature, The Shrike. There's too many connections Yuki and the rest to even begin to spell out, but it is exactly the type of world Haruhi wants to believe in. And if only Kyon had read it, what happens throughout the series may have been be less of a burden on him. But he didn't. It is clear though, that the author understood the appeal of Hyperion when he wrote Melancholy.
The biggest thing Haruhi took from Hyperion though is the storytelling. The things left unsaid. The… not mystery, but… unknown. The workings and world of Dan Simmon's novel never gets truly explained. Many issues get raised over betrayal, assassination, motivation and allegiance. The story is told by varying characters, each narrating his own tale.
This unreliability can then be seen in Melancholy within the three supporting characters of Yuki, Mikuru and, soon, Koizumi, and their deceptions, interactions, technobabble and 'classified information'.
And that spirit is one that I love. It's not about what and how but who and how did they feel about it. Fantasy is a tool. The characters are the interesting bit.
Some of my favorite books available on Kindle Unlimited:
They Mostly Come Out At Night and Where the Waters Turn Black by Benedict Patrick
Paternus by Dyrk Ashton
Danse Macabre by Laura M. Hughes
The Half Killed by Quenby Olson
A Star Reckoners Lot by Darrell Drake
Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe
Jaeth's Eye by K. S. Villoso
Here are some that I haven't read, but have heard mostly positive things about:
The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes
Revenant Winds by Mitchell Hogan
Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R Fletcher
A Warrior's Path by Davis Ashura
Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher
Faithless by Graham Austin-King. He also has another series, The Riven Wyrde Saga, beginning with Fae - The Wild Hunt
Ours is the Storm by D. Thourson Palmer
Path of Man by Matt Moss
Threat of Madness by D.K. Holmberg
To Whatever End by Claire Frank
House of Blades by Will Wight
Path of Flames by Phil Tucker
The Woven Ring by M. D. Presley
Awaken Online: Catharsis by Travis Bagwell
Wolf of the North by Duncan M. Hamilton
Free the Darkness by Kel Kade
The Cycle of Arawn Trilogy by Edward W. Robinson
Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw
Benjamim Ashwood by AC Cobble
The Crimson Queen by Alec Hutson
The Queens Poinsoner by Jeff Wheeler
Stiger's Tigers by Marc Alan Edelheit
Rise of the Ranger by Philip C. Quaintrell
Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
Devil's Night Dawning by Damien Black
Here are some older fantasy and sci-fi books that I enjoyed:
Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany - African inspired S&S by an extremely talented writer.
Witch World as well as other good books by Andre Norton
Swords and Deviltry The first volume of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser by Fritz Leiber - Many of the tropes of the rogue/thief came from this legendary duo created by Leiber. And it's worth noting that Leiber actually coined the term Sword & Sorcery. This collection contains 3 stories, two average origin stories for each character and the final story is the Hugo and Nebula winning novella "Ill Met in Lankhmar" detailing the first meeting of Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser.
Swords Against Darkness - A '70s S&S anthology. It has few stinkers, a few mediocre stories, and a some really good ones. Poul Anderson and Ramsey Campbell both have awesome stories in this anthology that are well worth checking out. For some reason, there were quite a few typos in this book, it was slightly distracting, but may have been fixed since I read it.
The Best of C. L. Moore by C. L. Moore. I read this earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. The collection is all sci-fi and one Jirel of Joiry story, which is her famous female Sword & Sorcery character. I was suprised by how well her sci-fi stories held up, often times pulp sci-fi doesn't age well, but this collection was great. Moore was married to the writer Henry Kuttner, and up until his death they wrote a bunch of great stories together. Both of their collections are basically collaborations, although I'm sure a few stories were done solo. His collection The Best of Henry Kuttner features the short story that the movie The Last Mimzy was based on. And, if you are into the original Twilight Zone TV series there is a story that was adapted into a memorable season 1 episode entitled "What You Need". Kuttner and Moore are two of my favorite pulp authors and I'm not even that into science fiction, but I really enjoy their work.
It seems like a busy thread to me! Suppose it has been busier, though. Linking one from each:
/u/ksvilloso Jaeth's Eye
The minor characters in an epic story are often forgotten, relegated to the dusty corners of a text; footnotes in a biased account that draws focus on the privileged, the named, and the powerful. This is a story from those shadows.
The lives of a mercenary, a seamstress, and a merchant converge. Kefier, who is picking up the pieces of his life after his brother’s accident, finds himself chased down by former associates for his friend’s death. Already once branded a murderer, he crosses paths with his friend’s sister, Sume, whose only desire is to see her family through troubled times. In the meantime, young, arrogant Ylir takes a special interest in Kefier while he himself is entangled in a battle with a powerful mage, one whose name has been long forgotten in legend. At the crux of their conflict is a terrible creature with one eye, cast from the womb of a witch, with powers so immense whoever possesses it holds the key to bring the continent to its knees.
Jaeth’s Eye introduces an epic fantasy tale of revenge and lost kingdoms, but also of grief, love, hope, and a promise for tomorrow. The Agartes Epilogues gets to the heart of epic fantasy from the sidelines.
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/u/benedictpatrick They Mostly Come Out At Night
The villagers of the forest seal themselves in their cellars at night, whispering folktales to each other about the monsters that prey on them in the dark. Only the Magpie King, their shadowy, unseen protector, can keep them safe.
However, when an outcast called Lonan begins to dream of the Magpie King’s defeat at the hands of inhuman invaders, this young man must do what he can to protect his village. He is the only person who can keep his loved ones from being stolen away after dark, and to do so he will have to convince them to trust him again.
They Mostly Come Out At Night is the first novel from Benedict Patrick’s Yarnsworld series. Straddling the line between fantasy and folklore, this book is perfect for fans of the darker Brothers Grimm stories.
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/u/undyrk Paternus
The gods of myth, monsters of legend, heroes and villains of lore.
They're real -- and they're coming back to finish a war that's been waged since the dawn of time.
Fi Patterson and Zeke Prisco's daily routine of caring for the elderly at a local hospital is shattered when a catatonic patient named Peter unwittingly thrusts them into a conflict between ageless beings beyond reckoning. A war of which he is the primary target, and perhaps the cause.
In order to survive, Fi and Zeke must forget everything they know about the world and come to grips with the astonishing reality of the Firstborn. Only then can they hope to learn the secrets locked in Peter's mind, help stave off an ancient evil that's been known by many names and feared by all, and discover truths about themselves perhaps best left hidden.
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/u/tanniel The Eagle's Flight
Peace in the Seven Realms of Adalmearc is only as strong as those who rule them. With the death of the high king and his heir too young to assume the throne, political intrigues fill the landscape as the leading noble families scheme and plot their way to power. Meanwhile, enemies abroad sense the changes and make their own preparations.
Standing as a safeguard against both foreign foes as well as enemies closer to heart are the Order and its knights. Keeping the realms of Adalmearc united and at peace is their foremost duty. But when the strife turns political and the enemy is difficult to discern, when alliances shift and allegiances are torn, even the hitherto unassailable honour of a knight may become stained.
The Eagle's Flight compiles the first three of the Chronicles of Adalmearc. It is a journey into the world of Adal, its realms, peoples, cultures, and conflicts.
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/u/stevenkelliher Valley of Embers
For hundreds of years, the flame-wielding Embers have been the last line of defense against the nightmare creatures from the World Apart, but the attacks are getting worse. Kole Reyna guards Last Lake from the terrors of the night, but he fears for his people’s future.
When Kole is wounded by a demon unlike any they have seen before, the Emberfolk believe it is a sign of an ancient enemy returned, a powerful Sage known as the Eastern Dark.
Kole has never trusted in prophecy, but with his people hanging on the precipice, he reluctantly agrees to lead the Valley’s greatest warriors in a last desperate bid for survival. Together, they will risk everything in search of a former ally long-thought dead, and whether Kole trusts him or not, he may be the only one capable of saving them.
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/u/stevethomas Klondaeg Omnibus
Monsters killed his parents, and Klondaeg is out for revenge. Armed with a double-headed battle-axe with a split personality, Klondaeg travels the world, teaming up with its mightiest adventurers to battle every monster he can find. Klondaeg is the greatest monster hunter in all of history, but the world needs more than a monster hunter. It needs a lord of heroes.
This omnibus edition collects all of Klondaeg’s outrageous adventures, including “Klondaeg The Monster Hunter,” “Klondaeg Saves Fromsday,” “Klondaeg and the Klondaeg Hunters,” and “Klondaeg: Lord of Heroes.”
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/u/salaris Sufficiently Advanced Magic
Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.
He never returned.
Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.
If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.
The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.
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/u/ashearmstrong A Demon in the Desert
Grimluk is an orc with one purpose: hunting demons.
The Wastelands mining town of Greenreach Bluffs is deteriorating: with each passing day its inhabitants grow more fearful and paranoid, plagued by...something. They suffer nightmares and hallucinations, there are murders at the mine; the community is on the brink of madness and ruin and, as events escalate, realization dawns: the town has a demon problem. Two attempts at hunting it down fail, Greenreach Bluffs is at breaking point...and then Grimluk the Orc strides in out of the Wastes to answer their call for salvation.
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/u/pirateaba The Wandering Inn
An inn is a place to rest, a place to talk and share stories, or a place to find adventures, a starting ground for quests and legends.
In this world, at least. To Erin Solstice, an inn seems like a medieval relic from the past. But here she is, running from Goblins and trying to survive in a world full of monsters and magic. She’d be more excited about all of this if everything wasn’t trying to kill her.
But an inn is what she found, and so that’s what she becomes. An innkeeper who serves drinks to heroes and monsters–
Actually, mostly monsters. But it’s a living, right?
This is the story of the Wandering Inn.
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/u/michaelrfletcher Ghosts of Tomorrow
The children are the future.
And someone is turning them into highly trained killing machines.
Straight out of school, Griffin, a junior Investigations agent for the North American Trade Union, is put on the case: Find and close the illegal crèches. No one expects him to succeed, Griffin least of all. Installed in a combat chassis Abdul, a depressed seventeen year old killed during the Secession Wars in Old Montreal, is assigned as Griffin's Heavy Weapons support. Nadia, a state-sanctioned investigative reporter working the stolen children story, pushes Griffin ever deeper into the nightmare of the black market brain trade.
Deep in the La Carpio slums of Costa Rica, the scanned mind of an autistic girl runs the South American Mafia's business interests. But she wants more. She wants freedom. And she has come to see humanity as a threat. She has an answer: Archaeidae. At fourteen, he is the deadliest assassin alive. Two children against the world.
The world is going to need some help.
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/u/will_wight Unsouled
Sacred artists follow a thousand Paths to power, using their souls to control the forces of the natural world.
Lindon is Unsouled, forbidden to learn the sacred arts of his clan.
When faced with a looming fate he cannot ignore, he must rise beyond anything he's ever known...and forge his own Path.
How about with Dragons? It's a kick-ass series and the books were optioned by Peter Jackson to make into movies! :)
I can't believe I'm the first person to suggest this, but you probably want Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe. The kid is not an overly powerful mage, but has to traverse the tower of death traps using his wits and clever ways no one has thought of before with his magic. Feel is sort of a D&D campaign/ dungeon crawl but with LitRPG overtones and protagonist who might just be on the spectrum.
Will Wight's Cradle series is a more Asian inspired take on magic with the protag again being considered deficient magically and having to think his way around the situations in unconventional ways to gain strength. Even by the middle of the third book, he's still not brimming with power.
Brent Week's Lightbringerhas some VERY powerful characters in it (in fact one of the POVs is the most powerful man alive), but one of the POVs is a kid just getting his feet under him. Good series, but probably the least similar to what you're asking for here.
The Cradle Series by Will Wight has something similar to what you are after, with the magic users needing to progress through the various levels of power. It starts with Unsouled.
Only three books of the series so far, but it's a lot of fun.
While not my favorite ever I really enjoyed the Otherland series (only four volumes but each book is fairly large).
It's entertaining cyberpunk and features some interesting looks at the future. Very enjoyable read.
Another (shorter) series that is good for a quick read and a lighter introduction to scifi is The Risen Empire. Split into two parts (although together they would have made an only slightly-large novel) it's along the border of Hard Scifi and "pulp scifi". I'd consider it as an okay introduction to hard scifi.
Which leads me to the third and forth series, Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space. Reynold's is hard scifi, meaning that there are points where he spends twice as much time describing the technical details when character advancement would be very much welcome. However, this also means he takes into account things like relativistic travel and how boring space battles would be to spectators. Awesome books though.
Last but not least is the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's hard scifi that doesn't lose sight of character development. Also, out of all the books I've mentioned I'd have to call it the most "realistic" as the technological point at which it starts could conceivably be reached in the next decade or so.
All enjoyable reads, all enjoyable scifi. After (or during) these don't forget to check out classics like Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Banks, etc. Especially Asimov's Foundation books or the short(ish) story Nightfall, although the original short story can easily be considered better than the expanded version linked (so you might want to stop reading when you reach the end of the original).
My personal favourites are;
Links to the aforementioned books;
Sure thing
For anyone interested, you can buy this set here
No Mistborn? Bookit: ಠ_ಠ
Allow me to fix that.
Mistborn Trilogy:
Highly Recommended!
Kinda in order. Keep in mind I don't read the translated Asian novels because most of the translations are hot garbage and I just can't get used to those.
Cradle from Will Wight- Excellent writing and plotline, it's what got me into this subreddit in the first place. No need to say any more, this is a stable of the sub.
Mother of Learning from Domagoj Kurmaic- Also really solid, the story is a few months away from finishing, highly recommend.
Metaworld Chronicles from Wutosama- The author took a generic isekai plotline and twisted it. The writing might not be completely as good as the others, but probably competing for personal enjoyment right up there with Cradle. It's not as popular as the others, but read the first few chapters and give it a shot if you want.
Arcane Ascension from Andrew Rowe- Very solid too, but slightly inferior to Cradle imo. Probably because I read Cradle first. Honestly, the book is quite forgettable since I don't remember the plotline, but I still remember it being good.
The Traveler's Gate Trilogy from Will Wight- It gets really wordy at times, and I get confused by the plot sometimes because I get impatient and my eyes skip a few lines or so. Still solid, but the weakest one out of the ones I've read.
Hey! Loved Redwall and the other associated stories when I was growing up. I was an avid fan and owned the first 10ish, but the quality of story went down as more came out. :(
Now the real trick is figuring out what you're asking, so I'll take a few stabs. If there is a specific aspect about Redwall you really want to reflect in your new reads let me know and I'll expand the selection. :)
Like Redwall as in intelligent animals:
Light On Shattered Water:
Human finds himself in an alternate dimension where cats evolved instead of humans. I first read in around 2000, and last read it again this year, still very enjoyable.
The Chanur Saga:
Anthropomorphic cat aliens. Pretty decent adventure, though the tech is a little silly but not bad considering it was written in the 80s.
Watership Down:
Rabbits in England trying to live their life. And adventure type stuff happens. A classic for very good reason.
Like Redwall for epic adventure and battles
Malazan Book of the Fallen:
Epic in every way. Hands down my favorite book series. Never has any other book given such a sense of scale to the world. Everything has a history, and Erikson writes in a way that you want to know more, about it all.
His Majesty's Dragon:
I originally only picked up this book because the summary sounded like a joke. Napoleonic era England, insert dragons as the aerial corps. I brought it with to work, read it on my breaks and lunch, and after getting off at 9pm ended up staying at wprl until 5 am to finish it and the second book in the series.
The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon is a good trilogy with a female paladin being the main character. Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson also has a good lead female role throughout it and is also a great read.
Cradle series by Will Wight.
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_sspa?keywords=cradle+will+wight&qid=1563374918&s=gateway&sprefix=cradle+wil&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1
I'm so excited to finally get to read it. I'll be back in a few hours to post what I thought of it, but i'm expecting good stuff based on "Unsouled".
If you haven't read "Unsouled" he made it free for the next week because of "Soulsmith" https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6
EDIT: I've seen this response a lot, but just so everyone knows. Will Wight has said on his blog that this series will be a LONG series. It's looking like we will be with this series for a while. Super pumped to see how the scope of the series changes 7-8 books from now!
I've bought a fair amount of ebooks on Amazon recently and I think most of them are books that a lot of people here would enjoy (heck I heard about most of them through here!).
The Preorders:
Underlord - The sixth book in the Cradle series which is described as a Western Xianxia series. A lot of people here don't really like the Xianxia genre and I agree with their criticisms of how many main characters are very villainous, under-developed enemies and female characters, the economies of cultivation aren't logical, poor scaling in conflict as you go from one city to interstellar in scope, and awkward prose. But I bring up all of these flaws to say that the Cradle series completely avoids all of the typical flaws in Xianxia and has a very smart character who sets out to cultivate smartly instead of bullheadedly.
And the sixth book is coming out in March! (Get the box set. It has the first three books and is cheaper!)
Exhalation - Who here hasn't heard of Ted Chiang, the master of short stories that perfectly appeal to the r/rational crowd? The same guy that we literally use as an introduction to rational fiction. Well, if you enjoyed his first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, you'll love hearing that the second collection is coming out in....May! (Ugh....really May? I don't think I can wait that long!)
The books you can read right now!:
The Beginner's Guide to Magical Licensing - Has a similar start to Unsong where a magical college-graduate, minimum-wage, sweat-shop worker stumbles on a powerful spell and sets out to start his own business competing with the powerful. The parts of the story that follows afterward makes a whole lot more logical sense than Unsong however. (Used to be online for free, but now you'll have to pay the price for your ignorance if you want to read it! (Nah, I lied.))
Six Sacred Swords - If you liked the Arcane Ascension series, but wished there was more dungeonnering and less of school shenanigans, then look no further! In some ways it's a lot like reading a very good DnD session played by really savvy players who never follow the 'standard' way to solve problems.
The author of Six Sacred Swords made a recommendation for The Ruin of Kings. He said that it reads like a Locke Lamora-esque rogue protagonist, telling the story in a style similar to Kvothe, in a setting similar to Game of Thrones. I haven't bought the book yet, but the review was interesting enough that I wanted to include it in my list of recommendations.
Senlin Ascends - I haven't read this yet either, but skimming through it, I see some fair bit of social manipulation/combat that I think people here would like. Plus the Tower of Babel setting is something that appeals very strongly to me.
Polyglot: NPC REVOLUTION - A lot of people here seem to really like LitRPG and Artificial Intelligence, but almost no one seem to ever question the implications of the NPCs in LitRPG stories having human-level intelligence.
Small Medium: Big Trouble - It's by the same author who wrote Threadbare that people here really liked. Similar to Polygot where the NPC is the main character who needs to deal with players, but smaller scale in scope. There's a lot of fast-talking to convince selfish sociopaths to do what you say.
Q is for Quantum - I was going through my older ebook orders when I found this one. It's the single best introduction for quantum mechanics that I have ever read (not that I've read too many of those). It focuses on building an intuition for the subject and once you've read through the book, you will understand on a gut level what superposition means. Note that it's meant as an introduction for the subject, so don't expect it to cover everything, just what's need to get started learning about quantum mechanics. But I'd still recommend it to experts if only for a better way to explain their subject to their peers and laypeople.
I'm a fan of the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. I would love to see a movie made from these books.
I should have seen this coming, but I'm ashamed to admit that it took me way too long to figure out what you were asking for.
Book 1: House of Blades
Hyperion, actually.
The Moon is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
> Robert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, an influence so large that, as Samuel R. Delany notes, "modern critics attempting to wrestle with that influence find themselves dealing with an object rather like the sky or an ocean." He won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, a record that still stands. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was the last of these Hugo-winning novels, and it is widely considered his finest work.
> It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of the former Lunar penal colony against the Lunar Authority that controls it from Earth. It is the tale of the disparate people--a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic--who become the rebel movement's leaders. And it is the story of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to this inner circle, and who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution's ultimate success. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of the high points of modern science fiction, a novel bursting with politics, humanity, passion, innovative technical speculation, and a firm belief in the pursuit of human freedom. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is the winner of the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen
Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn
Brandon Sanderson - The Stormlight Archive
Peter Brett - The Demon Cycle
R. Scott Bakker - The Second Apocalypse
Joe Abercrombie - The First Law
Scott Lynch - The Gentleman Bastard
Patrick Rothfuss - The Kingkiller Chronicle
All excellent. Some slightly more excellent than others.
Give Sufficiently Advanced Magic a try. It's a pseudo lit-rpg with a rationalist protagonist. In some ways it's similar to the Cradle series by Will Wight.
Amazon will gladly sell it to you. The paperback version is $7.88, and the Kindle version (which you can read on any computer or mobile phone, not just a dedicated hardware reader) is $7.49.
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven is pretty good.
Alas, Babylon is one of the classic post-apocalyptic scifi novels. As is a "A Canticle for Leibowitz", mentioned above.
EDIT: I just noticed that "Lucifer's Hammer" won the Hugo award, which is a big deal if you didn't already know. Another book that comes to mind that you might like is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Not quite the same genre, but similar, and a real classic as well. And really good!
Everyone needs to read a copy of 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress' by Robert Heinlein, right the hell now.
/threadjack
These: http://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283
They can be a bit dry, but I think they're pretty interesting. Basically, they center on the Napoleonic wars, but there are dragons, who work with people. There are about 8 of them right now.
Also, this series: http://www.amazon.com/Joust-Mercedes-Lackey/dp/0756401224
Dragons don't actually talk in it, but the time period is more similar to Eragon.
I hate it when pieces like this talk about a product, but never mention price or give a link to buy. For those interested, here is an amazon link, currently selling for $34.33 (prime eligible).
You are looking for the newish genre LitRPG. A tremendous example of which is Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe on here as /u/salaris
Here is the blurb from GoodReads.com:
>Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.
>He never returned.
>Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.
>If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.
>The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.
It is incredibly readable, I couldn't put it down. There are definitely some criticism to be made of it, but no more than a lot of other fantasy stuff that is well regarded and eminently readable.
You must have a super strict definition of what you consider "progression fantasy" (vs I guess other fantasy that doesn't have strict RPG quantification).
Some other series that I consider progression fantasy and I enjoyed:
To me "normal" length book is 300-350 pages.
> why aren't established fantasy authors rushing to deliver?
New niche (niche-ier?) genre labels appear all the time, so there are probably a ton of fantasy stories out there that have that "progression" aspect to it that you are overlooking.
Seriously, just climb down through Amazon's category labels to the bottom of fantasy limb and read there.
The difference between "fantasy" and "progression fantasy" is how much the author details the main character(s) montages.
It's been a while since I read the books but...
The Powerstones were a big part of the world. The Thran were a society that didn't have access to mana or magic. The powerstones were a mysterious source of energy that powered their society, and were quite strong. The powerstone spike which Yawgmoth used to lobotomize Dyfed was potent enough to incapacitate a pre-mending 'walker.
Yawgmoth did poison Glacian to get to Rebbec, but kept Glacian's consciousness alive in a powerstone. He later used this powerstone to open his gate to Phyrexia. When Rebbec realized Yagmoth's schemes, she was forced to destroy the powerstone which held her husband's mind, splitting it in two. Those two halves became the mightstone and the weakstone, the stones which Urza and Mishra used to war on each other, and which eventually became Urza's eyes when his spark ignited.
Everyone needs to read the Artifacts Cycle. Great fantasy on it's own, even knowing nothing about Magic.
http://www.amazon.com/Artifacts-Cycle-Magic-Gathering-Omnibus/dp/0786953055
1.) The Eye of The World - by Robert Jordan (and subsequent novels)
2.) 9.8/10
3.) High Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction
4.) This is the first book of a 14 book series called the Wheel of Time. The story follows a young man named Rand Al'Thor and his friends. He is absconded away from his home by a mysterious woman and a wonderful adventure comes from it. The series contains the most complex magic system I have ever read and it is always exciting. You will find yourself thinking about how you would use the magic if you had it. The Wheel of Time is one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy series of all time. You are doing yourself a disservice to not fall into this world that Robert Jordan crafts. I do it no justice, and I cannot recommend it more.
5.) http://www.amazon.com/The-World-Wheel-Time-Book/dp/0812511816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375429878&sr=8-1&keywords=The+eye+of+the+world
For anyone here who may be trying to cope, buy a book.
https://www.amazon.com/Eye-World-Wheel-Time-Book/dp/0812511816
Or listen to it
https://www.audible.com/series/Wheel-of-Time-Audiobooks/B005NB81EI
A fair metaphor is that The Wheel of Time is post doctorate level quality vs kindergarten level GOT, except for the ridiculous gratuitous sex.
> The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the third age by some, an Age yet to come, an age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
Two series I can recommend off the top of my head, both of which I couldn't put down during the first readthrough and never get tired of re-reading:
And if you want a single book to tide you over while searching, the 832-page The War of the Flowers (also by Williams) was a riveting read.
*edited for linkage
Most of the time I am "in the mood" for a certain genre or type of book. I will recommend some of my favorites that are easy to read and enjoyable. With a super short summary to see if it sparks your interest.
Fantasy:
Scifi:
I would check out The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It starts out historical moves forward into sci-fi and then goes backwards to historical again. It's hard to explain but it is a very rewarding read and one I pick up periodically just to reread again.
I also liked Girl In Landscape by Jonathon Lethem and Dune by Frank Herbert a lot and both have been good rereads.
Oh! And The Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling which I inhaled.
25 bucks
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8WPQDbVT63M9G
First off, I got what looks to be some great books from my match. I got Perdido Street Station, Hyperion, The Sparrow, The Little Country, and American Gods. I have never read nor heard of these titles, but I'm excited to start reading them.
Now for the best part. My match sent me an original manuscript for a novel they wrote. How awesome is that? They also included a short story (a side story to the novel) that includes me as a character. I can honestly say that this is one of the best things I've ever received! I think I'll start with the novel first.
http://imgur.com/xVFbm
*update: Thanks for all of the encouraging posts! It seems that I really struck gold on this exchange. I sent a little reddit gold love to my SS for the wonderful gift. It's such a great collection that I feel like the books I sent to my match are woefully inadequate.
I recommend Hyperion and the rest of the Hyperion Cantos.
Go get your copy of Game of Thrones and start over :)
If you like science fiction at all, I've been reading Dread Empire's Fall. It's pretty good.
Also, the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov.
Edit: Also, The Hyperion Cantos is excellent and incredibly epic. Just the summary of it gives me chills: "On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands."
Elizabeth Moon's The Deeds of Paksenarrion Also, Moon's Vatta series and Serrano seris are sci-fi with strong female leads.
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB/ref=mp_s_a_1_1](Sufficiently Advanced Magic). It's not exactly like the post, but I'm enjoying reading it. Description from Amazon:
>Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.
Here's the orgiginal thread.
EDIT: I can't seem to get the first link to format properly, but I'll leave it because it still works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's Andrew Rowe! I just bought your new book! Haven't gotten around to leaving an Amazon review yet though. Enjoying it so far!
Edit: The book is Six Sacred Swords. If you've read Sufficiently Advanced Magic, you've already been introduced to the protagonist: Keras Selyrian (The mask-wearing Swordsman Corin meets towards the beginning of the first book).
Edit Edit: I am not Andrew Rowe, Salaris, who I replied to, is Andrew Rowe.
I'd go with Ascend Online if you're looking for a book with an actual game.
If you want more of a fantasy with game elements, Sufficiently Advanced Magic is where it's at. (While I admit that I know the author personally and have some bias, it's an Amazon Bestseller.)
If you prefer something modern-day and like a good zombie story, The Alpha Virus is a great read, though it's still a work-in-progress.
For a series with great characters and emotional impact, The Wandering Inn is an ongoing web serial of considerable length, and updates frequently.
For some more ancap fiction threads and posts I have assembled
I listend to a talk David D. Freidman gave at Duke on Stateless and Semi-Stateless Societies in Fiction and Semi-Fiction. (Blog post) (Audio)
I was curious about the pieces he mentioned, so I decided to make a list of them.
*****
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
The Ungoverned - Vernor Vinge
True Names - Vernor Vinge
Oath of Fealty - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The Syndic - C.M. Kornbluth
The Domination of Draka (series) - S.M. Stirling
Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Probability Broach – L. Neil Smith
The Great Explosion – Eric Frank Russell
The Cassini Division (Fall Revolution Series) - Ken MacLeod (I don’t believe the books by this author are mentioned but I believe this is the one concerning the “Einstein” in the capitalist enclave.)
Harald - David D. Friedman
Salamander - David D. Friedman
**
Here are also some links to other threads on the subject that have been posted in this sub:
Any An-cap friendly novels out there?
A permanent catalog of fiction with AnCap themes (please feel free to contribute)
Any representations of a stateless society that is positive in fiction?
Agorist fiction?
I have provided Amazon links. Most of these pieces can be found online, but I will leave that to the reader.
Oh my god, I am so hot for this book (and was pleasantly surprised and violently vindicated when I guessed the content of the link correctly).
If you're into historical fantasy, I have to push Naomi Novik's Temeraire books. The grandness is less condensed but there are six sweet, sweet books, and more on the way.
[edited to add more books]
If you include mythology, I recall liking The Lost Books of The Odyssey by Zachary Mason quite a bit.
In terms of fairies and weaving tales, In the Night Garden and its sequel The Orphan's Tales by Catherynne M. Valente have excellent and complexly tangled story lines.
Other favorites: American Gods by Neil Gaiman, anything by Terry Pratchett, perhaps even Robin McKinley?
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_piZBDbW6Z36EB I’m pretty sure this is the one
There's actually quite a bit of good post-singularity literature. You should check some of it out. Here's a quick list of a few of my favorites:
Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen (all by Garth Nix) are pretty spectacular if you're into fantasy.
Juliet Marillier also writes a lot of fairy-tale retellings that have female protags, if that's your cup of tea. The Sevenwaters Trilogy is pretty good.
Edit: Ooh, also The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon (this is epic fantasy, but she also writes a lot of female protags in her space operas) and Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. Those two are fantastic, don't know why they didn't spring to mind right off!
Edit 2: For less spoilery linkage.
In all honesty, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are pretty tough to get into, since they are practically the ur-examples of fantasy, written back when a lot of commercial fiction methodology was still being developed.
When i read a book, I worry first and foremost if I'm entertained, if I am, I'll give it my recommendation, regardless of the flaws. These are the ones I think you'd find best for jumping in with.
YA/Middle Grade Books
Fantasy
Discworld by Terry Pratchet (I'd recommend not starting at the beginning.)
Sci-Fi
Urban Fantasy
Thrillers/Suspense
The description says it's Mistborn, which in the US is the title. The subtitle The Final Empire is not found on the mass paperback, only the first edition cover.
https://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final-Empire-Book-No/dp/0765350386
Openings are hard as shit to do in sci-fi/fantasy. You have to basically lecture on the world without it sounding like you're lecturing them on the world: excuse me while I grab my smoke and mirrors. I'm not going to do line edits because it's view only. Instead you get my wall of text that I'm compiling on scifi/fantasy openings as I read more and more piles of it, when I should be reading something like literature (Idk, is that what the cool kids are doing?).
It's view only so my line edits will probably be limited, but I'll start with your opening two sentences.
>The café of 'Morl's Best Cuppa' was odd, green and uncomfortable to look at. It's rough exterior stood out against the trimmed vein of grey that was the rest of the city-block, like a bulb of gum beaten flat under step, ruining an otherwise pristine side-walk
Protag is looking at a building. I'm not as experienced in third person style narratives, but I'll do my best. If I was writing this in first person I'd be extremely leery of writing a description of the building for the begging portion. I do think you have an interesting world set out. There are genuinely funny moments, but it's packaged in a way that makes me want to put it down. I'd say this is due to an incomplete opening. You have characters and setting, but you don't have a problem for these characters to overcome (plot).I'm going to copy paste parts of a post that I did on sci-fi/fantasy openings that I made earlier, with significant modifications/additions (but the core idea is the same). If this is frowned upon, I'll stop. Disclaimer, I'm not saying that you should do any of these things that I suggest. This is merely my own opinions on ways to get over the initial hump that sci/fi fantasy stories face. These are some good resources/books that I've found.
In essence a good opening has three things
This is kind of vague and bullshitty so I'll use some examples.
The openings in fantasty/sci-fi books are notoriously terrible. For instance, Red Rising, an otherwise half decent thriller book has the shittiest opening that I've read in a published work. But that didn't stop him from selling books out the wazoo and getting good blurbs ("Ender, Catniss, and now Darrow"), because he knows how to write a page turner later on (I'd still recommend it even though the opening is questionable, if you enjoy cheap dystopian thrills). But damn, did the opening want to make me throw the book against the wall. It's not that he doesn't do the three things that an opening should do, it's that he switches voices within it and had several narration snaps when it's clearly HIM speaking and not the main character. I'd also say that Patrick Rothfuss' opening is extremely shitty (and he says so himself), as he takes 50 pages before anything substantial happens. Thus he went back and added a prologue so the reader would feel some sort of plot in the story. Prologues are effective in scifi/fantasy for quickly introducing a problem, if your world takes awhile to build. For instance -- Harry Potter also did this to an extent, since it had the scene with his parents dying. Some openings, like the one that I'm about to discuss, have a really solid hook and immediately grab the reader. Am I saying that you should write a prologue? No , I haven't really read enough of your story to figure that out. I'm just offering a few nuggets of advice that I've seen authors use to get over the initial hump of creating the world.
I think a solid example of a good opening in a sci-fi story, that I've read recently, is the story Wool (here's a link, use the look inside function). The hook is one of the better ones I've read, something along the lines of "Holston climbed his stairs to his death." Is it a cheap trick? Yes. Do I really care, and does it add tension to an otherwise monotonous climb up the stairs? You betcha! He explains certain elements of the silo as he gets to the different actions, e.g. "I put my hand on the guardrail, worn down one flake at a time by centuries of use." He doesn't just come out and say "HEY THE SILO IS OLD LEMME TELL YOU ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD IN THE SILO AND THEN GET TO THE PLOT DAMMNIT". In your case we see some characters mostly annoyed, bored, or not really doing much. Sure the setting is engaging, but the characters, in my opinion, aren't. The pro of an exposition opening is that you can fit a lot of information into a relatively small amount of space. The con is that it's hard to present in a way that doesn't create a POV snap, a boring tell instead of show description, and it's hard to create a problem if you're trying to be an omnipotent narrator. Dune does it, but it hasn't set a trend because it's hard as shit to do. Pride and Prejudice does it, but Jane Austen is incredibly good at writing in different tones. I'll stick to my nice comfortable first person narrative right now. I'm not a good mechanical writer, or a good writer at all yet, but I'm working on it. I do worldbuilding half decently (though I'm put to shame by the people on /r/worldbuilding)
Another solid opening is "Mistborn;" (here's a link) a fantastic example of a dialogue driven opening. I'd say that if a dialogue opening is done right, its exponentially more interesting than an exposition opening. The problem is making the characters feel natural. I spent quite some time on my opening hammering out the robotic narration style, but I still had to go back and write a prologue because I didn't introduce the main problem of the story properly. I problem that I had is that my characters seem to stick their fingers up their butts and don't do anything. Basically a dialogue opening is harder to do, but it's well worth the effort if you can pull it off. Dialogue is also a good way to squeeze information out of your world. Want to have an explanation about scientist, well slap a scientist in there and have your protag ask some questions about it. Don't have random flashbacks in the very begging. Think about a movie that had someone fixing breakfast, and every time they did something relatively minor there was a flashback. E.g. poured some orange juice. That reminds me of my mentor who trained me in how to write a good sci-fi opening. Going to eat some Coco puffs, like me mum used to. But me mum beat me so I angrily ate the coco puffs.
The best fantasy opening that I've ever read is Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I'd recommend taking a peek at it here. He casually just strolls in, quickly establishes two characters, a problem, and a setting in half a page. It's brilliant. I can't say I've read the rest of it though, but it's on my list of things to read. The only complaints that I've heard about Lies (aside from the usually fantasy grumbling about tropes), is that the heist narrative is too lowly for such a talented writer. I think that's a pretty good sign that hes doing shit right.
In the words of Brian Sanderson "writing is all smoke and mirrors." In fantasy/sci-fi you have to set up scenes that are more or less infodumping segments that feel natural to the reader. E.g. travelling from town to town, "oh theres a ghost thing over there"
"that's not a ghost its your mum!" laughter ensues
On the bright side, it seems like you've done some good world building, so writing the segments shouldn't be too hard. I highly recommend watching Brandon Sanderson's lectures on the youtube channel "Write about dragons." Start with the first lectures he does, because they cover a lot of mistakes that people make.
Also read this article on common mistakes that editors see (link) . Watching and reading just a little bit will help you from falling into a ton of pitfalls, like I did with my first story. I spent far too long on too little words, that were absolute rubbish. Now I've been able to get at least a consistent word count down every week, with mixed reviews (some chapters are better than others.) Basically, write consistently and read often. Potential and inspiration are bullshit. Hammer out some words, get it torn apart on this sub-reddit, pick up the pieces and repeat. Make sure to give back often, this place is awesome. I think one of my better experiences was posting a basically infodumpy chapter, and had some pretty positive reviews (aside from some pseudoscience that I quickly cut, and leapt back into the warm embrace of space opera).
If you get past the opening hump, this article, is a fantastic way to plan how your plot is going to unfold over the course of a novel, in a concise fashion. I wish I'd found this resource sooner, cause my planning would've been much better. (I tend to discovery write, with minimal planning.)
The Thran is not available for kindle, unfortunately. It is however in the Artifacts cycle omnibus, which I highly recommend. It has the story of the thran and then the story of Urza Vs the Phyrexians.
http://www.amazon.com/Artifacts-Cycle-Magic-Gathering-Omnibus/dp/0786953055
http://www.amazon.com/Artifacts-Cycle-II-Gathering-Omnibus/dp/0786953063/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=15M4GBD41KKZJWQTVT90
Tad Williams' "Otherland" series.
My recommendations from books I read in the last year or so (yes, these are all VERY STRONG recommends curated from ~100 books in the last year) -
​
Science fiction-
Derek Kunsken's The Quantum Magician (I would describe it as a cross between Oceans Eleven with some not-too-Hard Science Fiction. Apparently will be a series, but is perfectly fine as a standalone novel).
Cixin Lu's very popular Three Body Problem series (Mixes cleverly politics, sociology, psychology and science fiction)
James A Corey's The Expanse Series (which has been made into the best sci fi tv series ever!)
Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief series (Hard science fiction. WARNING - A lot of the early stuff is intentionally mystifying with endless terminology that’s only slowly explained since the main character himself has lost his memories. Put piecing it all together is part of the charm.)
​
Fantasy-
James Islington's Shadow of What was Lost series (a deep series which makes you think - deep magic, politics, religion all intertwined)
Will Wight's Cradle series (has my vote for one of the best fantasy series ever written)
Brandon Sanderson Legion series (Brandon Sanderson. Nuff said. Creative as always)
​
Manga -
Yukito Kishiro's Alita, Battle Angel series (the manga on what the movie was based)
​
Non-Fiction-
Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind - Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (and how we are not as rational as we believe we are, and how passion works in tandem with rationality in decision making and is actually required for good decisionmaking)
Rothery's Geology - A Complete Introduction (as per title)
Joseph Krauskopf's A Rabbi's Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play, available to read online for free, including a fabulous supplementary of Talmud Parallels to the NT (a Rabbi in 1901 explains why he is not a Christian)
​
Audiobooks -
Bob Brier's The History of Ancient Egypt (as per title - 25 hrs of the best audiobook lectures. Incredible)
​
Academic biblical studies-
Richard Elliot Friedman's Who Wrote The Bible and The Exodus (best academic biblical introductory books into the Documentary Hypothesis and Qenite/Midian hypothesis)
Israel Finkelstein's The Bible Unearthed (how archaelogy relates to the bible)
E.P. Sander's Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63BCE-66CE (most detailed book of what Judaism is and their beliefs, and one can see from this balanced [Christian] scholar how Christianity has colored our perspectives of what Jews and Pharisees were really like)
Avigdor Shinan's From gods to God (how Israel transitioned from polytheism to monotheism)
Mark S Smith's The Early History of God (early history of Israel, Canaanites, and YHWH)
James D Tabor's Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity (as per title)
Tom Dykstra's Mark Canonizer of Paul (engrossing - will make you view the gospel of Mark with new eyes)
Jacob L Wright's King David and His Reign Revisited (enhanced ibook - most readable book ever on King David)
Jacob Dunn's thesis on the Midianite/Kenite hypothesis (free pdf download - warning - highly technical but also extremely well referenced)
cradle series by will wight has some similarities
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6
Cradle series by Will Wight
Good series, not sure if id consider it strictly pure litrpg but still has the idea of leveling and learning skills etc. Deffo worth a read though!
Oh shit, my friend are you missing out. There is an explosion of Chinese/Korean/Japanese fantasy works being translated that you can freely read online. The writing isn't always superb, but they are all immensely entertaining.
Come on down to:
https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltranslations/
Some suggestions:
These are classics, super long, and finished both being written and translated.
Coiling Dragon
Desolate Era
World of Cultivation
I Shall Seal the Heavens
This one uses western themes but in a more chinese-fantasy-style:
Warlock of the Magus World
There are a number of unfinished ones you might like as well. My favorite is The Way of Choices. It is written in a more classical and literary style. One of the better written ones definitely.
The Way of Choices
For the next one, the initial premise is weird here, a person is reincarnated, and then given a second chance at their new life groundhog-style, but I like it.
The Records of the Human Emperor
Martial World
Will Wight has a series that mimics the style of Chinese fantasy novels. You might like it.
The Unsouled
There is a whole huge world of this material being written and translated out there. More than you could read and stay ahead of really.
These type of novels are usually called Wuxia or Xiancia novels depending on whether they center in on martial arts (the former), or more fantasy elements (the latter).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xianxia_novel
https://forum.wuxiaworld.com/discussion/7616/difference-between-xianxia-wuxia-novels
Agree with /u/Tur4 and /u/Salaris on their suggestions.
LitRPG I recommend are the following:
[Cradle]
[Mother of Learning]
[Sufficiently Advanced Magic]
[Street Cultivation]
[The Land]
[The Divine Dungeon]
[The Dark Herbalist]
[Ascend Online]
[The Way of the Shaman]
[The Wheel of Time] (Low Quality)
[I Shall Seal the Heavens]
[A Will Eternal]
[Coiling Dragon]
[Patrick Rothfuss] (Author)
[The Thousand Li]
[Savage Divinity] (Low Quality)
[The Dao of Magic]
[Dante's Immortality]
[Forge of Destiny]
[Veilverse]
[Way of the Immortals]
[Sundered Soul]
[Edge of Eons]
[Soulship]
[The Wandering Inn]
[Delvers LLC]
[Dodge Tank]
[World Tree Online]
[Life Reset]
[Viridian Gate Online]
[The Crafting of Chess]
[Reverend Insanity]
[I Eat Tomatoes] (Author)
[Er Gen] (Author)
[The King's Avatar]
[Against the Gods]
[Martial World]
[Dragon Heart]
[Purple Days]
I'm not well-read in the genre so I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but Will Wight's Cradle series sounds as though it might interest you. The series isn't complete, but there are five completed novels in it.
Amazon link for the first book, Unsouled
Amazon link for the first three as a package deal.
I would recommend it if you're a fan of cultivation, spiritual techniques, and the zero to god journey. It also has a more western style prose that for me was more enjoyable to read.
You want the Cradle series. MC starts out weak and basically never stops training and becomes more powerful than he thought possible.
You might like Unbound Deathlord - the MC is fairly amoral in that one.
Awaken Online might also be to your liking.
I also like to recommend Unsouled, which is basically a xianxia novel written by an American. IMO cultivation / xianxia novels are basically litrpgs, with weird names slapped on top of the numbers.
Another one that kinda sorta straddles the line of LitRPG is Super Sales on Super Heroes - it's a superhero novel, and the MC's power is that he can spend "points" to upgrade things.
.ca
.co.uk
For fiction:
Tons more here: http://www.arsgratialibertatis.com/book-list
There is the Temeraire series. They're alternate Napoleonic history adventure books.
Dune series is amazing. My favorite series of all time. Deals with so many political, ecology, and philosophical issues and spans so much time.
The Unincorporated Man is a very very interesting read. Deals with a minarchist society that rose after the economic collapse of civilization due to virtual reality. The protagonist ultimately takes the view that the way the society is setup is akin to slavery, since most people in it sell a majority share in themselves (individuals can sell stock in themselves or buy stock in others. The only 'tax' is that the government is assigned 5% stock in everyone at birth but can't sell or buy any), then start getting told what to do by their shareholders. Brings up some interesting questions on just how far should contracts be enforced and such. I haven't read the sequels yet so I'm not sure where the authors take the story after the first one.
Finally had some more time to read, picked up books mostly on Kindle Unlimited with some exceptions on Novel Updates.
Stuff in bold is stuff I really like and can recommend, stuff italicized is stuff I'm not sure about but you should probably read anyway.
Picked up
Arcane Ascension: (Kindle)
LitRPG, School, Dungeon/tower
Story had a pretty decent hook in the beginning, characters are decently fleshed out although I do hope book 2 has more character development.
The MC is a recovering loner with interesting family dynamics due to an unfortunate grandfather, militant father, and a missing brother.
I would have enjoyed this story more if I read it in chunks as the author is trying to create something new with depth and that ruined a bit of the immersion for me.
After reading 2/3 of the story I took a break and read other stuff before coming back to it and the last 1/3 was very enjoyable; then again the last bit was mostly plot development instead of world building.
Completionist Chronicles: (Kindle)
LitRPG, cleric?, puns?
Same author as the Divine Dungeon series linked below.
Compared to the Divine Dungeon series this story is much more enjoyable since the MC is human and already has a personality.
Divine Dungeon: (Kindle)
Dungeon core, cultivation, puns?
Pretty interesting premise but it is my first dungeon core story; story is pretty good and told in the POV of two MC's, a dungeon (Cal) and some shepherd who learns to cultivate.
In book 1 Cal is still developing as he was just Born which made it slightly more difficult to get into due to not much character development but the different POV's makes things easier to read. If you're okay with book 1 which was enjoyable but focused more on setting the foundation of the story then you should like books 2 and 3 much more.
Awaken Online: (Kindle)
LitRPG, Anti-hero?, Necromancy, glass cannon
A bit of an aside but this really made me feel nostalgic for Legendary Moonlight Sculptor even though there isn't much in common.
The prologue set the tone for the the story and while it could be too soon to tell I'd say he's only mostly anti-hero.
Story is a bit cliched and there isn't much tension but it's pretty well written and does a nice job overall differentiating itself.
Fields of Gold
Mild Mary Sue, hunting, isekai, reverse harem?
Phew, finally have something to fill the void that is Volare. (Even though I have 3 other novels I'm bulking up to binge later)
Just when I think I'm free of all food porn from previous completed novels they ambush me with this. y u do dis /u/Etvolare (and Myst), some of y'all have gotta be foodies and I'm concerned it's a criteria in novel selection.
Another Mary Sue story with hints of a reverse harem but that's probably unlikely. Her immediate family loves her but everyone else.. fuck 'em, except for maybe that one gentle aunt.
The S-Classes That I Raised
Time rewind, yandere, taming
Weak asshole MC turns over a new leaf with his time travel and patches things up with his younger more OP brother.
Ascend Online (Kindle)
LitRPG, Crafting, taming
Solid story but it's a bit average, pretty good read overall but character development is kinda weak.
I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire
Mecha, "anti-hero", ^^^ha! futuristic, isekai, misunderstandings, long life span
MC gets betrayed pretty badly by his wife due to the involvement of a third party who gets off on the grief and misery of others. MC reincarnates to another world and is mistrustful of women, gets abandoned by his parents and ends up doing some territory management in the pursuit of being evil later.
Demon King, Retry!
Overpowered, loli, misunderstandings, territory management?
Think of this as a more lighthearted, shallower take on Overlord for a younger audience, maybe.
A Demon Lord’s Tale: Dungeons, Monster Girls, and Heartwarming Bliss
Non-harem harem?, Wish fulfillment
Strong MC with a soft spot for ladies.
***
Still reading
Trash of the Count’s Family
Restaurant seems to be going well, some more of Cale's background is being very slowly teased through the story which makes it all the more understandable he wants to chill.
Ascending, Do Not Disturb
Apparently another story where cuteness is justice regardless of gender; two justices have been unlocked so far: cuteness and deliciousness.
The Beloved Imperial Consort
Strict mother and chill father? That'll be a fun baby, smart little monkey.
Lucia
Lucia is hangry and the damn grapes aren't in season yet.
The hubby is gonna have some serious blue balls if he doesn't find something to busy himself with.
Assassin Farmer
The assassin organization has changed hands with the death of the idiot boss.
MC has plenty of people waiting on her now (much to her distaste) and new house(s) are being built for her and her hubby's brothers.
*
Edit**: forgot to add the Arcane Ascension series and labeled the ones on Kindle Unlimited.
Sounds like you might enjoy Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. I think Snow Crash is meant to be in the same universe - it's hilarious but not as dense. You might also like his Cryptonomicon, though it's not technically Sci Fi.
Tad Willams' Otherland Series is Epic Sci Fi with a huge amount of detail. Might be right up your alley.
Dune, Neuromancer and The Enderverse if you haven't already read those.
I'd recommend giving Will Wight a try. His stuff reminds me of early Sanderson. It's definitely not very polished yet, but it's innovative, you can see his improvement as a writer, and he's trying new things. His first series is called Traveler's Gate; it's a really fun read. First book is available here.
He's currently working on two parallel series set in a different world with dueling protagonists. It's interesting because they just ooze potential- they're good books right now, but while reading them you can just tell that he's going to be huge within the next 10 years.
Have you ever read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"? In the book, they worry about the computer "playing a joke" where it releases all the oxygen in living quarters. Comedy is a hard rubric.
On the same train of thought, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one my favorite novels of his.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe/dp/0544445783
Here you go. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt edition, released just this year.
LOL The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. It's a low magic fantasy novel.
Helpful term for you: bildungsroman, which is the "making of the man," and is often applied to training the hero stories.
Some fantasy bildungsromans you haven't named:
The Crafter by Outspan Foster. I haven't read this one yet, but I'm pretty pumped. Ordered the paperback. Set in a non-vr world.
Dante's Immortality. Highly recommended on this sub. Book 2 probably won't happen. Probably once a week asks about book 2. Still, so good that it's worth reading book 1 of an unfinished series. I think that's pretty high praise for it.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic. Another sub favorite. People argue whether or not it's LitRPG, most important thing is: it's dope.
Adventures on Brad. Nice slice of life in a non-vr fantasy world with game mechanics. Fun stuff.
A few others:
Adventurer Academy andIs It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon.
Enjoy!
I feel like A Practical Guide to Evil would hands-down be number one on this list if more people agree'd with me that it was a litrpg piece. The main character class development and abilities are straight out of the genre in my opinion, but there is no overt acknowledgement of this in the text. I can't recommend all four of these enough. Worth the Candle and a Practical Guide are both available free via the author's websites, so they have that going for them also.
1.) Unsouled is a good taste of my work, and by crazy coincidence, it's only a dollar right now!
2.) I like to think we'd be working in one massive, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mishmash fantasy world. Where you have to load magic spells into a rifle to hunt fire-breathing sheep for dinner.
3.) Rainforests.
4.) Because I like stories. Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, and Nasu Kinoko.
litrpg - books
litrpg - web
litrpg adjacent
I would recommend The Land by Aleron Kong and Daniel Black by E. William Brown. Daniel Black can get a little raunchy, if that is not something you are looking for you might want to skip it. Both book series are excellent and worth a read.
The first book is FREE if you have Prime. Made the decision kind of easy.
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6#customerReviews
Also! if you haven't had a chance to start this series, The first book is currently free right now:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H1CYBS6/
I've read a bunch of them (read: over a dozen) and some of them are good, some are utter crap.
Most of the rest of the books are garbage and you should stay away from them. I keep having faith in Wizards but they always let me down with some crap books and bad writers.
Not in any particular order.
House of Blades
Check out The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. It's a scifi but in my opinion it addresses the issue very comprehensively. Very good book overall too.
If anyone is interested in older science fiction books The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress Is a fantastic book that is still relevant today.
My wife bought them for me. Fake leather covers, but I really like them.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783
Dan Simmon's Hyperion
495 Reviews
5 star: (337)
4 star: (82)
3 star: (34)
2 star: (23)
1 star: (19)
Do yourself a favor and read [Hyperion] (http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426358576&sr=1-1&keywords=hyperion+dan+simmons) :)
If you liked Song of Ice and fire you might really like Erikson:
Malazan Book of the Fallen is a 10 book series, might take you a bit to get into in the beginning but once it gets going I was not able to put it down. It's extremely gritty and has a lot of characters and plot lines, but they are all done extremely well, it gets to a point that you just start following the bigger picture of what is happening even as you read the events that each character is involved in. (I highly recommend this series to anyone that likes fantasy in shades of gray)
Another great book I read recently was Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is a very good page turner, had a couple of late nights not being able to put it down. The "magic" (don't know what else to call it really) in the books is really creatively done, his writing style keeps you reading late into the night.
And off the top of my head I also liked Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. This one is a fun read, not as involved as the others mentioned above.
I've been reading Awaken Online, a story about a full dive vr mmo - I've been listening to the audiobook and would definitely recommend it. MC is literally a necromancer king in his own kingdom by the end of the first book. He might not necessarily be evil - but the rest of the world treats him like a villain, he regularly commits virtual mass murder, ritualistic murder and psychological warfare. Later in the story >!he's even put on unofficial trial in the real world for it.!< Lot's of political intrigue and diving into the mechanics of the magic and the world, not very deeply but definitely enough to tickle that munchkinry trope, >!at one point the game nerfs him and his abilities specifically because he exploited it so bad.!<
I'm mostly into litRPG so that's what my recommendations will focus on.
everybody loves large chests was already a great webnovel but the author also published on amazon. you can still read it for free on royal road if you want. it features a truly evil monster as primary character who was never human to begin with, so it's quite a different take on the litRPG genre.
life reset is a VR based litRPG with the focus on the MC having been turned into a monster character against his will and ending up stuck in the VR world, with emphasis on city building.
Awaken Online is also a VR based litRPG but the main character kinda turns into a big villain. sort of.
Dodge Tank combines an interesting post-apocalytpical but very futuristic 'real' world combined with a VR world.
The Land/Chaos Seeds transportation litRPG with a bit of a contentious author who has a tendency to shove every fun idea he has into the story at the expense of actual story progression, but if you like the idea of city building litRPG I'd certainly still recommend it. there are plenty of other aspects that make up for it.
But by far, my favorite series:
The first trilogy follows the Island of Nantucket, which is thrown back to the bronze age and loses access to high-energy physics. The Emberverse is the rest of the world (though mostly the US) who stay in present day, but also lose access to high-energy physics.
If you want to go more Sci-Fi, I'm currently reading and enjoying:
Also on my list to read:
Interesting! I am reading something similar: The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living by Fr. Gallagher. I am also reading Fire Within by Thomas Dubay.
...and The Dark Elf Trilogy because it was recommended by a friend and given to me for free on the Kindle. I am on the third book of the trilogy now and hope to finish it within the week so I can move on to another fiction series.
There are 2 books that are a great start to the book series artifact cycle 1 and artifact cycle 2. They are the first 5 books in the whole series. The first one is the Thran and the brothers war. The second one is Planswalker, time stream, and bloodlines. They are a good read if you can find them for cheap.
The artifacts saga vol 1 (The Thran and the Brothers War) is around $13 used.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0786953055/ref=mw_dp_olp?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=all
Rocky
Aliens
Bluetooth Headphones
Game of Thrones
Gears of War 4 Collector's Edition
Seven Samurai
Big Trouble In Little China Board Game
VR Headset
Samurai Champloo
Dredd or Dredd
Dead Rising 4
2TB Portable External Hard Drive
Aliens: The Set Photography
The Way of Kings
The Eye of the World
Army Of Darkness
Ash
RoboCop: Trilogy Collection
Cold Steel Tanto Pocket Knife
Fellow fan of series here! Let me see...
Young Adult
Percy Jackson series is fun (and finished, too, I think).
Artemis Fowl series isn't quite as good as Percy Jackson IMHO, but it's got a following.
Fantasy
Harry Dresden series This is one of my favorites. Harry is Chicago's only professional wizard. There are a ton of these books and they are still going strong.
Game of Thrones These are great...but unfinished. If you watch the show, reading the books does help you get even more out of the story, I think.
Wheel of Time Another good series. There is a LOT of this series and it's finished. (Thank you, Brandon Sanderson!)
Mistborn Speaking of Brandon Sanderson... This one is very good. I highly recommend reading the Mistborn books before trying the Stormlight Archive, but only because as good as Mistborn is, Stormlight Archive is even better.
Stormlight Archive Amazing. Man, these are good. The series isn't finished, but the two books that are available are some of my favorites ever.
Kingkiller Chronicles I loved the first book. I could not freakin' believe I enjoyed the second one even more. The third one is still pending.
Temeraire Dragons in Napoleonic times. Super cool premise! This one is not finished (I don't think, anyway).
Gentlemen Bastards Con men in a fantasy realm. It's pretty light on the fantasy elements. Very light, I'd say. I'd also say that it has some of the very best swearing that I've ever come across. :D
Scifi
Old Man's War I'm almost finished this one--it's amazing!
Horror/Thriller
Passage Trilogy I've heard these described as vampire books...maybe zombie books... It's apocalyptic for sure. Great books!
Mysteries
Amelia Peabody Egyptology + murder mysteries. Super fun, but trust me...go with the audiobooks for these. They are best when they are performed.
Stephanie Plum Total popcorn reads. If that's your thing, shut off your brain and just enjoy.
Walt Longmire These get particularly good as it goes along. The main character is a sheriff in modern day Wyoming. (Side note: The TV show is also great--just don't expect them to stick to the books.)
Graphic Novels (Everything recommended can be gotten in a "book" format instead of only in comic form, in case that matters. I've gotten most of these from my local library.)
Locke & Key Eerie as crap. Love the art! This one is on-going.
Y: The Last Man All the men on the planet drop dead in a day...except for Yorrick. REALLY good. This is the series that got me reading graphic novels. Plus, it's finished!
Walking Dead I am not a zombie fan...but I like these. They're not done, but I've read up through volume 22 and am still enjoying them.
Other
OutlanderI have no idea how to categorize these or even give a description that does them justice. I refused to pick it up for AGES because it sounded like a bodice-ripper romance and that's not my bag. But these are good!
I hope there's something in there that'll do for you. Have fun and read on!
Edit: Apparently, I need to practice formatting. :/
Edit 2: I forgot to add the Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards #1).
Looks like you haven't read "The Kingkiller Chronicles", which is a really popular fantasy series. I really couldn't recommend it highly enough, it's one of my favorites.
Codex Alera is a series by Jim Butcher, the same guy who does the Dresden novels. In the beginning of the series, the most interesting part is probably the somewhat novel way that magic works. I'll won't go into it much, but it's not the same wand-waving type you usually see. I think the story and characters take a book or two to really develop, but by the middle of the series I thought it was really good.
For something a bit less well known, I really like The Traveler's Gate series by Will Wright, an amazon self-published author. The writing itself is what I would call acceptable – you certainly won't find any poetry masquerading as prose, but I think it's probably better than the early Hunger Games stuff, for example. More importantly, it does a good enough job to get the story across, which I thought was really fun to read. (The writing also gets better as the series goes on, as you might expect from a first-time author.) This series is more about the adventure than anything, and I thought that was done really well. It's also like $4 per book, so the investment is small.
Here's some I can recommend:
House of Blades by Will Wight, narrated by Will Wight.
If you're a fan of Sanderson's magic systems or fight sequences, you might like this a lot. It's fast-paced, fun, and turns a few tropes around. I didn't listen to this on audio, but I just checked out the sample and it sounds like the author did a pretty good job narrating himself. The ebook is currently free on Amazon! So if you get the ebook for free, the audiobook should be $2 on Audible.
Forging Divinity by Andrew Rowe, narrated by Nick Podehl.
This is another book similar to Sanderson's style of hard magic systems. (Interestingly enough, Rowe is a huge fan of Will Wight and a regular member of this subreddit). The book is narrated by the same narrator who did the Kingkiller series! Also, this is the first book in what will likely be an extraordinarily epic series, with a magic school spinoff book due to release later this year.
Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan, narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds.
This book is and isn't indie/self-published, so I'm not sure if this fits what you are looking for. Sullivan originally self-published this series, and it was later picked up for traditional publication. This is the omnibus containing the first two books (both of which were self-published originally). Both the book and narration are very good, though.
***
A Warrior's Path** by Davis Ashura, narrated by Nick Podehl.
This has a society with a strict caste system, where each caste has their own magical abilities. The story follows a warrior who has to learn to reexamine this caste system and the politics of the warrior's home city. Also, there's a magical god-demon that can control hordes of evil minions.
Really? I'm Swedish and I picked it up from the link I linked in the post.
The amazon converter bot over at /r/FreeEBOOKS had more links though.
> Here are all the local Amazon links I could find.
>amazon.co.uk
>amazon.ca
>[amazon.com.au]
(https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01H1CYBS6/)
>amazon.in
>amazon.com.mx
>amazon.de
>Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find.
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Will Wight's "Cradle" series might be what you are looking for. It is heavy on the martial arts and Asian-themed magic/mysticism, so if you like that you will really enjoy the books.
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6/ref=pd_sim_351_2?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=2SM8VAFNDW52VNETV8JQ
I think you might like the magic system in The Cradle Series. It has a relatively soft magic system where people harness different types of auras which form in the natural world and mix and use them in thousands of different styles. For instance the protagonist is from a clan who specializes in using dream and light aura to craft illusions while another person uses sharpness aura to make other people's weapons explode with invisible knives.
The Dao of Magic is a more westernized type cultivation story. The Dao of Magic has some pretty interesting ideas, and for the most part is a great read. It is not without its flaws though, but they give the story character in their own way.
Unsouled is the first book in an ongoing series of wuxia/xianxia inspired books that is released on Amazon. I feel it is really well written, though I got bored halfway through the released books. It's still great, it's just hard for books to keep my interest, and is nothing against the author/story.
I haven't really read many English stories that are purely wuxia/xianxia though, but I have noticed wuxia influence in all manner of fantasy webnovels nowadays. I know there are many more wuxia/xianxia original English stories though; I just can't think of them off the top of my head.
Most of the characters in The Windup Girl are Thai or Chinese.
The Left Hand of Darkness messes around with gender in interesting ways. (Also, Ursula K. Leguin is an all-around fantastic author.)
Robert Heinlein can be a controversial author, but many of his works had non-white protagonists. Manuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is multiracial, and Johnny Rico from Starship Troopers is Filipino, if I recall correctly.
Someone else in this thread recommended The Brief But Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, and it's not exactly SFF (more in the vein of magical realism) but it is easily one of the best books I've ever read.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress 1957
The Colossus Trilogy *Edit: POI Really reminded me kind of the first book when I started watching it.
Colossus - the Forbin Project also a Movie based on it
The Fall of Colossus
Colossus and Crab
And also
When Harlie was One 2.0
I'm re-reading 'His Majesty's Dragon' (excerpt), I guess it's historical fiction. I have no idea where the book came from, I think one of my friends must have left it when they borrowed a book.
I don't read much historical fantasy, but I have read some and some more alternate history if you are in to that. I haven't read the one you spoke of in your post, so not sure exactly what balance of history and fantasy (or time period) you are looking for. However, I will list here for you many that I have read:
The Shadow of Albion - Andre Norton and Rosemary Edghill Alternate England
Black Ships - Jo Graham This one is about Troy. some romance
His Majesty's Dragon - Naomi Novik Napoleonic War with dragons.
Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier The author says it isn't historical, but it is based somewhat on history/legend. Ireland as it is being exposed to Christianity. Based on The Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale "The Wild Swans" Definitely a good bit of romance in this one.
The Wild Swans - Peg Kerr Another based on the Anderson Fairy Tale. 2 stories in one. One set in the 1800 about a curse, and the other set in the 1980s about AIDS. Not my favorite, but an interesting parallel.
Bright Sword of Ireland - Juliene Osborne-McKnight This one is more mythic and definitely has "romance". It's about Mebd's daughter. Not my personal favorite, but the ending definitely stuck with me. Also deals with interactions with Christianity
Newton's Cannon - Gregory Keyes Okay, haven't read this one yet, but I've been meaning to get around to it.
Young Adult
Sorcery and Cecilia OR The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
A Matter of Magic - Patricia C. Wrede
A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
These above are set in London/England in 1700-1900?. They are all relatively light reading.
The Fetch - Laura Whitcomb This one is set during the Russian Revolution. Teen love.
A Certain Slant of Light - Laura Whitcomb This one is set in the present day, but one of the main characters is a ghost from the late 1800s.
There're also quite a few novels in historical fantasy romance. But most of them are definitely more on the romance side.
*edited for formatting
They’re $22 on Amazon right now! Seems like a good reason to get a third set!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_svCpDbKDQ5Q63_nodl
Found it.
Something like The Art of the Lord of the Rings and/or The Art of The Hobbit might be good. Those are fairly large (though thin).
They also make a faux leather "Pocket" The Hobbit and LotR set.
Among others, Dan Simmons, especially the Hyperion series. Neil Gaiman, of course -- and just as obviously Alan Moore.
Speculative fiction isn't the most mature of genres, sadly, so there aren't many others, but this is where I've now set the bar. I'm open to suggestions myself.
Honestly, it's not so much that Card is immature, but I've been so underwhelmed by everything he's published in at least the past 10 years that I have no real desire to revisit his older stuff. That and I'm a little over the "superkid saves the world" contrivance.
I would recommend The Commonwealth Saga and it's followup The Void Trilogy. The Commonwealth Saga deals with humanity encountering a malevolent, nigh unstoppable alien threat forcing cooperation with other races, AI, and the use of wormhole-like portals. Sounds like it would be in your wheelhouse. Almost all of the books in both series are in the thousand page range, give or take a few hundred.
You might also enjoy Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Galaxy-spanning empires and invasions, unlikely partnerships, AI, transport portals, etc.
I'm looking for a new book, are you talking about this?
http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685
A really clever and well written series by *Brandon Sanderson. The game is being written after these books. If you ever have the spare time they are a great read.
Ninja Edit.
Take a look at the list of past Hugo winners and look for easily accessible ones. A few jump out at me:
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold, or maybe the omnibus Cordelia's Honor
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
I dunno, I guess I can find the philosophy interesting even if I think it's wrong, or won't work in reality. Plus I see no problem picking and choosing bits that do resonate without taking on all the baggage.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
The story is the moon gets turned into sort of a future-past Australia, where they ship prisoners. Even if their sentence ends, they (and their children, grandchildren, etc.) end up stuck there because their bodies have adapted to the lower gravity. But these ostensibly free people are still faced with a monopsony in the form of the prison, and they're being taken advantage of, so they revolt against Earth. It also features a computer that "wakes up", explores different family styles than a typical nuclear family, and so on. It has a bit of a utopia/dystopia, with Earth and modern society as the dystopia to the moon's utopia. Oh, and it's written in a pidgin language he invented which is mostly borrowed Russian words and grammar here and there, like dropping pronouns.
But (barely) underneath that, it's basically a libertarian political manifesto. Examples:
> I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
I think that was a quote from the wisdom-dispensing old-author type that always feature prominently in Heinlein's books.
> Thing that got me was not her list of things she hated, since she was obviously crazy as a Cyborg, but fact that always somebody agreed with her prohibitions. Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: "Please pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop." Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them "for their own good" — not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it.
Anyway, I recommend it, if you can stomach the occasional anachronism or sexist comments. Dude was way ahead of his time back in 1965, but not so much compared to 2017. In another of his books, there's some casually dropped line about women being partially responsible when they get raped, so he gets a lot of hate.
Oh, and the term "TANSTAAFL" comes from the book. You still occasionally see references to that.
Heinlein did it
Checkout Amazon's Look Inside preview. The grammar is similar to what you'd expect a Russia speaking English to use.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Moon-Is-Harsh-Mistress/dp/0312863551
True polygamy is hard to argue the immorality against unless it appears to be coercing children. But usually the word polygamy is applied to Mormons incorrectly. They actually practice polygyny which is much more objectionable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygyny
The practical real world problem with Mormon polygyny is the fact that it ends up coercing very young women to "consent" to marry an older man. It's not exactly consent when they're children. Also, its overtly patriarchal and a form of female oppression which is both bad for women and another kind of coercion rather than consent.
If you were to, however, argue in favor of polygamy as a true plural marriage with various combinations of genders it would be harder to argue that is was patriarchal or oppressive or immoral. It may be unhealthy still, but I'm not sure we have enough real world evidence to arrive at that conclusion yet. Very few people engage in this kind of polygamy as far as I know.
If you would like to read some fiction dealing with the concepts of Group Marriage you should check out Robert A. Heinlein:
And many of his other books.
Swan Song - Robert McCammon Of the books I read last year this was my favorite.
Old Man's War - John Scazi - It's a pretty fun Military Sci-fi series
Leviathan Wakes - S. A. Corey - Near space, space opera.
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson - Epic Fantasy with an interesting magic system, good place to start with a popular author
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie - "Grimm Dark" fantasy, he does an interesting thing by playing with a LotR style quest.
The Black Prism - Brent Weeks - Interesting Magic system, one of my favorite ongoing fantasy series. Much better than his first trilogy IMHO
Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch - Funny urban fantasy series that takes place in London
His Majesty's Dragon - Namoi Novik - Napoleonic* war + dragon's, fun quick reads.
Sevenes - Neal Stephenson - Stand Alone sci-fi novel about human's trying to survive in space as the world ends.
I can suggest more if you want, and I assume you've probably read at least some of these. Hope you enjoy some of them at least though.
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik introduces dragons to the Napoleonic Wars and the main non-dragon character is a British sailor
https://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283
If you're looking for fairly light, escapist type lit, you might try Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Quick, humorous reads, similar in style to Douglas Adams, but more fantasy than sci-fi.
I'd also suggest the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The Napoleonic Wars + dragons. Again, fairly quick reads and not super heavy, but they're just enjoyable books to escape into for a bit.
World War Z by Max Brooks: Oral history of the zombie war, and surprisingly more thoughtful than you might expect.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Gorgeous book about a German girl during WWII, narrated by Death.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler: Dana has also become unstuck in time. She's a modern black woman who finds herself suddenly transported, over and over, into the time of slavery.
Kushiel's Dart (and the rest of the Kushiel series) by Jacqueline Carey: I don't know if this would be up your alley or not, but it's definitely one of my "islands," as you put it. Be forewarnd that there is explicit BDSM sex within.
Peter S. Beagle's works are another of my "islands." He's one of the most often underrated and overlooked living fantasy authors, IMO. The Last Unicorn is his best known, and it's a thing of beauty. I also really like A Fine and Private Place.
He's honestly closer to Tavi, from Codex Alera
(OOC: Have you read Codex Alera? Similar premise (monster control is a part of society), well-thought out, great story.)
Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, starting with Furies of Calderon might fit the bill, it follows a magic-less protagonist in a society where magic is so common place it's used to turn on lights and faucets, and strength of magic is almost directly proportional to your place in society. He definitely depends on his wits, but doesn't really have the dry sense of humor though.
I loved Soldiers in the Shadows: Unknown Warriors Who Changed the Course of History
Fiction:
Furies of Calderon. 5 parts. The good guys fight roman style but with magic based on the elements. The bad guys varies from book to book.
Harald. Very different language style in the book. Medieval type warfare without magic or monsters. Pretty good.
http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Calderon-Codex-Alera-Book/dp/044101268X
Each book gets better and better. It has a different twist on fantasy with the "born with a 'fury'" thing going on. Tons of political intrigue that is actually interesting compared to blah blah skip a page in other fantasy books....IDK
Highly recommend this!
ugh i've finished everything worthwhile in my local library been reading e-books but running low on those as well
heres some off the top of my head.. be warned these are more character driven then anything else... I hate books with a giant cast of characters ( though malazan was an exception )
Old Shit:
The Fionavar Tapestry (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Tree-Fionavar-Tapestry-Book/dp/0451458222/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1279523697&amp;sr=1-2
Farseer Trilogy (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Apprentice-Farseer-Trilogy-Book/dp/055357339X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1279523843&amp;sr=1-1
New Shit:
First Law Trilogy (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Book/dp/159102594X/ref=pd_sim_b_1
The Name of the Wind (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp/0756405890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1257193424&amp;sr=1-1
Codex Alera (fantasy)
http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Calderon-Codex-Alera-Book/dp/044101268X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1279524012&amp;sr=1-1
Here's the first book on Amazon, it has the rest of them on there too. I'm sure you can just pick them up at the library, but Amazon does a good job of giving you a preview and some reviews and stuff.
The only problem I have with the series is the cover art on the first couple books. They don't resemble characters in the book at all. Heck, they hardly even resemble scenes in the book!
Other than that, Bluemoonflame got it right. It also happens to be a "rags to riches" story following the main character Tavi.
Jim Butcher's Codex Alera is a wonderful bit of fantasy. Magic is set up in a pretty novel way, slightly akin to Avatar or Legend of Korra, with a lot more nuance. LOTS of political posturing and backstabbing, very much in the vein of aSoIaF. And if you've ever read Jim Butcher, he is occasionally funny as hell.
I dunno if these will float your boat but you can try:
Traitor - Amazing standalone book set in the starwars universe
Ender's saga - Philosphy, strategy
Dune series - Abstract philosophy, higher concepts
Ringworld - Haven't read it but I've heard it's worth a go. I'm going to start it as soon as I finish the bloody Sword of Truth series.
Hitchhikers - Need I explain?
Depends on what you mean with "epic" I guess.
It's hard to go more epic in SF than Frank Herberts Dune series. The story is complex and has wheels within wheels, the characters are well crafted with their own inner motivations and Frank Herbert was excellent when it came to the craftmanship of writing. There's a reason why the first book in the series gets almost 80% five star ratings at Amazon.
On the downside they can be a bit heavygoing at times, some people get put off by "The God Emperor of Dune" which reads a lot like a 500 page autobiography by the main character. But I loved it.
And as for the "sequels" and "prequels" his son Brian Herbert has written along with Kevin J Anderson I'd leave them alone. Same universe but the characters are written in a reactive way (it seems like they just bounce around like ball in a pinball game) and they keep pulling shit out of their asses when they've written themselves into a corner.
Dune
A timeless masterpiece that current sci-fi literature can only aspire to be compared with
You can pick this set up reasonably cheap on Amazon... The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YZr6CbMRHXTZP
These just came out recently and all look nice.
http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415222843&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=lord+of+the+rings
http://www.amazon.com/Silmarillion-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544338014/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415222847&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=lord+of+the+rings
http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Tales-J-R-Tolkien-ebook/dp/B00796E7CA/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415222847&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=lord+of+the+rings
http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1453351174&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=lord+of+the+rings+pocket+edition
Yes! I got this box set so I’m going to read them all back to back :)
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til?tag=tolkienlibrar-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=D5CF7FJVWRRJZN3V&amp;creativeASIN=0544445783
Not the best, but certainly pretty! I got this from my Reddit Secret Santa this year and I fucking love it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544445783/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_6?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
http://amzn.com/0544445783
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion (collectively known as Hyperion Cantos) by Dan Simmons. easily my absolute favorite books, ever - not only are they well written, they mingle theoretical physics and science fiction in a way that makes my nerd girl toes tingle with anticipation.
*edit: words everywhere! also, don't want the pizza (I'm sure someone else can put it to much better use than me). just want to share good books :)
The Hobbit (a book everyone should read at some point) by Tolkein.
All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriott.
Oliver Twist by Dickens.
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
The Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
My favorite book right now is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. It also happens to be the book I finished most recently. It was such awesome science-magic, girl on an adventure, surreal kids stuff. I wish I had read it when I was younger!
I have Hyperion by Dan Simmons on my reading wish list... I've never read it and I want to!
Thanks!
Currently reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I like it. It's kind of like a sci-fi Canterbury Tales. 7 humans are on a pilgrimage to this alien world, and the novel is mostly them telling each other their 7 back stories to pass the time.
Check out the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.
You may also want to look into getting a Nook or Kindle. You can carry hundreds of books on a light weight device.
It's not new, and I didn't read it recently, but you can always read Hyperion if you haven't, because it's probably my favourite novel ever, sci-fi or otherwise.
Other works of fiction that contain the concept of a metaverse;
Books
Anime and Manga
Film
----
I know I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the genre, because if there's one thing humans are good at, it's writing fucktons on what we like.
So feel free to comment additions to this list, or opinions on what I've currently included. I have by no means read/watched all of these, so having someone with actual experience with each of these weigh in would be nice.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons is a great book.
almost my entire "paper books" WL is things i want used copies of, including this one. i need this book because it's constantly recommended as an older fantasy novel that doesn't get enough attention AND as a strong female protagonist.
Buying a book is not about obtaining a possession, but about securing a portal.
The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel
Definitely try The Deed of Paksenarrion, then. Might take you a week to read. :)
The Deed of Paksenarrion is a wonderful series. Follows a woman from farmhand to hero in a wonderful way that feels...just different, but familiar. If you've ever played DnD it actually feels a lot like a really well written campaign. All three can be found in a single book here
I got Mistborn From My SS. Awesome gift. And a big thanks to Archgoodwin for setting this whole thing up.
I love the Kingkiller Chronicles! Have you read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson? If you're looking for something to keep you occupied, it's a long book and the beginning of his Stormlight Archive series. The second book just came out Tuesday, and I'm hoping to begin it soon! Another series by Sanderson that I like is the Mistborn trilogy. I also like the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. In terms of things I've read recently that weren't epic fantasy, I liked The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker, The MaddAddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood, NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, and everything by Neil Gaiman.
I'm reading The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel right now, but I'm not loving it.
This sounds more like something from the Final Empire
I would definitely swipe right on this.
On a side note, what is with every woman between the age of 21-33 making a Harry Potter reference on her profile. Every time I read that shit I be like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaghIdSJKvQ
See Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - https://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final-Empire-Book-No/dp/0765350386
http://www.amazon.com/Gardens-Moon-Malazan-Book-Fallen/dp/0765348780
http://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Douglas-Adams/dp/0345391802/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376093747&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=hitchhikers+guide+to+the+galaxy
http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final-Empire-Book-No/dp/0765350386/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376093807&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=mistborn
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Front-Book-Dresden-Files/dp/0451457811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376093895&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=storm+front+jim+butcher
Do you like Fantasy? Try Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. I can recommend more if you'd like.
Like nick1click said, Douglas Adams is good.
Are there any specific genres you're thinking of?
Read the Mistborn Trilogy. It's well written, interesting, and very different from your standard swords-and-sorcery fantasy (but still really good).
As neolduser posted: The Mistborn trilogy.
D. Rus' Play to Live series has pretty epic battles centered around capturing and protecting player guild castles starting from book 3 on.
If you can ignore the occasional typos, the World at War series contains nice large scale virtual reality battles, but with guns instead of magic. The MC's company/guild does try to earn the top spot from an underdog position though.
The Spineward Sectors series isn't really virtual reality or fantasy, but sci-fi, and the battles are with starships, but from what I recall I would call them large scale where the MC has to try and hold his spot as Admiral.
I read eight books in September. Between travel and general boredom, I finally started digging into the books on Kindle Unlimited and discovered a few series that I enjoyed, even though they are frustratingly incomplete.
The first was the Unsouled series (5 books) by Will Wight. The universe is a combination of high fantasy and sci-fi with an overarching flavor of Asian mythology. At first, I wasn't completely sold on it, but the characters have some interesting arcs, especially Lindon, the protagonist. If you're a fan of anime-style story arcs with underpowered protagonists bumblefucking their way to glory, you'll like it. Also, the books are really easy to read, but engaging enough to keep interest. 4/5 stars
Second, I read the Euphoria Online (2 books) series by Phil Tucker. It's a story about a dystopian future where humanity has surrendered control to an AI to help mitigate the damage that's been done to the environment. The AI has taken over government functions and put together a VR game for humanity. The game allows players who play on "Death March" mode, which can be fatal, to gain a boon from the AI and the protagonist decides to attempt it because his brother is on Death Row. 3.75/5 stars
The last book that I finished just last night is Pandemic by A.G. Riddle. It's a well written in a Tom Clancy/Dan Brown kind of way. The story involves a pandemic (shocking, right?), a secret society, and other airport paperback style shenanigans. It's an entertaining read, but not breaking any new ground. I enjoyed it simply for the rollercoaster ride of the plot. 3.5/5 stars.
Just like u/Arcane_Pozhar I highly recommend putting Cradle on top of your list.
I’ve read through almost everything recommended on this sub and nothing approaches the level of quality and scope of Cradle. First book in the series is Unsouled. The latest is book 6. New books are released consistently every six months.
There is a very active sub for fans r/Iteration110Cradle however I don’t recommend going there until you’ve caught up with books because the community theory crafts all the time and its spoilers galore.
Will Wight engages with fans quite a lot and there is a lot of hype regarding new releases. In fact the latest book managed to get more reviews than the first book because of all the hype surrounding its release
If you have Amazon Prime, you can borrow the first book for free! https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01J0E8Z8A
If you haven't found it yet you may want to check out [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/home).
Wandering Inn is a book in the litrpg sub-genre, and r/litrpg is where I look for books sometimes. A lot of the litrpg books are on Kindle Unlimited. Two of the best series I've read thru KU are [Awaken Online](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J0E8Z8A?ref_=dbs_pwh_calw_0&storeType=ebooks) and the [Viridian Gate](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU0DYXW?ref_=dbs_pwh_calw_0&storeType=ebooks) series
I am in Canada but had a look at Amazon.ca out of curiosity and noticed it's actually free to read if you're a prime member (part of 'Prime Reading').
Does the author still make money from this?
https://www.amazon.ca/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB
Arcane ascension
Mage errant
Alco, check out /r/ProgressionFantasy/
Lately I've been ruminating on the Dark Elf Trilogy. I read it years ago, but I liked it a lot. If I recall, I once saw u/mistborn at The Dragon's Keep, and he liked that trilogy too.
I hope sci-fi is okay. Most of the time it's fantasy set in a different era.
no Dark Elf trilogy?
You can find physical copies of most older books on amazon for like $4.
Half price books, abebooks, thrift stores and shopping around for ebooks are all also options.
If you are looking for specific books there are some pretty reasonably priced compilations out there.
The Belgariad volumes one and two can be gotten for around $14.
All ten volumes of The Chronicles of Amber can be purchased for about $12.
All three volumes of the Dark Elf Trilogy can be purchased for around $12.
If you look around there are some pretty great deals out there.
The Magic Artifacts Cycle 1 and Artifacts Cycle 2 are great, just skip the Thran novel in cycle 1 to read once you finish Brothers war and cycle 2. Brother War in cycle 1 is probably my favorite book.
First off, get the two Artificat books, it is a collection of the stories from Urza's Saga.
Book 1
Which covers the Thran who were 3000 years before Urza and the growing up of Urza until he becomes a planeswalker.
and
Book 2
Which covers Urza as he travels the multiverse, realizes the threat that the Phyrexians really are, and starts his defense against them on Dominaria.
Then, read the Ice Age trilogy by Jeff Grubb.
Ice Age Cycle
Which covers what happens during the Ice Age on dominaria while Urza is away on his exploration. There are a lot more stories out there, but these should really grab you into the awesomeness that the story used to be.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=4774046&amp;postcount=52
This is order that I'm using to read the books. I'm also going to go with the crowd and say that The Brother's War is a very good book, and the best place to start. It was recently reprinted in the Artifacts Cycle I omnibus, but don't read the first book until much later.
Nerd shit coming your way:
The Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
: De longe o meu favorito, recomenda-se vivamente, e se fores fã de macroeconomia... well a premisa do livro baseia se na certeza da previsibilidade de comportamento humano para populações suficientemente grandes.
"The books tell the story of the Foundation, an institute to preserve the best of human civilization after the millenial long collapse of the galactic empire".
https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553293354
Use of Weapons, by Ian M Banks : Livro um pouco sobre as consequencias sociais e politicas de uma sociedade utopica com uma economia pós-escassez.
https://www.amazon.com/Use-Weapons-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/0316030570
The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
https://www.amazon.com/Eye-World-Wheel-Time-Book/dp/0812511816
Randland, r/WoT. Do yourself a favor and buy the first book. Then become so absorbed by it that you can't stop talking about it even 6 years after you finished the ^^^^14 ^^^^book series the first ^^^Let ^^^alone ^^^the ^^^third time.
Then realize that the cult following culture of RJ fans has been geeking out about a future Tv show since freaking April.
The Otherland series by Tad Williams might be what you're looking for. There's four books in the series, and it deals mostly with a futuristic virtual reality game world. Can't tell you more than that without spoiling it.
[This is the first sci-fi series] (http://www.amazon.com/City-Golden-Shadow-Otherland-Volume/dp/0886777631) I read as an adult. I remember enjoying it but it was almost 15yrs ago.
If you aren't Familiar with Brandon Sanderson... I'd check him out immediately!
His Mistborn series is amazing and finished (At least the first Trilogy), his other series are just as amazing, but no where close to finished so could be a long wait if you get as engrossed in them as I have.
Books are:
He also finished Robert Jordan's epic tale Wheel of Time when Mr Jordan passed away before completing the last 2 or 3 books.
Apologies if I'm interpreting your question incorrectly, but if a free book is what you're looking for I would highly recommend installing the kindle android app and downloading this book - http://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-STORMLIGHT-ARCHIVE-ebook/dp/B003P2WO5E/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;sr=&amp;qid=
One of my favorites ever, and it's completely free right now.
I'm not sure if I had like a special deal or anything, but it appears The Way of Kings(Stormlight Archive 1) is actually free right now on Amazon. I think I'll pick that up and begin reading through that tonight.
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Stormlight-Archive-Book-ebook/dp/B003P2WO5E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1412576096&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=stormlight+archive
The Way of Kings might be it because it has a group of knights who had special armor and swords that are priceless.
Or you can get each book individually so you don't get one large file
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Oathbringer
Link
Check out /r/UnlimitedBestOF, the best place for Kindle Unlimited recommendations!
Congratulations! Getting a Kindle was one of the best things I've ever done. Check out Will Wight's Traveler's Gate series. Here's the first book, House of Blades
My bad, I was thinking of "Necromancer Awakening"
Have you looked into the "Play to Live" series? Its quite a bit darker than LMS but its one of my favorites. http://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421864024&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=play+to+live&amp;pebp=1421864028692&amp;peasin=B00LYJOII6
Most people who start it end up finishing the entire translated series in several days.
Sounds like an NPC straight from Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe.
I highly recommend The Second Super by Logan Rutherford. It's has 4 books already and the whole series is amazing. Very similar to Drew Hayes Super Powereds, but starts in a world new to super heroes.
I'd also recommend The Awaken Online series. Characters are in a similar age group and although it's a online RPG driven narrative, the character and story development has a similar feel to the way Super Powereds is developed. It's a fun, immersive and addictive read.
The Land is pretty ok, you just have to get past A.K.'s writing idiosyncrasies. Everybody Loves Large Chest is an online serial. It's very gory, weird, and weirdly sexual. Ascend online is a great fantasy mmorpg. Really well written. Awaken online is very good book from the perspective of the "villain". Dark. Survival quest is pretty good Russian translated litrpg. Patch 17 is from a guy stuck in a mmorpg hell. Dragon's wrath is kind of just a town building litrpg, but is enjoyable enough. Unbound deathlord is pretty good dark book about the underdark, or whatever he calls it in that book.
top recommendations are Secret of the Old Ones
and Awaken Online
a few things on royal road legends and check out the litrpg facebook page for more recommendations
LitRPG as a Genre is very fond of this sort of thing and it can be considered as a Sub-genre within LitRPG. You'll get a better list at /r/litrpg but some of the first things that come to mind are
This one splits opinion, i wasn't a massive fan, but a lot of people do like, and it fits well with what you are asking for.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01J0E8Z8A/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1
I really enjoyed this one - if you like LitRPG and VRMMO in general I'd recommend it.
Awaken Online,
Life Reset,
Dungeon Born,
Dodge Tank,
Sufficiently Advanced Magic,
and I believe Ready Player One also fits the LitRPG description.
Fiction: really enjoying this book and the sequel: https://smile.amazon.com/Awaken-Online-Catharsis-Travis-Bagwell-ebook/dp/B01J0E8Z8A/. Reminds me of '"Ready Player One."
Non-fiction: https://smile.amazon.com/Like-Switch-Influencing-Attracting-Winning-ebook/dp/B00IWTWO8C/. Interesting take on social engineering from a former FBI agent.
Happy to!
Awaken Online is an awesome example.
You might have heard of Ready Player One - Spielberg is producing the movie. IMO that one is one of the best books (for nerds) ever, but it is only considered to be 'light LirRPG' book.
Will Wight's [Cradle] (https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6) series was inspired by Eastern Chinese style novels.
Andrew Rowe's [Sufficiently Advanced Magic] (https://www.amazon.com/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1518547677&amp;sr=1-1-spell&amp;keywords=Suficiently+advanced+magic) takes heavy inspiration from Japanese JRPG and light novels.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension, Book 1), by Andrew Rowe? It has magic, a tower, dueling, and a lost brother. It was published on February 26, 2017, so it's definitely within your date range.
Worth the Candle is a pretty good ongoing serial
Mother of Learning isn't quite a litRPG, but it uses D&D-like magic and scratches a lot of the same itches
Andrew Rowe's Arcane Ascension series isn't explicitly a litRPG, but it's written by a game designer and meant to feel game-like. It has a level up system, so it's barely worth making the distinction.
Edit: I just learned that I should have read War of Broken Mirrors before Arcane Ascension instead of the other way around.
I thought to check the price on the US Amazon page, and while it may not quite match the sale our Canadian counterparts have, $3.99 is not exactly expensive: https://www.amazon.com/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496421171&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=sufficiently+advanced+magic
I'm definitely considering picking this up, I did enjoy the War of Broken Mirrors novels, and am a fan of JRPG's in general.
You could try Andrew Rowe's [Sufficiently Advanced Magic] (https://www.amazon.com/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB).
Yep. Read them. Also coming to mind: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
I really enjoyed Ready Player one!
Some of my favorite sci-fi:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Heinlein
Course of Empire, by Eric Flint and KD Wentworth
Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy, by Robert J Sawyer (Trilogy starting with Farseer)
Uplift Series, by David Brin, (trilogy, starting with Sundiver)
A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge
Not everything I'm going to list is really libertarian per se but I think they do give important context for the libertarian/broader right wing movement
Economics in One Lesson. It's repetitive but gets the point across
Anarchy, State, and Utopia is a philosophical perspective
IThe Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It's difficult to call Heinlein a libertarian but this book definitely is. Also where the 'rational' part of my flair comes from!
There is No Alternative. I'm not sure how many people would consider Thatcher a libertarian but she's an important part of the history of the modern struggle against socialism that I think is overlooked in the United States
The Fatal Conceit. One of Hayek's must read works. A much shorter one that is I think just as important, Why I Am Not a Conservative
Atlas Shrugged. I'm not saying it's a good book or that you don't know of it but it's worth thumbing through just to see what all the hubbub's about. Prepare yourself for a latent S&M fetish.
Capitalism and Freedom. Maybe reading this will help you figure out why Naomi Klein seems to hate Friedman so much. Also very good and much more digestible is his television series Free to Choose and the similarly titled book
The Communist Manifesto. Provides good context. And maybe a chuckle.
I always preferred The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress! as far as Heinlein goes.
I'll recommend three!
An exploration of how biology affects culture, framed in a hard science first contact story:
The Mote in God's Eye
In the near future scientists discover a dead astronaut on the moon... who died 50,000 years ago.
Inherit the Stars
A sci-fi classic with great characters along the way. The over-crowded Earth is heavily reliant on the food created by a prison colony on the moon, which decides to declare its independence, with the help of the first A.I.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
> Ancap é muito utópico
Diz que é utópico mas não usa nenhum argumento...
>daria pra escrever um livro de ficção só com ideias ancaps
https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0312863551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501153276&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+moon+is+a+harsh+mistress
I'm currently reading Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein and while I haven't finished it yet, so far it's been a really enjoyable read with a lot of ideas that force you to stop and think for a bit.
Heinlein yes!
Try:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
and
Citizen of the Galaxy
Why wait until Mars?
Which reminds me...
Moon is a Harsh Mistress is an excellent book!!
DO dragons as Victorian naval ship air warfare count? http://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283
His Majesty's Dragon has an interesting take on Dragons. It's the first book in the Temerarie series. It's an alternative history story set in the 1800s where Dragons are used in the UK military. It's been a while since I've read it, but it's well written and unique concept. Definitely worth a read. You can get here on Amazon or here on Audible or here on Barnes & Noble.
There's also Seraphina, which is a murder mystery in a high court. The accused killers, are dragons. It follows a young court musician as she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. This one is very interesting, but it's geared towards a young adult audience. I still enjoyed it a lot, but keep that in mind if you look into it. It can be found here on Amazon or here on Audible or here on Barnes & Noble.
There's also Dragonflight, which has a lot of the inspiration for the "Dragonrider" character concept concept. It's also a series called The Dragonriders of Pern. I'm a little more wary of recommending this one. It's good, but it's also harder to read. It has just a touch of that old sci-fi slowness from the 60s, but if you can get past that it's pretty good. It's available here on Amazon or here on Audible or here on Barnes & Noble.
Those are the only Dragon-specific books I can think of at the moment. If I come up with anymore I'll add them. If you want any other book recommendations I'd be happy to help.
Edit: Added Dragonflight.
Here is the first book of the series on amazon
Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, starting with Furies of Calderon and going from there. I really enjoy the character development and the interesting use of magic.
One of my favorite series...I'm getting ready to read it again soon.
You really have to start from the beginning. The second trilogy is almost impossible to keep track of if you don't read them one on top of the other.
Jim Butcher my mistake. I've been fatigued as hell all week.
Get off my lawn damn kids...
I'd like to add that - according to the artist - they remaining five books will (at least for now) only be released as mass-market paperbacks. The first book is available in both paperback and mass-market editions, with the paperback being of better quality and not as tall/thin as the mass-market paperback.
Once we get closer to the movie's release, there'll probably be a whole bunch of editions and a box set too, so I'd just wait a bit.
Idk, try ASOIAF if you haven't already, or perhaps Dune.
The Stainless Steel Rat (probably the closest thing to Space Opera on my short list of suggestions)
Dune
Anything by Isaac Assimov
Anything by William Gibson (Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Neuromancer would be good first choices)
Ender's Game
H. G. Wells and Jules Verne are also good choices if you want some classic old-school sci-fi
I found it on Amazon tho https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783
Here. I have the same set. Very good quality, although the font is really small, so keep that in mind if you have bad vision.
Here
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1499748898&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=lord+of+the+rings+pocket+edition
I'm quite fond of this. I have the 50th anniversary hardcover but I don't take it with me. These look great and go right into my back without an issue.
Amazon! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783
I do believe i have found it.
http://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421284407&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+hobbit+and+the+lord+of+the+rings+deluxe+pocket+boxed+set
The answers you seek lie within the books , and “waiting for a nice hardcover set” sounds like you are just purposefully stalling yourself.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_P7Z0DbCEGWQJ1
Pick this set up, it’s super affordable and gets you right to it.
Cheaper at Amazon
For anyone looking to get them:
Barnes & Noble: $38.84 (the link the OP posted).
Amazon.com: $33.83 (cheapest I saw, just ordered some from here).
Amazon.ca: $58.76 (way more expensive, but perhaps shipping from Amazon.com would cost you more?).
[They're on amazon as well.] (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0544445783/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1)
My top recommendation in science fiction is Dan Simmons' Hyperion. It really blew my mind when I read in my 20's.
At some point in this beautiful thread you mentioned that you are not well read. What books have you read that you've really enjoyed?
If you haven't read these, they're worth a glance at the description:
Thanks for your time on this thread. You are awesome sir
Dan Simmons does this a great deal in Hyperion - it's basically the Canterbury Tales, which is, afaik, the first book to use this framed narrative.
If you like history, try the following.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Utterly fascinating and extremely well written. It reads almost like a novel.
Peter the Great and Dreadnought by Robert Massie. Both excellent.
Citizens is a jaw-dropping revisionist history of the French Revolution by Simon Schama.
Night Soldiers is a superb "historical spy" novel set in Europe before and during WWII. This novel by Furst is credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the espionage genre. Think Graham Greene crossed with John le Carré.
If you like science fiction, try Hyperion by Dan Simmons. A mind-bending book that, at its core and rather incongruously, is a retelling of Canterbury Tales.
Sticking with science fiction, try anything by Iain M Banks; especially his Culture novels. You could start with Consider Phlebas, or Use of Weapons.
I have many many more suggestions if you want.
You may also like LibraryThing, a great social networking site for those who love books and like to catalogue and discuss their personal libraries. Look me up if you want. I'm "omaca" there too.
The Hyperion and Ilium books by Dan Simmons both have the kind of narrative weight that KKC does, though both are a hardish Sci-Fi.
Thanks for the comment!
>People who remove religion from their lives often fill the void with less effective (and sometimes harmful) substitutes.
This is actually really interesting and I think explains what happened to me, too. It's a good argument for showing one reason why religion, and creating a false need/purpose, can be a negative thing. It's much easier to live without religion if you've never believed in it before, in my opinion.
Hyperion looks like a good read. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll probably pick it up on Kindle.
I don't hate it, but I quit on Hyperion a quarter of the way in. That seems to be a really popular book around r/scifi anyway. It just didn't grab me.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons?
"The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green, saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below." - Hyperion, Dan Simmons
"Joe Gould is a blithe and emaciated little man who has been a notable in the cafeterias, diners, barrooms, and dumps of Greenwhich Village for a quarter of a century" - Up In The Old Hotel - Joseph Mitchell
"He told them he loved them" - Columbine - Dave Cullen
"Kazbek Misikov stared at the bomb hanging above his family. It was a simple device, a plastic bucket packed with explosive paste, nails, and small metal balls. It weighed perhaps eight pounds. The existence of this bomb had become a central focus of his life." - The School - C.J. Chivers
"It was summer; it was winter." The Long Fall of One-Eleven Heavy - MICHAEL PATERNITI
"The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roaster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison, for never before today have I seen a head in a roasting pan" Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers - Mary Roach
I'd forgotten that Borderlands 2 released, so I thought you meant the novel Hyperion.
Read The Deed of Paksenarrion and you will no longer wonder what a Paladin is.
As for their real-world inspirations, look to the court of Charlemange and the Holy Roman Empire. See Paladin and Palatine.
I'll throw in The Deed of Paksenarrion. It has some shortcomings, but if you get into it you're in for a treat. Some suspension of disbelief is very practical when reading fantasy :)
If you haven't already... and was asoiaf really your first fantasy? Anyway, if you haven't already, check out Pratchett's Discworld books.
You have so much wonderful reading ahead of you! I am almost a tiny bit jealous. :-)
Try Tamora Pierce's novels for sure. They are all good, but her earlier books are geared more towards young readers than some of her newer ones. Personally, I would start with the [Protector of the Small] (http://www.amazon.com/First-Test-Protector-Small-1/dp/0375829059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1407034954&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=first+test) series. If you like it, you can go back and read the two earlier Tortall series (the Song of the Lioness series and the Wild Magic series). If you like it but find it a little juvenile, read the [Daughter of the Lioness] (http://www.amazon.com/Tricksters-Choice-Daughter-Lioness-Book/dp/0375828796/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1407035106&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=tricksters+choice) series and the [Beka Cooper] (http://www.amazon.com/Terrier-Legend-Beka-Cooper-Book/dp/0375838163/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1407035135&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=becca+cooper) series instead.
For the Arthurian element, definitely consider the Mists of Avalon, which is the Arthurian myth retold from all female POVs, including Morgaine (aka Morgan Le Fay).
However, without a shadow of a doubt, my all time favorite fantasy novel with a female POV is the Deed of Paksenarrion, by Elizabeth Moon. It's actually a trilogy published as an omnibus edition and is one of my all-time favorite books. I have read it a million times and I still feel the same sense of joy when I get ready to start reading it again. Honestly, I can't really describe the impact this book has had on me, especially as a woman who loves fantasy and sci-fi. I hope you will give it a try!
*edited to add links and fix a few embarrassing typos!
I finished The Deed of Paksenarrion (it's a three book trilogy released as one) by Elizabeth Moon this summer and I adored it. Lengthy character build-up, a beautifully described world setting, and really enjoyable if you're looking for a fantasy novel with a female main character.
Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion is quite good.
And while not female centric, de Lint's Newford books manage to represent strong and believable female characters well.
43, less than I would like (oh... sorry, M), hard science fiction, Iain M. Banks, any of the Culture series (favorites in that are Use of Weapons, Matter, and Surface Detail)
For recommendations, I have a soft spot (because he earned it) for Charles De Lint. One of the best urban fantasy authors out there. Some others are The Name of the Wind, and the Mistborn cycle (first book here).
It's more fantasy than sci-fi, but maybe Mistborn? The series is primarily from a female perspective. Lots of great action and a really neat magic system.
In teen fiction or adult? I don't think I've read any adult books recently (published in last two years) that would be appropriate for a 13 year old.
Stardust: Quirky, fun and Neil Gaiman. His writing and stories are very strange so people either like them or they don't (I don't). However, my friends swear by this book.
Kingkiller: Badass hero, epic journey, epic story. Ultimately along the same difficulty as Sword of Shanara/LOTR and is probably super boring for a 13 year old.
Let me think: Game of Thrones is neither appropriate nor well written. Lackey is still amazing, but has strong homosexual and relationship themes. I think I waited to read her old stuff until I was 13, but her new stuff is just as -- well, her... Terry Brooks has a new series, but it is more political than Rothfuss. All the modern mystery/suspense is very sexual. I'm reading Abercombie right now, but don''t feel confident recommending it since I'm not done. Keyes reminds me of old-school high fantasy -- really, really dense and hard to digest for a 13 year old.
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Divergent, as he already read, was quite good. Hunger Games and Maze Runner are in the same genre, but both are quite a bit darker than Divergent (stupid mind control and very Lord of the Flies-esque).
I think my best modern recommendation is:
Rick Riodran: Generally awesome teen male fiction. I've read the greek (percy) and egyptian series. They are fun and very similar to harry potter in tone.
Other
Throne of Glass: Not super popular, but definitely good! I haven't had the chance to read the sequels, but the first stuck with me.
Mistborn: water-downed Trudi Canarvan. Poor girl becomes a magician/assassin who totally kicks butt. Some almost-rape scenes (2 I think).
Intisar Khanani - I got a chance to read her newest book before it was released. She is the modern equivalent of Tamora Pierce and definitely someone to watch in the future. Great - Great author, but doesn't have an established series.
If he ends up liking the Dark Elf Trilogy -- The forgotten realms are STILL making books.
I'd say that Mortal Instruments (Girl meets demon hunter -- kind of a less cool version of Bleach), anything John Green writes (watered down Nicholas Sparks), Tiger's Curse (awesome epic adventure, but kinda creepy), and the Iron Fey series are too girly.
I recently read a free kindle book that would be awesome. It was a watered-down, less rape-y/fetishy version of The Sword of Truth. I can't find it. I'll have to get back to you on that. It had dragons and magic and bad-assery in a generic fantasy way. There was also another one with lots of dragons and he had power over them... hmmm... I might be losing my mind.
I feel that way when I order english books (I live in germany) and get the american release instead of the british one.
For example compare the american version of Mistborn with the british one. The american cover looks god awful. When I went through Barnes & Nobles on my last visit every book looked like pulp, no matter if Grisham or Tolstoi.
I don't really care for WOT, but Sanderson has written some very imaginative fantasy novels in Elantris and Mistborn, so hopefully he finishes out the series on a good note. The second two books of the Mistborn trilogy are meh, though.
https://www.amazon.fr/Mistborn-Trilogy-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/076536543X
https://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Trilogy-Boxed-Hero-Ascension/dp/076536543X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1525020946&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=the+final+empire
I couldn't agree with this more. Sly Flourish has a whole book on Fantastic Locations where he discusses using them, how they can improve your game, and tips for building them/running them. I highly recommend it.
I also highly recommend building set-piece encounters for dramatic moments in the storyline. The big boss fight is an obvious time to do this, but I suggest spreading them out more to keep your players on their toes and show them that it's more than just a formula. If you want to study how to make them, I personally think that Whispers of the Vampire's Blade is a great place to start (it's also a super fun module).
As far as worldbuilding goes, don't overdo it (I should know, I overdo it all the time). Nailing the details can make the game 10x as immersive, but spending all your time writing adventures on just the details does not an interesting adventure make. For ideas on worldbuilding, YouTube can be a good resource if you find the right channels. Other than that, read fantasy novels. Published campaign settings can give you good ideas too, but usually I find novels to be more inspiring because they take more risks. It's okay to say your world doesn't have goblins in it as long its in service of something more interesting. Maybe they all died in a horrible ritual that created some new evil? That kind of thing. For novels with tremendous worldbuilding, I recommend anything by Brandon Sanderson, especially his Mistborn trilogy.
I hope some of that helps!
Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors. Both his Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive are among my top ten, probably. Hell, I've read every single book of his, even the children's, and they're all goddamn amazing.
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is a great fantasy series for YA fans branching into adult Fantasy. In fact, they are re-packaging them in PB for teens because they have such good cross-over appeal
I really liked Sorcery and Cecilia, which is Jane Austen with magic, basically.
Speaking of Jane Austen, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a great YA title that's basically a re-telling of Persuasion done in a sort-of dystopian, far future setting.
If you want a more literary contemporary YA, I would try I'll Give You the Sun. It's probably the best book I've read all year.
I've got more where that came from if you would like more titles!
Most of the traditional fantasy That I've read on unlimited is in your list. Ive lost most of my time recently on LitRPG and Urban Fantasy. Some of my Unlimited reads not in your list:
Urban:
LitRPG:
Random Wuxia (What The Cradle Series Is based on I Think?) (Side note, I went down a rabbit hole with these and others like it. Soooo many hours lost reading.):
Link, to keep others from having to search for it.
> https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1466890326&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=unsouled
No I have not. I am getting it right now. Thank you!
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/10073/the-wandering-inn
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/14396/the-snake-report
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/5701/savage-divinity
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/15935/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns
(guilty pleasure)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KZ41LHM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
Ohh. I see.
Cradle Series
Overgeared
Red Mage
The Gam3
Limitless Lands
Divine Dungeon
Mirror World
The Good guys
War Aeternus
Dest March
Bushido Online
Dark Elf Chronicles
Djinn Tamer
Hero of Thera
Morning Wood
The Two Week Curse
Party Hard
Axe Druid
Ryan DeBruyn
Equalize: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG (Ether Collapse Book 1)
The way of the shaman
Galactagon
From what I've read?
So you could read that as 1. Stormlight Archive 2. Mistborn 3. Other books
This link is all the Mistborn books with the UK (Gollancz) covers, this is the trilogy with US covers. There is a boxed set of the original Mistborn trilogy somewhere, I've seen it in the UK versions (can't speak for the US, as where I live all the Sanderson books are sold with the UK covers).
You'd have to buy the Stormlight Archive and other books separately though as I don't think they have boxed sets yet. Amazon and Book Depository are bound to have them, I'd recommend shopping around for the best price. I don't live in the US, so I can't speak for the retailers that exist over there.
Edit: Yeah nah I got the order wrong
https://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Trilogy-Boxed-Hero-Ascension/dp/076536543X/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=PUPWLYJZT7RS&amp;keywords=brandon+sanderson&amp;qid=1554817663&amp;s=gateway&amp;sprefix=brandon&amp;sr=8-5
I started with this.
Oh god I love this question. I've got some fantastic recommendations:
Fantasy Series:
The Gentleman Bastards Sequence
by Scott Lynch
Book One: The Lies of Locke Lamora
Simultaneously one of my top 5 favorite fantasy novels, and my favorite Heist story of all time.
Suspense, Intrigue, Visceral action, and some of the wittiest, best-written dialog I've ever read in fiction make this series simultaneously dark, tense, and hilarious.
Thank god Lynch was wondering what a swords and sorcery take on Ocean's Eleven would look like, because the thought never occurred to me before this.
The Mistborn Trilogy
by Brandon Sanderson
Get the boxed set. Just do it.
Sanderson is perhaps best known for being chosen to continue the Wheel of Time series after the passing of Robert Jordan; and this is very unfortunate. I would take Mistborn over WoT any day.
The author's passion seems to be exotic settings, and unique magic systems with a solid set of rules. You get so attuned to what Mistborn's Allomancy can and can't do, that it seems as fundamental as gravity by the end. And speaking of endings, this one is Incredibly well thought out.
-----------------------------
I've got stuff to do, so I'll cut it off here for now, but seriously, check them out. And Please don't ask me which I'd recommend more, I don't want my head to explode.
More to come, if I'm not too lazy. I'm full of these.
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.
Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy is what got me back. Giver er a run, she'll treat you real nice.
I finished the Mistborn Series recently, and it has a very strong female lead.
I guess based solely off of my name:
The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson - I believe this will go down as one of the, if not the best fantasy series of our time.
>It's basically asking if turning-completeness exists for for all states of intelligence, that all it needs is time (faster clock speeds or actual time) to make a "breakthrough".
Some insights never "click" if the disparate information doesn't arrive in consciousness at the same time (or get activated simultaneously at a subconscious level). Certainly, an AI would likely be able to think faster than us, but the question is, would it think better than us? Data in TNG is an interesting example of this—he seems no "smarter" than the other main characters, only able to access and process information faster than them. Whether this is realistic or not is debatable, but what if super-creativity was much harder to program than other super-human aspects of an AGI?
>The point of the paperclips is that they are arbitrary. It's not that a paperclip factory itself would go nuts, it's that anything can go nuts, it doesn't even have to be a "computer in a box".
Right, though the paperclip maximizer is a very particular example of something "going nuts;" of a hyper-intelligence wiping us out, not because it was angry at us for enslaving us (as most sci-fi AI antagonists do), but because we make it unable to fulfill its absurd directive. It's just so smart that we can't stop it. Or maybe it wipes us out because it out-competes us for resources to fulfill its absurd objective.
Imagine if, say, the Earth were invaded by alien robots that were going to "consume our planet" because, once upon a time, its creators said "make starships" and forgot to include a "until we don't need any more" parameter.
>Look at what happened with the housing bubble.
Well, the housing bubble was the result of a number of stupid decisions, but, yeah, some of them came about as a result of people pursuing an objective that was ultimately rather stupid. I mean, even if the objective was "accumulate money," many of the institutions which precipitated the catastrophe failed in that objective because they were wiped out by their own stupidity. Like the corporation which pursues short-term (quarterly) profits over long-term goals and ends up going under because of it, perhaps not even understanding why. And if the company goes out of business, not only do they fail at the "better" objective of "make long-term profits," they also failed at the short-term goal they set for themselves to always make quarterly profits higher than the preceding quarter's.
I'd say that type of failure could be used to describe the problem of a paperclip maximizing AI, but only at a very distant level.
>Yeah, that's the sad part. I'd love to think that introspection and empathy will look similar across any kind of consciousness, thinking that all sentients would respect some variation of the "golden rule" when they recognize something of themselves in each other. But I know that it's pretty much wishful thinking without any examples other than humans.
We evolved empathy because it was beneficial for our species (see: inclusive fitness). A lot of the things we value most are derived from being a cooperative primate species. OTOH, if a solitary species were to evolve intelligence, they would probably be mystified by humanistic values. Psycho/sociopaths, for instance, represent an interesting and frightening slice of humanity which has no empathy and therefore only pursue selfish goals, sometimes completely rationally. If all of humanity was that way, we wouldn't have civilization, but we might still collectively be just as intelligent.
Thus I suppose you could say that if we were to ever encounter another space-faring species, we should expect them to have values somewhat approximating the humanistic ones we have, if only because the type of species which would create such values would also be more capable of collaborating and building civilizations.
OTOH, if a species somehow evolved intelligence that was so great that they could work together without any empathy, they could still form an advanced society with values we might find abominable. (On a side note, anarcho-capitalists often imagine humans as being this way: perfectly rational beings who will choose to cooperate because it's in our best interest. In fact, we really aren't. It might be in the best interest of Company X to contribute voluntarily to a road paving fund because paved roads mean more customers and therefore more business, but we don't really work that way. Free riding is evolutionarily very useful, and so is trying to avoid being taken advantage of by free riders. The tug-of-war between those two instincts—both on a personal level and on a collective level—make us ultimately rather irrational. We also require too much that we feel empathy to act in a pro-social way, and thus our limited Monkeysphere limits our ability to improve society as a whole.)
Anyway, all of that only describes a species that evolved naturally. AGIs are a wholly separate issue. They have no reason to feel empathy and thus no reason to see other beings as being fundamentally equal to them, even if they're different. Unless they're specifically programmed for it, anyway. And accidental AGIs like the Geth wouldn't necessarily be programmed with "humanistic values" like that.
>I keep going on and on about arbitrariness, then praise the Geth just because they happened to land within that tiny mind-space where they end up with a human-reminicient sentient intelligence. I guess the point is that from the premise that the Geth are a network sentience that has become introspective, what follows is so logical and well developed.
Yeah, maybe it's just a suspension of disbelief thing. Sometimes you have to accept an absurd premise (e.g., FTL travel is possible, aliens would be human-like, AGIs would have humanistic values) to get to an interesting story. OTOH, if one is simply world building and engaging in "speculative fiction" (in the sense that it's fiction which speculates about "what would happen if...?" scenarios), then it's inexcusable. But sci-fi is often a balance between "speculative fiction" and entertainment (to say nothing of the uncountable number of times science fiction has been used to examine the human condition through an otherworldly lens).
>There is no reason why an "attacking" AI has to be sentient, the nonsentioent AGIs without any capacity for introspection are probably the most dangerous.
Yeah, though they're probably harder to pull off as compelling villains (unless one merely wants their villains to be akin to a force of nature). Stargate Universe, for example, had some robot villains that figured prominently in their second season that didn't seem to be sentient. I don't know if you've seen the show, and I certainly don't want to prime you to approach it in a certain way if you haven't, but they really weren't very interesting villains. Realistic, maybe, but not as interesting as even, say, the Geth of ME1. IMO, of course.
>This could take the form of "a computer in a box",
It's not exactly related to what you were saying, but it occurs to me that an interesting story might arise from an "Asimov AI" in a box (i.e., not doing anything except existing as an experiment) being called upon to save humanity from a paperclip maximizing AI. I don't know what kind of a developed, interesting plot could really come out of that, but it's an idea, anyway. :)
>It's also available for free online in pdf format from his website.
Interesting, since I see Amazon is selling it for $8. :)
>Overall though, I usually never know what to recommend in terms of scifi; it depends so much on taste, and it varies pretty wildly.
Well, I greatly appreciate even those two recommendations! My wife and I just picked up Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, so I'll have to finish that first before I look into anything else, but I like having an idea of what else to look for afterward. Both are now on my Wish List. (Though I keep meaning to make use of the local library.)
FWIW, what I am looking for these days is intelligent sci-fi/fantasy with good characters. Hard sci-fi tends to sometimes fall into the trap of being too much "speculative fiction" (in the sense that I used it above) and not enough of an interesting story or one populated by real characters with real dialog. Soft sci-fi tends to be little more than "adventures in space," which can sometimes be good, but sometimes be incredibly stupid.
Unfortunately, my wife and I have become somewhat hard to please these days. :) We need good prose (diction, dialog, etc.) as well as a plot which makes sense and doesn't having insultingly stupid plot devices (like the space magic of ME3's synthesis ending) or one-dimensional characters. It's kind of a tall order, I feel like. (I liked Snow Crash, for instance, but my wife found it too "info-dumpy" and found its satire somewhat distracting.) I sometimes long for the days when I was a teenager and could read Star Wars books (or worse) and be completely satisfied.
Hell, part of the reason I can't write anymore (I used to do it a ton as a teenager) is because I don't think my fiction writing skills are capable of producing a book I would like! :)
>And I can't even write them in a timely manner, and I still think I missed something I wanted to say...
Heh. There are a lot of things in life which can come long before writing posts on the Mass Effect sub-reddit. :)
I'd been having some problems getting into reading in elementary school. It's not that I couldn't do it, it's more that nothing I had was interesting to me. Then I found my brother's copy of Homeland by R.A. Salvatore. It was the first book in a three book series. I read the entire series in three days. I did nothing but read for three days. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't tired, all I wanted was to read. There were times I wasn't consciously aware of what I was reading. . . but the narrative formed in my mind none the less. It was fantastic.
Just looking around a bit, I found these three possible novels:
Although, all of these have differences to what you described.
---
These are in a similar vein, but are missing important details, so I doubt they're what you're looking for. Figured I'd mention them anyway:
I've probably not been much help, but hope you got something useful/enjoyable out of this!
:)
RA Salvatore -- the Dark Elf Trilogy
Excellent stories, wonderful protagonist and fantastic writing
Oh man, he absolutely looks like a Rocko.
Or maybe a Ted?
good luck naming him though! Beautiful animal.
I would definitely read this to my dog, she's spoiled and needs to be tucked in for bed.
But this is just for me.
Hey man, browsing through top posts so sorry for replying 2 months afterwords, but this art is specifically for Magic the Gathering, which has an incredibly unique magic system, both the game and the lore of the myriad of planes it takes place in.
There are some books about this, I've read one called the Artifact Cycle I (which is actually 2 stories in 1 book) and I loved it. Also at the MtG website lots of articles about these planes get posted.
So if you just want to delve into all of this amazing magic, there you go, or it's a great place for inspiration if you are creating your own stuff.
On a quick note, this book is truly awful. The plot is a convoluted mess, the characters are shallow, flat, or completely unrealistic, and the language switches from 'overly verbose English major' to 'under medicated pre-teen'.
If you're looking for good Magic novels, go for the Artifacts cycle of books.
If you want something more recent, I would recommend the recent Planeswalker novels.
Amazon has a kindle version of Brother's War for 5 USD. Same for all of the Artifacts Cycle books, all at 5 USD. The paper novels vary wildly in price. The Onimbus books probably the cheapest way, totaling ~100 USD (these versions also are not available as kindle books via Amazon).
The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812511816/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_eMhtDb3VAFX24
I have the mass market paperback versions
I cannot say enough good things about The Name of the Wind. it's the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles.
If you love fantasy and strong female characters, the Eye of the World is the first book in the just recently finished Wheel of time series. Amazing series, long, deep, complicated, but amazing.
here
The drop down menu lets you choose the type (hardback, audio cd, mass market, etc). Idk about a mass market complete set, though, I got them all individually
I can't believe no one has said the "Otherland" series by Tad Williams.
I think it's his best work.
Only one of the major characters doesn't know he is in a virtual reality but almost all of the characters visit multiple virtual worlds and try to discover it's secrets. There is an amazingly diverse cast of wonderfully real characters. check it out
I found out about Brandon Sanderson from this sub and really enjoyed these two series:
Mistborn
The Stormlight Archive
I also can't recommend Jon Krakauer enough.
they'll probably just tap in Sanderson like they did with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.
At first I was like.. so who is this random Sanderson and why should I care about his books. Eventually I did read a Sanderson book and I was.. unimpressed. It was good but not "We want you to finish WOT" good. Turns out it was his Young Adult book which was better than Patterson's garbage. Anyway one day Amazon had a Sanderson book for free. Good lord it was good. It was so epic, so good. It changed my world. If I was in high school when this series was coming out my primary user handle would come from it instead of Wheel of Time. On TOP of that. Sanderson is a bloody machine. He cranks out these epic well written books and he cranks them out regularly which in the literary world is lightning fast.
I understood after reading that book why they choose him. Because he writes good, he writes big and he's a closer.
The Way of Kings (kindle edition), the 1st book in Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive series is currently FREE on Amazon. It's a bit early for my full review, but I read the prologue while taking a dump at the office today, and the whole time I kept thinking "Man, I really have to hurry up and get back to my desk for that 1:30 conference call".
Edit: spelling
It's also free on Amazon.
This is a direct link to the product
An amazon referral link has a tag in the URL appearing as "tag=XXXXX-20."
So, yes, what was removed was an Amazon affiliate/referral link.
Oh yeah that's right. It's also free for Kindle on Amazon.
I might suggest The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. It's been a while since I've read it, but I feel like the chapters might be a bit long if you wanted to read one or two over a lunch break (depending on how long you have to read on a break). It's not quite as fun of a read as Kingkiller, I would put it between Kingkiller and A Song of Ice and Fire, but I do highly recommend it regardless. Also by Brandon Sanderson I highly recommend the Mistborn Series. Warning about the way of kings, it is part one of a planned 10 part series, with the second part only coming out hopefully next year, so that might be a turn off for you.
I myself have just started reading The First Law series, and while I can't quite recommend it yet, it seems to read and feel very similar to The Way of Kings, but with shorter chapters. I am expecting good things from it, and the lengths of the chapters seem very suitable to a lunch break.
Links to kindle editions to take advantage of the reading samples:
Way of Kings
Mistborn
First Law
I'm not sure if I can pick just one, but if you like sci-fi, you might enjoy Halo: First Strike. It's a fun read if you have some knowledge of the Halo universe. Dunno if I could call it my favorite book, but it's up there.
If you're into fantasy, I'd suggest trying The Way of Kings. I just finished it the other day and ended up quite enchanted with some of the characters.
I have Flowertown and Confessions of a D-List Super Villain that can be lent. Both were very good. I'm sure there are many others, but it is so hard to search for the lendable titles on Amazon!
EDIT: Adding more lendable SF titles - only adding books that I liked a lot.
The Forever War
The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2011
Bob Moore, No Hero - this is currently free in kindle store
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
Warbreaker
The God Engines
13 Bullets
Agent to the Stars
Old Man's War
Hah, that's pretty cool. I am reading his The Stormlight Archive Series. My middle daughter suggested it as a series that she, my oldest, and I could read together and discuss because The Wheel of Time was something she'd never gotten into but was shared between my oldest and myself. I realllllly love this seris.
I'll look up the Alcatraz vs. series. I tried his Mistborn series and, while I loved the first book, I couldn't even finish the second, so it turned me off of him for a while.
This reminds me so much of Valinhall in House of Blades. A Hogwart-esque school/home where everything is earned and everything is trying to kill you. Everyone should check it out.
will wight
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00D52X58Y
The closest I can think of that has the same feel as the land is the "Play to Live" series by D Rus. Crunchy, covers almost every subgenre of LitRPG, including lots of base building, and a not so beloved MC.
https://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-LitRPG-Book-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6
https://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-LitRPG-Book-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6
Mistborn, and then the following two books if/when you have time.
Then everything else that author has ever written. Save "The Stormlight Archive" for last, though.
XOXO,
Voxie
http://www.amazon.com/dp/076536543X/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076536543X?psc=1&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
So it's mass market, but not YA I think.
I'll give you a link to the Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Elf-Trilogy-Collectors-Homeland/dp/0786915889
It does sound like a pretty amazing story. Mostly excited because it's a subterranean setting lol.
Drizzt from The Dark Elf Trilogy. He is such a fascinating and lovable character, throughout his development, we find such likable, and heroic qualities. Talk about rooting for an underdog.
Dragonlance is good, but the Dark Elf series (Drizzt Do'Urden) is better.
The Dark Elf Trilogy: Collector's Edition (Homeland / Exile / Sojourn) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786915889/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_izRpzbMC13FGR
The Dark Elf Trilogy by R. A. Salvatore.
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Elf-Trilogy-Collectors-Homeland/dp/0786915889
No problem. I suggest starting with Homeland. There is also a book with the whole trilogy in one volume. Chronologically, it's the first in The Legend of Drizzt series.
His Drizzt books are the most famous. But...the writing in the beginning of the series....is not near as good as the later books.
So it depends on how much time you have. I'd say you could start here:
http://www.amazon.com/Trilogy-Collectors-Homeland-Exile-Sojourn/dp/0786915889
Its a good balance of being early on in the series, easy to read, and not terrible writing.
Me again. they just re-released the best as a compliation: The Brother's War and The Thran as Artifact's Cycle 1.
Here it is on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Artifacts-Cycle-Magic-Gathering-Omnibus/dp/0786953055/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Other good places to start are the comics of the new planeswalkers:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/multiverse/planeswalkers.aspx?x=mtg/multiverse/webcomics/main
And if you want summaries of books and things, there's a blog that does chapter by chapter coverage daily:
www.mtgfiction.com
That's a good start. If you want a more comprehensive explanation/summary, there's the mtgsalvation wiki:
http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Category:Storylines
That's the name of the original book. They compiled the earlier books into an omnibus. Which is this
Interestingly, I found that Phyrexia (Magic: The Gathering) has a decent example of Eugenics - especially when it goes too far (and how could you prevent it from going that far?). Book Here
http://www.amazon.com/Artifacts-Cycle-Magic-Gathering-Omnibus/dp/0786953055/ref=sr_1_sc_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1412578674&amp;sr=8-3-spell&amp;keywords=magic+the+gathering+Artefacts+book
These are by far my favorite books of Magic. The Brother's War is an amazing novel, and The Thran gives you the origin story of the Phyrexians and Yawgmoth, which later on develops into an important plot piece in other books.
Copying this from an earlier, similar post:
Here you go.
Of these, the following on available for e-book:
In addition to the Secretist books.
Prior to Alara, each set had a matching novel, so each set had a triology. They never sold well, so Wizards eventually condensed them into single books for each set, but also added in single books for the new generation planeswalkers (the ones we have now). The Secretist is a revival of the book series, since no book was published for Innistrad, but using a different format: one short novella for each set, which should all together add up to a whole novel, similar to the Alara-era books but with a more encompassing feel. They're using it as a test.
You can also find the Artifact Cycle collections in physical copies, which are very worth the read and extra cash.
The Zendikar, Scars, and Innistrad stories happened mostly via a now-
happenedabandoned-by-Wizards medium, webcomic. You can find the relevant stories here.Scars is much more dependent than most books because it's essentially a sequel. Do you care about Urza, the creator of Karn? Or how Mirrodin came to be? Because it's annoying but all of it is tied together. But if you just want the story, check out the MTGSalvation wiki for your lore. It will keep you busy for a while.
If you really want to read, track down a copy of the Brother's War. It's easily the best of the books.
I forgot, I have also started Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Read by Stephen Fry), and it is well done as well.
I remembered a couple more that I liked:
Unbroken - good (true) story about WWII pilot who was captured by the Japanese
Water for Elephants - Good book (fiction) about a circus in the depression era
Anathem - I really like Neal Stephenson, and this was a good book, but it was very long, and I'm sure I would have had a much harder time if I had to read it, instead of just listen to it
Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book 1) - Good book, but very long and if it weren't for the different voices by the narrator, I would have gotten lost pretty easily.
Hope this helps, and hope you find some good ones!
The Wheel of Time Series.
The Wheel of Time
Robert Jordan.
https://www.amazon.com/Eye-World-Wheel-Time-Book/dp/0812511816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1468092268&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=wheel+of+time
I can recommend:
The Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan spanning fourteen books (the last three of which were written by Brandon Sanderson following Robert Jordan's death). It starts with The Eye of the World.
If you like fantasy books, and want to sink a lot of time reading a good long story, I'd recommend starting with book 1 of the Wheel of Time Series, The Eye of the World. I have read this massive series 4 times now. It's a good waste of time! :) The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812511816/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_yZrUzbW2T2FXY
Thank you. I wish i could take credit for it but i can't.
I just parodied The Wheel of Time opening, but i would be more then happy to repost it in the event you remake this thread :D
There are many classics that you should definitely check out, but I'm going to recommend two different things:
I would highly recommend Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It is a long read about an escaped Australian convict that begins when he touches down in Bombay, India. There are really interesting characters, and the story is great.
Also, if you happen to like the epic fantasy genre, you should check out The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. This is a link to the first book in the 14 book series. The series' final book is due to come out fairly soon, and it has become my favorite epic fantasy story.
There's always the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Epic Fantasy, TONS of Characters, 14 books. Massive in every sense of the word.
The first book, The Eye of the World, is a stand alone book in it's own right, if you want to get a feel for the author and genre in general.
This isn't Wheel of Time?
It'll be like this.
In that case, sir, I remove my nonexistent hat to you. I do not own a smartphone, as I already own a phone and consider myself smart enough already.
When I can close my eyes and be online, then and only then shall I consider moving with the wave of current technology.
Yes, I have high standards... but what is the point of standards if you do not keep them high?
You might like Tad Williams Otherland series.
1051
The Way of Kings (e-book is currently FREE -- http://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Stormlight-Archive-Book-ebook/dp/B003P2WO5E/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;sr=&amp;qid= )
Pretty much anything by Brandon Sanderson, but The Way of Kings (part one of his mega epic series) is free on Kindle right now still.
I personally liked Mistborn, but I think Sandson's other series, The Stormlight Archive, is better, and a bit more like Name of the Wind.
I seem to remember it being planned as a 10 book series, but 5 have been announced. The first book, "The Way of Kings," is a couple years old, and the 2nd "Words of Radiance," is supposed to be out this fall.
I'm struggling through the new David Brin novel. Meanwhile, i'm reading Gotham, a history of New York City before 1898. And I just reread The Way of Kings.
Another recent one was Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings. There was an even cheaper promo price but the Kindle edition is still under $5:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kings-Stormlight-Archive-ebook/dp/B003P2WO5E/
And the upgrade to audio from there still saves quite a lot.
Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn or Stormlight series. Both are meticulously plotted high fantasy, and like the Kingkiller Chronicles the magic system has clear and constant rules.
For some crazy reason the first book in Stormlight is free on Amazon right now (kindle) http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003P2WO5E?cache=88d1bad7bfcdbb326b0b476fd62c6bd1&amp;pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&amp;qid=1411665231&amp;sr=8-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2
Probably Brandon Sanderson's newest series. It stands out because of how well written it is. I never had to take a pause and go "woah... that's... weird" while reading this book. And I think he makes all his characters very much 3 dimensional.
If you're into the fantasy genera, this is a must have, granted if you're well read you've probably already heard of this book and author.
The ebooks are on Amazon.. If you meant "free" then you're on the wrong sub: /r/Piracy/
I just finished the Traveler's Gate Trilogy by Will Wright.
I think it fits the bill nicely: enjoyable easy reading, lots of action, fairly small cast.
First book Here
I've been in a similar mood lately, and recently read the first two books in the Traveler's Gate Trilogy. They definitely helped scratch that itch, and reminded me a bit of Mistborn.
The Name of the Wind also fits the bill if you haven't read that yet. Very much centered on one character and goes into quite a bit of detail about said character's training and education. Seems like it's exactly what you're going for from what you've described.
Well, I had recommended it about 8 days ago, but doubt you saw the post, so http://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6/
Now move onto AlterWorld: Play to Live!
You might enjoy the LitRPG novels or Rational fiction. Try Play to Live, Survival Quest or Two Year Emperor.
> Play to Win.
is this it here?
http://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6
sounds awesome! thanks!
If you like VRMMO read AlterWorld.. its pretty good.. I definitely recommend it if you like LMS and Ark
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22812333-alterworld
Anyone who read into the series of D.Rus. (Alterworld - Play To Live) on Free Folk?
https://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-LitRPG-Play-Live-Book-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6
Yeah I tore through them pretty fast. The first couple are solid gold, but #5 and #6 kinda gets away from the good stuff a bit. http://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1452878704&amp;sr=8-5&amp;keywords=d+rus
The type of book you're looking for is an up and coming genre called litRPG. There are quite a few over at /r/noveltranslations as many of the best ones so far are from Japan, Korea, and other non English Languages. I highly recommend the Play to Live series by Russian Author D. Rus, which you can buy from Amazon. It's a seven book series with the 6th translated book hitting (virtual) shelves in about 2 weeks.
It's a lot of fun to think about, but it ends there for me. Check out The Moon is a Harsh Mistress if you haven't read it yet--you'd like it!
As I said, if you think it won't work simply because people will try to force their view of things onto society, I won't disagree. Humans, especially having seen how effective govts currently are at curtailing "bad behavior" in other places, seem to want to wield that power and control for themselves.
> I think libertarian societies just tend to allow themselves to form a central governance.
Yes, the bad side of an an-cap society is that it doesn't forbid anything ... even the creation of a govt. But I would say it is people that allow the creation of govts, not "libertarian societies".
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress described that process pretty well.
http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0312863551
Relevant
Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke
Also The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and it is excellent!
Hmm, they may not qualify as 'sad but inspirational,' but here are a few personal favorites that should be good to get in to the swing of reading.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Revolution on the Moon! Also a bit sad at times.
A Wizard of Earthsea - First (and very good) book in an outstanding series.
I'm just going to say this is a really, really good book which explores something a whole lot like a modern exile.
There is actually a book about that, a few people read it.
History is cyclical. Science fiction authors that lean libertarian or ancap seem to understand this more than political philosophers and journalists. One of my favorite examples would be The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and all of Heinlein's works in that universe.
The desire for liberty pushes us out into the frontier, to a new horizon. Out there, freedom reigns. You're away from the centralized state apparatus, the military, the police and public corporate entities. For years or decades (or at other times in history, centuries), life just seems to go on somehow without these institutions of coercive force.
Eventually, society at large spreads out toward the now well-established frontiers, and thus the state takes over, the military has reign, the police are instituted, corporations buy up businesses or expand their chains to the region. Freedom quickly diminished, and the calls for it quiet down as most people find the comfort all too preferable.
But then what happens? The process starts all over again, when new lands are discovered by intrepid explores.
Well here's the thing... the colonization of space and our advancement to the stars gives us something that the Earth never could: a effectively limitless frontier. If we have the technology to travel freely from planet to planet, and the possibility of forging new settlements based upon current (i.e., future) technology at will, then there is no permanent frontier town that the state apparatus can catch up to.
Hence, Free Space. Anyone selling an end-of-history anarcho-capitalistic era is ignorant of history. But in the distant future, anarcho-capitalism will exist in a free space, because space is limitless, and there will always be room for any option.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress!
I promise it isn't about space and Mike is the coolest character in the book!
EDIT: http://www.amazon.com/The-Moon-Is-Harsh-Mistress/dp/0312863551
Good points. Let me address them:
The Mars atmosphere isn't all that useful to us. It's not breathable, and it's not significantly dense enough to allow a shirt-sleeve environment. I have heard proposals, some bordering on science fiction with our current technology levels, of melting significant amounts of the Mars-based water to bolster the atmospheric pressure. If doing so allowed a shirt-sleeve environment, that would be hugely significant -- working in a space suit sucks. Until such a time, all work has to be done in a pressurized environment, no matter where we go, so that's a wash.
The significant gravity is both a benefit and a hindrance. It is no doubt healthier for humans, and for our offspring that will be born there, but in terms of conducting useful work, it isn't an advantage. In a low gravity, like the 1/6th G of the Moon:
Lastly, the lunar dust is problematic. There is dust on Mars as well, so some of the comparison is moot and I will focus on the "razor-sharp" nature of that which is found on the Moon. Outside, it will gum up machinery and overall increase wear and tear on equipment. Inside, it has the potential to cause lung damage if inhaled, along with all the problems mentioned for outside work.
To combat this, we'll need some hefty material science to mitigate these effects. For example, NASA has been working for decades on lubricants that are able to survive the harsh conditions, both in temperature and in particulate build-up. Work such as this, along with manufacturing vehicles and equipment specifically for lunar work, machines that include hermetically sealed parts and cavities, can help mitigate some of this.
For the interior spaces, diligent airlock procedures and constant atmo scrubbing will be critical. These will become part of everyday life for those living there. It's not dissimilar to working in a bio lab, medical facility, nuclear facility, and the like -- You follow procedures or everyone suffers and potentially dies. These will all be professional people, not Joe Sixpack.
Your points are all true, and we will eventually have colonies on both -- colonies that will probably serve very different purposes. My point is that the ease of getting to and working on the moon, coupled with the vastly lower costs associated, make a moon colony much preferred as a starting point. Let's explore Mars while we work on the moon.
Actually, I have read all her other works! And I like the first four books of the series she wrote (the first book of that series was her first book) a lot more than I like Uprooted. Though I do really like Uprooted! Her one previous series is military SF (well, military fantasy)/alternate history--it's set in the Napoleonic era (early 19th century) where, besides the Navy, there's also the Aerial Corps, consisting of crew-manned dragons. Books 1-4 are AWESOME. (Book 5 is interesting and good, Books 6 and 7 are okay, not great--Book 8, which is the last book in the series, is coming out sometime this year.)
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
May I recommend the Temeraire series? It sounds ridiculous, and kind of uninteresting, but I shit you not when I say it's the best series I've read since Harry Potter. And I read A LOT.
The series is Temeraire. His Majesty's Dragon is the title of the first book in the series. It's the Napoleonic Wars with dragons, good stuff.
Oh, dammit, I should have put up a .pdf warning, sorry. There is no DRM and there's also a free Kindle version on Amazon
Ok so there have been a lot of good books suggested in this thread but many of them are much longer than what you asked for and quite a few of them are very "artsy" thinking type books. I love many of those books like Murakami for example but I wouldn't recommend them for someone who wants to ease himself back into reading.
I'm going to give you some easy, fun books, the equivalent of a Dwayne Johnson movie. They are all around 300 pages, they don't use fancy literary devices that make things hard to keep track of, they all have things inside them that make you think but they don't FORCE you to have to think. Just some short fun adventures you can go on inside your head.
Mort by Terry Pratchett is quite short, it's funny, and it does cool things with words without using big words. You'll get what I mean if you read any of the good Terry Pratchett books.
https://www.amazon.com/Mort-Novel-Discworld-Terry-Pratchett-ebook/dp/B000W967UQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1526312251&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=mort+terry+pratchett
I always get the spelling of this one wrong but Temeraire is an easy fun read. If the idea of the napoleonic wars being fought with dragons sounds like an interesting idea to you, check out the first book.
https://www.amazon.com/His-Majestys-Dragon-Temeraire-Book/dp/0345481283
The warrior's apprentice is fun, the main character gets himself into some ridiculous situations and shamelessly scams his way out of them.
https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Apprentice-Vorkosigan-Saga-ebook/dp/B005DNGSUU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1526312634&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=warrior%27s+apprentice&amp;dpID=51ZlzTB8y7L&amp;preST=_SY445_QL70_&amp;dpSrc=srch
If you need something that you can mention at a party or in an interview that'll make you feel smart, I'd suggest Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. It's the kind of book you can bring up to make yourself seem smart, but unlike Atlas Shrugged it's actually interesting to read and has some (largely) insightful ideas about technology.
Alternatively, if you need something more fun to read, I would suggest Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. It's a pretty fun fantasy romp that is largely enjoyable to read if you want to turn off your brain.
I would recommend The Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher - here’s the first book in the 6-book series!
The whole series is one I can read over and over and absolutely love it every time. Thanks for the contest! 😊
GOOD IF YOU LIKE "EPISODIC" STORIES RATHER THAN EPICS. I ACTUALLY LIKE THE FURY SERIES BETTER THAN DRESDEN.
Yesterday I ran this colossal fucking tournament for the PC platform fighter Rivals of Aether (Available now on Steam!). Along with two other people I run 3 online tournaments every week for this game, which has quickly turned into a terrifying monolith. Luckily, the T.O. team is made of sterner stuff than mortals - we're like about as tough as a hardcover book, actually. Today I played Kerbal Space Program until I remembered I'm bad at Kerbal Space Program, then I started my re-read of Applied Cultural Anthropology, or... (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cruciatus Curse), because it updated after a year-long hiatus and I didn't know what was happening. Also because I'm a lonely disgusting fanfic-reading filthmonster...
I'm trying to read a book a week for 2016 and I've completed the first step of that process by enduring Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher. I liked The Dresden Files a lot more than this higher-fantasy stuff, which is a shame. Next up on my list is Hyperion. I've been told that this novel contains a spaceship called THE TREESHIP YGGDRASIL, and that is all I know.
AOTD1: I woke up at like 7 AM this morning, disgusted with myself. Luckily I managed to pull off a noon-2 nap, which felt great.
AOTD2: Book a week for a year.
A few fiction suggestions -
George R.R. Martin - Game of Thrones
Philip K. Dick - Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep
Frank Herbert - Dune
Max Brooks - World War Z
As for non-fiction-
Confessions of a Yakuza
Hunter S. Thompson - Hell's Angels
Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"
Dune by Frank herbert
Crucial Conversations
If It Hurts, It Isn't Love: And 365 Other Principles to Heal and Transform Your Relationships
Halfway Human by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Hahah, I want to say this octopus just because I'd be really surprised to see it. But I'd be plenty pleased with a book so you can have enough funds to give other people toooooooo!
GOOD LUCK.
So I want to get the trade paperback from this set but I can't seem to find it on Amazon. There's this one but I don't know if the image is just a placeholder or not: https://smile.amazon.com/Dune-Chronicles-Book-1/dp/0441013597/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1554864718&amp;sr=8-1
It doesn't have a cover date, but the publisher date is 2005.
buy Dune now... you won't regret it.
[this one] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441013597/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1)
They are 22 on Amazon. Just dropped in price today. I got them for my daughter in March, they are great!
I have the edition you linked and it really nice,bit big and heavy to take out the house so I recently purchased these and they are, for lack of a better word pretty cute. The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_HIHOyb4J5J2NT
They're $30 on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe-Pocket/dp/0544445783/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hobbit-Lord-Rings-Deluxe/dp/0544445783
Also on Amazon here. Just ordered mine, coming tomorrow with Prime :D
I recently purchased this rather inexpensive set, and have greatly enjoyed them thus far. The printed paper is thicker, sturdier than my other sets, and the feel and look of the leather, or whatever it actually is, is quite to my liking. However, if you're going for something more ornate, this set I think is quite beautiful, though I cannot speak to more than is on the website.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_JRA4DbJTJD1TB
For anyone else who wanted these for themselves, you can get them on amazon here
The small, vinyl-bound versions are my favorites and daily readers:
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Deluxe Pocket Boxed Set https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544445783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_IxcLDbHTEZ97P
I got the same set for as well! They are my favorite set that I have seen. Here it is on Amazon!
perhaps late, but just came across your post/question
The set pictured is from "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
ISBN-10: 0544445783
ISBN-13: 978-0544445789
Available here
52$ CAD (tax included, free shipping) on amazon.ca.... 5 left in stock... https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0544445783/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&amp;psc=1
Pocket Box Set
I do in fact. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0544445783/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;psc=1 here it is. Enjoy them too!
Sorry this is so late!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544445783/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
Would you recommend them over these?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0544445783/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here's a sneak peek of /r/ebookdeals using the top posts of the year!
#1: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams -- Kindle ($2.99) | 1 comment
#2: Hyperion by Dan Simmons / $1.99 on Kindle | 5 comments
#3: The Scorching by Libbi Duncan - FREE ebook for Cyber Monday | 0 comments
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Treeships, anybody?
http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cantos-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685
http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1320899206&amp;sr=8-1
Modern Book Submission
Hyperion By Dan Simmons
Futuristic sci-fi inspired by the Canterbury Tales about an expedition of a group of seven pilgrims to the anomalous Time Tombs on the planet Hyperion in advance of an Ouster attack. 4.5/5 on Amazon and 4.19 on Goodreads. Won the 1990 Hugo.
You've found the Shrike i see. If you are unclear as to the reference, peruse this
"Shit-fuck," I would grunt, gesticulating. "Asshole cunt peepee fuck."
from this excellent book:http://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Dan-Simmons/dp/0553283685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1330894846&amp;sr=8-1
Quoted here: http://www.maxwerschitz.com/privates/kurzzitat.html
"Goddamn poopoo", I would grin back at him.
Good TV series: The Wire. Shit will hook you immediately.
Essential reading: Dan Simmons - Hyperion Cantos or George Martin - Game of Thrones
Rendezvous with Rama and its sequels. The Hyperion series. And Dune and Foundation of course.
I'm a huge fan of two of those three things (especially SciFi) and I would like to share my favorite sf book with your dad: Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It is technically a four book series, book one is amazing and will blow your/his socks off.
Andrew knows nothing about Star Trek. so Greg explains the most exciting and interesting parts to him - politics and economics.
-Is it weird that the government space “scientists” have torpedos and lasers and ranks like “Admiral” and “Lieutenant”?
-Is it weird that even though it’s supposed to be a multi-species, multi-cultural utopia, all the leadership positions are held by humans, and mostly white dude humans?
-What if Call of Duty culture was a planet?
-Thought Experiment of The Week: Donald Trump in a Post-Scarcity Economy. We recorded this before he was your kleptarch-elect.
-Utopia Bottlenecks
-Universal Basic Income makes things more like Star Trek. Tell your local representatives.
-The human spirit of adventure! (as an insidious government plot!)
-A really weird coincidence suggests dark forces haunting your hosts!
Trigger warnings: Rape, Abortion
Recommendations:
Dillinger Escape Plan: Dissociation
Dan Simmons: The Terror
Dan Simmons: Hyperion
Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E1 "The Child"
Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E9 "Measure of a Man"
(The entire Star Trek franchise is available on Netflix)
We may receive a commission if you buy our recommendations.
Music courtesy PANDAS
I'm also about to do a road trip with two other scientists! Here are some awesome books that either I've read, or I plan on reading on my trip:
Contact - Carl Sagan. This book is absolutely my favorite science-y fiction, ever.
Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, if you haven't read them already.
Anything by Ray Bradbury - specifically Fahrenheit 451, also if you haven't read it already.
If you're into full-on science fiction, I can totally recommend the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card and the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons.
Hyperion
Happy birthday :3
Off Amazon, I'd buy myself this book.
But if I had $10 and had to spend it for my birthday, I'd buy a lunch to share with whoever's available, be it my friends, my closer coworkers, a classmate, a roommate, or my boyfriend. I love gifts, but $10 isn't going to get me anything I value more than someone else's time, haha.
Try Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's kind of a SF version of the Canterbury Tales. Then you can go tackle the original Middle English version. (Or continue the Simmons series, although the first book stands on its own.)
Dan Simmons' Hyperion is as good as it gets, though the last book tails off a little. Second Ian Banks Culture books and Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.
It's somewhat confusing me on the ordering, though. Would this be it, the trilogy? or this?
For (currently) free Kindle books, David Weber's On Basilisk Station is the first book in the space-opera Honor Harrington series. The second book The Honor of the Queen, is one of my favorites in the entire series. Eric Flint's 1632 turned into a massive and awesome alternate-history series. If you'd like to delve into Alaskan-based murder mysteries, give Dana Stabenow's A Cold Day For Murder a try as the first in the some eighteen book Kate Shugak series.
For paid Kindle books, there's Hugh Howey's Wool Omnibus is the beginning of the dystopian Silo series; the followup Shift Omnibus is actually a prequel trilogy that I haven't gotten yet but is very readable. Naomi Novik's first novel in the alt-history Temeraire series, His Majesty's Dragon, is currently $.99.
In print, Elizabeth Moon's military fantasy The Deed of Paksenarrion is available used for a very affordable price and is an epic series. The Cage was my introduction to a fantasy universe written by SM Stirling, Shirley Meier, and Karen Wehrstein. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander is a sort of alternate history/light romance series set in Scotland that I've thoroughly enjoyed. Brent Weeks' assassin-based (excuse me, wetboy) fantasy Night Angel Trilogy was recently released as an omnibus edition. Empire from the Ashes collects Weber's Dahak sci-fi trilogy into an omnibus edition. Weber and John Ringo co-wrote March Upcountry and the other three novels in the sci-fi Prince Roger quadrilogy. If you haven't tried Harry Turtledove's alt-history sci-fi WW2 'Worldwar' series, In the Balance starts off a little slow plot-wise but picks up good speed. EE Knight's sci-fi/futuristic fantasy Vampire Earth starts off with Way of the Wolf. Mercedes Lackey wrote the modern-fantasy Born to Run with Larry Dixon, and the rest of the SERRAted Edge books with various other authors. Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk and slightly dystopian Snow Crash is hilarious and awesome. Maggie Furey's Aurian is the first of a fantasy quadrilogy that I enjoyed many years ago.
If you're at all familiar with the Warhammer 40k universe, the Eisenhorn Omnibus is Dan Abnett's wonderful look into the life of an Imperial Inquisitor. He's also written a popular series about the Tanith First-and-Only Imperial Guard regiment starting with The Founding Omnibus. He also wrote the first book in the Horus Heresy series, Horus Rising (I highly recommend reading the first three novels together as a trilogy and then cherry-picking the rest).
... and if you've read all that already, I'll be impressed.
Edit: Why yes, I do read a lot. Why do you ask?
Since you haven't heard of it, I would direct you towards Mistborn, as Alloy of Law is a one-off sequel between trilogies. Mistborn is somewhere between a rebellion and heist story written by an author with a penchant for creating unique systems of magic. If you're looking for good fantasy to read, I'd definitely suggest picking up some Brandon Sanderson (as well as Patrick Rothfuss).
>This is why Magneto should never have lost a battle. He just needs to carry a bunch of metal bb's around and make a shrapnel storm wherever he goes.
Read Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
The ability to push/pull metal + a handful of coins == awesomeness.
Beautiful
Thanks so much for the contest! You are awesome!
Would absolutely recommend anything by Brandon Sanderson. Start out with the Mistborn series, it has everything a good book should have, and kept me jumping out of my seat in excitement for the whole series.
Whatever I can do to get somebody into Sanderson, I do, because it's just too good to not be read.
Reminds me of Mistborn
Great contest idea! Don't let life get you down, you obviously have awesome ideas, so just keep'em coming!
Here is something you might like!
I noticed you're a Robert Jordan fan and Brian Sanderson did the most recent books in the Wheel of Time series. This series is awesome for WoT fans, trust me. :D
Redditing at work is AWESOME . It's what I'm doing right now.
If you choose me this is what I would like. :)
Its typical fantasy. Sanderson focuses on characters and world-building rather than prose, so the books are serious, but the writing isn't overly impressive like you would expect from Tolkien. He does action scenes really well and has very interesting magic systems, plus, his universe is all interconnected, so in future books things will start crossing over in more in depth ways. I highly recommend it. If you're interested in looking into it, I recommend starting with the first Mistborn trilogy
www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Trilogy-Boxed-Hero-Ascension/dp/076536543X
The Abhorsen trilogy is some great YA fiction that I'm sure your son would enjoy. The books are about a decade old, and are available as a cheaper box set - but admittedly the covers on these might not be as intruiging to a 7th grader.
The Mistborn Trilogy is also great, but might be a little difficult for a 7th grader to get through. Regardless, I'd get him these if you feel that he's up to the challenge.
I really want to read more books by "Brandon Sanderson" ever since I read the Wheel of Time. Robert Jordan couldn't finish his series, so he hired Brandon Sanderson before he died. I'd love to start with The Mistborn Series, if you would be so kind.
Sufficiently Advanced Magic takes place mostly in a magic school, with a male main character.
Or, kind of an obvious one: Harry Potter is a male student in a magic school.
Krista D. Ball's The Demons We See was inspired by Dragon Age's Templars vs. Mages stuff, irrc.
There's also some stuff by actual Dragon Age writers, like Rogues of the Republic by Patrick Weeks.
For The Legend of Heroes, maybe Arcane Ascension. People go do dungeon crawls, get magic, then go to a magic academy. It's basically Trails of Cold Steel as a book, complete with the international politics and some gem-based magic. Some parallels with FE:3H as well.
I'm a part-time author, 19 books, 20th out early next year. And although a long time ago I wrote a book that prefigures LitRPG in a lot of ways, I've been on a steep learning curve this year to catch up with where LitRPG is at. Firstly, as a reader, I've come to appreciate that the usual criteria for enjoying a book don't fully apply. I get hooked by following an MC in a gaming system, especially one with levels and skill tipping points and stay up much later than I intended to read on. This despite weak stories, poor writing, errors, etc. I'm into literary fiction as well and appreciate a book that leaves me deeply moved. But these days I'd rather read LitRPG. Of course, I prefer well-written LitRPG (Kit Falbo's Crafting of Chess and Travis Bagwell's Awaken Online spring to mind) but it's really interesting that there is a hook in LitRPG done right which is, frankly, new to fiction. If an author comes to the genre thinking they understand it (me a year ago) but don't deliver that sweet, addictive engagement with progressing in the game, then that author is going to disappoint readers, and see correspondingly negative posts. My experience here in the reddit community though, has been overwhelmingly positive and nothing like the territorial hostility and downright bullying I've seen in the LitRPG / GameLit Facebook groups. I think the reddit community is now so large that proprietorial authors and their epigones can no longer whip up a storm against new writers.
TL;DR: you should come back to the genre.
You need to buy the book to read: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J0E8Z8A
Perhaps not exactly what you're asking for in this thread (I haven't read any of the stories you've listed), but Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension Book 1) is a litrpg book that has been posted here before. It felt like Azure Dreams for the Playstation, only with a cool crafting system and a well-developed world. I read it and found it pretty fairly rational and very enjoyable, in a junk-food/guilty-pleasure way.
Amazon link
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Re: zero https://www.amazon.com/Re-Zero-Starting-Another-World/dp/0316315303/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549558112&sr=1-1&keywords=re+zero the mc gets transported to a different world and killed over and over, but every time he dies he goes back in time. groundhog day style.
Chaos seeds https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34234639-the-land this series is similar. this genre is called litrpg
The Rising of the Shield Hero https://www.amazon.com/Rising-Shield-Hero-01/dp/1935548727 pretty interesting
sufficiently advance magic https://www.amazon.com/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB
&#x200B;
My husband is champing at the bit to get to the exciting stuff where he gets his brother back.*. And here's a link! I just started into Whitefire Crossing a couple days ago, and I've been following along with the subject matter, but it was very, very confused and upset about Malta. I fully acknowledge that the reason to read these one day still.
>quintessential LitRPG novel -- the best one that's also the best example of the genre and its style
A single one doesn't exist yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Land-Founding-LitRPG-Chaos-Seeds-ebook/dp/B0172GEB68 is often how most people find the genre based solely on marketing/promotions. However, if you read the book after reading high quality fantasy novels it's likely you'll be disappointed.
The best books are in sister genres. https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6 for cultivation, and https://www.amazon.com/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB for progression fantasy.
I guess here we found the real difference - i think Subaru has a much, much better position of power compared to Naofumi. I always viewed those niche powers related to time travel as superior. It tilts me to oblivion to see how he wastes nearly all of its potential, and he doesn't even try to adjust his abilities to his use properly, like you said - on the contrary, he tries to use it less. I remembered that part thanks to you and it was another tilter for me. Istead of "sit and think for a fucking second" he just denies himself from his position of privelege/power. And he isn't even locked to a warzone like in Edge of Tomorrow, where it is much harder to bend his next respawn. By the way, am i remembering this correctly, after trying not to rely on his power too much, he just restarts his conversation with ram/rem in the end to get a desirable answer? Not relying on his powers too much you say?
Come to think about it, i don't remember how many times did Subaru die? I get it, in Edge of Tomorrow he is a military adlut person so it is much easier for him. But, you have to get used to it at some point in some form, instead it just.. never happend in a coherent manner. I remembered a few plot points that never made much sense to me - like that curse from a DOG. Nani the f? Or suddenly a whale becomes a raidboss. So its not only the duel that made me upset - everything never delivered. Pretty much every plot point after first arc never delivered for me. There was a huge cliffhanger when everybody was dead and there was a... wolf? I dont remember what was happening there but i didn't like the outcome of that either. Investigation quest about the dog was very upsetting because he didn't do a good job investigating, and if i recall correctly he found that curse dog by luck or something similarly silly. And same goes for nearly everything - i just couldn't bring myself to believe.
A sidenote: O, shiet. I just found out that those books i am currently reading were translated to english - you can take a look at them. https://www.amazon.com/AlterWorld-Play-Live-LitRPG-Book-ebook/dp/B00LYJOII6
Edit: Oh, a guy in comments is saying that after book 3 it drops. I am already noticing it. Still, first/second books are good-to-great, i am in the middle of third one and it is still good.
Alter World is probably one of the highest quality ones out there since it has an actual physical print in Russia also available on Amazon digitally in English with a high quality translation. You can read a synopsis here. The translation speeds not to bad about 1 to 2 full books a year as well.
this is my favorite series i just started reading this one.
the first one is here https://smile.amazon.com/Land-Founding-Chaos-Seeds-Book-ebook/dp/B0172GEB68?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1465083761&amp;ref_=sr_1_3&amp;s=digital-text&amp;sr=1-3
book teaser for the first one so you don't have to look
Getting eaten alive is the worst! Stabbings, maimings, and corrosive black magic are not that great either, but you really don't want to be a wolf treat!
That is the kind of hands on, “teeth on,” education you get when you are summoned to The Land.
James did not want to be summoned!
Not really... well a maybe, just a bit!
But he had certainly not AGREED to be summoned!
…
Well technically speaking he HAD agreed, but good god, who had the time to read all of that fine print when there was epic gaming to be done!
When DangerZone Industries had released the latest and greatest VRMMORPG, James, and millions of other virtual reality players, had sought purpose and self-definition in this new world. The tag line "Live the life your soul was meant for," had captured the hearts and minds of his entire generation.
"The Land," was the largest and most dynamic virtual reality game of all time. James and his friends had devoted countless hours, and become one of the top teams in the game. They were at the brink of greatness, but then there was this light! (it was predictably white, but whatever!)
When he was actually summoned to The Land, it was both disturbing and exhilarating. When he then became entangled in the eternal war of sprites and goblins, the unsavory practices of the local king, and had a memorable night at the inn called the Whistling Hen, he came to one clear conclusion: Again, getting eaten alive is really REALLY the worst!
While uncovering such deep philosophical knowledge, James will forge a place in this new world, and hopefully avoid the machinations of those who want him to destroy it. What does it mean to be a Chaos Seed anyway???
I have The Land on my Kindle list.
No, lots of "The Land" series, referring to this one: https://www.amazon.com/Land-Founding-LitRPG-Chaos-Seeds-ebook/dp/B0172GEB68/ref=sr_1_7
Latest Art From The Land By Aleron Kong By Antii Hakosaari
https://smile.amazon.com/Land-Founding-LitRPG-Chaos-Seeds-ebook/dp/B0172GEB68/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1527477712&amp;sr=8-5&amp;keywords=aleron+kong
Oh boy I'm about to say some risky shit. Ok if you are new new to the genre I recommend "The Land: Founding" by Aleron Kong https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0172GEB68?notRedirectToSDP=1&amp;ref_=dbs_mng_calw_0&amp;storeType=ebooks
The reason is he does quality work and you will probably enjoy them. The reason I said it was risky is many people have problems with him IRL. My suggestion is to ignore all of that and check out the books.
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=Will+Wight&amp;qid=1572121205&amp;sr=8-3
280 pages. Start here
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6 and sequels is very Xania, but has actually relatable characters, and is English original.
I think his previous series is good too but might be getting authors confused.
I have exactly the book series you need to read -> Cradle by Will Wight. It's about a young "Sacred Artist" who is born with what seems to be a damaged soul and so he has to use trickery and cleverness to forge his own path in the martial arts.
I'd recommended this to a friend and his big comment back to me was: "It reads like a sophisticated version of DBZ".
https://www.amazon.com/Unsouled-Cradle-Book-Will-Wight-ebook/dp/B01H1CYBS6
Sorry. The series is called the cradle.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H1CYBS6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i7
You might like Cradle by Will Wight. It starts with a protagonist who is "Unsouled" (That's the name of the first book). On his day of bestowal, his test for magic affinity shows nothing, and he fails the test year after year. Where he grows up, being Unsouled means you're not allowed to train or study much of anything because they take it a sign of being worthless.
The whole series is a training journey, but it's one of the most engaging I've ever read. I'm not sure why I liked it so much but I couldn't stop reading it.
Unsouled (Cradle Book 1)
Alterworld is like Zhang Long, except better in every way, shape, and form. It's slow to start, but the cultures and worldbuilding within the virtual world are amazing to read!
I mostly get audio books.
The books this year.
If you click on the LOOK INSIDE just above the book's image, the first 2 chapters are available on Amazon for free. Give it a try?
Hmm...
Could you be more descriptive in what you like about Sci-Fi? It is a huge genre. What is your aesthetic?
Also, don't feel bad about re-reading sections; it is a good habit if you don't understand the author. I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov right now, and I like to reread sections to better understand lengthy dialogue.
I think you should try reading Dune. It is a brilliant story and universe. However, you have to look up a lot of the words in a glossary in the back, which may be annoying for you.
An easier book that is sci-fi with elements of fantasy/folklore is Artemis Fowl. Definitely a favorite of my teen years. It is full of loveable characters, action, and intrigue.
If you like video games and have ever played Halo, I would recommend the first of the Halo book seires, Halo: Fall of Reach. It is well-written and develops the characters immensely, but it is still relatively easy reading. Even if you don't play the game, this is a "movie-in-the-head" kind of book.
The more feedback you give us, the better we can help you!
Looks like they do include links to buy at the bottom of the article, to both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.
They must have read your comment :)
I'll suggest a couple of Korean movies, I'm sure you'll get plenty of responses for mainstream choices:
I also liked Beowulf & Grendel.
For a book this one really sticks in my head if you're into the fantasy genre:The Deed of Paksenarrion
I came to say this series of Mistborn covers. That Spanish cover is actually rad