Currently reading Words of Radiance, and let's just say, I ordered 4 more books by Brandon just now. He's amazing, definitely the best out there right now
I had a friend pass away this year and he was the one who brought Wheel of Time to my attention. Similarly, I'll finish the series in his honour. Currently on book 5, and I'll slog through the boring middle until Sanderson takes over and it gets good again!
I agree with you about Joe Abercrombie causing book hangovers. Sometimes I could just happily reread his books in perpetuity. As for my top ten, I'm not sure I've done one before, but mine are: The Heroes-Joe Abercrombie Red Country-Joe Abercrombie We are the Dead-Mike Shackle The Folding Knife-KJ Parker The Forgotten Legion-Ben Kane Priest of Bones - Peter McLean 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City-KJ Parker Children of Gods and fighting men-Shauna Lawless Blood Song-Anthony Ryan Monstrous Regiment-Terry Pratchett They're all books that have helped improve my writing for various reasons.
I live for those stand-up-and-cheer, goosebump moments in books. Got to agree with you, Words of Radiance might be the best book I’ve ever read. Some of my other favorites are: Ghostwater by Will Wight Dune by Frank Herbert A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier Maybe I’m cheating with all that sci-fi? I’d say they’re definitely also fantasy.
If youre ever looking for a long series, try The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It’s like seventeen books long, but they come in ones and twos so you don’t have to read them all back to back. The first book Wizard’s First Rule, just barely misses out on my favorite book because of nostalgia reasons, but is rife with character development, foreshadowing, and a plethora of other literary devices. No gift is without future use, no detail is needlessly mentioned. Absolute masterpiece.
Fun list Jed! Lots of great choices. Here's mine top 10 reads, in no particluar order: Blood Song - Anthony Ryan The Shadow of the Gods - John Gwynne Sword of Kaigen - M.L. Wong The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss Mistborn: The Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson The Wisdom of Crowds - Joe Abercrombie Never Die - Rob J Hayes Red Sister - Mark Lawrence Weapon of Flesh - Chris A Jackson House of Blades - Will Wight
Sanderson's work is seriously good, and JK Rowling is on another planet, but at least half of my top 10 fantasy books are David Gemmell's, with Legend being number one. No one else has come close, at least as far as my tastes go.
@@musicgenius1948 in the same type there are several better books. And better tv adaptations. (The movies are good in Harry Potter but not particularly bc of the main character mostly bc of the big number of very good British actors and tons of dollars invested into it.) As book for example His Dark Materials is better. As adaptation The Magicians was better and became a cult series with low budget but good acting and serious musical skills. And in that case the actors could be proud to the names they got from the roles, not so much Harry Potter - the actor of it who still can’t remove it from himself. That book was hype. And now the writer is on good road to destroy it’s fame with her behavior. As a young book writer doing this and how she is doing… that’s not acceptable. Her followers are in a big number minors.
1: Narnia Voyage Of The Dawn Treader by C.S Lewis 2: WilderKing Trilogy by Johnathan Rogers 3: LOTR The Return Of The King by J.R.R Tokien 4: The Hobbit by J.R.R Tokien 5: Narnia The Silver Chair by C.S Lewis Fantasy reader and writer My top five😉
Goblet of Fire is one of my favorite ones from the series to read, but I hate that particular movie because of all the things they decided to cut out that were so impactful in the books
The third Mistborn book lost me a little bit until the end.The end was really good but the events that lead up to the ending was a bit draggy. I wouldn't say I liked that the characters were split up, and the plot progression wasn't all that consistent throughout (I found myself being confused at points). The magic system was really good though I do agree. Harry Potter is really good. Regardless of the controversies of rowling I don't think the books would have been as big as they were without them being well written. I've never read Joe Acacrombie, do you know what. a good book to start with would be? I have mixed feelings towards Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn was good, although had some places where I just got bored (namely the first half of the third book), and I also read his Skyward series, which started off really strong but the third book in the series was just not very good at all, although I understand he was writing outside his comfort genre. My favourite fantasy books: Young adult - Six of crows Classical - The hobbit (Less dense than LOTR and quite comforting in terms of why I love the genre) Manga - Berserk (So dark but arguably my favourite fantasy books) Children - The Chronicles of Narnia Middle grade - Probably His dark materials (although the sequel wasn't that good)
If you read Joe Abercrombie, start with The Blade Itself, but do not give up before finishing; it's somewhat like beginning a beautiful hike with a very steep slope. In a lot of ways, it's a strange book, very much a "first novel," in all the best and worst ways. Speaking generally, if you're a DnD fantasy reader, i.e., someone who values magic systems and learning how it all works, Abercrombie probably isn't for you. He's a very cinematic writer and fiercely devoted to character, but the plot can be shockingly visceral and disarming at times too. The magic is, well, magical, and you're not meant to understand its limits or its rules. For my money, he and Martin are tied for the best fantasy writers of all time, Martin for his world building and political intrigue, and Abercrombie for the depth of his characters and imagery.
@@Jed_Herne Yeah. Also I think being able to establish six POV characters, all with personality and dynamics between each other in 500 pages is incredibly impressive.
Nothing from a song of ice and fire.. I find that hard to swallow. Taste is subjective of course but for someone who likes Joe Abercrombie so much, whose writing is totally inspired by asoif, according to Joe himself. Who in my opinion, are very similar in style and quality, its surprising you overlook my main man, George RR 😀
I've read the first two books, and they were good and I get the appeal, but for whatever reason they just didn't do it for me in the way that Abercrombie's did. Maybe I need to give them a second go, but honestly the fact that the series doesn't look like it's going to finish any time soon is a bit of a turn off
@@Jed_Herne Malazan is awesome. Just don’t judge the series on the first book. That book is difficult to comprehend when you aren’t familiar with anything about this world. I know Erikson kinda intended to just throw the reader in like that, but I know so many people abandoned the series because of that book. I would say to read a detailed summary of the first book and start with book 2. You can always come back to the first book a little later. Occasionally Erikson will introduce a completely different group of people for an entire book that you don’t understand how it ties in to the series until several books later. Biggest fantasy world ever created probably. Some of the tangent novels by Erikson and Esselmont are very good too. I love Malazan way more than Wheel of Time.
I can see why people like it, but Discworld has never worked for me. The sort of self-referential, break the fourth wall humor of the sort he writes makes me grit my teeth more than it does anything else. Oddly, I kind of liked the first two Long Earth books, though not enough to continue on the with the series. (I had gotten them from the library and that's all they had.) Why Douglas Adams amuses me and Discworld does not? I wish I knew. Perhaps I will give Mort a try, as a sort of last gasp attempt at the series. However, the praise heaped on Rothfuss utterly mystifies me. The silliness of sexy time with the sex goddess in the sexy, sexy swamp after which he goes back to pining for for m'lady (all that is missing is the fedora) had me alternately rolling my eyes and giggling. Please note that I'm not saying the KKC books are bad, in fact I thought they were pretty good in a 3 and a half star GoodReads sort of way. I just don't get what it is others are seeing that I do not. Lots of books have silly scenes and lots of books have self-insert overpowered Gary Stus and I will read 'em and like 'em. As I did here. But consider them best of all time? Nah. Especially this business of the beautiful prose. Whenever I've asked somebody making this claim to point me to any passage in particular in a KKC book that made angels weep or whatever, I never seem to get an answer. Very curious.
I feel the Harry Potter books are overrated. J.K. Rowling is definitely not that great of an author. The worldbuilding is Harry Potter is weird, convoluted, and makes absolutely no sense.
I'm taken aback that you never seem to have mentioned a gargantuan aussie - DM Cornish and the Monster Blood Tattoo Series. Half these books you pull out couldn't hold a candle to that series.
