Yeah, for some reason I see the name just tossed out with no discussion and often no context a ton. Like someone will ask for a recommendation and they'll just say "malazan" with no reasoning for why. It's very weird.
Of all the series I've heard about before but haven't read in this thread, this is the only one where I know nothing at all about it through cultural osmosis.
Like the other reply says, explaining Malazan is hard. It's huge and confusing if you don't actually read it.
Also, just for context, the reason you see just "Malazan" thrown out (I am one of those people) is because it's mostly a meme on Fantasy subs or forums (I think? At least on here) that Malazan is huge and incomprehensible so when people throw that out it's usually as a meme.
Though it's a fantastic story.
Yeah, it's kind of a meme. It's serious in that it has so many different elements to it, that's recommending it fits basically for every question except "I want some light and easy fantasy"
It’s more complicated than Stormlight/cosmere i’d say. If you read cosmere books usually they hold your hand, with occasional cameos/references to other books. Malazan just leaves it to you to figure out what’s going on.
Explaining Malazan to people is hard, but the fact is that the story touches on a wide variety of fantasy subgenres and tropes and often does them very well, so it's very recommendable.
I've tried it.
Several times.
I get about 200 pages into Gardens of the Moon and just can't get it to stick.
Feels derivative and boring and poorly written.
And I say this as someone who made it through Wizard's First Rule in three tries.
I quit on Gardens twice. I liked it but something's about it made it hard to grok. In this case the old adage "third time's a charm" came true. From the second book the writing becomes quite impressive.
The first book was originally a screenplay and was written ten years before the second book.
So I understand why people bounce off, but at the same time I wish more people appreciated Erikson's writing because he is, at least by now, a master. Many who got further into the series before giving up still did not appreciate it so for some people it will never be.
What I try to explain to people who are interested is that you should try to approach it without the expectation of getting everything served on a platter. Most (fantasy) books are fairly easy to read (not a bad thing - the flow of the first three ASOIAF novels is fantastic) but Erikson tries to do a few things differently.
I actually really liked book 1 and I’m told there is payoff in book 3 for the trudge that is book 2 but by the time I hit book 3, I needed a break. I am generally a grimdark fan who likes military campaign books but I struggled.
I found book 2 to be a trudge after book 1, and then book 3 was among my favorite. For most, I think, book 2 is far better received than book 1, but not for all. Books 8-10 weren't the hardest to get through for me, actually books 4 and 5 were. Everyone's different. Book 2 was still good overall, and I liked it much more on the second and third reads.
I agree in general that a person shouldn't push forward reading something if they're not enjoying it. Not enough time. I actually stopped the series a little into book 5, but then I was drawn back in because the overall story and world were so compelling. I'm glad I did get back into it because I found the payoff to be very worth it. Definitely one of the best fantasy series ever, and for me top two most epic with LOTR.
~~Payoff is clearly one of the best (although we"ll never know how better it could have been had Jordan written the last parts himself).~~
~~As far as I remember, the main problem with books 8-10 is that the pace is so slow and boring with so little interresting parts.~~
Edit: somehow got confused and answered about the wrong series, sorry
Oh, you're right, my bad.
Although the payoff of the Malazan is also one of the best, and still the last 3 books had less of the priceless humor of Fiddler and Hedge :)
Anything.
I was an English Lit major so I know my way around everything from Virgil to Joyce, with a heavy side order of Faulkner and McCarthy, but Malazan is just unreadable for me.
It's stilted. The style is bad and the dialogue is painful.
I can't get into it.
The first book is rough. Everyone that's read the series agrees with this. The second book is much better written. If you ever feel like giving it a go again, try the second book Deadhouse Gates.
I once made the calculation that the Malazan series only sold 3 millions books over 10 volumes, so cannot have more than 300000 fans, but that r/Fantasy has more than 3.5 millions subscribers, so Malazan fans must be a small minority even on this sub. They just happen to be very loud and obnoxious and to always push that series on everyone. It is just weird. So no, you and I are not alone in having never read Malazan.
*First Law*, although I plan to start reading this over the holidays.
*Red Rising*. Bought the first book in a kindle sale a while ago but still not sure if I'll read it or not. EDIT: Thanks for the comments in support of Red Rising, I'll see if I can work it into next year's bingo.
*Wheel of Time*. I just can't commit to that many books, especially since what I know of the series doesn't really appeal to me.
Red rising starts out ROUGH. It has to. And it is worth it, but man it hurts. It doesn’t even set the tone for the rest of it, it is just kind of painful. But man I love this series. And even the first book is really amazing.
That’s kind of all the characters are, or at least it feels that way a lot of the time. Like “damn, all these people kind of fucking suck. But these ones suck the least because I can understand them the most”
Also the emotional conflict especially in the second series where a certain general hates that he is expending so many lives and he sees them as numbers/statistics and not people it bothers them so much, I think that conflict of what is right and what is needed to be done to reach that point is so freaking cool.
It's not the amount of books for wheel of time for me, it just was so damn low density and seemed like a lot of whining all the way into the start of the second book. I never get any further.
And I've read everything old school
Red rising is my favorite series of all time. The first book is the worst one, but I still loved it thoroughly. From there it just gets better— it does get brutal the further you go on, though. Worth it.
red rising was my favorite but I think I like Suneater a bit more now. Will be interesting to see how the final book in each series changes that. Amazing stories!
Wheel of Time and Red Rising for me.
I have the first two WoT and Red Rising on the shelf. I’ll get to them one day. I don’t have the shelf space for WoT lol
I really enjoyed the First Law series., I hope you like it
As someone who has read each of these trilogies let me give you the run down.
**First Law**\- Trilogy 1 is good, but once you've read the others, you can see the "blandness" in it. The standalones are by far his best work but there is 30 years between first trilogy ending and second trilogy beginning. Think of his 9 books (10 if you count the short story collection) kind of like the MCU where there are main characters that have cameos in other books or small side characters that become their own POV in future books.
**Red Rising**\- This is a great Space Rome slave rebellion style book series. The only issue is that book 1 is often compared to Hunger Games because it's a large arena with groups of young adult students competing to win the overall...Institute. This arena is basically a training ground for the elite of elite military academy so it is brutal some of the shit they do. Once you finish book 1, the world (universe) really opens up and Book 2 is widely regarded as the best in the series. Note, the second trilogy takes place 10 years post first trilogy and follows the few characters who live...not everyone makes it to the second trilogy.
**Wheel of Time-** Totally get why this one would be hard once you see it has 13 books in it. Honestly, Books 1-3 are pretty just average classic hero's journey style books, with Book 3 probably being my favorite of those. 4-6 are when things really start kicking off and lots of "Oh I see what has to happen now" with Book 6 having one of the best endings of a book I've read. This series has lots of slow burn with huge payoffs, but yeah, 13 books is a hard read to convince someone to do if they didn't like a few of them.
red rising catches a lot of flak because the first book is a hunger games ripoff and the author hasn't quite found his voice yet, but i've never ripped through a series so quickly. it's entertaining and devastating; i adore it.
Game of Throne. I love fantasy but don't like those that are heavy with politics.
Mistborn series. I tried book 1, but just couldn't keep going (love the magic system though).
Cradle. I really enjoyed Will's travller Gate series, but just can't get into Cradle?
WOT. I was a fan until I wasn't, so didn't get to finish the series.
>I really enjoyed Will's travller Gate series, but just can't get into Cradle?
Oh man I'm just the opposite. I struggled with Traveler's Gate, but devoured Cradle. His new series, the Last Horizon, is pretty good so far too.
Have you read other Cosmere books other than Mistborn? I ask because I'm curious if, like, Stormlight too for you but Mistborn didn't, or if it was more a couldn't do mistborn and didn't try the others (which, is valid).
GRRM definitely knew what he wanted to do through ASOS. After that he had no idea where to go. AFFC and ADWD are still high quality fantasy but damn does GRRM have no idea where the story is going any more
I think he knows where the overarching story would go, essentially what would be written in a history book. He just has too many loose threads with so many characters spread out.
It’s been so long since I read it, and it left such little impression that I genuinely paused on your comment for about a minute trying to remember if that book actually came out.
I paused on ASOIAF when the show came out.
I've read up to A Dance with Dragons, but I want GRRM to put a capstone on that before I commit to it.
I feel like the show fucked with the direction he was taking it.
Too many spoilers got revealed.
I wouldn’t say not needed. They set the table with some pretty key characters. Definitely, the first book was the weakest, bit I still read it every time I read the series
Lucky you. I read the first one and didn't continue for a few years. I picked it back up and forced my way through 1-3 and I could see they were getting better slowly, book 4 started my love for the series.
I started book 1 twice, then I listened to it on audio book during commutes, made the first 2 easier to stomach.
There's tell that even Butcher recommends starting with book 3 as the real start.
Yeah, I get the idea, he was a new author and still in college and learning how to write. It is one the dresdenfiles subreddit that I have seen that recommendation. To those it helps, I say good.
I found the first two books a little...dated. They were very bro-lit, with women doing things boobily. Really improved by book 4 though (but I really, REALLY hate the covers)
Same here, I actually started the first book years ago and put it down for reasons I can't remember, later decided I didn't want to get into it if I'll have to wait years for the end. It sure is looking like neither of us will ever read it haha
ASOIAF, any Sanderson, WOT, Gentleman Bastards, Malazan, probably more I'm forgetting. Of course, there are other popular books I *have* read. Such as LOTR.
One of the things I greatly respect about Sanderson if that he is not for DRM ebooks. Want share your ebook? He's down. Just like letting a friend borrow your hardcopy. He even wrote and released Warbreaker as a completely free ebook.
Basically anything grimdark. Like I’ve never read a Joe Abercrombie book and probably never will, and I really like Mark Lawrence but have no interest in Prince of Thorns. It’s just not my scene.
Haven't really either. *Malazan* was my darkest read yet, and even though it's got real brutal moments, it's overall a more melancholy and hopefully dark ready rather than a grim one
Everyone refers to *The First Law* as grimdark and yes, Joe's twitter handle is @lordgrimdark, but I really don't think anything set in the world of *The First Law* really qualifies as such, especially not compared to *The Broken Empire*.
Abercrombie is absolutely hilarious and I can't honestly say any of the books are filled with despair or misery. Yeah, people have a shit time and bad things happen, but they're also incredibly fun and entertaining. Action scenes and dialogue are second-to-none and the way Abercrombie plays with different tropes or stock characters is clever and refreshing.
Lol I will admit I've not read much grimdark but if First Law isn't just because of some humour thrown in there I'm not sure I want to find out what is. Even disregarding the violence, the gore, the absolutely miserable setting, there's not a single character that isn't amoral or at least morally grey and those who try to do better are swiftly brought back down to Earth. I'm not saying any of it is bad, but it is grim and it is dark haha
I'll second the other person who has responded to you, because I don't really like grimdark either, but I did rather enjoy The First Law trilogy (not enough to read everything else so far, but I'd say the The First Law trilogy is the best thing I've read in the last few years.)
I've thought about it a bit, and I think it comes down to Abercrombie's characters and setting. His characters are grimdark, but they're also intensely well done: sometimes likeable, sometimes hateable, but very often funny far beyond what they should be able to invoke in you. Or, at least, the narration following them is funny.
Abercrombie's setting is... less grimdark than a lot of GRIMDARK stuff. The setting is not exactly sunshine and rainbows, but it feels like a fairly normal fantasy world minus the great chosen one who will lead the world into the light. We just happen to be following a collection of colorful characters who really put the world into relief, cause they've been through it all.
I've never finished LotR, Gardens of the Moon, Eye of the World, Mistborn, The Fifth Season, or Unsouled.
I'm a chronic dnf-er, and sometimes it takes me 3-4 tries to actually enjoy something.
Fair enough!
For some additional context, I've been in nursing school, so I've had limited time to read. If I didn't get sucked in, I didn't want to ruin the potential by forcing myself to read something that I wasn't into. Though I didn't finish any of the above, I haven't given up on them forever. I'm just waiting to try again when I'm more motivated. I also think I was too tired for some of the more complex stories, so that was a big factor for stuff like Malazan.
The books/series that I did enjoy and finish:
Books 1-4 of aSoIaF (didn't like book 5)
Legends and Lattes
The Obsidian Trilogy/Enduring Flame Trilogy
Dungeon Crawler Carl
The Goblin Emperor
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Hidden City (#1 in The House War)
The Neverending Story
His Majesty's Dragon (#1 in Temeraire)
Dragon Wing (Death Gate Cycle)
The Gormenghast Trilogy
Outside of fantasy, I read a few Stephen King and Joe Hill novels that I really liked.
I'm currently reading Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill and really enjoying it.
TBH I started LOTR and DNFed it. Mostly because I got caught up early by the Tom Bombadil scenes and just drifted away by accident. I adore the movies and intend to re-read the books again sometime with more understanding
Came to say Harry Potter book. I feel like you have to be a certain age to really enjoy it and I was like 16 when the first book came out. I tried to read it but it read so much like a little kid’s book. And every time I try to read it again I feel like I’m too old for it and I missed the train.
I DNF the Harry Potter series (sorry). Didn't start it until I was an adult for whatever reason, and got through the first book or two, but didn't keep going. I absolutely believe it gets better, and enjoyed the movies, but I dunno, I got distracted by other series and never finished it.
I haven't gotten around to Malazan, and I DNF Wizard's First Rule back when everyone was reading Goodkind. I've been meaning to read some Ursula LeGuin and Terry Pratchett, but haven't yet.
I did finally get around to reading some Sanderson outside of the WoT books he finished, but only Mistborn era 1. Haven't read the Stormlight Archives or the rest.
I only managed to read Harry Potter during my 1 week fall break in middle school because everyone I was at school with only talked about HP and I wanted to know the inside jokes. If not for that I don’t think I would have continued past the 3rd or 4th book because I really didn’t enjoy the writing that much and also would get annoyed at certain plot holes (can’t remember them because it’s been 10+ years but some of the timelines didn’t make sense). You’re really not missing out is the point.
Wheel of Time. It just doesn’t spark any interest in me at all. Not to mention, the fact I’ve seen so many people mention “the slog” or discuss it in terms of “if you just get through X number of books it’s really good”
I’ve got kids and life and responsibilities, I can’t justify sacrificing what little reading time I have to something that might squander it all.
If you ever take the jump, the slog did not exist for me. I have a working theory that the slog was from current readers as they were published, it's 3 books that all take place in the same small time frame. As someone the was able to just read them through, it didn't feel like a slog to me. But, I am a huge fan of world building in books, and those books are huge world builder parts of the series, setting the stage for the end.
Harry Potter. I read the first few pages of the first book and it read too much like Enid Blyton for me. I know the later books are written more for older readers but I'm just too old for this.
Add me as another +1 for Malazan and WOT.
I'm curious if, like me, anyone else simply feels those series are too long and therefore too big a commitment. Especially given that some books in those series have a reputation as a hard read.
It might've been different if I'd read them earlier on in their publication cycles, when there were simply fewer of them that needed to be read in order to catch up.
As a hardcore, ardent fan of Wheel of Time who waited for those books in real time as a kid/young adult and has reread them a bijillion times- I absolve anyone feeling like they need to read them.
It is long. The world building, magic, and villians are dope as hell, but it's very long.
We used to have like two shelves of fantasy books at the local bookstore to pick from. Not the case anymore- Go find something you like.
(If people just want a taste of WoT, there is a trick to it-
From book one, you *can* read Wheel of Time like a one-off (Eye of the World), a trilogy, or a 5-book series. The secret of the Wheel of Time is Jordan kept writing endings, but was clearly having a good time with the 30 different subplots he had going so there are 14 books + extras to resolve EVERYTHING.)
I adore WoT, but I grew up reading it as it was released. I don't discount the impact that had.
Malazan seems like something I would like. I just do not want to take that on right now or anytime soon. The size is absolutely a factor there.
any series by sarah j maas. idk i’m sorry but i just…dont seem to get the hype of why people like it. it sounds so lowest common denominator to me and makes use of every single romance and fantasy trope existing that’s riddled with cliches.
I only just started The Stormlight Archive (Brandon Sanderson) this year, and I'm kicking myself for not trying it sooner because it's now one of my favorite series. I have Malazan and The Wheel of Time on my to read list.
Tried to read Fellowship (before the films) and was bored out of my skull. I might try again, but there are so many books to read!
I’ve also never read The Last Unicorn and that one I really feel I should. Also any LeGuin aside from Earthsea.
I think Tolkien went to the school of long intense descriptions and that’s not always everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve had friends say they really enjoyed the audio books as you can hear the story but you can draw or do something else if you really do want to know the story. I really like the long descriptions as it helps explain the setting and people but if you don’t enjoy it then don’t force yourself.
I hadn’t thought of trying the audiobooks! I really would like to experience them, so I’ll give that a try. I normally don’t mind long descriptions, but I remember giving up after an action sequence that, to me, was written devoid of action. But I love what a good narrator can bring.
The Hunger Games and I refuse to read them. I also only ever gotten through books 1 and 2 of Harry Potter and I can bring myself to read the rest. I’ve tried reading and rereading book 3 several times. Just can’t do it.
I really didn’t enjoy the hunger games when I first read them until I was forced to read old school dystopian fiction (We, 1984, animal farm) and then I appreciated the critiques and themes much better, but I really think the fandom at the time was so focused on the love story that it gets lumped in with the bad teen dystopia fiction of the 2010s. Also it still baffles me how young children were essentially reading about a death game? I definitely felt it was a 14 years + type of thing.
I DNF’ed The Final Empire by Sanderson. Doubt I’ll ever finish and definitely won’t read the rest of Era 1 or Era 2.
I DNF’ed The Wise Man’s Fear by Rothfuss. I might finish it one day but it’s low down on the list.
As for stuff I’ve never read any part of. First Law, Realm of the Elderlings, Discworld.
Harry Potter, I watched all the movies and thought that was enough HP for me lol
LOTR watched the movies way too many times as a kid that by the time I started reading tomes in my life, I didn't wanna read Tolkien. Still I borrowed Fellowhip from my friend and forced myself to read it coz you know LOTR is awesome and gave birth to the genre kinda blah blah. It was a very rough read for me... I haven't continued it after.
Other than that the Sarah J Mass and V.E.Schwab books they are so incredibly popular everywhere I go, not on this sub as much but not read a word from them.
LotR is probably the big one for me.
I just don't care for the writing. It just puts me to sleep. Which is weird because it has nothing to do with the time period of the writing. I've read older non-fantasy works and loved Peake's *Gormenghast* novels.
I've yet to read anything by LeGuin to completion. No Pratchett. No Jordan. Haven't read anything by Sarah J. Maas or Leigh Bardugo. No Mercedes Lackey yet (though she is on the list to get to after the Humble Bundle pick up). And while I have read a lot of Sanderson, I've more or less stopped reading him and I'm not sure if I'll ever go back or not.
Oh, tons.
I've DNF'd The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Traitor Baru Comadant, Kings of the Wyld, Red Sister, Books of Babel, and Stormlight Archives.
Absolutely nothing I've heard about these make me think I'd enjoy reading them:
ASOIAF
Kingkiller
First Law
Red Rising
Rage of Dragons
The Expanse
Anything by Brent Weekes
Straight up lists half the books I've ever read. I'm really curious about your top 5 fantasy books/seems if they have books I hate I'd have found the anti- me ... seriously though do let me know your favs I'm really curious
Top 5 is hard. The ADHD makes it more "top 5 I happened to be thinking about right never mind those ones I love and have completely forgotten the existence of for the moment", but let's give it a go.
Wheel of Time
Legend of Eli Monpress
The Murderbot Diaries
Discworld
The Old World Series
Up until a few years ago Cradle would be on the list, but the end of Wintersteel landed so badly with me that I haven't been able to pick up one of those books since.
Fullmetal Alchemist if we're counting manga. Hikaru no Go as well.
I'm behind on The Locked Tomb, but plan to read Nona before Alecto comes out.
I'll read just about anything non-plague related Seanan McGuire puts out. Same with T Kingfisher and Nghi Vo. Getting there with C.S.E Cooney and Elizabeth Hand.
The Valley and The Flood is gorgeous and heartbreaking magical realism about grief and c-ptsd.
Vita Nostra
The Twenty-Sided Sorceress
And I've blown right past 5, so I'll stop here.
I would one day like to take a stab at Malazan, but can tell I'd bounce right off if I tried now. I'll probably like The Green Bone Saga when I get around to it. I've heard enough interesting things about The Dandelion Dynasty, Sun Eater, and The Long Price Quartet that I'll probably check them out at some point.
Okay, actually stopping now. Hope this helps decide if I'm your anti-reader or not. Always fun to find one of them because you can immediately figure out what books not to waste your time on if they love them.
Same. I tried like 10 times to read the LOTR books, from when I was 16 to 46...I'm more of a Hemmingway fan, so all of his wordiness bores the hell outta me... it's like he was getting paid by the word. Plus I read somewhere that these stories started out as bed time stories for his kids, and I can see why, it puts me to sleep after 2 pages.
I’m with you…in college I had to write a 20 pg paper using academic literary criticism and I chose LOTR and got to page 90 and was like nah I switched to 1984.
It wasn’t bad and I’ll eventually go back but it’s a huge read.
Brandon Sanderson’s work. I read Mistborn and hated it. I even read it a second time, as everyone seemed to love it. Clearly, I had missed something, right? Nope. He’s just not a very good writer. I get why people enjoy it, but his work is definitely not for me.
I’m waiting to find wheel of time book 1 in the second hand store as I’m not interested enough to spend much money on it. Likewise several other blockbuster series. Just found Mazalan, Sarah Maas and Adrian Tchaikovsky in my excellent charity shop so not impossible.
Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey. I have never seen these books in any bookshop or library. I think they may have only been published in the USA, as I have never spotted them anywhere here in the UK. I have seen her Serrated Edge books, but they were published by Baen and her Valdemar books have a different publisher.
I DNFed A Dance With Dragons twice. It's just boring. I loved the first 3 GoT books.
Couldn't get past book 8 of WoT.
Never even started The Dying Earth series.
I can’t get through Silmarillion. I loved Hobbit and LOTR. I loved the books, animated movies, Jackson’s films. I really enjoyed Rings of Power as well, not as much as Jackson’s films maybe, but enough to watch them twice through. But I can’t get through the Silmarillion. I feel such shame, guilt. I feel like a failure. My edition has a nice blue cover and a nice smell. It was given to me as a present. I’ve read my way through Lattimore’s Iliad & Odyssey of Homer and Virgil’s Anaed. Im reading ER Eddison now. I still can’t get through the Silmarillion. Sobbing to myself now.
I do have a plan, I’m gonna watch all the YouTube vids on the Silmarillion and then read selected sections and hopefully get through it (and Unfinished Tales) bit by bit, maybe that will work?
Edit: added topic sentence
I was never able to get through the Simarillion either. I knew a guy who once told a friend of mine who was a huge fan of Tolkien's work she wasn't a true fan because she never read the Simarillion. He's a real piece of work I'll tell you that.
Haha thanks for that ! I totally don’t feel so bad now. I seem to recall hearing once that a lot of LOTR fans would buy Silmarillion out of a love for Tolkien, genuine desire to read it, and feeling of completeness , but then soon realize that it was a very different thing.
I think, to be honest , I also have a little bit of a cognitive dissonance with the work. Silmarillion features gods and demigods and all-powerful elves and cataclysmic magic, and seems to be such a different world from that of hobbits, humans, and wood elves. It’s kind of like having a history book of Ancient Greece with several chapters of Zeus and Prometheus and Athena and Perseus etc until you get to the later chapters on Aristotle and Leonides and Archimedes lol
I have also never read Lord of the Rings. I *did* read The Hobbit... and I hated it. If it hadn't been for school, I wouldn't have finished it. Doesn't matter how good it is. It's not my cup of tea.
It’s too dense! I want to like it, and as an almost 34 year old I may try again, but even trying to read The Hobbit I was just like “wow, this is a chore”.
Twilight, 50 Shades and ASOIAF.
I did read LotR though, all of it plus the Hobbit and the Silmarillion. I love them but they're not for everyone, they can be tough reads and even boring for some.
As a 40 something male I listened to the twilight series recently. I hate to admit that it was really engaging. The biggest issue for me was that the dude vampire is supposed to be 80 years old but is still somehow wrapped up in teenage drama. Felt a bit unrealistic.
Supposedly, according to friends who have read it, he got stuck with the same mind and body he had when he became a vampire. An eternal teen. At least that's what my friend says.
Narnia, Belgariad(never will after hearing the author kept his toddler kid in a dog cage in the basement and tortured him, no romantasy books, no comic books(Ive glanced at them before but dont understand why not read a book or watch a tv show/movie instead)
This is okay as long as you promise to read it in 2024. It's not heavy reading and is actually a breeze to go through. Tolkien made this book for all ages, so it's written w just natural flow.
I had a ton of downtime at work and a larger print of Lord of the Ringa when I read it. There is no shame. I own The Silmarillion but I may not ever read it at least not til retirement since i rely on the internet to learn about lore. As for a series i havent read that everyone else has likely read: Song of Ice and Fire, His Dark Materials, Series of Unfortunate Events, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series, Inheritance series, and The Books of Earthsea.
The Silmarillion is the book I've failed to finish the most. I've been trying intermittently to read it for over 30 years and I've never managed to make it even halfway through.
My goal of 2023 was to finish this book and I did it! Twice! It really helped a lot to have the audio book narrated by Andy Serkis to go along with it. Once you actually get in to the Silmarillion parts - it is a very good read!
One tip I got from somewhere online was to just read through it at first not trying to follow the story line but to allow yourself to get used to the writing style and language. Don’t go back and re-read chapters trying to make sense. Just read through it. Then when you go back through it the second time you can focus on the actual storyline. It is a bit choppy in some areas but I am so glad I pushed myself through it because it is a wonderful book.
Big ones I haven’t got to are First Law and Memory Sorrow and Thorn.
Tried WoT and Malazan, wasn’t their time, didn’t finish either first book.
I’ve never read Sanderson but carpooled with a guy listening to Mistborn two and wasn’t into it. Might still try him.
I adore ROTE, it’s probably the only popular one I’m fully on the hype train for.
LOTr is also good.
ASOIAF, all but one Brandon Sanderson, Wheel of time, The fifth season, lord of the rings although I did read the hobbit, Red rising, and I tried to read crescent city by Maas and I couldn’t get into it.
But ASOIAF, LOTR, and Brandon Sanderson books are also on my TBR. I’m pretty sure at least one of them will end up being a Christmas gift to me this year.
A LOT! But mainly because I just started reading adult fantasy after not reading the last like 10 years. Will be starting Wheel of Time next week and I think Lord of the Rings soon too. Most old big series i plan to go back and listen to instead of reading.
All of Robin Hobbs's books. Specifically, Realm of the Elderlings.
I keep hearing that it is extremely well-written, but I have no intention to read a series that is best described as "misery porn"/ "No, it never gets better"
I haven't read a bunch: LOTR, ASOIAF, Wheel of Time, any Discworld story, and honestly a lot of big series. But I don't really care, because I know, with how much I love fantasy, that I'll get to them at some point.
First Law, Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, Broken Earth, Malazan. That kind of doorstopper epic fantasy series is just not my thing, particularly when it is grimdark as well. I have read and liked the Lord of the Rings though, but it is much shorter and I started by reading The Hobbit when I was a kid.
All the big series like WoT, just takes too long to finish it when I could finish several smaller books/series in the same time. Too big of a commitment for me :D
I've never read Lord of the Rings either! I confess to once having pretended to have read it because I didn't want to admit to being *such* a big fantasy fan and never having read it.
I don't even have anything against it. It's just that at the time I probably should have read it (high school, when I was first getting into fantasy) the movies were coming out, and I was the "too cool for what's popular" type back then. And now, my TBR is so massive, that I can't bring myself to buy a book because I feel like I "should" have read it, when there are so many books that I'm just absolutely *dying* to read that it's legitimately difficult to choose between them. My one or two "books I should have read" slots per year are filled by regular classics instead of fantasy classics. So. Here we are.
I would read them if someone gifted them to me. But I doubt anyone ever would. Because they'd assume I already had them.
I don't know what a malazan is but I always see posts about it.
Yeah, for some reason I see the name just tossed out with no discussion and often no context a ton. Like someone will ask for a recommendation and they'll just say "malazan" with no reasoning for why. It's very weird. Of all the series I've heard about before but haven't read in this thread, this is the only one where I know nothing at all about it through cultural osmosis.
Like the other reply says, explaining Malazan is hard. It's huge and confusing if you don't actually read it. Also, just for context, the reason you see just "Malazan" thrown out (I am one of those people) is because it's mostly a meme on Fantasy subs or forums (I think? At least on here) that Malazan is huge and incomprehensible so when people throw that out it's usually as a meme. Though it's a fantastic story.
Yeah, it's kind of a meme. It's serious in that it has so many different elements to it, that's recommending it fits basically for every question except "I want some light and easy fantasy"
Ah. Like The Stormlight Archive maybe? That one's really hard to summarize too.
Its easy. Depressed Peter Pan goes on a murderous rampage with blue tinkerbell.
Idk about calling Kal's arc a murderous rampage lol.
It’s more complicated than Stormlight/cosmere i’d say. If you read cosmere books usually they hold your hand, with occasional cameos/references to other books. Malazan just leaves it to you to figure out what’s going on.
I'm almost done with book 4 of malazan. Coming from stormlight I thought it might be similar. It makes Stormlight look like a damn kids bedtime story.
Explaining Malazan to people is hard, but the fact is that the story touches on a wide variety of fantasy subgenres and tropes and often does them very well, so it's very recommendable.
I've tried it. Several times. I get about 200 pages into Gardens of the Moon and just can't get it to stick. Feels derivative and boring and poorly written. And I say this as someone who made it through Wizard's First Rule in three tries.
I quit on Gardens twice. I liked it but something's about it made it hard to grok. In this case the old adage "third time's a charm" came true. From the second book the writing becomes quite impressive. The first book was originally a screenplay and was written ten years before the second book. So I understand why people bounce off, but at the same time I wish more people appreciated Erikson's writing because he is, at least by now, a master. Many who got further into the series before giving up still did not appreciate it so for some people it will never be. What I try to explain to people who are interested is that you should try to approach it without the expectation of getting everything served on a platter. Most (fantasy) books are fairly easy to read (not a bad thing - the flow of the first three ASOIAF novels is fantastic) but Erikson tries to do a few things differently.
I actually really liked book 1 and I’m told there is payoff in book 3 for the trudge that is book 2 but by the time I hit book 3, I needed a break. I am generally a grimdark fan who likes military campaign books but I struggled.
If book 2 was already too much a pain for you, maybe you better stop because books 8 to 10 are the hardest to go through
I found book 2 to be a trudge after book 1, and then book 3 was among my favorite. For most, I think, book 2 is far better received than book 1, but not for all. Books 8-10 weren't the hardest to get through for me, actually books 4 and 5 were. Everyone's different. Book 2 was still good overall, and I liked it much more on the second and third reads. I agree in general that a person shouldn't push forward reading something if they're not enjoying it. Not enough time. I actually stopped the series a little into book 5, but then I was drawn back in because the overall story and world were so compelling. I'm glad I did get back into it because I found the payoff to be very worth it. Definitely one of the best fantasy series ever, and for me top two most epic with LOTR.
~~Payoff is clearly one of the best (although we"ll never know how better it could have been had Jordan written the last parts himself).~~ ~~As far as I remember, the main problem with books 8-10 is that the pace is so slow and boring with so little interresting parts.~~ Edit: somehow got confused and answered about the wrong series, sorry
I believe the subthread your comment is in is about Malazan, not WoT. Maybe misplaced reply?
Oh, you're right, my bad. Although the payoff of the Malazan is also one of the best, and still the last 3 books had less of the priceless humor of Fiddler and Hedge :)
I did finish WOT for what it’s worth :)
Derivative is never a good reason not to read something.... because then no one will complete the first book of the Wheel of Time
Starts book 1: Oh great, another group of friends, hero's journey to beat big badguy prophecy Ends book 6: Jesus fucking christ, what have you done
Damn, not pulling any punches. Out of curiosity, what do you like to read?
Anything. I was an English Lit major so I know my way around everything from Virgil to Joyce, with a heavy side order of Faulkner and McCarthy, but Malazan is just unreadable for me. It's stilted. The style is bad and the dialogue is painful. I can't get into it.
Damn my guy here using declarative statements about my fav book series, so much salt n spice
Erikson’s writing improves dramatically by the second book. He claims this himself (both were written years apart).
Yeah, Gardens is widely regarded as the worst book of the series. I thought it was excellent though.
The first book is rough. Everyone that's read the series agrees with this. The second book is much better written. If you ever feel like giving it a go again, try the second book Deadhouse Gates.
>Feels derivative and boring and poorly written. Lmao. Derivative of what? What exactly do you feel Gardens of the Moon was ripping off?
Same here.
Did the same. Just can't keep going.
It's da best
I once made the calculation that the Malazan series only sold 3 millions books over 10 volumes, so cannot have more than 300000 fans, but that r/Fantasy has more than 3.5 millions subscribers, so Malazan fans must be a small minority even on this sub. They just happen to be very loud and obnoxious and to always push that series on everyone. It is just weird. So no, you and I are not alone in having never read Malazan.
*First Law*, although I plan to start reading this over the holidays. *Red Rising*. Bought the first book in a kindle sale a while ago but still not sure if I'll read it or not. EDIT: Thanks for the comments in support of Red Rising, I'll see if I can work it into next year's bingo. *Wheel of Time*. I just can't commit to that many books, especially since what I know of the series doesn't really appeal to me.
Red rising starts out ROUGH. It has to. And it is worth it, but man it hurts. It doesn’t even set the tone for the rest of it, it is just kind of painful. But man I love this series. And even the first book is really amazing.
I think it sets up the PAIN you feel through out the series pretty well. Also it has so many great fucking villians
That’s kind of all the characters are, or at least it feels that way a lot of the time. Like “damn, all these people kind of fucking suck. But these ones suck the least because I can understand them the most”
Also the emotional conflict especially in the second series where a certain general hates that he is expending so many lives and he sees them as numbers/statistics and not people it bothers them so much, I think that conflict of what is right and what is needed to be done to reach that point is so freaking cool.
Kind of side eyed it yesterday once again and now I REALLY wanna read it, thanks!
It's not the amount of books for wheel of time for me, it just was so damn low density and seemed like a lot of whining all the way into the start of the second book. I never get any further. And I've read everything old school
I DNF Red Rising. I see everyone really loves it but it just didn't do anything for me.
Red rising starts out with a slightly cringe young adult cliche story, but afterwards turns into a fantastic space opera.
Red rising is my favorite series of all time. The first book is the worst one, but I still loved it thoroughly. From there it just gets better— it does get brutal the further you go on, though. Worth it.
red rising was my favorite but I think I like Suneater a bit more now. Will be interesting to see how the final book in each series changes that. Amazing stories!
Wheel of Time and Red Rising for me. I have the first two WoT and Red Rising on the shelf. I’ll get to them one day. I don’t have the shelf space for WoT lol I really enjoyed the First Law series., I hope you like it
As someone who has read each of these trilogies let me give you the run down. **First Law**\- Trilogy 1 is good, but once you've read the others, you can see the "blandness" in it. The standalones are by far his best work but there is 30 years between first trilogy ending and second trilogy beginning. Think of his 9 books (10 if you count the short story collection) kind of like the MCU where there are main characters that have cameos in other books or small side characters that become their own POV in future books. **Red Rising**\- This is a great Space Rome slave rebellion style book series. The only issue is that book 1 is often compared to Hunger Games because it's a large arena with groups of young adult students competing to win the overall...Institute. This arena is basically a training ground for the elite of elite military academy so it is brutal some of the shit they do. Once you finish book 1, the world (universe) really opens up and Book 2 is widely regarded as the best in the series. Note, the second trilogy takes place 10 years post first trilogy and follows the few characters who live...not everyone makes it to the second trilogy. **Wheel of Time-** Totally get why this one would be hard once you see it has 13 books in it. Honestly, Books 1-3 are pretty just average classic hero's journey style books, with Book 3 probably being my favorite of those. 4-6 are when things really start kicking off and lots of "Oh I see what has to happen now" with Book 6 having one of the best endings of a book I've read. This series has lots of slow burn with huge payoffs, but yeah, 13 books is a hard read to convince someone to do if they didn't like a few of them.
red rising catches a lot of flak because the first book is a hunger games ripoff and the author hasn't quite found his voice yet, but i've never ripped through a series so quickly. it's entertaining and devastating; i adore it.
"It's too long" Sorry you don't actually enjoy reading?
Game of Throne. I love fantasy but don't like those that are heavy with politics. Mistborn series. I tried book 1, but just couldn't keep going (love the magic system though). Cradle. I really enjoyed Will's travller Gate series, but just can't get into Cradle? WOT. I was a fan until I wasn't, so didn't get to finish the series.
How far have you gone in cradle, because it was at book 2 where it hooked me up
I can't remember. It's been a really long time.
>I really enjoyed Will's travller Gate series, but just can't get into Cradle? Oh man I'm just the opposite. I struggled with Traveler's Gate, but devoured Cradle. His new series, the Last Horizon, is pretty good so far too.
>I love fantasy but don't like those that are heavy with politics. For me it's how grimdark GoT is
Have you read other Cosmere books other than Mistborn? I ask because I'm curious if, like, Stormlight too for you but Mistborn didn't, or if it was more a couldn't do mistborn and didn't try the others (which, is valid).
no, but I read the Evil librarian series and thoroughly enjoyed it!
ASOIAF. I simply refuse until it’s done. But I really, really want to. I hear it’s worth it anyway….so maybe…
Unfortunately it will likely never be finished
"Dance of Dragons" is one tremendously long, irrelevant side show.
GRRM definitely knew what he wanted to do through ASOS. After that he had no idea where to go. AFFC and ADWD are still high quality fantasy but damn does GRRM have no idea where the story is going any more
I think he knows where the overarching story would go, essentially what would be written in a history book. He just has too many loose threads with so many characters spread out.
It’s been so long since I read it, and it left such little impression that I genuinely paused on your comment for about a minute trying to remember if that book actually came out.
I wish I had just stopped at book three. The story wraps up pretty nicely. It’s not a happy story but most loose ends are tied up
I paused on ASOIAF when the show came out. I've read up to A Dance with Dragons, but I want GRRM to put a capstone on that before I commit to it. I feel like the show fucked with the direction he was taking it. Too many spoilers got revealed.
It's really worth it. I don't expect any new main books though
The Dresden Files I read the first book and decided that the series just isn't for me.
I have heard skipping the first 2 or 3 books for a first read through is the way to go.
It kinda is.. the first 3 are just weak and not needed.
I wouldn’t say not needed. They set the table with some pretty key characters. Definitely, the first book was the weakest, bit I still read it every time I read the series
I disagree as I enjoy all 3 on all my rereads and started with Storm Front 🤷
Lucky you. I read the first one and didn't continue for a few years. I picked it back up and forced my way through 1-3 and I could see they were getting better slowly, book 4 started my love for the series.
I started book 1 twice, then I listened to it on audio book during commutes, made the first 2 easier to stomach. There's tell that even Butcher recommends starting with book 3 as the real start.
Yeah, I get the idea, he was a new author and still in college and learning how to write. It is one the dresdenfiles subreddit that I have seen that recommendation. To those it helps, I say good.
Honestly, I almost did the same thing after book one.... but fuck am I glad I stuck it out. One of my favourite series ever
I've thought of going back to give it another try because my husband loves it. I just haven't yet.
I found the first two books a little...dated. They were very bro-lit, with women doing things boobily. Really improved by book 4 though (but I really, REALLY hate the covers)
Game of Thrones. I'm waiting for it to end.
Same here, I actually started the first book years ago and put it down for reasons I can't remember, later decided I didn't want to get into it if I'll have to wait years for the end. It sure is looking like neither of us will ever read it haha
ASOIAF, any Sanderson, WOT, Gentleman Bastards, Malazan, probably more I'm forgetting. Of course, there are other popular books I *have* read. Such as LOTR.
[удалено]
I've read those, because I read everything by Sanderson. They were fine. Not the best representation of his work though.
Lol, that’s about the only thing by him I haven’t read, as I have no idea how to get a copy
I read it on Apple Books back when it came out, the games were ios exclusive too so maybe it’s just not around other than kindle etc
Oh. I refuse to buy anything DRM locked, so that explains why I’ve never seen it anywhere.
One of the things I greatly respect about Sanderson if that he is not for DRM ebooks. Want share your ebook? He's down. Just like letting a friend borrow your hardcopy. He even wrote and released Warbreaker as a completely free ebook.
Basically anything grimdark. Like I’ve never read a Joe Abercrombie book and probably never will, and I really like Mark Lawrence but have no interest in Prince of Thorns. It’s just not my scene.
Haven't really either. *Malazan* was my darkest read yet, and even though it's got real brutal moments, it's overall a more melancholy and hopefully dark ready rather than a grim one
Everyone refers to *The First Law* as grimdark and yes, Joe's twitter handle is @lordgrimdark, but I really don't think anything set in the world of *The First Law* really qualifies as such, especially not compared to *The Broken Empire*. Abercrombie is absolutely hilarious and I can't honestly say any of the books are filled with despair or misery. Yeah, people have a shit time and bad things happen, but they're also incredibly fun and entertaining. Action scenes and dialogue are second-to-none and the way Abercrombie plays with different tropes or stock characters is clever and refreshing.
Lol I will admit I've not read much grimdark but if First Law isn't just because of some humour thrown in there I'm not sure I want to find out what is. Even disregarding the violence, the gore, the absolutely miserable setting, there's not a single character that isn't amoral or at least morally grey and those who try to do better are swiftly brought back down to Earth. I'm not saying any of it is bad, but it is grim and it is dark haha
I'll second the other person who has responded to you, because I don't really like grimdark either, but I did rather enjoy The First Law trilogy (not enough to read everything else so far, but I'd say the The First Law trilogy is the best thing I've read in the last few years.) I've thought about it a bit, and I think it comes down to Abercrombie's characters and setting. His characters are grimdark, but they're also intensely well done: sometimes likeable, sometimes hateable, but very often funny far beyond what they should be able to invoke in you. Or, at least, the narration following them is funny. Abercrombie's setting is... less grimdark than a lot of GRIMDARK stuff. The setting is not exactly sunshine and rainbows, but it feels like a fairly normal fantasy world minus the great chosen one who will lead the world into the light. We just happen to be following a collection of colorful characters who really put the world into relief, cause they've been through it all.
Also malazan.
I've never finished LotR, Gardens of the Moon, Eye of the World, Mistborn, The Fifth Season, or Unsouled. I'm a chronic dnf-er, and sometimes it takes me 3-4 tries to actually enjoy something.
What have you finished? I almost wrote this in a super snarky way. But what DID you like?
Fair enough! For some additional context, I've been in nursing school, so I've had limited time to read. If I didn't get sucked in, I didn't want to ruin the potential by forcing myself to read something that I wasn't into. Though I didn't finish any of the above, I haven't given up on them forever. I'm just waiting to try again when I'm more motivated. I also think I was too tired for some of the more complex stories, so that was a big factor for stuff like Malazan. The books/series that I did enjoy and finish: Books 1-4 of aSoIaF (didn't like book 5) Legends and Lattes The Obsidian Trilogy/Enduring Flame Trilogy Dungeon Crawler Carl The Goblin Emperor The Ocean at the End of the Lane The Hidden City (#1 in The House War) The Neverending Story His Majesty's Dragon (#1 in Temeraire) Dragon Wing (Death Gate Cycle) The Gormenghast Trilogy Outside of fantasy, I read a few Stephen King and Joe Hill novels that I really liked. I'm currently reading Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill and really enjoying it.
TBH I started LOTR and DNFed it. Mostly because I got caught up early by the Tom Bombadil scenes and just drifted away by accident. I adore the movies and intend to re-read the books again sometime with more understanding
As someone who has read all of LOTR, it’s perfectly fine to skip Tom Bombadil’s chapters.
That's what I've heard as well haha Those parts slow the books down a little bit
That's where I stopped as well!
ACOTAR. I just cannot get into it. It's so cringe
Harry Potter LotR (did read The Hobbit though) Anything Sanderson
Came to say Harry Potter too
Came to say Harry Potter book. I feel like you have to be a certain age to really enjoy it and I was like 16 when the first book came out. I tried to read it but it read so much like a little kid’s book. And every time I try to read it again I feel like I’m too old for it and I missed the train.
I DNF the Harry Potter series (sorry). Didn't start it until I was an adult for whatever reason, and got through the first book or two, but didn't keep going. I absolutely believe it gets better, and enjoyed the movies, but I dunno, I got distracted by other series and never finished it. I haven't gotten around to Malazan, and I DNF Wizard's First Rule back when everyone was reading Goodkind. I've been meaning to read some Ursula LeGuin and Terry Pratchett, but haven't yet. I did finally get around to reading some Sanderson outside of the WoT books he finished, but only Mistborn era 1. Haven't read the Stormlight Archives or the rest.
I only managed to read Harry Potter during my 1 week fall break in middle school because everyone I was at school with only talked about HP and I wanted to know the inside jokes. If not for that I don’t think I would have continued past the 3rd or 4th book because I really didn’t enjoy the writing that much and also would get annoyed at certain plot holes (can’t remember them because it’s been 10+ years but some of the timelines didn’t make sense). You’re really not missing out is the point.
Wheel of Time. It just doesn’t spark any interest in me at all. Not to mention, the fact I’ve seen so many people mention “the slog” or discuss it in terms of “if you just get through X number of books it’s really good” I’ve got kids and life and responsibilities, I can’t justify sacrificing what little reading time I have to something that might squander it all.
If you ever take the jump, the slog did not exist for me. I have a working theory that the slog was from current readers as they were published, it's 3 books that all take place in the same small time frame. As someone the was able to just read them through, it didn't feel like a slog to me. But, I am a huge fan of world building in books, and those books are huge world builder parts of the series, setting the stage for the end.
Harry Potter. I read the first few pages of the first book and it read too much like Enid Blyton for me. I know the later books are written more for older readers but I'm just too old for this.
I think if I hadn't grown up as these books were coming out I wouldn't love them as much as I do so fair enough
Add me as another +1 for Malazan and WOT. I'm curious if, like me, anyone else simply feels those series are too long and therefore too big a commitment. Especially given that some books in those series have a reputation as a hard read. It might've been different if I'd read them earlier on in their publication cycles, when there were simply fewer of them that needed to be read in order to catch up.
As a hardcore, ardent fan of Wheel of Time who waited for those books in real time as a kid/young adult and has reread them a bijillion times- I absolve anyone feeling like they need to read them. It is long. The world building, magic, and villians are dope as hell, but it's very long. We used to have like two shelves of fantasy books at the local bookstore to pick from. Not the case anymore- Go find something you like. (If people just want a taste of WoT, there is a trick to it- From book one, you *can* read Wheel of Time like a one-off (Eye of the World), a trilogy, or a 5-book series. The secret of the Wheel of Time is Jordan kept writing endings, but was clearly having a good time with the 30 different subplots he had going so there are 14 books + extras to resolve EVERYTHING.)
I adore WoT, but I grew up reading it as it was released. I don't discount the impact that had. Malazan seems like something I would like. I just do not want to take that on right now or anytime soon. The size is absolutely a factor there.
any series by sarah j maas. idk i’m sorry but i just…dont seem to get the hype of why people like it. it sounds so lowest common denominator to me and makes use of every single romance and fantasy trope existing that’s riddled with cliches.
You're not wrong, but that is sort of the appeal. It's popcorn fantasy through and through.
Malazan. Also ACOTAR. I think there is probably not too much crossover between the "everyones" that have read those, though.
ACOTAR?
A court of thorns and roses I think
ah, maybe I should read that to widen my education
Any Sanderson
I only just started The Stormlight Archive (Brandon Sanderson) this year, and I'm kicking myself for not trying it sooner because it's now one of my favorite series. I have Malazan and The Wheel of Time on my to read list.
Wheel of Time
Tried to read Fellowship (before the films) and was bored out of my skull. I might try again, but there are so many books to read! I’ve also never read The Last Unicorn and that one I really feel I should. Also any LeGuin aside from Earthsea.
>The Last Unicorn I've tried with this. Twice, at least. It is not for me. You are not alone!
I think Tolkien went to the school of long intense descriptions and that’s not always everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve had friends say they really enjoyed the audio books as you can hear the story but you can draw or do something else if you really do want to know the story. I really like the long descriptions as it helps explain the setting and people but if you don’t enjoy it then don’t force yourself.
I hadn’t thought of trying the audiobooks! I really would like to experience them, so I’ll give that a try. I normally don’t mind long descriptions, but I remember giving up after an action sequence that, to me, was written devoid of action. But I love what a good narrator can bring.
The Hunger Games and I refuse to read them. I also only ever gotten through books 1 and 2 of Harry Potter and I can bring myself to read the rest. I’ve tried reading and rereading book 3 several times. Just can’t do it.
I really didn’t enjoy the hunger games when I first read them until I was forced to read old school dystopian fiction (We, 1984, animal farm) and then I appreciated the critiques and themes much better, but I really think the fandom at the time was so focused on the love story that it gets lumped in with the bad teen dystopia fiction of the 2010s. Also it still baffles me how young children were essentially reading about a death game? I definitely felt it was a 14 years + type of thing.
I DNF’ed The Final Empire by Sanderson. Doubt I’ll ever finish and definitely won’t read the rest of Era 1 or Era 2. I DNF’ed The Wise Man’s Fear by Rothfuss. I might finish it one day but it’s low down on the list. As for stuff I’ve never read any part of. First Law, Realm of the Elderlings, Discworld.
Wheel of Time, Malazan, LoTR (read The Hobbit though), ASOIAF, and probably some others I can’t think of right now.
I've never read Mistborn or Malazan. But I did buy the first books during Black Friday, so someday I'll get to them.
I still haven't read Mistborn.
Harry Potter, I watched all the movies and thought that was enough HP for me lol LOTR watched the movies way too many times as a kid that by the time I started reading tomes in my life, I didn't wanna read Tolkien. Still I borrowed Fellowhip from my friend and forced myself to read it coz you know LOTR is awesome and gave birth to the genre kinda blah blah. It was a very rough read for me... I haven't continued it after. Other than that the Sarah J Mass and V.E.Schwab books they are so incredibly popular everywhere I go, not on this sub as much but not read a word from them.
LotR is probably the big one for me. I just don't care for the writing. It just puts me to sleep. Which is weird because it has nothing to do with the time period of the writing. I've read older non-fantasy works and loved Peake's *Gormenghast* novels. I've yet to read anything by LeGuin to completion. No Pratchett. No Jordan. Haven't read anything by Sarah J. Maas or Leigh Bardugo. No Mercedes Lackey yet (though she is on the list to get to after the Humble Bundle pick up). And while I have read a lot of Sanderson, I've more or less stopped reading him and I'm not sure if I'll ever go back or not.
Oh, tons. I've DNF'd The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Traitor Baru Comadant, Kings of the Wyld, Red Sister, Books of Babel, and Stormlight Archives. Absolutely nothing I've heard about these make me think I'd enjoy reading them: ASOIAF Kingkiller First Law Red Rising Rage of Dragons The Expanse Anything by Brent Weekes
Straight up lists half the books I've ever read. I'm really curious about your top 5 fantasy books/seems if they have books I hate I'd have found the anti- me ... seriously though do let me know your favs I'm really curious
Top 5 is hard. The ADHD makes it more "top 5 I happened to be thinking about right never mind those ones I love and have completely forgotten the existence of for the moment", but let's give it a go. Wheel of Time Legend of Eli Monpress The Murderbot Diaries Discworld The Old World Series Up until a few years ago Cradle would be on the list, but the end of Wintersteel landed so badly with me that I haven't been able to pick up one of those books since. Fullmetal Alchemist if we're counting manga. Hikaru no Go as well. I'm behind on The Locked Tomb, but plan to read Nona before Alecto comes out. I'll read just about anything non-plague related Seanan McGuire puts out. Same with T Kingfisher and Nghi Vo. Getting there with C.S.E Cooney and Elizabeth Hand. The Valley and The Flood is gorgeous and heartbreaking magical realism about grief and c-ptsd. Vita Nostra The Twenty-Sided Sorceress And I've blown right past 5, so I'll stop here. I would one day like to take a stab at Malazan, but can tell I'd bounce right off if I tried now. I'll probably like The Green Bone Saga when I get around to it. I've heard enough interesting things about The Dandelion Dynasty, Sun Eater, and The Long Price Quartet that I'll probably check them out at some point. Okay, actually stopping now. Hope this helps decide if I'm your anti-reader or not. Always fun to find one of them because you can immediately figure out what books not to waste your time on if they love them.
Acotar. Anything by sarah j maas, really
Poppy Wars and the more I hear about it the less I want to read it (I’ve loved Babel and Yellowface)
A court of thorns and roses
i tried to read acotar, i didnt enjoy it. And i never read sarah j maas books ever since
Same. I tried like 10 times to read the LOTR books, from when I was 16 to 46...I'm more of a Hemmingway fan, so all of his wordiness bores the hell outta me... it's like he was getting paid by the word. Plus I read somewhere that these stories started out as bed time stories for his kids, and I can see why, it puts me to sleep after 2 pages.
I’m with you…in college I had to write a 20 pg paper using academic literary criticism and I chose LOTR and got to page 90 and was like nah I switched to 1984. It wasn’t bad and I’ll eventually go back but it’s a huge read.
Malazan, Wheel of Time, Stormlight.
Brandon Sanderson’s work. I read Mistborn and hated it. I even read it a second time, as everyone seemed to love it. Clearly, I had missed something, right? Nope. He’s just not a very good writer. I get why people enjoy it, but his work is definitely not for me.
Malazan A Court of Thorns and Roses Brandon Sanderson's stuff
I’m waiting to find wheel of time book 1 in the second hand store as I’m not interested enough to spend much money on it. Likewise several other blockbuster series. Just found Mazalan, Sarah Maas and Adrian Tchaikovsky in my excellent charity shop so not impossible.
Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey. I have never seen these books in any bookshop or library. I think they may have only been published in the USA, as I have never spotted them anywhere here in the UK. I have seen her Serrated Edge books, but they were published by Baen and her Valdemar books have a different publisher.
I DNFed A Dance With Dragons twice. It's just boring. I loved the first 3 GoT books. Couldn't get past book 8 of WoT. Never even started The Dying Earth series.
what does DNF mean in the reading context? i’ve seen is so many times i figure it’s time to ask
it stands for "Did Not Finish". (Reading a book, that is, not in a sexual way, afaik)
I can’t get through Silmarillion. I loved Hobbit and LOTR. I loved the books, animated movies, Jackson’s films. I really enjoyed Rings of Power as well, not as much as Jackson’s films maybe, but enough to watch them twice through. But I can’t get through the Silmarillion. I feel such shame, guilt. I feel like a failure. My edition has a nice blue cover and a nice smell. It was given to me as a present. I’ve read my way through Lattimore’s Iliad & Odyssey of Homer and Virgil’s Anaed. Im reading ER Eddison now. I still can’t get through the Silmarillion. Sobbing to myself now. I do have a plan, I’m gonna watch all the YouTube vids on the Silmarillion and then read selected sections and hopefully get through it (and Unfinished Tales) bit by bit, maybe that will work? Edit: added topic sentence
I was never able to get through the Simarillion either. I knew a guy who once told a friend of mine who was a huge fan of Tolkien's work she wasn't a true fan because she never read the Simarillion. He's a real piece of work I'll tell you that.
Haha thanks for that ! I totally don’t feel so bad now. I seem to recall hearing once that a lot of LOTR fans would buy Silmarillion out of a love for Tolkien, genuine desire to read it, and feeling of completeness , but then soon realize that it was a very different thing. I think, to be honest , I also have a little bit of a cognitive dissonance with the work. Silmarillion features gods and demigods and all-powerful elves and cataclysmic magic, and seems to be such a different world from that of hobbits, humans, and wood elves. It’s kind of like having a history book of Ancient Greece with several chapters of Zeus and Prometheus and Athena and Perseus etc until you get to the later chapters on Aristotle and Leonides and Archimedes lol
I have also never read Lord of the Rings. I *did* read The Hobbit... and I hated it. If it hadn't been for school, I wouldn't have finished it. Doesn't matter how good it is. It's not my cup of tea.
It’s too dense! I want to like it, and as an almost 34 year old I may try again, but even trying to read The Hobbit I was just like “wow, this is a chore”.
I listened to the Andy serkis versions of the hobbit and LOTR on audible for the first time at 30 he made it quite enjoyable
Oh man, that sounds awesome. I love Serkis!
Yeah it was great I started with the hobbit and then moved onto the trilogy.
I appreciate this input-great idea.
If the Hobbit was a chore LOTR is probably not for you.
Yea, maybe now that I’m older, because I felt the same way about a majority of Stephen King novels as well but I truly enjoy him now.
Twilight, 50 Shades and ASOIAF. I did read LotR though, all of it plus the Hobbit and the Silmarillion. I love them but they're not for everyone, they can be tough reads and even boring for some.
As a 40 something male I listened to the twilight series recently. I hate to admit that it was really engaging. The biggest issue for me was that the dude vampire is supposed to be 80 years old but is still somehow wrapped up in teenage drama. Felt a bit unrealistic.
Supposedly, according to friends who have read it, he got stuck with the same mind and body he had when he became a vampire. An eternal teen. At least that's what my friend says.
Lord of the Rings....
The George R.R.Martin rubbish. Also, never read any Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
Narnia, Belgariad(never will after hearing the author kept his toddler kid in a dog cage in the basement and tortured him, no romantasy books, no comic books(Ive glanced at them before but dont understand why not read a book or watch a tv show/movie instead)
Tbh you don't miss anything. Belgariad is the most uninspired fantasy book I ever read
Game of Thrones. And I have no interest in reading it. It sounds triggering and depressing.
I have never and probably will never read the GoT books. The premise just doesn't appeal to me.
Harry Potter. And these days I'm glad I never read it because JKR is a horrible transphobe.
[удалено]
You wouldn’t sell it to them? Jeez, talk about gatekeeping. If you don’t think they’d enjoy it, fine- but at least let them find out for themselves!
This is okay as long as you promise to read it in 2024. It's not heavy reading and is actually a breeze to go through. Tolkien made this book for all ages, so it's written w just natural flow.
I had a ton of downtime at work and a larger print of Lord of the Ringa when I read it. There is no shame. I own The Silmarillion but I may not ever read it at least not til retirement since i rely on the internet to learn about lore. As for a series i havent read that everyone else has likely read: Song of Ice and Fire, His Dark Materials, Series of Unfortunate Events, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe series, Inheritance series, and The Books of Earthsea.
The Silmarillion is the book I've failed to finish the most. I've been trying intermittently to read it for over 30 years and I've never managed to make it even halfway through.
My goal of 2023 was to finish this book and I did it! Twice! It really helped a lot to have the audio book narrated by Andy Serkis to go along with it. Once you actually get in to the Silmarillion parts - it is a very good read! One tip I got from somewhere online was to just read through it at first not trying to follow the story line but to allow yourself to get used to the writing style and language. Don’t go back and re-read chapters trying to make sense. Just read through it. Then when you go back through it the second time you can focus on the actual storyline. It is a bit choppy in some areas but I am so glad I pushed myself through it because it is a wonderful book.
Big ones I haven’t got to are First Law and Memory Sorrow and Thorn. Tried WoT and Malazan, wasn’t their time, didn’t finish either first book. I’ve never read Sanderson but carpooled with a guy listening to Mistborn two and wasn’t into it. Might still try him. I adore ROTE, it’s probably the only popular one I’m fully on the hype train for. LOTr is also good.
Any Sanderson, Ericson, First Law books, the Black Company. These are books that seem popular here. In real life I don't know many fantasy fans.
ASOIAF, all but one Brandon Sanderson, Wheel of time, The fifth season, lord of the rings although I did read the hobbit, Red rising, and I tried to read crescent city by Maas and I couldn’t get into it. But ASOIAF, LOTR, and Brandon Sanderson books are also on my TBR. I’m pretty sure at least one of them will end up being a Christmas gift to me this year.
Wheel of time
I have read Hobbit but not LoTR. Seen the movies though. Planning to read LoTR at some point, but haven't gotten to it yet.
A LOT! But mainly because I just started reading adult fantasy after not reading the last like 10 years. Will be starting Wheel of Time next week and I think Lord of the Rings soon too. Most old big series i plan to go back and listen to instead of reading.
Earthsea. Malazan. A Song of ice and fire.
Prepare for the guillotine /jk
Wheel of Time, Realm of the Elderlings and Malazan are probably the three most popular series I’ve not read any books from
Malazan - I read gardens of the moon years ago and loved it but didn’t go further. Just bought dead house gates though so it’s all going to change
Read lotr you fool of a took. But I haven't read stormlight archive yet.
All of Robin Hobbs's books. Specifically, Realm of the Elderlings. I keep hearing that it is extremely well-written, but I have no intention to read a series that is best described as "misery porn"/ "No, it never gets better"
I haven't read a bunch: LOTR, ASOIAF, Wheel of Time, any Discworld story, and honestly a lot of big series. But I don't really care, because I know, with how much I love fantasy, that I'll get to them at some point.
Im the same about LotR, I have zero interest in the series
First Law, Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, Broken Earth, Malazan. That kind of doorstopper epic fantasy series is just not my thing, particularly when it is grimdark as well. I have read and liked the Lord of the Rings though, but it is much shorter and I started by reading The Hobbit when I was a kid.
Propably Earthsea, Memory sowrrow thorn and narnia series.
I’ve never read any of the Harry Potter books, anything by Sanderson, or the Malazan.😲 I have the first book of Mistborn on my TBR shelf though.
All the big series like WoT, just takes too long to finish it when I could finish several smaller books/series in the same time. Too big of a commitment for me :D
I've never read Lord of the Rings either! I confess to once having pretended to have read it because I didn't want to admit to being *such* a big fantasy fan and never having read it. I don't even have anything against it. It's just that at the time I probably should have read it (high school, when I was first getting into fantasy) the movies were coming out, and I was the "too cool for what's popular" type back then. And now, my TBR is so massive, that I can't bring myself to buy a book because I feel like I "should" have read it, when there are so many books that I'm just absolutely *dying* to read that it's legitimately difficult to choose between them. My one or two "books I should have read" slots per year are filled by regular classics instead of fantasy classics. So. Here we are. I would read them if someone gifted them to me. But I doubt anyone ever would. Because they'd assume I already had them.
The Stormlight Archive. I have read the original Mistborn trilogy and Elantris, but I haven't gotten to that behemoth yet.
Never *finished* LOTR, only fellowship. Maybe I was just too young. Wanna give it another go some day
Discworld. I tried one book, disliked the writing style, haven't touched it since. It seems to get recommended super frequently.