Book recommendations

[leemajors]

Finished Liveship Traders Trilogy over the weekend. It was mentally exhausting, but fantastic at the same time.
Robin Hobb's characterization is simply top notch.
It's a bit wild that her Elderlings saga doesn't qualify as "grimdark" on technical aspect of lacking amoral or morally ambiguous protagonist/characters. Cuz the world she pens is definitely grim af and she also puts her characters through some real dark .


Read Troy Saga by David Gemmell and really loved that series as well.
Historical/Mythological retelling can be tricky because the readers already know how it ends but David managed to make this one pretty hard to put down.


I'm also going through Discworld books in the publishing order and most have really great.
Reaper Man, Small Gods and Men at Arms are prolly my favorite so far. These books are perfect to sneak in between heavier reads.


Green Boone Saga by Fonda Lee is another fantastic series.
The first book was average at best, but the 2nd and 3rd really knocked it outta the park for me.
The setting is quite unique as well. It's like the 70/80s Urban Fantasy within a Mafia/Yakuza family.


Raven's Blade Duology by Anthony Ryan was all-right.
While it was definitely a step up from the disastrous book 2 & 3 of Raven's Shadow books, it still fell short of high bar set by Blood Song.


Cradle by Will Wight is pretty good YA Progression Fantasy.
It's a perfect series to burn through when you need something light as an adult.
Also a good recommendation for middle school kids, nephews or nieces in the family.

Hobb is the best. The Rain Wild books can be a bit of a slog, but everything else is fantastic I don't want to say anything more, but she definitely nailed the end of the whole thing.

[lefty20]

Hobb is the best. The Rain Wild books can be a bit of a slog, but everything else is fantastic I don't want to say anything more, but she definitely nailed the end of the whole thing.

Finally got around to finishing the RotE saga and I agree 100%. RWC books were definitely the weakest part of the Saga, by far. The ending was great as well, perhaps a bit too drawn out. But it's a minor complaint.

Other I've read since my last post...


Tigana, Lions of Al-Rassan, All the Seas of the World, A Brightness Long Ago & Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay were great reads as well. His work reminds me a lot David Gemmell's work.



Speaking of DG, I've also now read his Rigante series and the first 2 books of the Drenai Saga. If you're looking for the classic medieval fantasy, you can't go wrong with DG.



I was craving a story about the Arthurian Legend and decided to give The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell a shot and was pleasantly surprised. It's understandably not very popular because it is a completely different take than what most of us have come across yet, but I think he executed it pretty well and had me hooked till the end.



Recursion & Dark Matter by Blake Crouch were both excellent reads. Upgrade, otoh, was a let down.



Stephen King : Misery was great, Fairy Tale lost some steam in the 2nd half and Revival was all right. I plan on reading the Dark Tower Saga later this year.



The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir.... Didn't connect with any of the characters, the story or the prose. I tapped out after finishing the 2nd book as it was clearly not for me, ymmv.




The Shadow & Bone Trilogy. Pretty decent entry for the YA genre. I've heard the other series, Six of Crows, that's set in the same world is much better. I'll definitely be reading that at some point in the near future.



Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes... A gut punch, tbh. I knew what I was in for, but it still hit me like a truck.



The Poppy War by RF Kuang... Holy ing ! The author pulls no punches in this saga. This is a fantasy saga based on the Sino-Japanese conflict and if you know anything about the rape of nanking then you already know what to expect from this book. If you can stomach that sort of then I'd definitely recommend this series.




The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin - Bit of a slow burner but an interesting read nonetheless. The 2nd person pov was completely new for me and took me some time to adjust, ngl.



BrandoSando -
The Lost Metal - Enjoyed the story, but character dialogue left much to be desired, tbh.

Tress of the Emerald Sea - Fantastic from start to end.

The Frugal Wizard - Really good concept, mid execution.


Edit - Formatting

[leemajors]

I recently read the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Urban fantasy may be the best way to describe it, and I had forgotten I read more than the first two books over a decade ago. They were great. Other than that I reread Dark Tower again. I like it more every time I read it, but a lot of people don't like how it ended. I didn't the first time, but have come way around. Kings stuff is just so easy to read. This is still one of my favorite quotes of his:

“Time was a face on the water, and like the great river before them, it did nothing but flow.”

from Wind Through the Keyhole

[SpursforSix]

I recently read the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Urban fantasy may be the best way to describe it, and I had forgotten I read more than the first two books over a decade ago. They were great. Other than that I reread Dark Tower again. I like it more every time I read it, but a lot of people don't like how it ended. I didn't the first time, but have come way around. Kings stuff is just so easy to read. This is still one of my favorite quotes of his:


from Wind Through the Keyhole

King is still probably my favorite author in terms of if I pick up one of his books, I'll probably finish it. Like you said, it's easy reading.
My favorite quote that sticks with me is "God always punishes us for what we can't imagine". From Duma Key.

[leemajors]

King is still probably my favorite author in terms of if I pick up one of his books, I'll probably finish it. Like you said, it's easy reading.
My favorite quote that sticks with me is "God always punishes us for what we can't imagine". From Duma Key.

I don't think I have read that one, gonna put it on my list.

[SpursforSix]

I don't think I have read that one, gonna put it on my list.

So honestly, it started of great but it's super long and one of the few books I haven't finished. It's just a quote that sticks in my mind. The context makes it more poignant but I think it stands by itself.

[lefty20]

Finished the 6th book of the Red Rising series - Light Bringer and was left utterly heart-broken & angry. But excited to see what comes next in the final installment of this Saga.

I would definitely recommend this series for everyone. If you like books that take you on a emotional roller coaster rides. This author doesn't give you what you think you want from the story, instead he gives you that which you didn't even know that you wanted.

First book is the weakest of the series, by far. It's basically Hunger Games/Ender's Game on Mars, but better. The series takes a huge turn after that. It's Spartacus in space with a lot of other flavors mixed in, from the likes of Dune, ASoIaF, Monte Christo & even some First Law in the later books.

Enjoy familial/political machinations & intrigue? Check

Enjoy casual backstabbing? Check

Enjoy the constant fear of having anyone die at any point? Check

Enjoy Space Warfare? Check

Enjoy Ground Assaults? Check

Enjoy cool sword fights? Check


Read the the series. You won't regret it.

[Chinook]

I did the original trilogy and have been slowly collecting the audio books for the rest. I thought the sixth one was going to be the last so I could start listening. But I see that wasn't the case.

The first three books where, okay. There were some really cool moments, but I do sort of think it was forgettable in light of things like Hunger Games and GoT. I paid for 4 and 5, so my intention is very much to finish the series. But it's one where I am a bit reluctant to move past the relatively decent conclusion Morning Star provided.