Recommendation? Need help!

[esc0bar]

Hello people!

I've been reading a lot of Forgotten Realms books on and off for 8 years now and only recently decided to look elsewhere.

I picked up the 4 books of ASoIaF by G. R. R. Martin and truly enjoyed them. I've been trying to motivate myself into reading Threat from the Sea by Mel Odom for the last couple weeks, it's not bad, but I need something else. If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate since I don't know many authors outside of the Realms.

I don't want nothing to do with heroes saving the world, I can't stand that since Dragonlance, it was fun when I was 16 though. Grey characters are what I prefer. I also don't want to read something too complicated since I can't read as much as I want lately because of university and don't want to think too hard while I'm reading since I already think way too much with all the homeworks. I don't really enjoy dragons or unicorns , but I can live with them if their presence is not overwhelming.

The characters I've really enjoyed thus far are Entreri, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion, Arya, Erevis Cale, Pharaun Mizzrym, Jarlaxle, Cyric and Gods. As far as authors are concerned... Paul S Kemp, GRRM and non-drizzt Salvatore.

Thanks for your help!
Francis

 

[Jon Sprunk]

Sticking with fantasy, here are some suggestions:

The Black Company (Glen Cook) is an excellent military-style fantasy series with plenty of grit and shades-of-gray characters.

For a bit more complexity in plot, I'm currently reading the Malazan series (Steven Erikson). He gets compared to Cook, but he goes further off the deep end.

For sheer, old-school swords and sorcery, I still like the original Conan series (Robert E. Howard) and the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books, starting with Swords andDeviltry (Fritz Leiber). Howard and Leiber wrote the book on S$S as far as I'm concerned. Their themes and motifs may be a bit out of touch to our modern sensibilities, but if you get past that they are great adventure stories.

 

[esc0bar]

I'll give The Black Company a try for now I think!

I've also read good things about Acacia, how does it compare?

 

[Hypnos164]

Second the recommendation of Cook and Erikson.

Adding the other outstanding fantasy work of the last decade R. Scott Bakker's "The Prince of Nothing" starting with The Darkness That Comes Before ... no one is saving the world in that for sure

Acacia ... I found the first book slow and unexceptional, not terrible but certainly not great either.

 

[nj1]

Try anything by DAVID GEMMELL. His Drenai books are the best place to start but all his books are easy to get into and the plots are good, characters are great with plenty of anti-heros. His book LEGEND was what got me into fantasy and is about the defence of a fortress.

Heres a link to his fantastic fiction page

David Gemmell

 

[Clansman]

If you don't want to think to hard, don't start The Malazan Book of the Fallen. The complexity of that series puts GRRM to shame, and that is really saying something. You only start getting a handle on what is going on in the series as you get to the end of the 3rd book (which is where I am now). That being said, it is a cool, cool series, but, don't start it during your school year. Your grades will definitely suffer if you like it (I really mean this, I'm not joking). Read it during your break between terms.

 

[Nesacat]

Clansman is right. You want to start on Malazan when you have the time to focus on it. It's very well done and it will pull you in.

In the mean-time you could start with David Gemmel or Glen Cook.

 

[esc0bar]

I found a couple Omnibus for Glen Cook's The Black Company and found Bakker's series also.

As far as Gemmell goes, it seems like his Drenai books are out of print. Anyone knows if it's still possible to get them somewhere?

Thanks to everyone for the great replies.