so what's next...

[Halloween Jack]

hi all,

i'm just coming to the end of memories of ice by steven erikson and i'm wondering what to read next.

yes, i could read the next one, house of chains, i am enjoying the series but i thought i might have a break. i do find them heavy going sometimes.

i was wondering about 'the kingdoms of thorn & bone', 'sword of shadows', or 'memory, sorrow & thorn'. these 3 series sounded interesting from an above post and i wondered which would suit me best.

just to give you some idea, my favourite series has been the chronicles of thomas covernent. absolutely fantastic i love the physcological aspect and the horrible desperation of the books combined with a very standard fantastic world. and the idea that you see the land at different time periods. incidently, does anyone find the malazan series a very similar writting style? especially some of the rather over-the-top soul-searching dialogue.

anyway, i'm loving that (ages to go for the next one), and also george martin's song of ice and fire. great series, very authurian.

i didn't like wheel of time, gave up half way through vol. 6. good story and world, but hated the writing style and needless padding. more like a soap opera. i also didn't enjoy david eddings, or whoever wrote the shannara series.

so, any ideas? do any of the above series represent a darkly adult fantasy with nasty overtones but with lots of good-against-evil, impending-doom, magical-wotnots and elf-like shennanigans? hmmm...

 

[dwndrgn]

If you'd like my advice, I'd go for Memory, Sorrow and Thorn first. The reson I suggest this one is that it has the elements you are looking for and the writing style is much cleaner than Jordan (since you didn't like his style) and a quicker read than Erikson (since you found it good but a bit heavy going so you need a break for a bit). At least, that is the way that I feel about it. It is quite likely that the others on this forum may suggest otherwise (and it would probably shock me if they didn't ).

 

[Halloween Jack]

great, thanks for your response. i liked the sound of that one too as someone said it was a more traditional fantasy, which after george martin and steven erikson, i was quite tempted by. also, since i read nearly entirely on the tube on the way to work, it's good to have a snappy read.

 

[Brys]

Both Sword of Shadows and Kingdom of Thorn and Bone are great epic fantasy series with a dark tone, but IMO before you check them out you should also look for R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series, which is the only epic fantasy series on the same level as Erikson and Martin. As for a more traditional series, but with a decent psychological element, try Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster trilogy.
There are tons more I could recommend, but I'll just say that in the psychological aspect, the two best novels I've read have been in science fiction:
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Both of these are brilliant, dark, psychological novels that I recommend to even people who aren't fans of science fiction.

 

[nixie]

I'd go The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone next it's a good read not as good as the Malazan but still a decent read.Although personaly I'd read House of Chains...I can't get enough of Erikson

 

[Brys]

I don't know whether I'd go on to a House of Chains immediately - I did, but consequently found it a little disappointing. Memories of Ice was amazing, House of Chains was just very good IMO. Having a break from Erikson is hardly a bad thing - and there's still a while until the Bonehunters is released.

 

[nixie]

I read all five straight after each other...don't rate Hoc as highly as the others but still better than most books out there.We are still looking at March for Bonehunters aren't we

 

[GOLLUM]

Well like others are suggesting really all 3 of those series are quality examples of EPIC fantasy, so I don't think you could go much wrong with starting any one of them. Having said that if you're after the series that best displays a more traditional take on fantasy of those you list I'd recommend Tad williams M,S,T series.

I like Erikson very much in fact his Malzan series is my favourite fantasy series of all time. GRRM is also very good. Like Brys I also recommend R Scott Bakker's Prince Of Nothing trilogy. These 3 EPIC fantasy series are the best by a margin IMO from the other series mentioned although they're all also very good.

I'm yet to read the Riddlematser trilogy but from comments here I look forward to checking it out soon.

Unlike my esteemed colleague Brys who enjoys the Convenant series but perhaps doesn't consider it landmark in the same way I do, I'm a very very big fan of that particular series and also love the psychological aspect of the books but also enjoy Donaldson's writing very much despite the slightly limited wordlbuilding. I'm however probably in agreement with Brys when it comes to reflecting now on the fact that if Donaldson had written a single trilogy or perhpas quartet of books it's impact long term may have been greater appreciated or enjoyed. Still after reading Runes of The Earth I'm not complainnig...

Happy reading...

 

[Halloween Jack]

Thanks all,

i think i'll go for memory, sorrow and thorn. still got 250 pages left on memories of ice though. great book, my favourite in the series so far, but i do find 1180 pages rather daunting. also i can never really work out if i know what's going on or not.

thanks again

 

[GOLLUM]

Also i can never really work out if i know what's going on or not....

Join the queue.... I've read all the books so far and MOI is the one I like the best although Midnight Tides is also excellent, heck they're all good!...

M,S,T is traditional fantasy which I think you wanted but also EPIC and quite well written by Tad Williams, in fact some of his prose is great. The first book is a little slow to move out of the blocks in the first couple hundred pages which centers around life in a medieval style castle but after that things pick up and the story does improve. The middle book maintains a good standard and the final book(s) To Green Angel Tower are probably my favourite of the series. The other good thing about it of course is that it's a completed sequence so you won't have to hang around to find out what happens...

Don't forget to check out Tad Williams subform here in the Authors section for his other books including his current Shadowmarch series which is something of a return to the sligtly more traditional fantasy one sees in M,S,T and very enjoyable.