Incandenza
Banned
I've heard The Traitor Baru Cormorant described as "hard fantasy" before. It's completely magic-free and focuses mostly on economic politics, imperialism, and military tactics.
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What are you reading? (April 2017)
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I've heard The Traitor Baru Cormorant described as "hard fantasy" before. It's completely magic-free and focuses mostly on economic politics, imperialism, and military tactics.
This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but you should read Cat Valente's The Big Idea pitch for The Habitation of the Blessed:
And I am reading a non-fiction book now called The Phoenix: An Unnatural Biography of a Mythical Beast, about the appearance of various sunbirds in cultures around the world that have been translated or interpreted over the years under the general rubric of the "phoenix." Reading about various Latin and French bestiaries from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries definitely brings this novel to mind.
Edit: The Traitor Baru Cormorant is a good choice. I'd also suggest A Natural History of Dragons and its sequels. The author makes excellent use—shamelessly pillages, as she puts it—of her background in anthropology and folklore for creating the world, and for creating the plots. It all hangs together very well.
I finished Wool the other day. It's a dope book but I felt the ending could've had more going on with it. I do understand there's two other collections of stories to read before the story is finally finished though.
Currently reading Star Wars: Thrawn. It's the first Star Wars book I've ever read. It's okay.
Gonna read this anthology of black scifi stories after it.
Currently reading Star Wars: Thrawn. It's the first Star Wars book I've ever read. It's okay.
Gonna read this anthology of black scifi stories after it.
Checking back in on Charles Stross's Merchant Princes series. I am now on book five of the series. It's a great, pulpy romp through parallel world politics and war.
Imagine if the U.S. government discovered that for a century, people from a parallel universe had been invading America at will, selling massive quantities of drugs to its people, and had stolen some of its nuclear arsenal.
Imagine a war raged between two parallel dimensions. Assassin's suddenly appearing and disappearing. Bombs popping into secure locations. Vanishing nuclear weapons.
This series has action, it has political intrigue, multiple sets of interesting world building, CIA/FBI action, sword winging action, and a medieval blonde named Olga who likes to rock an MP5.
One more to go before the ending of the first series (Stross recently started a new trilogy) and I'm looking forward to it.
Imagine if the U.S. government discovered that for a century, people from a parallel universe had been invading America at will, selling massive quantities of drugs to its people, and had stolen some of its nuclear arsenal.
Imagine a war raged between two parallel dimensions. Assassin's suddenly appearing and disappearing. Bombs popping into secure locations. Vanishing nuclear weapons.
This series has action, it has political intrigue, multiple sets of interesting world building, CIA/FBI action, sword winging action, and a medieval blonde named Olga who likes to rock an MP5.
One more to go before the ending of the first series (Stross recently started a new trilogy) and I'm looking forward to it.
Have you ever read Gibson's The Peripheral? Sounds like it might be up your ally based on that description.
Just finished Morning Star. I found the end satisfying and think it tied the series together well despite the fact that I found that the beginning of the book was weaker than the second book.
Radiance looks interesting, added to my list. The Book of the New Sun has been on my too read list forever. I really should give it a shot.
I love Bujold's Chalion books so this is promising.
Looks right up my alley! Count me in.
Radiance looks interesting, added to my list. The Book of the New Sun has been on my too read list forever. I really should give it a shot.
I love Bujold's Chalion books so this is promising.
Looks right up my alley! Count me in.
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate is what I would consider hard fantasy.
So, fantasy with little or no use of magic? Depends on how hardline you are about it being "hard fantasy". I see A song of ice and fire to be pretty far removed from LotR/D&D's High Fantasy settings, but it still has some magic.
Joe Abercrombies Shattered Sea trilogy maybe?
Oh shit speaking of hard fantasy, what about Zombies of Byzantium?
It's a book that tries with almost hilariously absurd level of detail to imagine a zombie apocalypse breaking out in 8th century byzantine empire. Due to the off the wall nature of the subject matter it might not be exactly what you're looking for, and it's a kind of hit or miss book (that I think hits more than it misses) trying to straddle the line of historical fiction and zombies.
It's about the only thing that really came to mind when I thought of hard fantasy, which to be kinda blunt is little oxymoronic sounding on its face. I mean you stray too far off one edge and you quickly hit historical fiction and too far off the other and suddenly you're just straight up fantasy again. I'm kind of intrigued to see where you land though in your search because if there's some books out there that swing for that middle line and knock it out of the park it sounds like something that would be right up my alley as well. Good luck dude, and report back!
It's a book that tries with almost hilariously absurd level of detail to imagine a zombie apocalypse breaking out in 8th century byzantine empire. Due to the off the wall nature of the subject matter it might not be exactly what you're looking for, and it's a kind of hit or miss book (that I think hits more than it misses) trying to straddle the line of historical fiction and zombies.
It's about the only thing that really came to mind when I thought of hard fantasy, which to be kinda blunt is little oxymoronic sounding on its face. I mean you stray too far off one edge and you quickly hit historical fiction and too far off the other and suddenly you're just straight up fantasy again. I'm kind of intrigued to see where you land though in your search because if there's some books out there that swing for that middle line and knock it out of the park it sounds like something that would be right up my alley as well. Good luck dude, and report back!
K.J. Parker definitely. Of those I've read, there's the Engineer trilogy (politics and engineering iirc); The Company (a bunch of soldiers set up an island utopia thing, with... consequences); The Folding Knife (politics and economics). They're all really good, especially The Folding Knife which made economics seem totally fascinating lol.
If you mean magic systems that seem almost scientific, then Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series might fit, and the already-mentioned Brandon Sanderson, though I've only read one of his books.
I finished Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg early this month and that book was so fun and cuuute, I devoured it. It feels good to have lighthearted reading like this among the "heavier" stuff. I was planning to leave Honestly Ben for next month, but I ended up reading the 1.5 short story Openly, Honestly and started the sequel immediately, lol (it was released March 28, thankfully I didn't have to wait). Something about this author just clicked with me, I'm going to check his other novels too.
Ravensmash
Member
Finished Game of Thrones finally. Purchased the second book instantly after.
I've mentioned it before, but I'm still weighing up a break from it as I don't want to get burnt out.
There's a lot of unfinished business atm though.
I've mentioned it before, but I'm still weighing up a break from it as I don't want to get burnt out.
There's a lot of unfinished business atm though.
The first three novels are probably alright for binging, but I regret having read book 4 and 5 one after the other because I definitely got a case of burnout with those.
AngmarsKing701
Member
I'm on the third of Abercrombie's Shattered Sea trilogy. I could argue this one has what you're looking for.
And by extension Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy.
They share a similar setting. I don't want to give away too much.
Edit: It would also be remiss of me to not mention Guy Gavriel Kay, whose books tend to be fantasy without magic, or with perhaps just a smidge of it. They are almost like historical fiction, save for what someone once called his "quarter turn to the fantastic form." Start with something like A Song for Arbonne or Lions of Al-Rassan.
Ravensmash
Member
Yeah I was thinking of at least reading the first two consecutively then taking a break (given that the third book onwards can be split into parts).
As much as I want to read some sci fi right now, I dont want to find myself returning to Westeros only to have forgotten everything!
Do the books (Clash of Kings included) do a good job of recapping the reader?
I noted that Martin actually did this very subtly inside the first novel (reminding you of who characters were etc.)
The Castle by Kafka is really interesting and anxiety inducing perspective about being lost in a bureaucratic system. Kafka died while writing it, so it's incomplete; however, I think that fits the theme of the story. I'm about 75% of the way through the book.
On the other hand, The Hot Zone by Preston is sensationalist bullshit that pretends to be historically accurate account of Ebola. Short boring sentences that are mostly filled with conjecture about what could have happened followed by a but how can anyone know. It's trash but it's short so I'll continue to read it. About 15% through it.
On the other hand, The Hot Zone by Preston is sensationalist bullshit that pretends to be historically accurate account of Ebola. Short boring sentences that are mostly filled with conjecture about what could have happened followed by a but how can anyone know. It's trash but it's short so I'll continue to read it. About 15% through it.
Zelenogorsk
Banned
After taking a break from reading for like two months I'm finally back on Wise Man's Fear. After the almost impressively boring Vintish court chapters things finally got interesting in The Eld
. I'm determined to finish this monster of a book.
Once I finish that I'm going to try and find some books that are 300 pages at most.
(the battle with the bandits and Felurian showing up)
Once I finish that I'm going to try and find some books that are 300 pages at most.
sparky2112
Member
Finished:
If you love Oscar Wao (and you really, really should), this is a no-brainer. It's all short stories involving Yunior and his family. Diaz has the most distinctive 'voice' in fiction right now, I think...
Love Diaz's writing, but MAN is Yunior a pig.
If you love Oscar Wao (and you really, really should), this is a no-brainer. It's all short stories involving Yunior and his family. Diaz has the most distinctive 'voice' in fiction right now, I think...
He keeps doing a good job with that imo, where even if you don't remember a certain character it's easy to know what he's about, who he's allied to etc, because GRRM always subtly reminisces the important info. The only thing I really felt I needed to learn by heart were locations so I kept going back to the map, but even that I didn't have to do anymore after I memorized the major ones. As long as you have a general idea of the houses and kingdoms it's easy to get back into the groove.
VivaciousSoul
Member
A revolution is coming to my eating habits
I'v been meaning to catch up on my Gibson, but I'm still a couple of books behind. Good to know I have something to look forward to.
The early Vorkosigan books, probably due to having been written a good fifteen years before The Curse of Chalion, is noticeably weaker from the standpoint of prose than her later work. Hopefully that doesn't put you off it.
I'm not sure I'd call it science fantasy. You read a story and you think, "There wasn't much science fiction in there at all," and then you remember the uterine replicators. And the bioengineered bugs. And the clones. And gene therapy. And hover cars. And terraforming. And so on, and so forth. It's just presented in such a matter-of-fact, organic way that it has this way of making itself invisible, even when the plot turns on it.
It also doesn't focus much on the details (you just take it as read that wormholes are a thing that connect two fixed locations which can be traveled through with the right technology and that the planets within this universe are located within a nexus (The Nexus, in fact) of wormholes that connect the planets within the narrative of the series). But there's very little that I can think of that seems like "magic" in the way that The Book of the New Sun's technology is clearly meant to evoke swords and sorcery magic, even if it is meant to be some sort of technology.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Good points, Mumei. You said it way better than I did in terms of what I meant by "science fantasy." It's just there. This stuff exists. There isn't going to be a 10 page dissertation on how uterine replicators work.
I guess it's science fiction, but it's not hard sci-fi, and it's not space opera (or is it?).
Let's put it this way: just read it. It's one of the most amazing series in speculative fiction.
More_Badass
Member
Rendezvous With Rama was pretty good, although I prefered the first half's mysterious exploration versus the second half. Now I want a game set in Rama
Magic is fine, ideally it would be treated more like a precise science than just performing spells
Then Sanderson is definitely someone to check out, all of his worlds have a specific magic system with well defined rules.
I have sad news today: The Indianapolis Public Library's Selection Service Staff declined my most recent purchase suggestion:
*grumbles*
I'd just note that they have, among other things, a copy of Stephen Booth's seminal and now sadly out-of-print An Essay on Shakespeare's Sonnets, multiple copies of Helen Vendler's The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (published by Harvard's Belknap Press), a copy of Oxford University Press's The Bible in Shakespeare and sundry other 'academic' books on Shakespeare. :| :| :|
In brighter news, they did accept my suggestions for purchasing Reengineering the University : How to Be Mission Centered, Market Smart, and Margin Conscious, Energy Humanities: an anthology, Poverty and the Myths of Health Care Reform, and The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century CE to the Third. So there's that.
Yes, it's fantastic!
*grumbles*
I'd just note that they have, among other things, a copy of Stephen Booth's seminal and now sadly out-of-print An Essay on Shakespeare's Sonnets, multiple copies of Helen Vendler's The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (published by Harvard's Belknap Press), a copy of Oxford University Press's The Bible in Shakespeare and sundry other 'academic' books on Shakespeare. :| :| :|
In brighter news, they did accept my suggestions for purchasing Reengineering the University : How to Be Mission Centered, Market Smart, and Margin Conscious, Energy Humanities: an anthology, Poverty and the Myths of Health Care Reform, and The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century CE to the Third. So there's that.
Yes, it's fantastic!
More_Badass
Member
Between this, and this
Decided to check out the Mistborn series. Just grabbed the first book. The overarching idea of the series sounds really cool
Got a question. I've seen the series labeled as Young Adult; I tend to have some reservations when I see that (I guess that's foolish though), although a lot of YA books do tend to have a certain style. Would Mistborn really be considered YA, or is it more of a genre debate thing?
I think it's somewhat similar to something like Red Rising in at least this respectyou probably won't find it in the YA section in a bookstore or the Teen section of a library, but in the SF sectionbut it probably would appeal to that demographic nonetheless.
I didn't think of it as YA, but since Sanderson has very plain, accessible prose, plot-driven narratives, and clearly delineated if somewhat simplistic characters, I can see why he is occasionally referred to that way.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Perhaps you should suggest that Ahvarra book by that guy you know on the internet. See what they say :jnc.
More_Badass
Member
This thread is like the Comics thread, it makes my wallet cry
Picked up Mistborn 1, The Book of the New Sun, and Tales of the Dying Earth
(I really like far-future science fantasy)
Can't believe I had never heard of Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe before.
Picked up Mistborn 1, The Book of the New Sun, and Tales of the Dying Earth
(I really like far-future science fantasy)
Can't believe I had never heard of Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe before.
sooperkool
Member
The Arabesk Trilogy and Alif The Unseen
MrOogieBoogie
BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
I wouldn't worry too much about that. I've seen people call Malazan Book of the Fallen a young adult series, which made me realize that no one knows wtf young adult is.
I'll try it.
This thread is like the Comics thread, it makes my wallet cry
Picked up Mistborn 1, The Book of the New Sun, and Tales of the Dying Earth
(I really like far-future science fantasy)
Can't believe I had never heard of Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe before.
You should try your library. It'll make your wallet happier.
And Gene Wolfe in particular is fantastic. You should also check out The Fifth Head of Cerberus, which is a set of three novellas that collectively makes up a larger story:
I think it's the best introduction to Wolfe's work. The Book of the New Sun is quite a commitment by comparison.
Probably?
I have no memory of exactly how the narrative is divided up between the different novels, because I binged all five over a three day weekend (I was dog-sitting and unemployed at the time, so I had little to do but read all day!). But I don't remember them ending on what I felt like was a clear conclusion to a particular larger narrative arc.
Probably?
I have no memory of exactly how the narrative is divided up between the different novels, because I binged all five over a three day weekend (I was dog-sitting and unemployed at the time, so I had little to do but read all day!). But I don't remember them ending on what I felt like was a clear conclusion to a particular larger narrative arc.
Book 1 ends with
Severian and company exiting through the city gate, after fighting the duel with the poison flowers, and meeting the acting troupe again
In hindsight, I can see where the climax of the book was. But at the time, it didn't really feel like it. We spend the first half of the novel going through a meandering examination of Severian's apprenticeship in the torturer's guild, broken into several smaller anecdotes or stories. So when I got to the longer anecdote/story that makes up most of the back half of the first novel, it never felt as important as it obviously was. I was so focused on what came after that, like finding out more about Vodalus. And then I ran out of pages.
"Probably read" means that I don't have any of the other books in my possession, and I picked up a bunch of novels around the same time that I will likely start first. I would like to find out what happens next. I just don't know when I will do so.
If you're at all into classic Chinese novels, I can't recommend enough: Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong by Guo Xiaoting. It can be convoluted and repetitive at times, but the main character, Mad Ji, is such a crazy humorous guy, it totally makes up for it.
Going to jump into the future now with Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.
Going to jump into the future now with Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.
Just finished Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. Really enjoyed it, powered through in a couple of sessions. Darkly comic at times and really well put together, it's one of those where you feel like you know th characters without feeling like you've been told about them. Man Booker Winner 2003.
Finished Revenger today.
I loved everything about this and gave it five stars. It's part adventure part revenge story and I enjoyed it a ton. I loved the setting, the characters and the lore. I read some reviews of it on Goodreads and was again remembered of why I don't bother with them. I seriously can't read that shit, everyone is so full of themselves it's disgusting oO
I loved everything about this and gave it five stars. It's part adventure part revenge story and I enjoyed it a ton. I loved the setting, the characters and the lore. I read some reviews of it on Goodreads and was again remembered of why I don't bother with them. I seriously can't read that shit, everyone is so full of themselves it's disgusting oO
Funyarinpa
Member
I finished reading 1Q84. Didn't really enjoy most of the third book, it should have been about half the length (just scrap
altogether and leave a couple hints as to what happened, and divide the remainder into two books accordingly). But the first two books were beautiful, Murakami amplified his style to the max.
all of the Ushikawa chapters
So as before I have been trying to interject my spates of reading Fantasy and Sci-Fi with some classical literature in order to make myself more "cultured". After Cyrano de Bergerac and The Count of Monte Cristo, I have decided to pick up:
Don Quixote! Now I went and got myself a paperback version of the book. As much as I love my kindle I have missed a physical book. Also I think I got a beautiful cover:
This is the first time I've also read the preface notes by the Translator and was actually interested.
I have only read the prologue/intro so far on how Cervantes wanted to open the book and I am already excited.
Don Quixote! Now I went and got myself a paperback version of the book. As much as I love my kindle I have missed a physical book. Also I think I got a beautiful cover:
This is the first time I've also read the preface notes by the Translator and was actually interested.
I have only read the prologue/intro so far on how Cervantes wanted to open the book and I am already excited.
More_Badass
Member
Quite enjoying Mistborn so far. Interesting setting and characters, and decent writing. I dont read fantasy much, but I do like when the protagonists are criminals, thieves, assassins, etc, rather than traditional heroes. Same reason I like neo-noir and crime fiction so much.
Finished Half the World by Abercrombie.
Despite its "simplicity", I liked Half a King well enough, but this is much, much better. Maybe the romance aspect could be eliminated altogether, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Just a personal preference.
Can't wait to read the third and final book; however, I gotta say I'm a bit worried since, if I remember correctly some impressions read a while ago, many consider this book the best in the trilogy, and this could mean that Half a War may not fully take advantage of the very promising premise its predecessor builds, and end up being disappointing. Let's just hope I won't feel the same way as others.
Despite its "simplicity", I liked Half a King well enough, but this is much, much better. Maybe the romance aspect could be eliminated altogether, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Just a personal preference.
Can't wait to read the third and final book; however, I gotta say I'm a bit worried since, if I remember correctly some impressions read a while ago, many consider this book the best in the trilogy, and this could mean that Half a War may not fully take advantage of the very promising premise its predecessor builds, and end up being disappointing. Let's just hope I won't feel the same way as others.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
❤️ I think I agree, and an Aliens-like ship exploration horror/mystery game would be incredible.
Though I think the part that always grips me most is when Jimmy rides his winged-bike and has the first close-up with a biot. It's perfect first contact mystery, and I love that they're more like beetle cyborgs with a task than classic super-intelligent aliens.
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