What's your favourite fantasy series?

[Toaster Retribution]

On 17 augusti 2017 at 4:23 PM, ICanDream said:

Thanks for the replies. I find it odd that Asoiaf isn't doing very well. 

GRRM and Brandon are pretty different from eachother. I think that a lot of Brandons audience might prefer more Brandon-esque works. GRRM and ASoIaF are pretty far from that. If you went over to the ASoIaF forum and did a similar thread, you would probably get a very different response. I doubt Brandon would get that many votes over there.

[Dr_Evilcat]

Well, that's one of the harder surveys I've had to answer. Went with Assassin's Apprentice in the end, as it opened out a pretty good universe with really good characters. Also one of the non-Sanderson works on the list definitely deserves a mention, given the nature of this site.

[USS bridge four]

I choose other since skullduggery pleasant wasn't there. It's my favorite since it got me into fantasy.

[luluzulu]

Definitely a tie between Stormlight and Harry Potter for me, but I voted HP because I figured SA would have a lot of votes on its own forum

[+eveorjoy]

Stormlight Archive, but this is subject to change. Before Stormlight it was Mistborn. Before Mistborn it was Wheel of Time. Before Wheel of Time it was Tales of Earthsea. Before that Dragon Riders of Pern. Before that Harry Potter. So we will see what supplants Stormlight Archive in the future. 

[Rasha]

On 8/17/2017 at 7:33 AM, StormblessDave said:

Its a tie between Stormlight Archives and LOTR . The Malazan series was allright(characterization wasn't great though) 

 

 

The characterization in Malazan is great, it is just very different from traditional fantasy characterization. There is huge differences in the cast of characters, and Erikson is really great at creating minors characters that still have a huge emotional impact on the reader (Pearl in gotm, the nameless guard in TTH, the demon freed by trull in MT). 

 

Yeah you can probably guess that malazan is my favorite

[StormblessDave]

1 minute ago, Rasha said:

 

The characterization in Malazan is great, it is just very different from traditional fantasy characterization. There is huge differences in the cast of characters, and Erikson is really great at creating minors characters that still have a huge emotional impact on the reader (Pearl in gotm, the nameless guard in TTH, the demon freed by trull in MT). 

 

Yeah you can probably guess that malazan is my favorite

Lol I have no problem with all of that, but Paran's relationship with Tattersail, Crokus, Paran's character, Felisin( I HATE HER SO MUCH) and many more left me unsatisfied. Great worldbuilding with many great characters (I loved Icarium) but it did have quite a few flaws.

[Rasha]

Yeah, Paran's relationship with tattersail is just awful, I'll grant you that. Crokus is so naive that it is unnerving. And then he learns and it gets better. Paran is alright once you know that there is no main protagonist in this book. 

 On my first read I also despised Felisin, but after reading HoC and reading Deadhouse Gate, I now pity her. She is a young girl of 15 put into slavery by her own sister, I can forgive her acerbic quips to Baudin and Heboric. She is just so tragic that she breaks my heart each time I reach the end of HoC and DhG. 

[Eternum]

I'm dissappointed. We're talking about fantasy, and nobody has mentioned The Dresden Files (Granted, it's more contemporary fantasy, but it counts) or Codex Alera yet.

Codex Alera is an insanely epic story with a great plot, but ok, it doesn't stand up to SA.

The Dresden Files, though, is amazing. The first three books are less exiting, more pulp-y, but book 4 and onwards will have you hopping onto a rollercoaster of endless emotions, including but not limited to: HEART-WRENCHING SADNESS AND PAIN, joy, awe (See: Wizard revives biggest T-Rex fossil ever found to beat a group of evil magicians trying to create a new minor god through killing lots of people with an army of zombies on their side. In downtown Chicago.) etc.

Long story short, Dresden is amazing.

But I'll vote for SA cuz otherwise I'll feel like I'm betraying my people.

 

[Calderis]

@Eternum Butcher needs to finish Peace Talks already. 

[Ammanas]

2 minutes ago, Calderis said:

@Eternum Butcher needs to finish Peace Talks already. 

Last I heard he finally got all of his distractions out of the way, and his life settled, so he can finally finish the dang thing. I expect swift progress and completion by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!

[Eternum]

14 minutes ago, Calderis said:

@Eternum Butcher needs to finish Peace Talks already. 

For real.

[eltari]

I voted for SA, but that's more based on the overall cosmere and expectations of future books than what currently exists.

As mentioned above, The Dresden Files should have been on the list.  Those are 1a and 1b for me, and I don't know which is which.

Kingkiller imo doesn't qualify as a series, it's two books (and I guess the novella).  In my head, it's something greater than a trilogy. 

As for ASoIaF, the last two books aren't the be all, end all that people make it out to be.  I don't think it's a coincidence that they are the weakest novels in the series, and have taken the greatest amount of time to produce. 

[eltari]

5 hours ago, Eternum said:

The Dresden Files, though, is amazing. The first three books are less exiting, more pulp-y, but book 4 and onwards will have you hopping onto a rollercoaster of endless emotions, including but not limited to: HEART-WRENCHING SADNESS AND PAIN, joy, awe (See: Wizard revives biggest T-Rex fossil ever found to beat a group of evil magicians trying to create a new minor god through killing lots of people with an army of zombies on their side. In downtown Chicago.) etc.

 

He definitely found his stride at Dead Beat. 

[Eternum]

Dead Beat was probably the most badass Harry Dresden has ever been. Books 12, 14 and 15 had me emotionally drained tho. Changes.. Dang. Lives up to its name, that's for sure. Cold Days had the reveal (You know what I'm talking about) and Skin Game's last few scenes had me on the verge of tears.

But I'm fanboying at this point.

[FiveLate]

On 8/27/2017 at 0:16 PM, Calderis said:

@Eternum Butcher needs to finish Peace Talks already. 

You tell um....finish the series...no more steampunk till done! (I did like it, just want DreSden more)

[WayneSpren]

1. Stormlight

2. A Song of Ice and Fire

3. Mistborn

4. Harry Potter

5. Kingkiller Chronicles

[+robardin]

I voted for LOTR because 13 year old me swore undying loyalty to Middle-Earth, and I will not betray that oath.

But yeah, I assume (and see) that Stormlight will easily win this poll, considering you put it in the Stormlight Archive sub-forum of a Brandon Sanderson fansite

Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber deserves an entry on any list of this sort, IMHO.

 

[Unhinged]

Definitely Stormlight for me I still see the series as Brandon's answer to ASoIaF. It's subtle and it might be unintentional but I swear Sanderson has found solutions to quite a few of the criticisms that Martin has leveled against the High fantasy genre. I loved wheel of time but it went downhill after book five although Brandon did an Solid job of recovering it. Also I seem to be the only person here who loathed the Dresden files don't get me wrong it had great moments especially around the middle of the series, but it just crossed the line from dark and edgy to bleak and hopeless for me and i really lost interest in finishing the series after cold days.

[bridge4]

On 8/17/2017 at 10:08 AM, Idealistic said:

For me it's a tie between Mistborn era 1 and Stormlight, Kingkiller and Farseer are among my favourites too.

im very much with you here. but dont you mean "assassin's apprentice?" whats "farseer" :-P

mistborn era 1 REALLY grew on my in a reread. and i loved farseer. i voted SA on princple since im rereading it right now lol, but in realty, i just consider all 3 of these (and some others) top tier awesomeness

 

[CaptainRyan]

On 8/19/2017 at 3:01 AM, Zmaray said:

1. The Legendarium

2. The Faithful and the Fallen

Hey @Zmaray, who are the authors of these books/series? Please and thank you!

[Zmaray]

The Legendarium refers to all of Tolkien's works set in Middle Earth (Hobbit, LOTR, Silmarillion...)

John Gwynne wrote the Faithful and the Fallen.

[Nymeros]

A Song of Ice and Fire by a veerrryyy long mile.

[Nymeros]

On 8/31/2017 at 10:32 PM, Unhinged said:

 a few of the criticisms that Martin has leveled against the High fantasy genre. 

Whoah! When did that happen?

[Unhinged]

17 hours ago, Nymeros said:

Whoah! When did that happen?

Like I said it's subtle and I'm not completely sure it was intentional but just as an example in Game of thrones Ned Stark always tries to do the honorable thing no matter how stupid this is.

Spoiler

he ends up getting killed for his trouble.

In Stormlight Archive Dalinar after narrowly escaping death wises up and starts balancing being honorable with being realistic He is willing to risk his son's life in the dueling arena and if the oathbringer preview chapters are anything to go by he is willing to use force to unite Roshar (although probably not to the extent Taravangian was). But he also still tries to be a good person when he can, like when he stands up for Kaladin and outright tells Elhokar that if he tries to execute Kaladin, Dalinar will fight to save him. 

Perhaps the best way to compare the series is in their morality systems ASoIaF starts out with some of the characters thinking that it's a world of black and white morality. this gets them into a lot of trouble and it is shown that this idea is not only naive but downright stupid. In fact the world runs on grey and black morality at best and evil vs evil at worst. 

Stormlight archive runs on light grey and dark grey morality the heroes are not perfect white knights (although Kaladin comes close but even he was willing to get dragged into a plot to kill the king) but they're all good people who are likable despite their flaws. A lot of the of the human villains have noble goals although their methods do keep them firmly at the darker end of the grey area. Even the voidbringers apparently have a very good reason for wanting to destroy humanity if the text from the Amazon description of Oathbringer is any indication

Quote

Dalinar Kholin’s Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. While on a desperate flight to warn his family of the threat, Kaladin Stormblessed must come to grips with the fact that the newly kindled anger of the parshmen may be wholly justified.

Basically ASoIaF is a Deconstruction  Stormlight archive is a Reconstruction 

yes before anyone ask I've given a lot of thought to this 

Edited September 3, 2017 by Unhinged