Iarwainiel I

Based on your definition, I can recall more magical realism movies and TV shows than I can books - maybe you could look up who wrote the stories for those on IMDB and see if they've written anything else? One book that might fit your criteria is "On Stranger Tides" by Tim Powers. (FYI - It is nothing like the POTC movie of the same name, other than that it includes Blackbeard the pirate.) This book is described as historical fantasy, but IMO it was more ghosts, curses, vodun, and a bunch of mysterious supernatural stuff that none of the characters understood or could control. The story is very dark but the plot twists make it a fun read. I haven't read anything else by Powers, but you might check out his other works - he's written quite a few books and I think they're all stand-alones with a wide variety of styles and settings. hth

Sorry, I used the wrong word ... when I wrote "Nie," I actually meant the queen demon - the one that all the consorts fight over. We know that she does exist, or at least that the consorts and Arlen think she does. (Hoping they kill her in Book 5!) I agree with you about Everam and Nie - in that world, they don't exist. I also don't think we'll meet an actual god of any kind, though we might find out who wrote the Canon, when, & why. And I agree with you re: the flow of magic, though I wonder where it comes from / what is its source. I wonder if it will dissipate if the queen and all the other demons die? since then mankind won't need the magic anymore...

Welcome to the 17th Shard, Dubisx! To me, Stormlight Archives is more strongly character-driven than the original Mistborn trilogy (which I enyoyed tremendously). You get to know the SA characters more deeply - their feelings - their motivations - and that allows you to sense the meaning of the plot in a different way. Sometimes it's literally painful: I know I entered each Kalladin flashback with more and more dread. His pain is so raw and so vividly written. But in hindsight, it's like it made me feel like I was walking through these awful things with Kaladin, which made it all the sweeter later on when he ... (no spoilers here!) You don't really get to know Shallan in WoK - Words of Radiance tells her backstory through flashbacks, like Kaladin's in WoK. But you need to be aquainted with her character in the first book to be ready for #2. Various plot twists in her arc start to get much more interesting near the end of #1, too. Totally worth it - keep on! Also - Excessively florid detail was one of the things I liked least about the Wheel of Time series, so consider this a heads-up re: WoT. (Just my opinion; your mileage may vary.)

I heartily recommend: The Bryant & May series by Christopher Fowler - first book is "Full Dark House" Octogenarian detectives in London solving unusual crimes via unusual methods; they lead the fictional Peculiar Crimes Unit. (BTW, though I am "old aggie," these gentlemen are much older than me. ) The Chet & Bernie series by Spencer Quinn - first book is "Dog On It" Private detective and his dog solve crimes; stories are told from the point of view of the dog!!!!! Highly creative, good action sequences, funny at times - overall great who-done-it stories. These fall in the "mystery" category, so they are about solving crimes - - hope that's what you're looking for. (FYI - Neither of these series has gratuitous sex, violence, language, etc. They are on the level with Brandon's stuff in that regard.)

With Calamity at 100% (though edits/revisions are still ahead), I am really hoping we'll see the Stormlight 3 numbers start going up soon! The 5th and final "Alcatraz" book is also on his plate, and I wonder if that will also be released before SA#3? Though these books are shorter than Brandon's adult fantasy, wrapping up the loose ends in any series sounds tricky. Oh, and isn't there also a Rithmatist book in his pipeline? I'll say it again: I am resolved not to start reading any more series when the author is so much younger than me. I have good hopes of seeing SA#5, but SA#10? ... 'Hope God spares me that long, for this and many other reasons. :-)

What if the dice are controlled by Nie? Or what If Nie knows about (but doesn't actually control) all the "magic" done using hora? Does anyone else think this, or wonder about it? I'm curious to hear what you all think. (BTW - I don't read or post on any other boards, like Theoryland - just here on the 17th Shard ... maybe this isn't a new idea at all. I like my real-world too much to keep up with everything that's out there in SFF-land. :-)

I didn't find The Skull Throne to be a let-down; it was the kind of book I expected it to be, though a few plot developments were quite surprising. I have a question for the group on this thread - will post a new Reply to keep it separate.

Surprised not to see any references to Jezrien in this thread. (Not saying I think Mr. T is him, but the "drooling" part is cause for pondering... )

I have looked and looked on these boards for this - which I am almost certain I saw here - but can't find it now at all: Something about Shinovar being a "foreign land mass," which makes it sound like a chunk of another planet or moon crash landed on Roshar and was somehow absorbed into its ecosphere. Do any of you know where this is, and whether it is WoB? Like McKeedee123, I have wondered if that part of the continent is connected to the rest in the spiritual realm, and what it will mean if it isn't. I also wonder if all native animal life on Roshar was crustacean or insectoid, or at least whether no mammals or birds are native to the planet, their places in the ecosystem being filled by animals from the other 2 classes until some kind of an invasion event. This is part of what made me think that Roshar wasn't a planet at all - that maybe it had been assembled from various bits and set up as an arena where the battle against Odium would take place. But at a signing, Brandon said that Roshar is a real, honest-to-goodness planet, so that theory (at least in its pure form) is shot down. I agree with Relytdragon that authors provide us with worlds we can relate to, to draw us in. I wonder if it isn't also just so they don't have to spend dozens of pages describing what bunches of weird animals look like, only to get criticized for inventing creatures that are scientifically impossible. Much easier to tweak the known than start from scratch.

Has to be Dalinar. That "Not you, son" in WoR brought tears to my eyes. I love how he's a tough-guy warrior who's now learning wisdom, and I really like how Brandon writes him so that we don't know everything. This will probably change if/when Dalinar gets his own book, but until then I think it's fantastic because it shows us how Kaladin has to learn to choose to trust those in authority over him, and Dalinar shows that his trust is well-placed. I really hope Brandon doesn't have Dalinar go the way of Dumbledore before the end of SA. That "passing the torch to the next generation" thing is too cliche, and IMO SFF has been too full of young people "rescuing" their parents/elders ever since "Return of the Jedi" if not before. (Just my opinion - your mileage may differ.)

Is the "cavern with water" in HoA where ...

Re: Divergent / Insurgent / Allegiant I've never ever said this about another book, but ... the movies are better than the books! Especially movie #2 is waaaaay better than book #2. I saw movie #1 and though it seemed a lesser cousin to Hunger Games, I still wanted to see what happened in the rest of the trilogy, so I picked up cheap copies of books 2 & 3. Wow, what a let-down; and the ending was just awful - lacked any kind of meaning, even that a high school English class could analyze, IMO. But because the special effects in the trailer looked cool, I took in movie #2 on discount day at the cinema. So glad I did. Figure I'll decide on movie #3 the same way. Since the author is on the film production team, I wonder if she's not taking this opportunity to "fix" what's wrong with her stories? "One can only hope." - Captain Jack Sparrow

For me, it changes with whatever series I'm reading at the time. If it's SA, I find myself saying "storms/storming" a lot and calling people "cremling." If I'm reading Brett's demon cycle, I'll catch myself thinking "to the core with that." McClellan's powdermage books have me saying "pit, no" or some such. Funny, but I don't remember tLotR affecting my vocabulary like this... ;-)

Just came from a signing at a local library here in NE Ohio (where McClellan lives - awesome that he's local for us!). Very approachable and engaging, and it was easier to get one's questions answered in a crowd of 30 than at one of Brandon's [huge] signings. I also found out that I'm not the only one who uses the short fiction to pass time on the treadmill (with really large font for easy reading). Good news: McClellan said he's writing another trilogy, set on the same planet as the first one and with the same magic systems, but 10 years later and in a different part of the world. Sounds like no crossover characters are planned at this point. He said readers should be able to start with either trilogy and move to the other one without a problem. He's contracted to publish 1 book per year, and plans to continue self-publishing short stories and novellas on the side, in addition to the books published by Orbit.

(I've posted similar thoughts elsewhere on the 17th Shard, so forgive my redundancy if you've read those.) By WoT #3, I hated all the characters except Hopper. By #4, I wanted them all to die, especially the girls. By the end of #5, I felt like I wanted to kill them all myself, I disliked them so much. I can't remember ever reading books where all the main characters were so immature and unlikeable - and though the later books said that the characters "grew up," IMO they essentially acted the same, even to the very end of #14. There were way too many naked people hitting each other with sticks for no apparent reason, and the excessively florid descriptions were boring. I stopped forcing myself to read after #6 - after all, this was supposed to be a leisure time activity, life is short, & there are tons of truly good books out there! I used Leigh Butler's online synopses and the WoT Encyclopedia to follow the story from there till picking it up at Brandon's #12. Don't forget about this option! LotR, in contrast, is (IMO) a masterpiece. One can read it again and again and always see something new (king of nowhere, I am 100% in agreement with you re: re-reads). I read it for the first time in 1977, before the fantasy genre got so crowded. Confession: I studied medieval history and literature in graduate school and was raised on the KJV, so the archaic language in LotR is, for me, a big part of what makes it beautiful. I can totally understand how others without that background would feel differently.

Don't know, but it was making me sad so I fixed it. All are welcome here! - - and thanks traceria for pointing this out.

... aaaaaand this is the part where I have to go back and change my post from a few weeks ago, because it was not "Discworld" that I read, but "Ringworld," by Larry Niven (1970, which explains my impression of an older writing style). I kept wondering - wizards? witches? Those didn't seem to fit in the book that I read, and sure enough, they actually do not. If it had not been for you, my fellow 17th Sharders, I would still be confused. Hearty thanks! An additional New Years' Reolution for me: Read an actual, for-real "Discworld" book.

I don't remember why or what I read that gave me this impression, but I thought that SSFH was set on a large moon, not a planet - which would mean that Threnody would be a moon. Something about the planet it orbits being destroyed (Braize?), and survivors holing up on a moon. So that when Silence's grandmother told her about re-taking "homeland," she was actually talking about the planet, But maybe I am way off base and confusing this with one of the (too many!) other fantasy/sci-fi series I read. Sure is an interesting idea, though...

This was more difficult than I expected it to be! Here's my list: The Lord of the Rings / The Silmarillion / The Hobbit First 2 books of C.S. Lewis' space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet & Perelandra (IMO book 3 is too tighly bound to the post-WWII era and isn't as effective today) Stormlight Archives Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy by D.M. Cornish (delightful!!!) Song of Albion cycle by Stephen Lawhead (especially book 2 - brilliant gnomic passages) @ Orlion - Cornish was inspired by the Gornenghast books to write his MBT series (my #4). MBT is YA, but the series has a similar tone and setting - you might enjoy it.

I just finished the new Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery by Christopher Fowler - "Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart." It's #10 in this series. Arthur Bryant and John May are octogenarian detectives in London who solve crimes that hover on the brink of the paranormal. May is a polished gentlemen and very up-to-date; Bryant is a crusty old fellow whose (dis)ability with technology approaches the level of a Smedry Talent. Finely drawn characters, plot twists, dialogue that's both realistic and often laugh-out-loud funny - - I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

It was the first one - "Discworld." Thanks for encouraging me to try the others! - but there are so many series out there that I do like, I really don't see myself continuing with anything if my gut tells me the time would be better spent reading something else, or even re-reading one of Brandon's books.

I like this series so far & agree with most of what everyone else has said. Maybe it's just me, but it wasn't the sex or romance in these books, but how often people were being raped, and the proportion of characters who had experienced rape, that sort of got to me. I felt like it was to the point where one could get de-sensitized to it, and IMO that would not be a desirable thing. I know the cuture Brett is depicting is harsh and cruel, but still ... I'm hoping future books can include less of this and more magic.

First, thanks to all previous posters for warning me off some of these series (with good explanations why) - you've saved me some time! Here are my contributions: Stephen Lawhead's Celtic Crusades series was a severe disappointment, especially after his initial Arthur trilogy and the Song of Albion Cycle were so great. Not sure what happened to him. I gave his newest series, Bright Empires, a chance, and I enjoyed the first 4 volumes; but the final book was again a real disappointment - it's like he didn't know what to do with characters/situations, so he just ended them abruptly or glossed over things. He was my favorite author in the 90s, but I think this is the end of the line for me. Like others above, I thought Divergent didn't live up to the hype - like a poor cousin of the Hunger Games IMO. And I am one of those people who did not care for most of WoT. The only reason I read any of the books was to be able to read Brandon's final 3. #6 was such grinding agony that, for #7-11, I opted for Leigh Butler's re-read at Tor.com + the WoT Encyclopaedia. To me, all the pages and pages of excessively florid description and all the naked people hitting each other with sticks for no discernable reason just got to be too much - take all that out, and each book would have been maybe 100-150 pages, or at least that's how it felt to me. I did enjoy #12-14, and was pretty satisfied with how things ended in AMoL. Someone else mentioned Michael Grant's Gone series; that was another one I didn't like. The first book was OK, but by the middle of #2 it seemed like it had changed from a paranormal/modern fantasy story to pure horror - as if the author was thinking, "What can I put the characters through that will be even more horrifying than what they've faced so far?" I cheated and looked up the series synopsis on wikipedia, and quickly determined not to expend any more effort in that direction. Wish I could delete the 1st volume from my iBookshelf because I will never want to read it again. I very much enjoyed A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, but was badly disappointed by the sequel and could not finish it. The first book in the Patricia Hutchins series by Jack McDevitt, The Engines of God, was the best in that series; IMO they got weaker as it went along. His Alex Benedict series is much stronger, and #1 A Talent for War is one of the best SF books I've ever read. I tried **Ringworld, because it's supposed to be a classic (and because I got it at the library's thrift store for 25 cents). It was OK, but what I noticed most was how slow-moving it was. I think the reason is that novels and movies are just more action-filled now: my expectations have changed. I bet if I'd read it right after it was published, I'd have liked it better. [**edited Jan 1 2015] The same goes for Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders series. It just seemed too slow-moving and too predictable. But (as someone posted above for another series) I suspect that this is because I read it years after I'd read newer works that were patterned after it but written in a more contemporary style. Finally, I have to add the classic Lensmen series, by E.E. "Doc" Smith. These were written 1948-54 and are considered very influential early SF works. While it's interesting to read these short novels for historical perspective ... well, if you look at the original Star Trek series from the 60s and the way it portrayed people, Lensmen is even more guilty of stereotyping and the bad kind of old-fashioned attitudes than ST-TOS was.The science is old too: In the first book, the author apparently didn't know how destructive atomic bombs were (!). I would not recommend this series except as a study in historical ways that American men viewed women and other people in general. Mostly, I think it would just make modern people angry, and why go out of your way for that? Sorry this entry was so long - wish I'd found this thread sooner. :-)

Don't forget to try your local library - including e-books and inter-library loan. That's where I found the "Dangerous Women" anthology. I figure that, later on, I can always buy the e-book, or maybe even pick up a copy in a used book store in a few years. The only thing I have trouble finding are stories published only in magazines, which so far (thankfully) has not been the case for anything cosmere-related.

Oh boy. Everyone is trying really hard to use spoiler tags, etc., but ... Enough stuff is slipping through that, well, I just hope Hello is no longer reading this thread. He/she seems to be invested enough in the story that she/he deserves to enjoy the "big reveal" moments just like we all did. (I'm imagining, what if someone had told me what happened at the Pellenor Fields? Gives me the shivvers to think of it.) I absolutely do NOT mean to criticize - it's obvious everyone is totally trying - but it's just so hard! We all enjoy Stormlight Archives so much! ... that and the way everyone respects each other are why these forums are so great to hang out on. So - if you're still here, Hello, Thanks for giving us this great discussion topic! but be mindful that you read at your own "risk."