Rayse

Just finished Rise of Empire which is Riyria #2 and started Heir of Novron which is #3. Excellent characters and action. I'd highly recommend the series. I do half my series reading and half audiobooks. This series is audio and I'd highly recommend the narrator who does an excellent job. 

 

Also finished Royal Assassin Farseer #2 which unfortunately wasn't as good as book #1, which I liked a lot, rewash. Without spoilers I will read #3 since it still has a ton of potential and the plot has to be different given the ending of #2 but not right away. I usually love reading series from start to finish when possible but not with this one. The above post references pacing vs character development. Book #1 did this very well and the magic was great. There's a lot of court politics in both books but in #2 it just bogs down for forever with no real point to enhance the plot or what we already know about the characters. The last third of the book it does pick up and really ends on an up-note so we'll see. 

 

I'm about a third of the way through Storm Front which is a fun easy read to this point. I'm hoping I really like it because it intersects my fantasy genre with my wife's detective drama and it would be nice to read the same thing. The last common book we read was in her genre Gone Girl which I thought was highly overrated and predictable. Before that both of us and our oldest two daughters read both Hunger Games and Divergent. Both of which I liked for what they were, young adult fantasy. It's fun to talk to your kids about the books which makes them better for me than if I just read them for myself. 

Finish Elantris about a week ago. Really liked. Best way to describe it without spoilers is a one book version of Mistborn with a lot less characters and a different magic. 

 

Finished Assassin's apprentice this morning. Liked it more than I thought based on some of the online reviews. Loved the characters and the mental aspect of the magic. I'll definitely read the other two books in the series. 

 

About 85% done with Theft of Swords. A lot less magic and a lot more medieval than I usually go for but it's been a great read. I'll read the other two books in the series. 

 

Felt good to like three in a row coming off The Name of the Wind and The Black Prism both of which were lacking and I didn't continue either series. 

OK. I have to give you bonus points for mentioning Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 

 

 

Historical fiction huh? I do like the genre as well... I have checked the two books you listed. They sound great. I really need to spend more time reading, it is taking me forever to punch through Codex Alera. Then I figured I should read SoS and BoM, I have been waiting to finish my current read and I say I am slightly anxious about those. What if I don't like them?

 

Thanks for the B&T's kudos. 

 

I haven't read SOS or BOM but I know what you mean. When Stormlight #3 comes out I pray it lives up to the expectations. I've currently read the first three Mistborn's and thought they were excellent but still not nearly as good as Stormlight. I was thinking of reading Elantris but I'm trying to spread out my Sanderson reading so I don't fly through all of them. 

Currently finishing up The Name of the Wind. Sadly I didn't love it and won't continue the series. I didn't hate it either. It was well told but just didn't seem to have anything that shocked me, the characters were just fine.......just wasn't feeling it at all. 

 

I'm considering the following series to which I'll leave it up to fate. First person to reply with the one I just have to read because it was so good I'll chance it. They are all fantasy series books. 

 

The Blade Itself

The Black Prism

Assassin's Apprentice

Garden's of the Moon

The Aeronaut's  Windglass

Theft of Swords

 

 

I have only read The Black Prism out of those, but I liked it, so read it.

 

 

for what its worth, there is a lot of discussion in this thread about the Malazan Book of the Fallen series (Gardens of the moon is from that) and a lot of people will tell you you can/should skip that one and get back to it basically because it drops you in with almost no hand holding to introduce the world to you.  That means it can be a bit tough to get in to.

 

 

I've read The Black Prism, Assassin's Apprentice, and about 400 pages of Gardens of the Moon. I gave up on Gardens because I still had no real idea of what was going on with the world, and I hated all of the characters. I'll get back to the series some day, probably, but I haven't yet.

 

I love most of Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings books. I didn't like the Dragonkeepers serie. There are 4 books in that one, and I just quit in the middle of the first one. I found it boring. The others are great, though. I actually read them in the wrong order by accident, but it didn't really matter that much. I read the Farseer trilogy first, then The Tawny Man trilogy, and Liveship Traders after that. It turned out that the last series took place in between the first two, there, but it happened in a different country, with very little overlap between plot and characters.

 

I read Lightbringer about a year ago, and I thought it was a really good series. I think that Weeks' writing is in the same school as Sanderson's in a way that one can't really say about any other author but Brian McClellan. I'm excited for the last volume to come out.

 

 

Of these, I have read The Aeronaut's Windlass and thought it was absolutely phenomenal--even better than the majority of the Dresden Files, if you've read those. Cool magic, political intrigue, likeable characters, the trademark Jim Butcher snark: this book has it all.

 

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm finishing up The Black Prism. I thought it was good not great. Part of that might be that I did it as an audio book and the narrator sounds like he's reading Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure. If you fill your commute with audio books like I do please do yourself a favor and read this one. To drive home the point I think they received a lot of complaints and realized their mistake because the other two books in the series have a different narrator. 

 

I did like a lot of the sarcasm in the Black Prism and the way some of the characters played off of each other. The magic was cool and inventive. I did find the tension within the plot to be more towards a younger audience that would like something like Twilight. I read a lot of books that my children read and have had them read things such as Pullman's dark materials, Harry Potter, Artimis Fowl and read things they were reading such as the Hunger Games series, the Divergent series, the Maze Runner Series, etc and enjoyed them all to some degree so I'm not saying older people (I'm mid 40's) won't like the Black Prism just that it's not for everybody. 

 

I think coming off of the first two Stormlight books late last year the bar is just so high in the fantasy genre for me right now. Historical fiction which is one of my other genres of choice I've recently read All the light we cannot see and Nightingale both of which were phenomenal. 

 

Still debating on my next fantasy book from the list I started with. 

My two oldest are 11 and 13 and I try to share as many activities with them as I can to keep them close. Reading is one of those so I figured a thread on that to include how you and your child liked it and if there are any scenes that may be appropriate for one age but not another. 

 

I've done the well known series that everybody knows about especially since they're movies now so I'll gloss over the likes of  Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Maze Runner.......since there's abundant information on them. 

 

Phillip Pullman (dark materials) 3 books: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber spyglass. 

 

The 13 year old has read them. I haven't let the 11 year old yet because sex although not in a soft-core manner is broached in the third book. Considering myself somebody who's spiritual but not religious and I don't raise my kids in a religion in spite of or perhaps because of my Catholic upbringing so I found the alternate afterlife through quantum physics and spirituality to be really well represented for that age group. I would highly recommend it. 

 

Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl Series currently 8 books: 

 

Artemis is a child who's the anti hero and yet always seems to do the right thing in spite of himself. Fairies and the Russian mafia somehow blend together nicely. Both the 11 and 13 year old have read them. The tales are quite innocent but some of the vocabulary can be a bit daunting for kids on the younger side. 

 

 

Currently my 11 year old is starting the Magisterium series by Holly Black for school. It's a 5 book series and all I know is it involves magic in the real world. Looking forward to sharing another series with her. 

 

The final three books that Sanderson wrote were the best three of the series. I'm sure part of it was that all the different plots were coming to a climax but he definitely kept the story moving while sticking to Jordan's writing style and character development. I don't want to be callous but I don't know that the books would have ended as well as they did if not for Sanderson. If not for Stormlight Archives I'd be pull for Brandon to take on a AOL series, a Mat and Tuan book or a 5th age perhaps. I have to wonder if Jordan was thinking ahead to a 5th age as a steampunk edition. 

Sold. 

Currently finishing up The Name of the Wind. Sadly I didn't love it and won't continue the series. I didn't hate it either. It was well told but just didn't seem to have anything that shocked me, the characters were just fine.......just wasn't feeling it at all. 

 

I'm considering the following series to which I'll leave it up to fate. First person to reply with the one I just have to read because it was so good I'll chance it. They are all fantasy series books. 

 

The Blade Itself

The Black Prism

Assassin's Apprentice

Garden's of the Moon

The Aeronaut's  Windglass

Theft of Swords

Actually, the action with the Gholam was pretty much like that. Not exactly the same, but from the same characteristic

 

It was similar but they used skimming to vanquish the Gholam not sending it to the snakes and foxes. That scene came prior to saving Morainne so sending the Gholam there would have been a mistake since Mat knew he would be returning for Morainne. 

The only part of the books that dragged for me were when Nynaeve and Elayne were with Luca's traveling show. That was just way too long and with no real point. Every time the story went back to it I groaned and was so happy when they finally left. 

Agree with others on Moraine's importance. 

 

One thing I kept waiting to come back into the story that I thought would have been very cool was Mat using the ashandarei to open a gate back into the tower of Gengai and shoving a forsaken or dark friend into it and saying something sarcastic like I'm sure you'll enjoy the company. There was no limitation on distance from the tower. I did really like the use of the ghost town and thought this would have been a similar measure. 

Warning I cannot remember if this happens in TSG or later.....

 

Regarding Rand destroying the access key: I thought that was pretty stupid at the time. Who throws away a powerful weapon in battle? When Nynaeve heals one of the Asha'man by delving his mind and removing the thorns so she can then remove the layers of compulsion left by the taint it leads to her looking at Rand. Rand's network of compulsion is too vast for her to heal however there's a glowing light layer protecting him from the darkness. I think Rand realized the access key in cleansing the taint had itself become corrupted. When he pushes all the power through it the temptation to use it again is removed and an added benefit is the shield protecting his mind from the residue of the taint.  

I picture Pattern's natural state as looking like Egyptian hieroglyphics written on a pyramid wall.

 

Syl I see as silver mist with a light green accept when she moves.  

I don't believe any of the radiants will be made into high princes. The radiants are supposed to unite and protect all people. They can't be viewed as having an Alethi agenda and cannot get tied up in the Alethi politics. I think Dalinar will step down making Adolin the high prince so he can concentrate on being a Bondsmith. Adolin killing Sadeus sets it up for him to not be a radiant and with three Kholin's already radiants keeping some out makes sense for balance. Elokhar's potentially becoming a radiant throws a hole in this somewhat but I could see the direction being that he abdicates the throne for the greater good and to finally become the hero he desires to be. His torment between the title and the respect could be a major plot line down the road. 

 

Fun talking theories.