Who is on TSO’s Kindle: Fantasy Edition

This may or may not interest anyone at all, but I’ve been thinking about it a while, and wanted to see if perhaps someone could point me in good directions on Fantasy books.  I don’t need it right now, because I just got Words of Radiance, which will take me a week or so.  As Jonn says though, we never know what posts will hit or miss until we post them, so I figured I’d throw this up.

Seriously though, if you have a fantasy author you love, kindly toss him in the comments so I can either affirm I’ve already read it (most likely) or can get it for my kindle.

So, roughly in order, here are my top 10 Fantasy authors.  One quick note, you will not find George R.R. Martin on this list.  The reason is simple.  His books are awesome, but he’s on like book 5 of 12, and the dude couldn’t take worse care of himself if he tried.  So Ice and Fire will never be finished by Martin.  It’s like Wheel of Time by my fellow Alum Robert Jordan, 14 books is too damn many, and Jordan died after like 11.  Thankfully, my #2 author stepped in and finished the series.  However, I am currently only on Book 6 of that series, and I needed a break, because the protagonist is so damn morose he makes me want to jump out a window.

1) David Gemmell:  Alas, he too is deceased, and I’ve read every single one of his books at least twice, some as many as 5 times.  Whenever I need something fairly light, with heroic and honorable overtones, this is it.  If you haven’t read Gemmell, you should.  Start with Legend.  It’s sometimes fairly formulaic, but if the formula works, don’t screw with it.  In the absence of anything else on my front burner, I always go back and reread Gemmell.

2) Brandon Sanderson:  For the reason I kept Martin off this list, a case could be made for leaving Sanderson off as well.  He has two books out now in a 10 part series.  Thankfully dude is young and looks healthy.  But even were he not, his body of work puts him at #2 on my list.  There were about 2 of his probably 20 books that I started to lose interest in, and almost put down.  And then finished anyway and found myself after the fact loving them.  Sometimes I get a little lost with him, but (unlike Martin) I don’t have to wait 15 fricken pages while he tells me about the plum wine they are eating at their dinner before he kills everyone in a paragraph.  His Stormlight Archive series (the 10 books) just had #2 come out, and I love it already.  I loved the first one so much I also have it on audio book, despite such costing me $50 and being 48 hours long.  If you are driving to Tibet or something from Wichita, get this book on Audio.  Either way, read his stuff.  His Mistborn series is his best other than Stormlight.

3) Patrick Rothfuss: Dude only has 2 books, and they are both straight cash.  (Name of the Wind, Wise Man’s Fear.)  I’ve read them both twice, have both on audio book.  He has one chapter about a dude playing a lute.  A chapter about a guy doing something in a medium (auditory) that doesn’t make sense in written form.  Or shouldn’t.  I don’t know how the dude does it, but that Chapter, and every one before and after are awesome.  I’m giddy over his next book coming out, but afraid to look at when that might be, because I fear he’s a Martinian-type slowpoke.

4) Michael Sullivan:  Like a year ago I had never heard of this cat.  Apparently he was just writing stuff up and giving it away or something.  Started writing his “Riyria Chronicles” for his daughter, who had trouble reading.  Then Amazon recommended him, and who can say no to Amazon.com’s recommendations.  His stuff is awesome.  Absolutely love it.  Not as dark as Rothfuss, not as confusing as Sanderson, not as cliché as Gemmell, the guy is really good.  Give him a look if you haven’t.

5) Joe Abercrombie:  If you are looking for a book with definitive good guys and bad guys, that has a conclusion that either makes you want to cheer, or at least ends definitively, don’t read Abercrombie, because you aren’t going to get it.  But if you like books in a sort of amoral grey area that are gritty as hell, this is your guy.  Dude is dark, and apparently Vengeance is his favorite attribute.  Even his protagonists are unlikeable at times, and then loveable in turns.  His book Heroes is essentially the fantasy version of Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels.  I don’t know if he patterned it after that, but that’s what it is.  Only talks about 1 battle, and it is the Shi’ite.

6) Kevin Hearne:  If you want a good humor book, but with all the ancient Gods clashing in a modern world, and you think Neil Gaiman is a douche (newsflash, he is) then read The Iron Druid Chronicles.  It’s about a Irish Druid who’s thousands of years old, and runs around with his wolfhound that he can talk to.  He’s battling Gods from all over the pantheon of Roman, Greek, Norse and other places, with werewolves and vampires being enemies or friends depending on the day.  Read his first book, and you’ll either be hooked, or it won’t be your thing.  But I love his stuff, and the conversations with the dog are really LOL funny.

7) Brent Weeks:  His Night Angel Trilogy about an assassin is 10/10.  His more recent Lightbringer series just isn’t working for me.  Some disagree with me on this point I believe, but his Night Angel are must reads.  Orphan kid living in slums grows up to be the sort of sword of retribution.  Awesome stuff.  Read it.

8) Scott Lynch:  I tore through his Locke Lamora series (3 books) in roughly a week.  And because I am an effin idiot, I read book 3 first, not realizing it was part 3 of 3.  Luckily the books are semi-independent.  Dude is seriously clever in the way he writes, and brings things together.  With lynch you know that the last 25 pages are going to be burners, as different plot lines come together, and you realize how much you missed earlier.  Absolutely love this dude, and rethinking now he should be higher on the list, but writing this pretty much off the top of my head.  Same as Weeks, this one features a Orphan kid made good.  If by “good” you mean a confidence man/grifter sort.  Each of his books got better than the preceding one and dealt with a sort of different topic, although again, it’s largely the same people and such.  Book 1 got slightly slow in the middle for me.  Whatever you do, don’t stop.  Book 2 was money.   Book 3 was super money.

9) Mark Lawrence: Dude.  Dark.  Seriously dark.  The protagonist is a wretched dude, and you almost want him to get killed.  You kind of hold out hope he’ll turn his shit around from being a selfish kid/badass, but that hope is somewhat fleeting.  It’s basically post-apocalyptic fantasy, but the feel is more swords and sorcery.  Only dark.  Like, ass of a bull moose dark.  You’ll either love the series or want to burn it.  Despite generally liking upbeat stuff more, I really did enjoy it.  His bio, linked above there, is probably why he’s so dark, he’s some sort of top secret rocket scientist dude working with artificial intelligence.   Loved his book, and would love to grab a beer with him, but only in a very well-lit pub.

10)   You know what, I am leaving this one blank for now, because writing this I came up with a host of authors I forgot and should have listed somewhere.  Daniel Abraham, Robin Hobb, Anthony Ryan, Brian McClellan and others.  I would go with McClellan but he only has one book out.  I would go with Hobb but some of her stuff was AWESOME (Farseer and Tawny Man) and some I couldn’t even finish.  So let me ruminate, since I am sure there are others.

 

A quick note: there are 2 authors that should be read immediately, but don’t exactly fit into this list, because they are post-apocalypse stuff.  A third is really quality too.

Hugh Howey– Have a bit of a mancrush on this guy, his books are awesome.  I get them the day they come out, and generally finish them on the same day.  Here’s a weird thing about me too, I write to every author I read.  And sometimes they are nice and give me a perfunctory “thanks” and sometimes are really friendly.  Howey is #2.  He responds to all my asinine emails.  And his books are phenomenal.  Can not say enough good things about his works.  His Silo series is probably my favorite works of all time in this genre.  He’s an interesting cat too, they are made as sort of short stories, and jump around a bit, but then it all gets tied in together.   Without ruining anything, since you find out in the first 5 pages, everyone left in the world lives in underground silos about 130 stories deep.  From there it’s sort of Gulag Archipelago meets Mad Max.  The story is great, the anti-authoritarian overtones are awesome, all of it good.  And he did something I’ve never seen before or since.  He gave his world sort of over to his readers, and lets them write their own short stories in the Silos, and if he likes them he plugs them.  So, if you get consumed with Silo (as I did) you can read a bunch of $1 kindle stories in the same area.  Some hit, some miss, but they are $1.  I got his latest “Sand” to read in Greenland.  I ended up not being able to wait, and took a day off to finish it.   Really good, get Wool, which is Book 1 of Silo.

Justin Cronin: Sort of like The Stand.  Vampire type virus (damned military effing things up again).  Got picked up for a movie I understand, and it will be awesome.  Really good if you like the horror side of post-apocalypse stuff.  Read it.

John Barnes (Daybreak): If you watch Revolution, and love it, then go get “Directive 51” by Barnes.  Eco-radicalist types take out society.  Society tries to rebuild.

There’s a million other awesome post-apocalypse I love, but I think I have done that list before, and this is the stuff I am reading right now.

 

OK, have at it, who do I need to read?

 

 

 

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