Looking For New Author To Read

[Simon Collins]

Jennifer Fallon - She has two trilogies, and a new one she is in the middle of writing. The Second Sons trilogy is brilliant, Lion of Senet, Eye of the Labyrinth and Lord of Shadows.

I think it hits everything you said you liked - character development and growth, very tightly plotted, everything and every event exists for a reason. Not Authurian fantasy, but very good stuff. I was most pleased to have discovered her writing.

She is one of the authors I have been thinking about picking up, having seen a couple of good reviews on amazon. Thanks for the confirmation, I think she will be next on my list.

Someone else I heard good things about was Lois McMaster Bujold - anyone have any experience of her books?

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I'll take a look. Is the main protagonist a dragon in this? What's the characterisation like?

Very good, more so from the dragon side as a lucky runt of litter (in the book chromatic and metallic dragons can be born in the same litter and each wyrmling fights it out until there is only 1) The main protagonist is the dragon and it travels to the most ancient dragon it knows of (a beyond ancient Black dragon) in order to learn more about itself and it's history (I won't say why, that would be a spolier)

It must learn how to use it's power in order to take vengence on a cadre of dragonriders/slayers and it does an extremely good job of building up how you can afford to be patient when you can live hundreds or thousands of years old. Along the way he makes allies with a dwarven carvan driver, a human child whom he watches grow up to a young woman, and other dragons.

My favorite parts are the interaction between the gray wrymling and the ancient black dragon. I liken it to trying to glean information from your grandfather while at a moment's notice he could eat you and doing this everyday for years.

 

[Mark CMG]

Thanks for the suggestion - I didn't mention Pratchett because I thought that my 'no humour' caveat would catch him. I have read almost all of his books and enjoy them occasionally as light entertainment.

I must have missed the "'no humour' caveat" in the first post. I thought about not posting the suggestion because of the "no weird stuff" clause but wasn't sure how that would have been defined in such a thread.

Glad to read that Pratchett hasn't escaped your noticed, anyway.

BTW, I'm currently charging through Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and wonder if it could possibly be categorized as period humor.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If you're a Bull fan, try Steven Brust; he's done a collaboration with her, and she's one of the authors he always recommends in interviews.

The Taltos books do contain humour, but they're not comedies; in much the same way that Hawk and Fisher contains humour, I suppose.

I can highly recommend Bujold's Chalion series. She's best known for the Vorkosigan books, but they're science fiction.

Another Science Fiction author with a good fantasy series is David Weber - his Bahzell books (Oath of Swords, The War God's Own, and to a lesser extent Windrider's Oath) are lots of fun.

I hesitate to recommend James Barclay's Chronicles of the Raven, but I'll throw the name out there anyway. The first time I read the first book, I thought it was awful. But a while later, I gave it a second chance. And it still feels amateurish, but after making allowance for that, I actually enjoyed it

You haven't mentioned Mercedes Lackey at all?

Finally, if you can track down Gary Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels, the first few really appeal to me

-Hyp.

 

[RaceBannon42]

Some pretty good suggestions here.

I just finished Dragon Champion last week and enjoyed it. A brief review can be found on the blog in my sig. Characterizations were pretty good.

I always reccomend R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy, very dark and gritty. I did find the first book, The Darkness that Comes Before to be tough to get into. He drops you right into things and his naming conventions were hard to wrap my brain around. But it becomes well worth the initial effort.

For a lighter read I'd suggest The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch which is the best book I've read this year. Its a caper story and might be the most fun I've ever had reading a book. The dialouge is fantastic.

 

[Klaus]

Christian Jacq's Ramses series.

 

[Simon Collins]

Christian Jacq's Ramses series.

Mmmmm....I picked up Book 1 recently and read 100 pages or so and found it to be not at all to my tastes. I found the writing to be too simplistic and found it hard to care for the character. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

 

[Simon Collins]

If you're a Bull fan, try Steven Brust; he's done a collaboration with her, and she's one of the authors he always recommends in interviews.

I can highly recommend Bujold's Chalion series.

Another Science Fiction author with a good fantasy series is David Weber - his Bahzell books (Oath of Swords, The War God's Own, and to a lesser extent Windrider's Oath) are lots of fun.

You haven't mentioned Mercedes Lackey at all?

-Hyp.

I snipped the above quote to highlight the books that sound good to me (I did say I was picky! ) I've heard several good things about the Taltos series - this may well be one of the next to pick up - thanks.

I keep on meaning to pick up a Mercedes Lackey and may have done so at some point and forgotten about it. What are they like?

 

[Simon Collins]

I must have missed the "'no humour' caveat" in the first post. I thought about not posting the suggestion because of the "no weird stuff" clause but wasn't sure how that would have been defined in such a thread.

Glad to read that Pratchett hasn't escaped your noticed, anyway.

BTW, I'm currently charging through Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and wonder if it could possibly be categorized as period humor.

Pratchett is weird at times, but not REALLY weird
I once read a fantasy short story that involved all the modern items in a kitchen developing a personality and talking to each other - now that was REALLY weird.
Re: Great Expectations: When I had to study it in my last year at school, I found no humour in it, period. It's only as I've grown older, I think I'd agree.

 

[Enforcer]

Well, Robin Hobb and George R.R. Martin would've been my top two suggestions...

How about The Dark Tower by Stephen King? I'm not sure if it's "fantasy" enough for you...it does involve modern-day characters and settings for some of the books. Same goes for American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I still recommend both heartily (though I've only read books 1-4 out of 7 for Dark Tower).

After that...Keith Baker's Eberron novels are pretty good. I'd say they're superlative by gaming fiction standards.