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Fantasybros: How good is Malazan? HOw does it compare to SoIaF, Amber?
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 9:49 PM Author: sticky university should i invest a couple weeks into reading Malazan books? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217096) |
Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:05 PM Author: beady-eyed gas station i read like the 1st half of the 1st book. kind of sucks. reminds me of a very elaborate d&d-style book.
amber is classic fantasy. not as much world building, blah blah, more action and plot. |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:05 PM Author: sticky university (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217243) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:11 PM Author: yapping costumed tanning salon read the first amber, it was pretty original, don't know how he spun it into another 9 books (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217281) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:46 PM Author: sticky university (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217500) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:46 PM Author: Racy national immigrant It's literally an exceedingly elaborate dungeons and dragons campaign. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217504) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:47 PM Author: sticky university but is it a good read (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217505) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:48 PM Author: Racy national immigrant If you're really into fantasy, yes. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217511) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:50 PM Author: sticky university the author went to iowa writers workshop. must have some chops (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217522) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:52 PM Author: Racy national immigrant He does. The big problem with the series is the structure. I don't want to say more, because it could be a spoiler. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217531) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 12:07 AM Author: Translucent domesticated indian lodge deeply misleading post lol. OP if you're now expecting Vancian magic and clerics battling kobolds etc PLEASE be advised that Malazan is in fact based on a long running *GURPS* campaign (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217861) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 2:41 AM Author: Federal Property thank you for this. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32218294) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 10:44 AM Author: exhilarant location (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219244) |
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Date: November 17th, 2017 10:52 PM Author: Stirring Philosopher-king Turdskin (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#34714517) |
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Date: May 28th, 2018 11:10 PM Author: Trip slimy theatre therapy (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#36142649) |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 10:56 PM Author: Flushed idea he suggested I read the first five books in HS and stopped because I just didn't give a shit anymore. A few thoughts:
-It starts in media res in a big way. The first book, Gardens of the Moon, is particularly confusing as a result. -Books 2 and 3 were pretty good. Definitely the best of the five I read. -Characters are generally pretty weak. Erickson has a bad habit of having characters change names for some reason which is irritating. -It's really really over-the-top. Malazan is all about super-wizards who can obliterate armies, battles where 100,000 people die, wars lasting thousands of years, tons of fantasy races, etc. -Sadly while there's a ton of world-building it's often a shoddy structure. The appendices are even inconsistent between books which really bothered to me. Sometimes there are timeline screw-ups, like a character who suddenly has a 3-year-old daughter in a book that starts a year after the last one. -Erickson tries to give his books more weight by having his gritty soldiers spout philosophy and I mostly don't think this works. -There are a shitload of books so it's a huge investment. Counting the spinoffs by Erickson's friend, it may be longer than Wheel of Time by now. -The plot is sprawling, with basically three major theaters (at least of the books I read). Books 1, 3, and 8 are on their own continent. Books 2, 4, and 6 are on another. Books 5 and 7 on yet another. I don't really know where 9 and 10 go because I quit reading. -Erickson is...okay as a writer, I guess. But Martin is certainly much better. |
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Date: December 23rd, 2016 11:58 PM Author: sticky university charles xii do you have any fantasy/sci-fi recommendations? what are your favorites? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217828) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 12:10 AM Author: Flushed idea he suggested I like The Black Company, which has the additional advantage of having books that aren't all a trillion pages.
Gene Wolfe is a fun and unconventional author whose work generally has a fantasy edge. You have to put in a lot of effort reading him, though, since he's a bit postmodern and loves unreliable narrators and shit. Expect to do rereads if you want to "get" him.
I liked The Lies of Locke Lamora but the sequels kinda sucked. It works as a standalone though.
Overall I haven't read much fantasy besides the common ones, namely ASOIAF. It's just a lot of investment for a limited upside, ever since Robert Jordan made it so every high-profile fantasy series needs to be a 10-book orgy of worldbuilding. |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 12:31 AM Author: Hilarious Comical Internal Respiration like others have said, too d&d for me. fantasy is a genre where there is a fine line where on one side you can "believe" what you're reading and on the other it sounds like the dumbest shit ever. for some people the whole genre seems dumb tho (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32217938) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 12:59 AM Author: Flushed idea he suggested This contributed for me too. The whole "entire race made itself undead for the sake of pursuing genocidal hundred thousand year war" part just made me think "this is stupid." (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32218019) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 11:53 AM Author: beady-eyed gas station "entire race made itself undead for the sake of pursuing genocidal hundred thousand year war"
that sounds awesome |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 11:55 AM Author: Flushed idea he suggested On its own maybe, but it gets a bit much when stuff like this is happening all the time. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219710) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 2:50 AM Author: Concupiscible french genital piercing Without having read it: stick to well-knowns like wheel of Time (but make sure you follow the reading guide that you can easily find, there are so many books you have to skip some) Also you could/should read book of the Lost sin with me. Someone here recommended it awhile ago and it's been on my reading list. Premise sounds really cool. Edit: it was probably charles12 since he mentioned gene Wolfe above |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 10:20 AM Author: Flushed idea he suggested You mean Book of the New Sun? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219160) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 11:56 AM Author: Concupiscible french genital piercing Yeah that's it (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219714) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 11:55 AM Author: beady-eyed gas station the book of the lost sun is great but is not "fun" in the conventional sense. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219696) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 3:04 PM Author: Concupiscible french genital piercing how so (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32221290) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 3:12 PM Author: Flushed idea he suggested It has an unreliable narrator and the plot, such as it is, isn't really easy to suss out. It's a great book but not the sort of thing you breezily flip through for 20 minutes a day. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32221340) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 10:39 AM Author: Pale buck-toothed brunch how good can he be if no one is claiming him off waivers (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219219) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 12:03 PM Author: flesh heady hairy legs tcr (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219762) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 12:01 PM Author: Cerise sinister native (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32219749) |
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Date: December 24th, 2016 3:25 PM Author: Thriller Institution name of the wind trilogy and red rising trilogy (sci fi + fantasy) are the best out there right now
joe abercrombie blade itself is fun light reading
robin hobb assassin series is good long term story but it's not traditional fantasy
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Date: December 24th, 2016 3:28 PM Author: embarrassed to the bone underhanded locale Guy Gavriel Kay blends historical fiction (Byzantines, Medeival Europe, Vikings) with some fantasy (pagan gods are sort of real in some instances). Just good writing and most of his books are stand alone so you don't have to commit to a long series. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3470140&forum_id=2#32221435) |