Book of the New Sun and Black Company are decent, Name of the Wind is fucking cringe...

Book of the New Sun and Black Company are decent, Name of the Wind is fucking cringe, but holy shit this book is such a better read than any of them. Such strong characterization. Is it worth sticking with?

I closed it like 3 chapters in. I thought it was going for "intentionally bad and trope filled" like a b movie and that's just not my bag man

Abercrombie has decent characters but does fuck all with them.

You're literally better off reading GRRM

I find character-driven fantasy a nice change of pace from tedious world building.

I hear that. I'll recommend Bakker since he's a nice mix of both. Great characters and the worldbuilding serves to support rather than overshadow them.

>Bakker

Thanks for the tip. Which series to start with?

The Blade Itself is ok and the other two books in the trilogy are pretty good, but the "Caul Shivers trilogy" is superior. Books 4 and 5 are excellent reads and The Heroes might be one of the best fantasy books I have ever read. Red Country was decent, but it wasn't on the same level as books 4 and 5. Abercrombie really developed quite nicely and I have high expectations for his next First Law trilogy.

Prince of Nothing first, then Aspect Emperor, assuming you meant Bakker's trilogies.

If you're already reading Abercrombie then you might as well finish; it has its high points. I just felt he could've done alot more with certain occasions.

I've heard the Commonweal series by Graydon Saunders is good if you like The Black Company.

Have you read his short stories? I wonder if his writing style fits that format better than the alternative. I consider him to be among the best when it comes to creating fantasy characters, but he definitely has his flaws and I am pretty sure he won't change much as he said he probably won't wrap up the main story in the next trilogy. So it wouldn't surprise me if it's going to be a repeat of books 1-3.

I've only read the First Law. Of the short stories which would you recommend? I heard Best Served Cold was good.

Oh my bad. His Short Stories just got published a few months ago and I haven't read it yet. I thinks there's like 14 of them and I know one is about Glotka on the day of his capture and another is prime Logen being the bloody nine.

Best Served Cold and The Heroes are easily the best books, but why he considers them to be standalones I will never know. My guess ia because there are no repeat povs. Most of the characters have a very satisfying arc especially Shivers who is the only one who appears in all three of them. He's such a different man from when you first see him in Before They Are Hanged. Seeing Abercrombie develop him gives me hope for the next trilogy.

what did you guys think of the farseer trilogy? are the other books she wrote in that universe worth reading?

Stick with this. The First Law trilogy is excellent. I know everyone praises the characters, and it's true – they're great. Though what impresses me most is the clash of cultures. Gurkish, Northmen, Union men, Styrians – each race is distinct, and Abercrombie makes sure you know it.

Is this thread 100% ironic in every post?

Book of the New Sun is the only one out of those books you just listed that isn't fucking cringe.

read real books you faggots

New Sun is real good tho.

Dude, I started reading this book, and it sucked ass. You need to check yourself. The action was stock, the plot was stock, the characters were mostly stark. It was vivid and (grammatically) fairly well written, but it lacked any trace of true originality or poetry. The spirits, the orc-men, the river by the cliff, I mean this dude is literally just regurgitating all the tropes that first pop into any idiot's head. Not saying it's worthless, it's never easy to write a book, even a shit one, but still.

Work on your taste, bro. People like you (not to blame you personally, you just need more experience) are the reason that the fantasy genre has stagnated to fuck city for the past 20 years.

Thinking back on it, the torturer character did have some originality to it, to be fair -- but overall, the point stands: this work was paste from an old bull.

Even New Sun isn't that good, really, the plot is pretty much non-existent, it's exceedingly stagnant, and the characters are all primarily beta.

>rekt

>reading a book for plot and characters

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

TOP KEK MY FRIEND

THE MANY KEKS BE GRACED UPON YOU GOOD SIR

I TIP ME KEK TO THEE

HE HE

>just regurgitating all the tropes

Not disagreeing with you, but that's kind of the point, he even admitted to it.

He attempted to use as much heroic tropes as he could in the beginning to only subvert them later on as he reveals that the characters who have been following the whole time are the villains and the worst people you will encounter. The whole heroic journey across the plains in the second book was useless in the end. The whole son of the king was bullshit made up by the friendly old Wizard who wasn't really friendly in the end and was probably the worst man who could ever meet. Jezal was just a son of some random whore and there were dozens of others out there that Bayaz was going to use if he couldn't manipulate Jezal. The Barbarian was a unreliable narrator the whole time and actually ended up being the piece of shit that everyone thought he was and the villains win in the end.

Sure it still falls into tropes, but I liked it for what it was and Glotka was something of a unique character.

New Sun has an exceedingly well crafted plot and a lot of great characters.
It takes a person who likes Abercrombie to miss it.
Severian is a person with a strong conflict in his personality, having a sense of duty and being a bodily person without a strong will who fails others and himself constantly, but finds meaning in one of the most profound religious arcs in all of literature.
It's layered with symbols which have their own narrative about both the nature of narratives, power of symbols and their connection to ourselves and the world. It has a grasp on aristotelian-thomistic metaphysics few works do and it's incredibly subtle, took me a reread and 700 pages of Aquinas to realize it.
It's also bizzare while not being vulgar or disgusting, the imaginative work put into it is stunning, to put it on top of all the symbols.
It's cohesive and the plot, symbols and characters are intertwined, work around each other throughout the novel. The language is some of the best if not the best in all science fiction and fantasy.
It's an incredible novel, comparing it to Abercrombie, the author who for the life of him cannot write a sentence that creates an atmosphere or isn't forcing edge, while being pointlessly long is absurd.

You thought it sucked ass; fair enough. Which book(s) would you recommend?

For example?

>He reads for the plot

I made a living as a freelance editor in trade publishing for 12 years. I appreciate a clear, strong narrative voice and good characterization. But feel free to make assumptions about my "experience." Or you could continue being a smarmy little snob -- whatever works for you.

Shutting man down. Nice.

It's retards like you who got that garbage published in the first place, you should be ashamed.

Why so negative? If they did their job, they did their job.

Because I loathe Abercrombie?

And they should be ashamed because they don't loathe him?

This series is fucking GARBAGE. Go read game of thrones or something faggot.

Yes

Welp, you're whipping ducks.

Reddit awaits you friend

My copy of The Heroes does.

>plotfags
I bet you skipped the first hour of The Deer Hunter too

>listing black company next to literature
you fag

Nah, Last Argument of Kings blows all the other books out of the water.