Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Tell that to my CD collection XD
Sets (LTR) The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth
- Thread starter Velrun
- Start date
Are you referring to the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation? I have fond memories of taping it from the radio as a child, and was pleased to find that it still held up when I downloaded it to play in the car on road trips with my family.
yeah i am 95% sure this is the one, i dont have it handy to check but it is done in the style of a radio drama rather than being a straight up reading of the books
How many of these devices are on trains?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Funnily enough, planes are a big reason floppy's are still used. Here's an interesting article if you want some background.
Not a lot; trains that have computers tend to use more modern hardware. I don't think I've ever heard of floppy disks on a locomotive before.
Stuff that still uses floppies are like old pieces of lab equipment and nuclear weapons.
OK, so... now I know to never take book suggestions from you.
(I got to book... 10? I think? The one where he decided to stop the plot to catch us up with literally every side character he ever introduced? And that was during my teenage years when I would read literally anything, no matter how terrible. It's not the worst series I've ever read by a long shot, but I definitely wouldn't suggest them to someone as a "good" series.)
Some books are slow, that’s true. Still, it is great fantasy. I agree that it would be better with less side characters. It reads much better than the lord of the rings. The wheel of time is sometimes slow, the lord of the rings mostly all the time. If you know a better mage fantasy than the wheel of time I am all game. It is also sad you stopped at 10, books 12 to 14 are great, and written by another writer.OK, so... now I know to never take book suggestions from you.
(I got to book... 10? I think? The one where he decided to stop the plot to catch us up with literally every side character he ever introduced? And that was during my teenage years when I would read literally anything, no matter how terrible. It's not the worst series I've ever read by a long shot, but I definitely wouldn't suggest them to someone as a "good" series.)
Maybe foundation by Asimov is more up your alley?
Or the Dune story?
Or a book by Terry pratchet? (Comedy fantasy)
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Man I missed the boat on Prachet. Not that it's ever too late to experience a work, but all my friends read him voraciously in high school, and I opted for RA Salvatore instead for some reason, and from everything I've seen and heard I can't say enough good things.
But I just don't read like I used to.
But I just don't read like I used to.
I starting reading Pratchett a few years ago, and I'm almost 27 and read a lot. They're probably one of my favorite book series. I would not classify them as high school level, even though you can read them at that level. There's a lot of dry humor and self-awareness that I feel I may have missed as a high-schooler.
They're incredibly character and dialogue focused, there's little description about the trees, world, or whatever.
Here's a description of the river in the city Ankh-morpork.
“And so Mort came at last to the river Ankh, greatest of rivers. Even before it entered the city, it was slow and heavy with the silt of the plains, and by the time it got to The Shades even an agnostic could have walked across it. It was hard to drown in the Ankh, but easy to suffocate.”
And then I would not doubt that he never describes the river again (except in other books of course). He already gave us a very good mental picture. I would heavily recommend reading the book series, because the narrator is on-point... all of the time. Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic are hard reads though, you could just watch the movies for those, that was how I started, and those two books are... definitely his worst, thankfully they just get better from there. I'd recommend the witch sisters or night watch series first using this chart. So yeah, read them, buy them, pirate them I don't care, watch the janky animated series, just read them.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Oh trust me, I know, it's just whenever I sit down to do some reading I blink and suddenly it's 3am and I'm 40 chapters deep in some comic book/manga I've never heard of
Any love for Steven Erikson and the Malazan series?
Easily my favourite fantasy series (so far) with epic characters and amazing world history. I really like that good and bad depends on your perspective and the interaction between gods and humans isn’t one directional.
it does take a while to build up to the book’s climax though and not everything is well explained.
Easily my favourite fantasy series (so far) with epic characters and amazing world history. I really like that good and bad depends on your perspective and the interaction between gods and humans isn’t one directional.
it does take a while to build up to the book’s climax though and not everything is well explained.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
It's not that it's slow, it's that Jordan's character work is garbage. Wheel of Time is only really worth reading for the (pretty decent) world-building, in my opinion (and Mat. It really should've just been a series about Mat trying desperately to run away from his destiny, with all of the big climactic stuff happening in the background).
I've read Asimov/Herbert (I do need to finish the Dune Encyclopedia at some point...)/Pratchett (GNU), and liked them all. I just find Wheel of Time to be an interesting choice when pointing at good modern fantasy. Not that fantasy is really my genre (I'm more of a science fiction/magical realism/non-fiction person when it comes to books, honestly), but it's kinda notorious for its bad pacing, meandering plot, and Jordan's... difficulties... with distinguishing female characters from each-other.
It is by no means the worst series I've ever read (I've read some downright abysmal books), but I definitely wouldn't put it on the same level as Asimov or Pratchett.
They're kinda a sometimes food. Erikson's a little too in love with the Malazan Empire, and he tends to wallow a bit too much in the grimdark side of things for my tastes (though his moments of people not being shit tend to be amazing)... but Memories of Ice had antifascist neanderthal mummies fighting velociraptor skeletons as an integral part of its plot, so I can't hate them.
...
If anyone wants a book suggestion, though, Susannah Clark's Piranesi is pretty dang good, as is Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana.
Well, to be honest I never have read a serious mage fantasy book/series where the characters are from all parts/layers/LGBTQIA’s and has a proper mage world feel. The characters of lord of the rings are much more shallow than the wheel of time. The books hat have better characters are either young adult or do really lack in the world/mage building.
Besides, the moiraine character (with lan) and other character building is better than I have read in many books. Yes, Jordan is lacking in skills with character building. But there is an attempt of character building, which is lacking in most fantasy books.
Wtf does that mean?
Chris Taylor
Contributor
I think Rusje is saying that representation is a common problem for fantasy series, and that that there's fantasy series that do get it right, but don't work as fantasy series (I do think it is a bad argument to draw a connection between those two facts)
Close, I meant that I never have read a fantasy that has good representation/character building and world building. It could exist but I have yet to discover it.
Maybe it is due to the problem that the storyline is often between good and evil and that is it.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Just have lower standards
Really though, I just want to use this opportunity to recommend a bunch of fantasy and fantasy-adjacent stuff that entertained me. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Dune book, which is science fiction of sorts, but also with a lot of fantasy mixed in. Character development sure is a thing, and from what I read of part 2, he's not holding back in further character development! Robin Hobb's Fitz and the Fool/Liveship Traders series, as I said, is great, as are James Stoddard's The High House trilogy, Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, as well as his Otherland series, Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles, Brian Jacques' Redwall titles (this is a huge series, and not all are equally captivating, but I love them), Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr Y, Jan Terlouw's Koning van Katoren (which is an incredible (and probably my favorite) Dutch youth fantasy novel, I think it was translated as How To Become King, but it's probably hard to find), Weiss & Hickman's Death Gate cycle, Maria Dahvana Headley's youth novel two-parter Magonia and Aerie, and Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World (which is more steampunk than fantasy, granted).
Really though, I just want to use this opportunity to recommend a bunch of fantasy and fantasy-adjacent stuff that entertained me. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Dune book, which is science fiction of sorts, but also with a lot of fantasy mixed in. Character development sure is a thing, and from what I read of part 2, he's not holding back in further character development! Robin Hobb's Fitz and the Fool/Liveship Traders series, as I said, is great, as are James Stoddard's The High House trilogy, Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, as well as his Otherland series, Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles, Brian Jacques' Redwall titles (this is a huge series, and not all are equally captivating, but I love them), Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr Y, Jan Terlouw's Koning van Katoren (which is an incredible (and probably my favorite) Dutch youth fantasy novel, I think it was translated as How To Become King, but it's probably hard to find), Weiss & Hickman's Death Gate cycle, Maria Dahvana Headley's youth novel two-parter Magonia and Aerie, and Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World (which is more steampunk than fantasy, granted).
Last edited:
Book thread book thread book thread
Fantasy is hard to recommend because a lot of it is genuinely crap, much more so than SF. That said, I'll throw the following ones into the ring:
Redwall by Brian Jacques (echoing Bootman, it's nothing groundbreaking but it is heartwarming, kind of like Game of Thrones but appropriate for kids. The story behind how the stories came to be is also one of my favorite [Jacques was a milkman who would deliver to a school for the blind and would make up stories for the students. This continued for many years, until someone said, hey, you should publish these. And then he published like thirty of them.])
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (some SF but mostly fantasy?)
Uprooted and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (not a series, but thematically connected in that they're reimagined fairy tales)
Light of Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (I bold this one because it is an excellent example of LGBTQIA+ characters in a fantasy book, but again it's a fantasy/SF blend. It's mostly a story about a cursed violin teacher, though, so I think of it mostly as fantasy.)
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (okay, this is just SF, but it's real good space opera that talks about the experience of being bilingual and an immigrant. Book of the Year for me when it came out.)
The Cockatrice Boys by Joan Aiken (probably the "worst" book out of the list, but it's fun even as a novelty)
Kraken and Un Lun Don by China Miéville (New Weird gothic creepy books. I didn't like Perdido Street Station as much as I probably should have.)
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (it's not one of his better ones technically, but I love it. Something about small children getting lost in London really appeals to me, I guess!)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin (classic fantasy! A little vague around the edges but very good!)
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (you think you know Howl from the Ghibli movie? Think again! It's got organized labor, Howl's backstory, more poetry, and actual character development for Michael! The ending does fall off the rails a little, but it's a great case study in how a book and a movie can do two very different things and still both be genuinely fantastic.)
Fantasy is hard to recommend because a lot of it is genuinely crap, much more so than SF. That said, I'll throw the following ones into the ring:
Redwall by Brian Jacques (echoing Bootman, it's nothing groundbreaking but it is heartwarming, kind of like Game of Thrones but appropriate for kids. The story behind how the stories came to be is also one of my favorite [Jacques was a milkman who would deliver to a school for the blind and would make up stories for the students. This continued for many years, until someone said, hey, you should publish these. And then he published like thirty of them.])
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (some SF but mostly fantasy?)
Uprooted and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (not a series, but thematically connected in that they're reimagined fairy tales)
Light of Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (I bold this one because it is an excellent example of LGBTQIA+ characters in a fantasy book, but again it's a fantasy/SF blend. It's mostly a story about a cursed violin teacher, though, so I think of it mostly as fantasy.)
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (okay, this is just SF, but it's real good space opera that talks about the experience of being bilingual and an immigrant. Book of the Year for me when it came out.)
The Cockatrice Boys by Joan Aiken (probably the "worst" book out of the list, but it's fun even as a novelty)
Kraken and Un Lun Don by China Miéville (New Weird gothic creepy books. I didn't like Perdido Street Station as much as I probably should have.)
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (it's not one of his better ones technically, but I love it. Something about small children getting lost in London really appeals to me, I guess!)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin (classic fantasy! A little vague around the edges but very good!)
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (you think you know Howl from the Ghibli movie? Think again! It's got organized labor, Howl's backstory, more poetry, and actual character development for Michael! The ending does fall off the rails a little, but it's a great case study in how a book and a movie can do two very different things and still both be genuinely fantastic.)
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Oh man it's not just a one off quote, it's a proper law with a wikipedia page, not just a TVTropes page
Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap (context: not just scifi)
I would be surprised if somehow -inherrent to the grenre- the percentages of "good" scifi and "good" fantasy were actually different. That would imply something on the level of genre specific journalistic integrity, and even then that only moves the needle if you're considering published works. You don't need shit for oversight to make SF fanfiction, for eg.
Apart from the already mentioned Terry Pratchett (who is awesome) I really enjoyed the Age of the Five Trilogy by Trudi Canavan. Its rather slow moving (1k pages per book) but I liked the world building and characters so much that I read it twice. The story gets better with time which makes the reading experience very rewarding.
I can really get behind the mentioned: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, Discworld by Terry Pratchett, The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks was one of my favorite as a kid.
But if I had to recommend something new: The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
The Sword of Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks was one of my favorite as a kid.
But if I had to recommend something new: The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
landofMordor
Administrator
book thread!
+1 for Uprooted/Spinning Silver, Redwall, China Miéville, Ursula K LeGuin, and Sanderson's Stormlight Archive.
For fantasy, I wish to further recommend:
- Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Grace of Kings (and the Dandelion Dynasty) by Ken Liu
- The Inheritance Trilogy and The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Bold = "if you like it, you won't settle for anything less"
I give a lot of credit to fantasy books which aren't derivative of the "almost-all male, plausibly all-white, explicitly anglophile and euro-centric" aspects of Tolkien. (Not that I'm tryna cancel Tolkien, I'm just saying we should raise our standards for later works.) These books all excel on that axis.
But personally, I don't really make genre distinctions past "non/realistic fiction", so other non-realistic fiction I'd like to recommend: Cixin Liu (3-Body Problem), Ted Chiang, Chen Quifan, Red Rising by Pierce Brown (communist revolution in space), Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (the "The Martian" guy), Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (perfect for the Pratchett and Gaiman fans), George Saunders' short stories.
+1 for Uprooted/Spinning Silver, Redwall, China Miéville, Ursula K LeGuin, and Sanderson's Stormlight Archive.
For fantasy, I wish to further recommend:
- Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
- Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
- The Grace of Kings (and the Dandelion Dynasty) by Ken Liu
- The Inheritance Trilogy and The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Bold = "if you like it, you won't settle for anything less"
I give a lot of credit to fantasy books which aren't derivative of the "almost-all male, plausibly all-white, explicitly anglophile and euro-centric" aspects of Tolkien. (Not that I'm tryna cancel Tolkien, I'm just saying we should raise our standards for later works.) These books all excel on that axis.
But personally, I don't really make genre distinctions past "non/realistic fiction", so other non-realistic fiction I'd like to recommend: Cixin Liu (3-Body Problem), Ted Chiang, Chen Quifan, Red Rising by Pierce Brown (communist revolution in space), Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (the "The Martian" guy), Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (perfect for the Pratchett and Gaiman fans), George Saunders' short stories.