You should be. But even if you’re not, this cover of the show’s theme song is sweet (via):
I haven’t read anything fictional lately. Any good new fantasy stuff I should be reading before the new GRR Martin book comes out on July 12th?
Erik Kain
Erik writes about video games at Forbes and politics at Mother Jones. He's the contributor of The League though he hasn't written much here lately. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter.
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Daniel Abraham’s new book, The Dragon’s Path, is pretty awesome. It’s has a great streak of economics running through it — medieval, Medici-style banking plays a big part in the series. It starts out as your traditional fantasy, but it quickly veers into odd directions. I recommend it.Report
I hadn’t heard of Abraham before now (or I had and have forgotten) but I will definitely check him out, especially given the double-recommendation.Report
I got a kick out of Daniel Abraham’s “The Long Price Quartet”.
I also liked David Drake’s “Servant Of The Dragon”, which is the best of a nine-book series which represents an interesting attempt to repeat the same story nine times. …well, okay, that’s not really the idea, but the basic structure of each book is almost completely the same, and “Dragon” is the best-written of the lot and well worth a read.
Walter Jon Williams’s “Metropolitan”, for all its technological trappings, is basically a fantasy novel. It’s actually an early example of what we now call “urban fantasy”.Report
…aaaaand there you have it, two recs in a row for Abraham 😀Report
I hadn’t read Abraham before, so once I finished The Dragon’s Path, but I enjoyed it so much I went and bought the first of the “Long Price Quartet.” I’m enjoying that quite a bit as well. And, as a bonus, if you buy The Dragon’s Path on Kindle, you get a copy of Abraham’s pseudonymous space opera that’s about to come out, Leviathan Wakes.Report
Metropolitan is great and City on Fire even better. If I were immensely wealthy, one of the first things I’d do would be commission WJW to write the third volume.Report
Tell me about it. Unfortunately, he seems to be very much driven by his muse, and she’s apparently done giving him ideas about Aiah and Constantine.Report
There are prosaic concerns too.
The editor of the first two books was fired, and his whole line cancelled. (This had nothing to do with me, I hope) Writing the third book will involve getting the first two back from the publisher and then packaging them with the third. This will take a while, and in the meantime I need to eat, so I’ve sold other books elsewhere. But really. I’ll get back to Aiah and Constantine as soon as I can.
Which is why sufficient wealth would resolve the issue. I wonder if the Koch brothers like urban fantasy?Report
I’m watching Game of Thrones. Not bad, good really considering that having read the books I know what is coming.Report
That’s my take. Knowing what’s coming, I still really enjoy it and it does seem to be getting better.Report
Jim Butcher: Storm Front.
I’m thinking about having a reading group dedicated to Jim Butcher on the other site, actually…Report
Anything that jim butcher does is just awesome!!! so read the codex alera as well (starting with furies of calderon)
When is ghost story coming out???Report
It was supposed to be April.
I know.
It is now scheduled for July. This is from the website:
To be released in hardcover from Roc publishing, July 26, 2011.
Have you read Side Jobs? If nothing else, you should pick it up for the last short story that takes place a day or so after the events of the last chapter of Book 12. Harry doesn’t show up, it centers on Karrin Murphy and the werewolves.
So. Yeah. It won’t really help with the withdrawal.
BUT IT’S SOMETHINGReport
Haven’t read Butcher, but I will!Report
I am. There’s dozens of bits I’ve felt were rushed or would otherwise nitpick, and I’m impressed with their ability to take the already-cheesy early Dothraki chapters and make them even worse.
But that said, I’m enjoying it quite a lot, and confident it will continue to improve. The third episode was the best yet, and the first where it really started to feel like its own thing.Report
I’ve haven’t read the books, but agree that episode 3 is where GoT really starts to stand out on its own – and moreover, really stand out head and shoulders above The Borgias, which has had thus far a lot of thematic similarities with GoT.Report
It occurs to me that as a fantasist the only thing Martin has in common with Tolkien is his middle initials.Report
And Sam.Report
Samwise Gamgee who’ll “end up by being a warrior, or a wizard!” and Samwell Tarly, who figured out how to kill Others and will study to be a maester. Well spotted.Report
I do think it was intentional, however.Report
I’m not sure. I do think the Oberyn Martell’s obsessively repeating “You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children.” while dueling Gregor Clegane was a reference to “Hello. My name is Inigio Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”.Report
It may not count as fantasy since it is a forward thinking mythology rather that one based on past myths, but this winter I really enjoyed Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl. Similar to some that have already been noted on this thread, economic theory plays a dominant role in this one as well.Report
Seconding The Windup Girl it’s really very good. Also I am very excited as the new China Mieville’s coming out next week-I xan’t wait. I will try to find a link to the review I read earlier…Report
Oooo! I was not aware that Mieville had anything on deck. His last two – Kracken, and especially The City The City – were pretty fabulous, I thought.Report
Ok, sadly cannot find that particular review online(yet, will update if it’s available later). I think The City and The City was undoubtably one of the best books of the last few years, and completely transcended it’s nominal genre. Kraken I wasn’t so taken with, it’s ok, but not a patch on his earlier work.Report
and of course, its nominal genre, FFS.Report
What is FFS?Report
For Fuck’s Sake, RTod FFS.Report
Super- I read this, like, three times thinking “Back off, dude, I’m just asking” before the penny dropped. Thanks.Report
You’ve read The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear, right?Report
Nope. I have the former, but I haven’t cracked it open yet. Since the baby was born I have done very little reading-for-pleasure outside of reading for blogging. Trying to change gears now.Report
I just finished Name of the Wind this week. It was a really enjoyable story, and I’m looking forward to reading the other two books once the second one is published. I had some annoyances with it, but I won’t say them, so as not to bias you. All in all, totally worth reading, and well written enough to read with a young child around (though Alice kept saying “All done!” and closing my book when I was nearing the end and unable to put it down).Report
Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy is simply incredible, though all his book are worth reading. He was able to make The Wheel of Time good again, so that should give you some idea of his talent.
Also I’d recommend Australian author Jennifer Fallon. Her Second Sons trilogy is brilliant and really breaks free of the standard tropes of the genre.Report
I hear Sanderson is good. He’s on my list. That said, I will never read the Wheel of Time books so I’ll never see his efforts there. I just can’t get into that series to save my life.Report
Yeah, fair enough I wouldn’t recommend it.Report
I just finished the first Mistborn and really enjoyed it. Will start the next one soon. I REALLY enjoyed Elantris. The rare standalone story in Fantasy.Report
This is a related thought but I wanted to know if anyone had any opinion on the parallels of Robb’s uprising to the Civil War? I believe I’ve seen the comparison once or twice and it seems to me a bad one.
The better parallel is that one to the Revolutionary War since Robb and the northerners are simply seeking independence from a monarchy and don’t have any kind of interest in freeing slaves or ending the repression of a racial group.Report
Well, recall this is all a play on the War of the Roses actually.Report
Ah yes good point and I did know that. Still, do you think there are any similarities to wars other than WotR? GRRM is an American author after all.Report
It’s possible, but I really don’t see it with either the Civil or Revolutionary wars.Report
Fair enough.Report
Of course there is a new Thursday Next book out.
Jasper Fforde kinda rocks, but then you probably already guessed I thought that.
I would also highly recommend the first Shades of Gray, The Road to High Saffron. It takes a while to get into it, but a wonderful distopian novel of the future that features a society run by the Chromogencia.Report
E.D.
Have you considered doing a A Song of Ice and Fire book club?Report
That’s a good idea, actually. I’ve been meaning to re-read them.Report
E.D.
Let me email you offline about this.Report
I’m intrigued by the possibility of offline e-mail.Report
Not only do I second that, but when you started over at BJ you promised to do some posts on Iain Banks, and it would be nice to see them…just sayin’….Report
Any of Robin Hobb’s trilogies is worth it. It amazes me how little she gets mentioned in this type of thread. The assassin trilogy, with it’s continuing the story in the tawny man trilogy might be the best fantasy I have ever read.
I second ‘Name of the Wind’. Great book. The second in the series is out ‘Wise Man’s Fear’. Another great book.Report