Given your recent review of Babel, it would be remiss of me not to recommend R. F. Kuang's debut trilogy The Poppy War. A very intense historical military fantasy that takes great inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War.
I would argue Red Rising is sci-fi but still great! Absolutely obsessed with The Scholomance series by Naomi Novak which is like a darker Harry Potter and The Atlas Six (Olivie Blake) is a fun new magical series.
Also Six of Crows is superior to Shadow and Bone (spinoff from the author) but maybe that's just me. And finally...does Circe by Madeline Miller count?
I'm so glad to see The Shadow and Bone Trilogy on your list. I found my way to the Grishaverse through Netflix last year and went on to devour all nine books in the series. Such an immersive read! It would be lovely to do a book-to-tv adaptation comparison, but you should be aware that the Netflix show is a mashup of The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (books 1-3) and The Six of Crows Duology (books 4-5). The latter, in my opinion, is the best in the entire series, described as "Oceans 11 meets Game of Thrones" in the author's own words. You could totally start there as you don't need to read Shadow and Bone to enjoy Six of Crows even though the events are chronological. I hope this doesn't spoil too much for you and happy reading!
I know you mentioned wanting to read Rothfuss, but I figured I'd echo that recommendation. The Kingkiller Chronicles are ABSOLUTELY must read! I'd also strongly recommend The Magicians by Lev Grossman, the Artemis Fowl series if you are including YA, and MouseGuard and Marvel 1602 if you are including graphic novels.
The general consensus is a definite NO, but the world building is phenomenal, the whole exploration of story as a concept is cool, and it has one of my favorite magic systems of any fantasy series I’ve read. Despite being unfinished, I’d say it’s still worth the read!
2022 has been my year of SciFi/Fantasy (heavy on the Fantasy), and my favorites from the year so far have been The Faithful and the Fallen quadrilogy by John Gwynne, The Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence (this one is highly rated amond fantasy fans and the prose is quite good), and Swordheart by T. Kingfisher who is a female writer carving her own niche in fantasy (plucky non-young heroines, good rep, funny). I've found lots of inspiration for discovering what the the must-reads from a diverse pov on the r/fantasy subreddit.
LOTR is definitely on my TBR... if not before the end of the year, likely next year. I’m excited to get to book 2 of Red Rising, and to finish Jade City! I want to go through my classics list as always and read a few that have been on there a while. Discovered Trollope this year after reading his most known work, The Way We Live Now so I want to read his Palliser series next, and at least a couple of Dickens.
Given your recent review of Babel, it would be remiss of me not to recommend R. F. Kuang's debut trilogy The Poppy War. A very intense historical military fantasy that takes great inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Hey thanks Jon, I will put it on the list! I'm going to give Poppy War a shot for sure although it might be too intense for me.
I would argue Red Rising is sci-fi but still great! Absolutely obsessed with The Scholomance series by Naomi Novak which is like a darker Harry Potter and The Atlas Six (Olivie Blake) is a fun new magical series.
Also Six of Crows is superior to Shadow and Bone (spinoff from the author) but maybe that's just me. And finally...does Circe by Madeline Miller count?
I love Marcus Sakey's "Brilliance" trilogy: https://www.amazon.com/Brilliance-Trilogy-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00AESRRQS/
I see this guys name and think “The Book Thief guy?” But no, different guy.
I marked this as to read way back in ‘16 😳. This is happening in ‘23!
I'm so glad to see The Shadow and Bone Trilogy on your list. I found my way to the Grishaverse through Netflix last year and went on to devour all nine books in the series. Such an immersive read! It would be lovely to do a book-to-tv adaptation comparison, but you should be aware that the Netflix show is a mashup of The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (books 1-3) and The Six of Crows Duology (books 4-5). The latter, in my opinion, is the best in the entire series, described as "Oceans 11 meets Game of Thrones" in the author's own words. You could totally start there as you don't need to read Shadow and Bone to enjoy Six of Crows even though the events are chronological. I hope this doesn't spoil too much for you and happy reading!
I know you mentioned wanting to read Rothfuss, but I figured I'd echo that recommendation. The Kingkiller Chronicles are ABSOLUTELY must read! I'd also strongly recommend The Magicians by Lev Grossman, the Artemis Fowl series if you are including YA, and MouseGuard and Marvel 1602 if you are including graphic novels.
Do you think we'll get the third Kingkiller Chronicle soon-ish? Should that matter or should I just jump in?
Thanks for the YA & graphic novel recommendations, I do need to include those!
The general consensus is a definite NO, but the world building is phenomenal, the whole exploration of story as a concept is cool, and it has one of my favorite magic systems of any fantasy series I’ve read. Despite being unfinished, I’d say it’s still worth the read!
2022 has been my year of SciFi/Fantasy (heavy on the Fantasy), and my favorites from the year so far have been The Faithful and the Fallen quadrilogy by John Gwynne, The Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence (this one is highly rated amond fantasy fans and the prose is quite good), and Swordheart by T. Kingfisher who is a female writer carving her own niche in fantasy (plucky non-young heroines, good rep, funny). I've found lots of inspiration for discovering what the the must-reads from a diverse pov on the r/fantasy subreddit.
I hope the anthropologists in the future who mine all the digital data will recognize this for what it is: The perfect internet comment.
Thank you for these recommendations and for pointing me to reddit! I'm always overlooking reddit.
LOTR is definitely on my TBR... if not before the end of the year, likely next year. I’m excited to get to book 2 of Red Rising, and to finish Jade City! I want to go through my classics list as always and read a few that have been on there a while. Discovered Trollope this year after reading his most known work, The Way We Live Now so I want to read his Palliser series next, and at least a couple of Dickens.