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Books you would recommend... and those you wouldn't


Seinka-DN

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I have read so many books and stories I don't remember them all - until someone mentions them. Plus not everyting I've read is available in English. So, here's my recommended list. Feel free to add yours. :) 

author: Jim Butcher
I'd recommend pretty much everything from him. All his stories are fun to read, very catchy and interesting from start to finish.
 - series Codex Alera (6 books, finished) - high fantasy, fictional world. I especially liked the elaboration of the Furies.
 - series Dresden Files (15 books, another book in progress) - contemporary fantasy, mostly in Chicago. 
 - series Cinder Spires (so far 1 book, more is planned after DF) - steampunk fantasy, fictional world, nobles, cats and skyship battles!

author: Brandon Sanderson
He wrote a lot of things, so this short list is just what I was able to read so far:
 - series Mistborn - I instantly fell in love with this story
 -- original trilogy - high fantasy, instead of classic magic they have allomancy - powers based on metals. The world is sad and covered in ash. It starts big - an attempt to overthrow an evil emperor. And gets even bigger!
 -- Wax and Wayne (3 books, 4th in progress/planned) - 200-300 years after the original series. The world has progressed, so it's mix of steampunk and western. I liked it a bit more than the original.
 - series The Reckoners (3 books) - post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Some people got superpowers. Lot of other people died. World is in chaos.

author: Kevin Hearne
 - series The Iron Druid Chronicles (8 books now?) - contemporary fantasy. The last druid on the earth lives sort-of-normal life. Except he lives for 2000 years. During those years he made enemies. And just now they have found him.

author: Sergei Lukyanenko
I haven't read the Watches. I've seen the movie, it was horrible. And I really don't like vampires. Nope.
The other books from him are very difficult to describe. No matter the genre, the main focus is on the characters and their psychology.
 - series A Lord from Planet Earth (3 books) - space opera.
 - Knights of Forty Islands - light sci-fi environment. Very intense book.
 - Wrong time for dragons - fantasy. 
 - series Genome (2 books for now) - space opera.
 - series Seekers of the Sky (2 books) - steampunk.

Magic the Gathering
 - series Ravnica (3 books) - ten guilds on city-world Ravnica battle for power. You don't need any previous knowledge (except the fact that there are five colours of mana and each gives different powers) about MtG to read this, it was brand new world with brand new characters. Obviously very high fantasy.
 - series Lorwyn (3 books + #2.5 collection of short stories) - strange world, where there's always a day. For now. And elves are the biggest assholes. Again, no previous knowledge required.
 - series Kamigawa (3 books) - standalone series inspired by japanese myths and stuff
 - series Time Spiral (3 books) - this one is the most epic of all the series! But you'll need previous knowledge, at least of who is who, to not become lost.

author: J.P. Beaubien
 - Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (start of series, but so far 1 book) - sci-fi. Do you want to fight time-travelling nazis? No? Well, they're coming, so be ready. Lighthearted and silly and I really enjoyed reading it.

author: Terry Pratchett
 - series Discworld - silly fantasy. Read if you want to laugh. Lots of books, though, but once you start, you won't stop. 

author: Robin Hobb
 - series Liveship Traders (3 books) - high fantasy. Sentient ships. Dark pasts.

author: Chris Evans
 - series Iron Elves (3 books?) - high fantasy. Quite unique and very interesting setting and plot. 

 

And for those one or two people here, who are going to understand the language below....

autor: Jan Kotouč
 - Nad českými zeměmi slunce nezapadá - České království je světová velmoc a zlé, zlé Ruské impérium je chce zničit. Je to velmi dobře napsané a můžu jen doporučit.

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I have two that I definitely recommend;

1. Magician,by Raymond E. Feist
It's a classic, and I consider it to be de rigeur to anyone who is interested in fantasy


2. Tales of the Otori, by Lian Hearn
Set in a fantasy feudal Japan; it follows the life of an orphan prodigy from his coming of age, his young love coming to fruition and changing tides of war and politics. It has both prequels and sequels for you to indulge in if you really enjoy it

Whenever I feel like getting back into heavy reading as a hobby, I often reread one of these to help me get back into the swing of things. Magician for one, I have read about 13 times in 8 years.

 

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I'm gonna be a weeaboo/nerd here and recommend comics and manga to this thread that I enjoy. Hope that's okay. owo;;;

1. Monstress by Majorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Set in a steampunk horror fantasy, the story follows a girl named Maika who's on a journey to not only escape the clutches of forces wanting to control a monster that hides beneath her skin, but also to find out about her past, namely her mother.

As an illustrator, I love the comic style of this. So much detail and love went into this, and each page is almost like its own masterpiece. The story is breathtaking, as well as scary at times. Definitely a fast favorite of mine.

2. Blue Exorcist (Ao No Exorcist) by Kazue Kato
This manga series follows a teenager named Rin Okumura, who finds out that both he and his twin brother are actually the sons of Satan himself. After their dear old dad kills their priest guardian, both Rin and Yukio enroll in an academy to become exorcists, Rin mostly joining to kick his dad's ass with the powers he inherited from him.

I recommend the manga to Blue Exorcist over the anime simply because the anime slides away from the original story at one point. The story is interesting, the characters are fun and enjoyable, and it's overall a really good fantasy action manga that I can honestly recommend as even a start to reading manga as a whole.

3. Hellboy by Mike Mignola
Summoned to Earth from Hell by (I'm not kidding) a Nazi occult, Hellboy is a demon boy discovered by Allied Forces that grows up to help combat against said Nazis, and works for an international organization to fight against them and other dark magic forces.

It's dark, the art style is dark and beautiful, and the storytelling has a really good balance of both humor and horror. I got into this series thanks to one of my college friends, and I can't thank him enough for getting me into this.

Those are some of my favorites. I have plenty more, but those are definitely recommended reads.

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  • 3 months later...

Brandon Sanderson -

Mistborn is pretty good, Warbreaker too. Stormlight Archives are excellent, they’re massive books with great world building. 

Patrick Rotfuss -

The Kingkiller Chronicles (the name of the wind) are my favorite books, I can’t recommend them enough. 

Lev Grossman -

The magicians. It’s urban/portal fantasy, kind of a dark depressing Narnia/harry potter for adults. The TV show is good too and more fun if you find the books too dark.

Terry Goodkind -

The Sword of truth. It falls off in the last books, but the first 10 or so are excellent.

Christopher Paolini - 

Eragon It’s a light read, it was the first fantasy I’ve read when I was like 14, I still think they’re good though! 

Anthony Ryan - 

Draconis Memoria. They’re fantasy with dragons, guns and secret agents. Pretty good and unique. 

Georges Martin -

A song of ice and fire (game of thrones). Probably don’t need anyone to mention this but still, they’re not my favorite but they’re good.

Also just started the Malazan Book of the Fallen, so far so good but haven’t read enough of it to give an opinion.

Also Fae Fever, it’s urban fantasy but written by girls for girls in my opinion. (Careful lot of sex in there)

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  • 2 months later...

Whoever hasn't read (or listened in an audio book like I did) 1984 from George Orwell is still sleeping. And that book doesn't even cover all there is in real life. Imagine this. It was written half a century ago and it simply shows why our first world is being destroyed at the moment by "others".

It is a political dystopian book, that literally explains the present day politics, fake news, corrupted politicians etc. It also has a dystopian love story.

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