Grimdark Fantasy discussion

I can't wait to read things like that to my daughter! She's just starting to read a little by herself. With my help she's slowly making her way through Green Eggs and Ham.

I am currently reading The Vagrant, the writing is a little hard to used too but the plot is great. I'm also reading Sand Omnibus which I can only describe as "okay". It's just too similar to Wool Omnibus.

I'm a big fan of comic books, but am feeling very jaded toward the DC and Marvel the last few years. They seem to want to reboot every other year just to create more first issues to help sales. Image, Dark Horse, Boom!, Dynamite and other "independent" comic publishers tend to have the better stories and also treat their creators better too. Brian K. Vaughn, Robert Kirkman, Mark Millar and Garth Ennis are some of my favorite authors.

In regards to Mindy Kaling - I love her. A couple years ago, I watched an episode of Mindy with my wife and said, "I have no idea why, but I absolutely loved that." She's hilarious and beautiful. I am also deeply impressed that she has burst through the glass ceiling and is a woman who produces, writes and stars in her own show.

Vagrant is a wonderful read, highly recommended to all in this group.

Brittany wrote: "She even says to the reader "If you're reading this you're probably a woman. Or perhaps you're a gay man getting a present for your even gayer friend. Maybe you accidentally bought this thinking it was the Malala book. However this book made its way from the "Female Humor/Brave Minority Voices/Stress-free Summer Reads!" section of your bookstore to your hands, it doesn't matter." -----> See, she is funny. "

OMG! She sounds hilarious!!


As for me, Grimdark is one genre that I like, but there are others.

Dystopian - Probably my favorite book of all-time is Anthem by Ayn Rand. Loved 1984 (another dystopian classic). A Brave New World was good, but not in the league of the first two, IMO. A few months ago I read "We" which apparently is the precursor and inspiration of all of those above. It was fun too, but Anthem is still my favorite. I can't leave out "A Handmaid's Tale" that I also read this year. One of the best dystopians I've ever read. I need to read more Margret Atwood. I'll also give a honorable mention to the Hunger Games trilogy.

Anthem
1984
Brave New World
We
The Handmaid's Tale
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset


Secondly, I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi, but particularly time-travel. Ever since I discovered Dr. Who as a teenager on PBS in the mid 80s, I've been a huge Dr. Who and time-travel sci-fi fan.

Some of my favorites are The Accidental Time Machine which is a fast and easy read. I read The Time Traveler's Wife earlier this year and understand why it was such a big hit, though from what I've read about the movie, I won't watch it. Kindred by Octavia Butler (an amazing author) was a very unqiue story about a black woman who traveled back in time to interact with a mean slave owner who was her ancestor. I just read Stephen King's 11/22/63 and I finally found a King book that I liked (even loved). Of course we can't neglect the grandfather of time-travel stories, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells; it really was a beautiful book.


The Accidental Time Machine
The Time Traveler's Wife
Kindred
11/22/63
The Time Machine



Another special mention. I'm sure, like most of you, I found my love for fantasy in "High Fantasy" which was just regular "Fantasy" until the last few years.

I cut my teeth on The Sword of Shannara trilogy (which I'm rereading right now as I haven't read that since high school). But sometime in the early 2000s, Terry Brooks (author of Shannara books), started a new series (or so I thought). It was an urban fantasy called "The Word & the Void". It was brilliant. I loved it. I didn't know at the time it was actually a lead in to the next series which while also kind of post-apocalyptic urban fantasy and the whole thing was a lead in the "birth" of the Shannara world/universe. But those series were beautiful.

The Word and the Void
Genesis of Shannara (apparently no omnibus edition)
Armageddon's Children
The Elves of Cintra
The Gypsy Morph

I loved Kaling's book too, but Felicia Day's book You're Never Weird on the Internet was even better for my taste. Nerds unite!

I am wrapping up the final books in the Cinder series (YA fantasy)Winter, and Attwood's new dystopia MaddAddam.

Brave New World is pretty much one of my favorite books of all time. :) If you like philosophy, you should check out Albert Camus. I especially liked Resistance, Rebellion and Death: Essays.

I am re-reading Elric of Melnibone. I was in a Blind Guardian concert yesterday and you can say I was a little bit swayed. I think I will start Silmarillion afterwards :-)

I'm back reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. And finishing a book on housekeeping which I don't recall the title haha

After this I still have two scifi books to read/finish (Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin - abandoned for a month since I was bored - and Prince of Mercenaries by Jerry Pournelle.

And I have two nonfiction books to read too... Dead Wake and In the Heart of the Sea. Looks like it's going to be a hectic reading schedule until the end of the year. And I love it.

Mindy Kaling and Felicia Day's books are in my wishlist. Look like fun reads.

Chris, you might want to check out Anubis Gates for time traveling scifi.

Melina - Elric is something I tried when I was very young and didn't like. Going back to it as an adult, I could see why I found it hard to read, but can really appreciate it now. Elric could very well be considered grimdark in my opinion, but most put him in the sub-genre of Sword and Sorcery. I can't disagree with that label either.

Blind Guardian is a group I'd never heard of, but I like their influences based on the wiki article. I can't understand speed metal so I doubt I'll check them out. I'm more of a Waylon Jennings kind of guy.

Silvana - I loved Anubis Gates. What a great story.

Some (fairly) recent reads:

Sci-Fi

Andy Weir - The Martian

Fantasy

Jim Butcher - The Aeronaut's Windlass

Historical Fiction

Bernard Cornwell - The Empty Throne

Horror

Stephen King - The Shining
Stephen King - It

Non-Fiction

Eric Schlosser - Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
Elizabeth Kolbert - The Sixth Extinction
Charles C. Mann - 1491
Charles C. Mann - 1493
Alastair Bonnett - Unruly Places
DK Publishing - The Sherlock Holmes Book
Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Brittany wrote: "How was The Empty Throne? I am big Steven Pressfield fan and if you like grimdark and history I definitely recommend him!!! Particularly..."

I loved Gates of Fire! I haven't read The Afghan Campaign yet--I'll have to add it. The Empty Throne is a good book in a great series (they recently renamed the series to "The Last Kingdom" to match the new TV series).

Brittany wrote: "I'm glad you're man enough to admit The Hunger Games is a decent read."

Oh Brittany... I'm man enough to admit I read the entire Hunger Games trilogy. I'm not man enough to call it decent though. I loved the first book. Was "meh" on book two and calling Katniss an idiot throughout book three.

Levi - I totally agree on The Martian and The Aeronaut's Windlass. I read a big stack of Cornwell's Sharpes books in years past. I'll have to try out the Saxon books.

Melina wrote: "I am re-reading Elric of Melnibone. I was in a Blind Guardian concert yesterday and you can say I was a little bit swayed. I think I will start Silmarillion afterwards :-)"

I've always liked the Elric books. I just recommended it in one of my other groups.

Right now I am re~reading Sword-Breaker by Jennifer Roberson.

Also I'm preparing to do a re~read of The Dark is Rising bySusan Cooper.
A book I've loved since a pre~teen; I read along with a group of worldwide fans last year and we are doing a repeat this year.

Britanny, the title is The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Marie Kondo). I read it in my cellphone hence the long time taken to finish it. Very enlightening read so far.

Levi, as a Bernard Cornwell fan, have you watched the series adaption, The Last Kingdom?

Chompa wrote: "Oh Brittany... I'm man enough to admit I read the entire Hunger Games trilogy. I'm not man enough to call it decent though. I loved the first book. Was "meh" on book two and calling Katniss an idiot throughout book three. "

I'd go as far as to say it was one of the best YA books/series I've read in a long, long time. I enjoyed it quite a bit overall. Compared to the "Divergent" trilogy that I read earlier this year, Hunger Games was practically Shakespeare.

Having two teenage sons I get more than enough teen drama, so I'm not a big fan of YA books generally. I'm trying to get into the Abercrombie YA "Half a King" right now and I'll admit I'm finding it slow.

Chompa wrote: "Having two teenage sons I get more than enough teen drama, so I'm not a big fan of YA books generally. I'm trying to get into the Abercrombie YA "Half a King" right now and I'll admit I'm finding i..."

The one thing I dislike about YA books (well... many things really, but the one I disliked in the particular series) is the the complete pre-occupation about who loves whom and all the conflicted feelings and woe is me. I admit it's a big part of growing up and how teenagers think (probably) and Abercrombie makes it less painful than most, but still... I don't like feelings in my grimdark and I am too happy to have outgrown that phase to read about it over and over again for 700 pages. And really, not every single character needs to be paired up with another.

Oops! Did I get carried away with my ranting again? :-)

Oh Brittany... I'm man enough to admit I read the entire Hunger Games trilogy. I'm not man enough to call it decent though. I loved the first book. Was "meh" on book two and calling Katniss an idiot throughout book three

Chompa, I might need to stop writing reviews, if you keep writing my thoughts..

Chompa wrote: "Having two teenage sons I get more than enough teen drama, so I'm not a big fan of YA books generally. I'm trying to get into the Abercrombie YA "Half a King" right now and I'll admit I'm finding i..."

I get it.

I find YA to be very inconsistent. Some are very good, IMO (Harry Potter, Hunger Games), but some are downright horrible (Divergent, The Maze Runner-from what I've heard).

I really haven't read a lot of YA, but some that I have read I really enjoyed. Funny you find it slow going....that's one of the things I like about YA is that its prose typically makes it a very fast read, though sometimes that backfires because the prose is so simple that it's painful to read (Divergent).

Melina, I'm glad I'm not the only one who found it to be a downward spiral of whiny idiocy.

Chris - The writing is fine. I just haven't had a lot of urge to go back to it. Especially since I have been playing Fallout 4.

Chompa wrote: "Having two teenage sons I get more than enough teen drama, so I'm not a big fan of YA books generally. I'm trying to get into the Abercrombie YA "Half a King" right now and I'll admit I'm finding i..."

Stick at it Chompa, books 2 and 3 more than make up for book 1. And would recommend read 2 and 3 straight after each other.

Silvana wrote: "Levi, as a Bernard Cornwell fan, have you watched the series adaption, The Last Kingdom? "

I haven't watched it yet, but it's on my list to check out!

For those of you that sorta like YA and like sci-fi/dystopia, I highly recommendRed Rising series. It's a very mature YA series and really excellent. The last book comes out soon.

With al the StarWars hype going on, I'm finishing The Thrawn trilogy. Pretty nice if you like SW :-) Further more I can recommend Neil Gaiman - American Gods.

Pisang, Admiral Thrawn is one of my favorite characters from the Star Wars expanded universe. Very cool.

Brittany - they will also compete with your time on the games. But it is also a happy thing to discuss those geek things with them.

Nice Chompa. Which books do you recommend after this trilogy?

Pisang, I was very hit and miss on the Star Wars books and frankly the Zahn books largely stand out as about the best. That said - I did read all of the New Jedi Order series and the Legacy of the Force series. These were hit and miss quality wise, but it kept my interest.

There is also a follow up pair of books by Zahn that relates to Thrawn. I've not read those.

Pisang - I just remembered "I, Jedi" by Michael Stackpole, which was a favorite. It follows Corran Horn, an Expanded Universe character created by Stackpole in his Rogue Squadron series.

Pisang wrote: " Further more I can recommend Neil Gaiman - American Gods."

I'll second that recommendation. I read that book this year and it was quite though-provoking.

Pisang wrote: "Nice Chompa. Which books do you recommend after this trilogy?"

The rogue squadron series is worth reading.

Thanks, Brittany!

Thanks all! I've heard the book about Kenobi is also worth reading.

A Darker Shade of Magic keeps popping out in discussions I feel I would end reading it one day. Let's see if it's ever in kindle daily deal again...

Currently reading Hyperion. 20% in and felt a bit exhausted with the travelogue and description of terrains and trees and stuff. But it's a book-club read so I kinda feel I need to finish it, especially I'm the one who suggested the title. Let's hope it's worth it.

Brittany, I always enjoyed Gemmell's books. They have a tinge of Grimdark in them, but are mainly just bad-ass action.

Brittany and Silvana - A Darker Shade of Magic keeps popping up on my radar also. I love urban fantasy books and 2016 seems to be all about finding a new series of them to read.

Silvana - Hyperion was really solid. It is yet another series I need to finish. I see where you find it a bit sluggish, but once you are into the various stories from the travelers it gets good. The soldier and the priest both are standouts for me.

Just about to finish up rereading the original "Sword of Shannara" series. I'm about 2/3 of the way through 3rd book (Wishsong of Shannara) right now.

Then I'll read an epilogue/novella to Wishsong of Shannara that was put out many years later, that I've never read.

Then, it's on to Amber.

The Great Book of Amber

Gemmell is much more fantasy based than reality. I've not read Pressfield, but I assume his books don't have much magic and such in them.

I've mentioned before I'm a big fan of Urban Fantasy. I just noticed that Kevin Hearne has a new Iron Druid book out. This series is closest (for me) to the Dresden Files books. I got my sister reading the series a while back and her and all of her kids and husband are big fans now. Staked

Chompa wrote: "I've mentioned before I'm a big fan of Urban Fantasy. I just noticed that Kevin Hearne has a new Iron Druid book out. This series is closest (for me) to the Dresden Files books. I got my sister rea..."
Me too, and that's one of the reasons I love the Shannara series so much. After Terry Brooks wrote much of the Shannara series, he started what I thought was a new and unrelated series that was Urban Fantasy.

It turned out to be tied to the Shannara series after all and was immensely fun to read.

Brittany wrote: "While I am patiently waiting for my Magician:Apprentice to arrive I am continuing the Troy series by David Gemmell and starting the next book after A Darker Shade of Magic."
How do you like Gemmell? I've been wanting to read him.

Brittany wrote: "While I am patiently waiting for my Magician:Apprentice to arrive I am continuing the Troy series by David Gemmell and starting the next book after A Darker Shade of Magic."

How do you like the Gathering of Shadows? I really liked the first book, but I never really got around to reading the second. That, and I am waiting for the kindle price to drop a little bit :-)

Some more (fairly) recent reads:

Sci-Fi

Liu Cixin - The Three-Body Problem
James SA Corey - The Vital Abyss
James SA Corey - Drive

Fantasy

Victor Milan - The Dinosaur Lords

Historical Fiction

Bernard Cornwell - Warriors of the Storm

Horror

Stephen King - Bag of Bones

Levi wrote: "Some more (fairly) recent reads:


Sci-Fi


Liu Cixin - The Three-Body Problem
James SA Corey - The Vital Abyss
James SA Corey - Drive


Fanta..."

I'd never heard of that "Dinosaur Lords" before, but it looks interesting. Added it to my to-read list.

I'm currently reading A Darker Shade of Magic too. The worldbuilding is interesting (paralel Londons depending on the magical trait), It felt too simple for me at first, with two main characters who I know will hook up someday (hopefully not though) which gave it kind of YA-ish vibe, but the writing and pacing are good enough it made me continue.

Levi wrote: "Some more (fairly) recent reads:


Sci-Fi


Liu Cixin - The Three-Body Problem
James SA Corey - The Vital Abyss
James SA Corey - Drive


Fanta..."

Would love to know your take on Dinosaur Lords. GRRM blurbed it (I think), but I am still not sure especially after looking at the reviews.

oh and James SA Corey rocks. His Expanse series is so addictive. I really liked Drive.

Silvana wrote: "Would love to know your take on Dinosaur Lords. GRRM blurbed it (I think), but I am still not sure especially after looking at the reviews."

Forget the GRRM blurb--it's not the next Game of Thrones. The concept and the series have promise, but this first installment really doesn't go anywhere. As with Daniel Polansky's Those Above, I'm considering it the opening chapters in an ongoing series. If you're on the fence, you may want to wait until the second volume-- The Dinosaur Knights--comes out in July.

Finished A Darker Shade of Magic. It was good. Very straightforward, even. Would love a more complex storyline but I think the second book will be longer so we'll see.
Should make a popular TV series, as it is being developed into one.

Levi wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Would love to know your take on Dinosaur Lords. GRRM blurbed it (I think), but I am still not sure especially after looking at the reviews."

Forget the GRRM blurb--it's not the nex..."

Duly noted, Ser!

Here is my review of 3rd book in the Gap series, this book was simple amazing!

I've not been on these boards enough lately, but I have been reading. I spent a long while reading the Blood Sounder Arc trilogy by Jeff Salyards Scourge of the Betrayer is the first book.

I was slightly fantasied out after that series and picked up The Ranger which is more a modern mystery/thriller/hardboiled type of novel. If you enjoyed the TV series Justified, this might be up your alley. It has a very similar setting to Harlen County.

Brittany, The Bloodsounder Arc was very much Grimdark, but fairly unique in my opinion. I'd say it kind of reminded me of The First Law books by Abercrombie in some respects with a group comprised like The Black Company by Cook.

Currently I'm reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, and Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Weis and Hickman.

A friend of mine recently listened to Dragons of Autumn Twilight and found it didn't hold up to his teenage memory. How are you liking it, Steven?