What Are You Reading When You Aren't Reading Me? (Recommend a Book)

[merlinscribe]

In another thread, Terry had a great idea: recs for books that readers who are enjoying the World of Obsidian might also like. I'm looking forward to your ideas and suggestions for reading material, and I may be back with some of my own ideas later on.

Post your ideas below.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I particularly enjoy reading Brandon Sanderson's books with the Stormlight books and the Alcatraz books being my favorites. I also loved Warbreaker and Elantris by him. Another author I very much enjoy is Michelle Sagara/Michelle Sagara West/Michelle West (she has books under all three names). I especially enjoy the Chronicles of Elantra series and the Sunsword/House War series. If you like books with more romance in them, I recommend C.L. Wilson and the Weather Mages of Mystral or Tairen Soul series.

My preference for books is excellent characterization, complicated and far reaching plots, and a world that feels like it has history and depth. Obviously the Obsidian Mountain Universe books fit in there as well :)

I also loved the Wheel of Time series, especially the last few books. Robert Jordan was a master at creating a world and setting up a complicated plot but Brandon Sanderson really made the characters come alive in the last few books (though he might have overdone Mat a little bit).

I hope others post what they enjoy reading - I'd love a few new books to read while waiting for what Vieliessar does next!

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! You've mentioned two authors new to me and I'm going to check them out.

Sanderson's writing ability is astounding - compelling characters and plots.

I agree wholeheartedly with your reading preferences, and it's been my experience that those concepts are most easily found in fantasy fiction. Another thing I appreciate about fantasy fiction is that each world has its own paradigms, which often cause me to think outside the box in terms of my own world, and I'm repeatedly amazed at how often the fantasy writers present some pretty compelling and profound truths in terms how people interact and ways for living a better life (often just a sentence here and there), so it seems that fantasy writers tend to display depths of understanding that are not as clearly evident in modern fiction. An example of what I mean is the time Kellen felt he needed to explore the cave, but was struggling with the honorable thing to do, where he realized that the only way to maintain his honor was to act according to the Wild Magic, even though that went against what others might deem honorable. In the movie 'Rob Roy', the main character tells his young sons that honor is the only thing no one else can take from you and losing it is something you do to yourself. I understood that at the time (though I'd never heard it expressed so well), but James Mallory's writing of the Kellen incident opened my eyes to how one needs to examine honor in order to keep one's honor.

Hope you find books you enjoy from my recommendations (comment below)!

Terry

[(Anonymous)]

Karen Myers - The Chained Adept series - The Chained Adept, Mistress of Animals, Broken Devices, On a Crooked Track

Ken Nichols - The Psalms of Isaac series - Lamentation, Canticle, Antiphon, Requiem, Hymn

Peter V. Brett - The Warded Man series - The Warded Man, The Desert Spear, The Daylight War, The Skull Throne, The Core

Ben Peek - Series of three books: The Godless, Leviathan's Blood, The Eternal Kingdom

Philippa Ballantine - The Order of Deacons series - Geist, Specter, Wraith, Harbinger
Philippa Ballantine - Shifted World series - Hunter and Fox, Kindred and Wings

C. J. Cherryh - Rider at the Gait, Cloud's Rider (20 years old and probably only available as used books)

Elizabeth Moon - The World of Paksenarrion - Surrender None, Liar's Oath, Deeds of Paksenarrion (three book omnibus), Oath of Fealty, Kings of the North, Echoes of Betrayal, Kings of the North, Crown of Renewal

Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Darkover Series - 30 books, some are 30 years old and many are currently available in paperback omnibus editions

Bradley P. Beaulieu - The Shattered Sands - He plans six in this series with four currently available, and so far he has published one book each year (each over 500 pages). Currently available: Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, With Blood Upon the Sand, A Veil of Spears, Beneath the Twisted Trees.

Happy Reading!
Terry

[(Anonymous)]

I read Terry Brooks at least every couple of years. His Shannara series is incredibly expansive- talk about characterization and world-building! The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara is my favorite trilogy of the series. Also, his Landover books are very good.

I am fond of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive- his characters are some of the most expansive and complex in modern fantasy.

I always love Tolkein- The Silmarillion is still my favorite book.

Karen Hancock's Legend of the Guardian-King is a good quartet, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Brandon Mull's Beyonders trilogy, and Jill Williamson's Blood of Kings trilogy are also awesome reads.
As for science fiction, I love Karen Hancock's Arena.

[sanders1800]

Here are some of my favorite books.

Brandon Mulls- Fablehaven series ( Has an ongoing sequel in Dragonwatch, but I personally have not read it yet)

Christopher Paolini- Inheritance Cycle

Daniel Arenson- Moth Saga and Requiem series

Jane Lindskold- Firekeeper’s Saga

Kristen Britain- Green Rider series

Mercedes Lackey- Dragon Jouster series, Free Barb series, Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdom and Valdemar

Tedd Dekker- The Circle Series and The Lost Book Series

Todd Lockwood- Evertide (only the first book is published as of yet, The Summer Dragon. Note: Todd Lockwood is the cover artist for all the books the Obsidian World, as far as I know.)

These are a few authors/books I will list that may be more youth/teenagers readers. But I still enjoy them.

Erin Hunter- Warriors and Survivor series

Kathryn Lasky- Wolves of the Beyond series

Mary Hoffman- Stravaganza series

Patricia A. Mckillip- Alphabet of Thorns

If you can give me the lee way of classifying Stravaganza as fantasy (still not sure what it is), but that and Alphabet of Thorns were my first fantasy books I have ever read. Around 7 grade, at a time in my life when I read nothing but John Saul horror books (if you want horror, you have to read him) and Mary Higgins Clark mystery novels (I always ruined that by reading the end first. Apparently I wanted the mystery without the mystery. I did do the same thing with John Saul, but he did not have happy ending. So reading the ending first only confused me). Alphabet of Thorn and City of Stars (2nd book in the Stravaganza series, yes I started on the second book) have a special place in my heart.

Reading Michael sullivan

[(Anonymous)]

Age of myth, age of war and the riryia books
-shanon

Reading Michael sullivan

[(Anonymous)]

Age of myth, age of war and the riryia books
-shanon

[(Anonymous)]

Trudi Canavan's Black Magician Trilogy, the sequel trilogy Traitor Spy, and the prequel novel The Magicians Apprentice.

Just a little background. Books from this universe/series were what I read immediately after reading all of the Obsidian Universe books available at the time. I actually read Crown Of Vengeance first (only about a year after release) after finding it in my local library and reading it blind based solely off the dust jacket. My horror when I realized the other books in the trilogy weren't out, after which I went back and read all the other Obsidian books in order. In a similar manner I picked up the Magicians Apprentice (the prequel novel) in a BAM! book sale based off the jacket description and loved it, only then realizing it was part of a much larger world and reading all the books in the proper order (Black Magician Trilogy -> Traitor Spy Trilogy -> Magicians Apprentice). It really filled the itch I had had after immediately finishing off all of the Obsidian Mountain books, especially since it also had a very interesting magical system with dualing philosophies and a class based/xenophobic/sexist society. There were actually a ton of really interesting parallels between the Obsidian Universe and the Black Magician Universe.

[(Anonymous)]

Additionally anything written by Piers Anthony, especially his Incarnations of Immortality series of books.

Late to the party

[(Anonymous)]

I have been trying to not obsess over checking for updates about the status of Dragon Prophecy book Three so I'm catching up on entries from the last couple of months.

My wife and I have been reading a few series by Edward W Robertson:
The Cycle of Arawn (complete trilogy)
The Cycle of Galand (ongoing)
And The Cycle of the Scour (ongoing)

I love the world-building, the magic system, and the non-traditional protagonists. The main protagonist can be hard to love at first, but the complexity of his character and the way he has grown is what I've found the most compelling part of the series.

[(Anonymous)]

My taste in books is all over the board. And I have seen so many in other comments that I love and grew up with, it is hard not to repeat them! But as that wouldn't really be helpful, I'll list a few different ones that I find myself constantly rereading besides the ones we are all here because of.

The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Mass - the 1st one was a little "why am I reading this?" But the rest of them completely make up for it.

Absolutely anything by Patricia Briggs. I have never read anything of hers I didn't love.

Any of the Sparhawk books from David Eddings. They were my gateway to fantasy books.

The Otherworld universe from Kelley Armstrong. She has wonderful stories for both young adults as well as grown ups.

And last but not least any of the Drizzt books from R A Salvatore.

Happy reading everyone!! <3 <3
Kioshi