Disappointed in other books

[Islington]

Trying to read anything by Robert Jordan is just painful to me. I read the first Wheel of Time book and it took everything out of me to finish it. People say that Sanderson and him are in the same vein, but I just don't see it. 

 

I do like Rothfuss better than Sanderson, but that's only really because I enjoy his fae and poetic writing style. A lot of people think it's overblown and pretentious though, so it's just really a matter of taste. 

 

Brent Weeks is good, but his middle-series books are always terrible cliffhangers and super stressful. 

Edited April 10, 2014 by Islington

[cris34b he/him]

Trying to read anything by Robert Jordan is just painful to me. I read the first Wheel of Time book and it took everything out of me to finish it. People say that Sanderson and him are in the same vein, but I just don't see it. 

The first book is incredibly slow, I admit, but after that, they pick up quickly and are much better. If it weren't for the necessary info the first book gave you, I'd recommend skipping it. 

[Asha'man Logain]

The first book is incredibly slow, I admit, but after that, they pick up quickly and are much better. If it weren't for the necessary info the first book gave you, I'd recommend skipping it. 

I almost put down The Eye of the World due to the incomprehensible prologue. I cannot say how glad I am I kept at it. For those who coudn't keep going, the books keep getting better 1-6 and at 11-14 get better than the one before again!

[Wolven he/him]

could just be a matter of taste i suppose. being more unique does not necessarily mean better to me. Roshar is definitely the most cosmetically unique fantasy setting ive read, and it is indeed great.  But Jordan also didnt just plop in elves and dwarves and dragons, there are none.

 

sandersons worlds are more...fantastical. but as far as depth of world history, knowledge, different cultures all with their own uinque histories and quirks, Jordan by far takes the cake for me.

 

i prefer the totally fleshed out world of the wheel of time, with the long breadth of history and *weight* to it. Sanderson could very well get there by the time we are done however. even in Jordan's first couple books of the series, the world building was fantastic and had established just more than sanderson has so far with Roshar.

I have a feeling we're going to see something really fantastic with Roshar. It's clear that we're in for a lot of surprises yet, given that we pretty much know that their religion is based off a whopper of a lie.

Your right that Jordan did not just plop in a bunch of common fantasy elements, but it was still a typical medieval style world. Very rich in history yes, but at the same time, it was still didn't leap out at you as being truly unique. At least not me.

A matter of taste as you said.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Wolven

[Meamzed]

This thread has FINALLY gotten me some authors to read …. Looking forward the the Malazan (might have spelt that wrong) series, or the Jim Butcher books… I have seen dresden book in some shops, but never looked at them..

 

 

On Sanderson.. when I first started reading him, I didn't reaaaaally like him as much as some others… too black and white, not enough tray material… Things tended to be either right, or wrong, in some of his early series…

I'm sick of reading that sort of thing, which is why I thoroughly enjoyed Joe ambercrombie… I loved all of his books from the start of the first law…  inherently brutal, with a very UNHAPPY ending… but I LOVED that… I was so sick of the "bad guy loses, good guy gets girl, lives happily ever… bleurgh" The ending of the first law series left me a bit… shell-shocked, but I loved it all the same. I do wish Joe would do a bit more world building, as I love book with DEEP backstories, with real history behind the book history.

 

That being said, of course, I love Sanderson now… I'm just doing a through re-read of the words of radiance, and I find myself really loving it… the Shallan's backstory, Kaladins fury, the Eshonai story… much better than any of his other works… It had some flaws, but I love it all the same… WOK is perhaps the only one I find which stands up to it… though I did love the start of the second mist born series… it was terribly cliche, but a real laugh. Warbreaker; I've only listened to the graphic audio version, which ended on a real (bleeping) cliffhanger… I hope he follows up, was real annoying reading WOR and wondering where certain characters vanished to. (don't remember how to do spoiler tags, I'm new here… I hope none of this needs it)

 

Brent weeks…. I liked his Night angel series, though it got a bit soppy in places… first book was the hardest in some ways, but I still loved all the books… I much prefer his light bringer series, and I look forward to the 3rd book… Though his characters are annoyingly non communicative, which can be really irritating!

 

Robert Jordan… Haven't read him in ages… I liked the series, and I've read it a few times, but all with my old speed-read tactic.. which I'm trying to break out of… I doubt I could stomach the amount of useless filler in a lot of the books, I have better ways to waste time… if they only showed Mat's POV, I'de love it.

 

Eragon books: Don't know why I bother mentioning them... I loved the first one when i was about 11-12… read second, read the other two a few years later.. it really went downhill… I did love them when I was young though!

 

George. Bah…. I'm in a bit of love/hate with Martin atm… I like all his books, but he's a bit toooooo trigger happy for me to really want to get involved. Good books none the less!

 

Patrick Rothfuss:YEAAAAAAAAAAAA… I was given the name of the wind for my 15th or 16th bday… and didn't touch it… picked it up about a year ago on a friends advice, and i was TRAPPED. Best books I think i have ever read… listened to them on audiobook twice so far, and would more than happily do it again… Love the subtle history in it, the style of writing… a dozen other things… I do wish he's give us the 3rd book soon… Probably the only books which I would rate as good Sanderson… While the second wasn't quite as good as the first, I still really enjoyed it. Like harry potter books, only much much much better.

 

I read sword of truth books about 2 years ago, got given all but one of them (which i haven't been able to find in any bookstore, library or anything..) I slogged through the first 9 or so… but … mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Don't know why I bothered really.

 

Shannara I vaguely remember.. Nothing particularly memorable however

 

Jonathan Stroud… while he might not belong here; the Bartimeous(bad spelling… can't be bothered to correct it) books I love. Bart is one of my favourite witty characters… Interesting alternate history, and fun magic. Nothing amazingly deep, but some interesting society changes… Good books, I would highly recommend if you want some light reading. Lots of Laughs to be had in the sarcastic footnotes.

 

nothing else really comes to mind… I'll post more if I remember more!

 

 

[ProfessorMLyon he/him]

Pardon the thread necromancy, but for some reason I just now found this thread. Have to admit that I am surprised that no one has mentioned Robin Hobb and the books in her world of the Elderlings. FitzChivalry Farseer is by far one of my most favorite narrators. The stories are magical, humorous, and exciting. And ships that are alive...awesome!

 

Stay away from the Soldier Son trilogy, though. That was bad.

[harry31j97 he/him]

This is a fantastic thread. Here I came to know that Malazan gets better 2nd book onwards. I had previously read Gardens of the moon 2 yrs back. Got back onto the series after reading this thread, i'm now reading 3rd book & can't keep it down. Trust me, it's a really wonderfull series.

[harry31j97 he/him]

Same could be said for WoT, series gathers steam in 2nd book. Until the end of LoC series is absolutely wonderful, somehow loses speed in books 7-10. Books 11-14 are a lot better, as has been said before by many.

[Erai Sedai he/him]

I've only read the first book in the Bartimaeus sequence, but I'm actually looking forward to the rest now!

Someone needs to please make a thread and do a poll or list of a whole bunch of book series and everyone can vote or order them so i know what to read next! there's so many options!

[blad3mast3r he/him]

ah..... ruinment by comparison.

[maxal she/her]

This is interesting. In the past years, I have enjoyed the followings:

 

- Robin Hobb, all of her work expect the Soldier's Son which I found depressing. I was pregnant with my son at the time and somehow this specific book brought me down for good :ph34r: Stupid hormones :ph34r:

 

- GRRM, hard to not read and enjoy GRRM. The first three books were amazing, the last two, slightly less. It is sad he is taking so long to finish the series. However, the TV show is keeping my interest high What happened on Game of Thrones over the week-end is now a popular coffee machine conversation at work.

 

Rothfuss, the first book was amazing. I was craving for more. The second book was good, but not as good. Now, however, it is taking him mightily long to wrap it up.

 

Blood Song from Anthony Ryan, I dunno if you heard of this one. It was self-published for a while. It is good, really good. I believe most people who enjoyed SA would enjoy that one.

 

I can't think of more worth mentioning.

 

And of course, pretty much anything Brandon wrote , although SA is, by far, my favorite.

[OnlyDreaming]

I have read many, many books. Almost all of them were science fiction, fantasy, or action. Sometimes I followed authors. Usually I followed series. I honestly can't remember any author I've followed. I have read the start of the Wheel of Time, and countless others. (every time I try to list books I've read, they disappear on me). None of them compare to Brandon Sanderson's books. Except Warbreaker, which I like, but not nearly as much as Mistborn or the Stormlight Archives. Which comes out next fall, apparently. Although, to be honest, my reading has been a bit limited to those which are available on the elibrairy, and... they make some odd choices. I mean, who gets the 3rd and 7th books in a series, but not the rest? Any suggestions for books like Sanderson's? I need to distract myself from lack of Stormlight books. Also, I may just be biased right now as they are the most recent books I've read. I need to try more books!

[Lord_of_Awesome]

For me, Brandon is a great author, but I can still read other series and they won't feel inferior to Brandon's books. The writing styles are slightly different but that doesn't make them worse. The thing that works best for me is the ideas in the writing, and this is where my favorite authors (like Brandon) excel.

 

Another favorite of mine is Bernard Cornwall. Though he doesn't write fantasy (he writes historical fiction) he is one of my favorites. The Last Kingdom series has in my opinion a great setting, a great idea, great characters and a style of writing that suits all three.

 

Christopher Paolini, whom I'm sure has been mentioned many times, does his thing really well. I know his storyline seems cliche but he puts a bloody brilliant spin on everything. His characters have a unique depth to them and things that seem simple are a lot more than they seem.

 

Here are my thoughts. Don't shoot me please.

 

EDIT: Oh damnation. I just realized that I necromanced this post. My apologies to the thread underworld.

Edited December 14, 2016 by Lord_of_Awesome

[Krandacth]

@Lord_of_Awesome Actually, you replied to a Necro As it's here, I'll throw in that I still find Stephen Donaldson a gripping read post-Sanderson, though his most famous series (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) can drag at times. Mordant's Need is my favourite fantasy by him, which makes use of a really unique, wonderfully constrained-but-powerful magic system (even by Sanderson's standards).  The Gap series is a space opera, which is again pretty unique and really clever in both the tech and the conflict.

He is a master at tearing down his characters though, so be warned.

[Iarwainiel I she/her]

BTW - There's a similar topic/thread under the "Entertainment" forum, and IIRC it has posts newer than 2014.

= = = =

I wanted to add a comment re: Stephen Lawhead, who someone mentioned above.

I have come to the conclusion that he's good at worldbuilding, mythology, and characters, as far as setting up his story, but he is just terrible at bringing his series to a satisfying conclusion.

Examples: Taliesin and Merlin were fantastic, but Arthur - not so much, and the tag-on books after that were pretty bad. Likewise, The Paradise War and The Silver Hand were delighful, but The Endless Knot was a disappointment. (I'll skip the awful Celtic Crusades series - all of it was bad.)

Most recently, His Skin Map series showed such promise - I was so excited that he was finally writing something worthwhile again! - and then ... and then, The Fatal Tree.

Would someone write some fanfic to replace that book, please?

It was just awful: Main characters.simply.died - no explanation - and what should have been the climax scene was so blurry that IMO it was just a mess. I think he was trying to replicate the end of C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, but ... FAIL.

I really feel bad for him; I understand that he's a very good person - a friend of a friend knew him in college. But if I were a publisher, I would really hesitate to give him another contract. He's been active for over 25 years; if he were going to improve, seems like he'd have done so by now.

= = = =

On a happier note, to avoid disappointment, I highly recommend the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy by D.M. Cornish. It's a tween series (viz, early-Harry-Potter), but the worldbuilding, characters, and art are just amazing.

If sci-fi series are an option for you, I have never been disappointed in anything in Scalzi's Old Man's War universe, likewise for Mark Van Name's Jon and Lobo series (first book One Jump Ahead).

So nice to discover authors (like Brandon) who don't disappoint - we Sanderfans are (happily!) spoiled.

[Vissy]

To be honest, I enjoy Brandon's brand of popcorn fiction. In terms of objective writing skill, he's not up there with the greats quite yet, but he's constantly improving and the Stormlight books have probably been some of my most enjoyable and engaging reads ever, with some real quality prose that only makes me more hyped for the future.

As for other authors Brandon didn't ruin for me (literally everyone else), Susanne Clarke is a personal favourite. Her "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" series is stellar and the writing is just endearing. Unlike so many great and well-written series, that book has charm.

Joe Abercrombie's getting a lot of rust here for some reason. I don't see why; his books are jaw-droppingly good. His characters really live and grow through their words and actions, it's a very organic and close-to-earth experience. The over-the-top realism is an aspect of his style which I greatly enjoy as well. I would recommend the "Shattered Sea Trilogy" for anyone interested, since that's superior to First Law, with maybe the First Law novels (not the trilogy) on top.

Brent Weeks has disappointed me many times, even though he's a decent writer. The Night Angel trilogy begins well but has such a disappointing final book: rushed, nonsensical plot points, characters breaking character. He's also got this annoying habit of having presumably dead or lost characters showing up out of nowhere to save the day. Lightbringer is a genuinely good series, but the plot has plodded on for about three books now with no end in sight. Even now, after the fourth book, I don't see how he can tie up the loose ends with just one book without rushing it like hell - and he's already one book over the original trilogy plan. The only redeeming qualities have been Gavin's parts in each book.

Edited December 15, 2016 by Rob Lucci

[Hoborg]

I cannot agree more, and I am having a hard time finding something similar.

Today only, I have bought 3 epic fantasy books, read at least 100 pages of each by far and I just can't feel the joy of reading any of them. I don't wanna name the books, that is irrelevant, but BS books literally made every other fantasy books so lame for me. 

I am waiting for the 4th Stormlight Archive that comes in November, but then what? I wish we had 5 Brandon Sanderson or more.

Edited April 7, 2020 by Hoborg

[Honorless he/him]

Sanderson has ruined other fantasy books for a lot of us 

[I Am A Fish he/him]

25 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

Sanderson has ruined other fantasy books for a lot of us 

Agreed, 

I still am able to enjoy different authors work (even if it's not the same level), but BS has ruined a lot of books for me (not that I'm complaining). BS is like an emerald broam in a sea of diamond chips. There are other really good authors but none who I feel are on his level

[Frustration he/him]

On 3/30/2014 at 5:46 PM, RadiantNights said:

OK so I've read a lot of books in my time (every book b. Sanderson has put out) and I find myself being extremely disappointed in non-sanderson books

Like I read joe Abercrombies the first law series and was so mad at the ending of that series.

Seriously like in 10 years when the first half of this series is out I believe people will be thinking "George r r who? Tolken who?"

I still have my favorites like 'ready player one' and the eragon series but i feel like other authors can't match his writing skill and story telling ability.

Does anyone else feel this way? Like Sanderson is completely taking over the high fantasy genre?

I'm going to have to disagree, while Brandon has certainly raised my standards I don't think Tolkien(you missed the i) will ever be forgotten. I also am still capable of reading other books though I do struggle with their lengths at times. Brandon Mull released "Master of the Phantom Isle" that I read after OB and really enjoyed. I don't think Brandon will eclipse all(though I could be pleasantly surprised) I recommend reading someone with a style utterly different from Sanderson for a new feel if you want, like the previously mentioned Brandon Mull.

[NameIess]

1 hour ago, Booknerd said:

I'm going to have to disagree, while Brandon has certainly raised my standards I don't think Tolkien(you missed the i) will ever be forgotten. I also am still capable of reading other books though I do struggle with their lengths at times. Brandon Mull released "Master of the Phantom Isle" that I read after OB and really enjoyed. I don't think Brandon will eclipse all(though I could be pleasantly surprised) I recommend reading someone with a style utterly different from Sanderson for a new feel if you want, like the previously mentioned Brandon Mull

FYI, the person you quoted hasn't been on the shard since 2016.

[Frustration he/him]

1 hour ago, Nameless said:

FYI, the person you quoted hasn't been on the shard since 2016.

Do you just look at these things?

[NameIess]

20 minutes ago, Booknerd said:

Do you just look at these things?

I've got an unhealthy obsession.

I saw that the original post was from 2014, and then looked to see if they had remained active.