New Fantasy

nesf

Preferably military rather than five adventurers on a quest type but I'm fairly easy. Any series started in the last five years would be good. Or anything older that's obscure.

Taltos

I know it's corny and you'll read a book in a sitting but for some reason the Harry Dresden series keeps me coming back. It could be the simple way they're written or just the fun of the character but I enjoy them. Added to that you'll chew them up, ideal for a transatlantic flight...

edit: Just spotted your other thread, I haven't read those so no idea, but if you watched the TV series you may enjoy there.
Otherwise you could try the Brandon Sanderson Mistborn series
I'll be honest, I don't like what he did to the Wheel of Time, but I enjoyed these 3 books. (I think it was 3)

nesf

I was looking at the Dresden series for years but right now Butcher is ranking down there with bad airport fiction/Trudy Canavan for me. I read the first Mistborn book and thought it was ok, the second one was bad enough for me not to finish it though which is very rare.

Taltos

Bad airport fiction - agreed - but it's light, not too deep and for me fun. I personally love how he always messes it up.
Give me 5 min, will run and check my library, have some oldies there that might work.

Taltos

OK - you've probably hit many if not all.
CS Friedman - Black Sun Rising / When True Night Falls / Crown of Shadows
Janny Wurts / Feist / Gemmell / Goodkind / Koontz (I kind of like the Odd books).
Tad Williams - Otherland (genuinely can't remember it)
Patrick Rothfuss - have read 2 of his latest series. 1st was really good, but his second was a major disappointment, almost felt like Sanderson stepped in to ghost it.

Ruling out loads here with your guidance above.

nesf

Feist, Gemmel, Wurts, Williams as obscure??

CrookedJack

nesf wrote: »

I was looking at the Dresden series for years but right now Butcher is ranking down there with bad airport fiction/Trudy Canavan for me. I read the first Mistborn book and thought it was ok, the second one was bad enough for me not to finish it though which is very rare.

I don't know what you've read or not read but military fantasy...

Joe abercrombie - First Law trilogy. It is all about subverting the "Chosen one, friendly wizard, gruff barbarian, etc" trope and can be brutally realistic in a great way. It is his first trilogy with several stand alones following.

Glen Cook - the black company. Pretty much defines the Hard-bitten squad of soldiers subset of the genre, excellent books and plenty of them.

Steven Erikson - the Malazan book of the fallen Huge sprawlingly epic series spanning millenia but focusing on a few hard bitten legions of soldiers. Again plenty of reading in here.

K.J Parker - The fencer trilogy. Start with this trilogy, though it's her (possibly his/their) first and least books. You'll either love or hate them, very precise and detailed, almost not fantasy at all, but well written.

Mark Lawrence - The Broken Empire trilogy. Hugely entertaining debut offering where the main character is as evil as you can get. In a good way.

Ive plenty more suggestion if you've read those ones, let me know.

Also, the Mistborn books are Brandon Sanderson, not Jim Butcher. Maybe you were thinking of the Codex Alera books, which are Butchers fantasy novels - they are reasonably light popcorn fare, but certainly readable.

Taltos

nesf wrote: »

Feist, Gemmel, Wurts, Williams as obscure??

I thought age may have lent them that kind of air...
Friedman was enjoyable though, picked them up in the US, but I think they're available here now.

nesf

CrookedJack wrote: »

I don't know what you've read or not read but military fantasy...

Joe abercrombie - First Law trilogy. It is all about subverting the "Chosen one, friendly wizard, gruff barbarian, etc" trope and can be brutally realistic in a great way. It is his first trilogy with several stand alones following.

Glen Cook - the black company. Pretty much defines the Hard-bitten squad of soldiers subset of the genre, excellent books and plenty of them.

Steven Erikson - the Malazan book of the fallen Huge sprawlingly epic series spanning millenia but focusing on a few hard bitten legions of soldiers. Again plenty of reading in here.

K.J Parker - The fencer trilogy. Start with this trilogy, though it's her (possibly his/their) first and least books. You'll either love or hate them, very precise and detailed, almost not fantasy at all, but well written.

Mark Lawrence - The Broken Empire trilogy. Hugely entertaining debut offering where the main character is as evil as you can get. In a good way.

Ive plenty more suggestion if you've read those ones, let me know.

Thanks, I've read most of those and I'll take a look the rest.

CrookedJack wrote: »

Also, the Mistborn books are Brandon Sanderson, not Jim Butcher. Maybe you were thinking of the Codex Alera books, which are Butchers fantasy novels - they are reasonably light popcorn fare, but certainly readable.

We referring to my thread from yesterday in the part about the Codex Alera books.

Manach

Fantasy/Alt-Earth in the 1930s, I'd recommend Larry Correia Grimnoir Chronicles. Interesting characters, good world building and different take on how magic should work.

ixoy

The 'Shadows of the Apt' series, by Adrian Tchaikosfky, would definitely fit into this. It's got a good mix of magic alongside steampunk-esque technology (tanks, ornithopters, etc) and some large-scale battles spread across multiple countries.

nesf

ixoy wrote: »

The 'Shadows of the Apt' series, by Adrian Tchaikosfky, would definitely fit into this. It's got a good mix of magic alongside steampunk-esque technology (tanks, ornithopters, etc) and some large-scale battles spread across multiple countries.

Sounded the trick, (I was a huge Modesitt fan when I was a young teenager :P). I picked it up on Kindle, the first few chapters read a bit rough (I'll put it down to debut novel) but it's interesting, so thanks. I did get a bit of a shock when I saw "Shadows of the Apt Book 10" on Amazon though! Another fecking Wheel of Time. :P

Nody

nesf wrote: »

Sounded the trick, (I was a huge Modesitt fan when I was a young teenager :P). I picked it up on Kindle, the first few chapters read a bit rough (I'll put it down to debut novel) but it's interesting, so thanks. I did get a bit of a shock when I saw "Shadows of the Apt Book 10" on Amazon though! Another fecking Wheel of Time. :P

Actually it stops at book 10; and the first book is slow but picks up around 75% in, second book is also slow but picks up around 30% in :P

As to OP you could always go for the Gotrek & Felix series; it's a mix of small battles all the way up to city size sieges but in a much more bleak future (and a lot more races involved) and they are up to the fourth omnibook I think. Nothing to deep for a story but enjoyable read.

Staying in the same world you also have Malus Darkblade (two omnibooks); a Dark Elf who gets tricked by a demon and becomes it slave. And no Malus is not some wannabie wood elf as a certain other famous DE but a pure breed, 100% evil, Dark Elf willing to do anything to get what he wants no matter who gets hurt...

Leaving the Warhammer world and going into Space you have the Gaunt series (following a military company who's world have been blown up as they struggle through the galaxy).

nesf

Nody wrote: »

Actually it stops at book 10; and the first book is slow but picks up around 75% in, second book is also slow but picks up around 30% in :P

Ah, so the young padawan learns! Good, good.

looksee

Jason Tesar's series The Awakened might suit, I have read and enjoyed the first 4 books but really I am not a fan of battles and strategy and I kind of lost track of the plot. It is well written though if you can cope with lots of characters, lots of places and lots of fighting!

I did enjoy Sanderson's Mistborn, though I have tried one or two of his other books and not been so taken with them.

Nody

Forgot to add earlier; the Thomas Covenant series might be a fit as well; older and not your usual run of the mill fantasy world.

Dades

Surprised no mention of Blood Song and the recent sequel from Anthony Ryan.

New fantasy, wars and battles etc.

Sulla Felix

Powder Mage trilogy, Temeraire series, Shadow Campaigns are all decent on the lighter side. Military fantasy set in the gunpowder era rather than medieval/renaissance so makes for something a bit fresher I found.
Edit: Lighter reading, not necessarily tone.

Thargor

Sulla Felix wrote: »

Temeraire series

More people need to read this, a bit childish but if you liked British Navy stuff like Hornblower back in the day and like fantasy you'll love Temeraire, and there's 7-8 books there aswell I think, all improving as they go along.

p38

Anyone recommend new military fantasy books or a good sci-fi military series as I have never tried sci-fi books. Thanks in advance

Sulla Felix

p38 wrote: »

Anyone recommend new military fantasy books or a good sci-fi military series as I have never tried sci-fi books. Thanks in advance

Firstly and most importantly:
Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein

They're pretty much the seminal two works.

After that there's a bunch more like:

Amtrak Wars - Patrick Tilley - post-apocalyptic with a military society bent
Enders Game + the Bean Quartet - Orson Scott Card - you can skip Children of the Mind, Xenocide and Speaker for the Dead
Frontlines series (Terms of Departure, Terms of Enlistment so far) - Morko Kloos - pulpy goodness. Think Blackhawk Down in the future.

p38

Sulla Felix wrote: »

Firstly and most importantly:
Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein

They're pretty much the seminal two works.

After that there's a bunch more like:

Amtrak Wars - Patrick Tilley - post-apocalyptic with a military society bent
Enders Game + the Bean Quartet - Orson Scott Card - you can skip Children of the Mind, Xenocide and Speaker for the Dead
Frontlines series (Terms of Departure, Terms of Enlistment so far) - Morko Kloos - pulpy goodness. Think Blackhawk Down in the future.

Thanks will start checking these out. Is Starship troopers a one-off book or is it a series .

Thargor

Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton, pure epic series.

nesf

Thargor wrote: »

Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton, pure epic series.

Not Fantasy!!

Also, today I described this trilogy as one of those were you loan the first book to a friend and they come back saying "Oh, God, there are so many gaping plotholes! Can I have the next one?!" :P

Thargor

Never said it was! This is the question I was answering:

p38 wrote: »

Anyone recommend new military fantasy books or a good sci-fi military series as I have never tried sci-fi books.

nesf

Thargor wrote: »

Never said it was! This is the question I was answering:

I'm blind! :P

Though I'd dispute the good, page turners yes, but the Night's Dawn Trilogy has left almost everyone I loaned the books to, and myself, quite annoyed with Peter F. Hamilton for reasons I won't go into because of spoilers (ending, character issues in second book etc).

Sulla Felix

p38 wrote: »

Thanks will start checking these out. Is Starship troopers a one-off book or is it a series .

One off but several of his other books are good as well if you like his style.

coffee_cake

Everything by Sanderson is awesome

hidinginthebush

bluewolf wrote: »

Everything by Sanderson is awesome

His latest series (the way of kings and words of of radiance) is incredible. Way of kinds could beone of the best books I've ever read. Hope he keeps the consistency up for the remainder of the series.

coffee_cake

hidinginthebush wrote: »

His latest series (the way of kings and words of of radiance) is incredible. Way of kinds could beone of the best books I've ever read. Hope he keeps the consistency up for the remainder of the series.

Is that the one with the currency bubble things that you need to recharge?

the concepts he comes up with are unreal. there was another one that was about colours as well...

Taltos

Mmm - new 10 book series - might try it out, as above liked his Mistborn, but lost a bit of faith in his WoT wrap up. Might be too much airport popcorn for nesf though