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SPOILERS: Game of Thrones S8


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16 minutes ago, Busterrimes said:

I totally agree, Tolkien set the rules for Epic Fantasy. The hero who doesn’t want to be. The long journey to kill the evil sorcerer.

Tolkien wasn’t gritty enough for me personally

Yeah I can see that, I read Tolkien as a kid and had never read fantasy before so it’s never bothered me that there’s little grit.

The era Tolkien grew up in meant we were never going to see a scene where Sam and Pippin spit roast a barmaid in the Prancing Pony. ;) 

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13 hours ago, Busterrimes said:

Very disappointing end to a good TV show. I will be interested to see if George RR Martin ever finishes the books to see how it differs and how it should have ended.

I reckon he's been purposefully waiting to see how the TV series panned out then improve on it. 

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1 hour ago, Busterrimes said:

I totally agree, Tolkien set the rules for Epic Fantasy. The hero who doesn’t want to be. The long journey to kill the evil sorcerer.

Tolkien wasn’t gritty enough for me personally

Tolkien was pals with CS Lewis and the pair of them spent hours in the Eagle and child pub in Oxford drinking and discussing fantasy. Lewis came up with Narnia and Tolkien with the Hobbit.

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1 hour ago, BS2 Red said:

Yeah I can see that, I read Tolkien as a kid and had never read fantasy before so it’s never bothered me that there’s little grit.

The era Tolkien grew up in meant we were never going to see a scene where Sam and Pippin spit roast a barmaid in the Prancing Pony. ;) 

Love your take on gritty :laugh:. I started reading fantasy after I used to read war novels. The fantasy I enjoy has protagonists who will do bad things to get the job done. Despite him supposedly being a hero. Rand al Thor will do bad thimgs

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36 minutes ago, Busterrimes said:

This loony will continue to read books in the hope of finding the next great series

If you enjoyed Game of Thrones, some comparable fantasy series are:

  • Glen Cook's Black Company
  • R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing
  • Steven Erikson's Malazan Fall

The last one makes the intrigue, suffering and blood in GoT feel like a walk in the park.  It requires a whole lot of time (10 books of over 1000 pages in the main series alone) but it has a huge payoff.

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2 minutes ago, Nibor said:

If you enjoyed Game of Thrones, some comparable fantasy series are:

  • Glen Cook's Black Company
  • R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing
  • Steven Erikson's Malazan Fall

The last one makes the intrigue, suffering and blood in GoT feel like a walk in the park.  It requires a whole lot of time (10 books of over 1000 pages in the main series alone) but it has a huge payoff.

The Black Company were the first fantasy novels I ever read. I adore Glen Cook. His Garrett novels are very good. I have not heard of Bakker so thanks for that. Steven Eriksons books are on my to read pile.

some recommendations from me

Steven Brusts Vlad Taltos series

Robin Hobb - Farseer novels about an assassin called FitzChivalry

Roger Zelazny the Amber series

Terry Goodkind

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3 minutes ago, Busterrimes said:

The Black Company were the first fantasy novels I ever read. I adore Glen Cook. His Garrett novels are very good. I have not heard of Bakker so thanks for that. Steven Eriksons books are on my to read pile.

some recommendations from me

Steven Brusts Vlad Taltos series

Robin Hobb - Farseer novels about an assassin called FitzChivalry

Roger Zelazny the Amber series

Terry Goodkind

I haven't read Blust, will try him, and I can't agree on Goodkind - that's the only series I've ever had to stop reading from sheer repetition!

I loved Farseer and I think I read Zelazny a long time back so might reread.

Erikson is heavily influenced by Cook so you might want to only start those when you have plenty of free time.  Some people find the first one tough to break into but I was hooked from the beginning.

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12 hours ago, BS2 Red said:

Yeah that was pretty bad. It didn’t bother me too much though as I had heard a rumour that the last scene would be Sam finishing the book. I was grateful they didn’t do that! 

Someone parodying Lord of the Rings no doubt.

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I think it was a shame that the TV Series went beyond the books, the quality dropped markedly as that happened and the ending felt far too simplistic and easy given the complexity of the plot in the earlier parts.  I can see Daenerys going full grandpa and Cersei fighting to death.  I can't see King Bran - isn't he going to live indefinitely? - nor Jon Snow strolling off up north in such a neat little finish, nor Jaime going out with such a whimper.  Still, the best fantasy TV series that's been made yet and it held out against the machinations of Hollywood for six whole series.

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Very disappointing end - went out with a whimper rather than a bang. Boring at times too. I was expecting some big epic plot twist or unusual 'winner' for the Throne.

My biggest gripe with it all was ow they glossed over major things i.e. Jon had just killed the Queen, and her devoted army just ignore it "oh well, he's a prisoner now, we'll just let him go". Ridiculous. 

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Ah well, it was bloody good TV for many years. One good thing is it has now opened the door for more fantasy TV and set a very high standard. Will look forward to the GoT prequel and Wheel of Time adaptation next year.

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I wonder if studios will be more careful in the future. The writers had the rights not HBO, so when they got a new gig, and had gotten bored with doing the same show for years the quality suffered, the refusal to have a full final season as well which HBO offered was a bad one. If HBO owned the rights instead they could have insisted on a full season and even put in new writers. So hopefully some lessons were learned. Well, we will always have the Red wedding, and the initial fear of the WW's until they tripped over Winterfell.

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3 hours ago, BS2 Red said:

I hated Bran becoming King, but to be fair that was an unusual choice.

Strangely I heard this theory multiple times online (all the superfans seemed to know this was going to happen already), so when it was announced I can't say I was overly aghast. I was really hoping for something completely unimaginable like Gendry stepping up. 

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13 hours ago, Nibor said:

I haven't read Blust, will try him, and I can't agree on Goodkind - that's the only series I've ever had to stop reading from sheer repetition!

I loved Farseer and I think I read Zelazny a long time back so might reread.

Erikson is heavily influenced by Cook so you might want to only start those when you have plenty of free time.  Some people find the first one tough to break into but I was hooked from the beginning.

Awesome thanks, it’s not often I get to talk books. I really must read Erikson now. I tend to read on the way to work and on my lunch so I have good reading time.

I have a couple more suggestions for you. Jim Butcher - The Dresden files. Great series about a wizard in modern day Chicago who works alongside the police. They made a TV series but it was only half a season.

Tim Powers- Two books really, The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides. The later was used roughly for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I have been struggling to find new authors lately

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23 minutes ago, Busterrimes said:

Awesome thanks, it’s not often I get to talk books. I really must read Erikson now. I tend to read on the way to work and on my lunch so I have good reading time.

I have a couple more suggestions for you. Jim Butcher - The Dresden files. Great series about a wizard in modern day Chicago who works alongside the police. They made a TV series but it was only half a season.

Tim Powers- Two books really, The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides. The later was used roughly for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I have been struggling to find new authors lately

Have you tried The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss?

It's the first in a trilogy, and blew me away.

Trouble is, the second book wasn't quite up to the same standards and there is no sign of the third yet.....

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1 hour ago, Undy English said:

Strangely I heard this theory multiple times online (all the superfans seemed to know this was going to happen already), so when it was announced I can't say I was overly aghast. I was really hoping for something completely unimaginable like Gendry stepping up. 

I seem to have missed the Bran theory, other than people obviously joking (":laugh: imagine if it is Bran!!").  Gendry was actually somebody I suspected, especially after Dany legitimised him.

Bran is actually a good choice for the people living in that world.  Terrible choice for us viewers though!

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12 minutes ago, richwwtk said:

Have you tried The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss?

It's the first in a trilogy, and blew me away.

Trouble is, the second book wasn't quite up to the same standards and there is no sign of the third yet.....

Thanks Rich, I will order it on Amazon. Just checked The Doors of Stone Book 3 has a release date of August 2020

34 minutes ago, Gratbot said:

Has anyone read The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon? 

Apparently George RR Martin's main inspiration for ASOIAF.

Thanks for the recommendation. I will check it out

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2 hours ago, Busterrimes said:

Awesome thanks, it’s not often I get to talk books. I really must read Erikson now. I tend to read on the way to work and on my lunch so I have good reading time.

I have a couple more suggestions for you. Jim Butcher - The Dresden files. Great series about a wizard in modern day Chicago who works alongside the police. They made a TV series but it was only half a season.

Tim Powers- Two books really, The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides. The later was used roughly for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I have been struggling to find new authors lately

I've read Butcher, liked Dresden and also enjoyed his other series (Codex Alera).  I vaguely recall there's a new series of Dresden in the offing?

The other darker fantasy authors I can think of who are worth a look are Tom Lloyd and Joe Abercrombie.

2 hours ago, Gratbot said:

Has anyone read The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon? 

Apparently George RR Martin's main inspiration for ASOIAF.

Nope but I will.

2 hours ago, richwwtk said:

Have you tried The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss?

It's the first in a trilogy, and blew me away.

Trouble is, the second book wasn't quite up to the same standards and there is no sign of the third yet.....

I really liked that but yes it's been frustratingly slow.  I don't think he's well though.

If you haven't already try Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series which starts with The Lies of Locke Lamora.  Often mentioned in the same breath as Rothfuss.

2 hours ago, richwwtk said:

It's been that long I gave up checking long ago!

 

If you like Sci-Fi Peter F. Hamilton is always a good read too.

Hamilton is fun.  I like the grittier stuff too - Neal Asher's Polity, Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space and anything Richard (K) Morgan writes (Altered Carbon author).

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