Fantasy recommendations

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

It means that all his recommendations were shot down. It is a baseball reference.

Thanks!

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by Waylander

Please could someone recommend me some good military type fantasy? I didn't get on with Paksenarrion, giving up about 100 pages in. I also can't get on with Steven Erikson or George R.R. Martin. Yes, I know this is practically heresy, but Erikson's plots are too convoluted and Martin's works are too violent for no particular reason. I do like authors like David Gemmell, just to start things off.

Can you identify what it is you like about, say, David Gemmell?

Is it the presence of a practical fighting man with a strong personal moral code? Kind of like Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series in historical fiction (or probably any Bernard Cornwell, to be honest)?

The most Gemmell-like thing I've read lately was Gallow: The Crimson Shield by Nathan Hawke. The hero, Gallow, is a fantasy version of a viking. I liked it, but I think I should say that I got it for free, so you might feel I was bribed to say nice things about it. I have paid for the second and third ones, but not read them yet. There are some excerpts and shorts at the website http://www.nathanhawke.com/ if you can find them on the weird interactive map thing.

Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes is about one large battle, but you really need to have read the preceding four books in the same world to get the most out of it, and the "moral code" part is decidedly lacking. If you didn't like GRRM you might struggle with the First Law trilogy, although it does feature the world's greatest barbarian, in Logen Ninefingers (with the possible exception of Abercrombie's other Northmen, such as the great Whirrun of Bligh, in The Heroes. I don't think anyone does better barbarians).

My favourite recent mainstream fantasy novel was Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson, but that's not very military at all. It's basically a heist featuring a female mage.

[artifact]

Atypical fantasy but Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon might do it. The rest of the books in the series drift from the military aspect.

Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors ride mighty fighting dragons, bred for size or speed. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes the precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future – and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature.

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan is also sticking in my brain but I can't remember specific military things about it. Must be the mages with muskets .

[Geralt]

The Black Company (Glen Cook)
Tyrants and Kings series (John Marco)

[EndlessWaves]

World War Z by Max Brooks? Again, it's not entirely military but it does include various military sub-stories.

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelany? More feudal conflict than military engagement though.

[leanansidhe]

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series is really good: http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Caldero...ds=codex+alera

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by leanansidhe

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series is really good: http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Caldero...ds=codex+alera

Oh, gosh, I thought they were simply dreadful, I'm afraid. I gave up after the second one.

[leanansidhe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Oh, gosh, I thought they were simply dreadful, I'm afraid. I gave up after the second one.

Sorry they didn't appeal to you. I read them all back to back, I loved them so much. I might even re-read them someday.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

It means that all his recommendations were shot down. It is a baseball reference.

Literally it would mean that all his suggestions were accepted, but he was being ironic.
It's a percentage. A batting average of 1.000 would mean a player got a hit every time he was at bat. A .500 batting average would mean he got a hit for half of his at bats.

As for military fantasy, there is Grunts by Mary Gentle, which is a satirical story of the typical war of good vs. evil told from the orcs' point of view.

[Waylander]

I also loved the Codex Alera. Harry, you say you love Eddings, but isn't he just a rip-off of Tolkein?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Waylander

Harry, you say you love Eddings, but isn't he just a rip-off of Tolkein?

I certainly don't find him to be so, except in the sense that pretty much all modern fantasy is inevitably influenced by Tolkien. It's certainly nothing like, say, "The Sword of Shannara" which is "scene-by-scene" equivalent to LOTR.

[adityadubey]

I finished the first Lyonesse book recently. It felt more like Arthurian fantasy than military I guess, but was well written. You could try Ender's Game for some military sci fi. Or maybe even the Revelation Space books by Reynolds, it's space opera but has some interesting elements of strategy and action as well.

[xg4bx]

If you like Gemmel, Andy Remic may be up your alley.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Iron-Wolve...d_sim_kstore_1

[Rev. Bob]

How about Alex Bledsoe's "Eddie LaCrosse" books? Book five just came out, and the series starts with The Sword-Edged Blonde. The series is very much "low, gritty" fantasy, as opposed to the "epic, high" fantasy that I just can't get into. There's a decent noir/P.I. aspect to it, and it even feels like a Western in some ways.

(Fair disclosure: I've read the first two books, and own but have not started the other three. The third HAS been staring at me for a couple of weeks, though...)

[Pulpmeister]

Here's one from way out in left field: Marie Corelli.

I have recently read her 1897 novel Ziska (here on Mobileread Forums thanks to Crutledge) which starts out as a Victorian romance, with two very different suitors pursuing the unbelievably gorgeous Princess Ziska during the debutante season in Cairo, and climaxes underneath the Great Pyramid!

It is also commendably succinct for a novelist of this period, coming in at about 80,000 words.

So long as you suspend your disbelief from a suitable skyhook, it's a lot of fun.