fantasy/dark fiction series recommendations, please!

[BlackVoid]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

If you enjoyed George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, I would recommend Robin Hobb's novels.

Before you decide to buy a trilogy try just one book. I found Hobb utterly horrible. The pace is a crawl and the main character is incapable of anything but whining, he is totally stupid. And the world has nothing unique or interesting. Reading her books is a pain.

[wayspooled]

And then on the other side of the balance, some of us like him very much. It's just a matter of preference for different types of writing style. Everybody is different.

[NormHart]

I just had a 'couldn't put it down" experience. Fantasy is not my favorite genera nor is Dave Freer one of my favorite authors, I've read other works of his with a 'eh' reaction. However, his latest release, Dragon's Ring is, well, lovely. Really quite lovely. Dragons wonderful, in fact!

http://www.webscription.net/p-1055-dragons-ring.aspx $6.00

There are some sample chapters to give you the flavor.



Four thumbs up from me. (I started reading it at 11AM yesterday morning and finished at 11:30PM last night.)

You can also get it with five other ebooks for $15.00 at http://www.webscription.net/p-1059-w...scription.aspx

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by basschick

i'm looking for new fantasy and/or dark fiction recommendations. i like plots, interesting characters and/or action. something to sink my teeth into, as it were. not into books that are primarily romance or military based, and absolutely hate vampires who live in pods.

On of my favorites at the moment is Laura Anne Gilman's "Retriever" series.

Wren Valere is a Talent, living in present day New York City. She is capable of detecting and channeling Current, a mystical energy that allows those who can use it to do a variety of things. Talents have specialties, and Wren is a Retriever. Missing something? Wren can find it and get it back for you for a fee, usually by stealing it back from whoever stole it from you.

Mind you, Wren's life isn't easy. Current tends to travel the same paths as electricity, but the two don't get along. Electronic devices tend to misbehave in Wren's presence. It's too easy to lose control while channeling, and become a Whizzer, lost in the flow of Current and no longer sane. Her business manager is Sergei, an art gallery owner. Sergei is a Null - someone who cannot detect current. Sergei also has a past he'd just as soon Wren didn't know about, but their relationship is in the process of changing from business partners to something a bit closer. Wren is trying to stay out of the way of the Cosa Nostradamus, an organization of mages who want every talent to be a member of their organization. Something is heating up relations between humans and the Fatae, magical creatures based on current. Human/Fatae relations have never been terribly good, and are in the process of getting very bad. And Wren's best friend is probably a demon named PB, who looks like a 4 foot tall polar bear and makes his living as a messenger.

Lots of fun, and recommended. I believe Fictionwise has the full series as ebooks.
______
Dennis

[tompe]

Originally Posted by wayspooled

And then on the other side of the balance, some of us like him very much. It's just a matter of preference for different types of writing style. Everybody is different.

It is "her". Robin Hobb is a pseudonym for Megan Lindholm. I liked the Assassin books very much just because they were different from the traditional boring fantasy. The trader books were too long so I did not finish them.