The New and Improved Recommendation - Fantasy / Horror

[Bob Gray]

Is this question or a statement?

Just messing with hippo

[Rob B]

I haven't read this series but it may have what you're looking for.

Russell Kirkpatrick's Fire of Heaven series:

That's one of the more panned and reviled recent Fantasy series.

[Bob Gray]

That's one of the more panned and reviled recent Fantasy series.

why so? It looks absolutely fantastic.

[Rob B]

why so? It looks absolutely fantastic.

I haven't personally read it, but here are a couple of reviews and another one.

[Bob Gray]

I haven't personally read it, but here are a couple of reviews and another one.

I don't know, nothing they said would deter me from reading it. I usually don't listen to critics anyway, the views of the common reader are far more valuable in my opinion.

Has anyone here read this series? If so, what do you think about it?

[Kazz Wylde]

I'm looking for a dark fantasy (secondary world, not contemporary/urban) stories or series with a regular/mundane/normal protagonist.

Meaning...
- Not a wizard
- Not the chosen one
- Not the general of an army
- Not royalty
- Not a powerful supernatural being (vampire, werewolf) or supranatural human (Witcher)
- Not in possession of a magical artifact
- Not a warrior whose berserk rages gives him the strength of ten men
- Not a hardened veteran who's killed hundreds of men
- Not the new recruit in a group of soldiers who are mostly hardened veterans who've killed hundreds of men.
- Not a master assassin
- Not a master thief
- Not the adviser to kings and nobility who's a master manipulator.
- Not a beautiful and virtuous woman whose beautiful virtuousness causes powerful (but dark!) men to rush to protect her.

If you managed to get me a story whose main character is a blind leper that begs for a living and is so hungry they have to fight with stray dogs over food scraps left in the rubbish, I'd be happy, but all I really need is a story centered around a normal person.

I want a dark fantasy story that's not about Superman or even Batman, but Jimmy Olsen.

PS: The first person to mention the Mazalan Books of the Fallen gets a cream pie to the face. (Your choice of flavors)

How about Abraham's Dragon's Path? It was a good read, I liked it.

[Rob B]

Has anyone here read this series? If so, what do you think about it?

Here's thread, where a few members expressed their thoughts:

Russell Kirkpatrick

I'll admit, I was confusing Kirkpatrick a bit with David Bilsborough, author of The Wanderer's Tale (interviewed here by Pat)

[PeterWilliam]

In terms of hippokrene's request, I'd second Williams' MST and Abraham's Dragon's Path. While I prefer Williams to Abraham, I must admit that it is because Williams is more 'verbose' as some might put it.

[Bob Gray]

Here's thread, where a few members expressed their thoughts:

Russell Kirkpatrick

I'll admit, I was confusing Kirkpatrick a bit with David Bilsborough, author of The Wanderer's Tale (interviewed here by Pat)

I think I'm going to check it out, I'm reading two different opinions and usually that means that I will enjoy it. I'm not real well read in fantasy and it sounds like a series I would like to read before I read something like ASOIF.

[hippokrene]

Thank you for the recommendations guys.

[werewolfv2]

Wow, this is shocking to me. Zelazny is a superior writer to all of those other authors you mentioned....

All I can say is that his Amber series is widely considered one of the finest fantasies of all time. And it predates all the modern fantasy (maybe that is the problem, you are looking for a formula that he isn't going to give you).

I think that is it. Amber was a very enjoyable read for me, but it felt "dated", which isnt a bad thing since I do enjoy older along with newer reads, but I can understand why somebody would find it lacking.

[Arkeus]

Yeah, Ambers really feel 'Dated' when you read it. It's very much readable, but the style and the content do feel somewhat lacking to me, like it didn't survive the test of time. Maybe it's because i have trouble 'feeling' the characters, but i felt they were a bit too crude/raw/sketchy, and they lacked what makes a character 'real' to me.

[roscowgo]

I'm looking for a dark fantasy (secondary world, not contemporary/urban) stories or series with a regular/mundane/normal protagonist.

Meaning...
- Not a wizard
- Not the chosen one
- Not the general of an army
- Not royalty
- Not a powerful supernatural being (vampire, werewolf) or supranatural human (Witcher)
- Not in possession of a magical artifact
- Not a warrior whose berserk rages gives him the strength of ten men
- Not a hardened veteran who's killed hundreds of men
- Not the new recruit in a group of soldiers who are mostly hardened veterans who've killed hundreds of men.
- Not a master assassin
- Not a master thief
- Not the adviser to kings and nobility who's a master manipulator.
- Not a beautiful and virtuous woman whose beautiful virtuousness causes powerful (but dark!) men to rush to protect her.

If you managed to get me a story whose main character is a blind leper that begs for a living and is so hungry they have to fight with stray dogs over food scraps left in the rubbish, I'd be happy, but all I really need is a story centered around a normal person.

I want a dark fantasy story that's not about Superman or even Batman, but Jimmy Olsen.

PS: The first person to mention the Mazalan Books of the Fallen gets a cream pie to the face. (Your choice of flavors)

So the story of Steve from Toktok, and his struggles with granny porn and addiction to Resses Cups.

[hippokrene]

So the story of Steve from Toktok, and his struggles with granny porn and addiction to Resses Cups.

If you think that people can only do great things with the help of magic, what do you make of human history?

[Loerwyn]

So, it's that time of year again in which I ask a silly question to which no-one has a decent answer

I've been looking for fantasy books with a beardless female dwarven protagonist (or major character), and I'm turning up very little. I know - from a gaming point of view - that the Warcraft and Dragon Age universes have beardless female dwarves, but they often not in focus in the former and I'm not going to subject myself to the (pardon my French) piss-poor writing of the latter. I'm not particularly concerned about whether she's a warrior or not, but if she's gay/bi/whatever that'd also be cool.

I know plenty of books with bearded female dwarves (Discworld, for starters), so please don't try and recommend some

Also, see above but with female orcs. That'd be cool, too.

I'm fine with Kindle editions and what have you, so smaller presses/independents are A-OK with me.

Thanks!