Does anyone have some actually good fantasy recommendations that focus on one character?

I'm seriously sick of starting a supposedly good book and every single chapter it changes to be told from someone else's POV, and they're all listing names off like I should have some earthly idea what they're thinking about, and then by the time it cycles around to the interesting character it's fucking chapter 15 and I've forgotten what the hell is going on, or the 14 chapter break was enough to kill any tension the scene had going for it.

One character. Not three, not ten, just one. ><

Nothing irritates me more than picking up a book, enjoying the setup, the main character, and the world... And then Chapter 2 switches to a much less interesting character, with really nothing going for him.

"Well, maybe the main character will be back in chapter three..."

No, he's not. It's a new new character, even less interesting than the first. Great.

Thus beginning the chain of progressively less interesting characters going about their thoroughly boring lives, while I begin to skip more and more of the story trying to find the only interesting one out of the lot of them.

...Rant aside, can anyone remember anything somewhat resembling those specifications?

Hell, it doesn't even have to be fantasy, so long as it's good. /:

 

It sounds like someone got pissed off with WoT or LotR. lol.

From memory most of Neil Gaiman's novels focus on just one main character. He writes contemporary fantasy, though he did co-author one high fantasy story with Terry Pratchett.

I highly recommend Neverwhere and American Gods. Neverwhere is set in a twisted reflection of London, and American Gods is mostly set in the US.

 

should be

Couldn't resist. Like the unresolved tension due to open parenthesis.

 

This this this, oh god fucking this. I've dropped so many books because they want to be some sort of high fantasy pretentious bullshit with a thousand characters all involved in political intruige and backstabbing.

I just want a quest story. A young man leaving his home to explore the world and fight evil and maybe get laid by a slave girl he rescues. The formula never gets old.

Any recs?

Also, anyone read The City and The City by China Mieville? Just got it from Amazon tonight, gonna start reading it soon.

 

Might I recommend the Belgariad? it's by David Eddings. Its classic fantasy. Nothing particularly new or exciting, but he does it with an interesting style.

 

How good is Way of Kings?

To be honest the blurb doesn't appeal to me at all. And I ended up hating the Mistborn trilogy by the end. Book one was good. The other two were just dull. It was extremely tempting to just put the book down and read the Wikipedia summary instead.

 

It's brilliant. Fantastic concept, well written, and an involving plot. Enjoy it!

 

I also liked the beginning of the Mistborn series more than the ending. But I liked The Way of Kings, enough that I will continue to follow the series. (My review here.) It's definitely a big Epic High Fantasy doorstopper, and suffers from the multiple-POV characters thing (i.e., some are more interesting than others, and just when you're getting into one subplot, we move to that of a less interesting character), but I liked the alienness of his world and the fact that he really does seem to be building up to something huge and world-shaking. (Of course, at the current pace, it will be 15-20 years before we see its conclusion.)

 

The writing in Way of Kings is extremely, extremely dull. It's like Sanderson reserved his best prose for the completion of the Wheel of Time, and only had enough left over to make this sad offering. Hard to keep interested on a paragraph to paragraph basis. I cut corners to try and accommodate the writing, and outright skipped every single chapter/passage the female character appeared in, but that didn't help.

Just dull.

 

I just finished reading through all 10 books of The Southern Vampire Mysteries. I'm sure they've already been recommended in here, but I'll add my vote.

The next book is coming out in under a month, and I'm already looking forward to it. Upon completing the last book, I got that sense of emptiness you get when you realize that there is no more left, and the only time i've ever gotten that is feeling is finishing the last HP book.

The series is probably not most peoples cup of tea, but it does explore a lot of the supernatural world in a somewhat in depth, but not overbearing way.

Oh, and the books are a lot different than the True Blood tv show, even the show is very good as well. The shows expands upon all the characters which I really like, while the book is written in first person so we only ever see what she sees.

 

How does it compare to the other major landmark series in its genre that you might've read?

Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series
Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles
L. J. Smith's The Vampire Diaries
Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series

If we hated Twilight, but enjoyed Hamilton's early stories [before they became about Blake having sex], would we like SVM? Does SVM stay consistent in tone the whole way through? Is it primarily a romance story with monsters? If not, then how would you describe the series?

On a somewhat related note, Hamilton and Rice are both nutjobs, I'm not sure about Meyer and Smith. How does your Charlaine Harris stack up? I see on her wiki photo that she's a ginger... I suppose that helps her get into the correct mindset to write about vampires.

 

I haven't read twilight. I just started vampire chronicles, so can't comment on that yet. Haven't read the vampire diaries. My mom has read through the Anita Blake stories, and has the same opinion that you do on them about it becoming too much about the sex. I read the wiki article on it and I thought the main character seemed way overpowered. On the other hand, my mom loves Twilight, so take that for what its worth.

The Southern Vampire novels are a paranormal mystery first and foremost. There is romance, as can be expected. There is sex (multiple times throughout the 10 books) but it is never graphic and I guess the romance overall is realistic. The main character, Sookie, goes through 4 or 5 relationships, all with their problems, and they break up in realistic ways I suppose. Her last relationship (starting in book 8 in a serious way) seems to be permanent.

There is a lot of fighting, lots of blood and gore, but not overwhelming. Sookie keeps getting more and more involved with vampire (and later one werewolf) politics and problems, and drawn into several supernatural wars.

I suppose Sookie could be called a Mary-Sue, but many best selling books are like that, and I can see why, because I like the character a lot. As you would expect of a Mary-Sue type character, she has a rare ability (telepathy) and it plays a huge role in why she likes to be around vampires (soothing to be around because she isn't inundated by thoughts) and causes her to be hired by them to solve a few crimes, and get involved in business dealings, and overall drive the majority of the plot.

Each book revolves around a situation occurring around Sookie that she (and allies) have to solve (otherwise she would probably die), but she is not trained to solve crimes or anything like that as she is just a barmaid. It just happens that the crimes happening near her ends up involving her in a circular plot arc. I'm really not explaining it good enough I think. The bottom line is that the plot and the world is interesting enough to draw you in and keep you.

I would recommend watching the tv series first though. The tv series only follows the book series loosely (very loosely), but it is still good. But I am recommending it so you can have a good picture of what each character looks like. I will admit that the second season is terrible in comparison with the second book its based on, but season 1 and 3 are great.

 

I totally feel your pain. I'm like a baby bird; I imprint on the first character I read about, and forever after they are the Hero, no matter who else the author introduces.

It's more and more a struggle nowadays to find a book or series that focuses on a character more than a giant, complicated plot. One author I've begun reading is Lois McMaster Bujold, who has a sort of Robin Hobb-esque feel to her stories (which is major points in my book). As an aside, if you've never read Robin Hobb, that goes right to the top of my recommendations. Read the Farseer Trilogy (assassin's apprentice, etc). For Bujold, all I've read so far is the Curse of Chalion and Cordelia's Honor--the former is a standalone fantasy type, and the second the beginning of some kind of epic space-opera I guess.

Aside from those, I'm sure you've already read the Lies of Locke Lamora (awesome protagonist)--if you haven't, do. Hmm... there was one I read a few years ago that I remember really enjoying: Butcher Bird. It's quite a departure from the rest of the list, but worth checking out.

It's really hard to find a good fantasy novel that will settle for one pov these days.

 

Wizard of Earthsea >>>all
Just sayin'.

 

Just finished Wise Man's Fear and really need something like it to read, as I'm still in the same mindset. I know nothing will ever live up to Kvothe, but does anyone know a good fantasy with an epic protagonist and great writing?

I've already read The Lies of Locke Lamora + Sequel, but something that falls into that category.

 

The Kvothe hunger can only be satisfied by more Kvothe. I suggest waiting a few days and then re-reading the two books.

 

Most of my favourites have already been mentioned, but here's a few I've only come across recently:

China Miéville, specialises in the surreal. Really rich writing and generally a little messed up, He's got a healthy mixture of modern and - well high isn't quite right but it's definitely not set in this world.

Naomi Novik is pretty interesting too. The Temeraire series is an AH of the Napoleonic wars that features dragons. There's a healthy mix of politics and action and it's interestingly written.

Chris Wooding, the Tales of the Jetty Kay are quite good as well. I was getting a bit of a firefly vibe from it at first but it quickly gathers momentum and gains its own unique feel. Also, the second book in the series has the best introductory chapters I've seen in a long time.

 

It's a bit old fashioned by today's standards, but the Elric of Melniboné epic series by Michael Moorcock features a classic antihero.

The hero isn't epic in the Kvothe sense, but I really enjoyed The Magicians by Less Grossman. The writing is solid and the story itself is raw, bleak, and says something worth saying. (I think it's been recommended on DLP before--I picked up a copy based on someone's recommendation here).

 

Holy fucking finally someone except me talks about Bujold. One of my top ten authors, very good at developing characters.
A slight correction though: Cordelia's Honor is not actually a book, it's an omnibus collection of Shards of Honor, her first book published and first book chronologically (not counting Falling Free, which is an uber-prequel) and Barrayar, her second book chronologically, but published later.
her books are published in Omnibus editions fairly often, so if you've already read Crodelia's Honor the omnibus of greatest content for you next would be Young Miles, which includes Warrior's Apprentice, Mountains of Morning (short story) and the Vor Game, which are chronologically following Cordelia's honor and begin the focus on Bujold's main character, Miles, the son of the protagonist in Cordelia's Honor.

 

I'd second The Magicians. Not really what I'd consider a great book, but it's better than most other stuff and is definitely worth a read.