You say that like i'm going to be holed up inside the hotel.

Im going to be lying on the beach during the day and i dont want to be bored shitless. The less said about the night the better

 

Very good book.

Try to get the academic version. Those usually contain some anthropological background info that is quite fascinating. Although, you can ferret out most of the info through the narrative itself.

 

If we're talking about Akebe, No Longer At Ease is my personal favourite. It's also a sequel to Things Fall Apart, which I've never read. Might, though - if someday I see it on the shelves in a bookstore.

 

The Forever War? You've probably read it but it's pretty decent if you haven't. Of course the sequels are rather...shit.

 

New Book Recommendation:

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton.

If you haven't read it. Read it now. The best novel I've read in a LONG time. Seriously, it's incredibly good.

 

I'm not sure if these have been mentioned but The Painted Man and Desert Spear are both good reads by Peter V. Brett. Fall into the fantasy genre. Currently waiting on the final installment of the trilogy.

 

Painted Man was good, yes. But I would only recommend Desert Spear if you read the first half of the book and burnt the rest.

 

Another non-fantasy, non-scifi recc I ran across while bringing box after box of stored books from the attic to be placed on our new bookshelves.

"Straight Man" by Richard Russo. One of the absolute funniest and most relateable grown-up novels I've read. The main character is somehow a loveable Magnificent Bastard.

EDIT for relevance:

Bringing a few more boxes down and trying to get all the hard-covers organized. Ran across a pair of excellent mystery books. "The Alienist" and "The Angel of Darkness" by Caleb Carr. Mystery, thriller, suspense, detective story, historical fiction(?), etc. The main character uses the new and evolving sciences of forensics and psychological analysis to track down a killer in turn-of-the-century New York, to the best of my recollection. The Alienist is the first and slightly better of the two, while AoD uses many of the same characters but isn't necessarily a sequel.

Worth a look for the fact it's a time period you don't see often in anything but rose-tinted books who try too hard to romanticize it. The books remind me a bit of the Johnny Depp version of Sleepy Hollow, with the forensics and use of logic. It's viewed skeptically in the books as well.

The books aren't must-reads, but the first one is especially good.

 

I'm bored, really really bored and I have to wait until July 12th for A Dance of Dragons to come out. In the meantime I was thinking of reading another fantasy series. I was debating between the Sword of Truth or Mazan- Book of the Falen? Which one should I start?

Can anyone recommend a fantasy series similar to Ice and Fire?

 

Sword of Truth starts off well enough, but it begins to get weird a few books in. My desire to strangle the author with Ayn Rand's corpse increased exponentially from about the fourth book onwards. I gave up by around book 7 or 8 and wished I'd stopped much sooner. The series ends up becoming Terry Goodkind's soap box for preaching Objectivism. The author's far too clumsy and heavy handed in the manner he goes about making his case. Even if I was partial to the philosophy, I'd still hate this series. It's like a Chick Tract, but for Objectivism instead of evangelical Christianity [and no lulzy comic pictures].

tl;dr: Read the first book and then stop.

 

Iron Sunrise by Stross is a decent read. It's a somewhat different take on causality, humanity post-singularity, etc. "I am the eschaton. I am not your god... Thou shalt not violate causality within my historical past's light cone."

 

There really aren't any fantasy series similar to ASoIaF.

You're better off reading Harry/Ginny soul bond fics than Terry Goodkind. Not only is his writing shit (noble goats, war wizard outfits, chickens that are no chickens but evil incarnate, a sociopathic detachment from morality), he's the most unpleasant human being in the SF community this side of Orson Scott "Let's Criminalize Homosexuality" Card (he doesn't write fantasy novels, you see, but books about the nobility of the human spirit). Maybe worth it for the lulz. But not really.

I've read the first two books of Malazan Book of the Fallen and found them poorly characterized and over the top . . . but the series is reasonably well regarded by people whose opinions I trust, so YMMV.

R. Scott Bakker's books (The Darkness That Comes Before is the first) come close to Martin in quality, if not in scope. Read if you don't mind a mash-up of Nietzsche and the Crusades that makes ASoIaF look happy and fluffy and full of butterflies.

 

Have you read the three prequels to ASOIAF? The Hedge Knight & The Sworn Sword are graphic novels, and The Mystery Knight is ~80 pages. I'm reading them now, and they're pretty good. They won't last you very long, though.

 

Word. The fourth title just got announced. Also, The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword were novellas before they were graphic novels. All three are well worth reading (and the link discusses where to find them).

EDIT: GRRM's earlier work is also quite good (and in some cases, I prefer it to ASoIaF). I've read all of his novels save Windhaven and the majority of his short stories and novellas -- all well worth picking up.

 

Malazan: Book of the Fallen is a decent read. I've only read the first book so far but it hooked my attention really damn well, and I'm planning a second read through once I'm done rereading Name of the Wind so that I can pick up the plot points I missed the first time round.

 

Somewhat similar to Dresden are the Matthew Swift books (A Madness of Angels, The Midnight Mayor, and The Neon Court). Basic premise is Matthew Swift, urban sorcerer at large, waking up two years after he was killed. Hilarity ensues. I'd argue that the series is at least as good as Dresden, possibly better if it continues as it is.

Also London based are David Aaronovitch's current series. I've only read the first one - Rivers of London - but the second one is out, and there's a third coming soon. Basic premise is a police constable realises he can see ghosts, leading to an apprenticeship with the last practicing wizard in Britain. Despite the claim on the front cover of Rivers..., it isn't quite "If Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz", but it's a decent read.

 

Thanks for the warning, I've found three books from Bakker from the Prince of Nothing series, any ideea how many books there are?

I've read the ASoIaF prequels, pretty interesting read. Also, my father keeps nagging me to read Dune, and I heard it's pretty awesome but I think I saw a movie and didn't like it.

 

The film really was utter shit compared to the book. That said it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'd recommend giving it a go.