So this girl I'm tutoring loves the hunger games and is looking for books to read. She doesn't really read for fun so I want to encourage that but I dont really know any books that would fit that mold.

Thoughts?

 

I often hear Divergent by Veronica Roth mentioned as a similar book series for people who liked the Hunger Games.

 

Asked my roommate for recs:

Wither (The Chemical Garden series), if she likes dystopia. It's more about personal relationships than the world being sucky. Dystopia being more of the set peice. It's by Lauren DeStefano.

I really like the October Daye series, which has a lot of things in common with The Dresden Files. But with a female main character. Urban Fantasy and by Seanan McGuire.

 

I will look into all of those, thanks so much! I assume October Days is about magic, right? She's not into fantasy much so I'm more looking for futuristic dystopian books with a strong femaleclead.

 

Been reading a lot of sci-fi / fantasy recently, so here are a few recs.

I read Karl Schroeder's Lockstep. Without giving too much away, think of it as Rip van Winkle in space. Schroeder sketches out a very interesting idea of how a sublight civilization can still extend several solar systems wide and remain in contact. If only for the fascinating idea itself, I would recommend this book. It is however essentially a YA sci-fi book - the protagonist is a 17-year old and the book partly operates as a coming-of-age story. The protagonist finds himself stranded in space and is forced to hibernate inside his ship, only to be awakened 14000 years later in a strange new spacefaring civilization. I think it's worth checking out. One thing I liked it is that despite the book being YA, there isn't really a romance that occupies too much of the book length. Many YA novels practically shove romances into your face and while there is a pairing in the book, it doesn't occupy the principal focus of the book nor is that much time devoted to it.

I also recently finished reading John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard's Conquest. The first book in a planned series, the book's setting is standard "alien conquest with human resistance" fare. Things of note in the story however are that there is an alien - human romance and the aliens in question have largely improved Earth in various ways: many diseases have cured, hunger and starvation have been virtually eliminated. The aliens function as benevolent dictators (or so their stated intentions go), but they are dictators regardless, which causes many humans to attempt to rebel. The book doesn't really feature anything you haven't seen before, although I thought it was an entertaining read. I largely rec it because I think Relic's student would enjoy this book. I think it strikes the same sort of YA tone that the Hunger Games and Divergence do.

And while not a recent book, I just re-read Greg Bear's Forge of God and Anvil of the Stars and I have to say that the former still remains my favorite apocalyptic novel yet. A lot of people aren't as enthusiastic about the sequel, which is quite different thematically, but a story I still greatly enjoyed nonetheless. Highly recommend reading both.

 

October Daye has magic in it, a lot of it.

It's starts off with October being a PI. But that profession doesn't last long because of

Spoiler

she pisses off a nasty fae and gets turned into a fish for like 20 years. Then the story starts when the spell wears off.

October is human/fae, so she has some magic, but mostly she uses her smarts to figure out the plot. She's an awesome character.

 

Relic, you could try Divergent. Like THG, it's got a female protagonist, a dystopian sci-fi future, and a Hollywood adaption.

Edit: whoops, can't read, already recommended.

 

Finished Tower Lord. It was interesting to see the scope of the story finally come to fruition, but I have issues with the style. I'm confused as to why you would write the first book in first person and then have multiple pov in the second. I prefer first person narrative, so I am somewhat bitter about that. The quality of writing is great, the pacing decent. If the multiple pov wasn't jarring in transition I would say it was enjoyable. I would recommend reading it if you liked the first, it was a good novel, just different. However, the ending was bizarre. Seemed more like something I would see in fanfiction than published novels. In a sense, it reminds me that in The Name of the Wind Rothfuss added the Tarbean scene to the story so there was a stopping point, a conclusion. Tower Lord lacked that in my opinion. The editor must of been, fuck it, just end the book here.

Edit: sorry was 3rd person. Not sure why I got that switched.

 

Um? The first book wasn't in first person, not mostly. It had the bookend first person bits write by the Emperor's historian, but the bulk of the tale was third person.

The second follows the same style. We have First person bookends by the Emperor's historian guy, then third person bits following other people.

The change was how many people the third person bits follow.

 

So I just read Blood Song and Tower Lord over the weekend.

I actually liked the transition from one POV in the first novel to multiple POVs in the 2nd novel. Blood Song gave us a solid grounding in the Unified Realm, where Tower Lord allowed the world to flourish as it expanded the scope. Every POV contributed to the story and didn't read as bloat to me.

Spoiler

I was really surprised to see how Lryna's character developed in Tower Lord. Damn that author, making her an empathetic character before turning her into the Human Torch. Here's to hoping she doesn't get turned into a host for the Ally in the 3rd novel.

 

Yeah, so I recently finished both of these books. I absolutely loved book 1, the ending for it was especially good.

I thought pretty much exactly the same thing about the first 3/4 of Tower Lord, then basically hated the rest. One of the best parts about these books is that they keep you guessing. You're never quite sure where the author is going with everything.

The last 1/4 of the book was so depressingly predictable I found it rather boring. Especially compared to how book 1 ended.

Overall the world building and writing quality are very good, and I had a very good picture of what was happening in my head. Though I thought the sudden defeat of the Volarian's at the end was a bit abrupt.

As Thyeestan said, it feels like the last 1/4 of the book was a rush job, no time to write it properly like the rest of the book. Valen's penultimate fight was particularly disappointing imo.

Of course, those are the negatives of book 2. The fantastic parts was the whole uh... I've forgotten his name ,the dude who got bound by the woman. That whole storyline was amazing, very well written. (Until they started leaving the forest, then it felt rushed like the rest)

Lyrna getting burnt was incredible as well, never saw that shit coming and her whole storyline was incredibly fun to read in general. (once more, the final battle with the fleet of pirates felt rushed and disappointing)

Now that I write this out, it seems more and more likely that this is what happened. (That the ending was rushed/not written with the same care as the rest of the book) Valen and Riva's stories were less riveting than the other two, but both very fun to read until the end.

Quite disappointed too be honest, though I really loved the first book and 3/4 of the second.

 

So yeah, Tower Lord. I loved Blood Song, but Tower Lord was kind of crap. Not bad enough for me to drop it, but enough that I'm not sure I want to continue reading the series.

The whole thing was just kind of predictable and bland. You have FEMALE LEAD who is the super trained DAUGHTER OF FRENCH JESUS who meets our hero and falls in mentorlove with him, becomes superawesome with a sword and bow overnight, gets badass nicknames from her foes and everyone loves her!

You have NOAGENCYMAN who spends the first half of the book bemoaning his fate and the second half just being a generic badass rebel! The first half was interesting to read though, mainly because it served as an exposition dump for why the villain was being all villainous. Easily the best part.

You have PRINCESSGAL who undergoes the most generic character arc I've seen in a good while!

Finally HEROMCBADASSINGTON who pretty much coasts on reputation from the first book and is constantly spoken of in the form of "hero will come save us! It is a heroic fantasy novel after all!" Then lo and behold, he comes and saves everyone! In a fight scene which is built up to be all about him being clever with tactics but is basically resolved via the power of protagonist plot armor! Which he supposedly loses... for the second time in the series.

Okay, good bits. I like how the whole plot is pretty much a massive prophecy clusterfuck. Stories using seers and fortune telling in clever ways is one of my favorite plot devices, hence why I loved the EVILTREE in The Wise Man's Fear so much. The role reversal was interesting (yandere the witch, drunk the feudal lord who knows how to make money) although the latter felt kind of like a retcon, same with the bluestone mines.

I do agree that the last quarter was rushed as hell, but at best it was going to be cool fight scenes; the fundamental issue of the plot just being terrible still would rear its ugly head. And frankly, I just didn't care for the main antagonist empire. I never got a good feel for where they were on the map, they just kind of came out of nowhere with all the generic bad guy tropes at the ready. Part of the great thing about the first book was the realization that "oh, the protagonists are kind of the villainous empire" and to just throw in Generic Evil Slavepire felt weak. That and I recently read the First Law trilogy, so having kingdoms in shades of gray feels so much more right.

But yeah, didn't like it, wouldn't really recommend after an incredible first book.

 

All of this reviews is making me sad especially after I reread Blood Song. I guess I'll wait until the third book drops before binge reading all of them.

 

I tend to divide (contemporary) fantasy tends to divide into two kinds.

1) Plot-centric. The point of these stories is, simply, to be riveting, with awesome characters doing amazing things in fucktastic worlds. Examples include Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chornicles and Lynch's Gentleman Bastards.

2) Character-centric with strong thematic ideas. These stories tend to be more like conventional literature, in that they put great emphasis on the idea that literature ought to be character explorations and avenues to discuss weighty ideas like morality and violence and religion. Examples include GRRM's ASOIAF, Abercrombie's First Law and all of Daniel Abraham's works (Long Price; Dagger and the Coin).

Obviously, the boundary between the two kinds isn't at all clear, but I do think that the difference is there. I also think that while the first kind of novels make truly exciting reading (e.g. reading Name of the Wind was an experience close to being orgasmic), they tend not to make good repeat reading. The second kind of novels, on the hand, don't make me want to shit myself from the awesomeness, but they make me think about important and interesting themes, and they also make very good repeat reading.

TLDR: Some fantasy novels are like inhaling coke; others are like the drinking wine. Thoughts, DLPers?

BTW is Stormlight Archives good? How would it compare to some of the aforementioned series?

 

I wouldn't say it was quite this bad, but I can see how you would feel after coming back to it from the First Law trilogy. If there was one thing the First Law trilogy did well, it was characterization. Plot on the other hand...

Where as this book, is more all about the plot. The tension it creates. Characters are important, and very well written in terms of decision making, but none of them really make you love them. It's the weakness of this book. Most likely exageratted after coming from the First Law. Whereas, in my case, I came from Mistborn, which are about as fucking awful as you can get, with me giving up on them entirely.

I don't think the difference between the first and second book is as big as you imply, the difference in the last 1/4 of the book compared to the first 3/4 on the other hand? That's where the main problems lie imo.

So Klackerz, I still absolutely recomend reading Tower Lord now. Overall, I have absolutely no regrets reading it, and would do it again if I had the choice. In fact, I think you'll enjoy it a lot more, without the expectation of the ending being as awesome as the last one. (I remember reading a comment above with someone saying the ending for this one was amazing as well, which further increased my expectations)

I agree with you in principle, though not so much about the rereadability. I've always found that dependant on the book itself. For example, I doubt I'll ever reread the first law trilogy, but I definitely will NOTW and WMF.

I guess you could say that the best books have both aspects. For example, I would say that NOTW has both.

As for Sanderson? I consider The Stormlight Archives to be the next book series with the most potential. But it's an epic fantasy in all that entails, ie the pace is really fucking slow at the start.

Of course, it also has the best world building i've ever seen. Bar none. Also, by the end of each book you will not be able to put it down. To give you an example, i listened to the Audio Books of each (both 40-45 hours long) and I literally spent the whole day in bed or sitting around doing nothing but just listening to the books.

The best thing about them though, is that while they are epic fantasy, there's a hard limit on the amount of PoVs. (This seems completely untrue at the start, but that's just an aberration) There are 4 major PoVs in the first books. Almost certain a 5th will be added in book 3, but we'll see less screen time from the other 4 to compensate I expect, considering how the last book ended.

That's ignoring the interludes of course, there's 6 in each book, all mainly seem to be there for world building purposes right now, but I have my suspicions that they will become significant characters as the series progresses.

Regardless, this was the first fantasy book that I didn't hate the PoV jumps in. It was quite an enlightening experience for me, but every time the POV switched, I thought "Holy shit yes, what are these guys up to" instead of "oh for fucks sake, no I want to know what happens to the prev char"

All in all, well worth reading. I've recommended them to everyone I know that likes books, and none have been disapointed so far.

 

@Relic

If she likes the darker parts of Hunger Games you could always try Battle Royale.


@Tower Lord

I liked the book even if the first one was much better. The second one has too many bad clichés like evil empire, an evil god, destined hero etc. Ravens shadow let me hope that the author would try something new, Tower Lord showed my that he would just repeat the mistakes of previous authors.

 

@ relic

You could also try to Uglies, Pretties, Specials and extras (a series). It's this "utopian" future where everyone is beautiful, smart and peaceful. They spend their childhood as normal children who plan what they want to look like and on their 16th birthday get life changing surgery and become "beautiful." But with this change, there is also a curse.

The main character is a girl who is desperate for the change but when her only friend runs away as she does not believe in it, she finds herself on a adventure. She starts off pretty weak but develops into an awesome character.

 

You could also look at the Gone series it's about a town that suddenly gets cut off from the rest of the world. Also everyone over 15 is spontaneously removed and the kids wake up with no idea what happened. Some of them get superpowers. It's a look at how they get together and create a working society with the difficulties inherent in the situation plus some supernatural issue. I remember it being pretty fun; the series is fairly lengthy by now.

 

Any books with similar worldbuilding to the Stormlight Archive series (WoK/WoR)?

 

So I spent the last few days reading this series and I am surprised at how much I liked it. Like you say it has many similarities with Dresden Files but never really reaches the same depth with its characters and plot.

Still it is an entertaining series that seems to get better and more interesting with each book.