What are you reading at the moment?

What are you reading at the moment? Are you enjoying it? Would you recommend it? Anything, from fantasy to philosophy that caught your interest and that you'd like to share - let us know!

I started reading the Traveler's Gate trilogy by Will Wight and I'm absolutely loving it. Fantasy with lots of action and humour.

My review here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2101296334?book_show_action=false

 

Will Wight is a tremendous author. I preferred his Soulsmith books to the travelers gate trilogy, but both were good. He's also got a couple of other trilogies that are written from each Other's point of view. Of Sea and Shadow follows one side of the story (the sea captain) and Of Shadow and Sea follows the other side of the same events from the opposite viewpoint. Mad respect for being able to pull that off as well as he did.

 

Hard Luck Hank: Stank Delicious by Steven Campbell.

It's the 5th of currently 6 books in the series.

Fun/humorous SF.

 

Oh yeah. Currently reading Dream II: the Realm. It's a portal fantasy with some really soft RPG elements to it. Think D&D instead of video games.

It's book two of a trilogy and it's pretty solid. Lot of military references in it though, so it might not appeal to people that don't get the referents.

 

I've actually been wanting to write a piece of military fantasy for a long time now. Problem is I didn't know if there was any demand for it.

I hope not to offend by my reading selection. I read a lot of "perverted" stuff. I'm currently on the "Randy Elf Maid" series. I'm also reading through Eden Redd and Paul Lucas's catalog. If that doesn't chase you away I don't know what will haha.

The serious stuff I picked up recently was Asimov's Foundation series, some short stories by John Varley, and eventually, I'll get back to the Xanth and Amber series (Piers Anthony and Zelazny respectively)

I read fairly quickly (a habit I picked up when I started writing) so I keep a lot of reading material around on my days off.

 

Most of the demand for the military fiction stuff is in sci-if/space opera, but there are a few semi-military fantasy novels I can think of off hand. Eric Flint does alternate history novels with a military bent to them, and there's quite a bit of stuff in terms of roman era military, but I can't remember the last time I came across any serious military high/epic fantasy novels. If you want to write something military, I think alternate history would be your butter zone, unless you want to go modern or future. Cyberpunk or a steam/dieselpunk portal fantasy would work too.

Oh sure, there's armies and war and such, but it's not geared specifically toward military folk. The Dream trilogy features 4 main characters who are Iraq war veterans and they constantly reference it along with the casual racism that comes part and parcel with being young dumb and having an entire country's worth of people trying to kill you. Other than that, it's a lot of humorous banter that I recognize immediately as being "military" (having participated in it myself! Nothing passes the time on NATO or other joint allied operations like poking fun at the French and bitching about officers).

And nah, I'm not chased away by erotica. It's not exactly my cuppa, but I don't have any issues with what people enjoy reading. I'm just glad they enjoy reading anything at all.

 

Finished the Traveler's Gate books. Loved it! 4 stars, 5 stars and 4 stars for books 1-3 respectively. Started with the Soulsmith books and they're great as well. Like my favourite anime shows: Lots of action with awesome special moves and the ability to level up! Busy with the second book now.

 

What exactly do you mean by "military fantasy"? Do you mean fantasy books about war and armies, or do you mean something more specific?

There are a few I can think of: Glen Cook's Black Company books, Joe Abercrombie's First Law books, even a few David Gemmell Drenai books...

I love Zelazny, I've read pretty much everything he ever wrote and still have most of his books. Never really got into Piers Anthony, though. Read a couple of his Xanth books but they just didn't grab me.

 

I loved Xanth when I was a kid, but they really didn't age well. For adults, he wrote the incarnations of immortality series, you might try that? And for comedic fantasy I think the master of the genre is Robert Asprin with both the MYTH Inc books and Phules Company series.

I used to play white wolf games when I was younger, and Soulsmith reminds me of a really well played Exalted campaign.

And by military I mean books that focus on protags who are or were in the military. You don't see that very often in fantasy novels, but military sci-fi is practically its own subgenre.

I finished the Dream trilogy yesterday and am currently onto the Royal Ooze Chronicles. Really well written and clever so far, and I'm glad they finally hit KU so I can fit them in my Amazon allowance.

Edited: I'm a numpty bum innee.

 

Military fantasy, very young adult but basil broke tail..army where main fighting unit is land dragons. Black company, maybe some of those matzalan books? Temeraire series, alternate earth with dragons as fighting force

 

just started
Wild Wastes: Eastern Expansion
by Randi Darren

 

Military fantasy is a new category on Amazon, but I think you still have to e-mail and ask to be placed in it. I loved Glen Cook's "Black Company" and have wanted to write a military fantasy every since. I've started two books/series but stopped when I didn't think they'd sell. Now with the new world of Indie Publishing, they might be viable.

In my books/WIP my MC is a platoon leader, so he's a junior officer, but dealing with the same shit as the common soldiers. There are infantry, cavalry, etc, but also mages because it is fantasy. They are low-powered mages, but they can turn a battle if used correctly.

 

For military fantasy also check out the Macht series by Paul Kearney. Haven't read it myself yet but was recommended to me.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3391271-the-ten-thousand

From Goodreads:

"Retelling of the classic Greek history from Xenophon.

On the world of Kuf, the Macht are a mystery, a seldom-seen people of extraordinary ferocity and discipline whose prowess on the battlefield is the stuff of legend. For centuries they have remained within the remote fastnesses of the Harukush Mountains. In the world beyond, the teeming races and peoples of Kuf have been united within the bounds of the Asurian Empire, which rules the known world, and is invincible. The Great King of Asuria can call up whole nations to the battlefield.

His word is law.

But now the Great King's brother means to take the throne by force, and in order to do so he has sought out the legend. He hires ten thousand mercenary warriors of the Macht, and leads them into the heart of the Empire."

 

Marc Alan Edelheit's series "Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer" are good military fantasy too.

I find most military fantasy to be ultimately pretty forgettable. My preferred butter zone when it comes to military fiction is either in alternate history - think Greco-roman era - or far future, like David Weber's Honorverse and the Black Company books. Of course, there's always the comedic sci-fantasy Phule's Company, which I highly recommend. It's like the Police Academy movies set in the far future military.

I just finished the KU litRPG book "Accidental Thief" and damn if it wasn't really, really good. One of the very few unicorns that I've ever given five stars to.

 

Adding it to my TBR list over on Goodreads : )

 

Trinty Seven, the manga, because someone introduced me to the ZingBox free manga reader. For books, at the moment, it's the Black Prism.

I've been avoiding LitRPG while working too slowly on a LitRPG project.

 

Dr. Anarchy's rules to world domination.... I need some cheese in my life at the moment so what better then a super hero / villain satire?1!

 

I quite enjoyed the anime. I'm not much of a manga reader, though.

You were right - I think his Soulsmith books are even better! Busy with the third one now and its fantastic. Very similar to LitRPG as well, with characters leveling up, able to use different abilities, techniques and attacks depending on which Path they follow. What I enjoy most about Wight is his ability to create fascinating, delightful and engaging characters.

 

Will Wight talks about LitRPG's The Land:Founding by Aleron Kong and (with a qualifier or two) ends up recommending it. He also recommends the Crimson Queen by Alec Hutson, so I'm reading it at the moment.

Edit: Whoops, forgot to add the link.

http://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/archives/01-2017

 

Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series.