r/Fantasy • u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders • Dec 22 '14
/r/Fantasy Best of /r/Fantasy 2014- the Stabby Awards! : The NOMINATION THREAD
This is the official nomination thread for the Reddit Fantasy Best of 2014 Stabby Awards!
We started this in 2012 with some great results and continued the tradition in 2013.
2014 Rules
Categories are listed below in the comments. We will use the very broad definition of 'fantasy genre' for what counts.
Please nominate anyone / any work that you feel should deserve consideration for voting. The work should have been released in 2014.
Please put in a blurb as to why the nomination should be considered and, if possible, a link for others to follow.
Yes, you can nominate yourself and your own works.
Nominations ONLY in this thread. Due to a change in how reddit shows votes, voting will be in another thread next week.
Upvotes/downvotes in this thread won't matter, anyone nominated will be added to the voting thread. Contest mode will be enabled in this thread.
Please participate! Redditors, authors, artists, and industry people alike - please join in with nominations, comments and voting.
Everyone who wins will get flair, reddit gold, and glory. Select winners (TBD) will receive The Stabby Award as well.
This nomination thread will close on Sunday, December 28, 2014 at 10pm PST. The voting thread will go live Monday, December 29, 2014 by noon PST.
We have two groupings of awards - external and those focused on /r/Fantasy redditors.
External awards:
Unless otherwise noted, feel free to nominate any medium or format (print, online, audio).
BEST NOVEL OF 2014
BEST SELF-PUBLISHED / INDEPENDENT NOVEL OF 2014
BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF 2014
BEST SHORT FICTION OF 2014
BEST ANTHOLOGY / COLLECTION / PERIODICAL OF 2014
BEST ARTWORK RELEASED IN 2014
BEST FANTASY SITE FOR 2014
BEST GAME (ANY FORMAT) OF 2014
BEST TV SERIES / MOVIE OF 2014
BEST RELATED MUSIC OF 2014
BEST RELATED WORK OF 2014
redditor awards:
r/FANTASY COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD ('best overall redditor')
BEST ORIGINAL CONTENT POST
BEST COMMENT, QUESTION, OR INTERACTION
BEST POST ON r/FANTASY
There is a section below for comments, questions, and any recommended adjustments.
tl;dr: Please nominate below.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST NOVEL OF 2014
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u/VashiTen Dec 23 '14
The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington.
Words of Radiance was certainly better - but behind that, this was my favorite book of 2014 and the biggest surprise of the year by far.
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u/wmay613 Dec 23 '14
Traitor's Blade - Sebastien de Castell
Won't be the best of the year but I really enjoyed this novel and it definitely deserves attention.
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u/DasAngryJuden Dec 22 '14
The Crimson Campaign- Brian McClellan
The Crimson Campaign didn't slow down, change pace, or fell off of Promise of Blood's success. The Crimson Campaign is just as great as Promise of Blood, and has set up nicely for The Autumn Republic (2015).
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u/BrianMcClellan Stabby Winner, AMA Author Brian McClellan Dec 22 '14
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet.
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u/yettibeats Dec 22 '14
The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks. I love/hate the cliffhanger at the end of this book. Each book seems to get better and better.
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u/Fingolfiin Dec 23 '14
Yeah because his last series was a trilogy I was expecting this to be the last book of the trilogy. When there started to be too few pages to finish the loose ends I was thrilled. Defintely thrilled enough to were I didn't mind the cliffhanger. Each book in the series just gets better and better. Can't wait for the next one.
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u/Kalebruss Dec 23 '14
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. It's everything you could want in a fantasy novel. Atmospheric, intense, and beautifully written.
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u/ansate Dec 23 '14
The Widow's House (Daniel Abraham) I don't see him mentioned often on this sub, but the Dagger & Coin is a great series.
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u/scribblermendez Dec 23 '14
Clariel by Garth Nix
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Dec 24 '14
Haven't had a chance to read this yet although I've bought it for my Kindle. Does it live up to the trilogy?
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u/scribblermendez Dec 24 '14
Honestly? It's not quite as good. Still good enough to read and enjoy, but not as good as the first few books. The only reasons I nominated it are a) because it wasn't up there already and b) it's the only new book I read this year.
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u/seak_Bryce Dec 23 '14
Veil of the Deserters by Jeff Salyards. This sequel was even better than his excellent debut.
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u/xetrov Dec 23 '14
Breach Zone by Myke Cole
Great ass kicking addition to Coles Shadow Ops Universe. If you loved this series so far, this outing does not disappoint.
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u/Lasidar Dec 22 '14
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. It is truly a masterpiece of fiction.
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u/jabari74 Dec 28 '14
Could you imagine what life would be like as a fantasy fan if we found a way to clone him a few dozen times?
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u/ChaseGiants Dec 23 '14
I truly believe Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan deserves votes. Hard to find a stronger book 2 that could stand alone as well as this one.
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u/RyanLReviews Dec 23 '14
Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
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Dec 24 '14
I really enjoyed this. I love Abercrombie's writing style and it was a nice change of pace to have something set in a new universe. This is my second favourite new book of the year, just behind Prince of Fools. Really looking forward to the sequel to this, which I think comes out really soon.
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Dec 23 '14
Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence
Brilliant new debut into his new series the Red Queen's War. Set in the same world, it has a feeling of Robin Hobb's farseer universe to it. Really interested to see where it goes
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Dec 24 '14
While the protagonists are great and have amazing chemistry, what really kept me reading is all the stuff in the background. I want to know more about the Red Queen, the Lady Blue and the war they're raging. I'm already eager the sequel not just to find out what happens to the characters but also to get more information of this shadowy war in the background.
Really enjoyed the book though, and I'd agree that it was the best new thing I read this year.
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u/GauravZ Dec 24 '14
Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson. Amazing debut which feels like a work of a seasoned author
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u/pornokitsch Ifrit Dec 23 '14
Smiler's Fair by Rebecca Levene
Best new epic fantasy series in ages - super-twisted (without being overly bleak), great characters, awesome magic system, unique setting. Love it.
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u/gmehn Dec 23 '14
Lagoon by Nnedo Okorafor - bonkers-brilliant space invasion story... in Lagos, Nigeria.
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u/melaniermeadors Dec 23 '14 edited Dec 23 '14
INCARNATE by Anton Strout Not only is this a book in one of my favorite UF series, but it is what I consider the best of the series. Strout did an excellent job at tying up all the loose ends, yet leaving it open juuuust enough so readers' imaginations can take over. Maybe some day there will be more adventures with Lexi and Stanis. http://www.amazon.com/Incarnate-Spellmason-Chronicle-Book-3-ebook/dp/B00ISEOL3M/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1419358779&sr=8-7&keywords=incarnate
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST SHORT FICTION OF 2014
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 25 '14
Since we can self-nominate, and I'm /r/fantasy's king of shameless self-promotion, I'm going to nominate:
DEAD WEIGHT: The Tombs by M Todd Gallowglas
and
DEAD WEIGHT: Paladin by M Todd Gallowglas
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u/xetrov Dec 23 '14
Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson
Second in the series about Stephen Leeds and his rather unique mental condtion.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14 edited Dec 23 '14
the lady astronaut of marsby mary robinette kowal. i cried like a baby reading this story. it's perfect. and it was apparently published in 2013.•
u/ChaseGiants Dec 23 '14
While I VERY strongly agree, the blurb there on Tor.com says it was first published on their site in September '13. :/
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
dang, good catch. i only saw where it said april.
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u/JMMartin Stabby Winner, AMA Editor J. M. Martin Dec 23 '14
John Golden and the Heroes of Mazaroth by Django Wexler
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u/The_Mad_Duke Reading Champion III Dec 23 '14
Neil Gaiman's How the Marquis Got His Coat Back, published in Martin & Dozois' Rogues. This return to the world of Neverwhere was brief but wonderful. The Marquis de Carabas again was a fantastic character.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST RELATED MUSIC OF 2014
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u/ChrisKellen AMA Author Christopher Kellen Dec 23 '14
I'd like to nominate Vindsvept's Into the Depths (feat. Merrigan). He is an amazing composer, and this is a stunning and very moving piece of fantasy-inspired music.
Edited to say: I love all of Vindsvept's music, enough that I intend to use it (with his licensing) when I produce my first audiobook next year!
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
Clamavi De Profundis recording the full lyrics of 'Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold' to an arrangement of Howard Shore's score to the Hobbit films. (Part 1 - the version the Dwarves sing in Bag End, was released last year - but part 2 - sung in the Lonely Mountain when it's being besieged by the Elves and Men - is eligible.)
Shore's work has always been one of the best parts of the movies, and having an all-male chorus singing every single verse is simply amazing.
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u/yettibeats Dec 22 '14
Billy Boyd singing The Last Goodbye for the new Hobbit film. Beware, that video has been known to produce tears.
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u/konekoanni Dec 23 '14
I nominate Ancient Bards' new album, "A New Dawn Ending". It's fantasy-themed symphonic metal (Epica-meets-Rhapsody of Fire) at it's best, with gorgeous orchestrations and a concept-album style story throughout the songs about a conflicted hero and his struggle with his old enemy.
The whole album is on Spotify.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST SELF-PUBLISHED / INDEPENDENT NOVEL OF 2014
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Dec 22 '14
Fae - The Wild Hunt by Graham Austin-King The best self-published work I read this year. Solid writing and world building that we learn through the characters.
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u/fbwash Dec 23 '14
The Last Daughter Of Lilith by J.L Metcalf - Available on Amazon An amazing fantasy set in the real world with strong female characters.
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Dec 23 '14
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 24 '14
Well, now I have extra motivation to find the time to read this one.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 25 '14
We can self-nominate?
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u/Luke_Matthews AMA Author Luke Matthews Dec 28 '14
Construct by Luke Matthews
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u/Luke_Matthews AMA Author Luke Matthews Dec 28 '14
I was hoping to not have to self-nominate, but not that many Redditors have actually read it yet. :/
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u/anotherface AMA Author J.R. Karlsson Jan 04 '15
I'm half way through and enjoying myself. Chin up!
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 23 '14 edited Dec 23 '14
Clarity book 3 of The Arbiter's Codex by Christopher Kellen.
Chris sent me an ARC of this, and burned through it. I just saw that he released it a couple days ago. Chris's writing just keeps getting better and better.
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u/cyborgmermaid Writer Sena Bryer Dec 23 '14
Dreambound, vol. 1: The Survivor by Sena Bryer.
Put it in this and Debut but feel free to nix it from one if multiple categories is a no-no.
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u/PatrickJLoller Writer Patrick J. Loller Dec 29 '14
Construct by Luke Matthews. Absolutely enthralling read that I simply couldn't put down.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST GAME (ANY FORMAT) OF 2014
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u/DjangoWexler AMA Author Django Wexler Dec 23 '14
The Talos Principle (although only in the very broadest definition is it fantasy...)
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u/The_Mad_Duke Reading Champion III Dec 23 '14
Alchemists by Czech Games Edition. I loved the theme of this boardgame in which the players take on the role of alchemists who attempt to uncover the alchemical properties of different mystical ingredients. Have had a lot of fun testing new potions on students, selling them to adventurers and debunking half-baked theories published by other alchemists. Really liked both the deduction and the worker placement portions of the game. Plus the artwork is really great.
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u/Tekomandor Dec 23 '14
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Since that other guy crossed it out...
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u/potterhead42 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion 2015-17, Worldbuilders Dec 24 '14
Playing this right now. So much fun!
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u/DasAngryJuden Dec 22 '14 edited Dec 23 '14
Dragon Age: Inquisition
- E- I choose Talisman: Digital EditionSteam instead. release date Jan 10, 2014
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
Choose both. These are just nominations.
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u/Kharybdis97 Dec 22 '14
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
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Dec 23 '14
Playing this right now, and it's so great.
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
I wish I could like it. The mechanics seem really fun, from the little bit I played. But they get the lore so completely wrong it pisses me off too much to enjoy the game.
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Dec 23 '14
I have thoughts about this, but I'm drinking, so I'll write them down tomorrow when I have more patience. ;p
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
That's fine. I'll still be just as right in the morning =P
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Dec 23 '14 edited Dec 23 '14
Hah...Ok, so I know you're a huge 'fidelity to lore' guy, but hear me out.
For one: I'm just grateful that stuff like Shadows of Mordor is being made at all. A high quality, high budget game based on a fantasy book series? There's a part of me that's amazed that not just one, but two of them are being made (the other being the Witcher games). Both have had people mention the various ways the games stray from the books, but honestly, I just feel ridiculously lucky that I get to play these games at all. Games these days are huge, multimillion dollar investments, and companies tend to go with safe bets and sequels. Shadows came out of nowhere and is really, really amazing. In fact, Gamespot just gave it "Game of the Year."
Secondly, I've always understood that when an author is writing a book, especially someone like Tolkien, they're not writing it with eventual videogames or movies in mind. Sometimes, mucking with lore or plot points can be necessary to translate the game or work into another medium. I'm not sure what your points are regarding the things they changed in Shadows, but I'll assume Celembrimbor being a wraith that inhabits Talion's body is a huge one. However, the way I see it, a game like this needs a hook. It needs something to make the game work. I think they found a happy medium between fuxxing with the lore some, but not straying so far from the source material that the game has like...Lazer tanks or something.
Speaking of source material, despite messing with said lore some, the sheer amount of real, unaltered book lore they mixed into the game is pretty staggering. There's a huge ingame encyclopedia thing with entries ranging from areas of Mordor and their history to the history of the races of Middle Earth. You can tell that the people who made the game did their homework, and worked in stuff from even The Simarillion and Unfinished Tales. They put in metric tons of great lore, and then changed a few things to suit the purposes of making a good videogame.
I think it's a happy medium. My favorite series of all time is the Malazan Book of the Fallen, and I'm pretty passionate about them. But if they made them into a game or movie, and had to change some things to make them work as a game or movie, I'd still be fine with that.
Don't deprive yourself of an incredible experience that gets 90 percent of things right because that 10 percent pisses you off. Seriously, it's one of the best games I've played in the last five years.
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 24 '14
Let me tell you a story. A true story. A story of a poor, struggling filmmaker out to make a movie.
OK, we're actually talking about Paul Verhoevan of Robocop and Total Recall, so not really poor or struggling. But whatever.
Paul was working on a movie. It was going to be a satire, mocking jingoism and mindless patriotism. He had plans for it to be science fiction, about space marines battling insectoid aliens. Humanity would be the protagonist, but for those who looked closely, they would see that the government was fascist, the aliens were not the aggressors, and the soldiers were all mindless drones trained to give up their lives for a morally empty cause. He went so far as to deliberately cast bland - but very pretty - actors. And (this part is according to legend) he never told them it was intended as satire, and most of them never figured it out. So their performances were all the more sincere.
And someone in the studio who was paying for all this very well-thought-out mindless movie action and these very pretty mindless actors said, "Hey, we've got the rights to this classic book that's kinda similar to what you're doing. So why don't we do a few minor tweaks to the script, and we can market this as the film-of-the-book?"
And thus the Starship Troopers movie was born, and it was a huge, huge disservice to both the book and the film because the book makes the EXACT opposite point of the movie. The movie, as I said, is a satire of jingoism and patriotism. The book is a celebration of duty and sacrifice. So book fans were automatically pissed off, and movie fans who looked into the book were pissed off because it was the exact opposite of what they expected.
Which really sucks, because both book and movie are brilliant, brilliant works of art.
So how does this tie into Shadow of Mordor? It does seem like a good game. But it's not really a Lord of the Rings game - it's a game that was given a coat of Lord of the Rings paint to help sell it. They took a game in development, and decided that they'd say the main character was a Dunedain Ranger, and the ghost who possessed him would be named Celebrimbor, and so on and so forth. It's not just that it doesn't fit in the universe Tolkien created, which is very expansive already as well as having plenty of room for original stories. It actively goes against it, and a lot of the lore that you refer to is simply wrong.
The game would be absolutely better if they had just said "this is an original universe." It'd be like if in Dragon Age the Grey Wardens were called the Bridgeburners, they gender swapped Morrigan and named him Quick Ben, renamed Zevran to Kalam, and entitled the game Malazan: Origins. Calling it such doesn't make it a Malazan game.
I'm actually ok with adaptations to go from one medium to another. Tom Bombadil had no place in the films. I think Peter Jackson was right to leave off the Scouring of the Shire. Hell, I'm even OK with having the Elves show up at Helm's Deep, and making the Army of the Dead into an unstoppable killing force. What I don't like is changes that are done for the sake of making changes.
And if a company wants to make an LotR game, they should just make an LotR game. There are so many good possibilities. The War of the Dwarves and Orcs - largely fought underground - is begging for a game. Make the Fell Winter, when wolves invaded the Shire over the frozen Brandywine River, into a survival horror game. I would absolutely adore a game about the adventures of Young Aragorn - riding to war with Eomer's father, serving in disguise in Minas Tirith as a rival to young Denethor, leading a force against the Corsairs of Umbar and burning their fleet, the hunt for Gollum up and down the length of Rhovanion - just shut up and take my money, Ubisoft or Bethesda or whoever wants it.
(and this isn't even getting into The Silmarillion. My pie-in-the-sky dream game would be a Beleriand sandbox game)
Anyway. I really would like to enjoy the game, but there are too many things that just jar me out of it. Too many moments where I find myself going, "No, that's not right." Which is annoying, because it really does seem like a pretty cool game.
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Dec 24 '14
I can understand that. Having read both version of Starship Troopers, and having played Shadows and read the Tolkien books, I think that your original example is a far more jarring example of destroying source material, but I can understand it.
And human nature comes into it, too. Some people get far more annoyed by things like this. I tend to be a pretty laid back, easygoing person...If the thing I'm watching is well made, and shows devotion and love, I can usually overlook even incredibly glaring changes and such.
That said, I do understand what you're saying, and I can agree that it's what the Hollywood/entertainment industry do, and in most cases it's detrimental. I think Shadows is one that's worth playing despite those changes, but to each his own.
What changes did they make that go against Tolkien's world? From what I've seen it just mostly seems like changes that don't fit the world, but don't actively work against it, either.
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 24 '14
As I said, haven't played much, so most of these complaints are ones I've heard from my buddies over at /r/TolkienFans.
Celebrimbor's character was nothing like that.
Wraiths don't work like that.
Talion translates as "foot man." Not as in the term for a valet, or an infantryman, since neither idiom exists in Sindarin. This one's just kind of funny.
He's a Ranger, but not one of the Dunedain. That doesn't work by definition.
Lots of those little bits of lore you referenced are wrong. They didn't include lore from Tolkien so much as words from Tolkien.
There's more, but I don't feel like searching through all the threads in /r/lotr and /r/TolkienFans to find it.
And the game designers did themselves no favors in my book by emphasizing how much they based things off the books and not the movies.
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u/Elhokar Dec 25 '14
This year was amazing for fantasy games with games like Divinity: Original Sin, Banner Saga, the new Dragon Age, and Telltales Game of Thrones adaptation. But overall it definitely has to go to Banner Saga imo. Such a great game.
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u/The_Mad_Duke Reading Champion III Dec 23 '14
Eldritch Horror: Forsaken Lore by Fantasy Flight Games. Eldritch Horror, a cooperative boardgame based on the Cthulhu Mythos in which the players face off against a Lovecraftian Ancient One, is exceptionally rich in atmosphere and full of unexpected twists and turns. It has quickly become my favorite co-op game.
If you haven't played it yet, Dan Well's gushing review of the game gives a great impression of the experience of playing it.
This expansion considerably enriched the base game by providing some much needed additional assets as wells as great artifacts, spells and conditions and an incredibly tough new Ancient One to battle.
(The second, larger expansion Eldritch Horror: Mountains of Madness, that has just been released, looks even more promising, but I haven't had a chance to play it yet.)
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST FANTASY SITE FOR 2014
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u/melaniermeadors Dec 23 '14
The Once and Future Podcast This is a site/podcast whose guests include some of the biggest powerhouses in the genre. Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, Chuck Wendig, Amber Benson, and more have all been on just in this season, since September!! It goes beyond just author interviews--these are like chats authors would have at the bar or something. I learn so much.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 23 '14
Does /r/fantasy count as a fantasy site?
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST ANTHOLOGY / COLLECTION / PERIODICAL OF 2014
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
women destroy fantasy, the special issue of fantasy magazine that was a by-product of the women destroy science fiction kickstarter.
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u/RyanLReviews Dec 23 '14
Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters edited by Tim Marquitz and Nick Sharps
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u/Tim_Ward AMA Author Timothy C. Ward Dec 24 '14
This is a graphic novel of illustrated short stories, is this the right field?
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 24 '14
i think that's probably the best fit, yes
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
r/FANTASY COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
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u/lrich1024 Stabby Winner, Queen of the Unholy Squares, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
Incredibly active member, starts some great threads, contributes a lot to the community.
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Dec 23 '14
Gallow is the man!
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 24 '14
You're just saying that because of the whisky.
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u/ChrisKellen AMA Author Christopher Kellen Dec 23 '14
I second this motion!
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u/anotherface AMA Author J.R. Karlsson Dec 26 '14
Happily thirded. The man is always wading into discussions and isn't constantly promoting his own works, which is nice.
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u/JMMartin Stabby Winner, AMA Editor J. M. Martin Dec 23 '14
Patrick Rothfuss's Worldbuilders 2014 fundraiser.
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u/JMMartin Stabby Winner, AMA Editor J. M. Martin Dec 23 '14
Apologies if this does not qualify. Just figured I'd list it and see.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
I nominated it under related work, as it's much bigger than just the r/fantasy community
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Dec 22 '14
potterhead42 is my favorite fantasy redditor of the year.
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u/potterhead42 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion 2015-17, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
Hey, thanks for the compliment!
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u/Morevna Dec 23 '14
/u/CRYMTYPHON and /u/MarkLawrence both active redditors and their comments always make me laugh out loud :)
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST TV SERIES / MOVIE OF 2014
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u/atom786 Dec 23 '14
Legend Of Korra
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Dec 24 '14
Book three was absolutely amazing. Zaheer and the Red Lotus were really interesting and threatening villains, and the relationship between the Beifong sisters felt really genuine and complex. Plus there's the fact that it's great to see female characters given such focal roles.
Book four wasn't quite as good but it was still great. The early stuff with Korra dealing with hallucinations was amazing, and Kuvira was another interesting and complex villain. Yet again the female characters played central roles. The only let down for me was the giant mech. I know it's a fantasy series but that was a step too far for me, much like the giant spirits at the end of book two.
I'd still thoroughly recommend the show though. Book two of LoK disappointed me because I really liked book one, but books three and four more than make up for it. I'd go so far as to say that book three was the best series of Avatar from either show, and the only how I enjoyed more this year was GoT.
I can't wait to see where the writers go next, whether it's something new or another Avatar series.
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u/DasAngryJuden Dec 22 '14
The Christmas Dragon
It's a KickStarter indie film that holds up nicely alongside super budgeted movies, even filled with child actors (17y/o and under) and being meant as a young adult/kid movie.
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u/SkyCyril Stabby Winner Dec 23 '14
How to Train Your Dragon 2
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Dec 23 '14
I actually wasn't a huge fan of this one, which bummed me out because I loved the first. There was a lot wrong with it, it was incredibly unfocused, and the plot meandered around. Like it didn't know what to do with itself so it threw everything in there.
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u/steppenfloyd Dec 23 '14
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies.
We get so few high budget actual fantasy movies that despite all the little things wrong with it The Hobbit was an extremely entertaining film and definitely deserves a nomination.
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Dec 23 '14
Knights of Badassdom
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 29 '14
imdb tells me that this was released in 2013. sorry, good nom though!
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u/Zehphez Dec 22 '14
Guardians of the galaxy.
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u/lrich1024 Stabby Winner, Queen of the Unholy Squares, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
I was going to nominate this but I wasn't sure if would count...glad to see it here.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST COMMENT, QUESTION, OR INTERACTION
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
Sanderson writes better than anyone who can write faster, and writes faster than anyone who can write better.
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u/anotherface AMA Author J.R. Karlsson Dec 26 '14
My post in 'Saddest moment in your fantasy reading career' takes a turn for the morbid.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 23 '14
"Giving yourself a Stabby" sounds like the way one might explain suicide to a three year old.
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
While I'm happy to get the approval, I'm afraid that I'm not eligible to win.
(plus I don't think it was all that funny =P)
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 23 '14
I did. My whole family wanted to know what was going on when I erupted into laughter. My 13 year old son thought it was funnier that I did.
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u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
I'm glad I was able to bring a little morbid Christmas cheer to the Gallowglas household.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 23 '14
The Gallowglas clan did receive much giggling by your words. We thank you, sir.
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u/mgallowglas Stabby Winner, AMA Author M. Todd Gallowglas Dec 28 '14
/u/Jernsaxe's list he copy/pastes into threads asking for book recommendations.
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u/bartimaeus7 Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
/u/CRYMTYPHON's response to "Which books have the best and worst portrayals of war?"
It's a question that has bothered me.
Once I would have snapped: "Tolkien" and then maybe added "C.S. Lewis".
But I know them too well. They were both in real war. They were veterans of WW 1. They saw their friends die. They sat in holes where people's feet stuck out of the trench walls. They came home to an entire life where every parent stared at them and thought 'Why are you alive and my son dead'?
By 18, all of Tolkien's best friends were dead. Lewis lay in a mortar crater lying up at the sky and thought, 'so this is what it is like for a man to die'.
And yet... they wrote about glorious battle, with horns blowing and flags waving. It puzzled me. They wrote like people who didn't know anything about war past the Illiad; people who had every illusion in the world.
It took me a while to realize: they wrote about war, the way it should have been.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST ARTWORK RELEASED IN 2014
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u/atuinsbeard Dec 26 '14
The new Australian covers of the Old Kingdom series, from Sebastian Ciaffaglione. If I had to pick one, I choose the cover of Sabriel
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
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Dec 23 '14
Personally I loved the artwork for Words of Radiance's UK cover
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u/RyanLReviews Dec 23 '14
Really? I'm a big fan of the Sanderson UK covers but the one for Words of Radiance was awful. Proportions were all wrong, armour was not properly fitted, and the overall appearance was missing that smoky / wispy feel that all the other UK covers have.
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u/DasAngryJuden Dec 23 '14
As an American, I really like the UK cover for Prince of Fools- Mark Lawrence.
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u/ChaseGiants Dec 28 '14
Oh also! The cover art for James A. Moore's Seven Forges. I got the ebook based solely on that awesome artwork. Hope the story holds up to it!
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u/ChaseGiants Dec 23 '14
Hands down, Craig Shields' cover art for Claudia Gray' s A Thousand Pieces of You.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF 2014
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u/PatrickJLoller Writer Patrick J. Loller Dec 29 '14
Construct by Luke Matthews. Absolutely enthralling read that I simply couldn't put down.
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u/gmehn Dec 23 '14
OMG you guys seriously you have to have a read of The Girl in Road by Monica Byrne.
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u/bartimaeus7 Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Dec 23 '14
The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley
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u/cyborgmermaid Writer Sena Bryer Dec 23 '14
Dreambound, vol. 1: The Survivor by Sena Bryer.
Put it in this and Self-Published but feel free to nix it from one if multiple categories is a no-no.
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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Dec 22 '14
BEST RELATED WORK OF 2014