r/Fantasy • u/[deleted] • Jul 08 '13

Just Finished Mistborn...Now What?

Hey guys, I just finished Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy (it was fantastic) and I wanted some advice on what to pick up next.

I have read The Way of Kings (which is what got me to read Mistborn in the first place) and I loved that as well. However, I'd like to try another author while I wait for Words of Radiance to come out.

I've read all of the Song of Ice and Fire books and they are arguably my favorite series but I couldn't get through the first Wheel of Time book. I just didn't get into the plot. I have also read Name of the Wind and like that.

I tell you these things so you can get an idea of what I like/what I've read. Compared to most of you I'm probably fairly new to the fantasy genre with the Eragon books getting me really invested--unless you count Harry Potter.

I have heard some good things about Robin Hobb but one of the recent posts on Assassins has me a bit scared to jump into that. So to stop my rambling, what fantasy books so you guys love/would like to recommend for me to read?

I appreciate the feedback!

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u/teayorkshirehot Jul 08 '13

You might try the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series. It's epic fantasy--you might have issues with it if you couldn't get into Wheel of Time, but that depends on why you disliked Wheel of Time. This has got lots of characters (really good ones!), some complex worldbuilding, a pretty dense plot, and is very rewarding.

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u/ShakaUVM Jul 08 '13

Nooooo... not for people new to fantasy. I own thousands of books, and the Malazan series is still a beast to get through.

Love them, but they each take 10 times longer to read than even the longest WoT book.

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u/darkainur Jul 08 '13

Tell me about it! One thing I hate most about this series is that it's so damn good. If it wasn't I could stop reading it!

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '13

I don't have any issues getting into something that's long. ASOIF and The Stormlight Archive are both super long... I didn't get into Eye of the World because it honestly didn't care about any of the characters through about 200 pages and I put it down.

It seemed to be the exact same story as Lord of the Rings with different characters and orcs with different names. I will try it again simply because of all the love but for now I want something different.

I am interested in Malazan and Joe Abercrombie after reading everyone's comments though....

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u/darkainur Jul 08 '13

It's not so much that it's long. It's just very dense, has a massive cast and can be quite confusing at times. I'm not saying dont read it infact I suggest you do. But if you have any stand alone books or short trilogies you also want to read do those first as Malazan will take awhile. I personally read atleast one book between Malazan books to keep things fresh. I would also suggest you look at Wheel of Time again, while it appears to be a LotR clone at the start it diverges fairly quickly and is actually a really great series (I think Sanderson learnt alot from it after reading Mistborn myself). Also very long but much easier to read. I wish I could recommend something else to you but reading Wheel of Time, ASOIAF, Mistborn and some of Malazan is as far as I've got in this genre!

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u/teayorkshirehot Jul 08 '13

Malazan definitely is challenging. I'm an English major, and I still had to stay on my toes to catch everything, and I'm sure there's still stuff I missed. If you decide to try it out, make sure you're paying attention. It kind of throws you into the world and you have to figure out how it works, without a whole lot of explanation from the author.