I have a few online friends who’ve been prominent in shaping my reading list. A bunch of them happen to be high and epic fantasy readers, so guess what they tend to recommend me? Of course, I have tried telling them that my attention span couldn’t possibly take constant high fantasy reading, but they’re merciless. Merciless I tell ya! That said, I have other friends who’d rather recommend me series. Which are just as bad as high fantasy, especially when the series goes on and on and on, and some of them are as epic as a climb on Mt. Fuji. Not that I mind; usually I enjoy the books they recommend me, so it’s all good.
But anyway, here’s my list:
Top Ten Books People Have Been Telling Me I Must Read
The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle) by Patrick Rothfuss – This has been on my list since forever. I will get to it next year…I hope.
The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive) by Brandon Sanderson – I’m still in the middle of finishing a Sanderson series, but I’m told this series is his best yet. I already enjoy Mistborn thoroughly, so I’m kind of excited at all the stops he’s planning to do with this series.
The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan – Fourteen ginormous books, but hey, at least it’s complete. Not that this is a cake-walk or anything. I started the graphic novel for this, but I probably need to get the actual book and start this.
The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next) by Jasper Fforde – The premise alone should have sent me to get a hold of these books for reading. It just sounds so awesome. And this is coming from someone who wasn’t really fond of Jane Eyre.
Magician: Apprentice (Riftwar Saga) by Raymond E. Feist – It might not have been a good idea that I read Daughter of the Empire first, because I’m not sure I want to step into the other side of the Rift when I enjoyed the Game being played in Mara’s world so much. But this was always on the list whenever I asked for recommendations.
Assassin’s Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb – Also another popular recommendation for me. Also on my list of things to read that’s going to take me ages to get to because I’m a mess and can’t keep my to-read list on a tamer level.
Fire Study (Study series) by Maria V. Snyder – I get glared at when I tell people I haven’t caught up to a series I started and loved. Snyder’s Study series is one of my favorites, but I still haven’t picked up the most recent one.
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow – I’m always out to find an anthology to read, so when a friend threw this title my way, I obviously had to put it on my list. She knows me too well.
Inda by Sherwood Smith – This recommendation came a long while back. I own a copy of the book, but I always seem to have trouble getting into it, no matter how hard I’ve tried. I don’t know, this is one of those books I’m more than willing to push back until I run out of things to read (which is never).
The Black Prism (Lightbringer) by Brent Weeks – Uh, I still have his Night Angel Trilogy to finish, so…this might take longer to get to. I did adore The Way of Shadows, so I’m trying to get to this by next year as well.
I clearly have my work cut out for me here. This list alone could probably last me all year if all I was doing was reading series or high fantasy.
Story and Somnomancy 
Merciless. *snicker* oh that is so bad. I’ve read one completely through (WoT) and have all of them. When I moved they filled up a box all by themselves. (Yes, I started the series before it was done and remember sometimes waiting years between books. Wait for a paperback when the hardback is out? No way.)
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Haha, yeah, I think I’m going to read the WoT books via Kindle, because lugging those tomes around every time I take a ride on the train is going to be all manner of annoying.
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Who needs reasonable lengths in TBR lists, anyway?
Since the Jasper Fforde series goes through a variety of books, not only Jane Eyre, I can recommend it, too. And it is a fascinating concept, isn’t it? 🙂
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I’m only surprised I’m just finding out about this series now, but yay for a new author to try out at some point!
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I actually had a great internal debate on whether or not I should skip the Mistborn series initially; which is akin to many other shows I’ve watched and not crazily unique for me (on superficial value at least), and buy Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive. Still debating it but man 1k+ words each? I’m basically dying a little bit on the inside (as you can tell, me and behemoth reads don’t usually get along until after I’ve finished enjoying them). Le sigh.
Cheers,
joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts
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Sanderson’s a writing machine, that’s for sure. For me, the Mistborn series plays out like an adult version of Avatar: The Last Airbender with the animation of nitty gritty Hellsing. I say Avatar because the magic system in Mistborn is just as comprehensive and well-planned out to fit the story (Sanderson wraps his metal magics up in a nice and tidy bow, too).
I haven’t decided whether or not I want to start The Way of Kings any time soon, or to go to another one of his series. In any case, the Stormlight Archive’s a planned 10-book series, so by the end of it all, it’s going to be fun wading through 10 1,000+ page novels… (completely outstrips G.R.R. Martin in epicness, haha).
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Any bets on whether or not Sanderson will finish the remaining 8 books of SA before GRRM finishes ASOIAF? (Not seriously of course). But that’s pretty unreal if it’s planned to be 10 book. I guess that’s a beast you would be best read as it came out than bingeing it. ~10k words sounds way deadly.
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Lol tough call. Sanderson’s known for writing beasts on a short amount of time (I swear he has like…several projects going every year). It’ll be interesting to see how much he gets out before the last ASoIaF book comes to market.
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and by 10k words I mean 10k pages***
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