The need to read.

JemothSkarii

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Well, as I've been trying to write my own book I've been slowly getting the rust off of me and getting back into reading. I used to do it voraciously when I was younger then just sorta stopped reading fiction after a while. Then a year ago I knocked down all the Spice and Wolf novels in a week and a half and I've been working my way back to my old self.

However, since my reading list hasn't been huge recently I don't have much to recommend. I've mainly been going through literary classics; recently finished Dante's Inferno, Alice in Wonderland (along with Through the Looking Glass) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is now easily a favorite of mine, and I'm not usually into... that.

So you could try those. I've also been reading 'A Crucible of Souls' by some chap called Mitchell Hogan. Pretty neat, picked it up because it seemed like magic heavy fantasy and that's what I'm attempting to write. Oh, I'm also reading American Psycho, because I want to see how good the book is.

... If you guys could recommend me some books that would be lovely. Especially if it's Fantasy.
 

Dalisclock

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Fractral said:
Arthur C Clarke has some good and some bad. I think as long as you avoid his sequels you should be fine; Rendevous with Rama and Childhood's End are personal favorites.


Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep are both compelling reads, mainly because he's very good at creating believable but totally alien aliens.

Also, obligatory Brandon Sanderson mention. He's the best Fantasy writer of the past decade at least. Try Mistborn (the first trilogy) and see if you like his style; after that there's literally a whole universe more stuff. Elantris is very good, Warbreaker is pretty decent and The Stormlight Archives are well written if glacial paced Epic Fantasy.
Gonna second all of these. I'm currently reading a Deepness in the sky after reading a Fire Upon the Deep and am really digging Vinge's work.

Clarke wrote some good stuff and also some not so good stuff. His earlier stuff seems to be better, because he seemed to become a cranky old dude when he got older, which seeped into his work(and not for the better). Avoid anything that he co-authored with Gentry Lee(or more like, stuck his name on the cover while Gentry wrote it), or at least proceed with caution. It's particulary weird because Clarke became a cranky old atheist(so much that it annoys me as an agnostic) as he got older and yet Lee seems very much a religious fundementialist, so I can't imagine how that pairing started.

Mistborne Trilogy is good and I've only read the first book of the Stormlight archive, which I enjoyed. The issue with that is that he's only finished book 2....of a projected 10 book series. Each book so far has been 1000 pages long. So you don't have to be in any hurry here... I just hope he doesn't die or give up before he tells the epic story he has planned.
 

Squilookle

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This thread is just begging for someone to make a meme for it out of Top Gun. Helmet bumping and all.
 

veloper

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For scifi or fantasy with more literary qualities I recommend The Shadow of the Torturer and the rest of the New Sun books.

For harder(no space magic) scifi with a good story, I recommend The Windup Girl and The City & the City.

This stuff is too hardcore for most of you guys though.
If you want easy, page turner space opera instead, nothing beats the Vorkosigan saga. Start with Shards of Honor. Some of the themes in the series should also appeal to the pinkos we have over here.
 

Cowabungaa

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Zhukov said:
I don't remember much about the prose or the setting. My sole, overriding memory of the book is Kvothe resembling something I would have come up with at the age of 13. And I'm pretty sure 13-year-old me would have chosen a better name.
Haha, you've read it then.

Yeah even as a fan I won't ever defend Kvothe as a whole. He's definitely the weakest part of the books. What gripped me on my first reading was the world building. The stories within stories within stories, the mysteries, everything is so alive. There's a vibrancy and originality at play that I hadn't read in a fantasy novel since Tolkien, except that it did away with Tolkien's linguistic masturbation. It really helped that I was reading it while listening to the Fable 2 soundtrack and it all just clicked. It made me barely notice Kvothe.

But honestly, after a second reading? Fuck that guy.

What kept it bearable during my second reading is that you know you'll get your wish. He is going to get fucked; lose his magic, lose almost all of his friends, having to go into hiding, possible even having a hand in causing the the demonic crap that seems to threaten the world. It's just a problem that Rothfuss spends two entire books building him up, then having to stuff all the falling into one book. He should've spread that better to make Kvothe feel more like an actual person.

It's why in hindsight I really recommend the Gentlemen Bastard books over the Kingkiller Chronicles these days. While it might not equal the Kingkiller Chronicles in world building, it does at least rival it. But it makes up for that by having vastly, vastly more enjoyable and interesting characters. Skilled as Locke might be in conning, he's as often powerless, overeager, and plain stupid as he is clever and skillful. Next to that there's a cast of side-characters that, unlike in the Kingkiller Chronicles, aren't just two-dimensional tools for the main characters. They're as important and as human as the main character.

So yeah, I say give The Lies of Locke Lamora a whirl if you want. It's a quick read and 'only' about 500 pages, unlike the tomes that fantasy novels often want to be. It's fantasy that doesn't really feel like fantasy too, that might be nice if you feel a little wary about fantasy. It's nice to not read about The One who has to Save Everything Ever from the Big Evil for once.
 

Daniel Ferguson

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I read Terry Pratchett's collected non-fiction, A Slip of the Keyboard, in a day. I NEVER do that.

The Ex-Heroes series by Peter Clines is alright. It's zombies vs superheroes. I read the latest in 2 days. That happens slightly more often, but still not often.

Shane Kuhn does a pretty decent assassin's handbook/memoir novel with Kill Your Boss and its sequel Shoot The Messenger. Guess how many days it took to read each of them?
 
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If you're not well-versed in sci-fi, then I can't recommend Asimov's Foundation trilogy enough. There are actually five novels, but the last two were written decades after the first three, and are less about finishing a story and more about tying everything he ever wrote into one universe. At least try the first one. It's actually more political intrigue than science fiction adventure, but sweet Lord is it a great book. You should also read his Robot novels, another brilliant bit of intrigue and world-building.

I don't know if you've read any Douglas Adams, it's hard to imagine you haven't, but just in case, read Hitchhikers Guide (duh), and then read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Classic absurd merrymaking.

Also, it's hard for me to believe that any nerd hasn't read Dune. But if you haven't, you must do so now. Right now. It's my favorite book of all time and every literate person should read it.
 

Fappy

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Zhukov said:
Cowabungaa said:
The downsides is that the main character, Kvothe (worst name in literary history), feels a bit like a Mary Sue.
A bit like a Mary Sue?

*sputter*

A bit?!

It was awhile since I attempted Name of the Wind so correct me if I'm wrong on any of the following points.

So, we're talking about Kvothe.

Kvothe the amazingly good looking guy with awesome exotic hair (crimson as I recall) and awesome exotic eyes (green was it?).

Kvothe who is both the best swordsman and the best magic user of all time.

Kvothe who owns the most special sword with a special name and forged with special stuff.

Kvothe who is taught to be the best lover in the world by an angel.

Kvothe who is considered a revered figure of legend within his own lifetime.

Kvothe who is literally a natural prodigy at every single thing he turns his hand to. He's effortlessly good at everything.

Yeah. Just a bit of a Mary Sue.

Just a bit.

A tiny wee bit.

I don't remember much about the prose or the setting. My sole, overriding memory of the book is Kvothe resembling something I would have come up with at the age of 13. And I'm pretty sure 13-year-old me would have chosen a better name.
Damn, is it really that bad? It's only been suggested to me >.>
 

Cowabungaa

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Fappy said:
Damn, is it really that bad? It's only been suggested to me >.>
In a way, yes. The second book, The Wise Man's Fear, more so than the first as in there he really gets some of the superspecialawesome skills, the sword fighting thing being the most egregious example. The love making thing was a fae by the way, not an angel, but yeah that happens as well. Both are, luckily, not really spoilers either. It's a little toned down by admitting that he sometimes got incredibly lucky, had his friends bolster his reputation or it being shown that he couldn't have done something on his own. And it's still, at least for me, a little mitigated by the knowledge that he will fall, and fall deep, no matter how awesome he seems. It's something that's pointed out on the first pages of the first book.

But I'll stand by my feeling that if you love fantastic world building, original light-fantasy worlds and a story and world that feels so so deeply alive and vivid, the Kingkiller Chronicles are a worthy read. But yes, for that you'll have to be able to deal with a Mary Sue character. Know that he'll get screwed up big time though and you'll be fine. And at least he isn't 'The One' either who saves everyone 'just coz'.

If you can't look past that however I'll stand by my recommendation of the Gentlemen Bastards books, starting with The Lies of Locke Lamora. It doesn't feel as vivid as the Kingkiller Chronicles, but it comes pretty close and you get way, way better characters in return with an equally original light-fantasy world. The kind of people that, when faced with an incredibly daunting task, don't always succeed because they happen to be the protagonists.
TheVampwizimp said:
Also, it's hard for me to believe that any nerd hasn't read Dune. But if you haven't, you must do so now. Right now. It's my favorite book of all time and every literate person should read it.
It's interesting how some people question Dune for having too much purple prose, but I love it exactly for its wide, almost feudal language. It fitted the setting and the kind of people involved perfectly. Man, Dune was like linguistic pornography, massaging my eyeballs with its deliciousness. Remember that one dinner scene early in the book, when they've just arrived on Arrakis? Only afterwards I realized I was holding my breath the entire time during that scene.

It does devolve into esoterics later in the series though, which is sort of disappointing.
 

Smygskytt

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rcs619 said:
I can help with some sci-fi :D

So... first I'd recommend David Weber's "Honorverse" series. It follows the career and adventures of Honor Harrington, a space-navy officer in a small, out of the way star kingdom in the year 4000 or so. It's harder than a lot of more mainstream sci-fi (Trek, wars, etc) without being so hard that it can't have style or flair. The ship-to-ship combat is actually reminiscent of modern naval combat. Long-range missile vollies, with electronic warfare and point-defense as the main forms of defense. If you take a hit, it's going to hurt.

The first two novels in the series are actually available in full, for free, off the publisher's site. Book 1 here: http://www.baen.com/on-basilisk-station.html and Book 2 (my favorite in the series) here: http://www.baen.com/the-honor-of-the-queen.html


I'd also recommend David Weber's "Safehold" series. It's kind of hard to describe without spoiling the entire premise, but... it's a military and political drama, set in a world with 1700-1800 level technology, with some very strong sci-fi elements hovering just behind the scenes. "Off Armageddon Reef" is the first book in that series.
I personally have a huge problem with those authors from the "Baen clique". First, Weber pissed me off something immensely with the way he shipped the latest books in the HH series without even writing a coherent plot. I am not even exagerating, there is zero catharsis at the end. Sure there is a stupendous amount of plotting about how the baddies' nation goes the way off the Soviet Union, but that's just fluff. The story consists of several dozens of characters and describes just exactly how they deliver the mercy kill to the hostile nation. But, try writing character development with that manny characters. It's impossible

The earlier stories work because they are the McDonalds of Sci-Fi. This is no even mentioning Mary Sue, because there are much greater problems with the stories. Honor Harrington is basically Dan Brown IN SPACE!!!

rcs619 said:
Not really sci-fi, but Eric Flit's 1634 series is also pretty cool. Basically, an entire West Virginia town from the year 2000 suddenly gets transplanted smack-dab into the middle of Germany during the 30 years war. "1634" is the first book of the series, and it's split off into a ton of different sub-settings and side-stories through collaborations with other authors.
Flint has managed to put himself unforgivably on my shit-list with that series. It began great by showing great inteligent rednecks who even are unionizers. That gave me hope after I heard a story about a friend of a friend who lived in Virginia (and we're talking Fairfax here), whose parents' ideas of parenting were out of the old testament. In any case, Flint really fucked up Swedish history. What he does is create a kind of narrative about a new American revolution, with Gustavus Adolphus as Washington.

Fuck, I first thought Flint was a sane guy, but his fan-fiction is about as left as president Bush rolling out his tanks. Swedish history doesn't see those kings as in the right, they just existed. There was nothing noble about one of the bloodiest wars of European history, and since Amsterdam becomes a big part of the later series, you can add the longest war to the list too. The series never even mentions the good part about Gustavus - he was a great city founder (Gothenburg, one of the cities he founded, is the second largest city of Sweden).



The only Baen author I enjoy is David Drake because he values character above plot. He is 'Nam vet who returned as a complete wreck, and that adds a certain grimness to his outlook. You should start with his RCN series, the first book is With The Lightnings and is available free here: http://www.baen.com/with-the-lightnings.html
The science in the series doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't matter one iota. All the descriptions paints a real feeling: gritty diesel engines, worn steel and small craft with foul engines in the harbour. It's Saigon, not Silicon Valley.

The best part is the protagonist Adelle. Drake saw how Patrick O'Brian created fantastic military adventure fiction by splitting the usual unbeatable hero character into two persons: one generic warfighter that drives the plot, and one interesting character allowed to be introspective. But where O'Brian's Stephen came from a man who left his home because of a broken love-life, Drake's Adele is more interesting. Her entire family was excecuted for high treason, and she clearly suffers from undiagnosed autism. How common is either of those? And no, it isn't a revenge story, it is just how things are.
 

Zhukov

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Fappy said:
Damn, is it really that bad? It's only been suggested to me >.>
Aw, don't let me put you off giving it a try.

It's just a pet hate of mine.

The books are liked by many people who I thought were smart enough to know better of otherwise excellent taste. No doubt they have their reasons for liking them. There's every chance that you'll end up as one of those people.

Just so long as you can avoid imagining the author frantically licking his life-sized bronze statue of Kvothe between each paragraph.
 
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Barbas said:
At Home, by Bill Bryson. It has everything. Everything. Toilet evolution, stair measurements, fork use, spice trading, everything. More than I can possibly remember. The man is fascinating and possibly the very best kind of insane - the kind that good professors and lecturers are made from.

EDIT: Possibly the very best thing to read in the bathroom, praise not given lightly.
One of my favourite books by him. Currently, I'm neck-deep in One Summer: America 1927, his latest work and another gem. Did you know that one of, if not the most destructive natural disaster in American history was a flood in 1927 caused by incredible amounts of storms that flooded 10 different states from many rivers? Or that Calvin Coolidge took up the job of coordinating relief efforts, even though he had no jurisdiction as Secretary of Commerce, to further his own legend as the Great Humanitarian (and that, incidentally, he apparently hated actually going to the affected areas and seeing the poor and deprived, preferring to pose for photo ops then head straight back to his office)?

I don't know a great deal of American history, nor do I particularly care for it, but Bryson does a great job making it come to life. I've always loved his ability to fill his books with a thousand tiny biographies, and One Summer is no exception. The big stories are the Flood, Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic, the anarchist bombings and Babe Ruth, but it hits on everything from the many other aviators working at the time (and what cads and heroes they were), the negative eugenics program, Broadway and the creation of talkies and television, and the most famous murder trial you've never heard of.
 

Spade Lead

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Zhukov said:
Actually, I have read bugger all sci-fi. Every time I browse the sci-fi section of a bookstore I get put off by all the crap that looks like the sci-fi equivalent of D&D fanfiction.

It seems to just be one of those genres where you have to dig through a lot of junk to find the good stuff.

So if there's anything you know of that you didn't mention because you thought it was too obvious, by all means, throw it at me.
I would recommend Tom Clancy (even his new stuff written by the other authors in his name is great), and if you like his story telling style David Weber is the Sci-Fi version of Tom Clancy, and his Honor Harrington books are great. Also, there are a series of books started by Keith Laumer called Bolo. It is about sentient megatanks (this recommendation came from this very site, and those two words had me ecstatic to try them, and they are absolutely my favorite series of books ever). David Weber wrote two of those as well, so if you like his work, check them out. Along the same vein of Bolos is David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series. There aren't sentient tanks, but the whole "Collection of short stories in one book" idea is there, as is the whole theme of life in the military at its grittiest and most heroic. Be warned, a lot of those stories had me on the verge of tears because they were very well written and captured the lifestyle very well.

Next would be my favorite series that is still being written, Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files. Urban Fantasy, which means wizards with handguns. Yes, they are mysteries, but I think you will agree that they are still fucking awesome.

Tied with Dresden Files is Taylor Anderson's The Destroyerman series, which is an alternate universe novel that begins in world war 2 and moves onto a planet in which Dinosaurs never went extinct.

I am in the middle of a complete read through of all the old EU Star Wars novels because since they discontinued the series I am finally done collecting them and can read the entire saga from beginning to end.

Oh crap, I forgot to mention Philip K. Dick, another recommendation I got here. His books are all super short, and really intense.
 

twistedmic

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I've enjoyed the 'Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne' trilogy so far (one and two have been published, the third and comes out March 15th)by Brian Staveley.
Link to Amazon page for book one here-http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076533643X?keywords=chronicles%20of%20the%20unhewn%20throne&qid=1455415256&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
I also enjoyed a good hunk of the 'Safehold' series (haven't gotten around to finishing it yet) by David Weber.
http://www.amazon.com/Off-Armageddon-Reef-Safehold-Book-ebook/dp/B000Q67KJ2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1455415502&sr=8-1-spell
Another good way of find books you might like is to check Amazon.com for a book you enjoyed and checking out the recomendations list for that particular book. It's really helpful if you have a kindle so yo can download samples to try before you buy the whole book, or return it for a refund if you buy it and don't like it enough to finish.
 

InfinityCubed

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Boneshaker, by Cherie priest. Its sequel, Dreadnought, is also brilliant. The Clockwork Century series went downhill a bit after that, with Ganymede easily being the weakest, followed by something of a return to form in The Inexplicables. Haven't been able to read the final book yet.
 

rcs619

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Smygskytt said:
I personally have a huge problem with those authors from the "Baen clique". First, Weber pissed me off something immensely with the way he shipped the latest books in the HH series without even writing a coherent plot. I am not even exagerating, there is zero catharsis at the end. Sure there is a stupendous amount of plotting about how the baddies' nation goes the way off the Soviet Union, but that's just fluff. The story consists of several dozens of characters and describes just exactly how they deliver the mercy kill to the hostile nation. But, try writing character development with that manny characters. It's impossible
Honestly I thought the Haven arc was good overall. Especially up to book 8 or so (whenever the big prison-break is). The Haven side of the story was a lot more interesting than the Manticorans most of the time, I thought. Manticore had the main cast, but besides that it wound up just being a lot of petty political games. With Haven, you had a lot of decent, honorable people forced into the service of a horrible, oppressive, murderous regime, and they gotta figure out how to do their jobs without violating their principles, and in a way that doesn't get them executed by the commissars that have been attached to their commands. Theissman in particular was great. Love that guy.

I do think that character-creep has become an issue though, and Manpower Inc isn't nearly as interesting an antagonist as Haven was. Haven had good people in a bad situation. There was ambiguity and nuance. Manpower are 100% definitely-evil space-eugenicists who just want to take over because they're evil space-eugenicists who have been plotting their master-plan for a thousand years.

Haven also had something like a 10-book run as the main antagonists. They had plenty of time to be built up. Manpower just, kind of got brought in out of left-field to suddenly be the new badguys, and oh, they're actually a way bigger threat than Haven ever was and have been secretly manipulating just about every incident in the series from behind the scenes one way or another.

I kind of hope he finishes the thing within the next few books, because the bloat is definitely beginning to show and it is starting to drag a bit. Then again, in the original draft Honor was supposed to die in the battle of Manticore, and then the Manpower arc would start with a timeskip and focus on her kids and (presumably) a new batch of officers from their generation. Weber kind of gave into fan-pressure, and I wonder if some variant of the original plan might not have been better.

To be fair, Safehold is kind of having similar issues. The scope has expanded to such a degree that the story is starting to become just a bit unwieldy. But he's definitely finishing Safehold within the next 2 books according to him, so I think it'll be fine.
 

twistedmic

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Cowabungaa said:
Fappy said:
Damn, is it really that bad? It's only been suggested to me >.>
In a way, yes. The second book, The Wise Man's Fear, more so than the first as in there he really gets some of the superspecialawesome skills, the sword fighting thing being the most egregious example. The love making thing was a fae by the way, not an angel, but yeah that happens as well.
To make it even better, if I'm remembering correctly, it was a succubus Fae and he was good enough (or used magic) to begin with to beat her at her own game while on her own turf (i.e. out-humped a sex demon/elf in her pleasure cave).
 

Legendsmith

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votemarvel said:
I can easily recommend three books by David Gemmell. Legend, The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend, and The Legend of Deathwalker.
I am so pleased to see someone mention Gemmell in a recommended reading thread. I second this reccomendation; Gemmell's fantasy is lively and engaging. His Rigante Series is another good read. The first book init is "Sword in the Storm."

His Drenai saga (no relation to WoW, the name predates Warcraft) is another good read. Votemarvel's recommendations are part of the Drenai saga. Similar to Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the Drenai saga contains sub-series within it.

Why are the Drenai books so good? Well, their writing is excellent. The themes are well defined, and meaningful.
On top of that, he doesn't drag things out like George R. R Martin, and many other authors do. Gemmell's characters are well developed, and feel like real people. His world is fleshed out, and the full saga spans hundreds of years, yet it is not thrust upon you in mentally indigestible chunks like Tolkien's Silmarillion. It's great to discover links between the characters, that one character in a previous book is another's grandfather, though you don't need to know that to enjoy it. The world feels rich, and interwoven. The legends in one book are the reality in another, and not all are remembered by the characters within. It's a real masterpiece.

Angel the gladiator, a contemporary and friend of Dakeyras, aka Waylander the Slayer, (From Waylander II: in the realm of the wolf) is Druss's ancestor great great great great grandfather.
 
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Zhukov said:
Two Sci-fi series I like are the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell and the Clone series of books by Steven Kent.

The Lost Fleet books are harder sci-fi that takes place during a war between two factions that's been going on for 100 years or so. The main character is a ship captain that took part in the very first battle of the war. He had been stranded in some kind of cryo sleep for 100 years until he was discovered by a friendly fleet on it's way to destroy the enemy's homeworld. It's focus is on space combat, character development, and fleet politics.
I thought it was pretty good, though some of the characters are infuriatingly bitchy or stupid.

Captain John ?Black Jack? Geary?s legendary exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic ?last stand? in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns from survival hibernation and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndic.

Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance?s one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic ?Black Jack? legend...

The Clone series is softer than the above but there is no "space magic" or anything. This series follows a marine named Wayson Harris and it has heavy focus on ground combat and action. Only a few characters get any real development, but most of the characters are still good and usually don't live long enough for development to be much of an issue.
Lots of people die.
Lots.
So many.
It's action focused, has some good humor, the fight and battle scenes are fun. Good light reading.

Earth, 2508 A.D. Humans have spread across the six arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Unified Authority controls Earth?s colonies with an iron fist and a powerful military?a military made up almost entirely of clones?

Private first-class Wayson Harris was raised in a U.A. orphanage among thousands of clones born and bred to be the ultimate soldiers. But Harris isn?t like the other Marines: he has a mind of his own. He figures he?s paying for that independent streak when his first assignment out of boot camp is the smallest Marine outpost in the whole U.A.

When a rogue general surfaces, the remote desert world Harris thought was a dead-end posting becomes anything but. Fighting off the general?s raid gains Harris a promotion. But it also brings him to the attention of some unfriendly U.A. leaders. They have their own plans for the military?plans Harris disrupts by his very existence. For in an army of clones, the one unforgivable sin is to be different?
 

Arnoxthe1

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Zhukov said:
Cowabungaa said:
The downsides is that the main character, Kvothe (worst name in literary history), feels a bit like a Mary Sue.
A bit like a Mary Sue?

*sputter*

A bit?!

It was awhile since I attempted Name of the Wind so correct me if I'm wrong on any of the following points.

So, we're talking about Kvothe.

Kvothe the amazingly good looking guy with awesome exotic hair (crimson as I recall) and awesome exotic eyes (green was it?).

Kvothe who is both the best swordsman and the best magic user of all time.

Kvothe who owns the most special sword with a special name and forged with special stuff.

Kvothe who is taught to be the best lover in the world by an angel.

Kvothe who is considered a revered figure of legend within his own lifetime.

Kvothe who is literally a natural prodigy at every single thing he turns his hand to. He's effortlessly good at everything.

Yeah. Just a bit of a Mary Sue.

Just a bit.

A tiny wee bit.

I don't remember much about the prose or the setting. My sole, overriding memory of the book is Kvothe resembling something I would have come up with at the age of 13. And I'm pretty sure 13-year-old me would have chosen a better name.
Just so you know, Kvothe suffers a ****load in the book even with those "dashing good looks" and "amazing intellect." A lot. Like... A LOTTTTTTT. XD I don't wanna spoil anything at all though so yeah. As I'm reading this, I sometimes wonder, funnily enough, if the author has this incredible hate boner for his main character. Personally, I think it's pretty darn good though, that aside. Very well written characters, intriguing story and universe, etc.

EDIT: *scrolls up and reads more* OMG guys, it's not that bad at ALL. What the hell?