Last book you read that made you go WOW!

[DoPo]

Well, I'm halfway through it, but John Dies At the End by David Wong is really wow-worthy. That guy does not disappoint. I love him on Cracked, so I bought the book mainly because he wrote it. Man, that's good. It's a "comedy horror" genre and it manages to mix them well. Spooky, unnatural, frightning horrific on even a Stephen King scale, while still managing to be entertaining and fun at times.

Defiantly this, this is awesome. Also, the squeal to this book is coming out in October.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'll even pre-order it, but that would be after I move to my new place in July.

 

[jakko12345]

Metro 2033. Glukhovksy does an outstanding job of creating such a bleak, crushingly oppressive and horrifying atmosphere. It really is so much better than the game.

 

[dragonswarrior]

1984 for obvious reasons.

Also The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett. Damn, a fantasy setting that does not involve angels, Hellspawn, elves, orcs or dwarves? Jesus Christ, that surprised me. Also, the book is incredibly easy to read, but what sold me was the description of the demons' (Corelings is the official term, but I like demons better) ferocity and how it payed off tenfold when one was encountered. None of that Mary-Sue bullshit where a character isn't in danger. In The Painted Man, they are. They fucking are. And you'll feel it. The only person who could better portray the danger would be Stephen King, ffs.

For a second I had no idea what you were talking about except that I recognized Peter Brett's name... Then you mentioned corelings and I was like "Oh!! The Warded Man!! Right!! Stupid different titles/different countries shenanigans."

So now I have to wonder how much modern fantasy you do read. You know a lot of the best authors are breaking out of the whole Christian/Tolkien/Arthur shtick right? If you have already read these and didn't like them forgive me but I have some suggestions...

Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Dresden Files OR Codex Alera both by Jim Butcher

The Black Company by Glen Cook (The original trilogy is the best. It goes downhill from there...)

The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

The Godspeaker trilogy by Karen Miller

The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb

 

[dragonswarrior]

The Deed of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon. Seem kind of boring but then you read it. And I did go "WOW, this is some great stuff!". It's a really amazing book(or three books) that keeps getting better all way through.

That trilogy COMPLETELY surprised me. It started out kinda "Hey this is typical if fun." and then just got Awesome.

 

[80Maxwell08]

The Legion of the Damned WH40kbook by Rob Sanders but the WOW is incomplete. For me it was "WOW this is absolutely terrible!). There was a massive plot point that was just forgotten about, they didn't actually explain anything about the Legion of the Damned at all (not to mention they only showed up for about 5 pages at the end), and some of the lines were absolutely horrible. There was one part where one of the Space Marine's serfs are talking among-st themselves and one of them literally says if HE were a space marine he would have done way better. The ordinary human whose job is basically slave without the title actually says this. The whole book is just horrible. If you see it on store shelves AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

 

[Ambitiousmould]

i tried to read a song of ice and fire, but i watched the series first so i couldn't get into it. just saying cuz so many people say its so good, which it probably is, i just can't manage to get into it.

Metro 2033. Glukhovksy does an outstanding job of creating such a bleak, crushingly oppressive and horrifying atmosphere. It really is so much better than the game.

and yeah same, metro was great

 

[Durgiun]

1984 for obvious reasons.

Also The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett. Damn, a fantasy setting that does not involve angels, Hellspawn, elves, orcs or dwarves? Jesus Christ, that surprised me. Also, the book is incredibly easy to read, but what sold me was the description of the demons' (Corelings is the official term, but I like demons better) ferocity and how it payed off tenfold when one was encountered. None of that Mary-Sue bullshit where a character isn't in danger. In The Painted Man, they are. They fucking are. And you'll feel it. The only person who could better portray the danger would be Stephen King, ffs.

For a second I had no idea what you were talking about except that I recognized Peter Brett's name... Then you mentioned corelings and I was like "Oh!! The Warded Man!! Right!! Stupid different titles/different countries shenanigans."

So now I have to wonder how much modern fantasy you do read. You know a lot of the best authors are breaking out of the whole Christian/Tolkien/Arthur shtick right? If you have already read these and didn't like them forgive me but I have some suggestions...

Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Dresden Files OR Codex Alera both by Jim Butcher

The Black Company by Glen Cook (The original trilogy is the best. It goes downhill from there...)

The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

The Godspeaker trilogy by Karen Miller

The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb

I have been thinking of giving Jim Butcher a try. Thanks for the list, maybe this will get me back into fantasy proper.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

The entire Night Angel trilogy left me in awe. The story builds up to a single moment across all three books and it certainly doesn't disappoint. I won't be ashamed to admit I shed a tear at the end.

Spoiler

I was reading it at my sisters apartment while babysitting my nephews, but she lost it while moving out so I never got to finish it.

What I read of the book was quite good though! It's a historical fiction set during the 100 year war; the main character is an English bowman.

Yes, part of the Grail Quest I believe. The second, Vagabond, was by far my favourite though.