The Cool Kids' Fantasy Club discussion
General discussion
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Introductions
Hello guys, I'm Bernardo. Thanks for the invitation, Mark.As a lot of people probably did too, I began my reading experience with Harry Potter and from there I went to historical novels, mainly those by Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden.
The Broken Empire was actually the series that brought me back to Fantasy after reading these novels and a few books of other genres. Since then I've been reading almost exclusively fantasy, with the exceptions of It and Norse Mythology poems.
As references, my favorite series are The Warlord Chronicles, The Broken Empire, Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Mistborn and the almighty Stormlight Archives. I'm also interested in mythologies, specially the Norse and Greek, and I hold dear the Italian culture, with emphasis on the Roman.
Cheers!
Hi. It's Mark's fault I'm here. I don't generally do much in terms of GR groups so I'll probably just lurk and occasionally post reviews. I'm an author of SFF and for a living I design stuff and edit fiction.
I'm generally very grumpy and tend to bite if provoked.
Hello! I’m Missy, avid reader and lover of all things fantasy and science fiction. Some of my favorite authors include, Tamora Pierce, Sarah J. Maas, Juliet Marillier, and Brandon Sanderson. Currently reading Way of Kings by Sanderson with only 100 pages left! Look forward to reading more of Lawrence’s books and highly anticipating the third book in the Red Sister trilogy!
I'm Khanh. By day I read books and occasionally work at managing a law firm. If I have a bad day at work and there's a bad book, I will write a very salty review.I love bunnies.
Hello everyone, I'm Wadiur Rahman. I hail from India.Most of my time gets spent in reading, writing, videogames and travelling. My favourite genre to read and to write is fantasy, as I assume is the case for everyone else present here.
A big thank you to Mark Lawrence for inviting me to the group. He is one of my favourite writers and The Broken Empire is one of my absolute favourite series.
Thank you. *bows*
Hi! I'm Carla and I'm a bookish creature from Portugal. The kind of bookish creature that falls in love with books and worlds and fictional characters. So... Pretty bookish. :)
Hi Mark, and thanks for the invite. Glad to see a group with the same reading interests, as I love my books. My problem is, so many books shelved and too little time, and I always have an audio going, along with the written. The audio usually gets finished first, cause of my commute and of course, housework. That's OK, cause there's certainly some great narrators out there, that complement the authors work. Ex., James Clamp with The Broken Empire. He truly nailed that series, I couldn't think of reading it, with such a great listen.
Hello, and thanks for the invite!I'm Andreas and I'm a self professed fantasy geek from Sweden.
I'm really excited to be a part of this prestigious and well respected group.
And I'm sure that I'm not the only who thinks Joe Abercrombie is the best author!
... ;)
Hi, everybody, I am Kevin from Jacksonville Florida and I started reading fantasy at 16 with the Belgariad by David Eddings and then shortly after fell in love with Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind and even though the rest of that series only goes downhill from the 4th book the first one is still amazing. I now have my oldest daughter at 15 reading the same fantasy that I read (currently Black Company by Glen Cook) and she loves it as much as I do.
Hi all, thanks for the invite Mark.I live in the UK and by day I'm a teacher, primary. I've been reading fantasy since discovering The Magic Faraway Tree and Narnia :) I was so excited to discover Shannara. Of course moving to a big city meant much better stocked book shops.
I used to try and have favourites but it's just too difficult. I've recently enjoyed Mark's Grey Sister, Hobb and Kristoff. But there are so many good books.
Hello everyone. I'm Sam, from South Wales. I've read fantasy for as long as I can remember and used to write reviews.I'm currently working towards a BA in Archaeology after a few failed careers in finance and marketing.
Hi! I’m Jen - I read a mix of Fantasy, Mystery and history/biography/micro history. I’m always excited to “chat” with fellow fantasy buffs and get good recommendations! At this point, I think my TBR list will out last me, but I keep adding to it!
Hi everyone,I'm David from Northern California and am an avid reader of all things SFF. In my younger days I read mostly SCI-FI (Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke) but now I'm more into the fantasy side --Mark (of course) Abercrombie, Hobbs, Sanderson, GRR and others--. I also write. I have one novel completed and am currently working on my second. I'm looking forward to meeting new friends who share my love of the genre. Please feel free to send me a friend request. As my better half doesn't read fantasy, I'm looking for people who do so that we can discuss the good, bad, and indifferent of all the books and authors out there.
Thank you, Mark, for setting up the group. I just finished your Red Queen's War Trilogy, which prompted a re-read of the Broken Empire books. Once done, I'm looking forward to starting Grey Sister. Great stories and a great universe. And congratulations on being one of the most followed people on Goodreads (Number 7!).
Hi everyone and thank you Mark for the invite! I’m David Benem, author of What Remains of Heroes (a finalist in the first SPFBO), its sequel The Wrath of Heroes, and am currently hard at work on the trilogy’s conclusion. It’s dark heroic fantasy, not quite grimdark I think. I’m an avid reader of the fantasy genre and excited to take part in the discussion!
Good day folks! Thanks for he invite Mark! I’m Mandy from a tiny town in North Carolina, USA
Currently work as a barista/store manager. I’m addicted to books. Especially fond of fantasy and sci fi. Mark fast became one of my all time faves after I read Prince of Thorns, and he hasn’t let me down since! I just finished the Red Rising series and I absolutely adored it! Some others I love are RA Salvatore, Anne Rice, Laini Taylor and so so many more. Looking forward to meeting some of you nice folks! Happy reading!
Hi Tracy, living in London, originally from East Lancashire (witch country). I'm a Geography teacher who has been reading Science Fiction and Fantasy since I picked up Asimov at about the age of 8. I read a lot of books and pass on recommendations to my students too. Favourites are Philip K Dick, David Weber, Brandon Sanderson and some bloke called Mark Lawrence
Hello everyone! I'm Hybrid (real name Ashleigh) and I really got into fantasy/sci-fi about 8 years ago now. So I'm playing catch up on a LOT of series. I just started writing reviews about two years ago. Recently joined Netgalley and am enjoying it so far. I haven't done a lot with self published authors yet, just an avenue I haven't explored. I really love darker fantasy so I followed Mark over from his Instagram post and I'm very excited to talk books with this new group. :)
Greetings.I'm Joel. SPFBO supporter and lately a more trendy fantasy reader. I am a veteran Malazan fan and I am big on rereading complex works rather than hopping through 2-3 more direct reads. I'm part of plenty of online fantasy communities, why not another one?
I had a three-book deal once that exploded and now I'm trying to learn how to do things right. My debut is in beta over the summer and I'm super excited because while it is gone I can finally return to the sequel that has been waiting too long. I'm trying to Michael R. Fletcher my writing routine over the summer.
Cheers, y'all.
David wrote: "Hi everyone and thank you Mark for the invite! I’m David Benem, author of What Remains of Heroes (a finalist in the first SPFBO), its sequel The Wrath of Heroes, and am currently hard at work on th..."We meet again, BENEM!
Hi all, I'm Aidan, I'm from Australia. I'm an avid fantasy reader and writer and have a number of self-published works all set in the same fantasy world. (The first is a novel called The Heirs of Lydin)I'm currently reader Josiah Bancroft's Arm of the Sphinx - the first Book of Babel was a great and refreshing read, and the second looks to be a worthy follow up so far.
Joel wrote: "David wrote: "Hi everyone and thank you Mark for the invite! I’m David Benem, author of What Remains of Heroes (a finalist in the first SPFBO), its sequel The Wrath of Heroes, and am currently hard..."Indeed, Minty. Indeed. *teeth bared*. Fare thee well...
Melika wrote: "Hi, everyone! And thanks for the invite, Mark! :DI'm an author, with three books published to date, my most recent one being
, which was released last month. I'v..."My daughter-in-law is Hawaiian and her family's 'totem' animals [for lack of a better term] are sharks. Their family story is that during a great disaster a shark saved their patriarch so that he lived to found the family. Therefore, sharks will never hurt them and are part of their family. To the best of my knowledge the family does not test this.
But I think it's very cool that they view something as beautiful and positive that most consider sinister and deadly. And it leaves me buying shark items for my granddaughters, that don't usually seem to be the kinds of things you give to toddlers.
Pamela wrote: "Hi Mark, and thanks for the invite. Glad to see a group with the same reading interests, as I love my books. My problem is, so many books shelved and too little time, and I always have an audio goi..."Another audio lover! I "read" far more audiobooks than text.
Thanks for doing this, Mark. Just like your Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, it's a grand idea! I participated in the Blog-Off its first year.My only impression of fantasy was D&D type stories that I attempted to read after finishing LoTR and couldn't get into. After that I just thought I knew what fantasy was and it wasn't for me.
After Harry Potter brought me back into the fold, I began to explore and discover how much fantasy truly did tick all my marks, and have been loving it ever since.
I'm a writer and my current series, The Fury Triad, is dark historical fantasy which is evidently passing as YA. Yes, the heroine is YA age, but she's not surrounded by other teenagers who are battling to save their magical world. Instead she's playing an adult game with adult rules and even her love interest is significantly older than she is, so I never believed it could pass for YA. But evidently it does so much that my publisher has started calling it YA, so there you go!
This has resulted in me reading a lot of YA fantasy and have discovered a number of authors or series I'm loving, like Jessica Cluess's Kingdom on Fire series, Kate Elliott's many series, and more. But I also seek out diverse tales such as Yangsze Choo's The Ghost Bride, adore Naomi Novik's Temeraire series and her more recent Uprooted, Terry Pratchett, Robin Hobb, and more than I can list here.
I look forward to discovering more wonderful books here!
Hey all! I’m Leslie, avid writer and voracious reader. I’ve got 3 publications under my belt:“Princess of Undersea” is my first solo pub, a novella-length fantasy re-telling of The Little Mermaid.
I also have 2 short stories in a couple charity anthologies.
“Arthur and The Egg” is a contemporary urban fantasy twist on Jack and the Beanstalk, and it can be found in the anthology DREAMTIME DRAGONS, produced by the group Dreamtime Tale Fantasy Authors.
“The Starborn Legacy” is a sci-fi short in DROWNED IN MOONLIGHT, an anthology dedicated to the memory of Carrie Fisher.
I have been blogging since 2013, and featuring reviews of indie books and recommended reading lists, along with stories, serials, and excerpts I have written. I am on my way to 100 featured reviews! (And yet my TBR list never gets any smaller....) My blog is called The Upstream Writer.
Looking forward to interacting with you all!
Hi! I'm Zack, a Canadian physicist/grad student who spends far too many nights reading or writing instead of sleeping. I am a huge fan of all things fantasy, but also have a love for magical realism, horror, surrealism, and weird fiction. I have been pushing myself to write more and more of my own fiction and I hope to publish one day. Unfortunately, I am in the process of revising my thesis and so have even less time for the things I love.
Hey, thanks for the invite Mark. I'm Nafeel from Sri Lanka. I've been obsessed with fantasy since I was a child. I'm a fast reader, I usually consume one book a day so I used to re-read books a lot due to lack of availability until I finally switched to ebooks when I headed to college 5 years ago and I've never gone back to physical books. I have a soft spot for fantasy books with complex magic systems and my favourite series right now is the Stormlight Archive.
Coincidentally I'm currently on a Mark Lawrence binge, I just re-read the Broken Empire in the last week, then moved onto the Grey Sister, finished the Prince of fools yesterday and just started reading the Liar's Key.
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Sri Lanka is on my "to be visited" list.
Good to hear about the Lawrence binge!
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My only impression of fantasy was D&D type stories th..."
SPFBO should be opening its doors this weekend for SPFBO4!
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I live in the UK and by day I'm a teacher, primary. I've been reading fantasy since discovering The Magic Faraway Tree and Narnia :) I was so excited to discove..."
My youngest daughter (very disabled with eclectic tastes in books) remains a great fan of The Magic Faraway Tree and Enid Blyton in general. Hence my rather tongue in cheek reviews of The Faraway Tree books, Malory Towers, & The Famous Five!
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I love bunnies."
Hooray! I love your reviews, salty or not.
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Cool. I don't know if I number any priests among my readers.
I was walking our puppy the other day and got talking to a man who on discovering I wrote fantasy books told me he was a born again Christian (having formally been a bit of a thug and then gone into the army) and didn't hold with fantasy as it was "of the devil".
I've always felt that faith, by its very nature, should be something that isn't threatened by works of fiction. So it is heartening to find a trainee priest who reads fantasy!
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I've been a long-time Mark Lawrence follower, all the way back to the Yahoo group days.."
That is a long way back. You may have seen Prince of Thorns being written before your very eyes, back when it was The Hundred War!
Hey folks.I'm Hiu, a Scotsman who pretends to be a cabbage on the internet, and I have a lot of love for a totally eclectic bunch of fantasy books.
My most recent read was We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson, but I'm just about to pick up A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden.
Mark wrote: "Ted wrote: "I'm a fantasy and sci-fi author. My fantasy novel The Shard was in the initial Fantasy blog off and got a nice 4* rating from Bookworm Blues, the same score as the winner that went on t..."Yes, and I luckily got one of the first free copies of Prince of Thorns offered up by your publisher, though sadly without your signature. Still it was great, and I've loved every minute of watching you become so deservedly successful.
Hi folks!My name's Richard Knaak. Some people know me from my fantasy work --- Dragonlance, my Dragonrealm, the Black City Saint series, Rex Draconis, Warcraft, Diablo, and more. Been a fantasy and SF reader for years. Influenced by Andre Norton, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Roger Zelazny, among others.
Hey all, I'm Benedict, I play too many games, don't read enough books, and sometimes I write.Currently finishing off Standing on the Shoulders of Titans, just finished Grey Sister on audiobook (LOVE Helen Duff's narration), looking forward to cracking into Arm of the Sphinx on my holidays.
Richard wrote: "Hi folks!My name's Richard Knaak. Some people know me from my fantasy work --- Dragonlance, my Dragonrealm, the Black City Saint series, Rex Draconis, Warcraft, Diablo, and more. Been a fantasy a..."
I have enjoyed your dragonlance and dragonrealm books a lot over the decades.
Hi All. My name is Robin. I've somewhat neglected goodreads for the last few years. Just finished uni, so I can actually read for pleasure again without wanting to claw my eyes out! I hope to get back to goodreads regularly. I miss having conversations about everybody's reading.
Hey everyone! Thanks for the invite, Mark.I'm Victor and I live in Essex, UK. I don't read as much as I wish but that's mostly because I'm still working on my first book every chance I get.
Mark wrote: "Richard wrote: "Hi folks!My name's Richard Knaak. Some people know me from my fantasy work --- Dragonlance, my Dragonrealm, the Black City Saint series, Rex Draconis, Warcraft, Diablo, and more. ..."
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed them! Still plugging away at new stuff! Urban and epic fantasy!
Richard wrote: "Mark wrote: "Richard wrote: "Hi folks!My name's Richard Knaak. Some people know me from my fantasy work --- Dragonlance, my Dragonrealm, the Black City Saint series, Rex Draconis, Warcraft, Diabl..."
Yes, I downloaded black city saint for the kindle last week, hoping to start it next week sometime
Thanks! Just finished up the third, Black City Dragon! I hope you enjoy BCS!
Mark wrote: "Nafeel wrote: "Hey, thanks for the invite Mark. I'm Nafeel from Sri Lanka. I've been obsessed with fantasy since I was a child. I'm a fast reader, I usually consume one book a day so I used to re-r..."Haha, if you ever do visit Sri Lanka, drop me a message, I can help plan a brilliant stay and give loads of recommendations!
Hi everyone. Looking forward to getting more books to add to my already huge wishlist. I am just getting in to SFF really, but am really enjoying what I have read so far. I am currently working my way through The Realm of the Elderlings books (on Liveships at the moment). I have also enjoyed hearing about SPFBO books on Kitty G's youtube channel.
Hi, my name is Tiziana and I'm Italian. Thank you for the add! 😊
Robin Hobb here. I write fat fantasy novels.I have found that as I've gotten older and written more, my reading speed has slowed. It's really hard to turn off the 'edit this' function in my brain and read for pleasure. But I'm hoping that being one of the cool kids will help me recover that.
I review most of what I read. I don't often use the 'What I'm reading now' thingy on Goodreads, because I give myself permission to discard a book that isn't engaging me by page 100. And if I finish a book, but still find I didn't really enjoy it, I don't review it. I just don't see the point. I still think a two star "I liked it' review is an okay thing to post. Not every book is written for me!
And that's enough to get started with.
Certainly attracting the membership anyway. This Mark fella is popular then ;-)
The Cool Kids' Fantasy Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Master Assassins (other topics)The City Stained Red (other topics)
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Foundryside (other topics)
The Queen of Crows (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Brian Staveley (other topics)Snorri Kristjansson (other topics)
Anthony Ryan (other topics)
John Christopher (other topics)
Tanith Lee (other topics)
I mostly read Fantasy books, currently reading Skullsworn by Brian Staveley.
When I finish Skullsworn I'll be reading the Demon Cycle series, then I plan on reading Prince of Thorns and the rest of the The Broken Empire series.
I hope I'll meet some new friends here, seems like a really nice group!
Thanks for the invitation Mark!
Have a good day everyone!