Recs?

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

Hey guys!

So after resisting reading these books for a couple years, I finally cracked and devoured them all within a few days. Sooo I guess now I'm also stuck waiting (im)patiently for the next book. Meanwhile, does anybody have any books that they can recommend that are similar to this series?

In particular, I'm searching for books with at least some focus on politics, but aren't necessarily quuuite as ruthless as something like Game of Thrones. More in the direction of The Lumatere Chronicles, for example.

...Although as I was typing this I realized that the character I adore most in the series is Costis, so maybe I should just ask for recs for books with extremely loyal, honor-before-reason characters instead... any additional recs for those, by any chance?

Comments

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Hmm, politics and loyalty makes me think of the Farsala trilogy by Hilari Bell. There are some fiercely loyal characters in there, and a wily young man that's comparable to some level to Gen. Also, you might want to try Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It has more focus on magic and action, and the politics is a bit underwhelming when compared to QT, but politics does play a big part in the characters' motivations. I feel really bad though when I recommend these books, because it's like saying, "Here you go, cry your eyes out for the next few days", but at the same time, they're really, really good. If you want, you can start out with Elantris which is also by Brandon Sanderson, and is not as emotionally taxing as Mistborn. Plus, I kinda think that politics was handled a bit better in Elantris.

Er, what else? I have not read Game of Thrones, or The Lumatere Chronicles in its entirety, so I don't have much to compare to. I'll take a look at my Goodreads to see if anything else fits. ^^

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Have you read Rosemary Sutcliff? No magic, but wonderful characters, and she's a strong influence on MWT.

Also, Elizabeth Wein's Aksumite books, which you can start with The Winter Prince or A Coalition of Lions (or even The Sunbird).

Or Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, which is a space opera set over the course of something like 40 years and is amazing.

There's also Katy Moran's Bloodline and Bloodline Rising, which are set in Byzantine-era Britain and Byzantium, with a hint of magic.

I think there's at least a few more, but I'll stop for now.

[qwentoozla]

I would second the recommendation of the Vorkosigan Saga. I started reading it based on recommendations from here and I totally fell in love with it, raced through the whole thing, and it's one of my favorites now!

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

Oh honey, *hugs* welcome to the waiting club :) You will learn to be very patient here!

I also recommend the Vorkosigan saga, LMB is amazing.

My personal favorite political fantasy saga is by Feist and Wurts, the Daughter of the Empire saga. Fantastically rich worldbuilding, clever characters, scheming, female main character, all the good stuff. I'd take those books over GoT any day of the week.

I don't know that this is quite what you had in mind, but I'm currently reading the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik - the Napoleanic wars...with DRAGONS. The main character of that is pretty honor/loyalty/duty bound....and he has a dragon. Awesome.

I'd also recommend the Fionavar Tapestry, that has quite a nice, diverse cast, you'll surely find someone to love among them :D

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Seconding Rosemary Sutcliff. The Roman Britain trilogy is a good place to start: The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, and The Lantern Bearers.

[lunefin.livejournal.com]

You've prob already read these, but hey: Robin McKinely's Blue Sword/The Hero and the Crown. Llyod Alexander's Prydain. Naomi Novik's Temeraire. Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon's Lexicon. Ursula K Leguin's the Left Hand of Darkness (basically an ode to unreasonably loyal/honorable people)

A little lesser known maybe?
Peter Dickinson's the Ropemaker/Angel Isle. Nancy Farmer's the Ear, the Eye and the Arm.

[deirdrej.livejournal.com]

Welcome!

I'll third (is that a word?) the recommendations of Rosemary Sutcliff and Elizabeth Wein! And I love Farsala, too.

I'd also like to recommend His Own Good Sword, by Amanda McCrina. It's really pretty fantastic.

I also loved Rachel Hartman's Serafina (can you do dragons?)

It sometimes takes me a while even to get to my TBR list, so I haven't gotten to the Vorkosigan saga yet…but it does sound good.

And if you like SF, have you tried Ursula Leguin, or Terry Pratchett? I love them both!

[live-momma.livejournal.com]

I love Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, but I think the first two books in her Chalion Series are closer to The Attolia series. They are The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. The third book, The Hallowed Hunt, is actually a prequel and is very different from the other two. Politics plays a bigger role in Curse than Paladin. Having said that, Miles from the Vorkosigan Saga is as close to Gen as any character I've seen.

[deirdrej.livejournal.com]

Lunefin, yes! Those are awesome!

Love, love love The Left Hand of Darkness. And Sarah Rees Brennan, and Peter Dickinson, and Nancy Farmer.

Great recommendations! (I think I have a lot of re-reading to do, as well as some new books to catch up on).

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

His Own Good Sword was very good -- I know it was recommended to me during a WSK, I wonder if it was you? Anyway, seconding that one, especially for the loyal characters.

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I don't see it mentioned here, so if you haven't read it already, Howl's Moving Castle and sequels by Dianna Wynne Jones. The author has said Gen's personality was partially inspired by Howl.

As for the loyal character thing... It's very dark, so I won't recommend it unreservedly, but then again it's not that much worse than Queen, so: Transformation by Carol Berg, the first book in the Rai-kirah trilogy, features a character who is forced to serve someone he hates and ends up becoming very loyal and attached to him after he sees the good buried (deep, deep down) in the other character and realizes he's worth protecting. The hero, Seyonne, ends up using magic only he can use to protect Aleksander from demons so that Aleksander can go on to save the world. It and the following books in the series end up being a great portrayal of two characters from completely different worlds with completely different moral compasses who nevertheless become great friends, and their loyalty to each other and the tests they go through to maintain it form a huge part of the trilogy's emotional arc.

...on rereading, that sounds awfully dry. It's also a cool story with magic and demon-slaying and swordfights and people shapeshifting into giant werecats and some seriously epic badassery on Seyonne's part, especially in book 3. And not a few twists and revelations, too.

(edit for spell-fail)

[diadactic.livejournal.com]

The books of Sharon Shinn have a lot of loyalty running through them, and some of them have court intrigues.

[furem.livejournal.com]

I push Lloyd Alexander on everyone, so I'd definitely recommend him. If you like politics than start with the Westmark Trilogy or more classically fantasy (talking animals, named swords and that sort of thing) Prydain. I also really like The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen and The Arkadians which takes place is a pseudo-Greek fantasyland.

If you like thieves (I do) than I'd recommend The False Prince by Jennifer Nielson and the Knight and Rogue Series by Hilari Bell, both of which feature characters who could be Gen's distant cousins.Also, those authors are not afraid to hurt their darlings. You've been warned. Actually, I might recommend Star Crossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce. I didn't totally love it, but there is a thief and some very interesting twisty-turny politics.

The Cinder series by Marissa Meyer is getting more and more political with each book too, if you like sci-fi.

ETA: City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster is full of intrigue and twists and turns and some of the best worldbuilding ever.

And Dragonfly by Julia Golding would be very, very good if there wasn't a creepy fantasy religion. So if that wouldn't bother you (it's really creepy) than I'd recommend it. Lots of politics.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! Dragonfly is excellent! I second that.

And yes, that religion is VERY creepy -- but it's not presented as an ideal, or anything.

deirdrej

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

Since a few mentioned LeGuin, I would absolutely recommend The Dispossessed. Very political - it's about not one, but two distopias - and the main character has the same kind of tormented, sometimes inconsistent loyalty and virtue that I also love about Costis (but is definitely not the same character).

Sutcliff is really beautiful, though if you do the Eagle of the Ninth series, you probably also would enjoy Sword at Sunset, the sort-of climax of the sequence, and direct sequel of The Lantern Bearers. And if you like those (and are still looking for heartbreakingly loyal characters), I strongly recommend Gillian Bradshaw's "Down the Long Wind" trilogy, Hawk of May, Kingdom of Summer, and In Winter's Shadow. Very much of a piece with Sutcliff's historical view of the Arthurian legendarium, but more fantastical/spiritual. Reminds me a lot of the worldbuilding of Attolia, with the gods poking in on seemingly completely materialistic situations and upending everything with tiny but vital actions.

[helle-d.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, politically focussed books with honour-before-reason characters are certainly relevent to my interests!
Guy Gavriel Kay writes very good, meaty high fantasy, with complex situations and likable characters - The Lions of Al-Rassan, A Song for Arbonne and the Sarantine Mosaic, for instance.

Then there's Bujold, in both her Vorkosgian space opera series and the fantasy-historical Curse of Chalion and sequels also combines plausible, interesting characters - lots of awesome women in particular - with fun, fascination situations. Her hero Miles Vorkosigan, in particular, could definitely be seen as a wierd sort of Eugenides-Costis mash, with Gen's twistiness and Costis' stubborn determination and honour, even when he's shooting himself in the foot by acting that way.

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera is great fun - it's set in a world where every single person has elemental spirits, or 'furies' that they can call on to help them, water or air or fire or earth, EXCEPT the main character, who is unable to call furies at all. Since furies give people superhuman abilities - flying, or high endurance or superstrength sorts of things, Tavi is at a serious disadvantage and has to use his cleverness and smart mouth to solve problems. Very similar in 'feel' to Queen's Thief, though the first book is definitely weaker than the others. (Do not be put off! It gets better!)

Most recently, I've been reading Seanan McGuire's October Daye books, which are urban fantasy, with a half-fae PI in San Francisco, who finds herself awkwardly living between the human and fae worlds. Really lovely characters, with a large cast of friends, and people who care about each other and look out for each other (even if Toby, the main character, spends the first few books insisting to herself that she's completely friendless and unlikable, despite ... all the friends who follow her around and help her out. It's charming.)

What else? The Name of the Wind is another I really like, with a clever, smart-mouthed protagonist in a gorgeously-drawn fantasy world.

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

I saw your post this morning, bought the whole Farsala trilogy on kindle, and did basically nothing but read until I finished it five minutes ago. Now I'm all emotional and somehow both sad and happy for all the characters and... wow, I did not think I'd get that attached. (Seriously, I was internally shrieking every time one of the main characters was mentioned in a positive light in someone else's POV chapter... *cough*)

Can't believe the very first rec has already made me so happy! Thank you so much-- sooo excited to try all the others now!! 8DDD

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

Ooh I've heard of the Aksumite books-- the setting sounds fascinating and if they're recommended then I'll definitely be checking them out. Same goes for Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth books! And yesss to books involving Byzantium. haha *really excited right now*

Thanks for all the recs!

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of space opera, or most sci-fi in general, but if they're recommended by so many people, maybe I should check them out... hmmm...

Btw, is that a Mighty Boosh icon? Did not expect to see that here haha...

[manderelee.livejournal.com]

Aww, really?? I'm SO HAPPY TO HEAR IT!!! Actually, you'll have to blame 1221bookworm and booksrgood4u for that rec, because they're the ones who actually got me into it!

I remember feeling the same thing after finishing Farsala. It was happy in a sad way. Hehe. I remember looking at some characters and thinking, "That better NOT be Sohrab", and then the irony slapped me in the face at the end, I think I saw stars for a week.

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

Oooooh the plot summary for the second book in the Daughter of the Empire trilogy seriously reminds me of these books I borrowed from the library when I was about 10 and seriously loved and then could never find again because I couldn't remember what they were called... Seriously, all I remember is that the heroine got a slave in the second book, who she later fell in love with, and at some point they were on a boat together?? And I think the heroine had magic, and there was possibly some kind of sex scene in them that really shocked 10-year-old me hahaha ...Sorry for rambling, what I mean to say is: I'm very excited to check them out, whether they are the same books or not!! (Re GoT: yeah, I spend most of the time when I watch/read impatiently waiting for Sansa or one of the other female characters to come up xD)

I've liked all the books I've read so far that were set during the Napoleonic wars (can't wait until the Strange&Norrell mini-series finally comes out!) so the Temeraire books sound awesome indeed. =D

Thank you for the recs!!

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

OMG yesss!!!

Honestly, I'm kind of understating exactly how emotional I was throughout it, and especially at the ending. Well, and the middle. And all of it really. 'Cause I didn't want to seem like a crazy fan. But... I can't help it, all that's going through my head right now is stuff like this:

Faaaasaaaaal!!! ;___; And Kavi!!! The poor self-sacrificing idiots ughghghghgh... And seriously, even that little thing with Barmael and that slave guy (forgot his name shit, TIME TO REREAD) was so extremely touching even though it barely took up like half a chapter wow. And every time the Young Commander Jiaan was mentioned I giggled stupidly. And Sorayaaaaa!!! by the middle of the second book I just wanted her to destroy everything and everyone, for no particular reason other than to show how badass she was.

I just wish there was a sequel trilogy! ...that mainly consists of the main three hanging out and being buddies-- that's all I wanted!!!!! And kinda got in the last... ten pages or so. Why isn't there morrrre!

...Sorry. As you can see, I really did juuust finish reading the books hahaha...

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

I remember really liking the Prydain Chronicles as a kid-- I should definitely reread them sometime!

Never head of Robin McKinley before (oops!) but she sounds a little like Tamora Pierce, who I love, so I'm really looking forward to checking that out. =)))

And thank you for all the other recommendations! =D

[pirate-curse.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and thanks for the recommendations!

Just finished the Farsala trilogy, and adored it (as proven by my squeeing about it above haha...)

Looking forward to trying His Own Good Sword: the goodreads summary sounds fantastic!

Terry Pratchett is probably my favorite author, despite my irrational dislike of sci-fi... Well to be fair his sci-fi isn't particularly sci-fi-y xD

[qwentoozla]

I'm not a big fan of space opera either, particularly... I mean, I'm not against them, but I don't read that many of them. I only picked up the Vorkosigan Saga because so many people from here kept mentioning it, but it really is fantastic!

Haha, it sure is! :D