I know that I am the worst for getting caught up in new release books, I get really excited about something new, something shiny, something popular that I’ve seen great reviews about! But recently I decided to read one of my old favourites and I was reminded just how incredibly good some of my old favourites are, and I thought this was a topic worth talking about.
A (not insignificant) number of years ago I was exploring a small 2nd hand bookstore and I committed a cardinal sin – I bought a book based on its cover. I know, I know, but I ended up being incredibly lucky and I read my first book from Joe Abercrombie which absolutely blew me away. He has a style of writing that I think suits me very well, it’s real, it’s brutal, it’s horrifying for a fantasy book and it’s an actual real world gut punch. Fun fun fun!
I genuinely do recommend Joe Abercrombie if you haven’t read his books before, his writing is utterly absorbing and as someone who really wants an entire other world to explore when I read, he really provided it. In even better news you can find his entire first trilogy (the place I would recommend you start) for a super reasonable price.
Hanging out with other readers when I was younger was another way I managed to find some exceptional books, one of my friends recommended to me 2 different series which I still reread to this day.
The first is The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, this is a series that handles magic and complex relationship dynamics really well. The story is fascinating and the way the magic and character engagement flowed pulls you right in and makes you never want to stop reading. It’s all just so engaging and a continuous flow of interesting story written well means that it’s impossible to put down. It’s a well-paced, well written series and even better – there are another 3 books to the story if you enjoyed the first! They are a separate trilogy, so you don’t have to read them to complete the story, but if you enjoy the world it’s just more of it with a continuing storyline.
The final series I’d like to speak about today is The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. This is probably my favourite style of magic in any book I've ever read, the magic system is deep and complex, but not unnecessarily difficult to understand. It felt completely real to me, and this is helped by some incredibly well defined characters with believable motivations and well thought out actions. My personal favourite in this series is Lirael, the 2nd book in the series. Without giving away too much this book deals with deep emotions and someone who is quite separated from other people, but at the same time it manages to engage with an enormous and fascinating world that feels full and alive. I've read this book on its own many times, and not once have I felt anything less than thoroughly impressed.
I suppose I wasn’t really setting out here to write a review of these books, but I appreciate it’s turned into that a little. My main point and the point I hope you take away from this, dear reader, is that although the new releases and widely discussed books on all our feeds are the most tempting to turn to when looking for your next read, I’d recommend pausing and taking a brief look backwards in time at some of the books that might be waiting for you to notice them. They come with some serious advantages - they are cheap, you don’t have to wait for the next book to be released, and most importantly, they are no less exciting than a sparkly new release!
What favourite fantasy series do you love? Are there any that started your love for fantasy books? Let us know in the comments!
0 comments