Others would be able to confirm if there is dialogue written in ear wrenching yokel dialect

Kruze, have you considered some kinda private security deal? My cousin's boyfriend is an ex-marine who now gets paid crazy money to guard cargo ships headed around Africa. Obviously that's at the more extreme end, but it could be worth looking into.

If you go into Game of Thrones expecting Hardy you will be sorely disappointed.

Nah, I'm expanding my horizons. These are my first fantasy novels!

You've not even read LOTR?

lol this james franco roast is funny

The wizard of earthsea &c
Northern Lights &c
Titus groan
Maybe johnathan strange and Mr norrell,

all worth looking up.

Add Gormenghast to that list, and probably the Assassins trilogy by Robin Hobb as well.

Gormenghast in particular is just great though.

Oh wait lol you had Titus Groan on there, totally missed that.

I couldn't remember which the first book was

Oooo I put this on, Jonah hill is meannn! XD

Fairly sure the first book is Titus Groan, I just have one of those massive paperbacks that combines all three books so I just think of it all as Gormenghast. First two books are great, third book is where everything goes a bit mental IIRC.

Is there a pitch y'all wanna give for these? A couple sentences would be good enough, I'm just worried about buying something I won't ever read. I know I'll read GOT so I gave it a shot, ya know?

Plus, the last time I ignored a markk deal (for a laptop), I broke my computer a week later. If I ignore this one, my bookshelf might burn down.. I'm kinda nervous about his moneysaving juju, like I need to protect mahself with solid purchases.

hang in there kruze. hope things turn around.

take some solace in what an amazing ww player you are

Titus Groan/Gormenghast - unlike most fantasy (including the Game of Thrones stuff in here even though I enjoy them) it's actually really well written. Again unlike most fantasy, pretty much the entire first two books purely focus on a small group of characters who live in the dilapidated castle Gormenghast, and this focus means that instead of the kinda broad-brush approach to characters/places that most fantasy takes you get some really strong, complex, interesting characters, and a really evocatively drawn picture of Gormenghast itself as a place.

Perfect, thank you. I enjoy character study which is partially why I read hardy a lot.

I will look into this soon actually since its monsoon season here, soooo much rain

I'd suggest the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson as it really rewards a patient reader who enjoys thinking about what they're reading thanks to great prose, in-depth characters and a plot that can only be described as epic in scope (also it's my favourite series :P).

However there's a good chance you may put it down early on and never pick it back up, as it can be a bit of a grind at times and the first book is the worst in the series (although imo it's still fantastic). I think I've lent the series to five people and only one of them has picked it up and enjoyed it, so it's definitely not for everyone :P

edit: Bloo, I'll have to check out Titus Groan, it sounds right up my alley

Must be time to make kruZe a mod. #YOLO

The wizard of earthsea is about a single wizard from a rural island, it's sad and lonely and lost and all the good things, it's written by a candidate for the greatest living us author, the sequel might be better than the first one, and if it were the foundation stone of fantasy as a genre we would all be better off.

The only thing i'd add about Titus groan is that it's more gothic fantasy than high fantasy (no talking rabbits or dwarves or ****, just people)

Northern lights is set in a sort of Victorian/Edwardian world rather than medieval, and does involve talking rabbits, and multiple universes and is full of ideas.

Johnathan strange I've sort of forgotten, but is about magic in again a sort of Edwardian world with some sort of fairy world as well.

I pretty much always recommend the wizard of earthsea, and no one ever pays me any notice.

Lavinia is another absolute great. It's a reimagining of part of the aneiad.

I read Wizard of Earthsea when I was about 13 and it didn't really leave any impression on me at all. Should probably give it another go sometime.

Currently re-reading The Smartest Men In The Room (about the Enron scandal) though, because it's a really ****ing excellent book.

It's genuinely astonishing how large a bunch of ****s the guys at Enron were.

I'm an accountant, so it's really interesting to read some of the justifications they used for booking ridiculous fake profits (interesting assuming you're not just an accountant but the nerdy kind of accountant who actually finds accounting standards interesting).

I find it interesting because it's VERY hard to find people who were actually out to be dickheads and steal money, it's a tiny minority who were actively malevolent. Fastow was maybe the most personally culpable, but otherwise you've just got a load of people who mainly kicked issues under the table and hoped they went away, or were too easily happy to accept any answer they were given to a crisis. For the vast majority of the key participants it's more a tale of negligence than actual fraud.

[/thiscaseinterestedmewaytoomuch]

i've designed a vanilla+ based on gormenghast btw