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[mcclay]

I would suggest the Tales of The Black Company by Glen Cook. It is rather dark take on most modern fantasty cliches written by (I think...)a Vietnam vet. It follows the story of a hard-as-nails mercanry company as the drift under the control of the standard (though female) fantasty overlord. They learn that she might not be as evil as the rebel. Also her husband was Satan and the Taken are douchebags. Then it goes to fantasty Indo-China and gets even cooler.

[Willfor]

Yeah, Glen Cook was in the navy during the Vietnam War. I'm pretty sure he wasn't on the front line, but he was in the theatre of war. He helped pioneer grunt-level fantasy in the genre. Though it loses a bit of its grunt-level style in the later books. Not that that is a bad thing, but it definitely changes over time.

[mcclay]

Croaker didn't really start out as a grunt. He was the top medic.

[Willfor]

Yeah, but he had more of that perspective before he shifted up into a higher position.

It's somewhat hard to quantify just what level he operates at. He goes through some massive personal changes over his time with the company. We see him go through a whole bunch of shit. He grows over time. I think characterization and growth are definite strengths of the series as a whole. I wasn't always a fan of the plot in the later series, but the characters pulled me through until the end. I had to see what was going to happen to them.

I remember a few things better than I should considering I read the entire series of the span of a month in 2010.

[mcclay]

I heard he is writing a new one? I hope if it exists it comes out soon the entire

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

world travelling part at the last few books in fantasy! indo-china

has some good possbilites for ideas and fan fiction.

[Liber celi]

I actually came into this thread to bitch about GoT, but then I realised you guys have a civil and productive conversation here.

You also suggested just about every enjoyable epic fantasy novel I know.

And Doom 1 and 2 are hella fun, just saying.

[lordcooper]

I would suggest the Tales of The Black Company by Glen Cook. It is rather dark take on most modern fantasty cliches written by (I think...)a Vietnam vet. It follows the story of a hard-as-nails mercanry company as the drift under the control of the standard (though female) fantasty overlord. They learn that she might not be as evil as the rebel. Also her husband was Satan and the Taken are douchebags. Then it goes to fantasty Indo-China and gets even cooler.

It's well written, but I quickly got tired of almost every character just being a badass merc.

[Cthulhu]

Bumping this to say I picked up The Worm Ouroboros on a whim for 99 cent on Kindle.  I'm a little surprised.  Maybe because I'm still used to trying to slog through the classics and I'm in a college Shakespeare course so I've read a bunch of that too, but the writing's pretty easy so far.  It is a lot like the Illiad or a Norse saga in feel and the author does talk way too much about what people are wearing, but it's surprisingly readable.

[Max White]

Well it isn't what I would call similar. Worlds away in fact, but god dammit it is good for you. Pratchett.
I'm really loving his latest industrial revolution.

[ChairmanPoo]

Bumping this to say I picked up The Worm Ouroboros on a whim for 99 cent on Kindle.  I'm a little surprised.  Maybe because I'm still used to trying to slog through the classics and I'm in a college Shakespeare course so I've read a bunch of that too, but the writing's pretty easy so far.  It is a lot like the Illiad or a Norse saga in feel and the author does talk way too much about what people are wearing, but it's surprisingly readable.

You know it's public domain, right? You could have gotten it for free without even bothering with warez sources

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602051h.html

[scriver]

Relevant.

[Darvi]

Yes. Yes they did.

[RedKing]

@Cfoofoo: Lemme know what you think of Lord Gro when you're done. I'm always kind of on the fence about him. On the one hand, he's potentially this very deep character torn between his morals and his honor, between love and duty. On the other hand, he's potentially the biggest literary waffling loser this side of Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov.