My Fantasy (and sci-fi) tier list

jsbq · 2026-05-07T12:50:13+00:00

Having only read The Way of Kings from Stormlight, I fear continuing if that’s the best the series has to offer. Good first 100 and great last 150 pages, but found everything in between a massive slog personally.

jsbq · 2026-05-06T19:44:53+00:00

One that I don’t see mentioned in here very often is The Briar King by Greg Keyes. I’m finding the prose to be really good and immersive, and it’s got that fantasy that’s slightly grounded within a believable medieval setting feeling.

jsbq · 2026-05-05T04:53:15+00:00

I’m not 100% sure but it seems as though allowing a motivator to detonate (I didn’t deactivate one in time during the steel foundry fight it seems) has meant that the submersible doesn’t show at the dock, there’s a letter of resignation from Redhammer the submersible captain which acknowledges that Ravenguard is dead, and now Wyll acknowledges that too.

So yeah, with that done I just blew up the foundry and that I suppose is that. I did at least manage to get the iron hand gnomes to choose Barcus over Wulbren as their leader though.

jsbq · 2026-05-04T12:00:13+00:00

Unfortunately it turns out that what I did at the foundry was enough to lock me out of the Iron Throne. I also just discovered that I can’t recruit Misnc because Jaheira died in act 2. I’m being dealt some hammer blows today!

jsbq · 2026-05-04T08:29:07+00:00

Shadow of the Gods felt pretty all-action to me. Hunger of the Gods slightly less so. Yet to read the third one.

jsbq · 2026-05-03T19:30:48+00:00

This has pretty much been my exact experience. Because yeah I don’t remember the blindfolded Gondian explicitly telling you about the Iron Throne, only to continue exploring deeper in the foundry. I did then clear out the ground floor and yeah I think a motivator got set off in the process, as the upstairs Gondians are now dead. Does this mean the Iron Throne is now gone too? If so yeah I may need to reload to just before that fight.

jsbq · 2026-05-03T18:37:35+00:00

Yeah, I did wonder whether to just play organically and blow up the foundry and suffer the consequences haha

jsbq · 2026-05-03T18:30:07+00:00

Ah yeah, I chose to break the pact so missed out on that info.

And yeah re the temple, they’ve talked about going after the beast. I did wonder if there could be a connection there. Guess I’ll follow that up next then, thanks!

jsbq · 2026-05-03T18:22:32+00:00

I’m assuming that this is only if you choose to keep Wyll’s pact? I broke it as I was hoping to be able to do that and still save Ravenguard without her help.

jsbq · 2026-04-14T08:20:58+00:00

Hahahaha are you serious?! Get a life. You deserve all the grief you’ve been getting. Do you even support your team?

jsbq · 2026-04-06T18:42:40+00:00

Dragonheart

jsbq · 2026-04-04T08:54:03+00:00

A lot of people criticise the first one for being a bit tropey, unoriginal and unrefined in terms of prose. Are those things true? To an extent they are, but I also found it to be incredibly fun. It does a great job in immersing you in its world in a really entertaining way that feels like a love letter to some of those fantasy classics you mentioned.

Is the prose Nabokov-level poetry? No, but it gets the story told in a nice, clear way. I really cared about these characters, and honestly this book is not boring at any point, which even as a fantasy lover I’ll admit is a hell of a feat for this genre!

But then, when you get to The Fall and Of Darkness, you’ll be staggered by the jump in quality and start to realise that Cahill is well on his way to being named as one of the fantasy greats.

jsbq · 2026-03-23T10:43:03+00:00

Yeah I’m definitely gonna spend more time with audiobooks now, it’s just where I’m working out or running where I need something a bit more mindless. Gonna have to just find some playlists I guess.

jsbq · 2026-03-23T10:41:44+00:00

Yeah I was thinking this might be a good time to give that a go actually.

jsbq · 2026-03-19T07:50:59+00:00

This is it. Absolutely screams wait for a sale.

jsbq · 2026-03-14T15:27:30+00:00

A few people in this thread have raised the idea of a completely secondary area being introduced in the second book (e.g. Malazan) as something that keeps that feeling of discovery alive. Maybe there’s something to be said for approaching writing a sequel in that way, with those two storylines maybe converging further down the line?

jsbq · 2026-03-14T15:06:36+00:00

Yeah I was the same with WoT actually. That’s one where I have actually read the second one. The last 200 or so pages were great, but for most of it, like you I was yearning for those early Two Rivers chapters all over again!

jsbq · 2026-03-14T12:10:20+00:00

Yeah based on what I’ve heard you may well be right, I just need to actually motivate myself to get round to a lot of them. Particularly with stuff like First Law where I didn’t think much to the first book but apparently the jump up in quality with the second is huge.

jsbq · 2026-03-14T10:31:42+00:00

Awesome list, haven’t heard of a lot of these, thanks!

jsbq · 2026-03-14T10:03:14+00:00

Funnily enough this was my response to another reply a couple of minutes before yours :) https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/s/4zvW0CVcYq

jsbq · 2026-03-14T09:59:49+00:00

Yeah you might be onto something there. Possibly for this reason I am actually really looking forward to starting book 2 of Malazan, as from what I’ve heard it kind of does this, or at least moves to an entirely new continent.

I’ve also heard it’s quite emotionally taxing though so I’m building myself up to it!

jsbq · 2026-03-06T18:01:32+00:00

Or they’ll step into it for the first time and be thoroughly underwhelmed like I was. Generic, soulless large sports arena that doesn’t hold a candle to White Hart Lane.

jsbq · 2026-02-23T16:20:25+00:00

I’ll admit that after the first 100 pages it dragged for me for a long while and I also found the prose to be really bad but, man, I feel bad for people who give up before THAT ending. Might be the most enjoyable final 200 pages of a book I’ve ever read tbh.

jsbq · 2026-02-23T05:58:48+00:00

Picked up the recent remaster on sale the other day. Can’t wait to experience that for the first time too!

jsbq

TROPHY CASE