7.9 KiB
Looking for title recommendations
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Author: u/kongen77 *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/8to3ei/looking_for_title_recommendations/
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Score: 3
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Created: 2018-06-25T05:42:03
Post:
So I've been having a real itch for either an urban fantasy story or a noir mystery story or a mix between the two ever since reading through Pact. Does anyone have any recommendations or are there not any recommendations to provide?
Comments:
u/Amonwilde [+11] (9 hours later)
I'll second Dresden Files as one of the few urban fantasy stories that is worth reading. Most others that you see recommended tend to be Dresden Files knock-offs. Also agree that the first two books are the weakest, the third book is an improvement but still a little weak, and the series gets going with the fourth. With that said, it's a difficult series to start from the fourth book so you have to slog a little. Dead Beat., Changes, and a few others stand out as superlative.
It's not squarely on your target, but I recommend Best Served Cold. It's a revenge story that takes the form of a heist plot.
Pact to me seemed like a real waste. The world and its rules were so well-cafted and the situation setup had a ton of potential. The plot then just careens from fight scene to fight scene where the MC has no chance of winning and is protected only by thick and enveloping plot armor. There are many decisions, like attacking the warehouse monster, that make zero sense given his power level.
u/GlueBoy [+7] anti-skub (26 minutes later)
Are you sure you mean noir, and not grimdark? I don't think noir describes Pact very well.
Have you tried The Dresden Files, the urban noir fantasy series? If not, start at book 3, or read the comic book version of the first two books. They're not great. The story and writing gets progressively better. For example, Dead Beat (book 7) is an absolutely enthralling action story. Not particularly rational, though.
Alloy of Law is another urban fantasy noir kinda deal. I liked it a lot, and I feel like it is a pretty rational story. A lot of genre subversions and intelligent characters using their powers creatively.
u/kongen77 [+2] (a day later)
I actually gave The Dresden Files a shot but dropped it after finishing the first book because I thought it was pretty mediocre. Hearing that it doesn't really get good until book 3 or 4 is a bit disappointing, but I'll give it a shot if it means I scratch the itch. I'll also be looking into Alloy of Law as that seems up my alley.
u/VortexMagus [+1] (2 days later)
Butcher is well known for starting off his stories mediocre and building upon them with each book. They get better and better until the later ones become magnificent. His other series, furies of Calderon, chronicles the rise and development of a young military leader in a magical society, and starts off pretty mediocre, becomes good in 2 books, excellent after the third, and magnificently awesome with the fourth and onward.
u/Silver_Swift [+1] (3 days later)
Maybe try The Iron Druid Chronicles if you conceptually liked The Dresden files but couldn't quite get into it. It does a very good Dresden Files impression while having a much more likable/interesting set of main characters.
u/PHalfpipe [+2] (6 days later)
I thought Alloy of Law was a huge step back from the quality of the other Mistborn books. The dialogue is like something out of a 90's video game...also the plot and the characters.
u/GlueBoy [+1] anti-skub (8 days later)
Funny, I liked Mistborn 1, and thought 2 and 3 were increasingly bad.
And it's very rare to have fantasy stories set in an industrializing civilization setting. I thought AoL was a welcome change.
u/Dragfie [+4] (3 hours later)
Strongly recommend this: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12308030/1/My-Trans-Dimensional-Overpowered-Protagonist-Harem-Comedy-is-Wrong It's a fan fiction but you don't need to know the sources to enjoy. also it is completed and VERY rational with a rational cynical MC. Highly recommend.
u/AurelianoTampa [+1] (12 hours later)
Just wanted to mention, I started reading this and am quite amused. I've watched the first season anime of "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?" but haven't ever read or watched "My youth romantic comedy is wrong as I expected," so I'm missing a bunch of character references to that while still understanding "the world" overall. I've already caught references to One Punch Man and School Days though, which made me laugh. And it does seem fairly rational overall, though considering the protagonist recognizes he's in a light novel reality, it's VERY plot-driven a few chapters in. It does a good job of encapsulating the light novel writing style though, and without a bunch of nonsensical, poorly translated phrases that really mess the flow up.
Anyway, not sure how it'll turn out, but so far it's been amusing to read!
u/Dragfie [+2] (23 hours later)
yeah, totally agree. i recommend watching that second anime tho, IMO its better than the first one which is pretty much just shonen trash. The MC in the romcom is one of the few rational MCs who actually act fairly rational in anime.
As for this, it doesn't drop off at all and goes full steam to the current ending. Enjoy!
u/Croktopus [+3] (6 hours later)
shadows of the limelight dude. not quite gritty mystery, but...intrigue for sure. and its got some primo urban fantasy
u/kongen77 [+1] (a day later)
I've finished that story and all I can say is that I'm disappointed it wasn't longer.
u/Escapement [+3] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (13 hours later)
I recommend the Taltos books by Steven Brust. They follow a character known as Vlad Taltos as he works as an assassin in a magical empire dominated by elves. They are best read in publication order (not chronological order). The series has a very noir tone, and a lot of them function as mysteries in their plot, especially the first novel, Jhereg. They're all extremely good and tightly paced, and still being written - he comes out with a new one every couple of years. Supposedly the series will be 19 books total, so at 15 published we're looking at maybe a little less than a decade before it's done.
They're pretty rational books, as such things go - the plots are all driven by various characters' agendas and desires, and people solve problems intelligently. They tend to have great plots and characters. The worldbuilding is also extremely good - there's a lot of cultural stuff there that make Dragaera one of the most well-realized fantasy worlds I've enjoyed.
One of the books was actually somewhat painful to read for me for a few reasons (not the writing quality, which was not particularly worse than normal, but other elements) - Teckla. If you find Teckla gets a little too painful but you enjoyed earlier books in the series, I recommend just pushing through; the unique qualities of Teckla do not persist throughout the rest of his writing. In general his books in the series do a surprising amount of experimenting and trying different things every book, and some of these experiments work better than others. But his books are mostly short enough and quickly paced enough that none are a huge slog to get through.
u/kongen77 [+1] (a day later)
I'll add it onto my list then. It sounds interesting enough. Thank you for the recommendation!
u/LazarusRises [+2] (13 hours later)
Check out China Mieville. He writes almost exclusively urban fantasy noir. Not rational in the slightest, but very well-written and interesting. My favorite was Kraken.