Modern Fantasy that I can tolerate reasonably well.
A Listmania! list by Weston Robinson(Bolinas, California United States)
The list author says: "I read a lot of fantasy. Much of it is terrible. The titles here, while perhaps not the most brilliant works of literary achievement, kept me thoroughly entertained."
"The has been the most gripping and entertaining thing I've read in years. Read it. If you don't like it, there is something objectively wrong with you."
"Feels a bit less focused than the first. Lovely detail, but covered a much more brief chronological period, leaving me genuinely puzzled as how things can be wrapped up satisfactorily by the end of book three."
"This fantasy is ugly, dirty, and depressing. Makes A Song of Ice and Fire look like a politically convoluted episode of My Little Pony. It also has some of the richest and most well realized characters I've ever seen. If you can handle a bit of grime, don't miss this series."
"Second in The First Law series. The trilogy all kind of ran together in my head in the years since I've read it, so I can't say much specifically about the individuals."
"The author of The First Law is back to deliver more tales of life in the morally questionable squalor that he seems to like rolling characters in. Handles the redemption and corruption of characters masterfully; I was amazed to find myself changing my opinion of the cast so dramatically over the course of the novel."
"I would be irritated at Abercrombie's need to move on from the characters I'd grown so attached to in The First Law and Best Served Cold, but he's frustratingly good at making new ones. War. Told from both sides. Not pretty, but thoroughly riveting."
"A bit of a guilty pleasure. Has some characters that are stupidly powerful, but manages to keep the action from getting super-man syndrome most of the time. And I must say it's wonderfully refreshing to see a tale in which someone who wants to become an assassin actually kills innocent people for money. You know, like an assassin."
"Gripping fantasy that takes place on a huge bloody ship. I'll admit, my eyes glaze over whenever the naval terms come out, but Redick manages not to overwhelm in that regard. I love the plot threads, but as things go on there are quite a few to juggle, all teeming with grave import. I don't want to quite say "exhausting,", but the book throws a lot at you."
"K.J. Parker makes the technical beautiful. The style is completely unique and she would be my favorite author were it not for the fact that her books are really depressing. Not ugly in the same way the Abercrombie is, but her flawed heroes still waltz towards destruction whistling melancholy tunes."
"The demon-filled world he crafted is as interesting as it is completely unpleasant to occupy. Manages to keep a crippled bard interesting while one of the other characters on the table is the eponymous Warden Man, a thoroughly awesome demon hunter.
It is unfortunate, however, that as one reviewer put it "so many men in the book turn into slavering rapists whenever left alone with a woman.""
"Sequel to the Warded Man. Good, but tried to get me to develop some sense of sympathy for a man that ordered the systematic rape of all women in a captured city. I'm sorry, but I don't care if gold and purity leak from his every orifice; I want that man dead."
"I don't do much of the "Urban Fantasy" that lines the shelves these days, but the Repairman Jack series is too hard to skip. Light and fast reads, these books are a delightfully trashy bit of suspense and action that is slowly supplanted more and more by supernatural horror as the series goes on. Total literary junk food, but satisfying nonetheless."
