[coltonweaver]

Wow - awesome list! Thank you for sharing this with such detail.

Second on the Cradle series by Will Wight too. I really didn't expect to have such a blast reading it.

Edit: I've been meaning to check out The Gentlemen Bastards, which will probably be my next series after finishing off Wheel of Time next year.

What are your thoughts on Name of the Wind/Kingkiller Chronicles? I've never read but some IRL friends have recommended.

[Jemaclus]

I enjoyed KKC when I first read them, but I haven't re-read them. I think Rothfuss is a talented writer, but given that the third book is MIA for going on 10 years, I'm not inclined to recommend it to anyone, unless you're OK with a fairly good but un-and-likely-to-never-be-finished series.

I'd put almost all of my other recommendations above KKC.

That said, it's a pretty popular series and comes widely recommended, so YMMV. I personally would skip it and read something else.

Word of warning: Gentlemen Bastards is equally unfinished -- but I have faith that Scott Lynch will eventually publish the next book before Rothfuss did. Plus I consider the first book (and to a lesser extent, the second and third books) to be fun enough on their own that I'm not aching for a fourth book in the way that KKC leaves a story unfinished. In short, I'd still recommend reading Gentlemen Bastards :)

[coltonweaver]

> I'm not inclined to recommend it to anyone, unless you're OK with a fairly good but un-and-likely-to-never-be-finished series.

I think this is enough justification for me. There's so many completed or "likely to be completed" series I _haven't_ read so I don't mind skipping this one unless there's some indication that it'll be completed :)

> Gentlemen Bastards is equally unfinished -- but I have faith that Scott Lynch will eventually publish the next book before Rothfuss did. Plus I consider the first book (and to a lesser extent, the second and third books) to be fun enough on their own that I'm not aching for a fourth book in the way that KKC leaves a story unfinished. In short, I'd still recommend reading Gentlemen Bastards :)

GTK! This is exciting to hear actually.

[zargon]

I'm not the grandparent. But my opinion: Kingkiller Chronicles has a lot of fans (though fewer and fewer as time goes on), and I thought Name of the Wind was fine as a beginning to a potentially good story. But Wise Man's Fear was quite terrible. Your mileage may vary. People who like Rothfuss seem to like him for his prose, not plot. Another thing to consider is that Patrick Rothfuss is a giant asshole towards his fans. It has also been nearly 12 years since he published anything. He's basically made a career out of not publishing book three.

[coltonweaver]

Thanks for the input! That's a good point you've made. Maybe I can just ignore the series until we have some indication that it'll actually be finished.

[Jemaclus]

Also, if you liked CRADLE, I recommend MOTHER OF LEARNING by nobody103, Iron Prince by Bryce O'Connor (first book is out, second book comes out in 2023), and Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe. All three of those are fantastic and in the vein of progression fantasy like Cradle!

[coltonweaver]

Noted! Will be adding all of these to my “To Read” stack. Thanks again :)