Help Me Choose My Next Book to Read!

[kayd_mon]

Ok, I just finished Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, and I want to read the whole trilogy. However, I may read another book in between Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged. Here's what's on my bookshelf, ready to read next:

Before They Are Hanged - Joe Abercrombie
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
(and my non-fantasy choice)
N or M - Agatha Christie

Which one should I pick up next?

 

[Steerpike]

Stardust.

/10char

 

[kayd_mon]

I am leaning toward that one already! Before I picked up The Blade Itself, I read Neverwhere, which was my first Gaiman novel. I absolutely loved it! Before that, I had only read some short stories and comic books written by him.

 

[Steerpike]

I am leaning toward that one already! Before I picked up The Blade Itself, I read Neverwhere, which was my first Gaiman novel. I absolutely loved it! Before that, I had only read some short stories and comic books written by him.

I like everything I've read by Gaiman. Stardust is quite a different sort of book from Neverwhere, but a very good one. I recently read The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which I also liked.

 

[Philip Overby]

I'm going to recommend Agatha Christie even though I've never read her work. Why? Well, I had a bit of an interesting reading experience recently.

I'd been pretty much reading exclusively fantasy for a long time. So I decided to read an Elmore Leonard Western I had collecting dust. I then read a Philip K. Dick book and Neuromancer before I came back to fantasy. I found that reading outside of the fantasy genre really helped me to prevent getting burned out on reading nothing but fantasy books. I love fantasy obviously, but sometimes it's good to get a dose of more realistic fiction just to cleanse the palette so to speak.

 

[kayd_mon]

That's a good point. I must admit, though, that Agatha Christie isn't too far out of my comfort zone - I named my dog Agatha, lol. I have read lots of her books, and I love them. But yeah, the last dozen books I've read have been fantasy, when I'm usually more diverse in my reading.

Ok, so one vote for Stardust and another for N or M... Any more suggestions?

Both Stardust and N or M are pretty short, so if I pick one of those, I could read them both before revisiting Abercrombie...

 

[Ireth]

Make that two votes for Stardust. I love that book.

 

[buyjupiter]

I binge-read, so I'm going to cast my vote for the second book in Abercrombie's trilogy. I think I read the trilogy in a week, if I'm recalling correctly. It's been a while, but I remember zooming through it and then reading about six light and fluffy books after, to clear my head.

Otherwise I'd do the Agatha Christie, as she's always fun and might be just what you need to take a break from Abercrombie.

Stardust is amazing. The other two I haven't read, as Sanderson is on my to-read list.

 

[wordwalker]

Sanderson's very good. Enlantris is a good sample of what he can do (Warbringer never quite worked for me). But keep an eye on his new work-- Steelheart is a smart YA-ish adventure (supervillains, no heroes, 'nuff said), and The Way of Kings might well evolve into the best thing in non-Patrick-Rothfuss fantasy ever.

 

[kayd_mon]

I wasn't sold on Sanderson at first, but I read all four available Mistborn books, and now I want to read more of his stuff. I picked Elantris and Warbreaker since they're supposed to be standalone novels.