I like the Black Company, but my favorite series in that 'Genre' is the Malazan Books of the Fallen
It's very hard to get into, as the story sort of starts when its halfway over, and various books go back and describe the past. There will also be entire books that have almost nothing to do with the main characters. At its heart though its an Epic Fantasy with non epic characters. Aka there are lots of epic gods and heros and great champions running around doing things, but generally we don't see things from their viewpoints. And in the end, the little people tend to make a larger difference than the gods and heroes.
Also I read Ready Player One recently, and I really enjoyed it. It's trashy and self indulgent at times, and it has a lot of token characters. But its a book about 80s pop culture, it itself feels like a product of the 80s. Just like the movies and games and books that are part of its plot, it follows the same notes. Young loser gets involved over their head, uses their wit and intelligence to save the day, and gets the girl. Only it loses a bit of that 80s optimism, only to be replaced with the cynicism of the 2000s.
It's very hard to get into, as the story sort of starts when its halfway over, and various books go back and describe the past. There will also be entire books that have almost nothing to do with the main characters. At its heart though its an Epic Fantasy with non epic characters. Aka there are lots of epic gods and heros and great champions running around doing things, but generally we don't see things from their viewpoints. And in the end, the little people tend to make a larger difference than the gods and heroes.
Also I read Ready Player One recently, and I really enjoyed it. It's trashy and self indulgent at times, and it has a lot of token characters. But its a book about 80s pop culture, it itself feels like a product of the 80s. Just like the movies and games and books that are part of its plot, it follows the same notes. Young loser gets involved over their head, uses their wit and intelligence to save the day, and gets the girl. Only it loses a bit of that 80s optimism, only to be replaced with the cynicism of the 2000s.
