So my husband isn’t much of a reader and I think it might be due to the fact he does have some difficulty with reading comprehension (not judging my husband for this I love him dearly and he is very smart). His attention span also isn’t that great. He has said he doesn’t like audio books as well which I can understand. If I’m not doing something with my hands to help me focus I get distracted and miss half the stuff that’s said. I’ve convinced him to let me read to him though and he’s willing to give that a go. If he likes it, then this is another activity we can do together.
I think he’s more okay with me reading than an audio book because I could slow down and reread a section if he missed it and I can just go more at his pace than an audio book could. He loves Lord of the Rings the movies. (I AM NOT READING THE BOOKS! I’ve tried to listen to an audio book of it myself and even that was too much.) I tried to get him to watch Wheel of Time with me and he said it was a LOTR rip off and my mom and I looked at him like he was crazy. Like I can kind of see it with the very beginning with how they open but we convinced him to give it a go ago. He does like the Witcher.
Perhaps we could read those books together. Anyways, could you recommend any fantasy books that would be great for beginners?
Edit: My husband was never read to as a child. He mentioned this the other day and this is what inspired this conversation.
by TheChiarra
9 Comments
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson. It was published the same year as The Fellowship of the Ring, it’s a lot shorter than LOTR, and it was also influenced by Norse mythology.
Try Ender’s Game! It’s short, simple, captivating and has the kind of hero and friendship element that is attractive about LOTR. It’s very different in writing but I think it would suit him better
Can I recommend one of my favourite, “The Rook” by Daniel O’Malley? I find it easy to read but it’s still super intriguing and captivating. It’s not easy to read due to a lack of writing skill.
Hmm. Perhaps The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley? They’re technically YA books but they’re 1980s high fantasy!
LOTR is one of the hardest reads, so I don’t blame you for avoiding. Incredibly rewarding though.
Try Ready, Player One.
“The Sundering” duology by jacquiline carrey.
[https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40222](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40222)
A similar setting to LoTR, where a the forces of light are gathering, awaiting the moment a chosen few are able to penetrate the lands of darkness to obtain the only weapon capable of defeating the dark lord Satoris.
It’s very much in the same writing, narrative and structure as LoTR, but told from ‘the dark lords’ point of view, where he refused to offer his gift of ‘quickening’ as a shaper to his eldest brother’s creation the elves, but did offer it to his beloved sister who created the humans. In so doing, he doomed the elves to fade away, an insult to his brother who cast him out and used the very sun to burn Satoris and drive him into hiding.
Very well done thematically and narratively. The ‘flip’ of the tropes is delightful.
The Sword of Shannara
I LOVE to read and could not get through Lord of the Rings.
Jingo by Terry Pratchett. One of the Discworld series about an impending war.
Brandon Sanderson’s writing is utilitarian and very comprehendable even when you’re so tired your eyes keep crossing. His world building is very good and character arcs are well thought out. The length of the Stormlight books can be intimidating but they go by quickly once the plot gets going.
George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones books are similar, but the technical aspects of the writing are much better. His politics are much more complicated, but still the world building is depthful and the characters are layered and compelling even when you don’t like them. The books are different enough from the show to be worth reading. The books probably won’t ever get an ending though, so if that’s a deal breaker, you should know before getting started.