SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hi,
I read Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud 4 years back and I really liked the anti hero concept in it..
Are there any books with cold, calculating anti heroes that I should probably not miss out on?
( I like clear headed cool headed protagonists)

P.S. - I feel Jonathan Stroud is a seriously under appreciated author and would like to hear about similar books written by authors like him..

One of my favorite characters of all time is Logan Nine-fingers from The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/94...

I recommend Joe Abercrombie too, but I'll go for, Best Served Cold. It's an awesome stand alone about, well obviously, revenge.

Death Note by Ohba Tsugumi is manga rather than a book, but its protagonist certainly qualifies as a cold, calculating antihero. I haven't finished the series for spoilerific reasons, but the volumes I've read to date are very involving and well-written with great artwork.

Jain wrote: "Death Note by Ohba Tsugumi is manga rather than a book, but its protagonist certainly qualifies as a cold, calculating antihero. I haven't finished the series for spoilerific reasons, but the volum..."

I've seen the deathnote tv series.. The detective - L & the lead character was in my mind when I thought of anti heroes.. TV series is amazing..

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman
Jhereg by Steven Brust
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick



Urban Fantasy
Nightlife by Rob Thurman
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

Seconding The Lies of Locke Lamora, and its sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies. So good! I can't wait for the next book in the series.

You could try Cyrus Darian And The Technomicron

Heroes Die by Matthew Stover

Gully Foyle in

The Dark Tower by Stephen King
I would also recommend anything by Joe Abercrombie

Chris wrote: "Heroes Die by Matthew Stover

"

^^^

is full of anti-hero's

Michael wrote: " is full of anti-hero's"

...and anti-villains.

Seconding the Joe Abercrombie and Mark Lawrence suggestions.

Seconding Gully Foyle in The Stars My Destination. Also recommending Sir Apropos of Nothing as an anti-hero who is also funny.

I would recommend picking up any of the Elric books by Michael Moorcock.

Dorsai series and the anthero Bleys

"Mordant's Need" 2 book series by Stephen Donaldson have a great anti-hero duo as the main characters. I'll also second the Elric series by Moorcock.

Have you read the other books of Bartimaeus-trilogy? Especially the last one is brilliant. The second one as well, but it will probably leave you wanting to punch Nathaniel several times. ;) And out of curiosity when you talk about anti-hero in this series do you refer to Nat or Bartimaeus? I guess Nat does not gualify so much in the first book but later yes. (And I agree, the trilogy is terribly underrated piece of art)

As for others.. Well there is of course Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, but some would argue that it is more for younger readers.

Then there is Paul Hoffman's The Left Hand of God (trilogy). I found the main character really interesting.

Hal Duncan's Escape from Hell! is brilliant. Not everyone's book but I find it extraordinary in terms of both storytelling and characters.

Jaidani's Havemercy. Has four POV-characters and one of them (and my favourite) is Rook who definitely qualifies as anti-hero by my standards. However, this book has mild GLBT subplot (nothing graphic) so if you don't want to read that I guess this isn't your book. (It's your loss)

Someone mentioned Death Note and I immediately come up with couple of p-e-r-f-e-c-t anti-hero anime titles: Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ and Code Geass. I would pick these over Death Note any day.

Out of the books recommended here I have read and can recommend Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

How about Raistlin? :)
As cold and as calculating as they come..
And on top of that he is a black robed magician, with ambitions of godhood..

He is a sidecharacter in a lot of the dragonlance novels, but is a main character in the Twins trilogy Time of the Twins
One of my favorite characters :)

Both Red Moon Demon by Morgan Blayde, Staked(the Void City Series) by J.F. Lewis and the Sandman Slim Series all have quality anti heroes.


God Touched (The Demon Accords)by John Conroe and the Bill The Vampire (The Tome of Bill Series) by Rick Gualtieri, Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green are all series that I would recommend but they don't match the character type quite as well.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer is also somewhat of an antihero kind of book. It's YA, but very entertaining, possibly not quite what you're looking for, but fun.

Perhaps also try The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. Kip is most definitely an antihero in my opinion, and Gavin comes close.

The most obvious comments here are Mark Lawrence epic trilogy about Jorge of Ankrath.. <3

Terry Goodkind has some really good moments of anti-hero antics in his sword of truth series.. I like it at times but it went on a bit too long.

It's a bit scarse out there when it comes to good anti-heroes.. I think good heroes aren't complex enough..

The witcher series are good, Geralt of Rivier isn't really bad but not that good either he's a bit of a bastard.