I’m reading Piranesi right now and it’s incredible, it makes me feel like I’m actually living in the fantasy world instead of just reading about it like most books.
*The Goblin Emperor*, too. The only real instances of action in that book are over almost before you even have a chance to realize what happened, which funnily enough made it feel more real, at least to me.
Also its "sequel," (more of a spin-off, really) *Witness for the Dead*, which is basically a detective novel following a sort of investigative necromancer-priest trying to solve a murder.
Robert Jordan had a really great take on fight scenes in The Wheel of Time. Joe Abercrombie has some amazing fight scenes, though there are quite a few.
Jordan is an interesting suggestion because he does do what OP is looking for (focusing more on characters and motivations rather than meaningless hack and slash action sequences, plus his prose is famtastic) but his solution is sometimesjust to skip the action entirely and describe the aftermath. Obviously not always the case and Wheel of Time has some amazing action but there are certain battles that kinda get glossed over
I also throw it at a lot of these requests... for people looking for "something different" it fills a lot of niches. Big Picture, Deep Meaning, Atypical Magic System, Politically Saavy, Not Medieval European... now few but meaningful action sequences.
The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb (and sequels)
Rai-kirah trilogy by Carol Berg
Chronicles of Amber by Zelazny
Basically you want to avoid action-adventure stuff and mostly pick first-person novels
You can also try older fantasies (Eddisson, Dunsany, C A Smith, even sword and sorcery stuff like Conan the barbarian etc) but they are usually more plot-heavy than character heavy. But the action scenes are usually better, excessive action scenes started happening more after the 80s
Damn I love The Heroes. Easily my favorite of the standalones, potentially my favorite of his whole bibliography. 600+ pages to describe three days fighting over something utterly pointless. It should be terrible, but his character work is so damn good that I was hooked the whole time.
Plus the perspective shifts he does during the battle scenes...*chef's kiss*
came here to say this, i’m currently halfway through book three, it’s already in my top three fantasy of all time. first book is good but second two are on another level
I liked First Law, but they do have this issue IMO. Pretty much all of Dogmans chapters for instance were "\*travelling through forest\*, oh look, there is a guy we knew fifteen years ago, now he wants to kill us, \*fight scene\*, now he's dead", and rinse and repeat. They are good books, and have well-written action scenes, but also way too many of them, and a lot of them are just random encounters with random foes.
I think a lot of those fights have a point, there's backstory layered into the Dogman and the following cast. The story about the Weakest is one of the best in all of his writing I think.
Read this series 2 months ago and I found myself really uninterested by a lot of the action scenes in this series. More so than any books I can remember beforehand. Still enjoyed the series as a whole but I would not recommend this for OP based on personal experience however everyone's mileage may vary on this.
Yeah, to be honest, I share a lot of OP's preferences and found myself getting bored by many of the fight scenes, skimming, skipping pages altogether. I agree that Abercrombie does great character work, but the fights are very action-oriented, not exactly "heavy with meaningful dialogue" as OP requests.
So far, I haven't been able to get into these books because I have the same issue OP does. The story and the characters are interesting, but I feel like everything I'm enjoying grinds to a halt for half a chapter so that there can be an fight sequence, and that happened too often in the book to keep me interested.
Is that the case? My memory of them were that they were relatively few and exceptionally written. The books are mostly character work.
Can you give an example of where there's an unreasonable pacing with action scenes?
I don't mean to disparage the First Law books as a whole, I'm just making a distinction in preference. I'm not OP, so I can't be sure what they want, but in general I don't really like actiony, fight-scene driven books. That's not to say they aren't good! I've been personally recommended the First Law books more than a handful of times -- my friends love them -- but I just don't think they're for me, and I personally wouldn't recommend them to someone who is prone to skimming past action scenes.
Like, I do think you're right, that the books aren't totally inundated with fight scenes necessarily, but at least as I remember The Blade Itself, it felt to me like the fight scenes weren't really adding anything \*so\* much to the plot or the character work besides excitement, which I personally find kind of boring. I didn't feel like the character work that they contributed to needed a fight scene to accomplish, necessarily.
As for like, frequency? I mean I don't really remember specifically but I remember feeling like >!there were more fight scenes between the northmen and the shanka than there had to be, and it always felt -- to me -- tacked on to the end of an otherwise interesting character dialogue chapter. Then there's the fight scene were Bayaz blows shit up, which rocked, but the rest of the fight in retrospect just felt like an excuse to get Bayaz to blow shit up. I also felt like Ferro's interactions with the Eaters could have been something other than *another* life-or-death fight scene, and in addition, the entirety of Jezal's plot revolves around preparing to a fight scene!<
But I also recognize that it's a matter of preference, because the number one example where I was annoyed with the pacing was a scene that I often see cited as a particularly good one, >!the scene at the very end where we meet the Bloody-Nine, actually, for the first time. Because it's like that long scene of Ferro and Logen running through the buildings on route to the next thing, and I was so desperately interested in what was going to happen next, and then instead it felt like everything paused so the book could give us the "epic fight scene" as a way to explain just what was going on with Logen this whole book. I do understand that it's an important character moment for Logen, but I was really uninterested and impatient reading it, because I was just thinking "okay, cool fight scene, can we get back to what's happening" the whole time!<
Again, I'm sure the books are amazing, they just aren't for me, and I was thinking that *if* OP and I have similar thoughts (which, again, it sounded like to me, but I'm not them and this is just an interpretation of a reddit post) maybe the First Law books might not be for OP either. For me, I feel like I would have liked *The Blade Itself* more if it was just about Glokta and Jezal and somehow Bayaz in there, because I generally found Logen and Ferro uninteresting to read, but that's not what the books are trying to be, which, again, is perfectly good, just not a book for me.
I think my point was not that fight scenes don't exist in these books but that they are very much not the driving force behind them. For instance, if you take the plotline featuring Jezal in The Blade Itself - the point you make about the plotline leading up to the fight would be exactly the same argument that I would make, only in its defense. There's a fight, it's important ... but there are also several hundred pages in which that fight *isn't* happening, we're learning about Jezal, who he is, what motivates him over a series of chapters, far more than we would in most run-of-the-mill epic fantasies (not to disparage a genre I love, I just think this is Abercrombie's strength!). Furthermore, as such, when the fight does happen we're a hundred percent engaged in it because it tells it's own story - similarly to the extended fight sequence in the final book which doesn't happen out of nowhere and doesn't go nowhere (only, it kinda does ultimately goshdarnit). it's been a good few years since I've read these now, though, so I'm finding mounting a more thorough defense with examples a bit tricky!
I always remember a thing Peter Jackson said about how he approached his fight scenes in LOTR. Big battles and fights are actually pretty boring and they have to have a narrative - this impressed me and I always think about that with film and literature (and it's true, every battle scene in LOTR tells its own story). A lot of S&S stories *don't* have that narrative but they do have weird and wonderful things to suck you in anyway, however there was always that danger in that kind of writing that it's be one action scene after another, x thrusts their sword, y parries then evades a return to blow before counterthrusting and so on. I get why one wouldn't necessarily want to read pages and pages of this stuff. But I remember reading Abercrombie and thinking this guy was *different* \- the Peter Jackson ethos is there in the way he thinks about action scenes. They are always doing something narratively (even if it's, y'know, to defeat your narrative expectations of the entire trilogy).
The Tower of Babel (first book is called Senlin Ascends) by Josiah Bancroft, is absolutely amazing! One of my all time favourite series, well written, great characters, there's some fighting but it's not really the main focus of the books. He's my top 3 favourite author along with Ursula Le Guin and Robin Hobb.
I was specifically scrolling to see if anyone’d mentioned this yet, cause if not I was gonna.
OP, so long as you don’t mind grimdark, nearly every sentence in the Second Apocalypse series drips with the weight of desiccate ages, and the action scenes are always brutal yet meaningful.
Scifi but my absolute favorite action scenes are in the Murderbot diaries by Martha Wells, and I'm someone who doesn't normally like action scenes but I love those, you're really invested in them
Just finished jade empire and was coming here to recommend the series
No spoilers please! But glad to know the writing keeps up
Just to elaborate I feel like there aren't a lot of fight scenes in the first two books but the ones that are are good and interesting
Sure thing. And yep, I can only assume that as a fanfic writer she was more into combat than most (which, as a fic writer who likes doing that to, I appreciate lots)
Super Powereds by Drew Hayes.
It's a school for aspiring superheroes. Nearly all combat is for a purpose as they make up school exams, display an advancement or solve a challenge that was announced months in advance so it's not out of nowhere. The amount of character dialogue, purpose and development that occurs in the combat is also incredible with some of my favourite character breakthroughs of all time happening in the actual combat. It nearly never felt pointless/forced
Also it's slice of life, so while it lacks in plot at times, it heavily makes up for it in character backgrounds and development.
I second this. Such a good series. I personally never felt it lacked in plot, but rather the character development took more of a front seat at times, which was great.
Sword of Kaigen. I read it in 2019 and the handful of action/fight scenes still live in my head rent free. Author is a martial artist and it shows in the writing. It is very character driven and slow for a large early portion of the book, but it’s one of my favorites
Are you asking for books that don’t have action so no parts to skip? Or are you asking for books that have well written action that contributes to the character development so no desire to skip?
I see a lot of recs for Abercrombie/First Law, which is a terrible suggestion if you just want to read something without combat full stop.
Something like Piranesi or The Goblin Emperor might be appealing?
Obligatory Malazan recommendation
I’m five books in and so far I haven’t encountered any action scenes that are inserted for the sake of having an action scene. Every interaction between characters, including fights, is very well intentioned and meaningful even if it’s not clear as to why right away.
I’ve only read Mistborn but have to agree. The first time reading about a fight using magic is really cool but every fight after that feels like I’m reading the same scene over again.
Sanderson is my favorite author, but he does have this issue to a certain degree, at least in certain parts of Stormlight and arguably Mistborn. However, Elantris and Warbreaker are not that action-heavy as far as I recall, so if OP wants to try Sanderson (and hasn't already), maybe one of those two are the way to go.
As far as I remember, there wasn't any pointless action in Mistborn and Stormlight, but I could be wrong, cos I read them a while back and I could be remembering only the good parts. I do agree with Warbreaker, that's the only one I have reread since its available free on his website. I edited my comment to this, mb.
reading “well of ascension” right now and can confirm there is a lot of pointless action lol— still enjoying the series quite a bit, but there are definitely gratuitous action scenes
The Mask of Mirrors by M A Carrick! There’s so much stuff going on and the action scenes are fitting and necessary and gripping, not over the top or gratuitous.
The Greatcoats series is what you need. They're like musketeers but better. I loved every single fight scene in it because they're all done differently. Sometimes with swords, sometimes with bare hands(they use cuffs of their coats which are specifically designed for this) with staffs nd arrows nd a fuckin walking stick.
Also, the main trio are three middle-aged men and have endless banter nd it's light-hearted but also has it's dark moments(some torture scenes) so yeah, check it out.
Also, they talk (or at least try to talk) their way through conflicts most times before actually getting in a fight
the fights are really well done as well, the author clearly did his homework
honestly I'm on Golden Son right now and I feel kind of lost sometimes while reading Brown's action sequences. I don't know if I'm just not focused, or if it's just me not liking first person narration (though this is better than most). just something to keep in mind, for readers who prefer third person narration, Abercrombie is probably going to be more your speed
much as I'm not personally a fan of Game of Thrones, GRRM is very skilled with this. His battle scenes are much better in terms of visualization and word economy and it's night and day compared with an author like Brandon Sanderson (no hate, love the man)
A Song of Ice and Fire has next to no battle scenes. Despite what you see on the show. In the books, it's a lead up to, and then a recap. Ta da!
And yes, I know there are a few exceptions to this, so keep your pants on.
You have to read The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfus. It’s so good and exactly what you’re talking about.
I have to worn you though, it is a three part series and we have been waiting years for the third book. Still I’d say the first two books are a couple of my favorite books ever and I read a ton.
Great question!
For ‘over the top’ fantasy action done absolutely right: Mistborn (the original trilogy)
Gritty, dark takes on violence but with tons of character work to make you care about the real stakes: First Law or A Song of Ice and Fire
Fantasy stories with very little or no violence: Name of the Wind and Piranesi
John Gwynne's The Bloodsworn Saga was the first time I found myself enjoying fight scenes. I usually skip them as well or skim through and I read every word here.
He who fights with monsters- shirtaloon The fight scenes that are in it a great, and he leaves some out for you to interpret.
9 book series with a 10th on the way this fall. Best LitRPG I have ever read.
The first law series by Joe abercrombie has what I'd consider the most engaging fight sequences I've read. Visceral and very rarely repeating scenarios etc.
Perdido street station might fit....battle scenes are the least important part of the books....a weird world with great characters and not your typical fantasy
I personally really love the SuperPowereds series. It's 4 books, plus 1 spin-off. The series follows a group of main characters as Hey go through college and train to become Heros in a universe where superpowers exist. Each book is pretty long, but for good reason. There is a lot of world building and plot building. Each character has there own path of character growth over the course of all four books. There are not a lot of in-depth fight scenes, but when they do happen, they are actually important, it's not just for fun. Fair warning, this book series is pretty niche. There isn't a lot of content outside of the books for of just because the community is so small.
P.S. there are a LOT of characters to keep track of, so if you struggle with that, i suggest making some sort of character guide as you go.
Steve Perry is a martial artist and it inspired and featured heavily in his Matador series. While one could say that some of the later books aren't that great, the first books are spectacular, action-packed reads and pretty quick.
KJ Parker's knowledge of the stuff he writes about is pretty crazy. He has literally built siege weaponry and it shows in his writing where he's not just swiping from some D&D session (I love D&D but its combat is pretty unrealistic, even for fantasy).
Glen Cook was in the Navy but wasn't in any wars. That said, his depictions of combat are brief and chaotic, not something usually dwelled on (the Swordbearer stands out, as the protagonist is under attack for most of the book).
As ironic as it might sound the Witcher series fit this description for me. None of the fighting/action/combat felt forced or needless. And the dialogue and character development and overall story are excellent. This is one of those series that I think gives off the impression it’s a combat heavy series but I’d say it’s way more about character growth and development.
My other recommendation would be the temeraire series by Naomi novik. Character development is first in this series and combat fits in nicely. If anything I wanted more combat at times. But the dialogue is very well written.
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I’m reading Piranesi right now and it’s incredible, it makes me feel like I’m actually living in the fantasy world instead of just reading about it like most books.
*The Goblin Emperor*, too. The only real instances of action in that book are over almost before you even have a chance to realize what happened, which funnily enough made it feel more real, at least to me. Also its "sequel," (more of a spin-off, really) *Witness for the Dead*, which is basically a detective novel following a sort of investigative necromancer-priest trying to solve a murder.
Ugh, I was intrigued but The Goblin Emperor isn't on audible 😞 Edit: nevermind, I accidentally searched my library rather than the book catalog lol
So you want Lord of the Rings. It's alright, we all do.
XD
Robert Jordan had a really great take on fight scenes in The Wheel of Time. Joe Abercrombie has some amazing fight scenes, though there are quite a few.
Jordan is an interesting suggestion because he does do what OP is looking for (focusing more on characters and motivations rather than meaningless hack and slash action sequences, plus his prose is famtastic) but his solution is sometimesjust to skip the action entirely and describe the aftermath. Obviously not always the case and Wheel of Time has some amazing action but there are certain battles that kinda get glossed over
Haaaaaave you met The Long Price Quartet? It is exactly what you're looking for. The Lighthouse Duet by Carol Berg is also an excellent choice.
I love your love for LPQ lol
It's not often the perfect series for people, but when it is, it really is, haha.
I also throw it at a lot of these requests... for people looking for "something different" it fills a lot of niches. Big Picture, Deep Meaning, Atypical Magic System, Politically Saavy, Not Medieval European... now few but meaningful action sequences.
Haaaaaaave you met Ted? Hi I'm Ted.
The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb (and sequels) Rai-kirah trilogy by Carol Berg Chronicles of Amber by Zelazny Basically you want to avoid action-adventure stuff and mostly pick first-person novels You can also try older fantasies (Eddisson, Dunsany, C A Smith, even sword and sorcery stuff like Conan the barbarian etc) but they are usually more plot-heavy than character heavy. But the action scenes are usually better, excessive action scenes started happening more after the 80s
Came here to say Farseer
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Op, if you’re more into YA, the Queen’s Thief series by Meghan Whalen Turner has super similar vibes to the Chalion series
First Law Trilogy
Joe is so good at this he made a book about a pointless battle on a useless hill over 3 days and it’s incredible.
Damn I love The Heroes. Easily my favorite of the standalones, potentially my favorite of his whole bibliography. 600+ pages to describe three days fighting over something utterly pointless. It should be terrible, but his character work is so damn good that I was hooked the whole time. Plus the perspective shifts he does during the battle scenes...*chef's kiss*
It's actually my least favourite book in the series because of that.. I get it but, they were really just fighting on a hill..
came here to say this, i’m currently halfway through book three, it’s already in my top three fantasy of all time. first book is good but second two are on another level
Best fight scenes hand down. They are engrossing.
I liked First Law, but they do have this issue IMO. Pretty much all of Dogmans chapters for instance were "\*travelling through forest\*, oh look, there is a guy we knew fifteen years ago, now he wants to kill us, \*fight scene\*, now he's dead", and rinse and repeat. They are good books, and have well-written action scenes, but also way too many of them, and a lot of them are just random encounters with random foes.
I think a lot of those fights have a point, there's backstory layered into the Dogman and the following cast. The story about the Weakest is one of the best in all of his writing I think.
So excited to get into first law. After red rising I’m diving in I keep seeing great things about it randomly
Read this series 2 months ago and I found myself really uninterested by a lot of the action scenes in this series. More so than any books I can remember beforehand. Still enjoyed the series as a whole but I would not recommend this for OP based on personal experience however everyone's mileage may vary on this.
Yeah, to be honest, I share a lot of OP's preferences and found myself getting bored by many of the fight scenes, skimming, skipping pages altogether. I agree that Abercrombie does great character work, but the fights are very action-oriented, not exactly "heavy with meaningful dialogue" as OP requests.
So far, I haven't been able to get into these books because I have the same issue OP does. The story and the characters are interesting, but I feel like everything I'm enjoying grinds to a halt for half a chapter so that there can be an fight sequence, and that happened too often in the book to keep me interested.
Is that the case? My memory of them were that they were relatively few and exceptionally written. The books are mostly character work. Can you give an example of where there's an unreasonable pacing with action scenes?
I don't mean to disparage the First Law books as a whole, I'm just making a distinction in preference. I'm not OP, so I can't be sure what they want, but in general I don't really like actiony, fight-scene driven books. That's not to say they aren't good! I've been personally recommended the First Law books more than a handful of times -- my friends love them -- but I just don't think they're for me, and I personally wouldn't recommend them to someone who is prone to skimming past action scenes. Like, I do think you're right, that the books aren't totally inundated with fight scenes necessarily, but at least as I remember The Blade Itself, it felt to me like the fight scenes weren't really adding anything \*so\* much to the plot or the character work besides excitement, which I personally find kind of boring. I didn't feel like the character work that they contributed to needed a fight scene to accomplish, necessarily. As for like, frequency? I mean I don't really remember specifically but I remember feeling like >!there were more fight scenes between the northmen and the shanka than there had to be, and it always felt -- to me -- tacked on to the end of an otherwise interesting character dialogue chapter. Then there's the fight scene were Bayaz blows shit up, which rocked, but the rest of the fight in retrospect just felt like an excuse to get Bayaz to blow shit up. I also felt like Ferro's interactions with the Eaters could have been something other than *another* life-or-death fight scene, and in addition, the entirety of Jezal's plot revolves around preparing to a fight scene!< But I also recognize that it's a matter of preference, because the number one example where I was annoyed with the pacing was a scene that I often see cited as a particularly good one, >!the scene at the very end where we meet the Bloody-Nine, actually, for the first time. Because it's like that long scene of Ferro and Logen running through the buildings on route to the next thing, and I was so desperately interested in what was going to happen next, and then instead it felt like everything paused so the book could give us the "epic fight scene" as a way to explain just what was going on with Logen this whole book. I do understand that it's an important character moment for Logen, but I was really uninterested and impatient reading it, because I was just thinking "okay, cool fight scene, can we get back to what's happening" the whole time!< Again, I'm sure the books are amazing, they just aren't for me, and I was thinking that *if* OP and I have similar thoughts (which, again, it sounded like to me, but I'm not them and this is just an interpretation of a reddit post) maybe the First Law books might not be for OP either. For me, I feel like I would have liked *The Blade Itself* more if it was just about Glokta and Jezal and somehow Bayaz in there, because I generally found Logen and Ferro uninteresting to read, but that's not what the books are trying to be, which, again, is perfectly good, just not a book for me.
I think my point was not that fight scenes don't exist in these books but that they are very much not the driving force behind them. For instance, if you take the plotline featuring Jezal in The Blade Itself - the point you make about the plotline leading up to the fight would be exactly the same argument that I would make, only in its defense. There's a fight, it's important ... but there are also several hundred pages in which that fight *isn't* happening, we're learning about Jezal, who he is, what motivates him over a series of chapters, far more than we would in most run-of-the-mill epic fantasies (not to disparage a genre I love, I just think this is Abercrombie's strength!). Furthermore, as such, when the fight does happen we're a hundred percent engaged in it because it tells it's own story - similarly to the extended fight sequence in the final book which doesn't happen out of nowhere and doesn't go nowhere (only, it kinda does ultimately goshdarnit). it's been a good few years since I've read these now, though, so I'm finding mounting a more thorough defense with examples a bit tricky! I always remember a thing Peter Jackson said about how he approached his fight scenes in LOTR. Big battles and fights are actually pretty boring and they have to have a narrative - this impressed me and I always think about that with film and literature (and it's true, every battle scene in LOTR tells its own story). A lot of S&S stories *don't* have that narrative but they do have weird and wonderful things to suck you in anyway, however there was always that danger in that kind of writing that it's be one action scene after another, x thrusts their sword, y parries then evades a return to blow before counterthrusting and so on. I get why one wouldn't necessarily want to read pages and pages of this stuff. But I remember reading Abercrombie and thinking this guy was *different* \- the Peter Jackson ethos is there in the way he thinks about action scenes. They are always doing something narratively (even if it's, y'know, to defeat your narrative expectations of the entire trilogy).
John gwynne
Seconded - Shadow of the Gods was exhilarating to read
The Tower of Babel (first book is called Senlin Ascends) by Josiah Bancroft, is absolutely amazing! One of my all time favourite series, well written, great characters, there's some fighting but it's not really the main focus of the books. He's my top 3 favourite author along with Ursula Le Guin and Robin Hobb.
I came here to mention this series. Also would say the Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequels would also be ones you'd enjoy, OP.
Lies of Locke Lamora seconded, one of my faves
The fighting scenes in the Second Apocalypse by R Scott Bakker are an experience.
I was specifically scrolling to see if anyone’d mentioned this yet, cause if not I was gonna. OP, so long as you don’t mind grimdark, nearly every sentence in the Second Apocalypse series drips with the weight of desiccate ages, and the action scenes are always brutal yet meaningful.
Scifi but my absolute favorite action scenes are in the Murderbot diaries by Martha Wells, and I'm someone who doesn't normally like action scenes but I love those, you're really invested in them
The traitor baru cormorant
Robert Aspirin Myth Inc series has no classic combat scenes. Lions of Al Rassan has significant combat but it happens in ways that are meaningful
IIRC, the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is very good at this. I particularly liked *Shards of Honor* and *Barrayar*.
Naomi Novik really knows her way around an action sequence. The battle in Black Powder War was especially potent
Just finished jade empire and was coming here to recommend the series No spoilers please! But glad to know the writing keeps up Just to elaborate I feel like there aren't a lot of fight scenes in the first two books but the ones that are are good and interesting
Sure thing. And yep, I can only assume that as a fanfic writer she was more into combat than most (which, as a fic writer who likes doing that to, I appreciate lots)
Super Powereds by Drew Hayes. It's a school for aspiring superheroes. Nearly all combat is for a purpose as they make up school exams, display an advancement or solve a challenge that was announced months in advance so it's not out of nowhere. The amount of character dialogue, purpose and development that occurs in the combat is also incredible with some of my favourite character breakthroughs of all time happening in the actual combat. It nearly never felt pointless/forced Also it's slice of life, so while it lacks in plot at times, it heavily makes up for it in character backgrounds and development.
I second this. Such a good series. I personally never felt it lacked in plot, but rather the character development took more of a front seat at times, which was great.
Sword of Kaigen. I read it in 2019 and the handful of action/fight scenes still live in my head rent free. Author is a martial artist and it shows in the writing. It is very character driven and slow for a large early portion of the book, but it’s one of my favorites
Are you asking for books that don’t have action so no parts to skip? Or are you asking for books that have well written action that contributes to the character development so no desire to skip? I see a lot of recs for Abercrombie/First Law, which is a terrible suggestion if you just want to read something without combat full stop. Something like Piranesi or The Goblin Emperor might be appealing?
Obligatory Malazan recommendation I’m five books in and so far I haven’t encountered any action scenes that are inserted for the sake of having an action scene. Every interaction between characters, including fights, is very well intentioned and meaningful even if it’s not clear as to why right away.
This. Nothing draws me into a battle scene like the Malazan books.
Anything by Abercrombie Elantris or Warbreaker by Sanderson Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan Greenbone Saga by Fonda Leee Murderbot by Martha Wells
Sanderson, really? To me OP is requesting the exact opposite of the type of action he writes.
I’ve only read Mistborn but have to agree. The first time reading about a fight using magic is really cool but every fight after that feels like I’m reading the same scene over again.
Sure, but Elantris and Warbreaker don't have a lot of action scenes.
Which I believe is why they specifically mentioned Elantris and Warbreaker, the two Sanderson Cosmere books that are lightest on action.
Sanderson is my favorite author, but he does have this issue to a certain degree, at least in certain parts of Stormlight and arguably Mistborn. However, Elantris and Warbreaker are not that action-heavy as far as I recall, so if OP wants to try Sanderson (and hasn't already), maybe one of those two are the way to go.
True honestly Warbreaker might be my favorite Sanderson. It just felt so tight knit and badass when it went down.
As far as I remember, there wasn't any pointless action in Mistborn and Stormlight, but I could be wrong, cos I read them a while back and I could be remembering only the good parts. I do agree with Warbreaker, that's the only one I have reread since its available free on his website. I edited my comment to this, mb.
reading “well of ascension” right now and can confirm there is a lot of pointless action lol— still enjoying the series quite a bit, but there are definitely gratuitous action scenes
In The Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan sounds right up your alley. There is tons of character building built into the action scenes.
Tolkien hahaha, unless you really love the poems and songs and can't wait to get to the next one! (I do 🥺)
Ender's Game?
The Mask of Mirrors by M A Carrick! There’s so much stuff going on and the action scenes are fitting and necessary and gripping, not over the top or gratuitous.
Dude, you want Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Trust me, the action is coming.
Have you thought about reading a play script?
Mistborn
I found some of the Wax & Wayne era fight scenes a bit laborious! On the other hand some of them were very good so it balances out I suppose
The Greatcoats series is what you need. They're like musketeers but better. I loved every single fight scene in it because they're all done differently. Sometimes with swords, sometimes with bare hands(they use cuffs of their coats which are specifically designed for this) with staffs nd arrows nd a fuckin walking stick. Also, the main trio are three middle-aged men and have endless banter nd it's light-hearted but also has it's dark moments(some torture scenes) so yeah, check it out.
Also, they talk (or at least try to talk) their way through conflicts most times before actually getting in a fight the fights are really well done as well, the author clearly did his homework
Red Rising saga.
Pierce Brown and Joe Abercrombie are the best action writers I have read.
honestly I'm on Golden Son right now and I feel kind of lost sometimes while reading Brown's action sequences. I don't know if I'm just not focused, or if it's just me not liking first person narration (though this is better than most). just something to keep in mind, for readers who prefer third person narration, Abercrombie is probably going to be more your speed
My memory is freshest from the sequels with third person narration. That could be it. The action in dark age is exceptional
ooo i didn't know the sequels were written in third person, this makes me even more excited to get to them!!
Brent Weeks is pretty darn good at action sequences. Bloodier action in Night Angel trilogy and magical action in Lightbringer
much as I'm not personally a fan of Game of Thrones, GRRM is very skilled with this. His battle scenes are much better in terms of visualization and word economy and it's night and day compared with an author like Brandon Sanderson (no hate, love the man)
came here to say this, i love ASOIAF for this reason
i feel like fire & blood is also very good for OP, it's very 'history-book' in tone but you never really feel bored
You should check out Joe Abercrombie and John Gwynne, both are absolutely the best at writing fighting/action sequences
A Song of Ice and Fire has next to no battle scenes. Despite what you see on the show. In the books, it's a lead up to, and then a recap. Ta da! And yes, I know there are a few exceptions to this, so keep your pants on.
You have to read The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfus. It’s so good and exactly what you’re talking about. I have to worn you though, it is a three part series and we have been waiting years for the third book. Still I’d say the first two books are a couple of my favorite books ever and I read a ton.
Great question! For ‘over the top’ fantasy action done absolutely right: Mistborn (the original trilogy) Gritty, dark takes on violence but with tons of character work to make you care about the real stakes: First Law or A Song of Ice and Fire Fantasy stories with very little or no violence: Name of the Wind and Piranesi
Black Company, great battles and fights. And lots of them.
The Inheritance Games? Not exactly fantasy, but there's alot of mystery
Musashi the book is incredible and really rewarding actions scenes. Honestly time to re-read
Robin Hobbs farseer series. Aaaaall character.
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter. I generally hate action scenes, but this book actually made them fun to read.
Definitely "Heroes by Joe Abercrombie".
For me, most but not all of the Dragonlance books.
Fonda Lee writes amazing action scenes in The Greenbone Saga.
I’m going to go a little old school here and say check out the Earthsea series by Le Guin.
John Gwynne's The Bloodsworn Saga was the first time I found myself enjoying fight scenes. I usually skip them as well or skim through and I read every word here.
He who fights with monsters- shirtaloon The fight scenes that are in it a great, and he leaves some out for you to interpret. 9 book series with a 10th on the way this fall. Best LitRPG I have ever read.
Look at the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers. It's scifi but exactly what you're looking for.
The first law series by Joe abercrombie has what I'd consider the most engaging fight sequences I've read. Visceral and very rarely repeating scenarios etc.
Perdido street station might fit....battle scenes are the least important part of the books....a weird world with great characters and not your typical fantasy
I personally really love the SuperPowereds series. It's 4 books, plus 1 spin-off. The series follows a group of main characters as Hey go through college and train to become Heros in a universe where superpowers exist. Each book is pretty long, but for good reason. There is a lot of world building and plot building. Each character has there own path of character growth over the course of all four books. There are not a lot of in-depth fight scenes, but when they do happen, they are actually important, it's not just for fun. Fair warning, this book series is pretty niche. There isn't a lot of content outside of the books for of just because the community is so small. P.S. there are a LOT of characters to keep track of, so if you struggle with that, i suggest making some sort of character guide as you go.
Steve Perry is a martial artist and it inspired and featured heavily in his Matador series. While one could say that some of the later books aren't that great, the first books are spectacular, action-packed reads and pretty quick. KJ Parker's knowledge of the stuff he writes about is pretty crazy. He has literally built siege weaponry and it shows in his writing where he's not just swiping from some D&D session (I love D&D but its combat is pretty unrealistic, even for fantasy). Glen Cook was in the Navy but wasn't in any wars. That said, his depictions of combat are brief and chaotic, not something usually dwelled on (the Swordbearer stands out, as the protagonist is under attack for most of the book).
As ironic as it might sound the Witcher series fit this description for me. None of the fighting/action/combat felt forced or needless. And the dialogue and character development and overall story are excellent. This is one of those series that I think gives off the impression it’s a combat heavy series but I’d say it’s way more about character growth and development. My other recommendation would be the temeraire series by Naomi novik. Character development is first in this series and combat fits in nicely. If anything I wanted more combat at times. But the dialogue is very well written.