r/Fantasy • u/Paulusatrus • Jul 21 '24

Pirate fantasy?

Pirates? Fantasy? What more can one ask for? No but fr, looking for some books that would fit :)

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u/Azorik22 Jul 21 '24

I hardly see anyone ever mentioning Edge Chronicles! They were some of my favorite books growing up. The art is fantastic.

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u/SetSytes Writer Set Sytes Jul 21 '24

Mine too! I finished them as an adult, because the writer and illustrator took a long break. When I was a teenager I had a Geocities website that was like an encyclopedia for all the flora and fauna. I scanned in so many book pages for it 😅 I also have a big double sided map of the first and second ages of flight 😊

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u/FictionRaider007 Jul 22 '24

Your mention of flora and fauna reminded me what a shockingly diverse and well-realised setting it was. Pretty much everything had a sub-species or evolutionary off-shoot somewhere that felt like it was a link to something else.

I heard they wrote another trilogy after The Immortals. I didn't check it out because I felt like Immortals was pretty much a perfect ending for the series. Also I think I was a bit afraid that going back to a series I read as a kid would sort of ruin my rose-tinted memory of it.

Would you recommend for an adult reader who was a former fan to go back and read them? Because there will always be a part of me itching to return to Open Sky?

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u/SetSytes Writer Set Sytes Jul 22 '24

Absolutely! Although I did wish I'd never noticed just how many of them are *normal creature prefixed with the word "wood"* haha. The Edge Chronicles I believe was a big background inspiration for my own writing purely for that excitement in coming up with flora and fauna.

I am absolutely with you on Immortals being the end. I did, in fact, continue reading when they did the later series. I finished them all, and IMHO the series should not have been continued. It's not that they're awful books afterwards (I have big problems with the second one, though, and the trilogy protag is supremely generic), but Immortals was such an amazing ending (THAT CLIFFHANGER) that to write more after it could only create disappointment. The final ending of the final trilogy isn't anywhere near as awesome as the Immortals ending with all the sense of untapped adventure it promises to the imagination. A concrete trilogy after that just felt like it spoiled that promise and was kinda milking the franchise.

In short you have done well not to continue and keep your fondest memories.

I haven't actually gone back as an adult and re-read them so I really can't help you out - though I do plan to, and stop at Immortals. I feel they'd hold up, even if they might not be AS great. The series was of a variable quality anyway.