A little off topic ..but please look

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Dune Echo

Guest
Yeah! How could I forget that as well! Man! Shame Roger died before he could finish the books though. I would have loved to know what ended up happening with 2 points of Order and 1 of Chaos plus whatever happened to Merlin and Corwin.

Asadoine: How could you say such a blasphemous thing about Jordan?! My only problem with Jordan is sometimes you can't always figure out things just from his clues. Like, who the hell killed Asmodean? "The clues are all there," Jordan says! Well, I'm not fecking Sherlock Holmes okay?! And he writes too damn slow! IT'S TEN BOOKS! HURRY UP ALREADY! (Jordan wasn't in a car wreck, he has no excuse for delaying so very long! He knows how the fecking series is going to end already!)

All in all, anyone that hasn't read the books mentioned here, to put it simply, should.

One question: Am I the only person that found Tolkien to be extremely boring after book 1 of the Fellowship of the Ring? I've never finished the series...

And my god, isn't Goodkind getting extremely sexual in Temple of the Winds?! I mean HOLY SHIT! I'm sure porno-books get that graphic!
 
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asadoine

Guest
Well I have to admit that Tolkien's style is sometimes heavy, but he really is the guy who created the genre and the world he designed (middle Earth) is real great.

I took me 3 tries to manage reading the Silmarillion (first time stopping p20, second 60 one year later then went for it) but since I have read it countless times.

Just Great Great Great, and it makes you love the lord of the rings even better ...

As for the wheel of time, you say partly what I meant ... it is too slow.

Like hop suddenly something happens to turn the story in another direction, just to delay it a bit further .. That he takes so long time writing the follow up really makes me believe he does not want to go to the end of the story and try to get ideas on how to delay it further.

One question for all of you guys

it seems to me that for a while no author is really creative .. When I read a book, esp like Wheel of time and even more strongly The sword of truth (what was that Gollum like ex seeker ???). I can tell what will happen like 50 pages in advange and get the feeling, that sounds like from this or that book ...

Ok I have been reading MANY MANY books (maybe over 200 counting sci fi), and I actually have problem finding new I didnt read before (and I have a good memory) , and I miss the thrill of discovery or wonder of what will happen I had while reading Dragonlance, or Pern ...

berto
 
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theorgg

Guest
hmmm...

well, I havn't taken a look at this in awhile, and I didn't know so many people would reply to somthing like this.

first things first-- I must defend the sword of truth: yes, it does get very "sexy" in some of the books, but it is NOTHING compared to Mordred's curse/Merlin's Gift by Ian Mcdonnal. If sword of truth is pornographic, that combo is strate out Lewd!

on cliche's-- yes. cliches abound. wrighters of this generation can hardly stop borrowing from other's stories, unconciously or conciously. take a little from this, a little from that...
viola! a good book.

on original books-- I have read one by somoneoranother called "illigal alien". It was a SF murder mystery that delt with an alien spiecies coming to earth, and one of the people living with them being brutally murdered... or disected.
I don't know if it's truly original, I'm usually engrossed in fantacy, but it seemed to me to be great.


a few others I have read recently are Good Omens by Terry Pratchett(ttechtarp) and Neil Gaiman(Finally found a copy!), Harry Potter(great siries), and the SHADOW War books by chris clairmont and George Lucas(a contenuation from the moovie Willow

sic semper,
 
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Gumby Khan

Guest
May I suggest a non-fantasy writer? Anne Rice did some great work with her Vampire trilogy, although the last book, Queen of the Damned was pretty lame. I also recommend the greats, like Tolkien, Zelazny, Heinlen (Puppet Masters), Terry Pratchet (hilarious!), McCaffrey, Jordan, etc... Other ones I would suggest mirror some earlier picks, like Robert Aspirin and his Myth Series (mythical mayhem), or Margret Weiss and Tracy Hickman for their Darksword Trilogy (very gripping).
asadoine: "...and I miss the thrill of discovery or wonder of what will happen I had while reading Dragonlance, or Pern ..."
I know this feeling and I chalked it up to being too old and well read. Once you hit a certain point, you lose that naivite and what you read resembles so much of what you have read, that you can start predicting things. Also, you may start to see a pattern. Editors force these on authors to sell books, because people (in general) want the same thing. Good guy faces horrible tragedy, overcomes personal weakness, finds love, battles evil, and then a somewhat happy ending that leaves a few loopholes for sequels. Sound familiar? If the author is signed up for a multi-novel deal, then the ending is a sheer cliff-hangar that makes you itchy for the next book, i.e. The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice. Finding that original awe you had as a younger reader is what drives most people to devour books and when an author comes along that can kindle that spark, it sells millions of copies. Ever wonder what a million books look like? Ask your local librarian how many books they have total and imagine if every book in that building was exactly like the next. Big bucks, big business, and big decisions made on how a plot develops.
Whoa, where am I going with this? I don't know and I apologize for the rant. A simple answer for a simple question;
The best fantasy novel series has to be...The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (high-five to asadoine)! :)

"My Preciousss!? Where are you, my Precioussss!?" - Gollum,
The Hobbit,
J.R.R. Tolkien
 
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Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Actually, I also thought Lord of the Rings was drawn out at times. The Simarillion too... although I liked reading about the history.

I'm not sure about the best fantasy.. I'd probably go with the Belgariad or the Magician series I mentioned above (except for the SIlverthorn book).

Oh, another series that was interesting was the first Shannara books.

I'm probably biased with all those books above because they have big battles and I love big battles. Just keep that in mind :)
 
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Dune Echo

Guest
Spiderman, did you ever read the Empire series collaboration between Ray Feist and Janny Wurtz? It takes place on the other side of the Magician books and man, if anyone here likes political brilliance, read these. I had my supervisor at the factory I used to work at hooked in a second! They're awesome.

----------------
Dune Echo

... recently A+ certified!
 
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Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Raymond Feist! That's the guy!

I've only read one, Heir to the Empire. Around that time my book purchases dropped off and I haven't been to the library very much.

I've read a couple of the other ones set back in Midkemia (Betrayal at Krondor, Freebooter(?)) but they just aren't as good.
 
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Dune Echo

Guest
Dude, you gotta read the rest of them. I'm telling you. Arikasi is the baddest Spy Master I have ever read in my whole life. Hell the last book basically focuses almost entirely on him!
 
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DeathPitOffering

Guest
Dune , you are so right bout that star wars book. I actually like the books alot more than the movies. My favorite book of all time is FEAR NOTHING by dean koontz. Theres a sequel called seize the night that is pretty good to. Its scifi and not fantasy though
 
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Dune Echo

Guest
LOL!

DeathPitOffering: I meant the Empire books by Janny Wurtz and Raymond E. Feist.
Daughter of the Empire
<Something> of the Empire
Servant of the Empire

They're set in an oriental-type setting and extremely politically brilliant. They're the mirror books to the Magician series.
 
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DeathPitOffering

Guest
lol dune! I thought you meant heir to the empire. That star wars book. I know what book your talking about now.
 
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