Magician/Feist

[Cullhaven]

Currently 2/3rds of the way through Magician by Feist. Love the story and plot, likeing most of the characters but this bloke can't write dialog very well. Some of the conversations between Pug and Thomas are extremely twee and verging on "pass the sick bag" and I cringe every time Carline opens her gob. He also managed to make the evil enemy invaders loads more interesting than the good guys, to the extent that at the moment, I hope the Tsurani (I keep reading that as ToonArmy) win! His Elves and Dwarves are bog standard fantasy/ rpg Elves and Dwarves, which is a shame. Finding a lot of the characters a bit one-dimensional, though not Thomas and Pug. Bit like a painting where the two main figures are done in a lot of detail with the background just sketched in.

Sticking with it though as I think it might get better. Saw an interview where he admitted that he knew nothing at all about writing, let alone writing fantasy, when he started out and that he wasn't that enamoured of his early style and content himself. He thinks it improves as it goes along and the storyline is good enough to keep my interest.

Starting the Malazan/Erikson stuff as well, wonder which will take over as the main read.

 

[Swither]

Feist's writing doesn't get any better in my opinion. I take him as he is a pulp fantasy writer, but I started reading him in my teens (so over 20 years ago!).

Better writing than many at the time, but not anything as good as Erikson - though he bored me by the end or as gritty as Joe Abercrombie / Richard Morgan.

Saying that I intend to read everything until I get to the Magician's End trilogy, so take it as it is, a good ole fantasy read with good ole stereotyped characters and you won't be disappointed.

 

[Agravaine]

I like Feist but it's the fantasy equivalent of a popcorn action movie. It's entertaining and doesn't require much from the audience but don't expect epic dialogue or Oscar winning performances.

If you like the Tsurani then try the Daughter of the Empire trilogy which he wrote with Janny Wurts.

 

[Entropy]

I quite enjoyed Magician, but I read it around 20 years ago too. I find I'm a lot less tolerant to poor writing now.

I recently decided to read the Wheel of Time seeing as Sanderson has finally finished it, and I'm amazed at how poor some of Jordan's writing is in places (although I think dialogue is a strength of his, he's sometimes just let down by what he chooses to allow his characters to do / say!).

I tried Erikson around 10 years ago, and found his in medea res approach too much to handle (although I did get to book two or three). On that note, has anyone read Neuromancer by Gibson? My God, that was an effort! Ender's Game is probably the best sci-fi book I've come across.

What's at the top of everyone's list re: fantasy books? I read The Dreaming Jewels by Sturgeon a few months ago and loved it up until the last third, but too much was rammed into the final chapters. I think if he'd made it 30 or 40 per cent. longer, it could have been exceptional.

 

[Swither]

I read most fantasy stuff. Love Abercrombie, Hobb, Simon R Green, Sanderson et all.

Currently reading Patrick Rothfuss - Name of the wind series, on the 2nd book and getting a bit bored with it to be honest.

I also quite enjoy apocalyptic fiction, especially decent zombie stuff.
I've been enjoying the surviving the dead series and am about to start the latest book which is from an infected's point of view. It is a bit of a survivalist bro-mance, but easy pulp fiction to relax with.

 

[Entropy]

Read a fair bit of Hobb and Sanderson. I've heard good stuff about Name of the Wind, but wanted to wait until it was finished first. Been burned twice on Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones and don't want to start another series that hasn't been finished!

What are Abercrombie and Green like?

 

[Swither]

Simon R Green's Shadow's Fall is a good tale. About the place legends go to die.

Joe Abercrombie - writes good gritty fantasy, well rounded characters worth a read. the blade itself best place to start.

 

[Cullhaven]

Ent I read Neuromancer in virtually 1 sitting - I just couldn't put it down. I have struggled with some of his other stuff though - The Difference Engine in particular.

Top of My list would be

1 anything Tolkien

2 Anything George R R Martin - 90% of fantasy writers should look at George to see how to do dialog, descriptive writing, narrative - everything realy.

3 Elric, Corum, Dorian Hawkmoon, Gloriana - Moorcock is a genius imo.

4 The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance, Cugels saga in partic

5 Most of Gaiman

6 Pratachet before it got too formulaic.


Bottom of my list, in the deepest Hells would be
Terry Brooks
Stephen Donaldson
Weis and Hickman
Robert Asprin ( Just look at his cringy book titles and you will know all you need to know about how he writes)

 

[Swither]

I think Moorcock is an over-rated (mainly by himself!) fantasy snob, myself.

Donaldson is good, but can be hard work.

Surprised you like Tolkein but not Donaldson, as Tolkein is a hard read too I think.

Anyone read Pratchett & Baxter Long Earth? I enjoyed it and look forward to picking up the next book. Got bad reviews as the retards reviewing it were complaining that it wasn't funny, despite it not supposed to be funny!?!

 

[Cullhaven]

He has a bit of a right to be a bit of a "snob", in my opinion - his fantasy is way more inventive and original than 90% of the dross thats out there. Been reading LOTR since I was seven so it cant be that hard, though I grant you, The Silmarillion is a tough bugger - well worth the read though. Donaldson ( I'm talking about the original Thomas Covenent trio) was just pages and pages of descriptive puple prose that didnt seem to go anywhere. Nowt much seemed to happen then he'd flash back to the real world and we'd get pages of him swimming in self pity and negativity.

 

[Anubis]

Top of My list would be

1 anything Tolkien

2 Anything George R R Martin - 90% of fantasy writers should look at George to see how to do dialog, descriptive writing, narrative - everything realy.

3 Elric, Corum, Dorian Hawkmoon, Gloriana - Moorcock is a genius imo.

4 The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance, Cugels saga in partic

5 Most of Gaiman

6 Pratachet before it got too formulaic.

Pretty much the same as me really. Not much more to add

 

[Swither]

Donaldson ( I'm talking about the original Thomas Covenent trio) was just pages and pages of descriptive puple prose that didnt seem to go anywhere. Nowt much seemed to happen then he'd flash back to the real world and we'd get pages of him swimming in self pity and negativity.

Granted, I'll agree on that one Cull.

 

[Cullhaven]

Had to give up on Feist I am afraid, but have started the Wheel of Time. Don't know what put me off originally, but I am near the end of book one and quite frankly find Jordan a very acomplished writer. He succeds where feist fails, I think, because he lets the small story tell the big story. Feist had this amazing vision spanning a large time period, but wanted to go too quickly. Pug goes from Slave to master Magician in about 10 paragraphs. Because he wants to move the story on so rapidly there is very little character developement. This means the characters just become steriotypes - generic fantasy stock. It got to where Arutha, Martin and The other brother were indistinguishable from each other bar the name. Oh yeah - martin had a bow.
Jordan lets the bigger picture unfold through the eyes and actions of the little people caught up in the wider story. They seem more like real people. His dialog is good too. Really liking that and The Malazan for similar reasons.

 

[Corwin]

The thing with Feist is, it's Generational Fantasy, with a few Constants such as Pug and Tomas (And Nakor!, Want an orange?)

It takes most of the first trilogy, and to a lesser extent, the 2 semi stand alone novels about Arutha's children to set the world, at which point each book just expands on it.

I also started reading them about 20 years ago, and i've faithfully carried on as each one came out (the 3 Krondor novels are atrocious, but that's mainly as they're based on the games, not the games based on a specific book)

The Elves get fleshed out quite well i though throughout the books, different branches etc, although sadly the dwarves are mainly ignored.

Once the series moves out of the Western kingdoms, and expands to the rest of the world/universe i thought it got much better. Bear in mind Magician is his first book

 

[Swither]

Been working my way through Feist again and currently at Murder in LaMut.

It is bloody awful and I can't wait to finish it. The previous one Honoured Enemy was ok, but this next one is crap. Only reading these to get to the last 3 in the whole series.

Saying that I picked up the last Hobb in the dragon keepers series on kindle for 49p and I'm enjoying that.

 

[Corwin]

the Murder in lamut one, they're kind of stand alones set in the same universe, can safely not read them and not really miss much, i think all he did with these ones was set the premise and then farm it off to another author to write the story

 

[Cullhaven]

Got half way through the second Feist book before I gave in.
Jordan on the other hand, I am warming to page by page. Can't put it down at the moment.

Planning a massive re-read of Michael Moorcock but where to start, there are so many ways in to The Eternal Champion "series". Might start with Jerry Cornelius - the Condition of Muzak is still one of The best fantasy/sci-fi books I have ever read. Or Elric. First books I ever read of his were the Prince Corum stuff so might start there. Oh, and seeing your name there Eri - might just dig out the old Zelazny books and revisit Amber.

 

[Pictelf]

I haven't gone back and read Magician in quite some time so I don't know what I would think of it now though tbh if its a book that I have read before its like putting on a comfy clothes you know what to expect and your not looking at the worn fabric or holes. I did do a run from King of the Foxes recently which I enjoyed. I find him easy to read. I used use Eddings as the 'easy' reading, I liked the character interactions but the stories weren't that stunning.
I liked Donaldson when I first read the Covenant stuff but I haven't reread any in probably a decade as they are a bit bloody depressing. I like a Man rides Through and the other one though.
So yeah it depends on what your in the mood for, most challenging read I can think of was Faucaults Pendulum but I think that was more due to the amount of french in it but there were a couple of words I actually had to look up the meaning of which I can't recall doing in my adult life.
I have just finished The Malazan series which I really enjoyed. I look forward to coming back to it too as the second reading of the earlier books had bits which had a whole different dimension with pre-knowledge. Plus I am not sure if my enjoyment of the last couple of books was impaired by the knowledge of it being near the end or not. There is always that feeling of deflation at the end of a series with characters that you have been through so much with for so long.

 

[Cullhaven]

Halfway through book 2 of The Wheel of Time and while its not George RR Martin its a bloody good read, nevertheless. Comforting to know that I have a lot of yardage of books left in the series!

 

[Corwin]

Unfortunately the wheel of time stumbles at about book 7, and didn't really kick back in again until he died and Sanderson took over, all very rambling, was a struggle for me