Magician/Feist

Swither

Full Member
Finally read all of Feist's books.

Was a bit of a slog at times, but jumping to the last 3 books wouldn't have made sense, as mentioned elsewhere.

Time for some apocalyptic stuff to read now for a change next.
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Currently in book 5 of wheel of time. Still liking it but as he developed as a writer he became the opposite of Feist. Pages and pages of repetitive description and very long winded. I reckon a better writer could have wrapped the whole thing up in 4 or 5 books. Still, his story and World fascinate me.
 

Swither

Full Member
You will need to persevere through the next few books Cull, as he seems to get even more long winded!

They do improve again though around book 8.
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
To be fair, I skim read the needless verbiage. I reckon he cottoned on to the fact that More words = more volumes = more sales = more yachts and good time girls. :) I don't need a description of the street and costumes of every person in Saldea every time Nynaeve steps through the door. So I skim-read. Its still one of the Great Fantasy Stories though.

See its a very fine balance somewhere between the two styles - Feist and Jordan - that makes the best writers, Imo. Martin never wastes a word. Moorcock can write half a page of carefully selected words that let your mind "fill in" a lot and give you the same impressions and insights that Feist just cant and Jordan can but takes 6 pages. Terry Pratchett is really good at that too. I guess I'd say that the most important "thing" that makes a great writer, for me, is that ability to shape what you are thinking without resorting to endless " purple prose" as Martin puts it.
 

Guy

Piper/Leonaedas
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)

Wow haven't seen the name Terry Brooks since I was a teenager. I enjoyed the first couple of books 25 years ago, but remember thinking at the time that he weren't no Tolkein!
 

Entropy

Full Member
Agreed: I remember getting the dates he wrote Shanara wrong when I was quite young (around 8) and saying to Mum that the book seemed very similar to LOTR and I thought Tolkien had just ripped off Brooks. She pointed out that LOTR had been written much earlier :p

On the last book of the Wheel of Time, and I almost think it's worth reading just for Sanderson's work at the end. Much, much more engaging than Jordan's unfortunately.
 

Pictelf

Mistress of Forums
Am tempted to be really cynical and point out that they are all very similar. Boy meets girl, young unknown hero saves the day, two opposing sides....
There are some books I enjoy for the plot-line, there are some that I really enjoy specific characters and other I enjoy the concept if the world created.
 

Pictelf

Mistress of Forums
Loved the Malazan series, one of those ones that your a bit sad to leave when there are no books left.
 

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
According to my cousin, there are rumours about a Wheel of time TV series along the lines and budget of GoT. I hope so, could be very good, edited right.
 

Pictelf

Mistress of Forums
As long as they don't render it unwatchable by anybody that has read the books! I still can't bring myself to watch the Sword of Truth :( Annoying as I have heard it was pretty good as it stood, just diverged from the original story in some pretty major aspects.
 

Darakor

Full Member
I think Jordan mentioned selling the rights to a tv show about 10 years or more ago and there have been rumours about a series since before then. Personally, I think it will be difficult to do well on a television budget. My mind pictures the last battle with 25 people on each side, etc.
 

Dareos

The Bastard Thats Grinding You Down
Fantasy discussion, my favourite

lets start with the bad

Tolkien - He sucked as a writer - had some great ideas, but his writing was bloody awful. Please dont make excuses about the writing being of his time or stuff like that as CS Lewis was one of his good friends and he could actually tell a story(also appeared to be a racist bible bashing fanatic, but a great writer).
Donaldson - Covenant was boring as hell, wallow wallow wallow...however, Mirror of her Dreams and A Man Rides Through was excellent.
Brooks - Shannara - kids stuff really, formulaic and not that well written, but Magic Kingdom for Sale, sold wasnt too bad iirc
Erikson - read around 5 of his Malazan books, still have no idea what he was writing about. Everyone seemed to be super powerful, or a dragon. There was no common theme. Only a couple of characters seemed to make it to another book. The one actually interesting character (the thief in the first book, got involved with Ben iirc) never showed face again - pointless. I felt that perhaps there was another set of books or something that tied it all together and I was missing them entirely, like watching every 3rd episode of Friends and missing all the in jokes.

Feist - Cant actually bring myself to read any more of his stuff since Magician. Guy gets stuck under a mountain, finds some caves, oh look theres a suit of magic armour, lets put it on while my best mate gets stuck in an alternate dimension and becomes the most powerful magician of all time, yeah, thats it.

Alan Dean Foster - Shadowkeep - DO NOT EVER READ THIS - Do however read the Spellsinger series, which is fairly funny and original

And so , the good

Robin Hobb - Anything with Fitz and the Fool, favourite author, she rocks, i want to have her children. Beautifully written, fantastic and original story (even the dragons were original), characters you loved and hated and believed in. A true sense of helplessness when things were dark and even when the story finishes to all intents and purposes around halfway through Fools Fate, she spends a great deal of time closing off all the characters stories and its damn enjoyable reading.

George RR Martin - Westeros stuff, not read any others as I dont generally like Sci Fi in books. We all know about it, its great. He needs to stop going to book signings and making TV series and travelling and SIT DOWN AND DAMN WELL WRITE THE NEXT BOOK, other than that we love him.

Joe Abercrombie - Is an evil bastard, i like, end of :)

David Gemmell - Sadly gone from us now, and I believe Daery knew him. Formulaic, granted, but damn he wrote well. The introduction to Waylander is still my favourite insight to a character yet. He had maybe 3 or 4 types of Hero, and he rolled them out time and time again, but I never did get sick of it. Unfortunately Stella's book " The City" was crap and I couldnt finish it.

Jim Butcher - Not strictly Heroic Fantasy I suppose, it being set mainly in modern day Chicago - If you have ever had the misfortune to watch Paul Blackthorne (the detective from Arrow) in the TV adaptation of The Dresden Files, I urge you to take a sharp implement to the memory centre in your brain and cut it out, then read Storm Front. Its decent reading but the story gets better and better as he goes on, 15 books out there, none will take more than a day or 2 to get through, all are enjoyable, if a little pulpy. Very very funny stuff, think Buffy/Angel when Spike was involved. The monsters get tougher, the magic gets weirder. It does have its poignant moments though. The Codex Alera is a great read too, a bit more involved and certainly longer, more classic style of fantasy.

Patrick Rothfuss - Relative newcomer, i like his writing immensely, but at times I wish he would get to the point. Great stuff though. Next book please!


I've left Jordan and Goodkind out of this. They have good books and bad books in the same series, and very similar ideas about collars, bondage and personally I think they both need to see a shrink. Goodkinds True Love conquers all theme was boring by the 3rd book and Jordans hero having 3 women who love him, but love him and each other so much they are willing to share idea... I mean its fantasy but lets have some realism please...
Saying that, Book 3 of the Wheel of Time was awesome, kinda went downhill shortly after and I never bothered after around Path of Daggers. Never read Sanderson so cant comment.

Eddings - You have to admire a writer that can write the same series of books 4 times and get away with it, he didnt even have to change the names of the characters between 1 and 2, or 3 and 4. He even alludes to him writing the same story in the 4th or 5th book of series 2. I also think he has a fetish for strong matronly school teachers, possibly he went to boarding school. I enjoyed these as a kid, now I wouldnt entertain them.

I really am on the lookout for new authors right now, I have barely read a book since February (new Jim Butcher, couple of crime novels, some Lee Child). I find the Fantasy market has been saturated with below average authors (self published fantasy, not that good imo, lets hope some decent writers come through), any recommendations based on what I have posted would be welcome. (Sorry for slating Tolkien Cull, i just really cant stand him :))

Almost forgot, Anthony Ryan, Blood Song, very good book, waiting on the 2nd

Terry Pratchett, Sadly the Alzheimers has taken its toll, discworld stuff now a trial to read :( Shame for the creator of some of the best characters I have ever had the pleasure of watching develop.
 

Zeus

Full Member
If you like Dresden, have a look at the Alex Varus books by Benedict Jacka - similar vein to dresden, not quite as good, but reasonable.

the series i'm reading at the moment though, and in preference to the new dresden files book, (well not exactly in preference to, but i'd started reading it first so i've got to finish :p) is the Echoes of Empire series by Mark T Barnes. love the world the guys built especially, and its nice that even the bad guy isnt all out evil - he does a lot of bad things but you get to see it from his perspective, and you can really see how his 'descent into darkness' or whatever you call it has happened.


on to some amazon kindle self published things...
the Iron Druid books by Kevin Hearne are pretty good - about the last remaining druid who has moved to modern day Arizona, after all of his fellow druids being hunted down and wiped out by the romans. i feel like the stories start off too big and theres not many places for them to go, though. the first book has him fighting a god...

i hesitate to recomend The Demon Accords books by John Conroe, as they're essentially pulpy trash - but entertaining trash nonetheless. about a cop who is a part time chosen-by-god demon hunter.
in a similar style, there is The Divine books by M.R. Forbes, about someone who is the 'perfect balance of demon and angel', and fights for the balance - as if either side wins, humans lose.


and if anyone still hasnt read 'John Dies at the End', and 'This Book is Full of Spiders', they need to.
 
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