Zeus
Full Member
i know what you mean about the magic armor, its better explained in the subsequent books, and does eventually make sense - but when you first read it, you just think "wtf? why?"
Ok then...
- Thread starter Janie
- Start date
i know what you mean about the magic armor, its better explained in the subsequent books, and does eventually make sense - but when you first read it, you just think "wtf? why?"
Pegasus Belgar
Red Bull gives me wings!
Exactly, the series does get much better and it explains alot which might feel abit cloudy in the Magician.
The comment about the character creation I think might be alittle unfair, though I feel he does do justice and give it just enough depth to then let your imagination take over and finish it off.
One of my favourites novels is Honoured Enemy a story which take a branch away from the main characters from his series and gives you a taste of whats going on in other parts of midkemia with different characters, this is co-wrote with William Forstchen.
Oh feisty definately one of the best, beats Tolkien any day.
His books can be reading in the current recommend order which can be found here. www.crydee.com
Treebeard
Ranger of the North
ooh, time to get stuck in :-
Ian Banks - Never read any sci fi of his, but Espedair Street is so damn funny! Some of it is even better because i live roughly where it was set (also 2 streets away from Crow Road).
Robin Hobb - Recently finished Forest Mage for the 2nd time, it really grows on you and I cant wait for the 3rd book to appear, hopefully sometime this year. Still by far my favourite author.
David Gemmell - Recently read some of his stuff that i had only sort of glanced at in passing, Winter Warriors and Dark Moon, still excellent reading even if not quite Legend or Waylander.
Raymond E Feist - hated Magician, little character development, poor plot, people just finding magical suits of armour etc etc, i have glanced at some of his other work though and it appears to have improved drastically, I will have to give Riftwars a try.
Terry Goodkind - going downhill lately, not read phantom yet, spose i will at some point, but not exactly champing at the bit for it.
Robert Jordan - His first 3-4 books were superb, especially the 3rd, but his seeming directionless last few books have left me rather disillusioned, about the only thing that will keep me reading is to see if he ever actually gets all 3 into bed at the same time (yes, yes, i'm a perv)
George R R Martin - Absolutely superb, intriguing and twisting, ruthless and heartwarming at the same time. His style of writing is gripping, even when talking of mundane matters and providing us with filler (as per the last book) material he keeps you reading. I cannot reccommend A Song of Ice and Fire enough. I managed to get a copy of The Hedge Knight about 6 months ago, its kept me wanting more of this epic series, if not quite filling the gap between books.
Bob Salvatore - Went back to read the Drizzt books again, can't believe I ever really liked this stuff tbh, how we change. Scared to read the original Dragonlance books now, in case it ruins my warm happy feelings.
John Grisham - An Innocent Man - I really quite like Grisham, this however is not a work of fiction, but a disturbing retelling of an horrific travesty of justice that leaves you disgusted at the legal system in America. Not his finest writing, but definitely a tragic tale.
Ian Rankin - The Rebus novels are all damn good. Dark, gritty and definitely worth reading, the TV series with John Hannah was poor really, but Ken Stott takes the role to heart and plays it exactly as the books.
David Eddings - Loved these when i was younger, am reading The Redemption of Althalus at the moment, but it feels rushed and the characters are a pale comparison (and rip off) of the original 2 series. It is pretty much as if Eddings only ever had one story to tell, but wants to tell it in 8 different ways.
anyways, thats my critique for today
A good way of doing it:
Robin Hobb - Highlights the big difference between male and female writers. Goes much more into the emotional aspect of the characters although with Fitz, towards the end of the second series he got on my nerves tbh. Far to much misery me blah blah blah and the relationship between himself and The Fool became a soap opera disaster. Very engaging and enjoyable for the most part though with great support characters, Burrich being my fav.
David Eddings - Enjoyed the first couple, some interesting characters but once you'd read one, you'd read them all. Tried to re-read them again recently after a few years. Shocking, childish, cliched, poor reasoning for everything that occurs.
Jordan - Yawn.
Terry Goodkind - Awful, senseless, directionless, reasonless, repetitive. Terrible setting and story with a poorly devised and cliched plot. Only saving grace is Zed.
George Martin - Was captivated initially but as the books went on the chapters for a lot of the characters became dull and repetitive and found reading them a chore just to get to the more interesting characters. Feast for Crows did nothing for the series.
Feist - Probably the worst Fantasy writer on the list but much better when he writes about characters who are not all powerful Valheru Elf types. Had great fun reading about Roo making it as a merchant and Erik as a soilder. Re-read Silverthorn and Darkness At Sethanon again recently and stabbing forks into my legs would have been more pleasurable. For a fantasy writer he is shockingly bad at it, much better at character development when it dosen't invole Mages and Goblins. I loved the books on first read many years ago but after going through a lot of them again over the last year its barely better fantasy writing than Potter. Maybe I'm just a lot more cynical but lines such as "Tremble before me because I am power" says it all.
Gemmell - Love the man. Unashamedly cliche, pubescent boys fantasy but he does it so much better than most of the rest.
Stephen Erikson - The one reason I still give Fantasy a go. Reading his books didn't make me feel like I was being treated like some 15 year old emo MMO player in need of a good slap. His characters are adult, engaging, well developed and a million miles from any Belgarion, Pug or Rand you could hope for. The world is gritty, unforgiving and political. The writing sometimes complicated but always engaging. Would recommend to anyone.
Tolkien - Quite simply, still unsurpassed in the development of character, culture, geography, language, history, religion, lore, humour and romance in the fantasy genre. Thats why he's the best.
Zeus
Full Member
so true
you really do feel when reading his books that you shouldnt be enjoying them, that you should be thinking 'this is far too simplistic and beneath me', but all in all - they're just a hell of a lot of fun
i mean come on, how many fantasy authors would have (as the good guys) a bunch of people who call themselves Avatars, and use their advanced technology (such as plasma firing longbows, and crystals that either drain the life force of a target or grant life to it) to rule over a race that vastly outnumbers them, who they think of as subhumans? as the badguys? sure. as an ancient empire thats sometimes referred to? yep, no problem. but actually as the good guys? quite unusual . But then all his heroes are unusual tbh. very few of them are nice people, and the ones that are tend not to be by the end of the book.
McHoff H. McChrist
4" Member
Indeed. 300 reminded me a lot of Legend.
