Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Robert Jordan's passing made me think of this genre and how much I used to like it. My interest has somewhat faded but there are definitely a couple of very nice reads out there.

My personal favorite is Guy Gavriel Kay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Gavriel_Kay
His books are not one series as such but they are all set in an alternate medival universe that much resembles our own history. I have probably enjoyed Tigana the most, with A song for Arbonne and Lions of Al'Rassan as runners up.

I also really like Katherine Kerr's Deverry Saga up until around book 6 when I started losing interest.

Please point me in the direction of other worthwile reads.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I used to read the Belgariad and the Mallorean every year when they were first coming out. They are by David Eddings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Eddings

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Some good suggestions in this thread:

Link

If you like Kay, then you should definitely read the Fionavar Tapestry (trilogy) if you haven't already.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I'm pretty sure George R.R. Martin and his A Song of Ice and Fire series is going to be dropped in this thread pretty soon. And for good reason. It's one of the best ongoing fantasy series out there.

A perhaps lesser known series is Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Probably the best fantasy I've read in later years. He's a bit like Robert Jordan, only that he is actually competent at writing good prose and tying together plot strands.

From Wikipedia:

"The series is not told in a linear fashion. Instead, several storylines progress simultaneously, with the individual novels moving backwards and forwards between them. As the series progresses, links between these storylines become more readily apparent. During a book signing in November 2005, Steven Erikson confirmed that the Malazan saga consists of three major story arcs, equating them to the points of a triangle.

The first plot strand takes place on the continent of Genabackis, where armies of the Malazan Empire are battling the native city-states for dominance. The novel Gardens of the Moon depicts the struggle by the Malazans for control of the city of Darujhistan. Memories of Ice, the third novel released in the sequence, continues the unresolved plot threads from Gardens of the Moon by having the now-outlawed Malazan armies uniting with their former enemies to confront a new, mutual threat known as the Pannion Domin."

That only scratches the surface though. Very intricate and well thought-out plot lines, as well as engaging characters.

Oh, and second the recommendation for Guy Gavriel Kay. He's great. One of my all time favorites. Glen Cook's "Black Company" series is also good, and for [censored] and giggles I recommend Terry Pratchett's Discworld series - kind of like Douglas Adams in a fantasy setting.

I also vehemently disapprove of Terry Goodkind, Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson, but YMMV.. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Oh man I hate Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule" books. I mean I read the first one, the second one, the third... then I started getting furious. I couldn't stop reading them tho (figured he would end the series eventually and I would be released from this hell).

People talk about Jordan milking his series. Goodkind is the master of milking.

Every book is something stupid about how Richard and Kahlan can't be together. Nobody in the books has any empathy whatsoever so each person has to describe in boring detail how they're feeling. It doesn't matter how many times Richard proves that he knows what he's doing, it will always end up that everyone thinks he's crazy making it just infuriating to read these books. Jeesus Christ...



That being said, Stephen King's Dark Tower series was probably my favorite fantasy/sci-fi story.

I seem to remember really liking David Eddings books about Sparhawk (the Elenium?)

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Black Company books are great though the first, 'The Black Company', is really the high water mark. Not a big fan of the latter books though 'She Is The Darkness' is a great title [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


[ QUOTE ]

Every book is something stupid about how Richard and Kahlan can't be together. Nobody in the books has any empathy whatsoever so each person has to describe in boring detail how they're feeling. It doesn't matter how many times Richard proves that he knows what he's doing, it will always end up that everyone thinks he's crazy making it just infuriating to read these books. Jeesus Christ...


[/ QUOTE ]

Completely agree, angrily quit somewhere into the third book, way, way to much lameness. Wasted potential.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Ender's Game. LOTR.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I always liked David Gemmel.

I got into this stuff via Tolkien then moved onto Eddings, Gemmell and Jordan.

I also really like Steven Donaldson although isnt so much conventional fantasy.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I thought Jordan was a great story teller, personally. However, I will say I didn't find his writing too impressive. The character development, plot, etc, was all great, but he couldn't hold a candle to Tolkien's writing.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Agree on Donaldson and Martin...

would also add Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and, if you like hard science fiction, Greg Bear's Eon series...

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I wonder if anyone has read this series . I loved it when I read it about thirty years ago.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

For Sci-fi:

You can't go wrong with Gibson. As for more modern, Broken Angels (and sequels) are pretty decent noir sci-fi with just the right touch of pulp.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
Agree on Donaldson and Martin...

would also add Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and, if you like hard science fiction, Greg Bear's Eon series...

[/ QUOTE ]

I will have to give the Eon books a shot sometime. I have read some of Bear's other work, /, Moving Mars (first 1/2 of the book extremely dry). I think I prefer his shorter work, Blood Music (short story, not the novel), Heads. He gets serious points for ripping on Hubbard in the aforementioned Heads [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I like David Gemmel. Every book he does has the same archetype characters, yet somehow I can't put them down.

RR Martin's books are just incredible. Wish he put out more than 1 every 5 years.

For mind candy, I've enjoyed Butcher's "Dresden" books and even more so his Fury books.

I absolutely loved Julian May's classic Pliocene Exile books (all of them, the initial trilogy and the later prequels).

On the Sci-Fi front, Robert L. Forward is spectacular. Excellent science and he does a phenonmenal job with the alien lifeforms/characters.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

This is the first I've heard of Jordan dying. "The Eye of the World" was the first fantasy book I ever read. I found a copy in a box outside a used bookstore for a quarter about 16 years ago. Thrifty even as a kid, I figured I couldn't go wrong with that many pages for so few cents.

Kay is one of my favorite authors. I love The Fionavar Tapestry, but it wasn't that well-written, at least compared to his later works. You can definitely watch his progression as an author through his books, and he's gotten a lot better since. "Tigana" is likely my favorite book ever.

I'm just about to finish "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. I hadn't read it before, and I'm really enjoying it. Stephenson's writing style grates on me sometimes, with his over-use of metaphors, but he seems more toned down than usual in this one.

After I'm done, I might have to get "The Eye of the World" again and read it in tribute to Jordan. He wasn't a great writer, but he could tell a good story. I'm pretty sad right now.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Agree on Donaldson and Martin...

would also add Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and, if you like hard science fiction, Greg Bear's Eon series...

[/ QUOTE ]

I will have to give the Eon books a shot sometime. I have read some of Bear's other work, /, Moving Mars (first 1/2 of the book extremely dry). I think I prefer his shorter work, Blood Music (short story, not the novel), Heads. He gets serious points for ripping on Hubbard in the aforementioned Heads [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

My favorite Bear book might just be Queen of Angels, but Darwin's Radio and The Forge of God are also great.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Neuromancer and basically everything by william gibson.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
Some good suggestions in this thread:

Link

If you like Kay, then you should definitely read the Fionavar Tapestry (trilogy) if you haven't already.

[/ QUOTE ]

All,

thanks for the tips, also I wasn't aware there was such a recent thread on this.
I lack skills in the search dep...

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever' Stephen Donaldson. Just start reading it, it is to hard to describe.
'The Foundation'. This series by Isaac Asimov will hook you from the first page. IMHO the finest SF of all times.
The 'Earthsea' novels by Ursula Le Guin. Even though this is radical lesbo pinko writing, it is still good stuff.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

"Ender" series by Orson Scott Card. Nine books so far and a new one due at the end of the year.

"Foundation" series Asimov. Also the Robot and Empire series and the way they are all tied together.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I was absolutely crushed when I saw that Jordan died. I've been reading the Wheel of Time almost yearly since I was 14. For all its flaws, I've never loved a story that much.

As far as other fantasy goes, Malazan book of the Fallen is fantastic, as is Song of Ice & Fire.

I did not really enjoy the Fionavar Tapestry. Something about it didn't really click with me.

For one I haven't seen mentioned, Tad Williams series Memory, Sorrow & Thorn is pretty good. Otherland was a disappointment for me. Great concept, and a writer I enjoy, but it dragged a lot at the end.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

The Sword of Shannara and The Heritage of Shannara series of books by Terry Brooks are some of my favorites after Lord of the Rings. The first book, "The Sword of Shannara" came out in about 1977 and is very good, although there are a large number of parallels to LOTR. The 2 sequels, "The Elfstones of Shannara" and "The Wishsong of Shannara" take place hundresds of years after Sword and are almost stand alone books. The Heritage series (4 books) are more of a traditional series and must be read in order.
All of them are very good. Brooks has a easy style to read and is very good at character development and tells a good yarn.
Brooks has a couple of other series connected to Shannara which I haven't read yet. He also has a prequel out to "The Sword of Shannara" which is pretty good.

Now if only they'd make some movies covering one of the Shannara series, I'd die a happy man. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

David Eddings, who has been mentioned earlier, has a few series out that are quite good.

Another good series is Mary Stewart's "The Crystal Cave" series about Merlin and King Arthur. There's 4 books in the series. The first 3 are excellent(especially the second one, The Hollow Hills), the fourth is meh.
It is told from the first person from the view point of Merlin. It starts from when Merlin was a boy, long before Arthur was born and goes until Arthur is killed by his bastard son in the fourth book of the series.
[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Some series that I like and which are still not listed here are

P. J. Farmer -- The World of tiers
P. J. Farmer -- Riverworld
J. V. Jones -- Sword of shadows
J. Vance -- Durdane

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

That OOT thread seared my eyeballs. Despite reading at least one sci-fi or fantasy book a week, I must be fundamentally different in some way to most readers of the genre. I think Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Terry Brooks, and the like are justifiably the reason fantasy gets a bad rap. Their characters are cliches who would be lucky if they caught a glimpse of an emotional journey in the distance, their plots are clumsy, they have no idea how to use tone or rhythm, and their attempts to wring feeling from the rock of their prose are excruciating to watch. They are why no sci fi author could even get considered for a Pulitzer, despite at least one or two writing just as well as any winner ever has, why publishers are desperate to get their magical realist authors placed in the literary section, and why people are afraid to be seen reading anything with a spaceship on the cover on the bus. But then, I'm the sort of person who can use a phrase like "wring feeling from the rock of their prose" with a straight face.

On the other hand, the same people who appreciate this [censored] also appreciate things that I think are fantastically well done, like The Song of Ice and Fire, and The Black Company.

So, with the caveat that I'm apparently not the true audience for this sort of stuff, but also that I've been reading it for 25 years and have been through a hell of a lot of it, here's a few that I'm either compelled to mention, or haven't received the love they deserve:

Glen Cook, The Black Company: This is really good stuff, though I think it goes downhill towards the end of the series. Cook can write, his characters are believable, they change, they avoid cliches, and you can feel their pain. It's about a mercenary company in a fantasy world who slowly comes to realise that they're working for the bad guys, and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Most of his other old stuff is great too, though I'm not as big a fan of his comic fantasy detective series with the metallic names, and I think his current stuff wouldn't be fit to put in an appendix of the original Black Company books.

George R R Martin, Song of Ice and Fire: This guy is weird. He goes along for 20 years writing very average fantasy, with all the normal problems that plague genre writers, and then he ups and writes what I think is the finest epic fantasy ever produced. Yup, it's better than Tolkien. It's deeper, yet more accessible. It has real characters - most of whom die, fair warning - it's sophisticated in its storytelling techniques (unreliable narrators, multiple points of view, multi-book subplots, conscious use of derivative symbolism, incredible attention to detail without letting it overwhelm the story), and while the pacing is pretty poor, especially in the fourth book, the storytelling is fantastic. My favourite part: by the third book, the character you thought was the bad guy, boasting several qualities you couldn't ever imagine yourself forgiving someone for, is now a quite sympathetic protagonist, without ever having denied any of those things that made you hate him early on. There's a story going round that Martin has said he started this series because he saw what Robert Jordan was writing, and was so disgusted with what the genre had come to. Second fair warning: Martin is an unlikeable person, and he's likely to take six or seven years to finish the series.

Joel Rosenberg, Guardians of the Flame: Also currently a shadow of it's original four books, Rosenberg has described this as his paean to the industrial revolution. It's about a bunch of people from our world (bear with me, this was one of the original series to use what's now an overworked cliche) who set out to eradicate slavery in a fantasy world by making it uneconomic. The series goes over generations, and diverges to make minor characters protagonists in spin offs, but it really starts to lose what made it great when it leaves the original characters. He's also done a few other series that are very readable. I'd never say he's a good writer, but he's a pretty enjoyable one.

Iain M Banks, The Culture: Not really a series, but a bunch of books set in the same universe, in the far, far future when technology has rendered everything from age to governments obsolete, mile-wide sentient computers are the smartest things around, and figuring out what to do with your life is the hardest thing most people will ever do. Great plotting, good characters here and there, and one or two of the sharpest bits of observation you'll find in the genre (no surprise, he also writes literary fiction under the name Iain Banks, most of which is pretty good too). My favourite is Use of Weapons, mostly because of the ending.

Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash: When people ask me my favourite book, this is one of the three I usually mumble about. It's got at least two of the best characters you will find in any sci-fi novel, observations so trenchant that they hurt, and lines that you will have to read twice to believe how good they are ("... and after that it was just a chase scene."). I have multiple copies of this book just so I can give them to people who want something to read. I love it so much I'm going to force a paragraph from the opening scene on you (chosen because it has no spoilers):

"The Deliverator's car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the asteroid belt. Unlike a bimbo box or a Burb beater, the Deliverator's car unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished sphincters. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, [censored] happens. You want to talk contact patches? Your car's tires have tiny contact patches, talk to the asphalt in four places the size of your tongue. The Deliverator's car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady's thighs. The Deliverator is in touch with the road, starts like bad day, stops on a peseta."

It's a fast-paced enjoyable read with a 20-page scene in the middle discussing Sumerian mythology and how linguistics determine thinking patterns that doesn't slow it down at all. It's a satire on modern consumer culture from someone who is enthusiastic about that culture. It has at least four ultra-cool scenes, without the rest of it being an excuse to set up those scenes. Unfortunately, it also has a pretty poor ending (a common fault for Stephenson), and an unfulfilled demand for a sequel following one of the subsidiary villains. Objectively, I can't give it more than a 8.5 out of 10, but I love it anyway.

Even worse, no matter how much I love Snow Crash, I can't even finish anything Stephenson has written in the last five years. His Baroque cycle, set in a period of history I'm particularly interested in, is turgid, devoid of believable or sympathetic characters, downright stupid in its plotting, and would lose a footrace to the tortoise. His other books range from quite readable (Cryptonomicon) to forgettable (Interface). Breaks my heart to see all that potential go to waste. I'm not sure I actually want a sequel to Snow Crash now.

There's a hundred other authors that deserve a mention, but this is already way too long. Good to hear Loungers appreciating Jack Vance and Steven Erikson and David Gemmel (that's a guilty pleasure) and Guy Gavriel Kay and Richard Morgan and Mary Stewart. No love for Steven Brust, Theodore Sturgeon, Michael Marshall Smith, Robert J Sawyer, Vernor Vinge, or John Steakley? Think I'll go order some Greg Bear short stories now.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I love the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. The original trilogy. I also enjoyed the two prequels. I did not enjoy the two sequels that much (I disliked "Foundation and Earth" and just liked "Foundations Edge")

I would also recommend the complete book of short stories by Asimov. It has a lot of really nice stuff.

I also like Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. It is a sequel to "Ender's Game", but both books are very different. Both very good, but I like "Speaker" more (I think I am in the minority on that though).

Another one not mentioned so far is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. A very funny book.

My favorite science fiction book is Dune by Frank Herbert. I have read the first four Dune books and 1,3 and 4 are great. I think 4 ("God Emperor of Dune") is as good as the first or better.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Two more thumbs up for 'Hitchhiker's Guide' and 'Dune'.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
Another one not mentioned so far is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. A very funny book.


[/ QUOTE ]

Much as I love his works, I just don't think of them as sci-fi. They're comedy books and the sci-fi setting just happens to work well for the absurd humor. It'd be like calling the Police Academy movies "cop films".

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]

No love for Steven Brust, Theodore Sturgeon, Michael Marshall Smith, Robert J Sawyer, Vernor Vinge, or John Steakley?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice post.

I am reading Armor (Steakley) now and unfortunately am not too excited about it.

Vinge certainly deserves mention in this thread. A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky are both excellent. Also, his short story True Names was visionary.

I am not a big Stephenson fan though. Snow Crash, for me, was too flippant at times (see your excerpt). I am more of a dark cyberpunk kind of guy.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Steer clear of Vampire$ then - most of the bad things about Armor are worse in it. Armor (and Vampire$, to a lesser extent) is one of those books that felt to me like it should be great, but just wasn't quite. It's a pity he never got to do more books, and work out the kinks.

I don't know why Vinge doesn't get more recognition though. Fire and Deepness are classics, and True Names predates Neuromancer or any of Bethke's stuff by at least 2 years (it's now online at http://home.comcast.net/~kngjon/truename/truename.html). Can't say I cared a lot for his most recent novel though, Rainbow's End. Liked the novella when it was Fast Times at Fairmont High, but the change of plot in the transition to novel lost a lot of the charm.

I can't argue when it comes to Snow Crash and flippancy, and I know it bugs a lot of people. I love the way he shifts effortlessly from action to philosophical discussion and back again though, and the flippancy helps to stop it becoming self-important. The way he ends an action scene by dismissing action scenes as so common they're irrelevant is up there with Indiana Jones shooting the swordsman in Raiders for me.

If you like your cyberpunk dark, have you read any Michael Marshall Smith? Much of his stuff is sort of a cross between horror and cyberpunk (his short story More Tomorrow, while not strictly cyberpunk, is one of the two stories I've ever read that have creeped me out). Spares is probably the most cyberpunky of his novels. Walter Jon Williams, Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind? His short story Video Star, from Facets, is about as dark as cyberpunk gets. Of the more recent crew, Richard Morgan seems the grimmest, though I think he's also the one who, umm, follows the archetypes most closely.

Got any recommendations?

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

I'll chime in with a couple of series that I don't think get enough credit. Both still being written as well, which might be a bad thing since you'll have to wait for the end.

David Farland - the Runelords
Very well written books, with an idea that I really like where people can give away one attribute like strength to create one fighter with the strength of two (or a thousand). This also leads to a fighter-caste that has to take care of the people since they no longer have the strength to defend themselves. There's also magic based around the four elements that use different kind of spells.
The characters are very well thought out and all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Generally great books even if they're a bit predictable like most fantasy.

Eric Van Lustbader - the Pearl saga
Kind of a mix of fantasy and scifi where a technologically advanced alien race takes over a fantasy-like world with magic. Not so much a fight between heroes as it is a book based upon intrigues and cunning. Also very good characters even if the aliens are quite hard to figure out.
The books also kinda bother me when I'm reading them just because the alien language allows for 3 of the same letter in a row and I always think "that's wrong".

I also really like the Hobb series about the Farseers and the Fool, the liveships not so much. And the first four books about the Sword of truth are still among the best I've read, too bad the series became so long.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]

If you like your cyberpunk dark, have you read any Michael Marshall Smith? Much of his stuff is sort of a cross between horror and cyberpunk (his short story More Tomorrow, while not strictly cyberpunk, is one of the two stories I've ever read that have creeped me out). Spares is probably the most cyberpunky of his novels.


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Haven't read any of his work, took a quick peek at amazon and I think I will have to give him a try. Thank you for the suggestion.

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Walter Jon Williams, Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind? His short story Video Star, from Facets, is about as dark as cyberpunk gets.


[/ QUOTE ]
Read Hardwired, pretty decent though not A material imo. As for Voice of the Whirlwind, this is really weird:

After reading Hardwired I was trying to get a copy of VOTW off of amazon. Apparently now they have a July 2007 reprinting, but I think it was out of print when I was looking. I have some very very vague memory of ordering it from a seller, getting the book (remember the cover), but I don't remember reading it.

Things like this do not normally happen to me, very strange. Not sure if I should pull on this thread, it may all come apart! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Anyway I will have to check it out.

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Of the more recent crew, Richard Morgan seems the grimmest, though I think he's also the one who, umm, follows the archetypes most closely.


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Read all the Kovacs novels and enjoyed them. I briefly mentioned them upthread.

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Got any recommendations?


[/ QUOTE ]

I will try to think of some and get back to you. I'm guessing you are far more well read in the subgenre then I am though (and probably sf in general).

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Dan Simmons

I love this author for sci fi and horror. Steven King has said he is the best sci-fi/horror writer he's ever read.

Good books I've read by him are:

Carrion Comfort
Invisible Man
Hyperion series

I love the way this guy writes.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
Dan Simmons

I love this author for sci fi and horror. Steven King has said he is the best sci-fi/horror writer he's ever read.



[/ QUOTE ]

I read the Hyperion series back in the day but haven't read anything else by Simmons. I was checking out some of his other works on Amazon when I saw the synopsis quoted below. LOL, I can see why King likes him [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Summer of Night
http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Night-Aspec...1593&sr=8-5
[ QUOTE ]

A monstrous, timeless entity is devouring children. Adults either refuse to understand what is happening, or are themselves agents for the monster. A group of young boys, in uneasy partnership with an outcast girl, realize they must kill the creature before it devours them all


[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dan Simmons

I love this author for sci fi and horror. Steven King has said he is the best sci-fi/horror writer he's ever read.



[/ QUOTE ]

I read the Hyperion series back in the day but haven't read anything else by Simmons. I was checking out some of his other works on Amazon when I saw the synopsis quoted below. LOL, I can see why King likes him [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Summer of Night
http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Night-Aspec...1593&sr=8-5
[ QUOTE ]

A monstrous, timeless entity is devouring children. Adults either refuse to understand what is happening, or are themselves agents for the monster. A group of young boys, in uneasy partnership with an outcast girl, realize they must kill the creature before it devours them all


[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

beep beep richie

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Fine, I'm gonna add Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weiss with the Chronicles Trilogy (and then some). Dragon Lance, reads ALOT like LOTR but with not as much darkness.

More a fun, almost comical read.

I fell in love with the characters.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
Fine, I'm gonna add Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weiss with the Chronicles Trilogy (and then some). Dragon Lance, reads ALOT like LOTR but with not as much darkness.

More a fun, almost comical read.

I fell in love with the characters.

[/ QUOTE ]

First fantasy books I read. Very good, but the writing is defenitely geared towards younger readers.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

Any love out there for "Harry Potter"? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I haven't read any of them, but I have heard they are really quite good, even for adults.
My college aged nieces love them, and my sister, who just turned 50, loves them too.

My sister has turned me on to so many fantasy books over the years, including David Eddings, Mary Stewart, Tolkien, and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
Any love out there for "Harry Potter"? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Yes and no. As it stands, this thread will eventually contain every series ever written simply because someone liked it once. Hell, the first Gor book really wasn't all that bad.

For purposes of a thread like this though, I try to distinguish between just good vs downright incredible though.

There are several "guilty pleasure" series I've read in the past. Light brain candy. Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are like that. But good writing? Naw, average. The Harry Potter books, IMO, really aren't very good writing at all. It's immature, stilted in places, and progresses in fits and starts. It's a COOL story though overall and that's enough for me to have read most of them.

That's one reason RR. Martin and Gemmel stand out for me as their writing is just so sharp. I feel more like I'm involved than just reading, where-as something like Harry Potter I feel a disconnect from the content even though the content is interesting.

That all probably just sounds snobbish though. Trying to put to words the difference between being captivated by a book vs just enjoying a read.

It also partly depends on what you like in a book. I love deep characters and consequently my favorite book authors are very heavy on character: RR. Martin, Gemmel, McCaffrey, Butcher, Julian May, etc.

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is a great book...supposedly, but I had to drag myself through it. Good writing, excellent, but it was more about the concept and less about the characters and so I never was fully engaged. Asimov does that to me as well. His Foundation books are great, but characters are often means to plot advancement rather than the plot revolving around deep characters.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Fine, I'm gonna add Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weiss with the Chronicles Trilogy (and then some). Dragon Lance, reads ALOT like LOTR but with not as much darkness.

More a fun, almost comical read.

I fell in love with the characters.

[/ QUOTE ]

First fantasy books I read. Very good, but the writing is defenitely geared towards younger readers.

[/ QUOTE ]


So true, I read these when I was a teenager and absolutely fell in love with it. What's hilarious is that they've gone and redid the books for young readers, which is completely unnessisary.

Re: Fantasy / Science Fiction book series
 

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A perhaps lesser known series is Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Probably the best fantasy I've read in later years.

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I'm currently reading "Memories of Ice" from this series and I'd like to say that it is a very well written, elaborately detailed series. However, for those who have read the books, I have a major problem with it right now. Basically all the characters in the book so far are amped way up on the power level scale. There are no "normal" people. Everyone is an uber sorcerer, or a god, or ascending, or undead, or ridiculously powerful. I'm finding it hard to relate on any level because I almost never feel like the protaganists are ever in real danger. "Oh, a horde of demons descends upon them, good thing the army of 1000 undead 3 million year old warriors are here to save the day." In George RR Martin's world you feel that the next page could be the last for any character you like. In Erikson's books I'm just reading for the sheer majesty of the prose and the world he has created right now.