The first 6 Dragonlance books were far superior to anything else under the TSR label, and I’d argue that they were better than the majority of non-D&D pulp fantasy series from that era (Brooks, Eddings, etc)
All the other books set in the Dragonlance universe were shit, and I read them all. Shoutout to “Tanis, the Shadow Years” as the only one I can remember by name, and for the worst (if fascinating) cover. Had to hide that one from parents to avoid looks.
The ones set in Forgotten Realms were also terrible, though better than Krynn books on the whole. Hated anything involving Elminster, with Drizzt coming in distant second. Troy Denning was probably best author out of the lot.
I criticize with affection though, which is more than I can say for “grown-up” trash like Goodkind.
Regarding Piers Anthony, really liked the first few Xanth books – but I was in late elementary / early middle school at the time. I remember liking the “Incarnations of Immortality” series too. I’ve been meaning to revisit those, but… I imagine they’ve aged poorly. No matter, I’ve got to plow through a re-read of Williams’ MS&T before reading the novella and the start of the new series. I never did read the Shadowheart series either, ugh.
Re: Battlefield Earth. I made it to about 90%. After they defeated the aliens and humans took back over earth. It is still the worst book I’ve ever read, but after that point, I saw how many pages were still left and went “there’s no fucking way I’m going to keep reading more of this trash”. It was the first time I had failed to finish a book, so that really bothered me, but not enough to actually finish it.
(Since then, there is another book I haven’t finished, the sequel to Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe. Torturer was a great book, but it got really confusing suddenly at the end, and I have no clue what’s going on in the second book and who the characters are, and I finally just gave up. I know it’s a well respected series, but Wolfe is not very good at descriptions. In the mosaic of what I should be imagining in that second book, most of the world is left blank for me to fill in, including the characters. To the point where I might be better off imagining my own book).
I am a huge fan of the first one. I have read it three times, each time meaning to go through the entire series but I quickly lose interest as it descends into garbage. But the first one is essentially comfort food for me. Unlike Piers I thought it still enjoyable as an adult though.
All BE taught me was that not only do Scientologists apparently believe ludicrous science fiction, but it’s probably not even well-written ludicrous science fiction. . .
I rarely quit reading a book before I’m finished, but I had to stop reading The Goblin Emperor recently. It was getting really repetitive and I just wanted to hit the main character.
I was obsessed with Anthony from about 10 to, idk, 14. Read every Xanth book, most multiple times. Bio of a Space Tyrant, Apprentice Adept, Incarnations of Immortality, even the truly execrable Mode series. Christ, I even convinced myself that Isle of Man wasn’t a massive fart-sniffing exercise in self-indulgent wankery.
Never did read Firefly though, so I guess I have an excuse.
The only ones I would guess might somewhat hold up are Apprentice Adept for its pulpy adventure sci/fantasy hybrid stuff, and Incarnations of Immortality for being a somewhat interesting take on mythology and morality (well, with lots of sex anyway, natch). For Love of Evil was pretty interesting, or at least I remember it thus through a 20-year lens.
Yeah, the character and indeed the whole book is an illustration of how to do the opposite of epic fantasy. But he won me over through sheer force of virtue, just like 95% of his opponents at court :)
As an adolescent sort-of Piers Anthony fan in the 80s (same titles you guys mentioned), I sort of stumbled into a local Piers Anthony book signing once. Already owning the books that were on display and being on a budget at the time, I made the naive and tacky choice of picking some random, second hand paperback off the shelf that I knew nothing about. Steppe, as it turns out (had to google it), and I just handed it to him without much more than a Hello. As I did so he briefly looked at me, and then at the book, and his face crinkled and contorted and he finally grumbled, “Oh, this? Really?” and made no more eye contact and looked to the person behind me almost right away.
Still read the damn book that weekend. I don’t remember it now, but I think at the time I thought it sucked.
Judging by everyone else who has posted here about Battlefield Earth, this is a really tough crowd. I adored that book. Admittedly, I was in my early 20’s when I read it, and haven’t read it since, so I suppose it’s possible that my opinion would change if I tried to read it now in my late 50’s.
My memories of my reaction to it are all I have left, but I’m remembering an imaginative, rollicking adventure that I had difficulty putting down. It wasn’t deep, or particularly intelligent, but I thought it was excellent escapism. Pulp at its very best. Vivid imagery.
At the time, I had never heard of Scientology, so that was not a factor. I simply enjoyed his writing. On a par with Jack Williamson, who I also greatly enjoyed.
Yeah, same here basically; a good, old fashioned SciFi romp.
Pretty much the same thing can be said for the Mission Earth decatology by the same author. I mean, come on, there was nothing remotely Scientology-related in either BE or ME, but many will automatically dismiss them because of who the author is. Their loss.
Yeah, I never figured his SF was covert Scientology promotion or anything (I’m not sure if he even wrote any more of that once Scientology took off), but I have zero desire to support that man or his estate in any way.
Fantasy author Neil Gaiman wrote: “For value for money I have to recommend L. Ron Hubbard’s massive Battlefield Earth — over 1000 pages of thrills, spills, vicious aliens, noble humans. Is mankind an endangered species? Will handsome and heroic Jonny Goodboy Tyler win Earth back from the nine-foot-high Psychlos? A tribute to the days of Pulp, I found it un-put-downable.”
This is exactly why I enjoyed the book. I loved the space opera/pulp fiction era novels. I saw this as a tribute to that era, paying homage to things like the Lensmen series or Skylark. This is not high brow intellectual sci-fi like 2001 or Childhood’s End. Its full of macguffins and deus ex machina devices and it plays fast and loose with science. Just like its pulp fiction forbearers. If youre looking for hard sci-fi, this aint it. Its grand space opera with all its wart but if you let it, its a fun ride.
You ever read Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series? Not nearly as well known as the Dresden books, but I loved it and it reminded me of series I read as a kid by the likes of Feist/Eddings/Donaldson, etc.
