It also doesn’t feel resolved at the end. The main arc, sure, but there were all sorts of other things going on…it felt like book one of a trilogy or something.
I’m not so much a glutton for punishment as someone who has trouble quitting. There’s tremendous sunk costs once you get to book 7+ that make it hard to drop the series. And I genuinely enjoy a lot of the parts with Perrin and Mat, it’s just that there’s so much filler that I can’t say I’d recommend the series to anyone who isn’t also grinding it out to the end. Everything involving the Aes Sedai is confusing as hell because as someone mentioned, all Jordan’s women are basically the same character except with different names, and it would be hard enough telling them apart even without a year or two lag between books.
It is. The Aspect-Emperor follow-on comes out starting next year, I believe.
Well, that would certainly explain it.
The Iliad
The Odyssey
The Aeneid
Marron Shed in the second Black Company book is one of my favorite characters of all time. A very deeply flawed character who does some despicable things and yet I found myself rooting for him the entire book.
Was wondering when someone would mention them :)
Dirt left out Gilgamesh though.
I really enjoy the stuff with Perrin and Mat as well. I agree about Jordan’s women to a certain extent but I actually think that the main problem is that there are just too many characters in general and women in particular and, of course, each character is involved in his or her own sub-plot. Which would actually be fine if it weren’t for the fact that Jordan has a woeful habit of introducing a character and sub-plot in book three, say, and not revisiting them until book seven. At which point I haven’t the vaguest notion who they are or why I should care about them.
He does have some good female characters though - Faile for example, or Min. Elayne and Egwene have good arcs as well but Nynaeve’s character could easily be collapsed into either of the previous two that I’ve mentioned with little or no problem. Oh, Aviendha isn’t too bad either - she’s a bit like Mat in that she provides some of the humour in the books.
You know, my good man, that the man wrote the book of the manuscript for Star Wars Ep. 1: The Phantom Menace?
That’s the kind of writer Terry Brooks is, and he’s a scourge upon this world. I hadn’t read any truly woeful fantasy before I stumbled over the Shannara series, and suddenly I realized why a lot of people consider fantasy silly and childish. I hold R.A. Salvatore to be of his ilk: He’s the Harlequin Romance of fantay. And that’s saying something.
I’m trying to remember any other fantasy that I might have read. I know that I devoured a shitload of fantasy early in my teens, before this whole Lord of the Rings mess came along and made it mainstream (allowing anime to take over as nerd culture staple number one), but I just can’t remember anything. That’s really, really strange.
Same experience here as I’m sure nearly everyone else in this thread. I read a ton of fantasy books from ages 9 to 15 or so. There’s stuff I remember liking a lot which I’m fairly sure is in fact total crap. E.g.: the Thieves World anthologies, Eddings, Saberhagen’s books of swords, Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame, etc.
Martin is the only fantasy author I’ve read since then that doesn’t make me feel like I’m reading something geared at 12 year olds.
I have to add my voice to the Guy Gavriel Kay contingent. Tigana is one of the best fantasy novels I’ve read, and I’ve been reading them for almost 30 years. A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan are both pretty fantastic as well.
Here’s a link to some readings from each of his novels: http://www.brightweavings.com/passages/index.htm
The passages from The Lions of Al-Rassan and A Song for Arbonne should give you an idea of his style and humor.
I loved these books! Nice how the series comes full circle. I tried to use ‘Atoning Unifex’ as my Amarr name in EVE-O, but it was already taken.
Yeah he’s awesome. I didn’t like his first trilogy. I tried several times to get into it but I’d already read his later stuff and it’s just so much better.
I’m not going to argue about your characterization of Brooks or Salvatore. I think it’s maybe a little harsh, but meh. But, seriously, writing a Star Wars book is supposed to show how bad a writer you are? C’mon. Star Wars is one of the few licensed series that actually occasionally draws people who can write. Greg Keyes, Matthew Stover (who wrote the Episode III novelization, the only one of the three I actually bothered to read. Not Stover’s best book by any means, but so much better than the movie that it’s not even funny.), Michael Stackpole, possibly Barbara Hambly. They’re maybe not the best writers working in the field today, but they’re pretty solid.
I would rather shove a fork in my eye than try and read Tolkien again, just stating that to get it out of the way. Probably the most read series of fantasy for me; though not hard fantasy, has been the Myth series by Robert Asprin. As for hard fantasy, I agree on Feist being probably the most fun, with Tad Williams coming in a close second. As for writing style, I love R.E. Howard and Gene Wolfe. Gene’s The Knight (linkage) and his follow up The Wizard are currently my favorite read. Almost lyrical at points, at least in similar ways to why I like Steinbeck’s work.
I have read about 80% of the Jordan books with much skipping. I am looking at them as more of a long task I have set for myself hoping that the end will be worth it, but knowing I am in for dissappointment.
Yeah that’s a pretty big pile of marginal dreck there. I read most of it at about the same age. I made the unfortunate mistake or trying to RE-read some of it in my late 20s - early 30s. Blech.
I read all the Feist and Brooks I could get my hands on after rampaging through every available Dragonlance book (ugh) when I was a young lad. I have to wonder if when I’m older I will go back through my Gibson and Gaiman books and have the same reaction to those as to my old pulp fantasy books. Incidentally, I gave them all away at the thrift-store. I figure some kid will get a kick out of them; I know I did.
Just to get a bit retro: in the wake of the death of Lloyd Alexander earlier this year, I re-read the Prydain novels for the first time in 20+ years; and was pleasantly surprised that they still held up rather well. In fact, some of it I think I liked more now than then; some of Alexander’s wry humor probably flew over my head when I was 12. Note that Prydain is one of if not the first fantasy series I ever read, so I do have some nostalgic fondness for it.
The Black Company series is my favorite series. The first 3 and the Silver Spike (stand-alone after the 3rd book) are the best.
Another mention in favor of Melanie Rawn’s Dragon Prince, etc series
Brust’s Vlad Taltos book and other books in that world are entertaining. Not really in the ‘epic’ style though.
The first Feist books are fun and neat worlds (Magician etc). I haven’t read any of his recent stuff though.
I like Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms stuff - but it’s for a Pulp/Trash read and not Tolkien-type ‘epic’ fantasy.
I grew out of Dragonlance (mostly), Brooks, Eddings and the like. I wouldn’t recommend them. I found Goodkind and Donaldson way to whiney/angsty.
I dropped the Wheel of Time a book or two back, when I got half way through a book, and the timeline hadn’t reached the end of the previous book yet.
If you want to lobotomize yourself, there’s John Norman’s Gor series. /shudder
I’m one of the few people that don’t like Martin. Why? I think a lot is it’s too character based for me - it’s talking about the characters and their motivations too much, and not enough of exciting stuff actually happening. It’s slow, reminds me of reading Dickens in High School.
Been mostly reading Space Opera lately, so don’t have a lot of recent fantasy to recommend. Malazan’s on my list to read though.