Infidel Castro
New member
Books? What that?
I also believe things have gone stale in Fantasy writing, especially from the big guns. I heard Goodkind mentioned and a friend of mine loves his stuff (very imaginative he says). I read the first book (Wizard\'s First Rule?) and whilst it\'s fair to say he\'s got good scope and vision, he couldn\'t write for toffees! It was terribly put together! Still, as I say, his ideas did come through and by the sceond book he was a bit more coherent. Still ain\'t got no further though.
The last series I read was Stephen Donaldson (Thomas Covenant) and that\'s where I wanted to leave everything. I quite simply loved the two trilogies and the ideas he threw into it. I love the anti-hero\'s denial of everything, as acceptance of the world he finds himself to be part of would be a letting go of his fight against leprosy and all that. That\'s all I\'ll say about that, but I recommend them any time. Dark and strange. The only gripe is that the first two books are more of a hurdle than they need to be as the main character\'s refusal to engage in his surroundings does wear a bit thin, as does Donaldson\'s over-descriptive commentary, but thereafter everything becomes much better. I thought the series so good that I wanted no other High Fantasy ever again. Maybe.
A series to avoid is Tad Williams fantasy epic The Dragonbone Chair, Green Angel Tower (?) and all those. Whilst he made a really nice setting with great characters and races, he screws it all up with the worst ending possible, crammed into about 20 pages, where every bugger survives certain death and everyone lives happily ever after. Bastard. It was sooo sickly I threw the book with force towards the bin (and missed). The only other book I did that with was Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon. Pile of toss and goes to show that going to America\'s greatest University (or one of them at least) isn\'t an indicator of intelligence. I threw that one and DID get it in the bin.
Feist started off brilliantly but it all becomes predictable in the end as he struggles to invent new dangers for Midkemia. However, the background on magic/metaphysics/religion/Buddhist ideas is top and a real thumbs-up.
Worm Ouroburos is fun! Enjoyed that. Pratchett is out-and-out quality, probably the best writer around in Fantasy circles. He could never run out of ideas either, as the Discworld is a parody of Earth. He gets better and better.
Alas, these days I read more fiction than fantasy as fiction is much more imaginative (says I!) I\'m sure others will disagree, but hey, what can I do?
Books are grrrrr-eat!
Anyone ever heard of the Borribles? That\'s the closest I got to fantasy apart from Pratchett recently and I\'m enjoying it immensely.
Read on.
Phil :innocent:
I also believe things have gone stale in Fantasy writing, especially from the big guns. I heard Goodkind mentioned and a friend of mine loves his stuff (very imaginative he says). I read the first book (Wizard\'s First Rule?) and whilst it\'s fair to say he\'s got good scope and vision, he couldn\'t write for toffees! It was terribly put together! Still, as I say, his ideas did come through and by the sceond book he was a bit more coherent. Still ain\'t got no further though.
The last series I read was Stephen Donaldson (Thomas Covenant) and that\'s where I wanted to leave everything. I quite simply loved the two trilogies and the ideas he threw into it. I love the anti-hero\'s denial of everything, as acceptance of the world he finds himself to be part of would be a letting go of his fight against leprosy and all that. That\'s all I\'ll say about that, but I recommend them any time. Dark and strange. The only gripe is that the first two books are more of a hurdle than they need to be as the main character\'s refusal to engage in his surroundings does wear a bit thin, as does Donaldson\'s over-descriptive commentary, but thereafter everything becomes much better. I thought the series so good that I wanted no other High Fantasy ever again. Maybe.
A series to avoid is Tad Williams fantasy epic The Dragonbone Chair, Green Angel Tower (?) and all those. Whilst he made a really nice setting with great characters and races, he screws it all up with the worst ending possible, crammed into about 20 pages, where every bugger survives certain death and everyone lives happily ever after. Bastard. It was sooo sickly I threw the book with force towards the bin (and missed). The only other book I did that with was Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon. Pile of toss and goes to show that going to America\'s greatest University (or one of them at least) isn\'t an indicator of intelligence. I threw that one and DID get it in the bin.
Feist started off brilliantly but it all becomes predictable in the end as he struggles to invent new dangers for Midkemia. However, the background on magic/metaphysics/religion/Buddhist ideas is top and a real thumbs-up.
Worm Ouroburos is fun! Enjoyed that. Pratchett is out-and-out quality, probably the best writer around in Fantasy circles. He could never run out of ideas either, as the Discworld is a parody of Earth. He gets better and better.
Alas, these days I read more fiction than fantasy as fiction is much more imaginative (says I!) I\'m sure others will disagree, but hey, what can I do?
Books are grrrrr-eat!
Anyone ever heard of the Borribles? That\'s the closest I got to fantasy apart from Pratchett recently and I\'m enjoying it immensely.
Read on.
Phil :innocent:
