How do you like your Fantasy?

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ScottRadom

Shogun of Saskatchewan
Originally posted by boristfrog
I\'m reading Stephen Erikson\'s Malazan books at the moment, and although I will happily say that book one was hard going for the most part, when it worked it was good. Book 2 (Deadhouse gates) has to be my fav fantasy book to date. He has a sense of realism to the characters that allows for ordinary and heroism to work without feeling stupid or too contrived. Magic exists but there\'s not a spell for every occasion, (Ursula le guin!).

I\'m just about to start on George R Martin, but the dragon on the book cover isn\'t filling me full of hope at the moment.
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Don\'t worry about the dragon on the cover. If only there was an expression about how to judge books and something about covers.....

I\'m willing to bet that if you like well developed and realistic characters George R.R. Martin is the man for you! If you\'re not singing his praises at the end of book one I will eat an emoticon!
 
In Chigh P.I.

In Chigh P.I.

New member
Im not liking all this\'ere Tolkien bashing :cussing:

The guy practically invented the fantasy genre (as we know it) What would GW WFB be like if it were not for him?

How anyone can say they like the films over the books astounds me. For instance the re-writing of whole scenes to fit into a \'universally acceptable big budget movie\' ie: lets get more of Liv Tyler on screen!

Bollux!

And Boromirs Yorkshire accent.....i rest my case....

lol
 
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arogers907

New member
Fantasy has to be my fiction of choice. I don\'t really like cheesy, high-fantasy stuff. I used to be a straight up, low-fantasy, sword and sorcery guy. For me David Gemmel is the best author in that genre.

As for the Warhammer stuff... the only fantasy stuff I\'ve liked out of the Black Library is the Blackhearts book. VERY cool stories. And I love the whole \'hooker with a heart of golf\' meets the dirty dozen thing.

Martin... uhg. SO many people I know just gush over this series. I have to say that reading his stuff was really hard for me. I don\'t like many of his characters and (were they real) would respect even fewer. Sure it\'s gritty. Sure he\'s willing to kill off any and all integral characters. There\'s just no one to empathize with in his books. Or, if you can empathize with them, you\'re frustrated at how stupid they are in bringing about their own demise. Not for me, I guess. /shrug

Lately, I\'ve been on an urban fantasy kick. Jim Butcher\'s Dresden series is jaw-dropping! Sci-fi channel made a craptastic butchery (no pun intended) of the setting which is a tragedy, really.

One problem I have with the urban fantasy stuff is that it is really hard to find good stuff out there. Briggs has some cool stories but she uses female heroines which, while very cool, don\'t hold my attention as well as a male protagonist. Rob Thurman\'s stuff is a waste of paper. Everything else out there seems to be about teen chicks in love with a vampire. /sigh

I love the whole urban arcana setting, though.
 
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ScottRadom

Shogun of Saskatchewan
Originally posted by In Chigh P.I.
Im not liking all this\'ere Tolkien bashing :cussing:

The guy practically invented the fantasy genre (as we know it) What would GW WFB be like if it were not for him?

How anyone can say they like the films over the books astounds me. For instance the re-writing of whole scenes to fit into a \'universally acceptable big budget movie\' ie: lets get more of Liv Tyler on screen!

Bollux!

And Boromirs Yorkshire accent.....i rest my case....

lol
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Oh I think everyone here is perfectly appreciative of Tolkiens settings and his sheer scale of work...

I just don\'t like his books. Hobbit being the exception. Singing, ugh. His combat and his general pacing is attrocious and the whole scouring of the shire thing is just the worst.

He\'s the guy who planted the fantasy tree for sure, and of that I am appreciative. I re-read the books every year or so just to make sure and they do not get any better written.
 
alextheartist

alextheartist

New member
Ive got agree, the real lotr ending is much better than the shitty ending they made up.. Last boat my arse.. what about legolas and gimli going??

Scouring of the shires?? Saurman still being alive.. gettin stabbed my grima.. etc etc..


Then the happily ever after..

Alex
 
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Undave

Flockwit
Oi! There\'s nowt wrong wi\'t Yorkshire accent!

The thing about Tolkien is that he was a linguist not a novel writer. Sure he had some fantastic ideas but for me he focusses on writing about the wrong things. He goes into great detail about how the primroses smelt and how one goes about cooking a brace of coneys but never once describes the appearance of any of his characters or major action sequences. The battle of Pellenor Fields, the biggest battle in the book, is given a little over a paragraph and most of that refers to how such and such wouldn\'t live to see another sunrise. Don\'t get me wrong, the story is top notch but for me the telling leaves something to be desired.

Lately I\'ve been reading a lot of historical fiction, fantasy in the real world. I got a couple of Bernard Cornwells for Christmas (the last in the Arthurian series and the first in the Alfred series) and I\'ve just finished reading the first book in Simon Scarrow\'s Roman series. I\'ve also got Flashman on order from Amazon and that promises to be an entertaining read lol
 
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hestan101

New member
flashman papers are comedy gold, the best books ever. historical, but so much research has gone into they beat fantasy!
i totaly agree with undave, i see tolkein as a catalyst, he had great ideas buy sucked at telling em. people are doin better stuff with those ideas now
 
freakinacage

freakinacage

Well-known member
Originally posted by donga666
Tolkien, that\'s it!

NO other fantasy writer has that level of depth.
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agreed
Originally posted by ScottRadom
I\'m with the anti Tolkien sentiment. He crafted the brilliant grand daddy fantasy world with awesome characters, but his writing was lacking.
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i know what you mean but he was a language dude, rather than a writer. i find the story, depth etc more than makes up for it. and dont get me started on those bloody songs..gah

Originally posted by No Such Agency

Yeah, I\'ve always had an interest in biology, so the random monsters that are not related to anything else always bugged me. Evolutionarily, unless each species is a one-off fabrication by a powerful magic user (a cheap cop-out IMO), there should be groups of species sharing traits etc., just like in the real world.
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aye ditto. it should be too difficult to compose a realistic monster
 
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Zora

New member
Whilst Tolkien was one of the writers who kickstarted my love of fantasy, I tried reading them again and couldn\'t do it.

I may have to check out the Fire and Ice series sometime.

I really like Steven Brust\'s works with the Vlad Taltos series and the associated one.
GREAT mix of fantasy with wit and intrigue.
 
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Onis Lair

New member
I guess i like my fantasy more by the tone and skill of the book then any generic setting. I\'ve read some decent steampunk stuff and some great fantasy but at the same time, read alot that just sucked. I grew up on Tolkin so he has a place in my heart. R.A.Salvator does some real nice fantasy, his TSR \"Drizzt\" stuff is much more simple to read this his own Demonwars setting but both are great. Fred Saberhagen\'s Books of Power were great reads but his Face of Apollo was unreadable for me.
 
lizcam

lizcam

New member
I like it more like Glen Cooke\'s Garrett mysteries. A big city with various breeds of humaniods (and others) living side by side and feeding off each other in various ways.
 
In Chigh P.I.

In Chigh P.I.

New member
Originally posted by lizcam......various breeds of humaniods (and others) living side by side and feeding off each other in various ways......
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Sounds a bit like that freakbar thread here lol
 
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Ghaffasa

New member
The Wheel of Time

The Gotrek & Felix series (warhammer)

Pretty much everything concerning Diablo

In other words; high fantasy at its best

I have read some sci-fi novels (mainly wh40k), but in my opinion, they don\'t really compete with their fantasy counterparts.
 
Sand Rat

Sand Rat

New member
Pratchett.

But I will try to read anything where there is a somewhat logical structure.

Just not as freaking structured as

Harry has a problem with his muggle family.
Harry goes to Hogwarts where there is a problem
Harry solves the problem at Hogwarts
Harry goes home to more problems with muggle family.

Frag even my cats could write that stuff. lol
 
mattsterbenz

mattsterbenz

New member
I\'m a huge Tolkien fan. I love his works.

I can certainly tolerate most other genres of fantasy, I\'m just not a big fan of magic (which Tolkien manages to keep quite low).

Originally posted by ScottRadom
and the whole scouring of the shire thing is just the worst.
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Tolkien was actually very defensive about the scouring of the shire chapter and swore it was extremely important to the plot.

It does seem to drift away from the main story, sure.

But it provides a truly bitter end for the second most important villain in the story (Saruman being second to Sauron), and makes you begin to pity him and Wormtongue. It showed just how determined Saruman was to get revenge on the hobbits, and how crazed he had become.

There\'s not enough build-up in the extended scene of ROTK to justify killing off Saruman the way they did and when they did.

-Matt
 
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