wallacer:
Mine are (in no particular order) George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind and Robert Howard.
Anyone have somebody else who they can recommend?
Malificant:
a month late i’ll chime in: R.A. Salvatore, but for the demon wars series and NOT his overdone work on drizzt.
Pyro Stick:
I replied to wallacer by email for this so when he replies i will post the list that i sent him. I never knew CDO would be back up so soon. It cosisted of people like Ian Irvine, James Clemens, Trudi Canavan, Katherine Kerr, etc
Malificant:
oh, and i forgot duglass niles work with the watershed trilogy
Willmark:
George RR Martin
JRR Tolkien
If anyone says Robert Jordan I’ll slap them
Pyro Stick:
Well i have tried to get into Eye of the World but it is utterly shit. It is impossible to get into cause it is so boring and it reminds me greatly of the start of LOTR. My brother has read the series and says they are good and my cousin has started reading them and he says the series gets better. I have better things to read though. After reading the sword of truth series i dont view Epics in the same way i did. Now they have a bad name. SOT could put anyone off reading.
Malificant:
ive heard very different reviews of sword of truth.
im currently re-reading song of ice and fire, since i heard that a fifth book is set for release this year. also picked up the board game.
never a big fan of jordon.
picked up the horus heresy series for a sci-fi tangent along with the firefly dvds.
lately i have taken a stroll from my usual authors though and quite enjoyed max brooks’s world war z and zombie survival guide, martin cruz smith’s stalin’s ghost, and mike carey’s the devil you know.
for a while i was on a vampire kick until i realized how bad anne rice screwed up her vampire chronicals after tale of the body theif(though memnoch was interesting to say the least).
also saw a book in my local barnes and noble that i was wondering if anyone knows about. it was the forth book of a series called “the codex alera”. looked fairly interesting, anyone have some insight?
Pyro Stick:
James Clemens
Shadowfall
Hinterland
The Banned and the Banished which consists of:
Witch Fire
Witch Storm
Witch War
Witch Gate
Witch Star.
Terry Brooks
Shannara Series (all one million of them)
Trudi Canavan
The Magicians Guild
The Novice
The High Lord (The Black Magician Trilogy)
Priestess of the White
Last of the Wild
Voice of the Gods }These last three are better than the Black Magician trilogy
Lian Hern
Across the Nightingale Floor
Grass for his Pillow
Brilliance of the Moon
Harsh Cry of the Heron
Heavens Net Is Wide : These are books set in japan and not necessarily fantasy but they are still great reads eventhough the main trilogy (first 3) are the shortest and the sequel and prequel are beastly brick books.
Ian Irvine
Geomancer
Tetrarch
Alchymist
Chimera} There is another Quadrilogy before this one that is part of the same series but it is one of those series that you dont need to read the first quadrilogy as the second is completely different characters (mostly) and a different storyline.
Fate of the Fallen
Curse on the Chosen
Destiny of the Dead will be the last in the trilogy
Tad Williams
War of the Flowers
Im also reading Shadowmarch by Tad Williams and so far its a good book.
Katerine Kerr
The Deverry Series } Ive only just started reding this series (literally only about 10 pages into first book). Its a long series but its split up into quadrilogies as well like Ian Irvines books. The first one is called Daggersell and they sound like interesting books with a good storyline.
Dune is obviously an awesome book to read. Janny Wurts is an author that i find weird. I read the first book in her Was of Light and Shadow series and the twists in it were so depressing that i couldnt bear to read the second one. But she is a good writer and i guess the storyline is good and i think i just might have to force myself to read the next 3 (so far) in the series.
Terry Goodkind is good at first but i am SOOOOO sick of the bloody sword of truth now. The storyline has been stretched out way too long, his writing is repetive, and im never going to read them again. Im like a zombie readng confessor at the moment. Im just reading it to see what happens in the end. I hate the way everything happens in the last 20 pages or so. He could of finished the story in much less time.
wallacer:
That’s a very comprehensive list, Pyro.
If the Slave system was working (which I don’t think it is yet) then I would lavish slaves upon you (remind me about it later once the slave system is working again).
Kera foehunter:
J.RR.TOLKIENS thats the only one. the rest coppied off him
Malificant:
kera, you did not just say that.
Ellimist:
J.RR.TOLKIENS thats the only one. the rest coppied off him
Kera foehunter
Assuming you're being remotely serious:
Fantasy authors have been borrowing from each other since the Epic of Gilgamesh onward (and almost certainly from before then as well). It's readily apparent in Tolkein as well, the use of traditional folklore races of a particularly scandanavian origin being the most obvious. It's true that his work has been a major influence on fantasy during the last 50 years, particulary in the gaming world (DnD being a good example, with the core races and generic setting). However there's little similarity between such fantasy settings as Anne McCaffery's Pern series or George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and Tolkein's Middle Earth.
As for The Lord of the Rings, it suffers horribly from awful pacing, somewhat stilted dialogue, and a cutesy view of old England (in the form of the Hobbits). I'm inclined to think that most of those who praise it haven't actually read the things and have just watched the movies, which were quite a lot better. In fact, The Hobbit works quite a lot better, as the subject material and style of writing suit a younger audience.
Willmark:
Easy, Easy guys, Kera is entitled to her opinion.
There are faults with the LoTR however You cannot solely judge his work on this alone. as far as they movies they were great movies but the books were even better IMHO.
I’m inclined to think that most of those who praise it haven’t actually read the things and have just watched the movies, which were quite a lot better.I’m inclined to think that most of those who disparage LoTR have never read the Silmarillion, which puts the LoTR series as almost an afterthought, a footnote if you will. If you have read the Silmarillion then you know what I’m talking about.
Ellimist
That being said I am a huge fan of GRRM, however as you rightly point out it is an entirely different type of fantasy, more low fantasy than high, epic fantasy which I believe Tolkeins writings to be.
Malificant:
i never said that. i was merely refering to the fact that tolkein is not the end all be all of fantasy, and not all fantasy is derived from him.
that being said i am a fan of alternate history
Ellimist:
Easy, Easy guys, Kera is entitled to her opinion.Indeed. But that doesn't make an assertion such as "the rest coppied [sic] off him" factually correct.
Willmark
Yes, but it can't really fix the shortcomings of the main trilogy. In any case, if a 3 book series needs another novel after the fact to justify itself, there's something strange going on.I'm inclined to think that most of those who praise it haven't actually read the things and have just watched the movies, which were quite a lot better.I'm inclined to think that most of those who disparage LoTR have never read the Silmarillion, which puts the LoTR series as almost an afterthought, a footnote if you will. If you have read the Silmarillion then you know what I'm talking about.
Ellimist
Willmark
Willmark:
...book series needs another novel after the fact to justify itself, there's something strange going on.Sorry Dude, wrong answer ;)
Ellimist
The Silmarillion really puts the story into perspective, more so because it is actually the first book or what the world was about: the Elves. In fact Tolkien started writing the some of the stories that later made up the The Silmarillion in 1914! That predates even the Hobbit's published time frame of 1937 AFAICR. The Silmarillion was really his passion, I beleive he said as much in some interviews before his death.
Read it. When you get done with it you'll never look at LoTR the same way again.
What really burned me once on a forums wa s when some dude who knew jack said "I think Jordan's world [sic. WoT] was much more creative the Tolkiens"... My jaw hit the floor on that one.
Ellimist:
Point taken about the writing date(s), but it doesn’t really change the fact that (IMHO) LoTR has its shortcomings that you seem to be claiming are offset by another novel outside of the trilogy. My point is that it should be able to stand on its own terms. If the Silmarillion’s better, I’ll give it a go but I’ve been so put off by Tolkein’s writing style I’m not sure how far through it I would get.
I’ve not read enough WoT to really be able to say whose mythos is better.
Malificant:
anyone heard of the codex alera? ive been wondering about this series for some time now.
Willmark:
I’m not dismissing anything. I like LoTR warts and all, I can even understand you don’t like his writing style.
Pyro Stick:
Now lets not turn this into a LOTR debate. No one can say that JRR Tolkien isnt good. And silmirillion is an epic book. If you dont like the stlye then that just means that its to complicated for you. The silmirillion has to be one of the most challenging books i have ever read in terms of how easy it is to understand the language. It is quite slow going reading it. Anyway, moving on.
Has anyone else here read James Clemens? I would say that he is one of my al time favourite fantasy authors, although i havent read any of his stuff in a while cause he takes so long to write a book.