...I must have read Zelazny's Lord of Light at least a half-dozen times (and remain boggled how anyone can read his Amber novels, which are miles below the work he did on Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, Isle of the Dead, etc.), ...
I loved Zelazny's Lord of Light, and the dexterous way he wove Buddhist, Hindu and Science Fiction traditions together into such a unique story. The Amber series is my 'comfort food'. It may not be high literature, but Zelazny is an ace at making you guess whodunit until the very end of the story. Corwin's family is a complex set of characters, all with their own agendas and plots. I have to fetch out my Big Book of Amber every few years to reread it. Who doesn't love a group of characters that can mold reality? (or more to the point, can travel to a Shadow where what they desire IS reality).
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...I must have read Zelazny's Lord of Light at least a half-dozen times (and remain boggled how anyone can read his Amber novels, which are miles below the work he did on Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness, Isle of the Dead, etc.), ...I loved Zelazny's Lord of Light, and the dexterous way he wove Buddhist, Hindu and Science Fiction traditions together into such a unique story. The Amber series is my 'comfort food'. It may not be high literature, but Zelazny is an ace at making you guess whodunit until the very end of the story. Corwin's family is a complex set of characters, all with their own agendas and plots. I have to fetch out my Big Book of Amber every few years to reread it. Who doesn't love a group of characters that can mold reality? (or more to the point, can travel to a Shadow where what they desire IS reality).
Ditto!
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I'll agree with you on the GRRM novels (although I like them precisely because he's fearless in killing off main characters if it serves the story arc). IMO Jordan couldn't shine GRRM's shoes. But that's just me....
I have also re-read George R.R Martin novels a few times and I have enjoyed them to. Though I get upset with martin sometime when he kills off people.
Have to confess, I'm with Curtin on this one! Although I enjoyed the first 2 or 3 Jordan books. Not as much as GRRM, but I did.
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I love His Rift War Saga... But I tried reading the ones after that and could not get into them... do they get good again?
IMO, no. Silverthorn was okay. Darkness at Sethanon was a little too crazy over the top (too Epic, in D&D terms), and I haven't really liked anything of his since. Magician was just pure awesome, and although I've read it a dozen times, I've read Silverthorn twice, and the second time was just checking to see if it had gotten better with age...
Though I did enjoy The Empire Trilogy with Janny Wurts.
Another bit of pure awesome. I'm not sure whether that's because of Fiest or Wurts, 'though. I've heard that her solo novels are amazing, but haven't gotten around to reading any of them yet.
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Read a good book... Pick up George R.R. Martin or Robert Jordan..
Just to share part of my fantasy reading history:
I read Wizard of Earthsea somewhere around age 12, and thought it was pretty boring at the time. Have never felt the urge to try again.
I've read all of Robert Jordan's books, though I'll freely admit that they went downhill after the first few. I was just invested enough in the characters and story to want to know what happened next even if the next book wasn't very good.
GRRM's A Game of Thrones has the unique distinction of being the only novel I have been so disgusted with that I simply gave up on it. Usually I try to persevere to the end, to give the book the benefit of the doubt. But by the midpoint of that one, I hated every single characters, thought all the motivations were horribly contrived, and didn't give a rat's behind what happened to any of them. To this day, I still do not understand why people like it.
Delighted to see a buncha LeGuin fans here. Surprised, but delighted. Didn't know there were so many rocks fer us ta climb out from under!
How about a bit of a more obscure one - anyone read Planet of Exile? It's unlike her usual style, certainly, but after the third or fourth read I think it moved up to become my favorite (of many).
I still haven't read a LeGuin novel. I've read some of her shorter fiction and enjoyed them, but right now, none stand out in my memory. What I actually remember really enjoying is some of her criticism. My daughter enjoyed Wizard of Earthsea...maybe I'll have to borrow it from her some day.
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Boldly stating what is incontroveribly good about the book with such passion that the OP fears further destabalizing the delicate condition of a committed superfan.Offering OP an 'out' before he breaks under the pressure, a chance to admit he spoke in haste after a bad day at work or after eating a spoiled fish.Questioning of the OP's open contact with his own emotions and his aesthetic as it relates to matters of sentimentality; does anything beautiful touch his stone of a heart, or is he steely and broken, waiting and primed for wars that never come.Blame on parents, impoverished social opportunities, education system, and whole damned generation for OPs cultural deprivation.Insistence that the book must have caught the reader at the wrong time, so it's timing and fate that are to blame, and a reread is not only necessary, it's expected.Tag-teaming and name-calling masked as concern about OPs mental health.A calling out of raffishness bordering on internet trollism, daring to disparage such a dear and beloved work.Implied insults about reading ability and literary taste.No amount of Persistent charismastic bullying will get me to enjoy this book or get me to understand why others would. :-pIf the book itself couldn't win you over, how can anyone else hope to change the original poster's mind.Persistent charismastic bullying.
Game on! How many of the above discursive strategies can you find in this thread? Heheheh. Just kiddin'. They're being pretty polite in there.
Man, the beginning of this thread is a great read. Such witty people...*sparkle, sparkle*
I'm proud to have been a participant. Thanks for the Res, Charlie.
I liked WoES (and the next two), although not as much as Lathe of Heaven. But they're sorta slow and dreamy, so people who want their fantasy novels to read like a Bugs Bunny cartoon are bound to be disappointed.
Isle of the Dead is one of my favorites by Zelazny, maybe even more so than Lord of Light. Some of his short stories grab me the most, though, like "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," "This Moment of the Storm," and two others I can never remember the names of: one in which the ruined protagonist starts living backwards until he reaches the time of his wife's death, and another in which an old psychic shares the totality of his life with a dying girl.
I liked GRRM an awful lot until he apparently stopped writing after the last Thrones book. I don't necessarily want him to pull a Stephen King and just spew out the last three books without pausing to proofread them, but Martin just can't seem to be bothered to fire up the word processor at all. I honestly have no expectation that he'll ever finish the series.
Robert Jordan was a hack. My wife threw them down in disgust, coughing *RIPOFF!!!* as soon as she realized the Aes Sedai were supposed to be the Bene Gesserit from Dune. And although Frank Herbert's Dune novels were far better than Jordan's stuff (although Brian Herbert's suck), Herbert pere's non-Dune stuff was way better than that -- The Dosadi Experiment is a personal favorite.
I'm going to read this next year, thanks to this thread. In addition to short stories, I've also enjoyed her criticism: she appears to be a right-thinking, feminist Tolkienist.
Kirth, I'm definitely gonna pick up Zelazney, too. Funny thing about Herbert: when I finished the Dune series, I went through a painful withdrawal. I worked at a used bookstore, so I picked up almost every volume that Herbert wrote, and tried to read them. I couldn't get into any of them, so I gave up and sold 'em back.
Okay, I didn't quite wait until next year. I just finished Wizard of Earthsea, and even though I pretty much predicted the resolution, I thought that was an excellent piece of writing, and I really enjoyed it. So, as one of the people, I can now answer authoritatively: Yes.
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Okay, I didn't quite wait until next year. I just finished Wizard of Earthsea, and even though I pretty much predicted the resolution, I thought that was an excellent piece of writing, and I really enjoyed it. So, as one of the people, I can now answer authoritatively: Yes.
I threw up a little bit in my mouth after thinking about this book again ....;-)
Funny thing about Herbert: when I finished the Dune series, I went through a painful withdrawal. I worked at a used bookstore, so I picked up almost every volume that Herbert wrote, and tried to read them. I couldn't get into any of them, so I gave up and sold 'em back.
Huh! Go figure. Jorj X McKie is one of my favorite characters in literature -- I love all the ConSentiency stories.
I'll be the first to admit that The Green Brain, The Santargoa Barrier, and all those Lazarus ones are really sub-par efforts, however.