Rindis's comments (member since Aug 24, 2007)

Rindis's comments from the Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library group.

Christopher Anvil, Anthony Boucher....

And, arguably, H. Beam Piper (depending on how 'forgotten' you think he is).

Paul, I think you mean Clark Ashton Smith (n, not m). I could swear I've read something by him, but none of the books look familiar.

I haven't been all that enamored with Feist. He can write, but the middle part of his main series really annoyed me. I definitely recommend Daughter of the Empire by him and Janny Wurtz, which is in part the 'other side' of his main series, I really enjoyed it.

Bullfinch is decidedly worthwhile reading.

I used to average about a book/week. Then I got a job.

Currently, my commute is ~1 hour (each way), most of that on the train. I split the time between napping and reading, and read through my lunch break.

At home, I'm generally captured by the computer. Some of that is reading (forii, and various levels of fiction available on the 'net), much is gaming of one type or another.

Broadcast TV is very rare. About once a month (or less) Wednesday is free and I watch Mythbusters. Beyond that, there's Anime Night, where a bunch of us get together, socialize and watch anime DVDs.

Thomas Covenant is decidedly pure Epic Fantasy. I haven't read the Gap series, so I can't really comment, though the basic blurbs give no hint of a 'fantasy' side of things.

Marc, science fantasy is usually given to mean a setting where both science fiction and fantasy elements exist. Star Wars is an excellent example, with both the high-tech tropes of lasers, spacecraft, FTL-travel, and the mysticism of the Force (perhaps ignoring midiclorians...).

Bujold's books are on the 'softer' side of science fiction, perhaps even shading into SciFi, but by no means science fantasy. Also, I'd say the uterine replicators are less fantastic than the plasma lances and other weapon systems seen in the setting. The general requirements are relatively easy to understand (if an engineering nightmare).

Star Trek has a lot of bad science, but generally has no problems with a SciFi label.

For Harry Potter, it is very definitely a case of the series growing up with the audience/protagonist. It's very explicitly predicated on each volume being a 'year', and the intended audience is pretty much Harry's current age.

Don't know the Pendragon series (or which one!), so can't say there.

Coming back here after massive distractions...

Inky, I recommend you pick up the second Dragonlance trilogy. You can skip anything after that if you want, but if you enjoyed Chronicles, Legends is better, and does a nice job giving a sense of closure to a few things.

Arthurian: My dad recommends Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff, but I've never gotten around to it. I can recommend Paxson's Hawk of May. Also, you may be interested in Isle of Ghosts, one of my favorite historical novels, set in 3rd-century Roman Briton.

Re: Recluse

I'd say they were more-or-less done in ones. I'm a little iffy on it because while I have read several of them independently, and I 'got' the story easily enough, I always felt there were things I was missing because I didn't know the background enough.

Seeing Brust's name just reminded me of another: The Phoenix Guards. It's set in the same world as his big series, and has a sequel, but is a stand-alone. And it's a very good and fun read, effectively being a tribute to The Three Musketeers.

Thanks, Carl, good list overall (and yeah, it is a bit harder than I thought at first).

Byzantium: If there's magic it's historical fantasy (like Alamut), otherwise, I'd call it a historical novel.

Also, I'd think we can count Cherryh's Gate of Ivrel as it is quite complete on it's own, even if it did generate direct sequels.

Heck, I don't think The Sword of Shannarra was intended to be a series, though it did much to perpetuate the 'thick tome' archetype.

Ah, yes, Tigana is very good. I really need to go hunt down more Kay.

As far as generating a series later, it's the same thing as Hollywood, once something is successful there is a lot of pressure from the publisher to follow it up with more of a 'sure thing.' And the fans don't exactly help with that. ^_^

Compleat Complete Enchanter is something of a ringer, it's a short story collection with a novel in the middle, but I find it hard not to recommend it every chance I get.

Both Transformation by Carol Berg and The Bridge of Birds by Barry Hugart generated series that I understand didn't nearly measure up to the originals, but the first books weren't meant to be part of a series, wrap things up, and are excellent.

Alamut by Judith Tarr is technically a prequel to another series, but is not actually dependent on it, and is the finest book she's written, historical fantasy or otherwise. Her A Wind In Cairo is also a stand alone (many of her books are, but I'm sticking with the fantasy ones) and a lot of fun, if not as good as Alamut.

Robert wrote elsewhere:
"Somewhere post-Tolkien, the fantasy world took a wrong turn and the idea of a single, really well written novel that stands alone disappeared. No more Red Moon, Black Mountain."

He has a point - the bulk of fantasy is geared towards sprawling muli-volume epics. However, there are individual books that are well done, and are fantasy. So, recommend any fantasy book that stands well on it's own. It can have sequels, as long it was originally intended as a single book and singe story that wraps up in that volume.

It should be remembered that Lord of the Rings was released as a trilogy because of the limitations of bookbinding, and that Tolkien was strongly against splitting his work up at all. ^_^

Right now, I'm just spitting out some titles, hopefully I'll go further into some of them later.
The Compleat Complete Enchanter
The Dragon and the George
Azure Bonds
Spellfire
Covenants
The Bridge of Birds
Transformation
The Golden Key
Between the Rivers
The Last Unicorn
Alamut

Carl, I'm one of the few who complains about Martin. For me, he's a wonderful author who's bitten off more than I can chew.

I think his characters, politics and plots are well done, I can ignore certain problems with the setting for the sake of the story. But I find his sprawling epic too sprawling for me to enjoy. I'd rather have the three main areas of his story be in separate books, so that I'm not switching major plotlines every time I get myself hooked on the current one.

First of all, there's plenty of good advice here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_grou...

I will recommend Covenants again. ^_^ For sprawling epic fantasy my favorites are Eddings' Belgariad and Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, with Rawn's Dragon Prince (warning: series goes downhill after the first--massive--book) and Elliot's Crown of Stars being good 'dynastic' fantasy--more politically motivated, like Song of Fire and Ice.

If you want to see some more Forgotten Realms, I recommend Azure Bonds and Spellfire (the latter by the setting's creator, Ed Greenwood).

There's also a lot of good Andre Norton out there, I recommend starting with The Crystal Gryphon.

http://rindis.livejournal.com/37172.html

*sigh*

(Did anyone ever play the Shadowrun rpg on the SNES? Classic game. Shadowrun could make an incredible MMO.)

You do realize that Shadowrun started life as a regular RPG, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35134...

Norton:
I would actually give Witch World a pass at first. However, The Crystal Gryphon is my favorite from her, and I recommend it and its sequels. I also recommend The Jargoon Pard, Catseye, Forerunner, Perilous Dreams and... darn, can't think of the title. -_-;;

I'll have to try Clayton's Diadem series. I've read some of her books, but they've generally been near misses for me.

For McCaffery's Pern, I really recommend the Harper Hall trilogy over the original.

The Dark is Rising series is fairly good. Five books, two different groups of protagonists alternate between the two books, with them all in the last one. My problem is that right at the end of the last book, the second group of protagonists is made to forget everything that's happened. This is a big no-no for me and turned me off of what had been a great series otherwise.

You seem to be mostly looking at YA series, so I'll recommend Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain here. And the older thread
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_grou...
has plenty of good advice.

Star Trek is SF. Not quite space opera, but it tends there sometimes. ^_^

Anyway, try this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416505...
It says it's in stock.

Also, used paperback stores can be a good source of Star Trek novels (many people just read them once and then turn them in), although that's no guarantee for this particular one

Freedom's Landing? Not a bad, if slightly transparent alien romance book, haven't read past it myself. (I might someday, but haven't yet.)

In the long run, I have to consider MeCaffery as an okay author who has managed to come up with a few (deservedly) celebrated ideas. I haven't read much of her on that basis in years, but the Freedom series seems like it should be playing to her strengths.

Can't remember Crystal Singer, though I know I read it, and do remember I didn't really care for it.