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The Black Unicorn (Magic Kingdom of Landover, #2)
by Terry Brooks (Goodreads Author)
by Terry Brooks (Goodreads Author)
Art Noose's review
bookshelves: couldn-t-finish
Aug 15, 10
bookshelves: couldn-t-finish
Recommended to Art by:
my own lapse of judgment
Recommended for:
no one
Because I live in a house with a science fiction / fantasy library in the living room, I challenged myself to read the following three books:
1. One Piers Anthony novel
2. One Star Trek novel
3. One Terry Brooks novel
I started with this book and about 25 pages into it, I wondered about this challenge. I wondered why I was wasting my time reading bad books when there are so many good books on my list I want to read.
And this is a bad book. Really poor writing. Predictable character types, cliche metaphors, you name it.
I got about a third of the way through and realized it just wasn't worth the "unicorn book" merit badge on my Nerd Scouts sash.
1. One Piers Anthony novel
2. One Star Trek novel
3. One Terry Brooks novel
I started with this book and about 25 pages into it, I wondered about this challenge. I wondered why I was wasting my time reading bad books when there are so many good books on my list I want to read.
And this is a bad book. Really poor writing. Predictable character types, cliche metaphors, you name it.
I got about a third of the way through and realized it just wasn't worth the "unicorn book" merit badge on my Nerd Scouts sash.
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Jason
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Aug 15, 2010 10:44am
I tried this with a Robert Jordan book with the same sort of results: "Why am I doing this to myself?"
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Might as well skip the Star Trek, too. But I like Piers Anthony, was a big fan of Xanth when I was young. My rec (from what I've read, and Piers Anthony is a pun machine) is his gritty, graphic "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series. I don't think I read them all, but it's good space opera.
Skip the old dudes on your quest for a "unicorn merit badge" and go for the newer crop of fantasy writers--and two older women that have written some of the best: Diana Wynne Jones and Patricia McKillip. McKillip:
Song for the Basilisk---possibly the finest fantasy novel of all time
The Book of Atrix Wolfe--a whole new spin on changeling stories.
Jones:
The Dalemark Quartet--despite the weak fourth book, the first three are amazing as a rebellion is fomented against the ruling dukes.
The Power of Three--a surprisingly crafty lesson about diversity and working together.
Hit up Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy for a complex tale in a unique fantasy land.
The Bartemaeus trilogy by JOnathan Stroud is about power, slavery, and rebellion--one of the more complex--philosophically--fantasies written for young adults.
The Chaos Walking series by Peter Ness is absolutely brilliant--and harsh.
Get that badge by reading great novels that happen to be fantasy.
Sorry if this is too much, I get carried away by favorite books.
