Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" discussion
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What are you currently reading?
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Jason
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Jul 22, 2022 07:38PM
Finn J.D. John's Robert E. Howard's CONAN the CIMMERIAN BARBARIAN: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus - anyone read this yet?
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Jason wrote: "
The Halfling's Gem
I'm diving back into the Drizzt series."
Nice! Though I've read it before I'm one book behind you on my re-reads then. Trying to get to book 15 eventually, where I last left off at. Might take me a minute!
Michael Fierce wrote: "Jason wrote: "The Halfling's Gem
I'm diving back into the Drizzt series."
Nice! Though I've read it before I'm one book behind you on my re-reads ..."
I'd wager it'll take you at least a minute. That's my The Price Is Right +1 safe bid for the win
:DThat's a safe bet! Maybe more than a minute!
Jason wrote: "The Halfling's Gem
I'm diving back into the Drizzt series."
Hey, Jason, just wanted to give you and others a heads-up that The Collected Stories: The Legend of Drizzt is on Kindle for $1.99 today. It's got all of the short stories from the anthologies compiled into one book and some are hard to come by nowadays. Here's a link in case you're interested.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GLS7SU?...
Wizard's First Rule, The Sword Of Truth by Terry Goodkind.
This book sucks.
This book sucks.
Jason wrote: "Wizard's First Rule, The Sword Of Truth by Terry Goodkind. This book sucks."
I remember buying my copy over 20 years ago when it was all the rage, heavily promoted in bookstores. I got it and never finished it, that is all I'm saying. It didn't hold my interest.
Norbert wrote: "Jason wrote: "Wizard's First Rule, The Sword Of Truth by Terry Goodkind. This book sucks."
I remember buying my copy over 20 years ago when it was all the rage, heavily promoted in bookstores. I..."
Glad to see other people who didn't enjoy this book. I thought I was alone! I finished the first book in the series and never went back, even though I bought them all. It just felt so generic and uninspired.
DDred wrote: "Norbert wrote: "Jason wrote: "Wizard's First Rule, The Sword Of Truth by Terry Goodkind.
This book sucks."
I remember buying my copy over 20 years ago when it was all the rage, heavily promoted ..."
It is generic even by the standards of decades past, but that isn't necessarily a death sentence. This book is just so painfully and overwhelmingly boring, and the writing...good lord, the writing. Goodkind is clearly not a writer by trade.
This book sucks."
I remember buying my copy over 20 years ago when it was all the rage, heavily promoted ..."
It is generic even by the standards of decades past, but that isn't necessarily a death sentence. This book is just so painfully and overwhelmingly boring, and the writing...good lord, the writing. Goodkind is clearly not a writer by trade.
I remember that book. I could not get through the first chapter of Wizard's First Rule
Joseph wrote: "I've been revisiting Jo Clayton -- started with Moongather and continued to Moonscatter."I have all three of the books in this series but haven't read them. They do look incredibly intriguing however!
Mod
Joseph wrote: "I'm liking them a lot! They're a style of fantasy you really don't see much these days, with effectively no Tolkien or D&D or GRRM in their DNA."I think I started Moongather but I don't remember anything. I just know I'm a sucker for any of the old DAW pulp fantasy titles.
Mod
Got nostalgic and started re-reading GRRM/Dozois' Old Mars anthology. S.M. Stirling's Swords of Zar-tu-kan is such a fun story!
For some quick and simple fun, I thought about adding A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez to my summer reading pile. Apparently just jokey parody fantasy. I bought a copy of the book several years ago, and only recently noticed again that I had it sitting on a shelf here.A Nameless Witch
In a completely different vein, today I ordered a copy of the new edition of all of Clark Ashton Smith's tales of Zothique by Hippocampus Press, the volume called Zothique: The Final Cycle. I should have it by Friday.
Zothique: The Final Cycle
I'm reading Saunder's "Quest for Cush" the second entry on Imaro's saga, and thoroughly enjoying it. Unfortunately I don't know if I'll ever be able to get books 3 and 4 on my hands, since they are out of print and whenever an Imaro book comes up on any online store it has ridiculous prices that I absolutely can't afford. These are specially hard to find for me since I don't live in the US nor Canada. I know there's an omnibus edition of Imaro in French, so I'm guessing I should start brushing up on my rusty French
Nicolás Ciancio wrote: "I'm reading Saunder's "Quest for Cush" the second entry on Imaro's saga, and thoroughly enjoying it. Unfortunately I don't know if I'll ever be able to get books 3 and 4 on my hands, since they are..."Hopefully someone picks up the torch and reprints these stories.
Reading Horns of the Hunter which is based on Irish mythology and about Swords & Sorcery as you can get.Listening to The House Across the Lake which is a ghost story and about as far from S&S as you can get. :-)
Tombs of Atuan, and loving every word.
The Earthsea series is fantastic just like Richard says. I think the series gets even better in the later books. Tehanu (Book 4) is my personal favorite. A few of the short stories in Tales from Earthsea (Book 5) are really cool and The Other Wind (Book 6) is just as amazing as it is original. Let's all hope the Ursula K. Le Guin estate discovers a Book 7 lying about somewhere like a lost treasure in Yeavaud's dragon's lair.
Nah, the later books undermine the earlier books. She should have written new books and not tried to change the world
Mary wrote: "Nah, the later books undermine the earlier books. She should have written new books and not tried to change the world"Well, I don't agree at all. There is no undermining quality about them whatsoever. The world wasn't changed. You sure you read them?
...and why on Earth should she have written new ones? It's her world, her stories, her characters and her creation. That would be like telling J.R.R. Tolkien he should have written LOTR in a different world than The Hobbit. The Hobbit was much lighter in tone and a fairy tale in comparison to LOTR. The writing albeit both are very Tolkien are as different as night and day. LOTR is a much more mature work and far less formulaic. The Silmarillion even more so. But it all works together storywise and in world-building. Moorcock's Elric series was started when he was like 17 on up to his late 70s. The difference in tone, maturity, use of tropes, symbolism, romanticism vs sexual encounters are all over the place. Would any of it be undermining the rest of it? Or the impact of the earlier written stories vs the newer ones? It's all a matter of opinion. Like Star Wars some people dislike where it all went after the third movie. I'm a fan of most of it though it is all very different than when it first started out. I know many people wish Lucas would have stopped after the third film. But there has been many good to great Star Wars books, films, and tv shows since. As far as entertainment I put Star Wars: The Clone Wars tv series and The Mandalorian show very near the top of all SW-related releases. Do they undermine the original? Maybe a little maybe a lot. It can be looked at from many different ways. I like to have a good time. In worlds I enjoy. With themes that are interesting and sometimes interconnected. For me the newer stuff doesn't undermine it. It runs with it in new ways with fresh perspectives, some parts working to the original vision more than others. I try to have fun with it all regardless of their differences or imperfect changes. I feel Le Guin, Tolkien, Moorcock and even Lucas not only have the right to do what they want with their worlds but can create works different from the source material and still retain the overall vision and expand upon nearly every aspect in whatever direction they choose. But maybe you think differently.
Its being her world doesn't make her aesthetic choices work.
I never knew of books 4-6 until at least 20 years after having read the original trilogy which I loved. but to me it told a complete story and I've never felt desire to read the remainder.
The first 3 books are Quest and a very complete story. The remainder are different in that they are not Quest adventures but stand-alone stories not Quest in nature. But they expand the scope of her world and are some of my very favorite reads. I love Quests, Dungeon Crawls, Epic, High & Low Fantasy, Grimdark, obviously S&S and S&P etc., but often crave Fantasy that is less Epic in nature telling smaller scale stories that have plots and themes that are not always necessarily world-threatening or end-of-the-world scenarios. I personally feel Ursula K. Le Guin's later stories are possibly the best example of that. Or maybe Lord Dunsany's. Ripe with magic, dragons, wizards and heroes but not heroically Epic storywise. Mary has made her opinion known and she has every right to not put them at the same level of achievement as the original trilogy. I feel different about her saying they undermine the original trilogy however because I don't believe they do. Jason, I've roughly paid attention to a great many books you've read and a huge amount are either S&S, Heroic Fantasy, Quests and occasionally in the realm of D&D-fiction, Grimdark and I would guess Dungeon Crawls. You might not like the later books as much as the original trilogy either. But you just might! I realize my inflated opinion is in the minority of readers, reviewers and critics but I will defend them to the end. Especially since I consider them in my top 20ish or so of all time favorite reads in the fuller spectrum of Fantasy fiction. Y'all don't have to agree. I just don't like when a comment to my feedback started with a dismissive "Nah...". Especially by an experienced author and especially in our group of Fantasy lovers. And I'm entitled to my opinion just as much as anyone else around here and will say what I'm going to say with only a few reservations when I feel people's media aura seems to be pointedly turned my way. But I don't hate on any of y'all. Read some of Jason's work and have been interested in reading Mary's for a long time now. And don't worry I'm not out to 1-star review either of you. Fierce was supposed to be spelled with a small f when we started our band. After we changed the name several friends in the music/dj world were still calling me Mike Fierce so when I joined GR 13 (says 11) years ago I ran with it. But I'm not all that Fierce once you get to know me. I hope some of you will try but lay off the modern dismissive tones when you do. Ask Seth, Richard, Joseph, possibly Dariel and a few others: I can be spiky at times but I'm a generally very nice guy who loves everyone. I think quite a few of you were shaken with my large comment about Randy's non-S&S posts half a year ago - nearly his only ones btw - that felt both out-of-place and self-promotional but after separate pep talk msgs from Seth and Richard have since tried to see the bigger picture and let it go. + I made my opinion fully know that I very much dislike the term New Edge Sword & Sorcery and still don't. I like Scott, Seth and Oliver quite a bit but unavoidably ruffled a few griffin feathers when I did. I apologize for the sword I unsheathed.
Mod
No worries, Michael. You are "spiky" sometimes... but that's okay. The posts seem civil enough. As you self-reflected, you hit the nail on the head about the comments being like reviews of the Star Wars trilogies (ie fans seem to like certain sets... no need to try and sway those feelings).
I think that it's cool that the Earth Sea series (the original and second trilogy) are adored by fans for different reasons. I recall enjoying both... but it's been too long and it was before I wrote GR review/book-reports to supplement my memory.
Anyway, different opinions are welcome. Especially here. I hope everyone feels that way.
When in doubt, we all should remember to be chill & civil, and to funnel our insights into GR reviews to help inform other readers (or our future, forgetful selves :) ).
As far as current reads go, I'm enjoying Skallagrim – In The Vales Of Pagarna right now.
Thanks for coming to my rescue, Paladin Seth. Since you mentioned it, I would like to write more reviews. I've been using my phone for years now and ever since I did, writing reviews has been too difficult for me to do often. But I signed up for about 300 - 600 author newsletters about 6 months ago and have been learning tons of things I didn't realize. Amongst them is the importance of reviews...which made me feel guilty enough that I positively need to try harder to write them for every book I read. When GR changed a lot of stuff it angered me to no end but at least they've kept pictures in reviews far as I can see. That was pivotal on me deciding whether or not I was going to become more active writing them again. Speaking of, I need to read Skallagrim and get a review out for Stephen! Hope you are enjoying his book, Seth!
S.E. wrote: "Michael Fierce (Gandalf the Red) wrote: "The first 3 books are Quest and a very complete story. The remainder are different in that they are not Quest adventures but stand-alone stories not Quest i..."I liked Skallagrim. I'm about to start A Winter of Chains by our very own Jason Koivu.
Al wrote: "I liked Skallagrim. I'm about to start A Winter of Chains by our very own Jason Koivu."Awesome!
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