SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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I have voted, but to be honest I didn't recognise that many! Isn't that awful? I usually look them up on Amazon or something to get an idea but I didn't have time. But I'll be happy to read whatever is selected, cause I'm all for reading books I've never come across before!Though I don't know if I can read The Eye of the World again! It was hard enough the first time. Though I thought the five books after it were good.
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I read Eye of the World and the next 5 or 6 books many years ago, but quit when it was obvious I would be an old man before the series was over. He went a died before finishing the last book, but I still expect it to come out in the next couple of years.I noticed my favorite book ever, Slaughterhouse-5, is on there. I'd love to read it again. It would be a great book club book.
Wow, I'm so happy to have finally found someone else who didn't care for The Eye of the World! This sounds horrible but I'm hoping whovever they get to finish the series will write less about the clothes and the women gripping their skirts and more about the actual story! Jordan seriously tested my patience in the last several books.I haven't read Slaughterhouse 5 yet. I used to have a copy of Timequake but before I could read it it got lost between country relocations.
I'll admit to mostly enjoying the series, but eventually tired of it. It was sort of like watching the TV series Lost...there's so many questions waiting to be answered, but the only answers we get are to questions we didn't even have.
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It was good, up to a point. But after, hmm, book 7 it just started dying in the water. Nothing much happened, the pages were just full of pointless, unnecessary descriptions. And the characters became increasingly annoying. Ben's absolutely right, all you get are more and more questions, and answers to ones that aren't even important half the time. So much time would elapse between books, that half the time I had no idea what was going on anymore.But I did enjoy books 2-7. Still, the story is not very original.
It took me three tries to get into Eye of the World. When I finally did I was quite gratified. Robert Jordan's series is quite good...up to a point. I think Shannon is quite generous. I'd only go up to about book five. Book 4, imo, was absolute perfection and then it was all downhill from there. I stopped reading at about book 9.Despite my bitterness about this promising series and my sadness that Jordan passed away, I do plan to read the last book. I stuck with it for 9 books, I need to read the last one to see how it all ends.
Which one is #4 again? I will finish the series, too. I need that sense of finality I think. Same with Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. At least with him, the end is in sight!
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Now the Sword of Truth series is one that I totally don't get. I made it about two-thirds through Wizard's First Rule and quit, swearing to never read another Goodkind book again. Basically, it seemed like it could have been written by a teenager. Flat characters, totally predictable, awkward dialog, etc, etc. Even the names of the characters were lame.Maybe I missed something, or it was the mood I was in that week, or something else. Beats me.
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I loved the first Goodkind book, Wizard's First Rule, and the second was good too, though the similarities between Jordan's series and Goodkind's are pretty obvious. The third book is boring, then it picks up again. By Faith of the Fallen it's very clear what Goodkind's personal agenda and politics are, and frankly they're pretty offensive to me. But I find it fascinating at the same time.The books after Faith get worse and worse. I can't even remember which one is which anymore, but the first hundred pages just rehashes everything that comes before and the books focus mostly on how wonderful Richard is and how evil the other side is. It's very black-and-white and completely uninspiring. But it tells you a lot about the psyche of some people - especially certain narrow-minded Americans like Goodkind, though every country has them - and how this justifies the violence, judgement and persecution of other races and religions - oh I could go on, it sets me off a bit, sorry!
Sword of Shanara - that's Brooks, isn't it? Haven't read any of his. I find his "generation" of fantasy books and authors, like Jordan and Eddings etc., are cliched now. But then, my standards are pretty high!
I will be starting Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin tomorrow. It's the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Anyone read it?
A Game of Thrones is on my to-read shelf. I resisted a long time 'cause I thought it'd be another Jordan-esque series, but everyone raves about it.
I've read the first two Shannara books quite a while ago and unfortunately, I wouldn't go back and re-read them. They haven't "aged" well with me.A Game of Thrones is just....just...no words. GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series is one of the absolute best fantasy series out there, imo. I started reading him while I was waiting for Jordan and frankly once I started reading Martin, I lost interest in Jordan.
What I love is that this series eschews the whole 'fantasy quest' dealie where a group goes off to find some mystical object to defeat some big bad evil.
Instead, although still set a fantasy realm, it is all about political maneuvering and wars and families and usurpers. I am sorry, I am not doing it justice. The third book A Storm of Swords is the high point so far in the series. I spent the whole second half of the book (500 pages) utterly in thrall.
HBO has optioned the series. The plan is to do a season (11-13 eps?) per book.
I do caution that the series is dark. He pulls no punches with the violence, the sex and the gore. But I almost don't notice it as he draws such vivid characters. I am too busy caught up in the plot. Also, fair warning, no character is safe from death. He can (and does) kill main or sympathetic characters.
I am excited to see which books "win." Thanks for organizing all of this!
A Song of Fire and Ice is what I call 'dynastic fantasy'.http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_g...
I generally recommend it, though I had problems.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show_g...
Jordan had a good series, but lost all momentum in the overarching plot for several volumes. Even then, there's still good writing and great characters. (I got through book 5 or 6 before giving up....)
The Shannara series... well, I kind of like them. I really liked Elfstones, though it may not stand up well to a re-read. The second series, (Scions of Shanana-er-Shannara) is decidedly not "great" but is a much more solid series that I enjoyed on its own merits more. I need to read the last couple books someday (it suffered the fate of a lot of series that are incomplete at the time I catch up to them - I'm in the middle of something else for the release of the next book, and forget to come back to it).
I'm currently re-reading The Dragonbone Chair, and recommend it for anyone in need of a good epic fantasy fix.
George RR Martin is to fantasy as Peter F. Hamilton is to sci-fi. If you like hamilton, you will like Martin.They are both long winded
They both create a wonderous world
They both intertwine hundreds of characters
They both run multiple plots and sub-plots
They are both outstanding!
My take is this:The World of Time by Jordan was excellent for about 5 books and then he abused the crap out of his readers by basically putting out very long stories that did not advance the plot one iota. If you read snippets out of the books about the major characters however even these books are worth reading to some extent, but it is next to impossible to follow along book after book because of the 100s of characters and little clues that only a person who takes notes can hope to figure out. The last book was pretty good again and it is a shame that he passed away before completing his tale
George Martin's series is superb, but suffers from a common problem in fantasy, The books are huge and come out every 2 to 3 years, which by then you need to re-read the last two to remember anything. His last book, is actually part 1 of a very large book that b/c of its size he could not publish as 1 book. I am waiting to read it when the next half comes out.
The Sword of Truth series was pretty good adventure fantasy but the auther spent an inordinate amount of time discussing gruesome aspects of Sadiomasochistic events, which I only expect to find in crime fiction and serial murderers. I stopped reading that series long ago.
The Sword of Shannara trilogy was great, The actual first book is one of the biggest best selling fantasy novels of all time and probably ushered in the huge advent of giant epic fantasy novels. I would not personally read more than 6 books in his universe, however, because there are plenty of other authors to read.
I have read the first two books in JV Jones of Shadows novels and they are pretty good.
Jim Butcher's Codex Alera is excellent.
well said travis, I'm looking foward to hamiltons new book, I think it comes out this month
It sounds to me like many of you just don't care for epic fantasy which is how I would classify Jordan and Martin. I've read both series completely through every volume published and whilst I will agree that they do get bogged down in places, I think perseverance pays off as those bogs become evident as to why later. It's just the nature of the beast.
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http://www.nickqueen.com/scifibookclu...
Select the books you want to read most in question 1. In question 2 select the book you most wish to read first in January.
Nick