Fantasy discussion, my favourite
lets start with the bad
Tolkien - He sucked as a writer - had some great ideas, but his writing was bloody awful. Please dont make excuses about the writing being of his time or stuff like that as CS Lewis was one of his good friends and he could actually tell a story(also appeared to be a racist bible bashing fanatic, but a great writer).
Donaldson - Covenant was boring as hell, wallow wallow wallow...however, Mirror of her Dreams and A Man Rides Through was excellent.
Brooks - Shannara - kids stuff really, formulaic and not that well written, but Magic Kingdom for Sale, sold wasnt too bad iirc
Erikson - read around 5 of his Malazan books, still have no idea what he was writing about. Everyone seemed to be super powerful, or a dragon. There was no common theme. Only a couple of characters seemed to make it to another book. The one actually interesting character (the thief in the first book, got involved with Ben iirc) never showed face again - pointless. I felt that perhaps there was another set of books or something that tied it all together and I was missing them entirely, like watching every 3rd episode of Friends and missing all the in jokes.
Feist - Cant actually bring myself to read any more of his stuff since Magician. Guy gets stuck under a mountain, finds some caves, oh look theres a suit of magic armour, lets put it on while my best mate gets stuck in an alternate dimension and becomes the most powerful magician of all time, yeah, thats it.
Alan Dean Foster - Shadowkeep - DO NOT EVER READ THIS - Do however read the Spellsinger series, which is fairly funny and original
And so , the good
Robin Hobb - Anything with Fitz and the Fool, favourite author, she rocks, i want to have her children. Beautifully written, fantastic and original story (even the dragons were original), characters you loved and hated and believed in. A true sense of helplessness when things were dark and even when the story finishes to all intents and purposes around halfway through Fools Fate, she spends a great deal of time closing off all the characters stories and its damn enjoyable reading.
George RR Martin - Westeros stuff, not read any others as I dont generally like Sci Fi in books. We all know about it, its great. He needs to stop going to book signings and making TV series and travelling and SIT DOWN AND DAMN WELL WRITE THE NEXT BOOK, other than that we love him.
Joe Abercrombie - Is an evil bastard, i like, end of
David Gemmell - Sadly gone from us now, and I believe Daery knew him. Formulaic, granted, but damn he wrote well. The introduction to Waylander is still my favourite insight to a character yet. He had maybe 3 or 4 types of Hero, and he rolled them out time and time again, but I never did get sick of it. Unfortunately Stella's book " The City" was crap and I couldnt finish it.
Jim Butcher - Not strictly Heroic Fantasy I suppose, it being set mainly in modern day Chicago - If you have ever had the misfortune to watch Paul Blackthorne (the detective from Arrow) in the TV adaptation of The Dresden Files, I urge you to take a sharp implement to the memory centre in your brain and cut it out, then read Storm Front. Its decent reading but the story gets better and better as he goes on, 15 books out there, none will take more than a day or 2 to get through, all are enjoyable, if a little pulpy. Very very funny stuff, think Buffy/Angel when Spike was involved. The monsters get tougher, the magic gets weirder. It does have its poignant moments though. The Codex Alera is a great read too, a bit more involved and certainly longer, more classic style of fantasy.
Patrick Rothfuss - Relative newcomer, i like his writing immensely, but at times I wish he would get to the point. Great stuff though. Next book please!
I've left Jordan and Goodkind out of this. They have good books and bad books in the same series, and very similar ideas about collars, bondage and personally I think they both need to see a shrink. Goodkinds True Love conquers all theme was boring by the 3rd book and Jordans hero having 3 women who love him, but love him and each other so much they are willing to share idea... I mean its fantasy but lets have some realism please...
Saying that, Book 3 of the Wheel of Time was awesome, kinda went downhill shortly after and I never bothered after around Path of Daggers. Never read Sanderson so cant comment.
Eddings - You have to admire a writer that can write the same series of books 4 times and get away with it, he didnt even have to change the names of the characters between 1 and 2, or 3 and 4. He even alludes to him writing the same story in the 4th or 5th book of series 2. I also think he has a fetish for strong matronly school teachers, possibly he went to boarding school. I enjoyed these as a kid, now I wouldnt entertain them.
I really am on the lookout for new authors right now, I have barely read a book since February (new Jim Butcher, couple of crime novels, some Lee Child). I find the Fantasy market has been saturated with below average authors (self published fantasy, not that good imo, lets hope some decent writers come through), any recommendations based on what I have posted would be welcome. (Sorry for slating Tolkien Cull, i just really cant stand him
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Almost forgot, Anthony Ryan, Blood Song, very good book, waiting on the 2nd
Terry Pratchett, Sadly the Alzheimers has taken its toll, discworld stuff now a trial to read
Shame for the creator of some of the best characters I have ever had the pleasure of watching develop.