Depends....Do you think sci-fi counts as fantasy or no?
Depends....Do you think sci-fi counts as fantasy or no?
Time...line? Time isn't made out of lines. It is made out of circles. That is why clocks are round. ~ Caboose
As someone who very much enjoys reading, this is probably my favourite trilogy. Despite being the authors first published work it's incredibly well written. To be fair, I might be a bit of a fanboy. still, I love his work and I'm eagerly waiting for his next book (which will be a while, unfortunately).
The ubergenre is "speculative fiction". The three typical sub-categories it's usually split into are "fantasy", which deals with magic and mythology, "science fiction" which deals with the implications of scientific advance and cultural development, and "historical fiction" which sometimes blurs the lines of both and generally tries to play "what-ifs" with history.
There's a fair amount of bleedover between the three, really; there's several major fantasy settings, like Terry Brooks' Shannara stuff, that's set in a post-apocalyptic Earth, but is pretty much entirely Fantasy despite that since it's all magic and such. There's others, like Star Wars, which on their face look like sci-fi but in practice it's a story about knights with swords and what are essentially magic powers, midichlorians be damned. Some historical fiction brings in wacky science fiction elements, like Fallout, or wacky magic stuff, like Indiana Jones.
I DID mention Weeks, y'know. The trilogy's good, but it's not OMG the bestest thing ever.
Seriously, if you liked the Night Angel "little orphan kid grows up to be awesome", read Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. I love Weeks' trilogy, but the Lamora series is hands-down better, for my money. Though it's more "orphan grows up to be world's greatest con-man" rather than "world's greatest assassin".
No Mention of Terry Goodkind?(Sword of Truth series).... Orson Scott Card? (Ender's Game). Not a very thoroughly considered list in my opinion.
Indeed you did, Endus. My apologies. And no, I didn't mean to say that it's the best thing ever, it is my personal favourite though. Sticks and stones, you know?
Along with Anne Mccaffrey and David Eddings who have been meantioned by a couple of others, I would have to add Dennis Mckiernan and Frank Herbert to my top 10. Mckiernan's world pulled ideas from everywhere (which he admits) and nothing was fully new, but he had a wonderful way of keeping up the pace while telling the story. Tolkien and Jordan are both great writers, but sometimes they tended to slow down by getting to much into the mundane. Dune was just an great epic tail. To bad the movies couldn't do it justice.
Slip
Yes Gardens is easily the hardest book to understand/get into, and at that time Erikson certainly wasn't the greatest author which makes it even more difficult. If you manage to get through Gardens and start on DG or MoI you will be happy that you stuck it out.
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This is a 10 best author list, not 10 most mediocre author list
Enders Game was good, if you read it as a pre-teen or young teenager. The rest of his work really isn't and his personal views really turn me off to him as an Author. If you want to read some really fucked up shit, get a copy of the original Wyrms (by Card) with the original ending..... Orson Scott Card? (Ender's Game). Not a very thoroughly considered list in my opinion.
Edit -> I'm somewhat sad that no one has mentioned China Meiville, if only for his imagination. The Scar, Perdido Street Station, and Kraken are amazing books.
Last edited by obdigore; 2013-01-02 at 03:45 AM.
In no particular order:
Elizabeth Moon (Paksenarrian), Joe Abercrombie (The First Law), Peter V Brett (Demon Cycle), Tolkien, Robert V. S. Redick (The Chathrand Conspiracy) , Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicles) , Robin Hobb, Pratchet. ... and I'm drawing a blank on others right now.
I really want to add Alexey Pehov and Glen Cook in here somewhere, but I know that people will complain about Cook's writing style and Pehov fell kind of short on his last novel, but he has serious potential. C.S. Lewis had moments too. I didn't include George RR Martin for the same reason I didn't include Pehov, A Song of Ice and Fire started out pretty good but has (imo) gotten pretty tired as the series progressed. Though even if I just based it on the first novel I wouldn't put him above most of those others. Though I'm happy to see a fantasy author enjoying such success even if I don't get all the hype.
Being fair, I enjoyed the first book in that series. Or most of it anyway. Richard just wasn't that interesting of a character, he was completely clueless and petulant throughout the series. The series was pretty alright through book 3, and then after that things just took a massive drop.No Mention of Terry Goodkind?(Sword of Truth series)
Also that scene in Book 1 with the mud people where Richard was asking Kahlan, who obviously had a thing for him, to help him pick which girl to sleep with was painful to read - and Richard just kept being that dense throughout the series. It's hard to take someone that dense seriously as someone with a title like "The Seeker of Truth!"
Last edited by RoKPaNda; 2013-01-02 at 05:46 AM.
It really saddens me that Ender's Game is placed so high on just about any top science fiction. The book was mildly entertaining. The rest of the series is dull, and frankly I just can't get past how bat shit crazy the author is...and how full of himself.
He is to lit what Derek Smart is to video games.
Get a grip man! It's CHEESE!
Ender's Game itself is excellent. A lot of the reason it seems kind of cliche these days is because the major strides it made were made decades ago, and people have followed in those footsteps extensively. Same reason why shaky-cam was effective for the Blair Witch Project, but now everyone and their dog does "found footage" stuff and it's getting stupid (still some good iterations, like Chronicle, but mostly it's dumb).
Card himself is getting crazy (well, he passed the line a while back), but he wasn't always this nutbar. It's something he's become as he's gotten older. He used to be relatively liberal, but now he uses "liberal" as if it were the same as "nazi" (see his book Empire, for instance).
Also; the Xenocide saga that follows from Ender's Game aren't true sequels. They take place in the same timeline, and Ender's the main character (as an adult), but the theme and purpose of it is totally different from Ender's Game, and Card knew that when he wrote them. It's kind of like comparing LotR to The Hobbit or The Silmarillion; they're all related, but one's a children's book, the other's an epic fantasy intended for adult readers, and the third is essentially a mythology and history book.
Ender's Game, though, holds its place for a reason.
Gaiman's quite good. His extensive knowledge and blend of folklore is impressive.
GRR Martin's prose is simply the best I've ever read...however, prose and story are two separate schemes, my friend. Ice&Fire isn't over, reserving opinion. Wasn't too impressed with Dance, seemed to me the TV show influenced the writing on that one rather strongly. Still wasn't a bad read though, just seems some items could've been left out ... but The Sand Kings was a fun read. (God, how I love short stories. Why's everything have to be so godawful long lately?)
Jordan's WoT is far too long and should probably be about 3/4th's of what it is, if not half. Sanderson has done well. Crossroads of Twilight is one of the worst books I've ever read.
So yeah, I'm basically a fan of the short story lately. Edgar A. Poe, HP Lovecraft and any compilations I can get my hands on.
Favorite author lately is my neighbor. We don't talk much, so I don't know if he's ever tried to submit anything, but every month or so he knocks on my door and hands me a manuscript. Always seems nervous too. Freaking weird guy, but wowzers can he write. I've always been impressed...plus, it feels cool like I've got my own personal author. lol.