[saintjon]

Okay, sometimes you find it unexpected sources, sometimes it's the only thing you like in a book and sometimes it makes a really story an absolutely magnificent one. The main reason I'm into George R.R. Martin right is because of how emotionally moving it becomes in parts. I'm sure you guys must have read something that suddenly became more than just a story to you, and I'd like to hear about it. No arguing in this topic! This is just to express what you liked, not to dump on someone else.

[jbcohen]

Being the Dragon Lance adict that I am Dragon Lance tends to do this for me. A lot of the times its like I can walk around with the characters in the book. I know people seem to think that Dragon Lance is primarily a gaming saga of books, but the games really take a back seat to the novels these days.

[saintjon]

I'm totally down with the gaming books. I don't care what these other people say, sometimes they're just what you need. The Soulforge had some really good moments. I'm reading through the original Chronicles trilogy for the first time right now and it's actually pretty good. I've read a ridiculous amount of R.A. Salvatore books.
Not a lot choked me up like the end of the Coldfire Trilogy, though.

[Warewolf]

Okay, I know I'm going to open myself up to some serious bashing here, but Goodkind's characters always seem to get me emotionally involved with the book, especially Richard and Kahlan. I don't know what it is...it's just that Goodkind expresses their relationship so well, both through their actions and their words.

Okay, I was brave enough to let it out in the open on these boards, so be nice http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[lukaspriest]

Wow, Warewolf, you're a brave person. Though I'll acknowledge that Goodkind isnt the most sophisticated writer, his portrayal of Kahlan and Richard's romance was done pretty well in the first two books of Sword of Truth. All I can say about Goodkind is that he's an entertaining author and if his writing skills/techniques were as poor as most people on this forum assert, he wouldnt be a New York Times best seller. People are just ashamed to admit that they read through his first couple of books and *gasp!* enjoyed them!

More great emotional stuff would be GRRM's books...man, those books get me fired up!

I'm currently reading John Marco (Nar series) and experiencing much of the same. awesome stuff.

[JohnH]

Emotions? No one captures the reader's (or at least mine)like Guy Gavriel Kay. He writes some of the most moving and gripping scenes I have ever read.

Jacqueline Carey is also quite good, but with only one book under her belt, I hesitate to crow too loudly.

Patricia McKillip can also deliver an emotional punch. Though her style of writing is sometimes a little too lyrically abstract to be as gripping as the other two mentioned.

Tolkien certainly captured bleakness in The Two Towers segment (concerning Frodo and Sam). Jordan did a good job of conveying a similar sense of futility in Rand and Mat's journey to Caemlyn. Melanie Rawn can be rather ruthless with her characters and is very effective at doing so in a manner that can leave the reader (well, me) rather dumbfounded at the until then unrealized level of attachment for that particular character.

Martin's impending sense of doom for Ned in the first book was a bit too impending to be all that gripping, butwas still effective in establishing mood. However book two and three were a little too heavyhanded for me to really care much. His style ends up being much too distant to really care one way or another about his characters to convey any sense of emotional attachment or response even.

Goodkind -- the only thing emotional about his writing is... well it isn't polite, and let's leave it at that.

[jbcohen]

Let me start by giving saintjon a bit of advice, since he is at the start of the Dragon Lance saga, and might start showing signs of becoming adicted like me. When you complete reading of the Chronicles sub-series then read the Legends sub-series. Also look at this URL http://www.dragonlance.com. It contains a reading order for the entire saga. Also try http://www.wizards.com/dragonlance, http://www.wizards.com/catalog and finally http://boards.wizards.com and talk to others that are adicted to the saga like me.

As far as emotions in litterature goes, nothing can beat some of the Dragon Lance books. In the Legends sub-series there are quite a few emotional sceens with one of the characters crying in the backgrond while an other two have an emotional sparing session in the fore ground. Also Preludes volume 3 -Brothers Majere talks about the emotional relationship between the twins and packs quite a bit of emotional things in it.

[saintjon]

Dude, I've already read a lot of other Dragonlance (mostly several years ago). I read Legends, the two Ravenloft books about Soth (wish he'd have been in the second one more), Dwarven Nations, Huma, Kaz, Weasel's Luck (one of the best one-shot fantasy yarns I've read, I know there's a sequel but I never read it), two Elven Nations, Flint the King, etc.etc. Read the Soulforge and Brothers in Arms, so I basically read all these books around, before and after the Chroncicles and am only just reading them now, mostly out of curiosity about Raistlin, Sturm, Soth and Tasslehoff (most amazing D+D character ever. EVER!). I've heard most of whatever Dragonlance books I haven't read from my friends Terry and Randy, who are Dragonlance addicts. So really, once I'm done Chronicles, ironically, it will be the last Dragonlance books I read. Probably.

[Cygnus]

I've posted this in many different areas in my time here, but I think that Weis & Hickman convey, and have the power to elicit emotion better than many out there. Their DeathGate books are my favorites because of this. I love those characters (don't laugh!) and I care what happens to them, so naturally my emotions come out.

Reading Martin the emotions I feel the most are rage/fury/hate/injustice. While these are valid emotional responses, it does get draining after awhile. Martin, please give these characters a break!! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

If anyone read my post in the January Reads topic, you saw that I feel that Jonathan Carroll can also be intense, emotionally.

[Warewolf]

Oh yeah, I forgot about this one...I almost cried when they killed off the weapons master in Wishsong of Shannara. Now, granted, that was about 15 years ago and I was about 12, but it still hit pretty hard http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif That was the only time Brooks did that to me though, although the readers do become a bit invested in his characters, just not as much as others'.