barfly
December 31st, 2008, 05:39 AM
hello all, i come in hopes of benefiting from your collective wisdom and experience. i don't know how to do this but to say what i liked and didn't so if you're into it, "thanks", and if not no worries:
so here's the deal: i love a good fantasy read but i tend to be _extremely_ picky.
for instance, Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser is probably my all-time fav.
much of Moorcock's Elric stuff was brilliant -- if a bit confused -- but i never could get into his other stuff.
loved a goodly lot of the old Robert E Howard stuff -- Conan, Bran, etc.
Rohan's Winter of the World series had some great writing -- especially while they're out adventuring -- and superb concepts but the prose was a bit wooden through books 2 and 3.
i liked Glen Cook's Black Company stuff until it pretty much repeated itself over and over.
i liked Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings but i don't want to be reading the same thing for the rest of my natural life, so i bailed.
Assassin's Apprentice was pretty good, but a bit twee for my tastes.
Wolfe's Knight was quite respectable, but Wizard bored me and i bailed by page 50.
Jordan's stuff just seems a Tolkein rehash to me. i loved LOTR but if i want LOTR i'll go back and read it again.
if i read another book about a young whippersnapper born with the Golden Plunger up their arse and gifted with infinite Plunging abilities by a secret but noble lineage etc etc, i think i'll puke.
dragons are pretty passé imho. not big on most representations of dwarves, gnomes, the little people, etc.
anything with fairies, unicorns, wise but long-suffering elves, etc needs to be set alight unless there's something pretty flinty at the core of it.
i generally loath cross-over stories though Thomas Covenant was worth the ride.
steam-punk, etc generally makes me gag.
i guess i'd say i generally like harder, darker Swords & Sorcery stuff.
any recommendations? and thanks for reading all that.
so here's the deal: i love a good fantasy read but i tend to be _extremely_ picky.
for instance, Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser is probably my all-time fav.
much of Moorcock's Elric stuff was brilliant -- if a bit confused -- but i never could get into his other stuff.
loved a goodly lot of the old Robert E Howard stuff -- Conan, Bran, etc.
Rohan's Winter of the World series had some great writing -- especially while they're out adventuring -- and superb concepts but the prose was a bit wooden through books 2 and 3.
i liked Glen Cook's Black Company stuff until it pretty much repeated itself over and over.
i liked Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings but i don't want to be reading the same thing for the rest of my natural life, so i bailed.
Assassin's Apprentice was pretty good, but a bit twee for my tastes.
Wolfe's Knight was quite respectable, but Wizard bored me and i bailed by page 50.
Jordan's stuff just seems a Tolkein rehash to me. i loved LOTR but if i want LOTR i'll go back and read it again.
if i read another book about a young whippersnapper born with the Golden Plunger up their arse and gifted with infinite Plunging abilities by a secret but noble lineage etc etc, i think i'll puke.
dragons are pretty passé imho. not big on most representations of dwarves, gnomes, the little people, etc.
anything with fairies, unicorns, wise but long-suffering elves, etc needs to be set alight unless there's something pretty flinty at the core of it.
i generally loath cross-over stories though Thomas Covenant was worth the ride.
steam-punk, etc generally makes me gag.
i guess i'd say i generally like harder, darker Swords & Sorcery stuff.
any recommendations? and thanks for reading all that.