[kegasaurus]

I recently purchased a few books on the cheap and have no idea about the authors or the books. Now I know the best way to find out is to read the books, but I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me some inside information. The books are:

Fred Saberhagen, The first book of swords
Philip G Williamson, Dinbig of Khimmur
C J Cherryh, Fortress in the eye of time
Jack Vance, Lyonesse
Ricardo Pitno, The Chosen

[estranghero]

Fred Saberhagen, The first book of swords
Philip G Williamson, Dinbig of Khimmur
C J Cherryh, Fortress in the eye of time
Jack Vance, Lyonesse
Ricardo Pitno, The Chosen

Well, lemme give my 2 cents though I'm sure you can find mention of most of these authors in earlier threads...

Saberhagen is a science-fiction/ fantasy writer who's been around. Saberhagen's known for his 'Berzerker' sci-fi series but for fantasy, he's known more for his 'Swords' and Empire of the East' series. (Granted he's written others, these are the ones that stick to mind.) His concepts are interesting, i.e. 12 Swords with different powers and weaknesses, as well as his world-creation. However, his writing is a bit sparse.

CJ Cherryh is also well-known, one of the mistresses of fantasy up there with Marion Zimmer Bradley, etc. She's written a whole lot of books (both fantasy and sci-fi) though it's only the 'Fortress' series that I liked. A bit heavy on the prose, slightly dragging in parts, but a very intriguing and suspenseful series on the usual cliches of the "prophesied-young-boy" and the "prince-destined-to-be-king" but gives it a slight twist.

Jack Vance is considered one of the grandmasters of both genres with his 'Tales of the Dying Earth' (sci-fi) and 'Lyonesse' (fantasy) series. Check out my review of 'Lyonesse' in the May reads thread coz I'm too lazy to go into that again.

Philip Williamson and Ricardo Pinto, on the other hand, I have not read though one of the forumites, JohnH, is an advocate of Pinto.

Enjoy! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Shadowen]

Don't know about the first lot, but Ricardo Pinto's The Chosen is an excellent read. Very complex and well written. I think book 2 is out (or due out) very soon.

[Canaris]

Lyonesse by Vance is a beautifull read. It was one of the first fantasy books I read, and got me hooked on the genre.

My brother (who is strangely confused by my preferance) still asks ma ( 20 years later)
"still reading Vance?" , meaning fantasy

[tamlyn]

williamson's dinbig, got out, read the intro, read the first couple of pages and snapped it shut in disgust.
so i couldn't actually say whether its good or not, i didn't get all that far in. (and i'm never planning too!)

[Rob B]

Jack Vance
Considered by many one of greatest living writers of both Fantasy and Science Fiction. The only work by him I've read is his masterpiece The Compleat Dying Earth , which is inspiration for Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun . FWIW, George R.R. Martin also considers Vance the greatest. Lyonesse is considered one of his greatest works and I've been on the hunt for it for a while.

As estranghero says, Senior Member JohnH has said very good things about Ricardo Pinto's The Chosen.

I've only had a minor experience with Cherryh, but I plan on giving her another try.

[sci-fi_fantasy_fanatic]

Saberhagen is an author who I find writes in a way that requires the reader to do much of the work. I in fact enjoy this writing style a lot, and have read all of the Swords novels and found them quite intriguing, though the last of the Lost Swords series is rather crappy