my next series to read

[velocci]

Hi there, I'm trying to decide which auther to get into next. Either Terry Brooks or Raymond Feist. For Terry Brooks, it seems that most of his series has the word Shannara in it and Raymond Feist, most of his series has the word Riftwar in it. For each one, is it important to start with the very first series?

[Whiskeyjack]

Both of these authors have their own discussion forum here, so you might want to review some of the threads there regarding each author's works.

I personally enjoyed Brook's Sword of Shannara "trilogy" quite a bit, though many readers at this forum will downplay him and call him trite and derivative (of Tolkien), which he was (derivative, that is, though not necessarily trite, in my opinion). Nevertheless, I really enjoyed those 3 books, maybe because they were among the first fantasies I read back when they came out in the 1980's. Since then I've come across better books, but I have just recently reread those original 3 Sword books and enjoyed them all over again. By the way, each of these 3 books is a stand-alone novel (so Sword isn't really a trilogy per se). The books occur about 50 or so years apart, with some references to earlier books, but nothing you'd be overly confused about should you read them out of order (I think Elfstones of Shannara was the best of the 3, so you could start there and wouldn't miss much by not having read Sword of Shannara first).

I'm less familiar with Feist, so await comments from others.

[Grawgos]

If you choose Feist, start with Magician Apprentice.

I have never read Brooks, so I am no help there.

[Shadowguard]

I recommend Feist, even though his books are set in your traditional fantasy world with elves and trolls, etc. and his writing style feels a little awkward in places (one character is continuously described as "evil" for a good two or three pages at the beginning of Silverthorn), he actually manages to be pretty original with the concept of a conflict between two alternate universes (one of which is very familiar, but the other of which is most definitely not based on the typical Europe-inspired fantasy setting) and gradually builds up his characters over time.

Brooks' characters on the other hand are cardboard cutouts and his storylines generic and forgettable.

[Werthead]

Feist starts off pretty good, peaks in the middle, gets really bad, and then struggles back to being readable-but-formulaic. All of Feist's novels bar one (Faerie Tale, an urban fantasy) is set in the same shared universe of the worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan, and his series consists of 30 novels split into numerous lesser sub-series and side-books all building up to one grand conclusion.

Brooks starts off very formulaic and cheesy, but supposedly gets better as he goes along (I bailed out after the Heritage of Shannara series, which was awful). His books don't seem to have any 'big ending' planned for them, and in fact most of his recent work has been set in the ancient prehistory of his world. All of his books bar the five-volume Magic Kingdom of Landover series are set in the Shannara universe. Chronologically the first Shannara book is Running with the Demon, whilst in terms of publishing the first one was The Sword of Shannara.

Of the two I would say that Feist is by far the better author. Magician is the best place to start off with, followed by Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon and then the excellent Empire Trilogy, co-written with Janny Wurts.

[boondock]

I really recommend Feist. Loved his books, especially Magician. His world's are epic and i really love the involvement of the gods.

Instead of reading Brooks, rether just go straight to Tolkien. Sword of Shanara is basically a rip-off of the LOTR series.