Who will replace Goodkind and Jordan?

ChrisW

ChrisW

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So who will replace Goodkind and Jordan as the Kings of Fantasy. Kings as in selling hundreds of thousands of copies of each book and being a #1 NYT bestseller.

GRRM obviously is since AFFC but who else is going to be able get up there?

I don't see anyone managing it myself. The requirements seem to be that you need to write big books in a long series and be writing said series over a long period of time.

Note: This isnt about quality but numbers. So no whining about me calling Terry and RJ kings:).
 
I'll call Goodkind a king when he gets near Tolkien. Until then he is a hack.
 
Really though I think Scott Lynch might have the potential to become a juggernaut, if his next books are as good or better than Lies. And if he ever writes them. I can see those stories having mass appeal, which is pretty much what he was going for from the get-go, or so I read on his blog. Like summer blockbusters in novel form. With enough promotion and a few more books out I think they could really wreck.
 
Psylent said:
Paolini has already flown past both of them.
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Which goes to show that the quality of a modern fantasy author's work is almost directly inversely proportional to its popularity (this is most glaringly true in the case of Jordan, Goodkind and the execrable Paolini).
 
Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, and Jim Butcher are the three most popular epic fantasy authors that have debuted since the start of the new millennium (not including Paolini). At least in the USA.
 
Well, Rothfuss apparently sold 40,000 copies of The Name of the Wind in hardback alone, so he's got to be a contender if we're talking purely sales figures.

You'll find that many of the biggest-selling authors are ones that are not discussed much online - Canavan, Miller, Gail Martin, etc.

Will anyone in the near future get close to Jordan though? Probably not. I mean - and correct me if I'm wrong - but Jordan's novels sold in their millions. Not even GRRM can come close to that.

I have to say it seriously annoys me that Paolini is as popular as he is. It's a shame there's so many people reading sub-standard fare when there's so much better stuff out there. :mad:
 
I haven't read him, but isn't Sanderson literally taking over for Jordan (he's been chosen to complete WoT, I think)?

I admit I'm not a fan of WoT, but I think Jordan was an amazing guy.

I, too, am bothered by Paolini--not Eragon as much as the second book and his believing he's the "heir" to Tolkien. The guy is insufferable in his interviews. And he's a poor, poor writer. Shame.
 
Goodkind's not dead. Why would he stop writing even if his first long series is done?:confused:
 
How about JK Rowling? hehehe just playing.

Does it really matter? GRRM won't EVER replace those guys, I've been hearing the same "he never gets the respect he deserves" arguement since I was a freshman in highschool.

I'd much rather spread the wealth around to a number of quality authors as opposed to having Harry Potter V2.0 on every shelf again.
 
Ranke Lidyek said:
I haven't read him, but isn't Sanderson literally taking over for Jordan (he's been chosen to complete WoT, I think)?
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You are correct; Sanderson will be completing the final book in the series.

My take on the original question? I wonder if anyone will want to undertake a long series like Jordan's and Goodkind's. It seems to me that there is a lot of negativity towards fat epics these days, and if I was a writer I would steer clear of it. Many are saying that these types of series lose their plotline focus and get away from the characters that everyone loved at their starts. A lot of the newer books that have been popular lately are trilogies (Sanderson's Mistborn and Brent Weeks' series come to mind) that have an end, and most people seem to like series that have an ending.

A great question which has me stumped.
 
Spears&Buckler said:
You are correct; Sanderson will be completing the final book in the series.

My take on the original question? I wonder if anyone will want to undertake a long series like Jordan's and Goodkind's. It seems to me that there is a lot of negativity towards fat epics these days, and if I was a writer I would steer clear of it. Many are saying that these types of series lose their plotline focus and get away from the characters that everyone loved at their starts. A lot of the newer books that have been popular lately are trilogies (Sanderson's Mistborn and Brent Weeks' series come to mind) that have an end, and most people seem to like series that have an ending.

A great question which has me stumped.
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there's already several people still doing multi-volume epics. and selling quite well from what i've seen. I cant see that formula going away for at least a few more years.
 
I was thinking the same thing. I've heard lots of people say they're tired of the mega-long epics and just want a trilogy or less.

At the same time, MBofF is doing quite well.
 
Seak said:
I was thinking the same thing. I've heard lots of people say they're tired of the mega-long epics and just want a trilogy or less.

At the same time, MBofF is doing quite well.
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bakker plans on doing a few more. there are a few others as well.
 
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