Poll for best writer of high/heroic fantasy
Moderator: I'm Murrin
Poll for best writer of high/heroic fantasy
Just for kicks...
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." (Anais Nin)
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A Gunslinger
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I'm Murrin
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(I would, personally, replace Jordan and Brooks with them...but that's just me...)
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Roland of Gilead
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It has long been a three-way tie for me, between Tolkien, Martin and King. Donaldson just slightly behind.
King took the lead, though, with his masterful conclusion to the Dark Tower.
Now Martin and Donaldson will try to equal his achievement.
Let the good times roll!!!!!
King took the lead, though, with his masterful conclusion to the Dark Tower.
Now Martin and Donaldson will try to equal his achievement.
Let the good times roll!!!!!
"I am, in short, a man on the edge of everything." - Dark Tower II, The Drawing of the Three
I've always seen it thus, but haven't said anything yet since it's my poll and I don't want to sway anyone:
1. Tolkien
2. Donaldson
3. Martin
4. Tad Williams (for Memory, Sorry and Thorn - Otherland isn't high fantasy)
Between 2, 3 and 4 it's pretty close. But Tolkien has always, for me at least, been the Shakespeare of the genre, sitting quite comfortably on a throne that he'll never get knocked off of. Hence that nifty little visual I gave, separating him from the rest.
Jordan used to in my top five, but talk about prolixity - jeez. End the darn thing already!!! I'm at a dangerous point with what started out as a land breaking fantasy series - I almost don't care.
I was very glad to see Martin get a vote on a Donaldson bulletin board. I doubt SRD would get many votes on a Martin board.
1. Tolkien
2. Donaldson
3. Martin
4. Tad Williams (for Memory, Sorry and Thorn - Otherland isn't high fantasy)
Between 2, 3 and 4 it's pretty close. But Tolkien has always, for me at least, been the Shakespeare of the genre, sitting quite comfortably on a throne that he'll never get knocked off of. Hence that nifty little visual I gave, separating him from the rest.
Jordan used to in my top five, but talk about prolixity - jeez. End the darn thing already!!! I'm at a dangerous point with what started out as a land breaking fantasy series - I almost don't care.
I was very glad to see Martin get a vote on a Donaldson bulletin board. I doubt SRD would get many votes on a Martin board.
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." (Anais Nin)
I voted for Martin However there is virtually no difference IMHO between the two. Although at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of style, they are both geniuses and masters of the art. I could just as well have voted for SRD. Fundamentally it's a dead heat. 
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill
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aTOMiC
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I voted for Donaldson. Each reader is affected by the style and events portrayed by an author differently. An example I can give is that though I'm only just now finishing the first Dark Tower book "the Gunslinger" I can tell that that series of books is not for me. King has a way of telling a story (even one dealing with epic fantasy) that makes me feel queasy and creepy. I have George R.R. Martin's A Game Of Thrones and though I've only read a few chapters I can tell he's going to be one of my favorite authors. It just all depends on your perspective and tastes.
"If you can't tell the difference, what difference does it make?"
"There is tic and toc in atomic" - Neil Peart
For me it will come down to how Martin and Donaldson end their respective series. If he ever publishes A Feast for Crows, and it's good as I think it will be (based on the past three), my opinion between him and SRD could flip-flop.
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." (Anais Nin)
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[Syl]
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Try reading Wolfe's The Knight and tell me he doesn't deserve to be on that list.
"It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
-George Steiner
-George Steiner
That was a terrific book. Unfortunately it went way over people's head, as his method of storytelling wasn't (isn't) straightforward and conventional.
Brooks, Goodkind, and Eddings don't deserve to be on that list, but I wanted to see if there would actually be anyone to vote for them.
Brooks, Goodkind, and Eddings don't deserve to be on that list, but I wanted to see if there would actually be anyone to vote for them.
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." (Anais Nin)
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Roland of Gilead
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Atomic, The Gunslinger is not a fair test of the relative merits of The Dark Tower. Continue the series and I guarantee your opinion will rise.
Brinn, what's wrong with the elbow on your avatar? It looks disjointed.
Brinn, what's wrong with the elbow on your avatar? It looks disjointed.
"I am, in short, a man on the edge of everything." - Dark Tower II, The Drawing of the Three
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CovenantJr
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Disjointed?!?! I thought it had been amputated! 
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill
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CovenantJr
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Avatar
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You mean DT7 is the last one? Awesome! I must admit that I wondered if he'd ever manage to finish it. Now I just have to get 5, 6 and 7.Roland of Gilead wrote:King took the lead, though, with his masterful conclusion to the Dark Tower.
On the other hand, I'm sort of sad that it has to end. It's without doubt (in my mind anyway) the best stuff he's ever written. And definitley ranks with my top series of all time.
--A
It's a tough call. My top four are Tolkien, Donaldson, Martin, and McKillip. In spite of the fact that they all write "high fantasy," their strengths are so different--Tolkien for world-building, Martin for plot, Donaldson for character development, and McKillip for sheer style-- that it's kind of tough to compare them. So I voted for McKillip, to get the ladies on the board and in recognition of Raederle, who's simply one of the best female fantasy characters of all time.
Halfway down the stairs Is the stair where I sit. There isn't any other stair quite like it. I'm not at the bottom, I'm not at the top; So this is the stair where I always stop.