Kevin's Watch

Stonemaybe wrote:It's set in the real world in Provence France long after Fionavar events. They're middle-aged. Kim is aunt to teenage main character.

It's not a bad book, it just suffers in comparison to the Jaddite world books imo.

I haven't read that one yet.

Please tell me Kim whips out the Warstone at some point and kicks some butt! Wait...she didn't take it back to earth with her, did she?

Nah not really, but she does scare the crap out of some badass celtic spirits by quoting some of her fionavar encounters.

You know, I've honestly got to say the I'm thoroughly enjoying Fionvar this time through.

The chapter when Paul finally succumbs, once he realized that he couldn't have prevented Rachel's death, was some of the most unique writing I've ever read.

It's been a long time since I've read Fionavar, but there was a scene where Paul summons the sea god by calling him "brother" that gave me chills. Maybe I should re-read those.

I remember thinking the ending was dumb. Since when does

Spoiler

dwarf magic

overpower the big baddie evil god?

Worst idea since Belgarion took his sword and

Spoiler

chopped

Torak's

Spoiler

head off

.

How about some quality bad guys!? I tell ya, if Kastenessen is defeated by some dude with orcrest or something, I'm quitting fantasy.

WEll, I ended up not making it through Fionovar. Maybe a hundred pages left in the last book,and I gave it up.

But then I picked up Lion of Al Rassan, and loved it.
Love being in the Jaddite world.

In true Kay style, it has references to his other works.

Horrim Carabal wrote: Worst idea since Belgarion took his sword and

Spoiler

chopped

Torak's

Spoiler

head off

.

How about some quality bad guys!? I tell ya, if Kastenessen is defeated by some dude with orcrest or something, I'm quitting fantasy.

I'm pretty sure that Belgarian stabbed Torak in the chest; but at that point h had the power of a God, because the necessities always had the Child of Light and Child of Dark as evenly matched.

(I can't believe I'm defending Eddings!!!)

I know what you mean though; it seems like sometimes Fantasy authors get a nice story going, but don't really know how to end it.

Donaldson overcomes this by working backwards from the ending.

drew wrote:

Horrim Carabal wrote: Worst idea since Belgarion took his sword and

Spoiler

chopped

Torak's

Spoiler

head off

.

How about some quality bad guys!? I tell ya, if Kastenessen is defeated by some dude with orcrest or something, I'm quitting fantasy.

I'm pretty sure that Belgarian stabbed Torak in the chest; but at that point h had the power of a God, because the necessities always had the Child of Light and Child of Dark as evenly matched.

(I can't believe I'm defending Eddings!!!)

I know what you mean though; it seems like sometimes Fantasy authors get a nice story going, but don't really know how to end it.

Donaldson overcomes this by working backwards from the ending.

I thought he lopped off Torak's head? Either way, it's Eddings, so who cares.

And if you stopped reading The Darkest Road with 100 pages to go, you spared yourself re-reading one of the dumbest endings in fantasy history. A dwarf dagger destroys Rakoth Maugrim in his fortress of Starkadh? That's like a stonedownor traveling to the Creche and defeating Lord Foul with an orcrest stone.

Just putting in my 2 cents. I read the Sarantium books once and I had a feeling I didn't quite get it. I re-read them, and LOVED them.

(but they weren't life-changing, I just loved them)

deer of the dawn wrote:Just putting in my 2 cents. I read the Sarantium books once and I had a feeling I didn't quite get it. I re-read them, and LOVED them.

(but they weren't life-changing, I just loved them)

Like reading LFB for the first time, when I read Sailing to Sarantium it changed fantasy for me. I didn't think fantasy could be done that way.

I recently read McKillip's Riddle Master trilogy and that was cool, too. Totally different than most fantasy. Too bad she has disowned that trilogy and all her early work. Even in her own foreword to the new edition she trashes it!

An author, writing a preamble to her most popular work, trashing the very novel she is writing the foreword to. It boggles the mind.

Horrim Carabal wrote:Too bad she has disowned that trilogy and all her early work. Even in her own foreword to the new edition she trashes it!

Wah?

wayfriend wrote:

Horrim Carabal wrote:Too bad she has disowned that trilogy and all her early work. Even in her own foreword to the new edition she trashes it!

Wah?

I don't have the book handy but she says she no longer likes Riddle-Master and only looks at it as an interesting snapshot of the lesser writer she used to be (paraphrasing).

Well, that's the saddest thing I've heard this week.

wayfriend wrote:Well, that's the saddest thing I've heard this week.

Frankly a lot of authors talk this way, even SRD at times. With "this next book is much more complicated, much more detailed, much more everything than anything I have written previously!"

How about an author says "This new book is good, but probably won't go down as the classic my early stuff has become."

Is that so hard? It would be much more honest, anyway.

Haha, good point. I suppose that they have to keep "getting better."

--A

I can see how an author might feel an earlier work isn't as good as one crafted with more experience. But they know who they were at that time, what they put into it, they should still feel proud of it. Disparaging it seems like an altogether harsher assessment than merely admitting one had less skill at the time. Riddlemaster was possibly her most famous work. So too bad.

"I made it when I was young, by my standards, after years of playing on various harps. I shaped its pieces out of Ymris oak beside night fires in far, lonely places where I heard no man's voice but my own. I carved on each piece the shapes of leaves, flowers, birds I saw in my wanderings. In An, I searched three months for strings for it. I found them finally; sold my horse for them. They were strung to the broken harp of Ustin of Aum, who died of sorrow over the conquering of Aum. Its strings were tuned to his sorrow, and its wood was split like his heart. I strung my harp with them, matching note for note in the restringing. And then I returned them to my joy."

wayfriend wrote:I can see how an author might feel an earlier work isn't as good as one crafted with more experience. But they know who they were at that time, what they put into it, they should still feel proud of it. Disparaging it seems like an altogether harsher assessment than merely admitting one had less skill at the time. Riddlemaster was possibly her most famous work. So too bad.

"I made it when I was young, by my standards, after years of playing on various harps. I shaped its pieces out of Ymris oak beside night fires in far, lonely places where I heard no man's voice but my own. I carved on each piece the shapes of leaves, flowers, birds I saw in my wanderings. In An, I searched three months for strings for it. I found them finally; sold my horse for them. They were strung to the broken harp of Ustin of Aum, who died of sorrow over the conquering of Aum. Its strings were tuned to his sorrow, and its wood was split like his heart. I strung my harp with them, matching note for note in the restringing. And then I returned them to my joy."

Yes I really enjoyed Riddle-Master. I should have read it long ago. It's not like much other fantasy, very unique and a good story all around. The only negative thing I will say about it is the plot is structured like Clive Barker's "Great And Secret Show" and by that I mean the villain turns out to not be the "real" villain in the end. I'm not really a fan of that storyline trope.

Should take a look for it some time. Sounds interesting.

--A

Avatar wrote:Should take a look for it some time. Sounds interesting.

--A

I recommend it very highly. It's a 3 book series but there is one collected edition: https://www.amazon.com/Riddle-Master-Pa ... 825&sr=1-1

Thanks. Will see if I can find it locally.

--A

On thing McKillip has going for her, she can write beautifully, and Riddlemaster is no exception.

Horrim Carabal wrote:

Spoiler

the villain turns out to not be the "real" villain in the end.

(a) cruel spoilers; (b) that's somewhat debatable; (c) it ain't a bad thing anyway.

There's already a Riddlemaster topic, BTW. Pretty spoiler-free.