Kevin's Watch

Avatar wrote:Pratchett is awesome and his books aren't a series in the traditional sense.

No doubt TheFallen will be in any minute to back you up, but, personally, I find, like peter, the mix of comedy and fantasy doesn't do it for me. I've never really had time for stuff like 'Bored of the Rings' or spoof movies like 'Hot Shots'. I'm not saying that Pratchett' work is spoof, and for me the experience was much the same. I was instantly bored. I may just be a carrier of the over-serious gene.

Cambo wrote:

Peter wrote:What did Raymond E Feist do again Cambo?

The Riftwar saga, starting with the most famous volume, Magician. Pug of Lukemia or whatever the country was.

It's Midkemia, but that's hilarious I did find the later Feist books fairly septic alright. Too much dependent on obviously role-playing-generated and-then-this-happened, and-then-this-happened. As I said upthread I did enjoy The Empire Series that he did with Janny Wurts.

u.

Pratchett's very good; it's just that there were already dozens of books out before I started, and there's only so much time for reading.

Ah yes 'Magician'. Read that, never read any more.

I stopped reading The Wheel of Time after Winter's Heart because I found myself skipping the chapters of characters I didn't care about and it seemed the story was going nowhere. A shame, because the first four or five books of the series were very good.

Fist and Faith wrote:

aliantha wrote:And there was another series I started not long ago, and found I wasn't interested enough in the story to look for the next book. I wonder what it was. The premise was this: mostly agrarian society with fairly isolated settlements; monsters would come out after dark and attack people in their homes unless they were warded with specific designs; and the main character had some kind of unusual ability in relation to the making of those wards. That's about all I can remember. It felt sort of post-apocalyptic, but the apocalypse had happened a really long time before.

You said it twice! Heh. The Warded Man. I only read the first book, too.

That's it! Thanks, Fisty! Sounds like you had the same reaction I did.

Read Game of Thrones. Yawned. Never went back.

Read The Baker's Boy. Was a bit disgusted. Never went back.

Loved Chung Kuo, but the love faded after about five books.

Loved Radix. Liked In Other Worlds. But I am unconvinced there is a Tetrad there, and haven't finished it.

Gave up on Julian May after Diamond Mask. Galactic Yawnlieu.

I think I gave up on Recluce (L.E. Modesitt) after about four books. They were all the same.

Loved Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, but Samuel R Delany never wrote the other half of his diptych. Curses. He was half way to brilliance.

I may have read one or two Wheel of Time books. I honestly cannot remember.

I did finish Belgariad, but never dipped into Edding's well again.

I did finish Malazan proper, but have no desire to encounter another ambiguous uncompleted Erikson character ever again.

I read some Sword of Shanarra. I got the first book in hardcover, first edition possibly. But said Shayanara to the rest.

aliantha wrote:OTOH, I read The Lies of Locke Lamora and bailed on the rest of the series. The main character is just too ethically challenged for my taste.

Good god, never read The Broken Empire. Although, that quote does surprise me coming from an SRD fan. What about Locke did you specifically not like?

peter wrote:

dANdeLION wrote:Also, I quit the Shanarra crap after the first book.....what a crapfest that was.

C'mon Dan - Brooks had soo much neck in writing that you had to finish the book

Huh? That doesn't make sense to me at all.

Damelon wrote:I stopped reading The Wheel of Time after Winter's Heart because I found myself skipping the chapters of characters I didn't care about...

It really does start getting better again from book 11. I'm rereading them right now. (On Winters Heart as it happens. )

Cambo wrote: Good god, never read The Broken Empire.

Haha, I just finished those the other day. Not incredible, but fun if a bit OTT.

--A

Avatar wrote:

Cambo wrote: Good god, never read The Broken Empire.

Haha, I just finished those the other day. Not incredible, but fun if a bit OTT.

--A

Hey, I happen to like Mark Lawrence. Writes what I'd title "sarcastic lightweight grimdark". The main character's approaching a Gary Stu, the one in the Prince of Fools less so.

I loved Mark Lawrence's writing. He had some really simple, darkly beautiful passages throughout that series.

I stuck with Shannara more than most, it seems. I read the first trilogy and the Scions quadrilogy (iirc) that followed. I read the original Sword in middle school, so too young to notice any problems or plagiarisms. It was just fun with damned cool fights. I still reread parts of Wishsong now and then. I don't care what anybody thinks, Garet Jax was very cool. And he found a level of fulfillment that few do. Also, the Brin/Ildatch combo was among the more powerful entities I've ever read. Brooks happened to be near a store where Brooks was signing one day, so had him autograph it on my favorite page.

peter wrote:Terry Pratchett Diskworld. It took me two books to realise I was never going to like comedy mixed with fantasy unless it was done by a master like Piers Anthony.

Not every Discworld novel is great, but even the worst is better than Anthony's best. Unless puns are the highest form of humor in your book... I'd try it again. My personal favorite is Thief of Time, but it would probably be best to read the Grimes/Night Watch books and the Death books in order.

I recently gave up about a third of the way through the last Instrumentality of the Night book by Glen Cook. Too complicated, full of characters I just don't really care about.

[Syl] wrote: Not every Discworld novel is great, but even the worst is better than Anthony's best.

QFT. Anthony has some books I don't mind, but when it comes to the funny Pratchett slays him.

Agreed, guys. The first few Xanth books were good, but once he started relying on his fans for suggestions for puns....

I abandonded Feist after the second or third SerpentWar saga. Too much doom death and destruction, and for what...

If you only read one Pratchett, read Small Gods. I know I've admitted I've not read all that much of his work, but I know that one is very much worth anyone reading, and it's a stand-alone.

Frostheart Grueburn wrote:
What's this blasphemous revelation about Terry Pratchett? Sacrilege! Crepuscular desecration! Sasquatch!

Yes, Sasquatch to all of you who have not read enough Terry Pratchett. Enough = All.

I don't remember when I gave up on Terry Goodkind. I do remember that 'gave up' may be too mild a term; I may have thrown a book across the room.

I enjoyed Xanth when I was young, but Incarnations of Immortality was my favorite Piers Anthony series. (Though I may not have finished all of those either.)

Finished Black Company. Finished Eddings and Feist and all those, but it's been years since I read any of them.

I also have read all the 'main' Malazan books and not many of the non-Erikson ones.

Never really tried to get into WoT. Or Shanarra. I did like Magic Kingdom, but I don't think I read all of them.

I've read more than my share of the Shannara books. I finally quit when I realized he was never going to stop.... Okay, that's not strictly true. I quit when the most recent books took a post-apocalyptic turn (i.e., some of the characters journeyed to a new continent and found the remains of a once-great civilization, etc. -- lather, rinse, repeat ).

Pyramids is another good stand-alone Discworld.