Kevin's Watch

I have to say that I am at something of a disadvantage when discussing epic fantasy lately, not having read further than A Game of Thrones in the series by Martin.

However I am far more pleased by the Malazan book of the fallen than Brinn appears to be but I have to warn you potential readers out there that it is a very difficult series to get into. That is to say you have to read quite far into it before you can make any sense of what is happening. In fact it was only at the very end of the second book that I started to get the names, places and relationships of most of the characters into place in my own head. So far I have read Gardens of the Moon, Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice and I have considered going back and rereading the Gardens of the Moon with my new understanding of the universe as the book was quite confusing to me the first time I read it.

I have not read The House of Chains, but I will get it as soon as it is released in MMPB.

The Dark Tower series gets better as you go Fist. I'm at the end of book III, The Waste Lands. Altho is it MUCH different then the LOTR and Covenant, it's drawn me in. Roland's world parrallels ours in so many ways...in fact, I have a feeling that it IS our world, after Armeggodon (sp?). Eons after.

The rescue of Jake was awesome Brinn!! I was so tense during that part!!

But, yep...I'm going to start Earthsea after I'm done with these Then on to Martin Heard great things about both of those series. Need to keep the mind occupied until YOU KNOW WHAT comes out!!!

Glad you're enjoying it Furl. Love Jakes quote..."There are other worlds than this one"! And Roland is such a great character. Give me a PM when you finish, I'd love to discuss it further w/ you.

P.S.
Have you read the part with Blaine the Mono yet? Another great character! TTYS.

I'm just getting there...Roland is chasing Jake who has been snatched by Gasher. Eddie and Susannah have just reached the Cradle. Roland is COOL!! "Do not forget the faces of your fathers". King should write more fantasy

Furls Fire wrote:I'm just getting there...Roland is chasing Jake who has been snatched by Gasher. Eddie and Susannah have just reached the Cradle. Roland is COOL!! "Do not forget the faces of your fathers". King should write more fantasy

I've read everything by King *BUT* his Dark Tower stuff... weird how I managed to miss that series. As soon as I finish Gardens of the Moon I'll buy the first Gunslinger book.

Give it a whirl Ringthane. The Gunslinger is kind of choppy and moves back and forth a bit. But, The Drawing of the Three really picks up the pace. There's language tho, I don't care for that too much...but, each author writes in his own way...I just kind of gloss over the nasty words

And Brinn! Blaine is GREAT! I'll PM you about him/it.

Think I'm getting off topic here in this thread Sorry about that all!

I think Erikson may well be the best fantasy writer alive today. I'm not entirely certain if I like him better than Donaldson, but it is very possible. (I have not read Martin beyond that short story in Legends, but I tend to favor the more magic-filled type of fantays which Erikson writes.)

Me too suffered a tiny disappointment reading Gardens of the Moons and Deadhouse Gates after massive hyping. The books were still very good though. Then Memories of Ice came and it was stunning how great it was. I have always had a pretty good grasp on Erikson's world and characters (I think having a good memory helps) but I think one just can't appreciate properly the complex and interesting world-building with the little we get to know of it in the beginning.

House of Chains should be soon out in paperback and I'm anxious to get to read it once it arrives to this piece of distant taiga. (Yes, I buy everything, even literary masterpieces, in paperback. I may have to avoid this forum once The Last Chronicles start to come out.)

Nerdanel wrote:House of Chains should be soon out in paperback and I'm anxious to get to read it once it arrives to this piece of distant taiga. (Yes, I buy everything, even literary masterpieces, in paperback. I may have to avoid this forum once The Last Chronicles start to come out.)

I'm looking forward to Tor bringing Erikson's stuff over to the US in '04. I paid $17 for the UK edition of his first MMPB, and I don't plan on dropping that kind of coin again.

Ah, Ringthane, you're a lucky guy! Now is a good time to begin the Dark Tower series, since Stephen just released a rewritten edition of The Gunslinger. The original publication was sort of choppy, and, to me, somewhat hallucinatory. But he's gone back and added 30 pages or so, with changes on nearly every page to make it fit a little tighter with the rest of the series. Also, the first four books have been re-released in hardback, in preparation for Wolves of the Calla in November. This is a big deal, since this is the first hardback reprint of the first two books since the early 80's. And finally, the last three books are all due out in the next year or so. You won't have to wait nearly a decade for the next book like I did.


Note to self: add Gardens of the Moon to reading list behind Martin....

birdandbear wrote:You won't have to wait nearly a decade for the next book like I did. .

That's the benefit of coming to a series late.

I really, really envy people who come to the chronicles for the very first time. That magic of seeing Andelain and the Giants and the Haruchai and everything is just... stunning.

It's still magic to me, I have read them over and over again, more times then I can count. And the breathless beauty of Andelian is still there, the grief of Coercri is still there, the granduer and solidity of Revelstone is still there, the ill of Foul's Creche and Mt Thunder is still there, the ageless anger of the Forests is still there. ...as if I'm reading it for the first time.

I can't wait for the Last Chrons...to be emmersed in the magic once again... for the first time.

"To go where ever dreaming goes"

That's prob the real reason I love LFB so much: hurtloam, heathsense, Andelian, Giants, majesty, Ranyhyn and magic. A peaceful, and very fragile, fantastic ecosystem. When I first met the Lords they blew me away I was awed, and humbled by them. SRD took me to the heights of fantastical bliss and then rendered the crushing blows; the Oath limits power and the Lords are fallible...wow!

yes yes yes

Speaking of LFB, I was reading chap. 1 just a little while ago and right there at the beginning is this poem that Covenant says he should write.

These are the pale deaths
which men miscall their lives:
for all the scent of green things growing,
each breath is but an exhalation of the grave.
Bodies jerk like puppet corpses,
and hell walks laughing--

That little poem strikes me dumb every time I see it. In just those few lines, I see the torment Covenant's life has become.

"Did I do a whole life's laughing in that little time?"

It makes me sad. He makes me sad. And even tho he is so hard to take at times as I read him thru the books, I only have to think back to that first little bit where this whole thing begins--and I completely understand him.

"Take back the ring. Be true. You need not fail."

for First Mark Tuvor...

Bump-darn it!

Interesting stuff. The mention of the movie made me wonder if that's the time-consuming project he mentioned on the GI a few weeks back--writing up some kind of treatment or something. Though, OTOH, I don't know that authors are often asked to deal with screenplays of their work, that not being their medium. Dunno how well a movie would translate anyway (too much interior stuff), but that's just my random thought.