Where should I begin with Tad Williams?

[Prebe]

A colleague has recommended TW after he heard of my preference for SRD's works.

TW seems quite prolific though. Can anyone recomend a good place to start?

[wayfriend]

Start with the Dragonbone Chair. The Memory, Sorrow, Thorn series is his best achievement.

Like Donaldson, TW takes a lot of writing to get to where he's going, but, like Donaldson, it's worth it. Like the Chronicles, MST can be written off as a LOTR-clone; like the Chronicles, it really does take off and can be considered very good in its own right.

[Prebe]

Thanks a lot for the recommendation Wayfriend!

*rushes off to Amazon*

[Prebe]

Just ordered the entire first trilogy from the Book Depository.

I can't wait to get stuck in!

[Xar]

Just ordered the entire first trilogy from the Book Depository.

I can't wait to get stuck in!

A friend of mine loaned me The Dragonbone Chair a few months ago... I devoured the book and eventually bought the whole Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. Wayfriend is right, he does take his time, but the books are really great.

[Prebe]

Both Wayfriend AND Xar endorsing a book! Thank you very much for really jacking up my expectations! Now I'm BOUND to be disappointed!

[I'm Murrin]

The main criticism of the trilogy (in four books) is that it moves slowly. I didn't have a problem with that when I read it, except maybe in the middle of To Green Angel Tower a little (which isn't surprising when that one 'book' is split into two volumes both as long as the previous books in the series). George RR Martin is a big fan of MS&T, and put a lot of little references to it (mostly knights' names, like the twins Josua and Elias) in aSoIaF.

[Prebe]

Phew! Thanks for the bucket of cold water there Murrin. I was getting to worked up.

But then again, if I couldn't handle "occasionally long-winded and occasionally superfluously verbose" I couldn't handle SRD

[wayfriend]

Just ordered the entire first trilogy from the Book Depository.

I hope you noticed that there are four books in the "trilogy". To Green Angel Tower actually was published as two books (Maybe that was only the paperback version? But I assume you're getting the paperbacks...)

[Prebe]

I was puzzled for quite a while thank you. You hear it's a trilogy, but you keep running into four books!

The reason I got it from book-depository and not straight from Amazon was, that bd had "To Green angel tower" as a single volume (i recon, since it had no subtitle, and was the most expensive of the three).

Thank you very much for the warning though. I hope I'm ok......

Edit: I think that SRD is still the only author who managed to cram 10 books into a trilogy right??

[Edge]

Hmmmm. Personally I would have recommended starting with the Otherland series.

Then again, maybe those guys just want to get you warmed up for the really good stuff.

[wayfriend]

I think you need to let TW earn your trust before you dive into Otherland. Now that's a very, VERY long story, which doesn't go anywhere really exciting. The best part of Otherland was it was interesting to read a story with South African protagonists.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I really enjoyed his "Otherland" series but when it came down to the big climax I felt a little underwhelmed. I haven't read any of his other works. Maybe I'll give this other series a try.

[Edge]

I guess it comes down to personal taste. I ws engrossed from beginning to end, and was disappointed when it ended only because I wanted more!

I'm fascinated by his vision of the future, and with his blend of psychology, cybernetics, and mysticism.

Of course, reading a book that, for a change, was actually set where I live, was a huge bonus and a very novel (no pun intended!) experience. So much so, that I fired off an e-mail to Mr. Williams and we corresponded briefly.

After that, I battled to get into MST, I guess because I was really wanting more Otherland. In fact, I still haven't finished MST.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Let me clarify my earlier statement about Otherland. I loved the books, I even recommended them to a bunch of people. The writing is engaging and fascinating. What a brilliant imagination he has. I just thought that after thousands of pages of buildup there would be something more drastic in the end. More catastrophic. I don't know. After all the plot complications and brilliant charactor building etc. I think that when the proverbial shit hit the fan it seemed a little anticlimatic to me. Then again, I love dramalamadingdong!

[wayfriend]

I agree, Jenn. Like I said, it doesn't go anywhere really exciting. Its not unworth reading. But MST is a better series (with a solid climax).

[Niftium]

MS&T was too predictable for me. A good read, and certainly not so predictable that I scoffed at finishing the series, but a little too easy nonetheless. Otherland was enormous and long at times, but I felt it was better. Yeah, the ending wasn't incredible, but the journey of the characters in Otherland was something much less formulaic than the journeys of characters in MS&T.

[burgs]

I think that Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is amongst the most important works of fantasy in the 20th century.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I'll put MS&T in my to do list.

[danlo]

I truly enjoyed it-

Spoiler

loved the isle witch, Ser Cameris, Binabik and Pyrates is downright nasty as hell!

MST/ASOIAF spoiler:

Spoiler

I'd love to lock him and Melissandre in a room together for a week!

btw, Earthblood runs our Tad Williams forum at the Hangar (click my www to get there).