Kevin's Watch

I need a series, or stand alone book, that isn't by Piers Anthony, or SRD, or Mikhail Bulgakov.

I hate cliches, tropes, and any author who uses the word 'and' under any circumstances, ever.

Probably sticking to sci-fi or fantasy.

I don't like series that have 9378492874 characters, because I remember them all, and then I forget my mom's birthday from lack of brain space.

I don't like it when the author kills off multiple characters in the same paragraph with some shabby pretense, even if said pretense is 'realistic' like, war or disease.

Something I like a lot is when an author clearly likes his characters and is having fun. Like early One Piece, or early Wheel of time.

I don't like when it turns into 1500 pages of ponderous crap where literally nothing happens, like later wheel of time...well and early wheel of time, but at least he was having fun writing back then.

This is actually a good parallel I think, at some point I will finish the Wheel of time series, because I am over 15 years invested, despite my long dislike of the series.

I will never finish Song of sand and rain, because I did NOT read Game of Thrones when my friend loaned it to me in 1997(ish?) and am not 15+years invested.

SRD is by far the best author i've read, probably. So maybe use him as a baseline?

It doesn't have to be new, so long as it is obtainable.

Thanks in advance!

Hmm. Not connected to the works you've mentioned, but a good recommendation anyway I think: How about some John Scalzi? Any of his books, really - light, smart, often funny sci-fi. Most of his books are set in the same universe (Old Man's War being the first of those), but they're not a strict series.


This thread might get some more traction over in the Gen F/SF forum, if our good mod Orlion would care to shift it?

Mmh. Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Quality depends on the starter book and your own perception (Io just loved the volume I had rated as the worst in the series.)

Malazan Book of the Fallen has more players than Wheel of Poorly Written Female Characters and Song of Finland and Volcano put together, but it's worth checking out on the basis of SRD being a fan of Erikson and vice versa.


Guess I should see what the Scalzi hype's about when I have money for books again...

Gojiro: A Novel Godzilla and his best friend take a road trip to New Mexico to confront the inventor of the Atomic Bomb. But in a funny way!

the Black Cauldron series by Lloyd Alexander

sgt.null wrote:the Black Cauldron series by Lloyd Alexander

OOOOO I actually did read that in like 2nd grade or so. I pretty well forget everything about it except Fofofofofofluterflam. And Gurgi, or is that Pirates of dark water?

Gurgi is indeed in the Black Cauldron series. highly recommended. and Flam is there as well.

There is a stack of Dune books hiding in the trunk of my shared car, that I assume are late birthday presents. How is that series?

Can I safely read it without either becoming agoraphobic due to fear of sand-worms?

Frank Herbert's original book is brilliant. Conventional wisdom is that they got marginally less so at each step...and that those written by Brian (et al) continue that trend. Whether conventional wisdom is correct is in the eye that reads.

I wouldn't say they steadily got worse. Dune is, of course, brilliant. Personally I'm not a fan of book 2 & 3, but I do love God Emperor.

I've never read the ones by the son, either sequels or prequels. They violate the canon as far as I'm concerned. But do at least read the original series.

--A

You can read Dune and just not go on to the sequels. The same with Larry Niven's Ringworld although the sequel to that one was really good.

Zelazny's Amber books, as far as I got into them before having to return the compilation to the library, really impressed me. There's something particularly dream-like about the way Corwin and Co. travel, adding and subtracting from their memories of the "true" world as they travel through shadows to reach the "truth." That, and I was surprised after reading SRD, Umberto Eco, and Danielewski to still find an author able to use words that I didn't know of already!