Kevin's Watch

OK...this is my situation.

I haven't read any new fantasy prior to Runes of the Earth for probably 8 or 10 years. I have re-read the Chronicles a few times in that timeframe, but no new fantasy.

I also haven't written anything new in many years, either. Obviously a direct result of my lack of reading new material.

My desire for fantasy reading was rekindled after reading Runes.

My collection from back in the day includes a lot of Piers Anthony, David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Weis & Hickman, Fred Saberhagen and muliptle others.

I need something new to read, preferably not a stand alone fantasy book, but a trilogy or something of that nature. What is there out there that you would suggest me getting started with?

I need to keep myself busy reading, or the wait for Fatal Revenant is absolutely going to drive me mad.

Have you read the totally excellent George R. R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire books yet?

I recommend Tad Williams' 'Otherland' series.

Glen Cook's The Black Company series. It hasn't the depth and literary quality of the more celebrated authors, to be sure, but the story is worth following. I haven't finished it myself (it's about seven or ten books, total), but the thing that has stayed with me so far is one of the landscapes: it's not just alive, it's aware. It changes, it has moods, and it talks.

Thanks so far for the suggestions.

I am going to have to get something new soon. Things are starting to slow down here at work now, and reading on my lunch hour is getting to be a real possibility again.

Yes, ASoIaF is very good, have you considered the Dark Tower?

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:Glen Cook's The Black Company series. It hasn't the depth and literary quality of the more celebrated authors, to be sure, but the story is worth following. I haven't finished it myself (it's about seven or ten books, total), but the thing that has stayed with me so far is one of the landscapes: it's not just alive, it's aware. It changes, it has moods, and it talks.

The wind whines and howls with bitter breath.

Lightning snarls and barks. Rage is an animate

force upon the plain of glittering stone. Even

shadows are afraid.


At the heart of the plain stands a vast grey

stronghold, unknown, older than any written

memory. One ancient tower has collapsed

across the fissure in the plain. From the fast-

ness comes a great, deep, slow beat like that of

a slumbering world-heart, cracking the olden

silence.


Death is eternity.

Eternity is stone.

Stone is silence.

Stone cannot speak but stone remembers.

He does have quite a way with words.

It's a rather dark series, but well worth reading.

Just to go through the ones mentioned so far:
I'd recommend aSoIaF as well, although only half the series is done.
Otherland is probably Williams' best work, very long, but good.
The Dark Tower wasn't really my kind of thing, but it isn't bad.
I haven't read any of Cook's work, so I can't really say about that.


Another you might consider is Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing - one of the best things being written at the moment, the first two volumes are out now, and the third is due in December - The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior-Prophet, and The Thousandfold Thought.

The Dark Tower is excellent.

--A

In the fantasy genre, nothing does it for me (other than TCTC) like:
-Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series.
-If you can find them, David Zindell's Neverness books.

And even though it's technically considered sci-fi, I think of the Dune books as fantasy, and there's nothing better.

Fist and Faith wrote: -Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series.

I second that.

Fist and Faith wrote:...even though it's technically considered sci-fi, I think of the Dune books as fantasy, and there's nothing better.

And I that.

--A

just finished r. scott bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before and The Warrior Prophet and really really enjoyed both and am awaiting the third in the series which comes out in Jan i think, and am halfway thru Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon which is fabulous!!!
i highly reccomend these.

Thanks so much to all of you for the suggestions.

I bought the first book in GRR Martins series, 'A Game of Thrones', and plan on starting to read it later today.

It will be strange to start a new series by a new author that I have never read before, but I am looking forward to reading about a whole new world and characters that I have never before experienced.

Like SRD, he's from New Mexico--no worries there!