Ender's Game series, by Orson Scott Card
This is a comment that I posted in Traceroo's LJ today, which seems to have sparked a lively discussion. For the sake of Trace's sanity, I'm moving the discussion here.
It's been many years since I read the Blue Adept series. My recollections of it are that the original trilogy was a very inventive blending of Sci fi and fantasy, and I quite enjoyed it. However, I feel that he should have stopped with three. I felt that the last four were a bit gratuitous and forced.
Trace, if you're looking for a series that will really make you think, I recommend Orson Scott Card's Ender series. Card freely admits that the first book (Ender's Game) is mostly back story for the rest of the series. It doesn't challenge the reader to think nearly as much as the others, but still more than a traditional sci fi book. And it's a good story, one that I revisit often.
The next two books in the series, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, are some of the best science fiction I've ever read. I feel that they challenge the reader to not only really stop and think about the world in which the characters live, but it also makes the reader stop and think about our world as well, which is not something I often find in sci fi. By the last book in the series, Children of the Mind, I felt that Card was fishing for a way to end the series. It's still a good book, but I feel that it doesn't live up to the standards set in the earlier books. Plus I feel that Card kind of loses his main character in the story after a while.
Hmmm, I've rambled a bit. Must be post Wildlands fatigue.
It's been many years since I read the Blue Adept series. My recollections of it are that the original trilogy was a very inventive blending of Sci fi and fantasy, and I quite enjoyed it. However, I feel that he should have stopped with three. I felt that the last four were a bit gratuitous and forced.
Trace, if you're looking for a series that will really make you think, I recommend Orson Scott Card's Ender series. Card freely admits that the first book (Ender's Game) is mostly back story for the rest of the series. It doesn't challenge the reader to think nearly as much as the others, but still more than a traditional sci fi book. And it's a good story, one that I revisit often.
The next two books in the series, Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, are some of the best science fiction I've ever read. I feel that they challenge the reader to not only really stop and think about the world in which the characters live, but it also makes the reader stop and think about our world as well, which is not something I often find in sci fi. By the last book in the series, Children of the Mind, I felt that Card was fishing for a way to end the series. It's still a good book, but I feel that it doesn't live up to the standards set in the earlier books. Plus I feel that Card kind of loses his main character in the story after a while.
Hmmm, I've rambled a bit. Must be post Wildlands fatigue.