Comments | harmony_bites: Ta Da! The Fantasy List!

harmony_bites

Ta Da! The Fantasy List!

Jul 25, 2010 04:30

I've been reading off this list from The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List and did a post on the Romance List--which is my least favorite genre. Now I just finished the list of my favorite genre, the Fantasy List. Naturally I'd read a lot more of these to begin with and I liked a lot more. I tried to rate the below on something of ( Read more... )

reviews, books, ultimate reading list, reading

Comments 40

shiv5468 July 25 2010, 10:13:32 UTC

Of the ones that I have read, I agree that Watership Down was brilliant, and he did nothing to top it since. I didn't know that there were some follow up tales. Plague Dogs was a very strong book though ( ... )

shiv5468 July 25 2010, 10:24:18 UTC

I still like Anne McCaffrey. ALmost the first fantasy author I read ( ... )

harmony_bites July 25 2010, 19:16:52 UTC

I still like Anne McCaffrey. ALmost the first fantasy author I read.

I think of her as a sci-fi author--all her books have sci-fi rather than fantasy premises behind them even if Pern "feels" like fantasy. I still love her first 8 or so Pern books--like Lackey they're comfort reads I return to from time to time. However, like Lackey, I also think her later ones suffer from tired blood.

Pterry is brilliant. My mother doesn't like him. I boggle.Heh. A couple of friends whose tastes I respect don't like him at all. And I'd tried him before and couldn't get into him. So he's not for everyone. I think both of those friends found his style off-putting. Omniscient isn't something people are used to anymore I think--at least one where the author inserts so much of his personality and viewpoint rather than this eagle-eye distance. I didn't (initially) care for the footnotes myself. And I had a hard time giving into the bizarreness of the flat earth. I remember finally enjoying that part and suspending my disbelief when the philosophers went ( ... )

shiv5468 July 25 2010, 19:27:05 UTC

I'll tell you then, if you like. It is almost inspired piss take of fantasy novels.

Thread 25

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harmony_bites July 25 2010, 19:49:36 UTC

The Last Unicorn -- I think I read it too young, and missed every single scrap of nuance, because I just thought "Huh. Whut." I've been waiting for a copy to turn up out here so I could reread it and see what all the shouting is about.

The writing is lovely and lyrical--and after all the turgid prose I waded through it's all the more striking. I fell in love with it though after a specific scene with a weeping spider...

Shannara--never finished it, and that was back in the days when I WAS a book-finisher. It was dreadful and turned me off high fantasy forever. Which means that I'll never read Martin or Jordan. :-D And now I've read reviews which claim he was writing a dystopian environmental treatise/polemic all along and I just say...Brooks, WTF? I hated that book second only to Maguire's. Have Brooks and Jordan fans just never read Tolkien? Because I don't see how you can and not be infuriated at all he lifts--this isn't homage or great minds think alike. And it's wretchedly written. So I can't blame you for being turned off. I ( ... )

imhilien July 26 2010, 02:40:24 UTC

Adams - A classic, and I admire authors who can pull of these types of books.

Asaro - That series does get better, though this book is a bit naff.

MZB - squee.

Brooks / Jordan - run for the hills!

Bujold - squee. She can write both sci-fi and fantasy well, which can be hard to pull off.

Eddings / Feist / McCaffrey - I read their books in my teens. I grew up. ;)

Gaiman - now this is a master. I've read Coraline and seen the film, and was on the edge of my seat for both.

Lackey - squee. Erm, I probably need my own special shelf for Lackey. :-p

Lawhead - haven't read all his books, but like his writing.

LeGuin - I like her writing.

Lewis - I read these as a child, which was probably the best age. I like the films, and not because they have been filmed here in NZ. :-p

May reply on the others later. ;)

harmony_bites July 26 2010, 05:33:46 UTC

Brooks / Jordan - run for the hills!

Right? Not sure if the appeal is for those who have never read Tolkien, so have no idea what a ripoff both are--or its extreme fanboys who just couldn't get enough of Tolkien, so reach for even bad fanfic not such good imitators.

Lackey - squee. Erm, I probably need my own special shelf for Lackey. :-p

I don't like her later books as much--I think like McCaffrey she lost some heart and has been calling them in for several years--but her earlier books--well, as Shiv, said of Lackey, I like the characters and sometimes want to spend time with them--they're good "comfort food" reads. I feel that way about some of McCaffrey too. Not great lit--not masters or classics like Adams and Gaiman--but fun.

I guess, like you though, Lackey has an edge over McCaffrey simply because I think I may have read just about every book Lackey solo'ed and I can't say the same for McCaffrey.

imhilien July 28 2010, 02:34:05 UTC

I will admit a few of Brooks are good, and could be read as stand-alones. Jordan just went on and on - I got to book 5 before I stopped to save my brain.

I have Lackey's 'Valdemar' books and her 'Elemental Masters' ones as well. I agree that 'Magics Pawn' and 'Oathbreakers' still stand up today. :) She does write good 'comfort food' books.

harmony_bites July 28 2010, 07:45:18 UTC

I will admit a few of Brooks are good, and could be read as stand-alones. Jordan just went on and on - I got to book 5 before I stopped to save my brain.

I have a friend I respect who absolutely adores Brooks above any other fantasies, so I know he has his fans. I suppose after the first book he might have found his own voice and stories, and not just followed the outline of Lord of the Ring.

I have Lackey's 'Valdemar' books and her 'Elemental Masters' ones as well.

I love Valdemar--they were my intro to her. I only recently read some of the Elemental Master ones. I enjoyed them--all the more because the Edwardian era is an unusual setting for fantasy--yet an interesting one when gender roles were in flux--interesting mix of fantasy and romance.

silburygirl July 26 2010, 19:51:31 UTC

Despite the fact that fantasy is also my favourite genre, I am beginning to realise that I don't read all that much of it. Mostly because when it is done badly, it's done really badly. Which means I have a lot to catch up on ( ... )

harmony_bites July 26 2010, 22:04:04 UTC

Mostly because when it is done badly, it's done really badly. Which means I have a lot to catch up on.

Surprisingly so. I don't tend to have a high opinion of romance and turning to this list I expected almost everything to be fives and fours--and granted, that is over a third of the list--but a good third of what's on a rec list is mediocre to awful. Including some so-called classics of the genre like Brooks and Jordan.

Of the ones I've read... I would list Mists of Avalon as a favourite, but I first read it when I was 12 and obsessed with Arthurian legend, so my memory is a bit fuzzy. I never could get into any other MZB, though.

A lot of MZB turns out not to be MZB. *points up at list* For instances, none of the Avalon sequels and quite a few Darkovers. And early on I think she was still getting her legs and just churning them out--so it depends a lot on what you read I think. On the other hand, I imprinted young--about 13. So that might have something to do with my love of the Darkover books.

Neil Gaiman is the literary love ( ... )

deeble July 27 2010, 02:25:20 UTC

The only Asaro I've read is "The Quantum Rose," and I don't think you'd like that any better. Description from her site: "Kamoj Argali is the young ruler of an impoverished province on a backward planet. To keep her people from starving, she has agreed to marry the boorish, brutal ruler of a neighboring province. But before the wedding takes place, a mysterious stranger from a distant planet sweeps in and unwittingly forces Kamoj into marriage, throwing her world into utter chaos."

I keep meaning to find an audiobook version of "The Once and Future King" so I can listen on my way to work. It sounds marvelous.

harmony_bites July 27 2010, 02:55:11 UTC

"Kamoj Argali is the young ruler of an impoverished province on a backward planet. To keep her people from starving, she has agreed to marry the boorish, brutal ruler of a neighboring province. But before the wedding takes place, a mysterious stranger from a distant planet sweeps in and unwittingly forces Kamoj into marriage, throwing her world into utter chaos."

*Face palm* Marriage Law ho! No, I very much doubt I'd like it. And the style of The Charmed Sphere isn't such that I'd ever think I'd click with the author.

I keep meaning to find an audiobook version of "The Once and Future King" so I can listen on my way to work. It sounds marvelous.

Stewart's focus is Merlin and Arthur--and Merlin is gone before Camelot comes into decline. So when it comes to the love triangle, and especially in creating a complex Lancelot, he's imo the best.

I also read somewhere that The Once and Future King was one of the influences on Rowling--and I can certainly see it. In its tone and whimsy The Sword and the Stone is very Potteresque--with a ( ( ... )