Fantasy Series

rids57 · 6 Apr 2018 at 22:44

It always used to annoy me with Eddings that he would put his female characters on a pedestal - it wasn't until years later that I discovered that a lot of those parts were possibly written by his wife, who didn't get credits until his later books.
I thought the Belgariad was excellent, the Malloreon was good and it was downhill all the way from there as most of them followed the same sort of pattern.

No1newts · 6 Apr 2018 at 23:16

GRR Martin I've read, thought I mentioned that one

Read the Dune Series and freaking loved it, well apart from the abominations written by (I believe) his son and his mate, wrote about 10 years ago. They were a criminal slight on an amazing series.

Read most stuff Abnett but I found his newer 40k stuff lower quality than his earlier stuff, it reads although he can't be bothered which is a shame. Read the Heresy books as well but I'm about 16 behind and need to catch up

I read Robert Jordan, another series that started amazingly and sadly tapered off. Not a huge Sanderson fan and I found the ending particularly horrific but I still thought he did a better job than Jordan would have as he was so far off reservation come the end it was sad.

Elric books I tried but I didn't really enjoy it, I would be willing to give it another go as I was pretty quick to put it down but it didn't grab me.

Was it Eddings whose first series ended up with the good guy and bad guy going all megazord power rangers and ended a little weird? I may be recalling incorrectly but that really irked me and put me off.

rids57 · 7 Apr 2018 at 20:43

Was it Eddings whose first series ended up with the good guy and bad guy going all megazord power rangers and ended a little weird. If i am recalling incorrectly that really irked me and put me off.

Possibly, though to be fair, he was fighting a god so ordinary common or garden thwackery wouldn't have done. It's a long time since I've read them but I do remember them both becoming massively embiggened

melmac · 8 Apr 2018 at 01:10

Alexrose1uk said:
They're pretty good, two series following Sparhawk; a knight/paladin and his story. If you've read the Belgariad and Malloreon you should feel instantly at home with his writing style.

I liked the Sparhawk books in the beginning but they really got on my nerves after a while. The characters are all the same, the conversations are all the same, the solutions to the problems are all the same. Once you read one book, the other books are just more of the exact same.

Warbie · 8 Apr 2018 at 14:21

Malloreon and Belgariad! That takes me way, way back. Loved them as a kid. I wasn't keen on the Sparhawk books, tho. The prequels for Polgara and Belgarath I remember enjoying a great deal. If we're talking old school fantasy, Stephen Lawhead was up there - particularly the Song of Albion trilogy. Terry Brooks, Guy Gavriel Kay (I read Tigana 3 or 4 times in my teenage years!) and Stephen Donaldson. There was also the Amtrak Wars series by Patrick Tilley. It's been 20+ years, but it really stuck with me. Fantastic post apocalyptic / fantasy. Infact, it might be time for a revisit.

PlacidCasual · 8 Apr 2018 at 21:18

No1newts said:
Read the Dune Series and freaking loved it, well apart from the abominations written by (I believe) his son and his mate, wrote about 10 years ago. They were a criminal slight on an amazing series.

Kevin J Andersen is a terrible hack after reading his first Star Wars trilogy I blacklisted him, I relented and read the first Dune prequel it was like an act of vandalism.

No1newts · 9 Apr 2018 at 07:10

PlacidCasual said:
Kevin J Andersen is a terrible hack after reading his first Star Wars trilogy I blacklisted him, I relented and read the first Dune prequel it was like an act of vandalism.

I was referencing the sequels focusing on Duncan and the escaping vessel but after them I didn't far look at the prequels. I just pretend they never existed.