[The Tyrant Lizard]

And while tied to a stake in a blazing bonfire I will screech the glory of the battle-writing prowess of GODkind. Just kidding, I'm not trying to champion him or anything. I read that scene, and I thought it was great. I would have thought most of you would like it as well, if you read it... but maybe on this forum, that's like saying cyanide tastes great with bicardi and ice.

[Abyss]

Okay, look, SPOILERS WARNING... there's no way to do this without spoiling some bits of various books so you're warned...

Obviously all the Malaz ones above - if i was going top three it would be Chain of Dogs finale, Capustan in MoI and the Malazan marines freaking out the Edur in RG.

WoT's Dumai's Wells is a bittersweet top pick, because it was the awesome, but also signalled the downturn of the series.


I have a soft spot for David Eddings' Belgariad, specifically

Spoiler

the battle where the crippled Algar King takes out the Murgo King.

The build up to that scene was fairly well written with all the different army groups coming into play.

Bakker's PoN series has some great ones - i particularly liked the one where

Spoiler

the eyeless mages attack for the first time and the few knights with Trinkets break through and counterattack

.

Abercrombie's THE FIRST LAW has some memorable ones. I give tops to

Spoiler

the seige in the third book.

Mieville's IRON COUNCIL -

Spoiler

the elementals vs the golems was just plain coolness. That said, the naval battle in

THE SCAR was better written.

Stover's BLADE OF TYSHALLE has a very neat battle sequence

Spoiler

which includes six inch faireies with yard-long swords divebombing soldiers. Also neat is the lasers-and-hovercars vs magic monks battle towards the end.

The above-ref'd Goodkind scene (eyes. bleeding.), actually was fairly well (eyes. bleeding.) done. I've said it before (eyes. bleeding.), i'll say it again(eyes. bleeding.), TG is not without talent (eyes. bleeding.), it's just that (eyes. bleeding.) his overall (eyes. bleeding.) product (eyes. bleeding.) makes my (eyes. bleeding.) eyes bleed.

Weis and Hickman had a few neat ones in DRAGONLANCE involving masses of mounted dragons flying at each other.

Glen Cook's BLACK COMPANY ended on a high note involving

Spoiler

armies battle elephants and lots of 'splody.

- Abyss, likes his battles big.

[frookenhauer]

The Tyrant Lizard;360593 said:

Also, There is a battle scene in a particular Goodkind book that i thought was great (go easy on me) The one where Khalan has to organize a defence, and uses shire horses with chains between them to knock down lines of men. TG does have his moments.

The Tyrant Lizard;360593 said:

Also, There is a battle scene in a particular Goodkind book that i thought was great (go easy on me) The one where Khalan has to organize a defence, and uses shire horses with chains between them to knock down lines of men. TG does have his moments.

Is this from the same battle? I do remember these scenes, especially the ghost army idea. I think this has to be the high point of Goodkinds regular forays into 'typing lots of words and stringing them together in grammatical order' . It was because of scenes like this that I kept reading his books until I finally had enough of him, part of the way through the one where khalan is 'joined' spiritually to a sorcerous, and the main character (I forget his name and I'm not bothered about finding out who he is), can't attack her otherwise khalan gets hurt...Sorry I digress, a very good battle scene.

Trouble;360519 said:

Also, frookenhauer>> Spoilers man, C'mon!

Oops! I'll be more careful:)

Abyss;360664 said:

WoT's Dumai's Wells is a bittersweet top pick, because it was the awesome, but also signalled the downturn of the series.

Thats pretty harsh man, but mostly fair. I began to start losing my WoT mojo during Lord of Chaos, which if memory serves (but usually doesn't) was before the Dumai's Wells battle.

Its amazing how much I've forgotten, and there's still so much more to read! Heaven! Sh1t I sound like a kid, but I'm definitely going to have a look at Black Company and murder the thief who stole my Bakker book 1

[Valgard]

I had forgotten about Bakker I really liked the first battle of the Holy War. It was brilliantly written more epic saga style than the others I mentioned earlier. Definitely worth reading just a great scene in a great series.

[Use Of Weapons]

No one's mentioned Feist yet. I love the final battle in A Darkness At Sethanon, and the siege of Bas-Tyra's citadel in the same book (where they fill barrels with naphtha and set the whole city alight in their retreat).

I also like the descriptions in Feist's and Wurts's Empire series, of the battles involving the Cho-Ja.

The battle of Vastmark in Wurts's Wars of Light and Shadow is also pretty cool.

[Abyss]

I'm remiss in not mentioning Terry Brookes' SHANNARA...

Spoiler

say what you will, ELFSTONES had some absolutely brilliant battle scenes during the demon invasion, and in WISHSONG the seige where Jax takes out the Kraken was awesome. The airship battle in the first volume of VOYAGE was also good fun.

Feist did have some good ones, altho i found he relied more on single POVs describing battles in terms of 'Fred watched as the awesome battle took place' and therefore the reader should accept that the battle is awesome approach.

In a completely different zone, some of Weber's space battles in his STARS AT WAR series are staggeringly good. There's one in THE SHIVA OPTION

Spoiler

where the bugs use an EMP to fry the fighters computers and the pilots keep fighting blind, told from the pov of the commander at the carrier ship that's just heart-wrenching.

I won't put him in the same class as some of the above, but while the series itself on rates an 'okay' from me, Stackpole had a few good ones in THE DRAGONCROWN WAR series.

I also enjoyed some of GGKay's in THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY. Curiously in later books he spends less time on big battles.

- Abyss, loves a cast of thousands all rushing screaming at each other, preferably at a buffet table...

[Coco with marshmallows]

can't believe no-one's mentioned Dresden.

seriously Abyss, you at least should have mentioned the rejuvenated Sally. for shame:p

in fact, most of the finale's in the Dresden books would probably warrant a mention in my top thirty.

also, Pressfield's Gates of Fire - okay, its basically the entire book, but then you can say the same for most of Legend.

[Dance]

Cocoreturns;361506 said:

can't believe no-one's mentioned Dresden.

seriously Abyss, you at least should have mentioned the rejuvenated Sally. for shame:p

in fact, most of the finale's in the Dresden books would probably warrant a mention in my top thirty.

also, Pressfield's Gates of Fire - okay, its basically the entire book, but then you can say the same for most of Legend.

I only recall one Dresden book that really has a battle-battle, with organized units and such. Most of his fights are closer to brawls.

[Dag]

Chain of Dogs. Definitely my No. 1.

Also loved Cook's Black Company in action.

And to add something new to the list: Paul Kearney had some great battle sequences in his "Monarchies of God" series. I can't single out a specific battle from the books at the moment (it's been some time since I last read them) but as far as I recall every battle with Corfe in it was awesome.

[Deornoth]

Check out Paul Kearney's 'The Ten Thousand' as there are some pretty cool battles to be found in there!

Erikson's battles are all good but I'm going for the several hundred page long 'Chain of Dogs' battle as my favourite.

I can't remember the name of the battle, 'In the Darkness that comes Before', but the bit where the mages attack the Scylvendi is pretty cool as well...

[Bauchelain the Evil]

I must say that my favourite Malaz battle is the Marines against Edur in RG.

[Wordmerchant]

Malaz - Pearl; WOT - Trollocs v Perrin in Two Rivers.

[Abyss]

Cocoreturns;361506 said:

can't believe no-one's mentioned Dresden.

seriously Abyss, you at least should have mentioned the rejuvenated Sally. for shame:p

in fact, most of the finale's in the Dresden books would probably warrant a mention in my top thirty.

also, Pressfield's Gates of Fire - okay, its basically the entire book, but then you can say the same for most of Legend.

With the exception of SUMMER KNIGHT, and perhaps arguably WHITE NIGHT, none of the Dresden books has a finale i would say falls within the topic of 'War'. And even there, the focus is on Harry and friends, not the overall battle. I am second to none in my love for the Dresden books' action sequences, but as Dance notes above, I don't see that as what we're chattering about here.

I agree GATES OF FIRE does have some brilliantly written ones.


- Abyss, does loves the 'splody.

[Terez]

Yeah, I agree that the one battle from Goodkind was well written. What book was that in? I forget.

The Battle of the Cleansing from WoT was one of my favorite scenes in the book, but not so much for the battle (there wasn't much to the battle part of it), but for the descriptions of saidin and saidar working together, etc. Good stuff. The Battle of the Two Rivers in The Shadow Rising, also good stuff.

Glad to see I'm not the only one with a soft spot for the Bonehunters' campaign on Lether.

[Abyss]

Terez;362241 said:

...
The Battle of the Cleansing from WoT was one of my favorite scenes in the book, but not so much for the battle (there wasn't much to the battle part of it), but for the descriptions of saidin and [/i]saidar[/i] working together, etc. Good stuff. The Battle of the Two Rivers in The Shadow Rising, also good stuff.

Glad to see I'm not the only one with a soft spot for the Bonehunters' campaign on Lether.

The Cleansing,

Spoiler

while innately cool, has one huge problem - the Forsaken, having been otherwise established as serious baddies and a real threat, act like morons wandering around in the forest and mostly get their butts whupped. What, none of them had a troop of trollocks handy? No one could bring down some massive strike and actually make the defenders work a little? Rain some fire! Hell, rain some Balefire! Do SOMEthing. But no, it's 'Mwahaha, i'm evil and hiding behind a tree and these little aes sedai and Ashaman can't possibly ARGH MY SPLEEN!!!!! I die now...'

And i do so love the marine campaign on Leth. SO much goodness in that storyline.


- Abyss, positively laughed out loud at that part.

[Terez]

Abyss;362246 said:

The Cleansing,

Spoiler

while innately cool, has one huge problem - the Forsaken, having been otherwise established as serious baddies and a real threat, act like morons wandering around in the forest and mostly get their butts whupped. What, none of them had a troop of trollocks handy? No one could bring down some massive strike and actually make the defenders work a little? Rain some fire! Hell, rain some Balefire! Do SOMEthing. But no, it's 'Mwahaha, i'm evil and hiding behind a tree and these little aes sedai and Ashaman can't possibly ARGH MY SPLEEN!!!!! I die now...'

Spoiler

Well, you have to consider that none of them really wanted to be there except for Cyndane, who had the misfortune of running into Alivia the Walking Arsenal as soon as she got there. But the REASON none of them wanted to be there is because Rand was using the FUCKING CHOEDAN KAL. None of them had a sa'angreal, and even if they did, they still wouldn't have been able to stand up to that. What would be the point in bringing a bunch of fucking TROLLOCS? Jeez. It only would have drawn more attention to them, which would be the last thing any of them wanted with that much power being channeled by the enemy. Anyway, the only reason they were there was because the Nae'blis ordered them to go. Moghedien had the most sense of all of them, showing up and staying as hidden as possible. Mesaana didn't even go, and got punished for it later. Moridin wasn't about to go when he had lackies to order around. Aginor had the best plan next to Moghedien's, trying to sneak up on them, but he didn't count on the crazy Black Ajah bitch being the one controlling Callandor. It seems no one encountered Demandred, which means at least he had the sense to hide until it was all over with, once he figured out he didn't stand a chance of breaking through that ring - he knew Callandor was being used. Most of them probably would have tried to sneak up on him if it weren't for Rand's ring of protection.

I don't think this scene was in any way intended to be a shining moment for any of the Forsaken. It was just a dirty job that none of them wanted to do, but they had no choice but to pretend to try. Cyndane was the only one crazy enough to actually want to go, but that's because she's got a serious rejection complex and wants to kill Rand probably more than she wants to live, in her present circumstances.

[frookenhauer]

Terez;362241 said:

Yeah, I agree that the one battle from Goodkind was well written. What book was that in? I forget.

Its not really that important, is it? Or is this one of them rhetorical questions, can't tell.

jitsukerr;361191 said:

No one's mentioned Feist yet. I love the final battle in A Darkness At Sethanon, and the siege of Bas-Tyra's citadel in the same book (where they fill barrels with naphtha and set the whole city alight in their retreat).

Can't say I actually remember much of feists' books, Magician was awesome and I remember Sethanon being good, but the decline in quality after that was fairly steep except for the serpentwar saga which I liked a lot. Was Sethanon the one with the oracle?

The problem with spoilers is

Spoiler

Read me, go on read me, you know you want me, read me, read me now

that its damn near impossible for me to

Spoiler

look at me, i wont spoil your fun, just a peek, go on, no harm, it'll still be just as good

not look inside them.

Spoiler

Spoilerisation just dont work!

Damn!

[ChrisW]

"It seems no one encountered Demandred"

umm I think you meant someone else as he did encounter and was attacked by one of the groups protecting Rand.

[Terez]

ChrisW;362492 said:

"It seems no one encountered Demandred"

umm I think you meant someone else as he did encounter and was attacked by one of the groups protecting Rand.

Spoiler

I didn't mean anyone else, but you're right - he was attacked by Cadsuane's hilltop group from a distance as soon as he gated in, and then again when he tried to gate away, and then he got attacked by Flinn's group. But he got away (obviously, since he lived, and so did everyone in Flinn's circle...the only kills were made by Elza, Graendal, and Aran'gar), probably not long after he figured out that Flinn's circle matched him in strength, which would be the point at which he figured out that he couldn't get through Rand's ring of protection, which is what I meant (though to be fair, I did phrase it badly). He meant to try wearing Flinn down but that probably didn't last long. No one else seems to have encountered him (though for all we know they could have all encountered him...we didn't get much in the way of details). Also, there were attacks on the hilltop from a distance for some time. I suppose that might have been all Semirhage but it seems unlikely she's the only one that figured out how to stay on the fringes and hide from those wandering circles (well, Alivia's not a circle, but she's Forsaken strength and carrying an arsenal that probably puts her on a level with some of the men).

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

frookenhauer;362351 said:

The problem with spoilers is

Spoiler

Read me, go on read me, you know you want me, read me, read me now

that its damn near impossible for me to

Spoiler

look at me, i wont spoil your fun, just a peek, go on, no harm, it'll still be just as good

not look inside them.

Spoiler

Spoilerisation just dont work!

Damn!

This makes me think of my post to Terez that was filled with spoiler tags. If you didn't read the spoilers, it looked like I was making lewd suggestions to her. With the spoilers, it didn't. I forget where it was. I want to read that post again.