[Macros]

Aw man the Tamuli,

Thats sparhawk and co yeah? Nostalgia blast but not good

[Abyss]

Still better than The Redemption of Al.

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 22 November 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

Still better than The Redemption of Al.

Which is still better than The Dreamers.

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 22 November 2016 - 09:49 PM, said:

Abyss, on 22 November 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

Still better than The Redemption of Al.

Which is still better than The Dreamers.

I can excuse that book. It was his first, and not really fantasy in the sense that The Belgariad was. It's everything after where so much went sideways.

[Maark Abbott]

Abyss, on 23 November 2016 - 06:11 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 22 November 2016 - 09:49 PM, said:

Abyss, on 22 November 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

Still better than The Redemption of Al.

Which is still better than The Dreamers.

I can excuse that book. It was his first, and not really fantasy in the sense that The Belgariad was. It's everything after where so much went sideways.

I actually liked Althalus, but Eddings is my go-to nostalgia guy because he was my first fantasy author.

At any rate all of the above are still better than Stormshite.

[Loki]

Abyss, on 20 November 2016 - 08:16 PM, said:

Having finished MAGIC BINDS in earbook, started Ernest Clines' ARMADA. And yes, I know, I know.... wanted something frivolous after the awesome/extended KATE DANIELS series binge and Peter Clines' (no relation) excellent THE FOLD. I can bail any time. And will if the protagonist spends any more time explaining how hot his mother is or otherwise solid narrator Will Wheaton is required to do much more of that awful voice for the ship AI.

In ebook IRON JACKAL stalled halfway just because of limited eyetime for reading. Was enjoying and will get back to it.

In pretty pictures, the upcoming LOGAN movie prompted me on the Marvel Meth app cuing up a WOLVERINE binge to run into the DEATH OF story and the various aftermath titles. Y'know... before they bring him back. Again.

In dead tree nothing. Utterly nothing. The stack sits quietly, amassing dust and misc mail. I think my local second hand store is going to get a massive donation soonish.

The Death of Wolverine was bad even by Marvels frequently very low standards. I dropped all the tie-in issues and fallout titles before he had even died. For something that was supposed to be momentous, they seriously phoned it in. For crying out loud, he died and then was still in X-Men titles for a few more issues. Well done, Marvel. Well done.

[MTS]

Abyss, on 22 November 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

Still better than The Redemption of Al.

Oh, Emmy!

Quote

I actually liked Althalus, but Eddings is my go-to nostalgia guy because he was my first fantasy author.

Feist took my fantasy cherry. I like that I can still go back to his books now, like the Empire series, the Riftwar and the Serpentwar. Haven't been able to do that with Eddings.

[Macros]

I think I read eddings before Feist,but reread belgariad and mallorean last year.
Just no oh so bad. Can't bring myself to reread Tamuli.
And redemption is just so so so bad it hurts

[Salt-Man Z]

Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view) I made the jump from Tolkien almost directly to Stephen R. Donaldson and then Erikson, so the likes of Feist and Eddings are completely unpalatable to me. (I read both Magician and the Belgariad on my wife's recommendation, and couldn't stand either one.)

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 23 November 2016 - 06:11 AM, said:

polishgenius, on 22 November 2016 - 09:49 PM, said:

Abyss, on 22 November 2016 - 08:22 PM, said:

Still better than The Redemption of Al.

Which is still better than The Dreamers.

I can excuse that book. It was his first, and not really fantasy in the sense that The Belgariad was. It's everything after where so much went sideways.

The Dreamers is his post-Althalus series, his last work. It's yet another on the let's-write-the-Belgariad-again churn.

It is awful. The second book in it is the first book ever that I didn't finish. He broke me. Literally flicked a switch in my brain, since then I don't finish books all the time.


Sometimes I think that I think that I had a lucky escape- I don't think I've ever come across anyone else who has read them or tried, I can only think that the others who did did finish and the effort killed them.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 23 November 2016 - 05:58 PM

[Chance]

Starting Magic Binds interrupting my Erikson marathon before Toll the Hounds which I was actually looking forward to, but I can't listen to a complicated 30+ hour audiobook with constant interruptions.


To chime in on the debate above the only feist or eddings possibly worth re-reading after finding better fare is Daughter of the Empire but even that might be tainted by nostalgia.

This post has been edited by Chance: 23 November 2016 - 06:01 PM

[polishgenius]

I actually still really like Magician. It has some of the old-school cliches and the writing is clunky in places but it also foreruns the later developments in epic fantasy- GRRM denies it I believe but I can't believe aSoIaF doesn't take huge inspiration from Magician, Westeros is essentially the Kingdom flipped sideways and the Starks are a straight lift of the ConDoins- and it has a proper fantasy-style sensawonda too. Nostalgia helps, but I think it still holds up in its own right too.

The later books, apart from the Empire trilogy, are weaker, but some of them still have their moments.

[Salt-Man Z]

I just read a short story called "I Remember My First Time" by Dylan Doose. It was free on Amazon and I was thoroughly impressed, enough to buy the first novel in the series, Fire and Sword (which is only $0.99 anyway.) The prose is what got me; a lot of self-published SFF stuff can have an awkwardness to it, but this dude is the real deal.

[Macros]

polishgenius, on 23 November 2016 - 06:07 PM, said:

I actually still really like Magician. It has some of the old-school cliches and the writing is clunky in places but it also foreruns the later developments in epic fantasy- GRRM denies it I believe but I can't believe aSoIaF doesn't take huge inspiration from Magician, Westeros is essentially the Kingdom flipped sideways and the Starks are a straight lift of the ConDoins- and it has a proper fantasy-style sensawonda too. Nostalgia helps, but I think it still holds up in its own right too.

The later books, apart from the Empire trilogy, are weaker, but some of them still have their moments.

Honoured Enemy is a superb novella (imo).

[Hairshirt]

I'm re-reading Acacia which I enjoyed the first time around when I first got into fantasy. I am really struggling to get through it this time. I've made it halfway through the second book and can't get through a few pages without putting it down.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

I finished the second book in Octavia Butler's Parables duology the other day. I don't think it ended that strongly, but the books as a whole work were incredible. They're basically a black mirror (not as in race, but as in the TV show) for what we've been experiencing over the past few years in the US. And they talk about trends - privatization of public services, loss of institutional authority, detachment from reality due to virtual omnisensory experiences, indentured labor of prisoners, global warming, and so on - that were around in the 90s (and still exist) taken to their semi-plausible extremes. There's even a Trump analogue.

They're absolutely worth a read. Not just because all of Butler's works set the bar for high-quality sociological speculation, but because they are written with such a deft touch and eye for humanity.



We are Earthseed

The life that perceives itself

Changing.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 24 November 2016 - 05:34 PM

[Andorion]

Reading Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

Interesting book, nice theme, strange way of telling the story

[JPK]

Ando, are you still reading Curse of the Mistwraith? I haven't seen you make any other comments since you mentioned starting it.

[Mentalist]

JPK, on 24 November 2016 - 06:45 PM, said:

Ando, are you still reading Curse of the Mistwraith? I haven't seen you make any other comments since you mentioned starting it.

was wondering the same thing, lol

[JPK]

I know he burns through books at a crazy rate. Hell he's likely going to finish Dark Tower before I do and I'm 200 pages into the last book. He usually makes comments on whatever he's reading though, and I haven't see anything since he said he stayed it.