Ilumino Ilumino

Shannara and other great reads

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Shannara and other great reads

from Elemental Forums

 

 

I have been a fan of Terry Brooks' Shannara series for a long time.  I just started reading the Genesis of Shannara trilogy a couple weeks ago and have absolutely loved it.  My favorite series of his books have always been the "Scions", but Genesis may be a contender.

I've tried other modern fantasy authors like R.A Salvatore, but they all left a bad taste in my mouth and just felt a little dry to me.

I've sampled some of his other works, like "Magic Kingdom For Sale", but really couldn't get past the first book.  It kind of felt a little like a watered down fantasy world to me.

Anyway, Shannara is by far my favorite modern fantasy setting.  I love how Brooks spices up high fantasy with a touch of science.  I hear that there is a movie in the works as well (which may be good or bad depending on how you look at it).

Anybody else read any of the books?

 

 

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Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I'm very glad to see another thread fishing for leads on another 'good read.'

If you're looking for some stuff a little less TV-like, I recommend the early works of a woman who also seems to have learned to earn by writing for TV: Martha Wells. I like her early novels City of Bones and Wheel of the Infinite perhaps a bit more than the Il-Rien stories, but I love it all because she has a fabulous sense of history and a great feeling for 'the other worlds.'

Reply #27 from Demigod Forums Top

I have read Tad Williams (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn) trilogy, Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time), Weiss and Hickman (Too numerous to mention) and I have to say that my all time favorite author is George R.R Martin (Song of fire and ice I believe).

The characters that Martin creates are amazing and they really pull you in.  Honestly Martins story isn't even that creative but its the way that he writes and the characters he creates that make it so interesting.  If you havn't picked up "A Game of Thrones" I definatly suggest it.

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Reply #28 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Charvel1, reply 9



Stephen Donaldson: Thomas Covenant series (CLASSIC CLASSIC CLASSIC with MANY moving and heart-wrenching sequences). For me this series is second ONLY to the LOTR.

 

When I saw this thread, I was planning to mention the Covenant series as well. But someone beat me to it :) It's second on my list as well, after Lord of the Rings. The OP described it, after reading the first book, as:

Quoting Ilumino,

This is a story about an incredibly depressed, pessimistic loser who has to carry a mysterious "magic gold ring" to the "council of Elrond Lords", led by a "ranger" girl because the "Dark Lord" is going to return to conquer the world.  This is another Lord of the Rings clone, except this time, the hero has leprosy, is a rapist, and a moron.

It's exactly what made the book stand out for me. Not the LoTR clone part. Which I don't agree with really. Most books can be viewed as LoTR clones, where the ring is replaced by some other artifact or a piece of knowledge and the 'Dark Lord' is replaced by some other antagonist(s). What I did like was the fact that the 'hero' in this series is flawed, and goes through a massive personality change throughout the series, instead of being the 'I can do and know everything and I reveal more and more superpowers and superknowledge with each passing chapter' type of hero that you see all too often. These type of heroes annoy me to death.

Someone else mentioned Terry Pratchet, the Discworld series. If you like a lot of humour in your fantasy, this is the one to read.

If you like something more 'out there', I would recommend 'Perdido Street Station' by China Mieville. It's a mix of fantasy, horror and SF, steam punk like, set in a rather grim city 'somewhere in time'.

Even more out there is the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. The book has one of the baddest villains I have ever seen in any book, a character called Steerpike. I have to warn though. This one is for language lovers. People who like to read for the sake of reading and who enjoy language. There's little action. The author, Mervyn Peake, is a painter first by profession and he also wrote books. His painting background shows in his books. He writes like a painter. What I mean by that: he uses words on paper to paint a world, an image and atmosphere, and the characters in it, much like he would use paint on a canvas. His books are very detailed and he uses a very broad vocabulary. The actual action is thin.

Reply #29 from Demigod Forums Top

Dan Abnett - Gaunts Ghosts

Actually... anything from here

 

Dune -All 15 and counting novel ... The Paul of Dune Trilogy just started!

SAGA of the Seven Suns - Fantastic 7 novels are all out now. I read them back to back witohut a break.

 

Reply #30 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Ilumino, reply 21

Actually "Running with the Demon" is a prequel to the Shannara series.  The world of Shannara takes place in North America, after armageddon in the future.

A lot of good stuff here.  I'm going on a road trip this weekend and would like to get the audio version of some your suggestions.  Could you guys list the suggested reading order for some of these authors/series?  I'd like to try Goodkind or maybe Donaldson.

You *do* know that Running With The Demon is just the 1st book in the 3-book series The Word and The Void right?  Running With the Demon, A Knight of the Word, Angel Fire East.  The Genesis of Shannara series takes place approximately 100 years after the Word and the Void series.