Are you a factual or fiction man, or both?
Reading a good book at the moment called the Desert Spear (Part of the painted man series). Read the first one in two days on holiday -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Painted_Man

Worth a read if you're a fantasy fan!
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 8 Nov 2010, 14:19, 1 reply)

before reading this
I will need to have your opinion on several other authors

describe the works of these people in one word each:
David Eddings
Robin Hobb
Terry Goodkind
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 8 Nov 2010, 15:27, closed)

Are they worth looking at??
Don't think Peter V Brett is held in the same regard as these guys maybe??? Anyway here it goes in a word -

American

Joking aside, I am not a hardcare fantasy fan just read the popular stuff like, Raymond E Feist (Rift war saga) etc...and happening to be reading another fantasy book at the moment, can't compare it to the works of the authors you mentioned because I have not read their books...would be intested in reading some of their stuff....If it's worth it??? They seem to write stuff that may be much more epic than the painted man.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 8 Nov 2010, 16:06, closed)

David Eddings is very popular
but I have come to realise that most of his stuff is shit.

Robin Hobb is great, well worth reading.

Terry Goodkind is a tricky one. I really like his Sword of Truth series, but that's mainly because the first 5 books are ace. The rest of the 13/14 drag on a bit. They're all massive on their own frankly, so it's probably one for the hardcore fantasy reader.

The popular stuff is usually the good stuff with fantasy to be honest.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 8 Nov 2010, 16:23, closed)

Robin Hobb eh Vipros?
I'll check her out (think it's a lady from my earlier research). Should be interesting as some male fantasy writers call in women to help with character development as they find it hard to write from a females perspective. Nearly finished the painted man books and he isn't releasing the 3rd one in the series for another two years!! He's already sold the film rights to that shit director that produced the first/two resident evil films.

Think I'll check her out on Amazon. From what I can tell The painted man will be a bit lightweight for your tastes and definately not epic enough. Cheers for the tip though. which series do you reccomend as an intro?


The Realm of the Elderlings
The Tawny Man Trilogy
The Rain Wild Chronicles
Soldier Son Trilogy
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Mon 8 Nov 2010, 16:37, closed)

she is indeed a ladywoman
Soldier Son is a bit weird to start out with, I don't know the first one, and the other two are sequel trilogies.

I'd go with The Liveship Traders trilogy, or the Farseer trilogy if you can find them.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 8 Nov 2010, 16:57, closed)

Farseer Trilogy
ftw....

Also, check out David Gemmel. My all-time favourite book is "Legend"

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 4:48, closed)

I've been meaning to read that for a while

( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 9:06, closed)

Checked out the Farseer trilogy (amazon £6)
It does look good, I like the assasain element to it, not much magic but I am sure this is developed a bit more within the trilogy. Had a quick look at Legend (amazon £5) as well. I feel there may be more scope for epic battles in this will check out both, as suspected Hobb is famed for her character development rather than epic battles etc....Cheers for the tips!
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 10:39, closed)

that is the case
if you want magic and violence then the Terry Goodkind stuff is for you
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 11:25, closed)

Since I last posted
I have been reading a whole bunch of reviews, the Farseer trilogy just sounds too good not to take a chance on it. Magic and violence is always a selling point for me but feeling empathy and knowing the characters is what keeps me going, will check out Goodkind as well, can't beat a magician going mental, thats why I loved Raymonds E Feist's Magician so much.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 11:43, closed)

Hobb's stuff really is very good
hope you enjoy it :-)
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 15:24, closed)

Farseer trilogy it is then
Cheers!

Edit - Are you guys also Sci-Fi fans? Again i'm not hardcore but love things like, China Melville's Perdido street station......So basically stuff that's very original that hasn't really been done before.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 10:40, closed)

yeah, fucking love sci fi
I prefer the more modern stuff, so Iain M Banks' Culture novels (Player of Games and Excession in particular) and Alastair Reynolds' stuff (try Revelation Space)

I've had a lot of good recommendations from using b3ta. If you want more visit b3ta.com/offtopic and just ask.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 15:26, closed)

i think iain m banks
Has a command of the english language even beyond william gibsons.
Look To Windward leaves me a quivering jelly every time I read it - utterly heartbreaking but at the same time beautiful as well.
(tjn whizzing on the electric fence of life, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 16:52, closed)

I agree
and I also love Look to Windward and for some reason always forget about it.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 17:02, closed)

One word....
Eddings - pedestrian. The belgariad's a great read because it obeys all the rules. Unfortunately he uses up all his good ideas so there is no point going further.
Hobb - challenging. She breaks a lot of the rules that Eddings doesn't, there are few moral absolutes in her work. Excellent reading because they keep you guessing, even if they can frustrate due to a lack of 'happy ever after'.
Goodkind - GHASTLY. Don't even bother. The early stuff is quite obviously a second rate plagiarism of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and after that it devolves into an almost completely unreadable defence of objectivist philosophy. No amount of tortured English (believe me, he tries so hardit's embarrassing) can make that hysterical hooey sound reasonable. This series of books is just dreadful. Read the WOT, even if the original author did die before finishing it, and I admit books 6-10 are a little slow, it's infinitely better than anything in the Sword of Truth.

Cheers
I-M
(infinite_monkey, Tue 9 Nov 2010, 14:50, closed)

Thank IM
Hobbs definately stuck out as an author that has made a lot of people very happy, with the odd impatient person not liking her works.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 14:12, closed)

good review
I'm revisiting the Sword of Truth stuff at the moment, and the first few books aren't actually all that bad, as I go on I am getting more into the terrible philosophising.

The trouble is, they made a tv series, and I am infatuated with the woman in it...
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 10 Nov 2010, 15:24, closed)