Reading Suggestions?

[n3cr0]

This was a "review" I found online about Terry Goodkind's "The Sword of Truth" series:

 

Now here is my opinion of the series as a whole if you feel like continuing on to the other 11 books.

-Sword of Truth- Great read, one of best in series, it is possible to stop reading after this.

-Stone of Tears- another really good read, long, but still worth the read, again you can stop after this.

-Blood of the fold- Awesome book, highly reccomended but this one if a double bladed sword b/c the plot line for the rest of the story is introduced.

-Temple of the Winds- One of the top three in series, very good read.

-Soul of the fire- Here is where a bad shift occurs, not a great read, i only read because i wanted to finish the plot.

-Faith of the Fallen- Awesome read, Goodkind rebounds after this one.

-Pilars of Creation & Naked Empire- Neither were very good, a downhill turn, i found you can skip both of these and not miss many details.

Chainfire & Phantom- Goodkind redeems himself a bit with these, nothing compared to The first 4 books, but it makes the trek of finishing the plot much more bearable.

-Phantom- yet to be released but i'm praying for a miracle.

 

What do you all think of these reviews ... Its this type of thing that makes me wary to read a series, I don't particularly want to get involved in a plot only to have it fall off half-way through and barely be readable.

[Werthead]

I found Goodkind to be unreadable drivel of the highest order. His central two characters are fascists and lack any kind of convincing depth. There's a lot of disturbing imagery in the series: the heroes and their soldiers frequently murder innocent people and there are some fairly revolting sex scenes, and I say that as a broad-minded guy who's read Bakker, who doesn't exactly pull punches in that department either. The main problem is that the series is really just basic hack 'n' slash fantasy of the lowest common denominator but Goodkind is convinced he's some kind of literary genius exploring 'important human themes' (whilst having evil shapeshifting chickens running around and his wizard magically castrating people), which is incredibly funny. Goodkind is also a rabid anti-communist who doesn't seem to have realised the Cold War ended seventeen years ago and a proponent of Objectivism, a largely outdated and highly self-contradictary philosophy which hardly anyone's heard of outside of the USA and is not taught in any major university. In this sense Goodkind is a modern L. Ron Hubbard, though fortunately Goodkind hasn't tried to start a religion (yet).

 

A good example of how utterly stupid these books are is when the hero is imprisoned in the enemy's capital and put to work as a slave, but creates a huge and beautiful statue called 'Life' (IIRC the statue is of himself) which immediately inspires the civilian populace to rise up against their evil rulers. Dumb. For far more information on this author, check here.

 

As for SF authors, I already mentioned Peter F. Hamilton, who is now one of the biggest-selling SF writers around and deservedly so. I unreservedly recommend The Night's Dawn Trilogy (starting with The Reality Dysfunction), which has been described as Isaac Asimov meets Stephen King. David Brin has been writing great SF for nearly thirty years and his Uplift Saga is excellent (start with Startide Rising, as the first book is pretty poor). Ian McDonald's Brasyl is a bit challenging, but it's the best SF novel released this year. Alastair Reynolds and Richard Morgan are also well worth a look.

 

Have you tried Greg Bear's Blood Music? His best book by far IMO.

[Cadsuane]

I liked Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Diamond Age. His Cryptonomicon was also a fun read, but not sci-fi. I tried getting into one of his newer series, starting with Quicksilver, but after a graphic description of an experiment conducted on a dog, I just couldn't pick it up again.  :-\

 

Someone mentioned OS Card, who did a good job with some of the Ender books (my favorite is Speaker for the Dead), but his Worthing Saga is not as interesting. A couple of his Alvin Maker series books are quite good, others are less good but still not bad. I'd also recommend Kurt Vonnegut. Out of the handful of his works that I've read, Cats Cradle is the one that made the biggest impact on me.

 

[Ozhammer]

I have to admit my current fave is "Earth Abides" by George R Stewart. Set in San Fran after an epidemic has decimated the Earths population, it shows a realistic portrayal of events, and the decline of American society.

I also just finished Crichtons "Next" about genetics and their morals etc. fast paced and easy to read like mst of his work.

Also reading Terry Brooks Genesis of Shannara. Again, post-apocolyptic, and seeks to tie in his work in  Word and the Void series and his more famous Shannara works. The best stuff he's written in over a decade.

[Vambram]

I place RJ's WOT series as the best and greatest epic fantasy series of ALL time. When it comes to other fantasy writers I enjoy, then I also read books by Terry Brooks enjoying his Shannara novels and also his modern day fantasy books especially now that they are being written to show how earth went from modern days through an apocalypse, and then into the world as described in his Shannara novels. I am also a big time fan of GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire novels. Raymond Feist's books are for the most part very good.

In the genre of High Fantasy, or Epic Fantasy, I want to add a very very high recommendation to Steven Erickson's Malazan Books of the Fallen series. On a scale of 1 - 10, the WOT gets a big time 10 from this WoT fanatic here. But if you all want to try a series that is every bit as complex, but also very original as compared to other High Fantasy series, then I do indeed highly recommend the Malazan Books of the Fallen series, with a rating of 9 out of 10. :):):)

[Werthead]

I liked Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash  and Diamond Age. His Cryptonomicon was also a fun read, but not sci-fi. I tried getting into one of his newer series, starting with Quicksilver, but after a graphic description of an experiment conducted on a dog, I just couldn't pick it up again

 

That bit in Quicksilver made me gag a bit as well, but it's the worst bit in the trilogy. The rest is less disturbing. The problem is that the storyline involving Daniel Waterhouse is very dull, with the odd humourous interlude (King James II personally blowing up Daniel's father with a cannon) and this makes up about 50% of the trilogy. The rest, with Jack Shaftoe and Eliza wrecking havoc and mayhem across Europe and North Africa, is far superior. Personally I'd recommend trying Quicksilver again but just reading Part II of the book.

[Cadsuane]

Good to know, thanks. I'll definitely try it again as you've suggested. I was disappointed not to be more interested in it before I was too disturbed to continue, since the other 4 books I've read by him were, if not very engrossing, then at least entertaining. Quicksilver is one of the few (or only) books I've started and never finished, so it will be nice to be able take it off my record.  ;D

[n3cr0]

Quick question -- Is Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series the one about the guy that has leprosy and gets transported to another world when he gets hit by a car?

[Vambram]

Thats in the very first book, yes. *nods*

[Werthead]

I'm going to add the first two books of Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet to the mix: A Shadow in Summer and A Betrayal in Winter are both fantastic novels. In the UK they are published as an omnibus (The Long Price: Shadow and Betrayal). The next two books are called The Autumn War and The Price of Spring and should be out in 2008 and 2009 respectively in the USA. Not sure how the UK are going to handle it (The Long Price: Price and War?). It's a superb series, lyrical and original, like a mix of GRRM and Guy Gavriel Kay.

 

Abraham has also co-written a novel with GRRM and Gardner Dozois called Hunter's Run, which is supposed to be superb.

[Niamh Sedai]

Good to know, thanks. I'll definitely try it again as you've suggested. I was disappointed not to be more interested in it before I was too disturbed to continue, since the other 4 books I've read by him were, if not very engrossing, then at least entertaining. Quicksilver is one of the few (or only) books I've started and never finished, so it will be nice to be able take it off my record.  ;D

 

Yeah, I couldn't finish it either. I was really excited to read it and I just found it confusing. Quite an odd book!

[Nite Eyes]

werthead is right on about reading books in certain order to fully appreciate. my first two series were tolkien and jordan so the bar was set very

 

a few that were not mentioned that i really like so far are

Briar King-Keyes

Black Company-Cook

Sword of Shadows-Jones

 

a few others already mentioned that i would echo thier positive sentiment

farseer trilogy-hobb

dark elf triliogy-salvatore

riftwar saga-fiest

malazan book of fallen-erickson

and the first few books of sword of truth-goodkind

 

i really didnt care for thomas convenant the unbeliever's first book of the series, but im going to give the 2nd book a try cause i heard it was better, but it will need to be alot better.

 

another i read that i didnt care for was riddlemaster-alot of people seem to like it but i dont.

 

i think if you like martin and jordan, go with the briar king, the 2nd book is better than the first and the first gets pretty good

[Papermache]

I see many people talking about Terry Brooks as one of the brilliant writers. I have to disagree. I had heard about The Sword of Shannara years before I actually read it, before the First King of Shannara was published. Anyways, a friend finally got me to go to the store and buy one, I bought First King of Shannara and read it and it was pretty good, no complaints, fun to read, interesting, but it didn't have a very complex plot. Which is to be expected from a prequel. Liking it I went on to start the trilogy, and bought the Sword of Shannara, started reading it and found it very similar to TFKoS. Which is also to be expected from a prequel. So liking his work, I went out and bought the rest of the trilogy, and two more books. By the time I reached my fifth Terry Brooks book. I was bored. It's like reading THE SAME story with apples changed to oranges, women changed to men, and swords changed to axes.

 

I would recommend you read The Sword of Shannara, and that's it.

 

As for other authors, they have all been mentioned.

 

 

 

[keith_rogers_irl]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Ian Irvine's works.

"The View from the Mirror" quartet, the first book being called "A Shadow on The Glass", and his follow up Quartet "The Well of Echoes"(first book called "Geomancer") were excellent reads for me. His ideas are very origional and his writing style in some ways excell on RJ's.

Recently I came across "The Black Magician" trilogy by Trudi Canavan, an Australian writer. The first book is called "The Magicians Guild". This was a very enjoyable book with a great plot. I've started to read another one of her series called "Age of the Five" Halfway through the first book and it's every bit as enjoyable as her First series..

I've read "A song Of Ice and Fire" Series up to the forth book, and it's one of the most origional books I've come across in a long time. GRRM is ruthless when it comes to his Charries.

As for the Shannarah series, I've had the first book for about a year and can't bring myself to finish it...

[Karana Majin]

A really good sci fi book I enjoyed was Frank Herbert's (of Dune fame) The White Plague.  It's a stand alone and pretty good.

 

I can't believe no one has mentioned my new crush (and I didn't discover her until after she died a year or so ago, which makes me sad).  Octavia Butler!  Amazing, amazing, amazing is all I can say about her work.  I think the Lillith's Brood series is her most famous.  It starts with a post apocolyptic world and it just wrenches you through changes in humanity.  The series is Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago.  Gripping!  Then she wrote another series called Seed to Harvest about an immortal supernatural being who selectively bred humans for his own purposes for thousands of year, and eventually his breeding experiments rise against him... Sooooo good!  That series starts with Wild Seed.  A great stand alone is Kindred, where a modern woman keeps going back in time to a slave plantation in the american South.

 

I'm going tomorrow to the library to pick up the three vampire books of hers I put on hold at the library.  I fully expect them to be as awesome as everything else of hers I have ever read.  I'm telling you, good stuff!

 

Otherwise, I'll echo some sentiments.  I found Goodkind's first book to be great.  I wish I had never read another one.  Martin is a GOD among literary giants.  My all time favorite fantasy author, bar none.  Symphony of the Ages was ok.  Not too complex or challenging, but entertaining.  Liked Tad Williams, also.

 

I'm going way out on a limb here, but I have a bad habit of speed reading too many books.  There was a book I read a long time ago that I have been trying to remember anything about... all I can remember is that there were elves and humans and this human woman underwent some sort of ritual/transformation and was turned into an elf.  Does that ring any bells with anyone?

 

KarStar

[Brandon Sanderson]

Way back on the first page, somebody mentioned NAME OF THE WIND, by Rothfuss, and I'd give it a second vote.  Read it now, the first year it's out, like I did with WHEEL OF TIME when I was a kid.  This guy's going to be around for a while.

 

Daniel Abraham is another author to check out.  I think he's under-appreciated, and well worth a read.

 

And then, there's always that Brandon Sanderson guy...  ;)

[Vambram]

For science fiction I recommend Christopher Priest (best known for The Prestige, recently a major movie, and the genius novel The Separation) and Peter F. Hamilton, who writes enormous, fun space opera series. The Night's Dawn Trilogy (starting with The Reality Dysfunction) is his finest work. Richard Morgan's dark future noir thrillers are excellent, starting with Altered Carbon. Alastair Reynolds is also worth a look for his Revelation Space universe. Chasm City is probably the best place to start there. David Brin, Brian Aldiss and Paul McAuley are also all worth a look in the field.

 

Werthead, thank you for all of your reviews. And I really do want to give a special thanks and thumbs-up for your recommendation of Peter Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy. About a month ago, I finished all three massive books of this epic space opera science fiction trilogy. I must say, that Hamilton is an excellent author, and The Night's Dawn Trilogy is one of the very best science fiction trilogies that I have EVER read.

Thank you, Werthead.

[Werthead]

Not a problem.

 

* nods in approval *

 

My work here is done.

 

;D

[Kivam]

I found Goodkind to be unreadable drivel of the highest order. His central two characters are fascists and lack any kind of convincing depth. There's a lot of disturbing imagery in the series: the heroes and their soldiers frequently murder innocent people and there are some fairly revolting sex scenes, and I say that as a broad-minded guy who's read Bakker, who doesn't exactly pull punches in that department either. The main problem is that the series is really just basic hack 'n' slash fantasy of the lowest common denominator but Goodkind is convinced he's some kind of literary genius exploring 'important human themes' (whilst having evil shapeshifting chickens running around and his wizard magically castrating people), which is incredibly funny. Goodkind is also a rabid anti-communist who doesn't seem to have realised the Cold War ended seventeen years ago and a proponent of Objectivism, a largely outdated and highly self-contradictary philosophy which hardly anyone's heard of outside of the USA and is not taught in any major university. In this sense Goodkind is a modern L. Ron Hubbard, though fortunately Goodkind hasn't tried to start a religion (yet).

 

A good example of how utterly stupid these books are is when the hero is imprisoned in the enemy's capital and put to work as a slave, but creates a huge and beautiful statue called 'Life' (IIRC the statue is of himself) which immediately inspires the civilian populace to rise up against their evil rulers. Dumb. For far more information on this author, check here.

 

The statue is actually of both himself and his love interest.

 

The first few books were actually readable, if not particularly amazing . . . after that, Goodkind got enough pull with the publisher to be able to make the series into his objectivist manifesto (that bent was clearly visible in the early books, too, but it was subtler and didn't overwhelm the story).  Reading his later stuff feels like being hit on the head with a giant hammer inscribed with "THIS IS THE POINT I WANT YOU TO LEARN"

 

The only author who rivals Goodkind for painfulness is Robert Newcomb; I actually had to review his work for a magazine (I'm convinced my editor enjoyed my bad reviews more than my good ones, so he kept sending me Newcomb) so I own a galley of Savage Messaiah (his 4th book).  The only reason I haven't tossed it is I figure I can use it to punish my kids with when they get old enough (and do something bad enough, like rob a liquor store).

 

So . . . yeah, stay away from those two.

 

One author that nobody here seems to have read is PC Hodgell.  Her Kencyr series is a cult classic for those in the know - something like 4 books and a novella over 20 years, and she has a contract (finally) with a major publishing house to put the 5th book out soon.  Look for City of Gods (the first in the series) or Dark of the Gods (an omnibus of the first 2 books).  You won't be disappointed.

 

Hey, Werthead - here's a project for you.  Go get Dark of the Gods and review it.  I promise, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Kivam]

Otherwise, I'll echo some sentiments.  I found Goodkind's first book to be great.  I wish I had never read another one.  Martin is a GOD among literary giants.  My all time favorite fantasy author, bar none.  Symphony of the Ages was ok.  Not too complex or challenging, but entertaining.  Liked Tad Williams, also.

 

The amazing thing about that is I went out and bought Symphony of Ages after reading Haydon's short story in Legends II.

 

To give you an idea of how amazing that story was - the other authors who contributed to that anthology were Brooks, GRRM, Anne McCaffery (her story was awful), Neil Gaiman, Diana Gabaldon, Tad Williams, Robert Silverberg, Robin Hobb, Orson Scott Card and Raymond E. Feist.

 

Bar none, Haydon's story was the best of the bunch.  Nobody else really came close.

 

If you haven't read Legends or Legends II, by the way, go buy them.

[ShinyThingsGood]

As far as fantasy goes, GRRM's song of ice and fire I enjoyed more the WoT.  After WoT though, I would certainly urge anyone to read Feist's riftwar and serpentwar saga's.  In the sci-fi genre, in which I am drastically less well-read, my personal favorite has long been Orson Scott Card's Ender series.  Also, I went back and checked Necro's original request, and nowhere in there does he specify fantasy and sci-fi only, and that seems to be all the reccomendations I've seen here.  Completely understandable, considering the nature of DM but whenever I am asked for a reading suggestion I have to mention Stephen King's Dark Tower series.  Far from King's usual hack-and-slash style, which I personally don't care for although he is always an exceptionally good storyteller, the Dark Tower is King's life work, his magnum opus, and it comes through brilliantly.  In it he combines elements of fantasy, sci-fi, western, thriller, and basically any other genre you can shake a stick at.  My favorite books ever, and IMHO if you like to read, you will ejoy these books.

[Vambram]

The seven book Dark Tower series is a literary masterpiece by Stephen King. Those seven books always make up my list I give to anyone who wants recommendations of which Stephen King novels to read.