Conan? Fallon Blood? Elantis? MIstborn? Warbreaker? Alcatraz?

[kilika]

I've never really seen any of these on the shelves in UK (except Conan that is) but I'd like to acquaint myself with Brandon Sanderson before AMoL

And I feel I owe it to myself to read anything James Rigney Jr wrote

 

So I was just wondering what people's opinions are on these books

 

Cheers

thekilikabeast

[son omerc]

I've read the whole Conan series by Jordan, I don't really care for Conan so not having read the other writer's stories I can't really compare and contrast, but they are well written stories. Not on the level of TWoT by any means and the charecters are not well fleshed out literally. It may have been that RJ was writing in a well established story that he didn't feel that he needed the in depth description as his new world in TWoT did. I'd rate his Conan books as typical young man Fantasy. There is sex and well endowed females to make the typical reader of this genre happy and plenty of fights to keep the pace moving. The worst, in my opinion, is the rewrite of the movie script but I feel he made the story more intersting than the movie but he was just too constrained by having the plot already laid out and the stricture of following that inevitable plot line really took away from his style.

[son omerc]

I've only read two of the Fallon novels, the first two so don't worry that I will spoil the ending  ;D

 

The story is based loosely on actual events during the American Revolution in book one, the War of 1812 in book two and as I haven't read book three I can not comment. The setting in general is in the American South with side trips to other locales. These books are adult historical fiction with quite a bit sexual content. This is the series for those who think TWoT books to be too staid. Again these books are not as detailed as TWoT but characters are treated to a bit more depth than we see in Conan but nowhere near the level of TWoT series. I found the sexual escapades to be a bit overboard for my tastes but others may find them refreshing and truer to actual human behavior. These books preceed the Conan series that he did.

 

Again, actual historical fact limits the story to some extent. He doesn't have the freedom of the world he creates for TWoT and it shows. Still a decent story.

[Luckers]

Mmm, I honestly couldn't get into either Conan or Fallon--but ive come to reguard Mistborn as one of my favourite series'. Elantris and Alcatraz i enjoyed, but thought they were more or less pretty ordinary, but Mistborn is brilliant.

[son omerc]

Cheyanne Raiders, which you didn't specifically ask about but WAS written by Jim Rigney, is my favorite of his previous novels. It is a stand alone novel set in the American West prior to our nation's expansion. Again it is based on history so it is somewhat limited but of the books I've read is most similar to TWoT series in style. It is probably a novel that I will read again later and I can't really say that of either the Fallon series or the Conan books. It is adult oriented with sex but not quite as blatant as the Fallon books.

 

Afraid it will be up to others to help you out on Sanderson's work. AMoL will most likely be the first book I will read by him. Hope these have been of some help. I am pretty sure all his previous books have been reprinted recently by Forge, a subsiderary of TOR, the only question being Conan as I have the original books and not the Trade Paperbacks I've seen recently in bookstores. Availability shouldn't be an issue on American sites but you may not wish to deal with the international shipping issues and currency problems.

[Hybrid]

I agree that Mistborn was awesome.  There was a single plot development I didn't like towards the end of the second book (I won't spoil it though) but otherwise it's very inventive and well-written and delves a lot into the darker sides of humanity as well as the lighter sides.  Elantris I liked a lot at first, but the book isn't as good upon subsequent rereads.  A lot of its appeal, I think, is in the mystery that is the core of the plot, and without that it simply doesn't reach beyond ordinary. 

[kilika]

Cheers folks

Conan doesn't really interest me and I'm not too sure I'd be that keen on American history novels being Scottish  :P  but i might give them a go because its RJ.

 

Never even heard of Cheyanne Raiders before so thanks son o'merc.

 

As for Brandon Sanderson's work - I'll definitely read Mistborn and probably the others as well - we have a full year to wait for AMoL after all (fingers crossed).

 

I'm reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Stephen Erickson at the moment.  Somewhat different to tWoT but still highly enjoyable if a little confusing at times. 

 

Are there any other books written by James Rigney under one of his many aliases?

[son omerc]

The only books I'm aware of are the ones I listed.Three Falon books as Reagan O'Neal,six Conan books as Robert Jordan and Cheyenne Raiders as Jackson O'Reilly. Maybe someone else has heard of another other than his first unpublished manuscript I've heard mention of.