Why I love (I mean hate) the books

[Tiberius]

Actually I'm starting to hate the books.

 

I was walking around the library today looking for a series that I can dive into. And I kept measuring up everything I saw against the Wheel of Time and found them lacking.

 

Most of the series out there are all the same.

 

Elf, dwarf, orc, or some sub human race of people. Check

Dragons. Check

Everyone speaks the same language. (Well that is Wheel of Time but I lived with it) Check

Zombie's or vampiers or some trendy paranormal creature. Check

 

Ok lets look at science fiction. I would if people actually wrote Sci Fi outside of Star Trek.

 

I'm in desperate state of being here. I need a series to read for a few years again.

Look for Julian May's series. First trilogy is the Pliocene Exile, book one is "The Many Colored Land". Stick with it. It gets awesome. I think its a 10 book series divided into two trilogies and a whatever a four bookilogoy is called.

[thisguy]

Actually I'm starting to hate the books.

 

I was walking around the library today looking for a series that I can dive into. And I kept measuring up everything I saw against the Wheel of Time and found them lacking.

 

Most of the series out there are all the same.

 

Elf, dwarf, orc, or some sub human race of people. Check

Dragons. Check

Everyone speaks the same language. (Well that is Wheel of Time but I lived with it) Check

Zombie's or vampiers or some trendy paranormal creature. Check

 

Ok lets look at science fiction. I would if people actually wrote Sci Fi outside of Star Trek.

 

I'm in desperate state of being here. I need a series to read for a few years again.

Look for Julian May's series. First trilogy is the Pliocene Exile, book one is "The Many Colored Land". Stick with it. It gets awesome. I think its a 10 book series divided into two trilogies and a whatever a four bookilogoy is called.

What's it about?

[night_day]

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but Patrick Rothfuss Kingkiller Chronicle is really a different type of fantasy all together. The first two books are just incredible. (Third book is still to come)

[Suttree]

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but Patrick Rothfuss Kingkiller Chronicle is really a different type of fantasy all together. The first two books are just incredible. (Third book is still to come)

 

Pat is indeed one of the more promising young fantasy authors out. Excellant prose and just a fabulous story.

 

Another is Scott Lynch's "Gentlemen Bastards" sequence. Here is hoping he can overcome his issues and make some headway on the next installment.

 

Finally R. Scott Bakker is my absolute favorite author in the genre right now. The "Prince of Nothing" and "Aspect Emperor" series really raise the bar for what fantasy cane be. He is on a somehat small press in the US and I hope everyone supports his work. He is a true talent.

[Knivy]

I was about to suggest the Otherland series when I remembered it was by Tad Williams. I definitely recommend his books, as well as those of Brent Weeks and BS. Another series I suggest is the Kingkiller Chronicles. This one will be frustrating as there are only two books out at the present, and the final one isn't scheduled to be released until 2014, but I enjoy it.

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet, but Patrick Rothfuss Kingkiller Chronicle is really a different type of fantasy all together. The first two books are just incredible. (Third book is still to come)

 

;)

[Tiinker]

PETER HAMILTON - The Reality Dysfunction trilogy. Give this damn sci-fi book a shot cuz it's amazing. Star trek? What's star trek? Peter Hamilton.

[Ashaman Kovan]

I still need to read the Chronicles of Thomas (SP) Covenant. I've heard good and bad things about it but the main character is who my middle name is derived from. Kovan, because My dad wanted covenant but my incubator thought that was too weird, so he changed it to coven but my incubator said that was the whole coven of witches thing, so he went with Kovan. Just some useless information for your (dis)pleasure. : ]

[Veracohr]

Patrick Rothfuss' books are also one of my new favorites.

 

Another of my old favorites that hasn't been mentioned is Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon series (Mists of Avalon).

[Ashaman Kovan]

I personally recommend The Sword of Truth series. People hate me for it, but if you can get past TG's penchant for preaching his philosophy every other page it's actually a great read. In my opinion. *Prepares to be flamed to ashes"

[Knivy]

Its the same story as WoT, almost to exact events. The only difference is that in WoT, Rand uses an army while Richard uses smaller groups.

[Suttree]

I personally recommend The Sword of Truth series. People hate me for it, but if you can get past TG's penchant for preaching his philosophy every other page it's actually a great read. In my opinion. *Prepares to be flamed to ashes"

 

You are a brave man Kovan. Although the SoT hate seems to have lessened around here as of late. I'm sure you remember back when the mere mention of the series(or even Goodkind) would lead to a massive 20 page plus flamewar.

[Ashaman Kovan]

I personally recommend The Sword of Truth series. People hate me for it, but if you can get past TG's penchant for preaching his philosophy every other page it's actually a great read. In my opinion. *Prepares to be flamed to ashes"

 

You are a brave man Kovan. Although the SoT hate seems to have lessened around here as of late. I'm sure you remember back when the mere mention of the series(or even Goodkind) would lead to a massive 20 page plus flamewar.

 

I will take the compliment of me being brave with a grain of salt lol. And yes, I remember the flame wars very well. I think I may have some blisters left over from it. Good times eh? lol

[Veracohr]

I'm new here and therefore not aware of any Sword of Truth hate, and so I'm not ashamed to say I like it. Can't say I"ve noticed any 'philosophy'.

[Knivy]

The only thing I didnt like about it was how disconnected all the books are. There is really no connection between book one and book five, for example.

[Suttree]

I'm new here and therefore not aware of any Sword of Truth hate, and so I'm not ashamed to say I like it. Can't say I"ve noticed any 'philosophy'.

 

Ignorance is bliss eh?

[Oort]

Read some of SoT before i learned about WoT; I liked it at first, but it became a tedious read as the series progressed, all the preaching on the "philosophy", retcons and things happening out of nowhere made them unreadable for me.

 

Robin Hobb is excellent, ofcourse her books in the Farseer universe, but i liked her other trilogy (Soldiers Son) as well, planning on reading the new(er) books between i finishing my reread (soon) and aMoL

 

The Chronicles of Amber are really good (only read the first 4) very original story.

 

Although it has elves dwarfs humans, superhumans and dragons, i really liked the deathgate cycle, that got me into fantasy. (they do have language barriers between the species though)

 

As for sci fi, not a big reader, but all of asimov's work on the foundation (and all of the books in that universe). I've read all in order of publication date, that's a lot of jumps back and forth through time, but it is a great story.

[Ashaman Kovan]

I'm new here and therefore not aware of any Sword of Truth hate, and so I'm not ashamed to say I like it. Can't say I"ve noticed any 'philosophy'.

 

Say whaaa? I've read them all multiple times and am a big fan, but even I can see TG preachiness get wayyy out of hand throughout the series. I guess I'm glad for you that you didn't notice it. : ]

[TristanWebb]

I enjoyed the first book of the Sword of Truth, but by about book four it was soooo preachy about how bad communism is that I out down the series. It felt like I had gone back in time to the seventies. We all know soviet style communism fails, because it had done so a decade before the book was written, I dont need a fantasy book coming late to the party.

[rettus]

I liked the Belgerad and the Mallorean by David Eddings. Pretty good books.

I know this is blasphemy on this website but the first like 4 books of the sword of truth series by Goodkind really are pretty good.

 

As far as scifi goes i can recommend Orson Scott Card- Enders Game. And the rest of the series though not as good as the first book.

[thisguy]

I liked the Belgerad and the Mallorean by David Eddings. Pretty good books.

I know this is blasphemy on this website but the first like 4 books of the sword of truth series by Goodkind really are pretty good.

 

As far as scifi goes i can recommend Orson Scott Card- Enders Game. And the rest of the series though not as good as the first book.

 

Ender's Game was good. Never read the rest of them. Iain Banks writes some good Sci Fi. Have only read a couple of books. The stories aren't mindblowing but I like his vision of the future - as in, I think he has some good ideas.

[MarkDiLillo]

While I find that guys post about how terrible WoT is to be completely off base, I will give it to him that the Asmodean killer plot was handled very poorly. There are also legit criticisms of the series that I agree with, but I don't necessarily look at them as criticisms as much as "it could have been better if soandso happened". It is not supposed to be a dark and gritty fantasy series - it is supposed to be a standard HAPPY and G-Rated fantasy series about a savior/hero. Unfortunately, WoT was so well done that many readers want more from it and feel like it fell short. IMO, this is the result of extremely high quality writing combined with meticulous planning and world building paired with a very simple plot/story. If you think about it, WoT is a grand serise with immense details and a ton of characters that is wonderfully well written...yet the actual plot and storyline is very simple and very much done before. It is the typical hero/savior story that has been spun out 1000s of times already.

 

Secondly, the SoT series is flat out of the worst series of books I have ever wasted time reading. And frankly, I have not even read most of them. The first couple were such a blatant rip off of WoT that I was actually disgusted, and the later ones interjected political beliefs into the books so strongly and poorly that they were barely readable by anyone who was not ignorant of the topics he was trying to preach. The fact that Goodkind has made so much money off of that trash is unbelievable to me. Readers who enjoy that series are typically younger readers whom have a limited exposure to that particular genre of fantasy and a similarly limited exposure to the themes he tries to preach.

[Ashaman Kovan]

Secondly, the SoT series is flat out of the worst series of books I have ever wasted time reading. And frankly, I have not even read most of them. The first couple were such a blatant rip off of WoT that I was actually disgusted, and the later ones interjected political beliefs into the books so strongly and poorly that they were barely readable by anyone who was not ignorant of the topics he was trying to preach. The fact that Goodkind has made so much money off of that trash is unbelievable to me. Readers who enjoy that series are typically younger readers whom have a limited exposure to that particular genre of fantasy and a similarly limited exposure to the themes he tries to preach.

 

I find your post to be completely off base. If you haven't read most of them, as you yourself said then you have no room to talk about them in such a harsh manner. Read them all, them come back and talk about it. Actually form your own opinion instead of just repeating what everyone always says about them. Then I'll debate you. Also, you don't get to decide that readers who enjoyed them are "typically younger readers whom have a limited exposure to that particular genre of fantasy and a similarly limited exposure to the themes he tries to preach.". Very judgmental of you to say. Should try being a little less offensive and you might get a better response.

[Veracohr]

Ender's Game was good. Never read the rest of them. Iain Banks writes some good Sci Fi. Have only read a couple of books. The stories aren't mindblowing but I like his vision of the future - as in, I think he has some good ideas.

 

I definitely recommend the rest of the Ender books. They have a different feel because they were written differently, and the stories are good. If you don't mind some religion increasingly entering the books. He has lots of other great books too: the Homecoming series, Pastwatch, etc.

[thisguy]

Ender's Game was good. Never read the rest of them. Iain Banks writes some good Sci Fi. Have only read a couple of books. The stories aren't mindblowing but I like his vision of the future - as in, I think he has some good ideas.

 

I definitely recommend the rest of the Ender books. They have a different feel because they were written differently, and the stories are good. If you don't mind some religion increasingly entering the books. He has lots of other great books too: the Homecoming series, Pastwatch, etc.

I am far from religious but I LOVE religion in stories. Part of the reason I love tWoT - all the mythology and religious subtext. Thanks for that. I'll check them out when I'm down with my reread. Should by done with LoC tonight. It's like running a marathon - more like reading a marathon - rereading these books.

[yoniy0]

Don't! The rest of the Ender series are increasingly bad, filled with deus ex machina and pop-psychology. If you like Ender's Game (and I can't imagine why you wouldn't), try the Shadow series instead. It's much better.