f13.net

I am now officially a hopeless fanboi. I picked up a few Warcraft novels last night at Border's. Couldn't resist. The RTS's never interested me that much, but here I am now, turning every page and enjoying it.

Anyone else read these? Yeah, it's mindless 8th grade lvl material, a few ripoffs of Warhammer here and there, but so far, it isn't bad at all (if all you want is some light reading). It's nice to get a backdrop on WoW as well.

I think Righ read a couple of pages.  It's still sitting in the bathroom.  He's moved on and is reading some rather dodgey sounding books about political conspiracies.  Soon the sight of it will begin to bother me and I'll probably toss it.  Since we have two games, we have two books.  The other one will stay in it's box until we move again where it will end up in a dusty corner as a present to the new occupants, unless, of course, you want it.  

So... umm... no.

Can I have the extra book?

Sure.  PM me your address.

I read the first three Warcraft novels a while back. I just started reading the new trilogy this past week.

As much as I enjoy playing fantasy games, I dislike reading fantasy or science fiction novels, for the most part.  I kinda liked The Hobbit and all those sequels. :)

I'm not a big fan of fantasy or sci-fi either really, but every once in a while I'll find something I like. Conan's always been cool, I guess. As is Warhammer. I dunno, anything with more asskicking and comedy and less focus on mages and elves (so far Warcraft is about 50/50, but like Warhammer, the elves and mages aren't that bad...at least not yet). Stories with a heavy bent on religions and myths I can get into as well. As for sci-fi, the only thing I've really enjoyed was Dune.

People have suggested writers like Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks to me, but I thought they were shit. Every D&D *novel* I've read has been shit. And dare I say it, but LotR isn't really at the top of my list either (not to say it's shit as well, but I just don't like it).

Blah. Terry Brooks is alright, but neither of those two are good writers.

If you want good SciFi: Peter F Hamilton, Reality Dysfunction series. Any William Gibson or Neal Stephenson (a lot of alternate history).

Good fantasy: Geroge RR Martin, Anne Bishop (Black Jewels trilogy), John Marco (Tyrants and Kings).

Note, I have both Jordan and Brooks on my shelf. I enjoyed them in my youth (read: teens) but have come to apprecate much better written books like the above. I can barely stand to read a Robert Jordan book these days, though Terry Brooks is a nice fast read.

The only real Conan stories were by (of course) Robert E. Howard and also L. Sprague DeCamp.  Everyone after that blew ass.

Don't let these animals fool you. Stay far far away from this fucker after you read Neuromancer. The rest is utter shite. But if you feel the absolute need to read some of his shit, I can not impress this enough - stay the hell away from "All Tomorrow's Parties," despite the fact it shares a name with a badass Bauhaus song.

I second George Martin, his fantasy literature is very immersive but not extremely uplifting. He creates real characters out of unbelievable scenarios and makes you care about almost all of them. Honestly, you find yourself hating people, then slightly identifying with them, then hating other people, then hating yourself for identifying with some characters in the first place. There are very few instances of all encompassing evil with little or no motivation. Even the bad guys have personality and backdrop. I await the fourth book with anticipation.

I am currently reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth Series. After the first book, which in my opinion is the weakest but must be suffered through, he creates a solid story line amidst a backdrop of magic and war. His main characters are well defined and likeable, but his ancillary characters lack the flair of Martin's genius. The story line does tend to drag in places over the eight books that have been published, but one does not write 6000+ pages of pure unadulterated thrills. I've finished six out of the eight novels and I've enjoyed all but two. Wizard's First Rule is one of the most predicatable books I think I've ever read, and that led me to really discount most of the plotline since the foreshadowing slaps you in the face. Also, the sixth book, Faith of the Fallen, almost drove me nuts with the fact that it deals almost entirely with the injustices of a governmental system in place. Some may like this kind of thing, but I find it to be extremely annoying. Other examples of that kind of story would be Atlas Shrugged and Harry Potter's Order of the Phoenix. Despite the shortcomings, I still give it a definite must read.

And then he kills them!  I love that evil bastard. I don't think I've read books that produce such strong emotional reactions as his.  I'm still a bit miffed at what he did in #3.

Robin Hobb can get some pretty damn good emotional reactions out of you as well. She can make her characters feel near and dear to you and then, well, we all die eventually...

Every time people mention fantasy authors, you folks parade out all the mediocre writers that are churning out uninspired sword and sorcery potboilers. This suggests that very few of you will enjoy works by great writers such as Mervyn Peake, Gene Wolfe or Jorge Luis Borges. Those of you who have discovered that most modern fantasy is boring, simplistic and undemanding may want to try a book by one of these three authors.

Haha that's true! I almost threw away her Assassin books because the ending pissed me off so much.

Gene Wolfe is good, yes. I've read all of his works. I'll have to give the other two a try. Thanks for the recommendations.

Might I also recommend Alfred Bester (any of his works), Margaret Atwood (Oryx and Crake), and Mary Doria Russell (The Sparrow).

So you want a bunch of other people to 'discover' your opinion?

Gene Wolfe: New Sun and Long Sun are brilliant. . absolutely required reading.  But I just finished The Urth of the New Sun, which is a steaming pile of wandering crap.  I suspect some contract somewhere required it.

If you like his work, you'd probably also like Ricardo Pinto's the Chosen (and presumably the other books that are going to come in that series), which I stumbled upon randomly.  Similar grandiosity and style.

Since we are talking fantasy books here. Where the hell is book 4 in the "A Song of Ice and Fire". I used to really like all the generic fantasy books, but over the last year, it has REALLY started to grate on my nerves. I used to always finish a book, no matter how bad. Over the last two years I think I have about 10 books that I stopped reading cause they just sucked.

I have recently tried to read Storm Constance (I thought some one reccomended it here), dont get me wrong, I am not a homophobe and have nothing against gay sex or what ever, but the Wreathuthu is just to much for me. All the guys seem to have the feelings and desires more common to female characters. Yeah, they are a new androginious race, but still, its a bit much.

Since I have been so into WoW, I also looked at the book in Barnes and Noble, but it looks so cheesy.
Elf boobs? Check.
Evil Demi Gods? Check.
Time traveling? Check.

Maybe if it was only elf boobs and evil demi goods I could give it a try, but come on, do we HAVE to throw in time traveling also?

According to the last update on his site, which was a month ago, George Martin hopes to finish the fourth book by year end. However, that's by no means set in stone and he didn't seem 100% on that at all. In essence it will be ready when he thinks it's ready. So don't put it on your Christmas list. I'm thinking it's going to be Valentine's day before we see it.

My favorite fantasy series is probably the Black Company by Glen Cook. Screw ghey elves and whatnot, I'll take the story of strife between undead wizards told from the perspective of a medic in a mercenary company.

More 4th Age Dragonlance plz.

Ditto, Cook was a forward observer in Vietnam and it shows in his writing.  It has a style that no one else seems able to match.

I broke down and read the last Robert Jordan hack piece in paperback a few months ago, and I have to say I hated almost every minute of it.  His prose is just mediocre and his characterizations have become charicatures.  If I hadn't already invested so much time over the last 15 years reading this crap I doubt if I would finish the series.

For Sci-Fi I really have to go with Ian M. Banks - there is no one out there writing sci fi of his quality.  His prose is also top notch, so even if you don't find the setting appealing his style is worth checking out.

As far as William Gibson goes, I still read everything he writes but not so much for the story anymore (wtf was Pattern Recognition about?) just for the way he tells it.  Some of his alliteration is just outstanding.

Lately I went on a classic P.I. kick and read all of Dashel Hammet, Raymond Chandler and Rex Stout I could find.  I gotta tell you those guys just do not get enough respect, and they get alot of respect.

Damn, now that sounds cool.

Even I have to agree about Banks.  I love his books and we pretty much keep up to date with them.   Although, I have never really cared for science fiction and grew out of most fantasy novels when I was quite young, a good writer is a good writer.  Reading Iain Banks makes me forget the genre, for the most part.  He's just that good.

Couldn't agree more. I thought The Naked God (fifth in the Night's Dawn series, and finale) sorta copped-out in the end, but otherwise an awesome read. I also recommend the Mindstar (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812590562/qid=1102439888/sr=8-5/ref=pd_ka_5/103-3657016-4463012?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) series (Greg Mandel), set in the same universe as Night's Dawn, but earlier.

I also don't have a problem with Robert Jordan, though I think he's recognized the Wheel of Time as his cash cow and has diminishing interest in actually concluding it.

I'm also one of the two people in the world who don't like Robert Heinlein. Methusula's Children and Starship Troopers were the only books of his I could read. The rest just bore me to death about 1/5 of the way through.

Dan Simmons' Endymion series is a great read.

I like Peter David too, though most of the stuff I've read from him was Star Trek (he's a good ST writer in my opinion).

Oh, on topic, I started reading the Warcraft book that came with WoW. Not bad so far. Something good for the next business trip.

I remember reading a Dan Simmons novel about vampires or something that I recall being kinda cool, but I was on a lot of drugs back then. Carrion Comfort, I think.

Ursula K. LeGuin.  I especially like the Earthsea trilogy and The Lathe of Heaven.  The Lathe is a bit dated, but so well-written that its anachronism serves to entertain more than to detract.  

There is, however, a strain of Zen or Buddhism or something along those lines that runs through her work.

I also liked (on a light reading level) the Belgariad by Eddings.

Yes.

Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1570623953/qid=1102441112/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7184893-8912865?v=glance&s=books)

Great version of the Tao Te Ching.

Throughout Cook's career as an author, he held a day job.  Worked on the line at a GM plant,  and is recently retired.  He only managed to publish 40 or 50 books,  while working on an auto assembly line.  Fucking bad ass.

Cook and Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos books) are considered "the best modern fantasy authors no one has heard of" by a lot of people.

Daniel Keys Moran's Continuing Time series and Dan Simmons' Hyperion share #1 on my list for sci-fi. W. Michael Gear's Forbidden Borders trilogy is pretty good as well.

As for fantasy, I've read so many I can't think of any super duper ones at the moment.

Glad you're here to condescend to us and show us all how intellectually superior you are to all of us who enjoy that trashy modern fantasy. Too bad we can't all be as enlightened as you.