Active Users:501 Time:19/09/2025 04:25:15 AM
Hrrrruuuuh? (that was a surprised Tim Allen noise, for those wondering) Aemon Send a noteboard - 04/02/2010 05:46:27 AM
if not just your taste. :P

Cook is merely okay.

Zelazny has moments of true brilliance in his works, though it's not consistently found through out.

Personally, I enjoy Sanderson's Mistborn and his recent Warbreaker. I find the world building, magic systems, and story telling to be top notch. The dialogue and some of the secondary characterizations are not always to quality. I don't read WoT anymore, so I can't comment there.


. . .it looks like you just agreed with me for two out of three authors. That hardly sounds like you think I'm a nutcase! :P You agreed Cook wasn't that great, and said Zelazny wasn't consistent, which sounds like another way of wording my complaint about him making stuff up and adding in lots of deus ex machina. As an example, in the first Amber book, the main guy (whatever his name was) gets thrown in prison, after having his eyes gouged out. BUT. . .turns out he can re-grow eyes. That's a nice feature. Oh and also, the random magician who made the magic cards happens to be in jail with him, and has the ability to draw picture portals. Two random plot devices pulled out of the blue, in the span of ten pages or so, and it's one example among many. Somewhere else you might find the hero fleeing from his brother in a sports car, being chased down by the bro (who happens to be riding a giant horse), and escaping by plunging into the sea to walk down a watery staircase to where a sister rules a mirror image seaworld! Which, uh, has a floor you can walk on to cure amnesia. And teleport you somewhere, if you feel like it.

Amber has some interesting concepts, but as an author, Zelazny really needed to calm down and figure out some sort of rules for his world. As it is, he can do whatever he feels like doing; he has excuse carte blanche, and abuses it thoroughly.
Reply to message
I need some reading recommendations... - 03/02/2010 02:15:29 PM 1053 Views
Glen Cook Black Company - 03/02/2010 02:40:21 PM 656 Views
Heh. To each their own. I couldn't disagree more with those three. - 03/02/2010 02:47:44 PM 818 Views
One could question your sanity... - 03/02/2010 02:51:26 PM 634 Views
Hrrrruuuuh? (that was a surprised Tim Allen noise, for those wondering) - 04/02/2010 05:46:27 AM 875 Views
I guess if you want to read long flowery descriptions of every room entered thats a valid choice - 03/02/2010 06:12:00 PM 823 Views
I tried to read sword of shanara once. - 03/02/2010 09:53:12 PM 769 Views
I loved sword of shanara - 03/02/2010 10:23:42 PM 747 Views
And unoriginal in the extreme. *NM* - 03/02/2010 10:25:04 PM 364 Views
When you are 14 every thing is original - 04/02/2010 05:00:42 AM 627 Views
Re: - 07/02/2010 07:07:59 AM 834 Views
no reason to apologize for liking what you like - 09/02/2010 04:29:43 AM 642 Views
Pft. I've got your back on Glen Cook, Random. Don't listen to this nutjob *NM* - 03/02/2010 09:57:44 PM 292 Views
Yeah, you're just crazy. - 03/02/2010 11:06:34 PM 668 Views
The annals of a mercenary company is exactly what it is. - 04/02/2010 05:30:57 AM 746 Views
Based on your qualifying statements... - 03/02/2010 02:45:19 PM 806 Views
I think the previous two posters have given you a ton of good stuff already, but a few more... - 03/02/2010 04:36:02 PM 999 Views
Also good ones... - 03/02/2010 04:39:58 PM 781 Views
cold fire trilogy - 03/02/2010 06:33:31 PM 738 Views
Mmm, yes. Your good taste continues, *NM* - 03/02/2010 09:58:53 PM 363 Views
that is what my first wife said about my second wife - 03/02/2010 10:24:33 PM 724 Views
I'd not toss all of RA Salvatore out the window. He writes outside DnD - 03/02/2010 09:51:56 PM 656 Views
Since you love ancient history and majored in it... - 03/02/2010 11:28:40 PM 668 Views
Didn't Gene Wolfe also do something set in Ancient Greece? Latro in the Mist, I believe? - 03/02/2010 11:41:17 PM 737 Views
Yes - 04/02/2010 01:44:57 PM 807 Views
Thanks everyone for your recommendations. I appreciate the help! - 04/02/2010 04:56:13 AM 920 Views
Bernard Cornwell - The Archer's Tale *NM* - 05/02/2010 01:21:23 AM 443 Views
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield - 05/02/2010 01:20:42 PM 832 Views
Re: I need some reading recommendations... - 08/02/2010 10:01:30 PM 802 Views
Sadly mine are - 09/02/2010 10:15:38 AM 778 Views

Reply to Message