Top Ten Fantasy Novels

[SnarktheStrange]

I haven't seen these wonderful ones mentioned:

The incomparable Seventh Sword trilogy by Dave Duncan.

The very fine Earthsea trilogy by Ursala K. Le Guin.

Stranger in a Strange Land, Job, and Glory Road by Robert Heinlein.

[mournblade]

Hasn't anyone read

Michael Moorcock's Elric Saga!!

The Dreaming City
Sailor on the Seas of Fate
Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower
The Bane of the Black Sword
Stormbringer

These are MUST READS for any Fantasy Fan!

[Hexa]

hmm difficult.. I will stick to the writers aswell

* Robin Hobb
* Tolkien
* Feist
from here on in no particular order..
* Steven King
* Bridget Wood
* Heist & Flinckman
* Tanith Lee
* Magie Furey
* Wilbur Smith
* Roger Zelany

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: It frustrates me how mediocre a genre fantasy is. There are incredibly few good fantasy writers. I mean, there are several who write enjoyable books that are a fun read, but little, and I mean little, rises to the level of "ART" (and if you want a really drawn out definition of that word, catch me sometime and we'll start w/ Plato and move through St. Thomas Aquinas and James Joyce in our discussion).

LOL, well it's a bit paradoxical to comment on fantasy's mediocrity and then continuing on to say how good David Eddings is at characters, or how great Weis and Hickman are... In a minute you're going to tell me you think R.A. Salvatore rocks [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Discussing art and starting at Plato doesn't sound quite right either...

[Iron_Ranger]

Originally posted by Melusine: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Timber Loftis: It frustrates me how mediocre a genre fantasy is. There are incredibly few good fantasy writers. I mean, there are several who write enjoyable books that are a fun read, but little, and I mean little, rises to the level of "ART" (and if you want a really drawn out definition of that word, catch me sometime and we'll start w/ Plato and move through St. Thomas Aquinas and James Joyce in our discussion).

LOL, well it's a bit paradoxical to comment on fantasy's mediocrity and then continuing on to say how good David Eddings is at characters, or how great Weis and Hickman are... In a minute you're going to tell me you think R.A. Salvatore rocks [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Discussing art and starting at Plato doesn't sound quite right either... </font>[/QUOTE]Weis and Hickman were great

They had very well devolped characters. Ones that you could fall in love with. Each had there perks and flaws. Each one sereved a purpous in the grand scheme of things. As far as character devolopment goes, The chronicals and Legends serries are by far the best books I ever read.

But no one person can say what is art and what is not art. Its in the eye of the beholder.

[Timber Loftis]

Melusine:

[Timber Loftis]

Melusine:

It's fine to talk about the mediocrity of a piece as a whole but still recognize what nuggets of it may be good. I'll stand by my statement (narrowly-stated of course) regarding Eddings ability to write character interactions in his Pawn of Prophecy.

And, any discussion of art has to begin w/ Plato - if not earlier in time. I'm certainly not postulating it ends there.

[Thoran]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: It frustrates me how mediocre a genre fantasy is. There are incredibly few good fantasy writers. I mean, there are several who write enjoyable books that are a fun read, but little, and I mean little, rises to the level of "ART" (and if you want a really drawn out definition of that word, catch me sometime and we'll start w/ Plato and move through St. Thomas Aquinas and James Joyce in our discussion). But, Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series is one that stands head-and-shoulders above the crowd. He has truly amazed me. Someone who makes me think, "That's how I'd like to write." But, then again, I prefer a "down-and-drity" realistic-type fantasy. Some prefer a more "floofy" fantasy where pox and boils and hunger and disfigurement and rushes on the floor don't exist. Aside from Martin, I think Tolkein deserved great Kudos from having a great vision of a world and being so damned THOROUGH in its detail, especially the languages (what do you expect from the guy in charge of the letter "W" at the OED). Robert Jordan has a great concept and world, but can't keep my attention well enough to plow through such thick writing. Salvatore is fun, just fun, and has not written anything so good as the IWD Trilogy or the Dark Elf Trilogy since - though he did create Entreri, one of my favorite characters (Silent Blade and Servant of Shard is not so bad, atleast the first half). David Eddings was good at character - wonderful in fact. I learned so much about writing believable character interaction by the time I was done with Pawn of Prophecy. But, his worlds are not really fleshed out - too simplified and dumbed-down. Beldin rocks, though. I must say the Elenium is better than the Belgariad or the Mallorean (which is the Belgariad all over again). Weiss and Hickman wrote wonderful "party" adventures in Chronicles, and came near to "Art" in Legends, great works truly. Since then they've pretty well sucked in my view.

Agreed re: Martin... I've yet to read anything that approaches his ability to put you INSIDE the Game of Houses, I've said it before but compared to the detailed intrigue in "A Song...", Jordans attempt in "The Wheel..." is flat as a pancake.

However, I disagree that Fantasy as a Genre is mediocre... there IS a lot of mediocre writing but there are some true Gems out there. Robin Hobb has a unique style that I find refreshing and her execution is second to none... the Liveship series was one of my favorite reads of 2001 (just behind Martin [img]smile.gif[/img] ), and Farseer is shaping up to be the best of '02 for me (just finished book 1).

Tolkein was revolutionary, I just re-read "The Hobbit" (for the umpteenth time) and his imagery still blows me away.

IMO - Weiss and Hickman write books that are entertaining for teens... people just getting into fantasy. I read Chronicles and Legends then and truly enjoyed them, but these days if I try to reread them the magic is gone... they're such simple stories that I find I lose interest quickly.

Donaldsons "The Chronicle's of Thomas Covenant" I also rate very highly, it should be on everyone's "MUST READ" list.

Finally, I really enjoyed Edding's "Belgariad", his character development was so effective that I distinctly remember being upset when the series finished, because I felt I had come to know "the gang" so well that I missed them.

Just as with Sci-Fi... there's so much work out there that it can be hard to find the truly great stuff being written, but if you dig you can turn up world class writers (CJ Cherryh and Orson Scott Card jump to mind immediately in Sci-Fi) that are adding to their genre instead of just plodding along writing "Me-Too/Gotta bake the doughnuts" type stories.

[ 09-23-2002, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]

[Timber Loftis]

Thanks for the advice, and I'll be sure to check out Robin Hobb. I think we agree on our views of the writers we both spoke about: Weiss & Hickman, Martin, Eddings.

[SnarktheStrange]

"Thomas Covenant" was well done, but it sure gave me the creeps.