Books you like but get a lot of criticism or hate

[CleverNickName]

Echoing Shannara again. A lot of the criticism is fair, and I understand where the critics are coming from, but it's a shame that they let the bad reviews of the Sword of Shannara trilogy put them off of the others. In my opinion, Heritage of Shannara (Scions, Druid, Elf Queen, Talismans) told the far better story with more interesting characters...and it wasn't nearly as derivative.

And it's neither here nor there, but I've met Terry Brooks, and he's a fantastic guy.

 

[Mallus]

Sing, O muse, the praises of Ray Feist and David Eddings!

My impression is people these days don't think much of either of them. But for my money-spent-at-a-mall-Waldenbooks-in-the-1980s, both Feist and Eddings wrote some immensely charming pop fantasy. Sure, each of them should have stopped writing in their main settings after 10 books or so. Sure, they're derivative.

But Eddings's slightly parodic take on the rapidly-forming post-LotR fantasy cliches and Feist's virtually apotheosis of D&D-inspired fantasy are still pretty clever. And written in simple, breezy styles. And, most importantly, have lovable characters.

You could do worse than reading the Riftwar Cycle (up to maybe the Serpent War, or whichever one Roo invents the stock market) and the Belgariad/Mallorean. Or re-reading them, in an attempt to recapture a fleeting glimpse of your teenage self, as my case may be.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Echoing Shannara again. A lot of the criticism is fair, and I understand where the critics are coming from, but it's a shame that they let the bad reviews of the Sword of Shannara trilogy put them off of the others. In my opinion, Heritage of Shannara (Scions, Druid, Elf Queen, Talismans) told the far better story with more interesting characters...and it wasn't nearly as derivative.

And it's neither here nor there, but I've met Terry Brooks, and he's a fantastic guy.

I've met him a few times (a benefit from living in the pacific northwest I suppose lol). And yes, he's a genuine great guy.

I remember the first time I met him at a book signing, the only book I had to be autographed was my copy of Sword. A 2nd printing, in bad shape (because I had it with me during my military deployments). Everyone else there had stacks of new books to be signed. I apologized for the quality of the book (feeling like I should have treated it better). His response? "Never apologize for a book like this. This means you actually read it and enjoyed it."

I recall the uncomfortable looks from those around me with brand new copies that I'm sure were headed right for ebay later...

 

[Gradine]

Wishsong of Shannara is underrated and frankly the best of the original trilogy. Elf Queen is also great but I'm still scratching my head over where there's supposed to be a jungle island off the coast of Oregon.

I also devoured the Belgariad & Mallorean when I was like... 10-12. They're quite fun, and while the Mallorean is definitely messier, it's also considerably better in a lot of ways. It helps/hurts that every character talks like they're in a 90's Joss Whedon joint.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Wishsong of Shannara is underrated and frankly the best of the original trilogy. Elf Queen is also great but I'm still scratching my head over where there's supposed to be a jungle island off the coast of Oregon.

As a native Oregonian, I'm afraid I can't answer that lol. Maybe it is Hawaii, just moved A LOT closer to the west coast lol

I also devoured the Belgariad & Mallorean when I was like... 10-12. They're quite fun, and while the Mallorean is definitely messier, it's also considerably better in a lot of ways. It helps/hurts that every character talks like they're in a 90's Joss Whedon joint.

Eddings is getting some hate in the other thread, but I have to admit he's one of my top authors as well. Yeah, there's not massive bad thing that happens, but I really like the way he wrote the characters, and tied them all together.

 

[billd91]

HP Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs take a lot of heat for their racial views these days, but since they're dead, I don't worry about reading and liking many of their works. You can't materially benefit if you can't take it with you.

For that matter, I still like the Harry Potter books - but then, we bought them long before Jo Rowling started saying transphobic stuff. We're not likely to send money her way now by buying anything more (even if we do agree with most of her philanthropy).

 

[billd91]

Wishsong of Shannara is underrated and frankly the best of the original trilogy. Elf Queen is also great but I'm still scratching my head over where there's supposed to be a jungle island off the coast of Oregon.

Is that jungle as in rain forest or tropical rain forest? In a post apocalyptic world, I can see siting a rain forest off the coast of the US Pacific northwest, just not a tropical one.

 

[Gradine]

Is that jungle as in rain forest or tropical rain forest? In a post apocalyptic world, I can see siting a rain forest off the coast of the US Pacific northwest, just not a tropical one.

I got the sense it was supposed to be tropical, but I don't have a copy handy.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'll echo the OP on the Shannara books. Sword of Shannara was my first non-Tolkien-or-Lewis fantasy novel, and I devoured it as a kid. Yes, it's a ripoff of LotR but it makes up for it by being actually readable. The Heritage of Shannara books were my personal favorites, especially Druid of Shannara and Elf Queen of Shannara. Fell out of the series after that, but I should probably pick it up again at some point.

Oh, and also I'd want to stick up for the old Star Wars EU (now called Legends I think?) but mostly I just want to sing the praises of the Thrawn Trilogy and nobody really hates on those. Pretty much everything involved with the Yuuzhon Vong sucked though; including the incredibly stupid retcon that Palpatine et. al, just wanted to conquer the galaxy in order to protect it, their intentions were good, honest.

This Druid if Shannara kicked me in the stones.
The series peaked somewhere between the third book and Elf Queen imho.

No one really rips to much on the Thrawn books, the Bong books yeah. To many to disjointed wrong timing perhaps although the basic idea is alright.

 

[Zardnaar]

I got the sense it was supposed to be tropical, but I don't have a copy handy.

It was a long way off iirc. Might be Hawaii or something.