[OT] Which do you think are the best fantasy novels/authors?

[Tsyr]

That's ludicrous. You can't seriously think that the content or feel of a book is any different if dialogue is quoted like "this" instead of like 'this'. However it's a lot easier to read what you're used to. And "armour" doesn't look archaic, it looks British.

Agreed. Now, with some of what I understand has been changed in the HP books (Actual words being changed to different words), that's bad. But to change the spelling and quotation style? That's just halfway decent editing (even if I generaly use armour and so forth myself, despite being American instead of British.). Not changing that author's own words.

 

[Turlogh]

Great Fantasy, lets see

Robert E. Howard- more than just Conan
David Gemmell- great heroic fantasy
Karl Edward Wagner
Micheal Moorcock
Simon R. Green
David Drake
David Weber
Glen Cook- more than just The Black Company
C. S. Friedman
Roger Taylor
J.R.R. Tolkien
Sara Douglass
Poul Anderson

Thats enough for now.
I really hate the snobbishness of the term literature and in my opinion most of the stuff that is normally accepted as such is generally the most boring, long winded and pointless of books.

 

[Desdichado]

There will never be another author like Tolkien. He absolutely rules fantasy, and surely always will. I tend to agree with you that Rowlings will eventually stand the test of time as a classic of the genre (whichever genre it is, that is) unless she blows it the way Jordan did after a few successful books in the series.

Stuff that isn't necessarily classic, but which I like also include the Riftwar saga by Raymond Feist.

Actually, I've never like Moorcock at all. I'm kinda surprised to see him mentioned so prominently in so many posts, as his writing isn't technically very good and his concepts are very dated. There's a lot of hacks that are relatively popular fantasy authors as well -- Eddings comes to mind as a completely brainless author who's managed to be relatively successful. Terry Brooks seems like another.

 

[Tsyr]

I don't like most Moorcock... Though I have forced myself to read them... But Elric is cool.

 

[buzz]

Actually, I've never like Moorcock at all. I'm kinda surprised to see him mentioned so prominently in so many posts, as his writing isn't technically very good and his concepts are very dated. There's a lot of hacks that are relatively popular fantasy authors as well -- Eddings comes to mind as a completely brainless author who's managed to be relatively successful. Terry Brooks seems like another.

I'm so glad you were in the Cthulhu group with me at Game Day. I find myself agreeing with your posts more and more.

I think Moorcock can be very hit-or-miss. The original Elric stories were fantastic, imho. Classics of the genre. I also really enjoyed The War Hound and the World's Pain. However, the Corum books and some of the newer Elric stuff I found really tough going.

Couldn't agree with you more about Eddings and Brooks. The Sword of Shannara was okay, but the time I spent reading Elfstones and the first few chanpters of Wishsong is time I wish I could have back. My opinions on Eddings appear earlier in the thread.

 

[KDLadage]

Personal Faves...

...include such things as:

• The Chronicles of Narnia - these are the books that introduced me to fantasy
• Lord of the Rings - excellent stories, although on all re-readings I tend to skip the songs...
• The Black Company - god, do I love these books...
• The Incarnations of Immortality - more of an Urban Arcana style but still favorites of fantasy
• The Wheel of Time - up through book three; books four and five seemed to drag on forever without anything significant taking place... so I stopped reading them.

There are others, but these are the ones I keep coming back to and drawing from for my games...

 

[Desdichado]

Re: Re

Tolkien is an adult book requiring a higher level of comprehension than most fantasy books to grasp the story. Certain dialogue in the books is beyond most young peoples ability to comprehend.

Even I had a difficult time enjoying Tolkien when I was a youth. I was much too active and didn't want to sit around reading three big books.

When I reached adulthood, I finally picked them up and gave them a good read. I was amazed at what I did not appreciate when I was younger about Tolkien's amazing story.

I first read the Lord of the Rings when I was 12 or so. I had no problem with the language, dialogue or any other comprehension aspect of the books. Maybe I'm just good at reading comprehension (I got a perfect score in that area on the ACT back in the day) but I doubt that the books are really that difficult to read. After all, the Hobbit is a children's book!

The Once and Future King seemed to use an older dialect of English. When I say modern, I pretty much mean last 20 years. I don't like to read modern day curse words and read dialogue attributable to a modern day twentie something.

I have not even heard of the other two books you mention. I will have to look up some background on the books, see if they are stories I might enjoy.

You'd be surprised. Most of those "modern" curse words are actually ancient. As a point of trivia, did you know the word 'fart' -- which is generally considered to be not only vulgar but very immature -- can be clearly traced back to Proto-Indo-European: somewhere between 4500-2500 B.C.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't like most Moorcock... Though I have forced myself to read them... But Elric is cool.

Actually, it's the Elric books in particular that I'm talking about. After trudging through most of them, I refused to pick up another Moorcock book again, so I haven't read any of the other books besides Elric.
Here's another one nobody mentioned that I think might deserve the rating of "classic;" Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series.

Also, not technically fantasy, but it sure seems like it most of the time: Brett Corwall's Warlord Trilogy is pretty good stuff. I bet all the GRRMartin lovers would get a real kick out of it, too.

 

[mmu1]

I've tried reading the Elric books, and I didn't like them at all. The ones I've read seem to consist almost antirely of page after page of Elric's angsty musing, interspersed with unnecessarily detailed descriptions of combat...

I really can't stand authors that get into the habit of writing blow-by-blow accounts of every damn fight in the story... I much prefer the style of someone like Brust, for example, who can get "technical" from time to time when it serves a storytelling purpose, but most of the time just settles for describing the course of the action from the character's point of view, without killing the flow of the writing with excessive detail.

 

[buzz]

Also, not technically fantasy, but it sure seems like it most of the time: Brett Corwall's Warlord Trilogy is pretty good stuff. I bet all the GRRMartin lovers would get a real kick out of it, too.

Do you mean Bernard Cornwell?