The Darkness that comes Before

[Pants]

I finished the the final installment, the forthcoming (in january) The Thousandfold Thought last night - powerful conclusion to one of the better epic fantasy sequences in a while. Full review within a week.

Did you get an ARC?
I can't wait until this is available to the public

 

[Pants]

But I wouldn't say he was as good a prose writer as Erickson.

Erikson is... well, out of the three top fantasy writers today (IMO, Martin, Bakker, and Erikson), I think he's by far the worst at 'writing.' GotM, DHG, and MoI are just full of bad, bad prose.

Thankfully, he's been getting steadily better and MT was very well written, probably the best of the lot.

His action is often difficult to follow, and there's some pretty clunky passages -- especially in the early part of the first book, while he's getting warmed up.

The prologue of tDtCB is really strange, I agree, and a little clunky at points. I'd have to reread tDtCB, but I don't remember anything REALLY bad, just some very strange situations.

Also going to be heavily plundered for my next campaign setting, I suspect.

I love Bakker's description of magic, especially later on in The Warrior Prophet. If I could plunder that, I would.

 

[Jay Tomio]

Did you get an ARC?
I can't wait until this is available to the public

Yes. Public gets it in January - just around the corner.


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The Bodhisattva

Fantasybookspot.com

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

I love Bakker's description of magic, especially later on in The Warrior Prophet. If I could plunder that, I would.

Interesting. I'd never heard of these books until now. So how does he handle magic? I'm about to finish the latest Wheel of Time book, and one of the best things about Jordan's series is the One Power and how it works.

 

[Pants]

Interesting. I'd never heard of these books until now. So how does he handle magic? I'm about to finish the latest Wheel of Time book, and one of the best things about Jordan's series is the One Power and how it works.

He describes it as a 'song,' which is my uneloquent way of describing it.
He also has several different types of magic that vary in power. There's Achamian's magic, the Gnosis, which is practiced by only one School, the Mandate. The Eyeless Cishaurium use the mysterious psukhe (sp?) magic, which so far, hasn't been described much, aside from some tidbits that I don't want to reveal for fear of spoilers. There's also the chorae, magic-negating spheres that drive sorcerers mad if it touches them.

There's some pretty spectacular magical battles in The Warrior Prophet too.

 

[barsoomcore]

Erikson is... well, out of the three top fantasy writers today (IMO, Martin, Bakker, and Erikson), I think he's by far the worst at 'writing.' GotM, DHG, and MoI are just full of bad, bad prose.

Hm, we disagree. This bodes poorly. Perhaps we shall have to flip out as ninja literary critics do.

The prologue of tDtCB is really strange, I agree, and a little clunky at points. I'd have to reread tDtCB, but I don't remember anything REALLY bad, just some very strange situations.

Actually I really liked prologue, but then it got into Achamian's stuff and whassisname, the former student, and I had to keep stopping and re-reading stuff just to understand what he was trying to get me to picture. I just gave up on the book twice, but the ideas behind it kept drawing me back, and eventually I just sort of forced myself through it.

Also find his battle scenes difficult to follow. Actual sentences seem to not make sense at times. If I have time to post examples I shall, but don't hold your breath.

I'm sounding all complainy. Bakker's awesome, the books are great, clever and thoughtful, and I'm looking forward to the third volume with eager anticipation.

 

[Pants]

Hm, we disagree. This bodes poorly. Perhaps we shall have to flip out as ninja literary critics do.

At least we agree on this:

I'm sounding all complainy. Bakker's awesome, the books are great, clever and thoughtful, and I'm looking forward to the third volume with eager anticipation.

2006 looks to be quite the year:
The Thousandfold Thought
The Bonehunters

And (if he can pull it off, which I doubt)
A Dance with Dragons

Plus there's some promising books by new authors coming out too!

 

[Jay Tomio]

2006 looks to be quite the year:
The Thousandfold Thought
The Bonehunters

And (if he can pull it off, which I doubt)
A Dance with Dragons

Plus there's some promising books by new authors coming out too!

A couple of new series by new author's I have already read that think are excellent are Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora - which was just fascinating and comes out mid-2006, and Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon (which is is called Tremeraire in the U.K.) which comes out in January, and offer an unusual occurence that the other 2 books in the trilogy will also be released in 2006 as well. Both books I thought were terrific AND are getting huge pushes from their publishers, and IMHO well deserving. as stated earlier Bakker's The Thousandfold Thought was an excellent conclusion.

I recently made a list of 50 of the 2006 releases I'm most looking forward to (both Science Fiction and Fantasy) with links to excerpts etc, and scheduled release dates here if interested.


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The Bodhisattva

Fantasybookspot.com