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<blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 4418818" data-attributes="member: 11821">He does have moments of good prose, absolutely.&nbsp; His world-building was very strong, too, in the first few books.&nbsp; He let his world get carried away, tried to fit everything that popped into his mind into the series, and generally made what could have been an outstanding (if somewhat generic) 3- or 5-book series into a behemoth where nothing much happens by the later books.&nbsp; Part of being a great author is knowing when to quit.&nbsp; (And I really, really hope Martin doesn't fall into this trap...)I somehow think we'd still have a fantasy genre without Magic Kingdom for Sale. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Also, the Shannara series was largely re-hashed Tolkien.&nbsp; (As was Eddings, in a similar vein.)&nbsp; They may have kept fantasy commercially viable for a time, but not on the strength of their writing.I'd definitely include Martin, no doubt.&nbsp; Tolkien, too - largely but not completely on the unrivaled strength of his world-building.&nbsp; In more classical fantasy, Moorcock, Vance, and Lieber laid down some great groundwork and are still very readable today.More modern, I'll add in Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, Glen Cook, and (especially) Neil Gaiman.&nbsp; I've recently been impressed by R. Scott Bakker, but others disagree.&nbsp; By the same token, I think Erikson has done some outstanding stuff with his Malazan series - but, again, there are plenty who disagree, and not without reason.&nbsp; I haven't read anything by Mieville yet, but people whose opinions I respect speak highly of him.As far as newer authors go, Patrick Rothfuss shows a ton of promise.If you expand to include Sci-Fi and quasi-historical fiction as well, you get a number of other outstanding authors, including my personal favorite, Neal Stephenson.&nbsp; Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle in particular stand out as elegantly-written, well-researched, and even bizarrely educational.-O</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Obryn, post: 4418818, member: 11821"] He does have moments of good prose, absolutely. His world-building was very strong, too, in the first few books. He let his world get carried away, tried to fit everything that popped into his mind into the series, and generally made what could have been an outstanding (if somewhat generic) 3- or 5-book series into a behemoth where nothing much happens by the later books. Part of being a great author is knowing when to quit. (And I really, really hope Martin doesn't fall into this trap...) I somehow think we'd still have a fantasy genre without Magic Kingdom for Sale. :) Also, the Shannara series was largely re-hashed Tolkien. (As was Eddings, in a similar vein.) They may have kept fantasy commercially viable for a time, but not on the strength of their writing. I'd definitely include Martin, no doubt. Tolkien, too - largely but not completely on the unrivaled strength of his world-building. In more classical fantasy, Moorcock, Vance, and Lieber laid down some great groundwork and are still very readable today. More modern, I'll add in Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, Glen Cook, and (especially) Neil Gaiman. I've recently been impressed by R. Scott Bakker, but others disagree. By the same token, I think Erikson has done some outstanding stuff with his Malazan series - but, again, there are plenty who disagree, and not without reason. I haven't read anything by Mieville yet, but people whose opinions I respect speak highly of him. As far as newer authors go, Patrick Rothfuss shows a ton of promise. If you expand to include Sci-Fi and quasi-historical fiction as well, you get a number of other outstanding authors, including my personal favorite, Neal Stephenson. Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle in particular stand out as elegantly-written, well-researched, and even bizarrely educational. -O [/QUOTE]

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