Quote:
Originally Posted by Thinlómien
I think the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy is very good, but the second and the third one just didn't have the same magic and power. I got the feeling Pullman had used his best ideas in the first book and nothing but scraps was left to the later ones.
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Without intending any offence whatsoever I completely disagree.
The sequels were written from different perspectives than the first book, in which Lyra is a child, the book was written from a childs perspective making the world seem more magical by happenstance.
ALthough i agree that the themes of Lyra's world were much more condensed and deep than any of the other worlds in the series I do not believe that the subsequent works (the subtle knife and the Amber Spyglass) lacked imagination. The flaw was in having too many worlds to spread the fantasy elements of the story through.
As for what other Fantasy stories i read. I do read Feist, finding him a little Tolkien-Esque, but still high in imagination I have read the Riftwar Saga and the Lizardwar Saga and recently read Talon of the Silver Hawk (which i enjoyed immensely) i find the thing that attracts me most about his work is his characters, who are all both heroic and deeply flawed, although i find he uses the theme of "coming of age" to excess
I also read (and am not ashamed to admit) the discworld stories, Terry Pratchet writes characters with a realness that most other writers can only dream about, making the reader feel that these are real people and his satire (when done correctly) is very well placed. I will admit that not al his books are up to standard (what writer's truly are?) but when Pratchet gets it right he gets it right very very well.
Other writers i read include Eddings (although i haven't read an Eddings work for quite a few years) and Anne Mcaffery, for whom my fondness has waned of late, but may revive once i pick up dragonsdawn or decision at doona again.
I currently own a copy of Eragon but live in mortal dread of actually picking it up and reading it. The only favourible review i have found tend to be from people outside the fantasy "circle" and mainly centre around the theme of "it's really cool that someone this young wrote a WHOLE book!" I hope to be proven wrong.