What other fantasy books do YOU read?

[Snorri Swifthammer]

Originally Posted by Essex

regarding the Wheel of Time series - I've got the whole series of them when I joined a book club a couple of months back. Can I ask a query to those who have read them?

Should I start with No 1 the Eye of the World, or is it best to start with the 'prequel', New Spring?

Start with number one and read in the order they are published in. As I understand it New Spring actually reveals alot that will spoil some things if you haven't read the books that came before it in publishing order.

Good luck on the series! I read into Book 6 and then dropped it because of the lack of plot advancment. Maybe when the final book comes out I'll take a look again, but the series is now something like 15+ years and going with no end in sight. That is too long to drag readers along with no closure. At least in long series like Pern or Redwall you get closure on certain characters and story arcs.

[Makar]

Robert Jordan is thief and a hack. He rips off Tolkien, Herbert, and history.
Tolkien rip offs:

1. RJ has "Dark Lord" who never manifests himself physically, but works through his minions and lives in wasteland surrounded by mountains.

2. The main characters are from a backwater area unaware of the turmoil that is comming to the world and are led away by magic-user and borderguard.

3. The scene in the Eye of the World where rand encounters the Myrdraal on the road is much like the Black Rider scene in FotR.

Herbert Rip Offs:

1.The main character has lots of powers and he is the savior of mankind.

2. His people are a desert people

3. There is a group of woman sorcerers working to control the world and the main character

History Rip offs:

1. The Seanchan army is called the Ever Victorious Army, the exact name of a mercenary group in China during the Taiping Rebellion

2. There is a legendary High King, named Artur Hawking Paendrag. Doesn't that sound like Arthur Pendragon?

3. There is a Green Man, much like in ancient Celtic society

Literary stuff:
He is boring. His characters don't interact like real people. His female characters are all rightious ******* and he is afraid to kill main characters off. he takes the names of existing monsters and changes them. Trollocs, Ogier, etc.

[Thinlómien]

Awww, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is horrible. I read the first one and couldn't continue any longer. Book made of clichées. And done that in a terrible way.

[Essex]

oh dear. lucky the wheel of time books only cost me about £5 for the complete set as an introductory offer the world books fantasy book club. oh well, I'll give eye of the world a go sometime.

thanks for the replies

[Firefoot]

Personally, I didn't find them as bad as all that. The first few were interesting enough, Books 5 and 6 were okay and the endings were quite good, but Books 7-10 nothing new really happened. They just sort of dragged on, being largely repetitive of each other just with new names and places. If he had condensed those four into one book it would have been a whole lot more interesting - he just needs to say it, not make a single day drag on for 600 pages. And Makar is right, he is definitely afraid to kill off main characters. But I did enjoy the first few, for what it's worth.

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is pretty good, though it sometimes seems that the main character is rather lacking in flaws. In the first couple books there were a few things that seemed to be rip-offs of other books, but it got much better - he seemed to come up with more original ideas as he went.

Recently I started reading some books by Tamora Pierce and am finding them pretty interesting, in particular her newest two, Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen (Yes, I'm reading the series out of order... something I very rarely do). She certainly doesn't beat her world and characters to death; the series are quite short but interesting nevertheless.

[Kitanna]

Originally Posted by Firefoot

Recently I started reading some books by Tamora Pierce and am finding them pretty interesting, in particular her newest two, Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen (Yes, I'm reading the series out of order... something I very rarely do). She certainly doesn't beat her world and characters to death; the series are quite short but interesting nevertheless.

If you haven't read them already, you should read her Alanna series, they're quite good.

[Lathriel]

I actually have the first book of The Wheel of Time but I decided not to begin reading them untill Robert Jordan has finished the series. (I might be waiting forever )

I really enjoyed the Tamora Pierce books, however, lately I haven't enjoyed them as much as I used to. I'm afraid I've grow out of them since the plotline etc. is a little simplistic and predictable. But I will always remember them fondly.