What other fantasy books do YOU read?

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

You might like to try The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky, if you haven't yet - there's a poet's heart beating in these. If you like them, anything else with Granny Weatherwax in it - that woman rocks!

Thanks for the hint. As this might turn out the "summer of reading" after a long time, I might actually try to get a hold of those to see if my mind changes...

[Kitanna]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

Thanks for the hint. As this might turn out the "summer of reading" after a long time, I might actually try to get a hold of those to see if my mind changes...

I really didn't like him much at first. I felt like I had been dropped into an inside joke, but I read one of the books regarding the city watch and came to understand things better. I think becoming a fan of Pratchett's depends on what you end up reading first. There are a lot and some books aren't great, but there are others that are. He can be hit or miss for a lot of people so I get why some find him boring to read.

A reason to love George R. Martin: he is able to kill off his main characters every once in a while thus making the books much more "realistic" and kind of breaking the phantasy genre where every well intending hero against his own will will prevail in the end (or if he dies a martyr his cause will prevail). I just love it how he makes fool of me the reader and reminds me that there are tales much more interesting than fairy-tales...

I went into reading Game of Thrones knowing this from my boyfriend and while that's a great way to tell a story I still don't think he does it well. I feel like Martin has a lot of missed opportunities. Characters like Ned and Robert were good, but I felt everyone else, even the young girls, had that same sort of middle-aged man mindset and none were written to reflect age or gender. My boyfriend and my friend has told me what else happens and it's a captivating story, but I don't care for his writing style at all. Sometimes I think I just read way too much into these things.

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Kitanna

I went into reading Game of Thrones knowing this from my boyfriend and while that's a great way to tell a story I still don't think he does it well. I feel like Martin has a lot of missed opportunities. Characters like Ned and Robert were good, but I felt everyone else, even the young girls, had that same sort of middle-aged man mindset and none were written to reflect age or gender. My boyfriend and my friend has told me what else happens and it's a captivating story, but I don't care for his writing style at all. Sometimes I think I just read way too much into these things.

Middle-ages man mindset? I really don't think so. Cersei, Catelyn, Sansa, etc. very much behaved their own age and gender. Of course, they're very, very different, and Sansa seemed a bit too delusional in the first couple of books, but other than that I didn't see a problem with Martin's characterisation.

If there's one complaint I have about the series, it's his pessimism about humanity. He portrays everyone as evil or selfish, with no regard for anyone but themselves and/or a couple of others. The only character I thought was free form evil was Brienne. I mean, sure, you get sick of people being black and white, but there is some good in this world, and that's a fact. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the fact that he hasn't done the typical 'good vs evil' cliché, and I think that most of his characters are well thought-out, but give these guys a break, man. At least a few characters should be leaning towards their good side.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Galadriel

The only character I thought was free form evil was Brienne.

Oh but there are lots of others (spoiler if you don't want to hear who are good guys) at least Ned, Bran, Jon, Samwell, Old Bear, Maester Aemon, Hodor, Meera, Jojen and Davos off the top of my head.

I personally enjoy Martin a lot (up to the point of recently being rather obsessed), and I have to disagree with Kit about the characters - they may start as slightly cardboardy, but they get so much better during the series: in fact so good that it depresses me as an aspiring writer. I really like the slowly revealed depth of characters like Jaime Lannister or Sansa Stark.

[Galadriel]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Oh but there are lots of others (spoiler if you don't want to hear who are good guys) at least Ned, Bran, Jon, Samwell, Old Bear, Maester Aemon, Hodor, Meera, Jojen and Davos off the top of my head.

I really like the slowly revealed depth of characters like Jaime Lannister or Sansa Stark.

Oh, but aside from Ned, I didn't find any of them to be 'free' of evil

And I absolutely LOVE the way Jaime turned out!

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I just finished reading a book called Polgara the Sorceress. It is...OK, I guess. Nothing brilliant. I like the philosophy behind the fiction, though.

*I don't know how that book got into my hands. Aparantly it's 12th in a series.*

Ahaha, I liked that book as a kid, Polgara was like my favourite character anywhere ever, or something. It makes a lot more sens though if you read the David Eddings' series it's sort of providing background info for. That being said, I haven't read the book in at least 10 years and I really have to reread now!

Originally Posted by Galadriel

You do? Then you MUST read 'Good Omens'. It's a collab between Gaiman and Pratchett.

If you say so - however, I have to say that while I love Gaiman, I find Pratchett mostly annoying.

Originally Posted by Galadriel

Oh, but aside from Ned, I didn't find any of them to be 'free' of evil

And I absolutely LOVE the way Jaime turned out!

But are real people "free of evil" either? And as for Jaime's character development (let's not spoil anybody on this thread) it's awesome. He's surely one of my favourite characters.