Re: OT...great books
 

To which South story do you refer?. Guns of the South or Settling Accounts?.

Re: OT...great books
 

I just finished reading The Elder Gods by David Eddings. It's the first book of the series called The Dreamers. I enjoyed reading this book. It's in the same style as Eddings' other fantasy books, with a conflict between super-powerful forces of good and evil that's been going on for millenia but is coming to a critical juncture where the story begins. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

...I have to wait for Eddings to write books two and three... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif

Re: OT...great books
 

Hardly surprising, all his (or to be exact their) books are the same. I quit reading his books but having not read it I can predict A loveable rougue will spend the book(s) making friends with a small number of people each of which has a specific enemy on the bad side they need to personally defeat until all the evil duplicates are vanquished. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif

Edit: oh, and not forgetting the main character is the most powerful sorceror alive (and when I say alive I mean he is from the dawn of the world and is a few thousand years old)

Re: OT...great books
 

*Spoilers*

*Spoilers*

Oh, come on. In one series, the main character just *became* the most powerfull sorceror alive and in another one, he's a non-magical knight. Ok, his best friend/daughter is a goddess, but still, that's not overpowered, is it?

Re: OT...great books
 

Ok, I'll concede that the knight isn't a sorceror. But I was thinking of the Old mage in his first books not the young hero (its been a while since I read them, and since then I read the Belgariad). oh, and thanks for reminding me that there is always a God/ess who is someones best friend. I'll concede there are 3 main themes with at least 2 in each book.

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Actually, now that I think about it, he can do some magic, just not on the scale of the other main charaacters. At least, not until the end of the series, where he gets really munchkined for a bit.

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Yeah, there's a lot of similarities between the different fantasy books by Eddings. Other than this new book, I have also read the Belgariad & Malloreon series, the Elenium & Tamuli series, and The Redemption of Althalus.

In general, the good guys always include at least one super powerful magician or goddess, and the group of heroes are all very skilled and powerful. The bad guys are also powerful but there's usually only one smart bad guy, and the rest aren't that bright and tend to come up with schemes that are easily discovered and countered by the good guys.

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Ah yes I forgot that bit, gotta have the inept villain try a sneaky attack.

"Ho hum, it appears villain #4 is actually trying to be intelligent and sneaky. Well we better quickly demonstrate how superior we good guys are" (no sarcasm intended, thats how it seems to go)

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Well, if you want a high body count, go read something by David Drake.

Or, better yet, I read a series a while ago, forgot what it's called, after the first 2-3 books, every new book that came out would kill off most of the old generation. That gets tiring much faster. Fantasy, wizards, nomads, picture of a horse on one of the covers, intelligent stone lion in one of the books.

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I've read a bit of David Drake (I think) Belisarius and Shiva Option (correct me if I'm wrong, but SciFi military series) and I can't say I've seen any killing off of major chaacters, apart from some scientist in Belisarius who had a bit more than usual coverage before he blew himself up.

Edit: I also have heard of an anime series where aliens invade earth and a major character is killed each episode until everyone dies by the end.

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Just finished reading the Star Wars Clone Wars book about a medical unit. Basically, it's MASH in the Star Wars universe. It was ok, but I could have lived without reading it. Now I'm reading Dean Koontz' From The Corner of His Eye. Koontz is a great author, and I like him almost as much as I do Stephen King. I read his Strangers not too long ago, and that has become my favorite book of his. Check it out.

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That's because the Belisarius series is written by Eric Flint, despite David Drake's name on the cover, he just provided a general script. Shiva option was written by David Weber and Steve White, based on a strategy tabletop game.

Try 'Redliners' or his 'Hammers Slammers' series. I only read Redliners once and I avoid Hammers Slammers.

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I've always wondered about stuff like that. When there are two authors, who writes what?. I've got a Turtledove book cowritten by Richard Dreyfuss. Do they write half of it each, did Dreyfuss come up with the idea and let Turtledove actually write it, or do they spend hours on the phone (or in a forum) comparing notes.

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If I'm familiar with both writers, I can generally tell who wrote what. Try looking for types of phrases that the auther re-uses, like David Weber doing a non-sequitor in an internal monologue.

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I've often thought the same thing. Sometimes they'll tell you in an author's note, but most times you're left clueless as to which author did the primary work. Especially if they live hundreds or thousands of miles away from each other, how do they coordinate everything? The overhead for faxing or mailing copies to each other must be prohibitive to most people.

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If I may politely point out, you are wrong. The Last book is called "Homeward Bound". Get your facts straight http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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Design Patterns, by the Gang of Four
its a sweet sweet computer science book