Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

I'm amazed that noone here has read the amber series by roger zelazny. That has got to be one of _the_ best fantasy series ever. Too bad he died so young.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

Not mentioned doesn't equal not read...for more Zelazny you might check 'Lord of Light' if you haven't yet.

On the matter of Kay, he gets a lot of praise from educated readership, yet what I have read of him left me cold. Tried 'Tigana' first and finished the book without liking the characters nor the plot. Tried 'Lions' afterwards and was not impressed either, as the most interesting character is a rip-off of 'El Cid', someone I am already familiar with because of my origins. Not tried a third time.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Zelazny has written a few good books, but the Amber saga certainly isn't one of them.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I read them all. I don't know that I would say they were the best, but there were some decent moments. Sort of petered out at the end, IMHO.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

i agree that the beginning was the best, actually it might be the concept i really fell for, since it was somehow different from contemporary fantasy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

i liked it a lot though. not my favourite, but in my top 10 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

Well, on the recommendations from various people on this forum I went out to the nearest B&N and found a lone copy of Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice. Nearly 1200 pages of paperback. Hope it's as good as you folks say it is. Unfortunately, if I'm not mistaken, it's the third volume in the Malazan series. I'm also hoping that jumping in with the third book won't be a bad thing, which is a definite no-no for some other author's series. Interesting side note: this copy is a UK edition that wasn't even supposed to be in the store. It took 2 cashiers 5 minutes on their computer to come up with a price in US dollars.

As for Holdstock and the other authors that Jasper has been giving me so much flak about, they were nowhere to be found. I asked, specifically, and was told that the stock that B&N stores carry varies from locale to locale. So just because you found it in your city doesn't mean someone else will where they live. Please try to be a little more understanding before you post insulting lines like
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Also try to consider that some of us have real lives and we do not have unlimited amounts of time to spend on chasing down obscure books.

And, as I said before, I like to be able to thumb through a book before I buy it. If it's not on the shelf, that's sort of hard to do.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

It's a bad idea to start with the third book, as the story is very much ongoing. The third book happens parallel to the second, so it'll work somewhat okay to read the third before the second (but both 2. and 3. absolutely NEED to be read before House of Chains), but you really should read Gardens of the Moon first to understand what's going on. If you bought it already, surely you can deviate from your principle this once and order the the first book Online if it's not available otherwise.

[ January 23, 2004, 17:49: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I was hoping this wouldn't be the case. Sigh. But seeing as I cannot find the other volumes, and I already have #3, I suppose ordering the others Online makes sense. What really irks is having this nice fat juicy tome of a book sitting here now and having to wait before I can read it. Sigh.

Thanks for the warning.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

Of the authors in the poll the only one I've read is David Gemmell. But that's cos I just don't read much anymore.

When I was younger I read, as I say, Gemmell and also Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart (I think anyway) and Terry Pratchett. There may be others that I've read one book by and forgotten.

Pratchett's the only one I've kept reading, and I've read almost everything he's written (passed over a couple of his children's books). I could probably read books by the others and find them enjoyable enough, but they were a bit too fantasy-by-numbers (esp. Gemmell, I don't remember the other two so much) for me to get excited about.

I've also become a big fan of Neil Gaiman - both his comics/graphic novels (Sandman being the main one) and his "regular" novels and short stories (30 odd short stories from Smoke & Mirrors, along with Neverwhere, Coraline, American Gods).

So it's Pratchett and Gaiman that I am thinking of when I tick "Other" in the poll http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

FYI, in case anyone's curious, Steven Erikson's books are not in stock at either Amazon or B&N. Getting them shipped might take 2-3 weeks. Ick. Guess I'll have to make some time this weekend to try a few of the larger used bookstores locally.