A Song of Ice and Fire

[Teraswaerto]

Originally posted by Wendigo:


(basically, everybody is an ascendant, powerful mage/warrior or a human capable of dealing with the previous)

A bit of an overstatement. There are several central human characters without superhuman abilities. Whiskeyjack, Crokus/Cutter, Dujek Onearm, Murillio, etc.

[Teraswaerto]

Your milage may vary. Wheel of Time isn't action/adventure, it's a drama with action/adventure in it. And it doesn't change the fact that the Wheel of Time is a continuous, consistantly good narative.

WoT was enjoyable up to (and mostly including) Lord of Chaos, but after that the story just got completely bogged down.

[ January 21, 2004, 13:16: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:

quote:

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Your milage may vary. Wheel of Time isn't action/adventure, it's a drama with action/adventure in it. And it doesn't change the fact that the Wheel of Time is a continuous, consistantly good narative.

WoT was enjoyable up to (and mostly including) Lord of Chaos, but after that the story just got completely bogged down.

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A drama unfolding at a glacial pace. Lord of Chaos is book 6 (of 10 thus far). Given that his books average 800+ pages, that's well over 3000 more pages one has to endure just to discover the story isn't any closer to the climax he started towards 8000+ pages earlier.

It's unreasonable to expect your children (if you have any) to be born, grow up, and go off to college before this silly story reaches a conclusion. Which could well happen at Jordan's pacing.

Have I beaten this (slowly) dying horse dead yet?

[mr.white]

I liked A Song of Ice and Fire for a while. Then my favorite characters died, or suddenly became less appealing as they started doing horrible things. There's a few exceptions, but not enough to make me want to buy A Feast for Crows. It's just too depressing to read that story.

I think Robert Jordan is the best fantasy author around today. But why limit yourself to fantasy?

If you can find it you should read "The Long Run" by Daniel Keys Moran. My favorite book, bar none.
It's a near-future sci-fi story. The world was united under one government after world war 3. The main character is a genetically enigneered thief and hacker whose "family" was wiped out by a nuclear weapon. His apartment came with a bazooka. The bad guy is french.

Not sure what else to say without spoiling the story. Read it!

Oh, and it works quite well without reading the other books in the series. There's different main characters and the first and third books suffer slightly because of some strange aspects in the story. They're still damn good, but if you want to start reading Moran start on The Long Run.

[ January 21, 2004, 16:53: Message edited by: mr.white ]

[Karacan]

Originally posted by Arryn:
A drama unfolding at a glacial pace. Lord of Chaos is book 6 (of 10 thus far). Given that his books average 800+ pages, that's well over 3000 more pages one has to endure just to discover the story isn't any closer to the climax he started towards 8000+ pages earlier.

You're obviously not a hardcore interaction roleplayer.

I love Jordan's work because of the intricate character interactions, the brilliant descriptions of lands and situations (his combat descriptions are par to non), and the very cool dialogues.

Who needs action!


By the way, check out "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman for a current-era-fantasy story of very dark origin... Just finished reading it. Wow. It even has some (minor) action.

[velk]

A bit of an overstatement. There are several central human characters without superhuman abilities. Whiskeyjack, Crokus/Cutter, Dujek Onearm, Murillio, etc.

You haven't read House of Chains yet have you 8)

With regards to Jordan's work - IMO it is an excellent fantasy series that peaks at book 4 and then begins a gradual slide down into a deep pit of aimless tedium. Book 10, Crossroads of Mediocrity, managed to have an entire chapter devoted to one of the main characters having a bath and the *entire book* managed to not advance a single outstanding plot line in the slightest.

[OG_Gleep]

Song of Ice and Fire, is my favorite fantasy series to date. Game of Thrones specifically has to go down as one of the finest fantasy novels ever.

Raymond Fiest is my second favorite author. I have every book of his related to Krondor and loved every one. I was a little dissapointed that he went with the Eastern Empire for his new book, but in the end I loved it, as I did with every one of his other books.

Wheel of time was good for a while, but it kept going, and going, and going. His Last few books were just really long run-on-sentances. Its like watching the other 20 hours of footage for a 30 min reality TV episode.

Terry Goodkind must be taking estragen. I am sorry, but I really can't get into a book where the hero weeps about everything. Actually it wouldn't be that bad, except every character weeps. Its like his shrink told him to write a book for therapy, and he his dealing with unresolved issues with his mother.

When I was a kid I really liked Robert Asprin and Piers Anthony. I still like Robert Asprin, I am glad he picked up the Myth series again. I also digged the Shanarra series. The new book was quite good.

But the only other work besides Song of Ice and Fire that even comes close are the various "Sagas" from Raymod Fiest.

[ January 22, 2004, 02:14: Message edited by: OG_Gleep ]

[Teraswaerto]

Originally posted by velk:

quote:

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A bit of an overstatement. There are several central human characters without superhuman abilities. Whiskeyjack, Crokus/Cutter, Dujek Onearm, Murillio, etc.

You haven't read House of Chains yet have you 8)

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I have. If you mean

*SPOILER WARNING*
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the ascension of the Bridgeburners, for long a time before it happened they were just soldiers. Also, only one of the characters I mentioned is a Bridgeburner, so...

[ January 22, 2004, 13:05: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

[Jasper]

A little bit off topic, but the recent "Game of Thrones" boardgame is excellent. Simultaneous orders and supply similar to Diplomacy, but a much better game overall.

[Endoperez]

Also little of topic, but Sierra's Betrayal at Krondor (excellent rpg that I unfortunately have never finished (3! times my computer crashed and had to be formatted). It's free nowadays.