OT-Black Company

[Renojustin]

Yeah, and if Tolkien lived back in 1930 or something, The Lord of the Rings would have been finished in 230 pages.

Side Note: scariest aliens ever in a novel = The Mote In God's Eye by Pournelle and Niven

[HoneyBadger]

Gormenghast was in several volumes too. The point isn't that authors suddenly jumped from tiny books to huge series, like it had never occurred to them before to continue their work along the same vein, it's that suddenly it was *expected* from them, to do so. Dozens of series suddenly came out, and grew longer and longer, because it was the fashionable and profitable trend.

Honestly, JimMorrison is spot on, calling it the "reign of the pointlessly long series", because a lot of these series have no business being as long as they are. If a body of work is very long, but of reasonable quality throughout, and each book adds to the body of work, then I'm happy as a clam about it. More goodness, what's not to like? But how many series can we look at and say, "every book here is sheer gold!"?

There are some. The Gunslinger series comes to mind, as does George Alec Effinger's awesome Marid Audran trilogy (which was only a trilogy because the author died), and ofcourse Terry Pratchet's Diskworld, which can continue on into infinity, as far as I'm concerned.

But for every author worthy of a major series, we seem to get 10 or 20 with diarhhea of the typewriter.

[Leif_-]

HoneyBadger said:
Gormenghast was in several volumes too. The point isn't that authors suddenly jumped from tiny books to huge series, like it had never occurred to them before to continue their work along the same vein, it's that suddenly it was *expected* from them, to do so.

Not coincidentally, this happened at about the same time that personal computers and word processors entered the scene.

[MaxWilson]

HoneyBadger said:
But for every author worthy of a major series, we seem to get 10 or 20 with diarhhea of the typewriter.

CoughcoughXanth!coughcough.

Sturgeon's Law, though.

-Max

[HoneyBadger]

Leif, the Mahabharata is a trilogy consisting of approximately 1.8 million words. I don't think they had personal computers and word-processors 2400 years ago.
Certainly, word-processors and pcs and even typewriters sped up the process, but this wasn't just a case of sudden invention increasing output. Those things didn't cure writers block, for one thing.

[HoneyBadger]

And Tolkien got his popularity in the 60's when the books were re-discovered by the hippies, not in the 30's, and it was in large part the popularity of his books that started the trilogy craze.

[Leif_-]

HoneyBadger said:
Leif, the Mahabharata is a trilogy consisting of approximately 1.8 million words. I don't think they had personal computers and word-processors 2400 years ago.

Yes, yes, there were long books and stories long before word processors entered stage right, but it was with the the arrival of the word processors that books of 300+ pages became the norm.

[Endoperez]

I think endings are one of the most important parts of any story. A good beginning can get you started, but what you'll end up remembering will probably be the ending. There are exceptions, though:

"Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat."
So starts Chivalry, a short story by Neil Gaiman

Also, the forewords of the Dragonlance novel Soulforge, and spesifically the quote about iron-making. It's a powerful start, even though the story isn't too special by itself.

[Aezeal]

a few points to start
1. I don't know any black company books (I don't think even the biggest stores here in Holland have them, but the more I encounter the name I'm thinking of ordering them)

2. I FULLY agree Martin writes great books and I think it is better than Tolkien in quite some ways.

3. dragon of .... etc.. is IMHO not a very good series and I don't think there is good character development at all.

4. I like Jordans books, even the late/last ones

Then I want to bring some autor's into the light (I guess most of you 'read them already but if you haven't these are books you must read.. even if you don't think they are as great as I think they are I'm sure you'll find them at least good and worth the reading time

Having said that I think it's strange that Steven Erikson hasn't been mentioned I think his Malazan books of the Fallen are one of the greatest series there are (for me this is the best series together with Martin)

I also like Feists (Magician and his serpentwar saga)

another series I like very much so far (only seen first book of this sereis (I think the rest isn't written yet): the name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss

An oldie (don't know exactly how it really fits in timeline with other book but one of his books was amongst the first I bougth) I like too is Tad Williams (Dragonthrone series (real name to long) and his war of the Flowers book

Last but not least I'd like to mention Scott lynch's books about locke lamora (The lies of locke lamora and red seas under red skies) about a conman in a fantasy setting it's different and it's good

also: Drizzt books (RA Salvatore) and discworld novels are always fun between more "serious" series, and not bad at all

[HoneyBadger]

Not really. Typing is typing. The difference is in what sells, and the bigger, thicker books carry-literally-more weight than short stories, and therefore more emphasis for the readers to empathise with the story/characters/plot, and want more of the same.