A Song of Ice and Fire

[Norfleet]

Wolves? Dominions II needs penguins. Penguins....of DOOM. Swarms of enraged, berserker penguins, swarming across the frozen fields to peck their enemies to death.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Wolves? Dominions II needs penguins. Penguins....of DOOM. Swarms of enraged, berserker penguins, swarming across the frozen fields to peck their enemies to death.

Awwww... go play Age of Wonders

[Sindai]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
I thought it was pretty good. But I have not bought the sequel... it (the first one) has a big, epic scope, but he makes his characters suffer a lot.

The word you use to make that sound cool is "gritty."

GRRM certainly has that grittyness, in spades. Things certainly don't get any nicer in the next couple of books, believe you me.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Sindai:
Things certainly don't get any nicer in the next couple of books, believe you me.

Nice understatement ...

[alexti]

George R.R. Martin is the only one fantasy writers I know in whose books the future is unpredictable His other books, for example Windhaven and Fever Dream are very good too. And some old short story (Sandkings?) is almost a scenario for some strategy game (Warlords?) :-)

But does anybody know another author of similar quality?

As Cherry said, the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Fiest is very good and I enjoy that series along with his others, though not as much as the original. I mean, who has the balls to call their hero Pug? Not many. Though Milamber was a good change, you got to love ol' Pug. Macros is very good as well.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by alexti:
But does anybody know another author of similar quality?

Robin Hobb, David Gemmel, David Drake, Raymond Feist. All quite good, and their stories are not always predictable. But GRRM, unlike any other author I know, truly isn't attached to his characters. heh

[Saber Cherry]

I have a lot of trouble finding good fantasy books, but I may try out some of those. Recently, the only one I liked enough to buy a sequel was Terry Goodkind (Wizard's First Rule) but I didn't finish the second book... Other than that, and Feist's first two books... The Last Unicorn (Peter Beagle) is exceptional.

SF, on the other hand, is another matter. I really liked David Brin's first Uplift trilogy (and more recently, Kiln People), and Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon The Deep". Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" is excellent as well. And we mustn't forget Niven, but I expect most people here would have read Ringworld... at least the ones who came from the SEIV forum=)

Does the Riftwar series stay high quality after the initial two books?

The 3rd Book is more emphasis on the lesser characters in Arutha and Jimmy the Hand and has alot of connectivity to why things happened in the way they happened. The 4th book is excellent and has massive battles and fantastic richness to it. I enjoyed the entire series.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Does the Riftwar series stay high quality after the initial two books?

In a word: yes!