The books supply a good deal of very creative instances, there's a lot of action, it's easy to read, and the epic length is appealing.  The books have are odd because one scene will feel very polished and then the next three seem like they were just first drafts.  Those of us who grew up reading them also have a sort of nostalgic factor because we didn't know they weren't very well written at the time and some of us don't want to admit it.

Haha, I see. How unfortunate. I think I'll continue to avoid them, then.

I might pick up Game of Thrones though. You know... because everyone's saying it's so good right now. :D

I've never read the books, but the HBO take on Game of Thrones is pretty interesting, if not for children.  My favorite guy is the dwarf (I forget his name); that actor has come a long way to overcome the stereotype of a little person and does a wonderful acting job.

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones is book 1) is my favorite book series and I suggest you go read it as soon as you can. If you want to get into the series I highly suggest reading the series first because the books have so far been better than the series.  (Although the show is good.  It just spoils the plot in the books.)

Tyrion Lannister is the name of the dwarf by the way and he is being played by Peter Dinklage.

In reply to Kagura (msg #16):

I have all the books at home somewhere. Probably in my room? Game of thrones has a yellow/orange color with a rampant lion on it.

The key is whether the writer can suspend the reader's disbelief.  Fantasy can do this if done well.

By the same token, it's often even easier in real world settings to fail utterly.  An example of this is "Double Jeopardy," in which the entire hook and premise of the movie is based on a completely idiotic and unrealistic interpretation of the double jeopardy clause, that even a 1st year law student couldn't get past it.  Yet there is Sean Connery pretending to be a law professor totally misinterpreting it and reiterating with passion that his interpretation is true.  I couldn't get past it and my disbelief was not suspended for even one minute (and neither could the critics).

Contrast that to the Lord of the Rings movie, which so involves you in the movie that you can easily forget it is a fantasy world.

Kagura... have you tried Patricia Briggs?  The Mercy Thompson series?  Deals with a coyote skinwalker who is a mechanic... and is female.  There are werewolves, vampires, Fae... there's a companion series to that world called the Alpha and Omega as well.  Very fun series, very active.

Of course, there's also the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn, which deals with a supernatural nighttime radio show hosted by a werewolf named Kitty.  Yeah, gotta love the irony there! lol

Not blue? I thought it was blue. I could have sworn that the ones at the bookstore were blue.

I'll look if I'm interested.



Exactly. That's the whole point (in my opinion, at least) of fantasy - to enable the reader to be able to escape to that world and not have jarring contradictions/deus ex machina plot points thrown in their face.

In reply to Remi LeBeau (msg #21):

I haven't, and I probably won't. For the simple expedient that I just don't like werewolves (or shifters of any sort) that much. In my personal opinion, fae and REAL vampires (the ones that don't sparkle) are more interesting. I read supernatural fiction for the supernatural characters who are completely inhuman, not for the human characters who are more or less supernatural like werewolves.

It's nothing personal against werewolves, really, I just don't generally like human beings who aren't assassins, spies or dethroned princes in exile. :D

A Song of Ice and Fire has all three! :D

They're actually quite good, and the vampire worlds are well designed in them.  I adore the Fae in the Briggs books... they've revealed themselves to the world to a degree, and there's actually an old Fae working with Mercy as a friend... one of the metalworking Fae.  He adores the name gremlin... lol

But if they're not your cup of tea, no problem.  What authors do you enjoy most, or did I ask and just forget already? *grins*

I'm not Kagura but...

Card, Gaiman, Rutherfurd, Martin, Tolkien, Rothfuss, Burlew, Lewis, White, King, Erikson, and Durham are all great.

Heard of some, read some, no clue on the others.  For me...

Lackey, McCaffrey, Flint, Weber, Conan Doyle, Briggs, Vaughn, Feehan, Butcher(Dresden rocks!), Salvatore, Weis, Clancy, Cussler, Sagara, and Francis.  Of course, I'm forgetting tons of authors I love in addition to those.

Salvatore?  I mean the original Drizzt book was good and so were the prequels, but what do you really like about him as an overall author?

I like the Drizzt storyline, mostly.  I've always been a sucker for the underdog.  I've never read anything else of his.  Really, I should sub Peter David for Salvatore, since I have read things he's done other than Star Trek, and died laughing each time.  It gets harder to rise up from death-by-laughter.

If you haven't read anything else by Salvatore I suggest The Highwayman.  It's the best book of his I've read with possibly the exceptions of The Crystal Shard and Homeland.  (Although again that might just be Nostalgia talking.)

I'll try that one.  Have you read David Weber or Eric Flint?

No but a friend did recommend Off Armageddon Reef to me and I think I still have it "borrowed" around here somewhere...

Haven't made my way to that one yet, but the Honor Harrington series is superb, and the book In Fury Born is fantastic, with scifi and ancient Greek mythology together.  Very cool.

And Flint's Ring of Fire series is wonderful alternate universe stuff, with lots of humor and grit.  West Virginia mining town gets sent to Thuringia in Europe in 1632, which is the title of the first book.  Nothing like having good ole Americans dumped in a war territory... and having modern equipment.  Oh yeah lol

In reply to Remi LeBeau (msg #24):

Who are my favorite authors? Hmm...

Rowland, Gaiman, Conan Doyle, Weeks, Harris, Sagara, Canavan, Peeler, Pierce, McKinley, Butcher, Collins, Duane, Haley, Lackey, Miller, Sturluson and Sweet.

Those happen to be the ones that I could think of right at this very moment. I'm sure there are more that I'm not thinking of. Feel free to ask for clarification on any one, since a least a few of those names are lesser known and/or generic.

The blue one is the third in the series. At least, of the editions I have at home. Game of Thrones is yellow/orange, Clash of Kings is purple, Storm of Swords is blue, and Feast for Crows is Red. He hasn't come out with Dance with Dragons yet, but if it's the same type of cover, then I expect it to be green.

I'm seeing ones that I forgot in my own list... though in my defense, I read so much it's often hard to choose favorites...

But I'm behind in my Sagara.  Is there a new book out for her Cast series?

That depends, what was the last one that you read? The most recent is Cast in Chaos, but Cast in Ruin is supposed to come out this September.

I think I read that one... been a while.  Currently burning through Suzanne Brockmann's Seal Team Ten series, and Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth series.  And the Dragon Jousters series.

No one has mentioned Stephen R. Donaldson...his works are classic.  Orson Scott Card and Terry Brooks can be good at times too.

I forgot to put Brooks in but I listed Card although the only book of his I loved was Ender's Game.  I read the next couple and they just didn't have the same level of originality or suspense as the first one.