New Robin Hobb! Woohoo!

[ChrisC]

I'm going to start Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. Apparently some of his best work.

 

[Beanburger]

I'm going to start Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. Apparently some of his best work.

The Empire books are the only reason to bother reading Fesit, IMHO. He's a bit hackneyed. Having said that, he writes really well when he's focusing on smaller stories... he does urban fantasy quite well. It's when he goes all epic that it goes tits up - a failing that a lot of fantasy authors suffer from.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Right, well. Here are my views.

Was disappointed by the Hobb book. Felt very small in scope and scale. No big twists, nothing much happened. The storyline certainly has potential though.

Fucking loved Painted Man by Brett. Loved it. Very obvious, but enjoyably so.

Just started Gardens of the Moon. Really put off by Erikson's preface... how far up his own arse is he?! That said, I'll give it a go as so many people rate the books so highly. I just wish I'd never read his pompous "this book is difficult to read, I am brilliant" rant.

 

[stupid dogbot]

I never read those.

 

[DotCommunist]

Right, well. Here are my views.

Was disappointed by the Hobb book. Felt very small in scope and scale. No big twists, nothing much happened. The storyline certainly has potential though.

Fucking loved Painted Man by Brett. Loved it. Very obvious, but enjoyably so.

Just started Gardens of the Moon. Really put off by Erikson's preface... how far up his own arse is he?! That said, I'll give it a go as so many people rate the books so highly. I just wish I'd never read his pompous "this book is difficult to read, I am brilliant" rant.

there is also a large gap in time between GoTM and his next book. GoTM is good, don't get me wrong. But his craft really improves during the time between that and the next one.

My copy doesn't have him wanking on about himself in as a preface. Probably the better for that.

 

[ChrisFilter]

It's fully readable here, for those who might curious:

http://rhwidget.randomhouse.co.uk/f...80553819571&menu=0&mode=1&cf=4aa5a2&cb=77c8da

 

[DotCommunist]

heh, never noticed it was dedicated to Ian Cameron Esselmont. Am currently re-reading his second foray into the MAlazan universe 'return of the crimson guard'

He's not quite as good with pathos and humour as Steven Erickson is but he narrates a battle really well.

 

[stupid dogbot]

The first one (Night of Knives) is ace, but I've not read Crimson Guard yet, despite it sitting on my shelf.

 

[DotCommunist]

I'm gagging to get my teeth into Dust of Dreams but I cans not afford it this side of christmas. Might have to swoop by the library and see if it's made it to there yet.

 

[stupid dogbot]

I refuse to buy any more hardbacks, on the basis that my shelves WILL fall down if I do... but I'm dying to read it, too.

 

[DotCommunist]

All my Erickson novels are hardbacks except GoTM which is a paperback edition I robbed from Pentonville jail library x 2

There's some good discussion on the Malazan Forums about various aspects of the books, although it is largely a forum dominated by twat americans and canadians.

 

[Chuff]

Soldiers story reminds me of Lords of Discipline for some reason, it irritated me, i think after the first set (assassains) she really got to grips with characterisation and the books became much more involved for me (I loved assassins but the liveships blew me away)

I have always found female authors do so much better with Tolkien based fantasy, i think because of the characterisation, for example Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragon lance cronicles (I actually cried when a character died) I do think Robin can be a bit annoying with her obsession with the child to adult change in character routine, annoting child= outstanding adult, but I love the books and am not getting enougyh sleep