May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
I read Titus Groan when I wasn't much older than that and after a slow start it completely hooked me. It was my favourite book for years.
RIP David Eddings.
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
I read Titus Groan when I wasn't much older than that and after a slow start it completely hooked me. It was my favourite book for years.
What about The Horse And His Boy...
Missez
Britisher Abroad
Same here. Once I got into it I loved it.
I did really enjoy Edding's Belgariad books when I was teen. At the time I did notice the race stereotyping going on and thought it was a flaw in the books. I didn't really rate his other books. I didn't notice the sexism though. Maybe after reading lots of Philip Jose Farmer and Piers Anthony the Eddings sexism seemed mild.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
oh god that one was bad. Tash as cheap allah allegory.
Perhaps the best was 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader'. Any book with a sword weilding rat gets my thumbs up.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I rate the Silver Chair pretty highly. In many ways was a bit sideways from the Narnia universe - the mythology it was based on seemed to be of the less Christian variety, even though it contains a defence of Christianity in the climactic scene (re-iterated in the mediocre Life of Pi, though everyone looked at me weird when I said that).
But I'm wandering off-topic. Slightly
You guys are probably right about Eddings racial stereotypes. Thinking about it I was too ignorant and politically unaware to recognise a stereotype of a russian or whatever when I was a teenager, so it just completely passed me by.
I'd file him with Enid Blyton with the badly-written and slightly bigotted pleasures that probably do little harm to a kid because the bigotry is meaningless to them.
camouflage
gaslit at scale.
In klingon society as it is portrayed, there is no room for anything but physical combat. Anything else is for pussies. But my point isn't about whether klingons could advance beyond fascistic club-weilding tribalism, but rather the "Eddingsian" way of racial characterization.
In Star trek again they don't even bother to propose that Ferenghi are the way they are because of their culture, as with klingons, but in reality it takes all sorts to make a world and it takes all sorts to travel the stars, and all sorts to happen to belong to any particular 'race'. And anyway why aren't the cultres in these things ever reffered to as being different 'species' (whole new thread to do with laziness of the imagination, klingons could be completely warlike and completely space-born warriors, but then they'd have to be completely alien and who wants to imagine up all that).
It's the kind of mistake the high likes of Banks doesn't do
, he reffers not just to The Culture, but also, to cultures. He's not the only one.At the end of the day the racist premise is subconcious. As with other deficiencies I am informed plague his work; once you know better you know better. Those who know bettter probably write way better as well. Saying all that I'm sure Eddings wasn't out to racist anyone. RIP to him.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
The ferengi were initially meant to be badass cannibals untill the TNG writers wanted a convenient caricature of capitalism to show how wonderful the post-scacity enlightened self interest Federation was in comparison, and the Klingons haven't always been so ug-ug. iirc TOS portrays them with a treacherous subtlety the TNG writers gave to the Romulan Empire.
I think the eddings books would lend themselves to a TV series adapt IMO.
I think the eddings books would lend themselves to a TV series adapt IMO.
Yeah, I think that was my favourite too, although I never really loved Narnia compared with Tolkien or even the L Frank Baum Oz books.
Of course, Frank Baum was a pretty despicable racist as a person, but it didn't come across in his stories from what I remember
Apart from a casual "RIP", I didn't want to get involved in an Eddings defence kind of thing. Mostly because I agree that the majority of his plot lines were ultra-formulaic (sp?). However, middle finger pointed firmly in the direction of all the haters, Eddings had a knack for bringing some 10/10 characters to life, and he imagined some fantastic interaction between them.
story = 1/10
characters 9/10
In contrast, I rate Tolkien as having excellent storyline, but much more generic characters.
Bring on the hate, I'm not changing my mind about this.
story = 1/10
characters 9/10
In contrast, I rate Tolkien as having excellent storyline, but much more generic characters.
Bring on the hate, I'm not changing my mind about this.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
they weren't generic when he wrote them tbh. Given his influence on the fantasy that followed, especially the crappier fuedalism-lite 'amulet of uttergash weilded by Ballbag The Sweaty' type stuff, it's understandable that in retrospect the characters can seem formulaic.
Plenty of fantasy out there that isn't so.
anyway I'm stinking up this eddings thread with digressions.
Random
Ethnic nalgocrat
Goodness gracious no, unless you mean page after page of whimsical teeth grindingly cutesy banter between cookie-cutter stereotype characters (this one is the 'wise old wizard', this one is the 'dependable sidekick' and so on until we beg for death).
