Kroakie on 9/4/2006 at 11:27
No discussion of fantasy is complete without a mention of George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.[/fanboy]
TF on 9/4/2006 at 14:22
I'm irressistibly drawn to sci-fi a lot more than fantasy myself, especially the 50s naive but somehow charming kind. x)
Dia on 9/4/2006 at 14:23
Sci-Fi. It seems that after having read Tolkien, most other fantasy novels just fall too short of the mark ('k, I'm a fantasy snob). I did enjoy Terry Brooks 'Shannara' series; at least the first three or four of the series.
Asimov
C.J. Cherry (her 'Foreigner' series just blows me away!)
Jack McDevitt
Ben Bova
Alan Dean Foster
Mark Tiedeman (his 'Aurora' series was very reminiscent of Asimov's Robot novels)
S.J. Viehl
David Brin
Arthur C. Clarke
-and a whole lot of newer authors that have yet to publish their second novels.
Naartjie on 9/4/2006 at 14:37
A true fantasy snob wouldn't have Tolkein as a favourite writer ;)
Dia on 9/4/2006 at 14:46
You're obviously taking the wrong meds, dear. ;)
Tolkien created fantasy. End of discussion.:p
:cheeky:
Briareos H on 9/4/2006 at 15:02
Dia : You missed the point.
----
Roger Zelazny has been forgotten ITT. It's not TEH ULTIMATE, but I found reading the amber series very refreshing, some of his other fantasy works are great too.
Also, early Mc Caffrey stuff if you want scifi/fantasy crossover. The latest pern are not too great and some of her derived works are forgettable, but the peak of the cycle is very good.
Finally, my all time favourite SF writer is Dan Simmons. Read him. No really, read him.
Dia on 9/4/2006 at 15:34
Quote Posted by Briareos H
Roger Zelazny has been forgotten ITT. It's not TEH ULTIMATE, but I found reading the amber series very refreshing, some of his other fantasy works are great too.
Also, early Mc Caffrey stuff if you want scifi/fantasy crossover. The latest pern are not too great and some of her derived works are forgettable, but the peak of the cycle is very good.
Finally, my all time favourite SF writer is Dan Simmons. Read him. No really, read him.
I guess it's just a matter of preference. I've read some of McCaffrey's earlier stuff & thought it was very good. Dan Simmons' 'Hyperion' saga was interesting as well, just got a little too abstract for my tastes (the Shrike gave me nightmares, btw). Piers Anthony wrote a good yarn, as did Roger Zelazny, Christopher Stasheff, Mary Gentle, Robert Aspirin (if you like more humor in your fantasy, of course), as well as numerous other fantasy authors that I've read. I'm not saying that Tolkien was the
only worthwhile fantasy writer; just that IMHO he was the best.
(Also, I just love teasing Naartjie. :cheeky: ;) )
Para?noid on 9/4/2006 at 16:01
Quote Posted by Random_Taffer
I'm currently on
The Fire's of Heaven (Book 5). I hope I'm not in for a big disappointment...:(
So did you actually read them all? Just get boring for you? Or was this just what you've heard?
I read up to Book 7, by which time I managed to convince myself what a load of crap it all was.
Aerothorn on 9/4/2006 at 16:13
I've met people who say "I don't like sci-fi". And I just don't understand that. As far as I can tell, in the loosest sense, sci-fi and fantasy is fiction that asks "what if". How can people only like fiction that takes place in the 'real world'? And a lot of people seem to think that all sci-fi = Star Wars and all fantasy = Lord of the Rings (which are both very good in their own right but not necessarilly representative of all things in the genres). Anyway, yeah, I prefer sci-fi to fantasy (as sci-fi is ususually more idea-focused than fantasy) but enjoy good books of each type. Books I haved liked at different points in my life:
Sci-fi
Snow Crash (and The Diamond Age)
This is the Way the World Ends
Slaughterhouse 5 (one of the few pieces of sci-fi that literary circles will respect, thus leading some to classify it as something other then sci-fi)
A Game of Universe
Spinneret
The Forever War
Watchmen
Fantasy
Neverwhere/American Gods/Most of Neil Gaiman's stuff
Bored of the Rings
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Minotaur Takes a Cigerette Break (I think this may be what some people call magical realism, but whatever)
Dinotopia
other stuff I can't think of, weee
Naartjie on 9/4/2006 at 17:13
Quote:
Originally posted by DiaTolkien created fantasy. End of discussion.:p
It's ok, I can see why you might think that, given that Tolkein is about as high-brow as you'll ever be able to grasp.
edit: oh yeah, I almost forgot: :cheeky: :cheeky: :cheeky:
