Terry Pratchett:
Pratchett is a master of satire. He takes a dig at all geeky topics: physics, economics, science fiction, role playing games, classic fantasy; and he does it all with a straight face and in the context of a fantasy series! The Discworld series is a must-read for anyone who is a fantasy fan or a geek or both, a rollicking adventure set on a world that is - what else - a flat plate mounted on the back of a giant tortoise (sex unknown) with the help of four elephants.
Robert Asprin:
If Pratchett is a master of satire, then Asprin is the King. Demons, devils, vampires, magicians, baby dragons, character assassins and multi-dimensional mafia - find them all in the adventures of the Great Skeeve (a title gained mostly through good PR) starting with Another Fine Myth.
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman:
These authors have written novels as individual authors, but usually they write together. The first thing I noticed about their books is that the settings are very, very imaginative, almost to the point of being weird! But the depth of thought gone into the details of their fantasy worlds and people is excellent. The books are well balanced with equal doses of adventure, suspense, irony, twists, humour and tragedy. I definitely recommend them to fantasy fans, though I think a casual reader might find it hard to digest the world setting.
Robin Hobb:
I've read the Farseer trilogy, and I thought it started on a very promising note but lost direction after the first book. It is the story of a prince's illegitimate son. The prince renounces his claim to the throne to clear any confusion to the succession, as his own wife is barren. The boy is then trained as an assassin to serve the throne. He inherits the magical ability called the Skill that is strong in the royal bloodlines... and unknown to most people, he also inherits an ancient magic from the side of his unknown mother. It could have been a brilliant series, but I think Hobb's inexperience in writing reduced it to merely good.
Anne McAffrey:
I've only read one of McAffrey's books, and I enjoyed it, though it was a rather small book. I don't know why she is advertised as a children's author; I thought the book (first one in the Dragonriders of Pern series) is suitable for all ages. However, I don't think I'm qualified to pass any kind of judgement from just that one book.
David Eddings:
I don't know how this guy became so famous. I found his books extremely predictable and very average. I think I might have enjoyed them if I were twelve years old, but I would recommend all adult readers to stay away from this guy.
Planning to read: Dan Simmons, Christopher Paolini, David Gemmell, Mercedes Lackey, Piers Anthony
Not Reviewing: J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling 'cos everyone knows about them.
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7 comments:
Did I just read wind up? Or is there a wind up part XIV coming up? Btw does this pratchett of urs make fun of u looney blokes or is it just a tag of 'satire' with some hardcore fantasy crap? In any case I wouldn't bother digging even if u said he was funny, coz we find situations funny only when we have seen the serious situation happening if you know what I mean. I'll give you a for instance: I for one wouldn't find humour on monarchies funny because I've never experienced being ruled by a monarchy!
Kirthi,
Both Pratchett and Asprin write humour, the satire is part of it and not the whole. And I think only a small part of the satire is esoteric to the scifi-fantasy-rpg-geek community, the books are readable by anyone.
Intern,
Yep, as the title says, this is purely a fantasy author review. U.K. Le Guin is the only scifi author in the list I think. There are still a lot of scifi authors I want to read, so I can't review them yet.
...and A Brief History of Time is one of my all-time favourite non-fiction books.
Battlestar Galactica sounds like a remake of "Rossum's Universal Robots", a play written in the 1921 or thereabouts by Czech author Karol Capek. The story is about a future where we humans build robots to do our manual labour, but over time the robots realize that they are smarter, stronger and faster than humans so they rebel and take over the world. This was the first ever work of fiction in which the word Robot was used. There have been innumerable robot-based apocalyptic stories spawned from this over the years, the most famous one of course being Terminator.
Didn't I comment on this post ?? Vc scratches his head.. i thought i did ... grr...
Jawm,
Where are you posting your fantasy novel? Did you complete it in the first place?
I am *not* posting my fantasy novel anywhere! And I didn't even get past 7 chapters, and it was so similar to Magician that I need to start over plot, characters, world, everything. So, for all practical purposes, there is no novel yet [-(
Prashanth, I owe you a thank you, and I've been meaning to come by and say so, but got around to doing it only now...
~ So was out shopping for a friend's bday, and was reading all these fantasy type reviews online since I have no clue really....then remembered that I'd seen you having done some reviews way back when, and came back and read them...
~ Finally settled on The Magician and Wizards First Rule, and my friend loved both!
~ So thank you!...
~ I'm also meaning to go thru your the rest of your archives some day...:)
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