Fantasy Author Reviews: First Set

Here is the long promised review of fantasy authors. Since there are so many of them, I am splitting this post into several parts. The order in which I have listed them does not correlate with my ranking or any other ranking for that matter.

Raymond Feist:
This guy is one of my favourite authors. Reading his book Magician was my first exposure to good contemporary fantasy fiction, and inspired me to read more and more fantasy, so much so that I don't think I even live in the real world anymore. Feist is a very balanced author; his strength is neither in plot, nor in characters, nor in building fantastic worlds or any other aspect of fantasy writing you can think of. All of Feist's series are interconnected, so that one can almost think of them as a single series of nearly twenty novels, but in truth all are readable as separate series. The Riftwar Saga starting with Magician is my all-time favourite.

Feist has an excellent imagination and players of role-playing games will appreciate the way in which his characters develop. Though magic is central to all the books, there is a sense of adventure in all the books that will draw the readers in. The books are enjoyable for people of all ages, though.

My favourite Feist character is a magician called Nakor who has a permanent grin and insists that there is no such thing as magic. Even upto Feist's most recent book, we never know who he actually is and how he came upon his immortality, or his powers, or other things (such as the codicil of the dead God of Knowledge which he reluctantly hands over to the priests).

A scene from the Riftwar series that I vividly remember (not the exact wordings though, so don't hold me to this):
Pug and Tomas finally spotted Macros at a clearing and Tomas guided the dragon toward him. Macros was jumping up and down and waving wildly. Pug smiled and waved back, but when they landed, Macros stopped and looked at them grimly.
"Now you've done it," he said.
"Done what?" asked Tomas.
"Triggered the time trap."
"Why didn't you warn us?"
"What do you think I was trying to do?"
"Oh! We thought you were just excited to see us!"
"At my age?!!!"

Ursula Le Guin:
Le Guin is primarily a science fiction author, and my favourite book of hers is The Dispossessed, which, though supposed to be science fiction, is essentially a book on social and political philosophy. In my opinion it is infinitely better than Aldous Huxley or Ayn Rand, though.

Le Guin is most famous for her sci-fi short stories, which, like Asimov's work, are based on the same galaxy and timeline but are completely standalone and thoroughly enjoyable. A hallmark of Le Guin is that her books are very thought-provoking and dwell equally on story-telling and human nature. There is a fantasy element to all of her science fiction through the worlds the events are based on, as well as things like mindspeech and the races on the different worlds. This adds an interesting dimension to her novels which is refreshing for die hard sci-fi fans.

Le Guin's best known fantasy series is Earthsea, and some of you might have seen the miniseries on television. Earthsea is a riveting tale of a wizard's journey in which he first, inadvertently spoils the balance of magic upon the world, and then labours tirelessly to restore the balance and bring peace to the lands of Earthsea. Le Guin pays special attention to the nature of magic upon Earthsea. A scene which I liked from the first book (again, the wording may be different):
Ged approached the door and found his way barred by magic yet again. The Door Keeper told him, "One final test before you can leave the island. What is my true name?"
Ged sat down to think and pondered upon which kind of spell would be powerful enough to trick or convince the Keeper to tell him his name. After a long time he finally went to him and said, "I cannot think of any way to take it from you. Hence, I can only pass if you give it to me of your own volition. I request you, as a friend: will you tell me your name?"
The Keeper smiled. And told him his name.

Robert Jordan:
The Wheel of Time series is getting famous these days, though ironically only the earlier books in the series are really good. After the fourth book, the series gradually becomes slow and dragging, though the overall spinning of the story is still good. Jordan builds a fantastic world in which Shai'tan, the dark one, who was sealed away into the void by the Creator at the beginning of time for all time, is slowly escaping and regaining his vile grip on the world. He escaped once before, but Lews Therin Telamon (nicknamed "The Dragon") and an army of male Aes Sedai, wielders of the One Power that is the Creator's gift to the world, surprised him when he was in council with his "Chosen" ones and banished him once more. However, by Shai'tan's counterstroke at the fateful moment, the male half of the power was tainted permanently, driving insane anyone who wields it. All the men among the Aes Sedai went mad and used their power indiscriminately, resulting in what is known as The Breaking of the World. It took centuries for the world to recover, and the female Aes Sedai labour to keep peace among men and watch for the dark one's return.

The first book starts when the seals start weakening, and the Dragon is reborn as per prophecy, and the dark one's agents, as well as the Aes Sedai, are trying to find out who he is. Then starts an amazing journey of a young man and his two companions, who knew naught but sheepherding and blacksmithing, to unite the world so that they may stand against the dark one on the day he breaks free again.

Central to Jordan's tale are the prophecies describing the rise of the Dragon Reborn and his defeat of the dark one on the day of reckoning, Tarmon Gai'don. But his real strength is the way in which he describes the recovery and use of the male and female halves of the Power. The other thing which Jordan does brilliantly is in the creation of the nations that comprise his world. Each has their own culture, characteristics and beliefs brought to life in front of the reader's eyes. My favourite Jordan quote is a proverb in the Border land of Shienar, which is closest to the wastelands inhabited by the dark one's minions: "Duty is a mountain, Death is a feather."


Egad... only three authors in this post?! Looks like this is going to take a long time...

Cheers,
Prashanth.