We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!
Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.
Yes basically his original Icewind Dale trilogy and Dark Elf trilogy are his best efforts. Having said that the books are very generic and highly predictable and don't exactly inspire one to any great heights although he has a certain skill in describing battle scenes and one-to-one combat.Self said:Hey!
Concerning RASalvatore, I would read The Crystal Shard, the 1st book of the Icewind Dale Trilogy set in the Forgotten Realms. He writes many other books based on a character from this series, so if you like it, you're set.
As for Goodkind, good luck! Hope you enjoy it more than I did.
CattiGuen said:i hate it when people start talking about how salvatore is "just fun" reading and not a "real piece of literature". the point of reading is for fun, first and foremost (especially when it comes to a fantasy/adventure/sci-fi novel). whoever expects to get anything more than pure pleasure from this genre is not the ripest melon of the bunch. I thoroughly enjoyed the icewinddale trilogy and the dark elf trilogy. the legacy of the drow series is darker in themes and setting (literally). I've read all the drizzt books (homeland and the legacy both 3 times!) but if youre just looking for a quick fantasy read then try the crystal shard (the first in the icewinddale trilogy) and if you want more, continue the trilogy.![]()
CattiGuen said:i hate it when people start talking about how salvatore is "just fun" reading and not a "real piece of literature". the point of reading is for fun, first and foremost (especially when it comes to a fantasy/adventure/sci-fi novel). whoever expects to get anything more than pure pleasure from this genre is not the ripest melon of the bunch. I thoroughly enjoyed the icewinddale trilogy and the dark elf trilogy. the legacy of the drow series is darker in themes and setting (literally). I've read all the drizzt books (homeland and the legacy both 3 times!) but if youre just looking for a quick fantasy read then try the crystal shard (the first in the icewinddale trilogy) and if you want more, continue the trilogy.![]()
I tend to agree with you a bit Billy, Salvatore has a certain entertainment value but could hardly be compared to great literature, not with the likes of Wolfe, Bakker, Martin, Erikson, Calvino, Harrison, Mieville et al.. to call upon anyway.Billy said:I'm not sure why you hate it when people say that Savitore is fun when you just agreed with it. I am not putting Salvitore down. Like you, I have read his books and enjoyed them....So for this reason I don't think it is possible to call Salvitore's work great literature, but it is definitely fun.
any good books in the first person ?,thanks
Billy said:I'm not sure why you hate it when people say that Savitore is fun when you just agreed with it. I am not putting Salvitore down. Like you, I have read his books and enjoyed them. In fact, now days, I tend to only read things for fun. If it's too much like hard work I don't tend to bother with it. No matter what your opinions I don't see how you can hate people saying something that you seem to agree with. Salvitore is an entertaining writer, but the Drizzt books were writeen for TSR and Wizards of the Coast and you would probably be aware of the restrictions they place on their authors. So for this reason I don't think it is possible to call Salvitore's work great literature, but it is definitely fun.
Well you may want to check out fantasy writers Gene Wolfe, M. John Harrison, Italo Calvino, China Mieville and I'm reliably told Jaff Vandermeer and to a lesser extent Janny Wurts, George RR Martin and Seven Erikson as they're all very fine writers IMHO...Jemima Aslana said:I miss good literature in the fantasy genre, 'cause I'd like to read that, but when people like me who think RAS' writings are a tad too simple are called 'snobs' it tends to just bar off the fantasy genre from ever receiving any recognition for the potential it actually has.
Ainulindale said:I think the implication that more thoughtful forms of writing are not read for fun is the most over abused element used when arguing the merits of a comparitvely simpler book with less ambition behind it creatively.
People don't read literature beause they are trying to bore themselves to death, they read it because they like it as well.
I read something like James Joyce for the same reasons I read Comic books - for fun. The tendency to relate a book that causes you to think with 'no fun' speaks volumes about something much larger than book preference in my mind.
CattiGuen said:what i meant was that the people that say he's "just fun" and "not real literature" tend to make those remarks to belittle him as an author and not understand that he is a "fantasy author". you simply cant compare salvatore to say, faulkner or vonnegut because they write completely different in styles and for different reasons. salvatore is pure pleasure reading and when some one makes a comment about salvatore not being the greatest author because of the genre that he writes in, it angers me. literary snobs can bugger off!![]()
I have Erikson's Gardens and Martin's Thrones lying around, but except for Wurts and Miéville I haven't even heard of the others. Access to fantasy books is crappy here in DK, it's nigh impossible to find anything really good on our shelves, so I buy what I want on Amazon and eBay but there you seldom find anything but exactly the book or author you searched for because you can't browse shelves as you can with a real bookshop.GOLLUM said:Well you may want to check out fantasy writers Gene Wolfe, M. John Harrison, Italo Calvino, China Mieville and I'm reliably told Jaff Vandermeer and to a lesser extent Janny Wurts, George RR Martin and Seven Erikson as they're all very fine writers IMHO...![]()
Jemima Aslana said:@ Billy
I don't think Ainulindale was directing that at you. While yes, some prefer the fun of fantasy to the fun of literature it really isn't lovely being told that when I read something that isn't fantasy I can't possibly be reading it for fun - it's as if fantasy at times has the monopoly on 'fun'. I know you well enough to know you're not of that opinion, but that is sadly the vibe I sometimes pick up from other fantasy lovers. They think we can't understand how much fun it is to read fantasy - we can, I think it's great fun too - when it's them who don't understand how we can possibly find it fun to read, say, Dostoyevksy or Joyce.
Well if you're referring to mainstream society I'd have to agree with you to an extent. I've noticed and I think this is still a trend that people who read "fantasy" are looked upon as being a bit strange or on the fringe and to somehow not be reading something that is deemed as being worthwhile or valid by the majority. At least that's what I've noticed, which to me is a real shame because there are a number of very fine writers in the Genre who would stack up quite well against other writers in other Genres IMO.Billy said:There are some very good fantasy authors, as Gollum has pointed out several times. Unfortunately they are associated with the 'fun' fantasy novels and not given the credit they deserve.
Well yes hopefully you'll like what you read. Italo Calvino has written some very good stuff so maybe try Invisible Cities and If on A Winters Night. Gene Wolfe would be considered a great writer irrespective of the genre he writes in and as such is viewed by several critics as one of America's finest modern writers. You could do worse than try his classic first person narrative Book Of The New Sun, or some of his other excellent works like Latro In The Mist, Five Heads Of Cerberus, Peace or his current Wizard duology. Mieville has his classic New Corobozun trilogy starting with Perdido Station or his earlier work King Rat to name jut two. For M John Harrison he's written other stuff but I checked out his collection of stories Viriconium (part of the fantasy Masterwork series) and it's brilliant prose! so I'd assume his more recent work is also very good. Janny Wurts can be a bit slow in terms of plot development but her writing is quality. Her current Wars Of Light and Shadow is a mutli-volume epic, so you could check out her standalone To Ride Hell's Chasmto get a taste of her style. Apart from Erikson and Martin you should also check out R Scott Bakker's Prince Of Nothing trilogy, these are the best 3 EPIC series I've probably read, certainly in recent times. Steven Erikson is my favourite fantasy author of all time, each book improves upon the last albeit all are excellent, worldbuilding at its best. I know little of Jeff Vandermeer other than he's apparently very good, so Ainulindale will be able to tell you more there if you ask but I'm ordering in his collection of stories City Of Saints and Madmen which I understand is a great collection.Jemima Aslana said:I have Erikson's Gardens and Martin's Thrones lying around, but except for Wurts and Miéville I haven't even heard of the others. Access to fantasy books is crappy here in DK, it's nigh impossible to find anything really good on our shelves, so I buy what I want on Amazon and eBay but there you seldom find anything but exactly the book or author you searched for because you can't browse shelves as you can with a real bookshop. I'll write down your recommendations and check them out.
Why is it that we may not judge RAS on his being an author? Why do we have to consider that he's a "fantasy author"? He's still an author...
Hmm, let me see. I enjoy reading all types of books, but I find some to be more 'fun' than others. It's like I thoroughly enjoy going on a long bushwalk and experiencing all that nature has to offer me. It is a very nice experience. However, it is not something I would say is 'fun'. Enjoyable, yes, but fun, no. For fun I would much rather be surfing at the beach. You see I am not saying reading good literature is not enjoyable, but for me it is not fun. I guess, also that because I do have to read so much good literature for my work, I do sometimes tend to associate it with work and that can take the 'fun' out of it. However at the same time, I find Jane Austen fun, whereas I find Joseph Conrad enjoyable, but not fun. So perhaps it would be better to actually ask me what I mean next time, rather than making such huge assumptions about people who view things a little differently to you.
I don't think Ainulindale was directing that at you. While yes, some prefer the fun of fantasy to the fun of literature it really isn't lovely being told that when I read something that isn't fantasy I can't possibly be reading it for fun - it's as if fantasy at times has the monopoly on 'fun'. I know you well enough to know you're not of that opinion, but that is sadly the vibe I sometimes pick up from other fantasy lovers. They think we can't understand how much fun it is to read fantasy - we can, I think it's great fun too - when it's them who don't understand how we can possibly find it fun to read, say, Dostoyevksy or Joyce.
know little of Jeff Vandermeer other than he's apparently very good, so Ainulindale will be able to tell you more there if you ask but I'm ordering in his collection of stories City Of Saints and Madmen which I understand is a great collection.