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I would like to put in a plug for Garth Nix's Sabriel. It's YA fantasy with superb pacing, just enough wold-building to intrigue without dragging things out, decent characterization and a dash of mystery. It just hangs together superbly and is a good 1-2 night read because you will be turning those pages. If you like stories about the undead and undeath that are completely original and have nothing to do with vampires or werewolves or zombies then it's a must-read. It's also very much "all ages" YA, most of the people I've talked to who have read it were adults. Sabriel also has a sequel and a "trilogy" with the last book basically just being the end of the sequel which are good but never quite match the craftsmanship that went into Sabriel. You'll probably read them anyway and enjoy them if you like Sabriel. Nix has a lot of other YA fantasy out there but Sabriel is by far his best work. The only other thing I've really liked from Nix is his Keys to the Kingdom series which has a really interesting premise: It mostly takes place in heaven, which turns out to be a completely messed-up place because God left seven angels in charge, each with one of the seven deadly sins, and the sin eventually takes over their character and their realm of heaven and also the Devil is God's ex husband and the kids got kind of messed up by the divorce aand it's pretty interesting. Unfortunately Nix seems to become unsure about what he wants to do with it after book 3.  I am literally gnashing my teeth over A Wizard of Earthsea not making it into NPR's top 50 fantasy books while Legend of Drizzt gets in.Silmarillion also shouldn't be on any top 50 fantasy list. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Jun 22, 2013 |
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Jun 22, 2013 19:17
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ulvir posted:Now get to reading The Scar. It's the best book in the Bas-Lag series, in my opinion. I feel like the more the books get away from New Crobuzon the better. Mieville just seems way too comfortable writing about sketchy characters just inhabiting the city and the overarching span of politics and society, so much so that he doesn't seem particularly worried about having characters or a plot. Iron Council returning to the setting was a mistake in my opinion, proved by the massive anticlimax where the whole book has been slowly, arduously leading to the Iron Council's arrival at New Crobuzon upon which nothing happens.
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Jul 6, 2013 17:06
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syphon posted:I don't know of anyone who's read Eddings' works didn't love them. Although I'm sure my saying that will cause lots of people to chime up with contrary opinions! It's definitely dated, cliched writing, but they're pretty good and an entertaining read. I read them as a young teenager and even as a young teenager I started to suspect that what I was reading was Not Good around the second book of the series. I still finished them because I was one of those kids walking around with his nose in a book but yeah... They're dated, cliched, formulaic writing with a juvenile streak a mile wide. The only characters David Eddings really writes well are intentionally juvenile characters; all the other characters are only accidentally juvenile.
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Jul 22, 2013 05:26
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I had a friend describe them as a "fuzzy warm blanket I can wrap myself up in to feel comforted and familiar".
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Bhodi posted:Some years are weak years... It's true, none of the books this year are going against Ender's Game or Dune or Canticle for Liebowitz.
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Sep 4, 2013 12:24
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Was Eowyn's terrible soup an addition for the movies or in the book?
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Apr 16, 2018 16:25
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