Bad Fantasy Books (Dragonlance, Pern, Xanth, and more)

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > Bad Fantasy Books (Dragonlance, Pern, Xanth, and more)

Dr. Jerrold Coe: Feb 6, 2021; Is it me?

TGG posted:

I remember liking his Sci-Fi books as well; I believe the sci-fi series was called Berserker.

Yeah the Berserker stories were great, there's an old one called Berserker's Planet which mixes fantasy and sci-fi. A crashed Berserker AI has created a fighting tournament on a regressed colony world, all the best fighters kill each other off and then the winner gets a "prize" (death) from the Berserker god. Some great sword and sorcery barbarian stuff mixed with the killer robot, and then some big game hunters from off-world crash the party. There's a couple fixup Berserker novels from the 90s that are pretty bad though, totally padded up page counts.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2022 21:50

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 15:20

Dr. Jerrold Coe: Feb 6, 2021; Is it me?

The Moon Monster posted:

Aren't the full titles of the Dragonlance books Dragonlance: Dragons of the [season] [thing] though?

Dragons of the Thyme Dispenser

# ¿ Mar 19, 2022 22:03

Dr. Jerrold Coe: Feb 6, 2021; Is it me?

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

Sometimes I wonder if the preponderance of Trashy Fantasy Series Drek isn't entirely down to the growing marketplace dominance of chain bookstores like Waldenbooks back in the day. Unless you had a used bookstore with a robust SF/Fantasy section - which weren't all that common - and you were a kid who liked dragons, well, you got a Dragonlance book 'cause that's what was on the dang shelves.

So Zelazny is my favorite author and I have every book the man ever published (even the two poetry collections) so I would have answered this closer to the time it was asked except I had to stop and read the thread first so I didn't become the seventeenth person to wander in and go "Has anyone mentioned Xanth yet?". But besides the previously-mentioned Eye of Cat, which is genius but also super experimental, I'd suggest Doorways In The Sand as a pretty entertaining romp, though it's more SF; Zelazny didn't do a ton of straight-up fantasy.

He did some, though, so if you can find them I found the two books Dilvish, the Damned and The Changing Land to be pretty sweet. The former is called a "fix-up", it's a collection of short stories that were previously published and occasionally given framing sequences or slight reworks to make them flow as a single narrative; the latter is the novel he wrote to wrap up that character's story (and it has a fun approach to magical politics, honestly).

There was also Changeling and Madwand, which were also published as a single volume under the title Wizard's World, which were cool and good but mostly get remembered today because Changeling was published with illustrations by an early-career Boris Vallejo.

But for my money, the best stuff he ever wrote was his short stories. My personal favorites are both in The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth and Other Stories (a title he reportedly hated). "A Rose For Ecclesiastes" is one of the best things I've ever read.

Anyway, sorry, back to lovely Fantasy

...fuckin' Xanth, man. Jesus

I always go back to Roadmarks, it seems like late career fluff but I love it dearly

# ¿ Apr 8, 2022 04:21

Dr. Jerrold Coe: Feb 6, 2021; Is it me?

precision posted:

read Dick for the drugs

Dick's epitaph at the end of A Scanner Darkly is beautiful

# ¿ Apr 8, 2022 04:22

Dr. Jerrold Coe: Feb 6, 2021; Is it me?

sweet geek swag posted:

I agree, though I liked certain aspects of the first half of the Last Battle. Once they 'die' the story gets too heavy handed though. My favorite is The Silver Chair because I'm a sucker for Journey to the Center of the Earth type stories.

Yeah that's why I liked The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as well, a trip through strange lands. Reechicheep that little murdering fiend! The book with the not-Muslims weirded me out even as a kid though, he was a little heavy handed there.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2022 00:27

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 15:20

Dr. Jerrold Coe: Feb 6, 2021; Is it me?

its_my_birthday posted:

im not religious is any way so there's probably more obvious poo poo i missed over the course of the series other than aslan being god or jesus or whatever

Yeah lol the heathens who live south of Narnia are all thieving murderous savages with no hope of goodness in their hearts on account of being knockoff Moslems

# ¿ Apr 9, 2022 00:29

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