Originally posted by: Encryptic
Originally posted by: kru
Wow...so many of the books mentioned here brought back great memories. And the ones I haven't yet read....well, I'm gonna be busy scouring the book rental places over here to find them!
Just to add a li'l twist to the respective book listings, what was the first sci-fi/fantasy book you read (or the one that started your love affair with the genre)?
Mine was "The Dragon Hoard" by Tanith Lee
I'll add another vote to these already-mentioned series:
Dark Tower series - Stephen King
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen Donaldson
Riftwar Saga - Raymond E. Feist & Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire trilogy - Raymond E. Feist & Janny Wurts
Original Shannara trilogy - Terry Brooks (haven't read the Scions series yet)
Deryni Series - Katherine Kurtz (any new ones in the series? last I read were the Camber and King Kelson trilogies)
Dragonriders of Pern series - Anne MacCafferey
Spellsinger series - Alan Dean Foster
Battle Circle trilogy - Piers Anthony
Stainless Steel Rat series - Harry Harrison
Wheel of Time series - Robert Jordan ([rant]first five books were excellent...but am I the only one who wishes he'd pick up the pace? the last few books were pretty much 900 pages of crap followed by the last chapter where all the action happens. seriously, this guy's gonna die of natural causes before this series is anywhere near finished. tolkien pulled it off in three books...does Jordan need fifteen books, each nearly 1000 pages long to create his fantasy world?[/rant])
On a side note, am I the only one who thinks Terry Goodkind seems to rip off a lot of ideas from the Wheel of Time series? Think I read the first three or four books then gave up on the Sword of Truth series. It read too much like Jordan-lite. Actually, a trashy romance-esque version of Jordan-lite.
I quite liked David Eddings' books, but after you read enough of them you realize that he's just recycling the same characters and the same dialogue. Still...entertaining tho'
Katherine Kurtz has put out a couple more Deryni books in the past few years, namely "King Kelson's Bride" and "In the King's Service". They're both pretty good if you're a big fan of her stuff already.
And yes, you're not alone in thinking that Terry Goodkind is an obvious rip-off of Jordan. Stone of Tears in particular had me going "Didn't I already read this series when it was written by Robert Jordan?"
Stone of Tears = The Seven Seals
The Sisters of Light = Aes Sedai
Collar that male magic users have to wear = Seanchan a'dam
The Keeper = The Dark One
The Blood of the Fold = Whitecloaks
Those are some of the most obvious rip-offs from Wheel of Time that I recall. I still can't believe I made it through 4 books before I gave up on that stuff, which is poorly written to boot. I guess some people just have low standards for what gets published. At least Jordan, despite his dragging the Wheel of Time series out, is still a pretty decent writer.
Eh, to each their own, but personally I find Goodkind (at least in his earlier books) is much more entertaining than Jordan. I'll agree some of the stuff seems copied, but in my view Goodkind did it "right". I never really saw what people like about Jordan. I say give them both a try, most people like at least one of them, so you win either way.
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