Books

[wulfenlord]

Tad Williams

An excellent writer. I've barely started on his works but I feel confident based on some of his short story work to proclaim him the best of the "popular fantasy" writers.

Excellent choice my guy. I've colleted all of his novels (and even his shortlived comics) and been to three of his readings. Tremendous and unique writer with a knack of similes and characters/worldbuilding that feels truly alive with the reader just getting a glimpse of the setting. Friends with Michael Moorcock and sometimes getting rightfully pissed at his books getting overlooked for wank-pulp like Song of jizz and incest.

His main fame novels Osten Ard and Otherland are a bit of a slog, and if there's anything that puts me off its that he has the main characters go through just a tad (heh) much of character growth through torture and gloom.

I'd suggest starting with his shorter fiction like War of the Flowers ( I especially dig the setpiece of the rebellious goth elves going to Christmas parties in their goth clubs, because they feel physical pain by the mention of the religion that made their world lose its foothold over the human world) or the Bobby Dollar trilogy (angels and demons collecting souls of the dead in a film noir setting).

[rabidtictac]

I actually started reading Tad Williams with "The Lamentably Comical Tragedy (or The Laughingly Tragic Comedy) of Lixal Laqavee."

It was in the short story collection "Songs of the Dying Earth," an homage to Jack Vance's Dying Earth world that he created. A bunch of famous authors wrote short stories for this collection, including George ArrArr Martin, but Tad Williams' story was far and away the best. Too many of the others recycled Vance's own characters, not understanding that it is the tone of a Dying Earth story that must be recaptured above all else. Stealing Vance's characters to put them in OC fanfiction is tacky. Tad Williams used completely original characters, but the story he wrote was every bit in line with Vance's Dying Earth.

So I suppose you could say I became a fan of Tad Williams before reading any of his books. I knew him only as "that guy who wrote my favorite story from Songs of the Dying Earth."

I am currently working slowly through the Dragonbone Chair. I can see the same love of myth and legend which comes through in Michael Moorcock's Corum stories, so I'm not all that surprised they're friends. Dragonbone Chair is slow going but I've heard it picks up after about 100 pages. At least that's better than Robert Jordan, whose Eye of the World didn't pick up until the LAST 100 pages or so. And also, at least Tad Williams is a good writer.

I should mention also that I don't think Moorcock is a bad writer at all. His stories end up very uneven in quality but I wouldn't say it's for prose quality reasons. Sometimes he just kinda throws a bunch of shit together and it's up to the reader whether they think it works or not. The plots are not always as tight as they could be.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Supposedly they made the tv adaptation even more woke, to the point that none of the OG fans of wheel of time like it.

They sideline the actual main character and turn even the tiniest village in bumfuck nowhere into a cosmopolitan melting pot.

Messiah is also really good. A very well-written twist. Children was mostly bad but it had the greatest out of nowhere ending ever.

It's worth it for the eye-melting nuke alone.

Friends with Michael Moorcock and sometimes getting rightfully pissed at his books getting overlooked for wank-pulp like Song of jizz and incest.

But what about the tax policies in his books? And where are his suckling pigs?

[wulfenlord]

I am currently working slowly through the Dragonbone Chair. I can see the same love of myth and legend which comes through in Michael Moorcock's Corum stories, so I'm not all that surprised they're friends. Dragonbone Chair is slow going but I've heard it picks up after about 100 pages. At least that's better than Robert Jordan, whose Eye of the World didn't pick up until the LAST 100 pages or so. And also, at least Tad Williams is a good writer.

Good pick for fantasy, though I find the non-human races in Shadowmarch a tick more fleshed out than the Drow just being xenophobic assholes (with the gnome-folk basing their entire society around stone- and gem-cutting and thriving on being seen as unimportant midgets by the 'big folk', though having the much more rich history).

To get the full experience out of the Dragonbone Chair, you could wait 30 years before picking up its continuation tetralogy, because that's literally what Williams did with the setting, giving a believable introspection how the world has spun without the eye of the reader observing it.

Speaking of your other picks, I found Feist enjoyable in my teens, with its gushing over fighting with honor and being corny as fuck, just a bit classier than Richard Kirk. Harmless fantasy without much brain activity needed, like the early Magic or D&D novels.

The best I can say for George ArrArr Martin is he, like Tarantino, is a passionate enjoyer of genre fiction and he has helped to put together some projects which might not have otherwise seen print.

I agree. Both are enjoyers of degenerate violence and fetishes that should die in a fire.

[Kugelfisch]

He will also never finish GoT.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

It is as sure as the Mother of Dragons' diarrhea.

[ebin namefag]

He will also never finish GoT.

But he will finish every plate.

[rabidtictac]

I am currently working slowly through the Dragonbone Chair. I can see the same love of myth and legend which comes through in Michael Moorcock's Corum stories, so I'm not all that surprised they're friends. Dragonbone Chair is slow going but I've heard it picks up after about 100 pages. At least that's better than Robert Jordan, whose Eye of the World didn't pick up until the LAST 100 pages or so. And also, at least Tad Williams is a good writer.

To get the full experience out of the Dragonbone Chair, you could wait 30 years before picking up its continuation tetralogy, because that's literally what Williams did with the setting, giving a believable introspection how the world has spun without the eye of the reader observing it.

Speaking of your other picks, I found Feist enjoyable in my teens, with its gushing over fighting with honor and being corny as fuck, just a bit classier than Richard Kirk. Harmless fantasy without much brain activity needed, like the early Magic or D&D novels.

I've heard about the Last King of Osten Ard books. Apparently I'm lucky to begin reading Tad Williams while he's writing a follow-up series which many people have told me is among the best fantasy stories ever written (at least so far.)

I browsed Feist's Magician and it does indeed seem rather D&D-like. But professionally written, which most licensed fantasy books are not.

[rabidtictac]

Finished Dragonbone Chair. Damn, but once you get to around page 160, it gets going and doesn't let up. Right into the next book.

[rabidtictac]

Now I'm on To Green Angel Tower Part 2.

Technically speaking, there are 4 books in Tad Williams "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn" (((trilogy.))) Book three was so long they split it into two books, and each "book" is still 800 fucking pages. So it's 1600 pages just for book 3. I believe the entire lord of the rings trilogy is around 1800 pages. So book 3 alone is near the same length as the entire lotr trilo-goy. Book 2 I believe was 800 pages and Dragonbone Chair was more in the 600 range IIRC.

Just so you know what you are in for if you do try to read it.

I have also cracked open C J Cherryh's "Hammerfall," which is an enjoyable, breezy read. If you like desert travelogues then you will enjoy this. Also will soon be finished with David Gemmell's "Legend," the book he wrote while he believed he was dying of cancer. It's excellent so far. "The Alamo" but with barbarians and shit.

I tried Sword of Shannara and it is a complete pile of shit garbage. Poorly-written as fuck pastiche of LOTR. I finished book two of the Wheel of Time and it was still gay. Very much not inspired to read book 3. Shannara is the kind of trash I usually associate with high fantasy as a genre.