Favorite fantasy/sci-fi literature other than Tolkien
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:11 am 
 

My favorite Lin Carter novel is a pulp fantasy style book called "Hurok of the Stone Age."

It's bad but good, sort of in a "Hawk the Slayer" kind of way.

Hmmm..."Hawk The Slayer" could be the making of a whole new thread.

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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:11 am 
 

JasonZavoda wrote:The copy I have is called Viriconium, a soft cover. A bantam spectra trade paperback ISBN 0-553-38315-9

Inside the cover it says
ISBN-13: 978-0-553-383157
ISBN-10: 0-553-38315-9


Thanks, I'll look this one up. I could use a good read, and I enjoyed The Pastel City well enough that I remember bits of it even after a decade. Plus, I'm into Gamma World atm (have you noticed :)), and these have a solidly (but unconventionally) post-apocalyptic vibe.


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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:36 am 
 

Moorcock - Hmmmmm.

I am (slowly) making my way through the Eternal Champion saga.  I'm on volume 8 (UK series).

I think some of Moorcock's work is pulpy and formulaic.  I think even he admits this of his early work, much of his inspiration is pulp/genre fiction and he cranks books out at an astonishing rate.  I think this shows.

That said I really adore the Oswald Bastable trilogy and I thought the Warhound and the World's Pain was excellent (the rest of the Von bek stuff was good but not as good as the first).  I also really liked the Ice Schooner and the Black Corridor.

I am less keen on the Corum and the Elric stuff so far and have similar feelings about the Hawkmoon stuff.  The stories seem very formulaic to me.

I am looking forward to reading all of the stories and indeed getting to the later stories and thsoe volumes that have not be collected as part of the Eternal Champion saga (either in the UK or US), like the Colnel Pyat stories.  I udnerstand his more recent work is more likely to be considered literature rather than genre fiction.

  

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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:47 pm 
 

You're reading the Eternal Champion backwards!

Start with Elric...then Hawkmoon...then Corum...then read the Cornelius novels to give you perspective on how not-good Elric, Hawkmoon and Corum could have been.

Don't read any Elric novel written after Stormbringer.

I liked the first VonBek novel.  I am hating the protagonist in the second novel because he is almost completely passive.

The others can be taken at random, with Erekose being the least important (like The Dragon in the Sword where nothing actually happens the entire novel...with our characters actually wandering about unarmed for much of the story, like kids from an after-school special).


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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:04 pm 
 

FormCritic wrote:Don't read any Elric novel written after Stormbringer.


I second the motion, though if you're reading the omnibuses it's sometimes difficult to tell without actually researching it which ones were written when. Stormbringer was actually one of the first Elric stories written.

The ones that MM inserted into the timeline long after the rest were published are questionable. Fortress of the Pearl and Revenge of the Rose aren't too awful, but still not the greatest.

Anything written after that (in the nineties) is pure pseudo-intellectual trash. The latest three could be retitled, "How Elric teams up with the von Beks and beats the Nazis with his bastard offspring, using his immense phallic symbol".

"Elric at the End of Time", though, is just roar-out-loud funny. At least Moorcock has (had?) a sense of humor about his early work.

The others can be taken at random, with Erekose being the least important (like The Dragon in the Sword where nothing actually happens the entire novel...with our characters actually wandering about unarmed for much of the story, like kids from an after-school special).


The first Erekose book (The Eternal Champion) was actually MM's first novel. It shows :). Like you say, the rest of them go downfill from there.

I actually quite liked the Oswald Bastable stuff (and all of the miscellaneous League of Temporal Adventurers-related work). I could do without the Cornelius Chronicles (ugh).

BUT, the absolute worst novel MM ever wrote... (drumroll please)... The 250 page excuse for soft lesbian porn and S&M known as "The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the 20th Century" (yeah, I s41t you not, the cover even depicts the two of them buck naked with firearms).


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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:37 pm 
 

MetamorphosisSigma wrote:
The first Erekose book (The Eternal Champion) was actually MM's first novel. It shows :). Like you say, the rest of them go downfill from there.

I actually quite liked the Oswald Bastable stuff (and all of the miscellaneous League of Temporal Adventurers-related work). I could do without the Cornelius Chronicles (ugh).

BUT, the absolute worst novel MM ever wrote... (drumroll please)... The 250 page excuse for soft lesbian porn and S&M known as "The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the 20th Century" (yeah, I s41t you not, the cover even depicts the two of them buck naked with firearms).


You need to post a scan of this (for research purposes of course).


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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:45 pm 
 

Now how did I not anticipate that request ;)? (NSFW). Okay, so Catherine (I think) isn't completely nude, and only one of them is carrying a firearm..LOL.

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Post Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:18 pm 
 

Adding another one to my list:

Sword of Truth series, Terry Goodkind

11 books in 10 years!!  8O

I've gotten through the first three and haven't lost interest.  Terry Goodkind is a master of detail, subtlety and great at interweaving plots, but the books are almost too intense.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:35 am 
 

Okay, I read The Face in the Frost... Cute Little Novel.... Kinda had a similar feel like Harry Potter or Piers Anthony Xanth series... Kinda Goofy and fun and somewhat intriging but not wicked cool barbaric or dark.

Also, I Just Started Darkness Weaves....

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:47 am 
 

DiscoDadda wrote:Okay, I read The Face in the Frost... Cute Little Novel.... Kinda had a similar feel like Harry Potter or Piers Anthony Xanth series... Kinda Goofy and fun and somewhat intriging but not wicked cool barbaric or dark.


Well, then, that's one book from Appendix N I can cross off my to-read list :).


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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:30 pm 
 

DiscoDadda wrote:Okay, I read The Face in the Frost... Cute Little Novel.... Kinda had a similar feel like Harry Potter or Piers Anthony Xanth series... Kinda Goofy and fun and somewhat intriging but not wicked cool barbaric or dark.

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John Bellairs wrote young adult fantasy and mystery first and foremost so that is probably why you feel it has a similarity to Harry Potter or Xanth.  Gygax had a pretty good idea what most young adults liked to read and thus the reason he put the book in Appendix N.

The wizards in the book are more of the learned sage variety than the all powerful archmage that spends most of their time throwing fireballs and lightning bolts at foes.  Most of the spells they use are simple and non-destructive.  They dont fight any demons or cause any earthquakes.  But I've always felt that there is plenty of darkness to the storyline.  Its just that a lot of it is implied or hinted about instead of seen.

The first time I read The Face in the Frost I was in 4th grade.  It was an easy novel to read unlike a lot of the other adult fantasy stuff people had access to at that age.  And it, as well as The Hobbit and a few other books, were what got me interested in playing D&D.  Perhaps if you had read it when you were a kid you might appreciate it more as an adult.


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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:36 pm 
 

Kingofpain89 wrote:
John Bellairs wrote young adult fantasy and mystery first and foremost so that is probably why you feel it has a similarity to Harry Potter or Xanth.  Gygax had a pretty good idea what most young adults liked to read and thus the reason he put the book in Appendix N.

The wizards in the book are more of the learned sage variety than the all powerful archmage that spends most of their time throwing fireballs and lightning bolts at foes.  Most of the spells they use are simple and non-destructive.  They dont fight any demons or cause any earthquakes.  But I've always felt that there is plenty of darkness to the storyline.  Its just that a lot of it is implied or hinted about instead of seen.

The first time I read The Face in the Frost I was in 4th grade.  It was an easy novel to read unlike a lot of the other adult fantasy stuff people had access to at that age.  And it, as well as The Hobbit and a few other books, were what got me interested in playing D&D.  Perhaps if you had read it when you were a kid you might appreciate it more as an adult.


Face in the Frost is plenty dark.  I didnt' see any Harry Potter or Xanth in there but it's been awhile since I read it. Definite thumbs up and must read, plus it should read quick.

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:57 pm 
 

Kingofpain89 wrote:
John Bellairs wrote young adult fantasy and mystery first and foremost so that is probably why you feel it has a similarity to Harry Potter or Xanth.  Gygax had a pretty good idea what most young adults liked to read and thus the reason he put the book in Appendix N.

The wizards in the book are more of the learned sage variety than the all powerful archmage that spends most of their time throwing fireballs and lightning bolts at foes.  Most of the spells they use are simple and non-destructive.  They dont fight any demons or cause any earthquakes.  But I've always felt that there is plenty of darkness to the storyline.  Its just that a lot of it is implied or hinted about instead of seen.

The first time I read The Face in the Frost I was in 4th grade.  It was an easy novel to read unlike a lot of the other adult fantasy stuff people had access to at that age.  And it, as well as The Hobbit and a few other books, were what got me interested in playing D&D.  Perhaps if you had read it when you were a kid you might appreciate it more as an adult.


I guess everything that you read is automatically compared to the things you read before... So when I read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings it came after Sword of Shannara and even tho SOS was swiped from LOTR... In my mind I compared it and didn't like it as much... Same thing can be said when I read The Horseclans and Conan prior to reading Xanth... Although Xanth kept my attention it was too fanciful... Now I am comparing everything to Song of Fire and Ice and Brian Ruckleys Godless World.... and am hoping that (based on this thread) that KANE kicks butt...

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 1:28 pm 
 

DiscoDadda wrote:Also, I Just Started Darkness Weaves....


Alright.  Now we're getting somewhere!


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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 3:14 pm 
 

I need to get around to reading some Wagner myself. I don't think I've read any of the Kane stories, unless it was long ago and I've forgotten. I'm not too hopeful I'll love them, but with all the enthusiasm I've encountered about KEW's work, they're bound to be worth the trouble.

Okay, Bellairs is back on my "long list".


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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:29 pm 
 

DiscoDadda wrote:Also, I Just Started Darkness Weaves....



I also discovered Kane thanks to this thread, my only problem is that I started Darkness Weaves and finished it the same day, never read a book in one sitting before.

Now, I'm waiting for a full day to see if I can do the same with Bloodstone.

Thanks all for pointing me to Wagner's Kane

  

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:52 pm 
 

MetamorphosisSigma wrote:Now how did I not anticipate that request ;)? (NSFW). Okay, so Catherine (I think) isn't completely nude, and only one of them is carrying a firearm..LOL.

[ Image ]


I love that book for some reason. I have a liking of Una.


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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 5:19 pm 
 

Oh, Una's the shiznit. She might hold the record for the Moorcock character who appears in the widest variety of stories (not sheer number of stories, but most settings). Off the top of my head, she's met Bastable, Elric, Jherek Carnelian.. eh, a couple others. But I guess you get around, being an interdimensional, time traveling, gun-toting superspy. I especially like her cameo appearances at the End of Time. She's always respectful, while being wryly aware of the inhabitants' naivete. I really need to complete my collection of White Wolf's Eternal Champion series, or maybe supplement the ones I have with the British series, which seem to go slightly cheaper. Alas, I sold my 60+ Moorcock paperbacks on eBay BITD so I no longer have many of the titles I once did (including this one).


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