I need a good book to read - any suggestions?

[praline3001]

Originally Posted by Free

That's one of the reasons I've read Jordan so many times, whenever a new book came out I re-read the entire series again. Now I'm reading it again 'cause I couldn't be bothered going into town to get anything else.

I pretty much only read fantasy, my favourite would have to be Katherine Kerr's Deverry series. If you track them down, the "non-revised" version is a bit better than the following as there were a few bits chopped out and toned down. Apparently the U.S. market wasn't too keen on the homosexuallity and incest? And I seem to recall it was also a little more violent too.

Othwise I'm forever re-reading the fantasy classics, Tolkein of course and Fiest, Eddings all the good good stuff.

Cheers
Free

Oh another one I llike is RA Salvatore! I love his fantasy writing style

[Gonzo13]

Originally Posted by Gobae

At his current rate of authoring the series will not be finished until sometime around 2017. This also means that Martin will be nearly 70 years old (and like Robert Jordan) could be dead before the series is done.

Thanks to Martin and Jordan I no longer read "series books" that aren't completed. It's just too much of a pain waiting for the next installment.

I understand not reading series that aren't finished. I started reading the Dark Tower Series by Stephen King in 1991 (there were 3 out then) and he finally finished the seventh and last book in 2004. The first book originally came out in 1982 though.

I did hear a rumor about George R.R. Martin though. They said that he didn't want anyone to finish the novels for him if something happened to him. I think that he should just finish it then he wouldn't have to worry about it.

[inkista]

Yeah, The Song of Ice and Fire is the kudzu of high fantasy novels. It's just grown completely out of control on him. When he started the series, GRRM said it was going to be a trilogy. Myself, I was somewhat surprised that he was doing a series at all, since all his previous novels had been standalones. Not to mention he wrote Science Fiction, and suddenly here he was doing High Fantasy. What really frosts me, though, is that he was actually starting his Avalon novel when ASoIaF hit him, and I'd already been waiting about twenty years for the Avalon novel (think of it as a fictional equivalent of a grand unifying theory--all his SF novels were set in a universe that began with the colonization of Avalon). That one's never gonna happen, damnit.

I blame Hollywood. If the man hadn't been writing for television, he'd never be thinking in terms of grand epic storylines that go on forever. And yes, I still weep for the fact that his Max Headroom script ("Xmas") was in pre-production when the series got canceled.

What makes you laugh hollowly about A Dance With Dragons is that because of it overflowing the page-count-that-can-be-bound-in-a-single-volume, he told us that when A Feast For Crows came out, that at least he was halfway through writing ADwD, and he'd hoped to have it finished by next year. That was in 2005.

OTOH, as Neil Gaiman so eloquently said, George R.R. Martin is not my bitch.

I love George. He's an amazing writer. But I just wish he'd get realistic about how long this is going to take him. And I've still got a bet with myself that there's no way it's getting wrapped up in seven volumes. And it's not a rumor, he told me himself once over dinner that he has no outlines lying around to be published in case of his death, and he is indeed making it up as he goes. (Yes, yes, he has a basic outline of where stuff is going, but he's also still discovering as he goes--it's not all mapped out in advance).

The fact that GRRM shares an editor with Connie Willis, and that her latest, All Clear, (aka "the London Blitz one") is now two years overdue and has also overflowed the page-count-that-can-be-bound-in-a-single-volume is making me wonder if maybe they need a different editor. ....

If, however, you want to get a taste of GRRM without being sucked into the neverending vortex that is the SoIaF, there's still his backlist. If you like Tolkien and rock music grab Armageddon Rag; if you like old-school classic SF short stories in the Bradbury/Matheson vein, you find one of the anthologies Songs of Stars and Shadows, A Song for Lya, or Sandkings. And if you like vampires, Fevre Dream--first time I saw someone put riverboats and vampires together, about a decade before Anne Rice hit the scene. And if you like '80s SF television, the DVD sets for Beauty and the Beast (yes, the one with Linda Hamilton--GRRM wrote most of the "world below" epsiodes) and The New Twilight Zone (the 1980s one with Wes Craven direction and real sf writers like Harlan Ellison, Alan Brennart, and GRRM writing and actors like Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, and Danny Kaye) are out there.

[Avandria]

So.. I've read a few different books - some really great and some really awful (which was given to me by a co-worker and not even worth mentioning here.) But Inkista had mentioned Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series; which a different co-worker had and let me borrow, I'd figured that was wicked convient. I quickly found out theres 10 books as of right now and talk of an 11th coming next year and boy am I hooked. I'm on book # 4 already. My parents watch the True Blood series so I figured I'd check those out - which I quickly became hooked on as well (thats not an easy thing for me to do, the only other show I watch is Dexter). If you like True Blood (I feel it's definately a love or hate show and not something you should let your kids see, so some might very well hate it) then you should really check out the books. I figured after I finish this series I'd check out The Road cause quite a few of you mentioned it.

[Nicole]

Just finished the 10th Sookie Stackhouse book. Can't believe I didn't see this thread earlier Check out the list of books I have on my book list from this past year, you should find some familiar and also decent authors. There are 2 that are school related, those stand out like sore thumbs. And I don't think you'd like the Katie MacAlister book because I found it waaaaay too Romancey. But I'm a big fan of the Charlaine Harris / Jim Butcher / Neil Gaiman type of books so there might be something there to spark your interest