[Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks I was just wondering how many people have read these? It's one of the longest series I've found so far by a single author that hasn't gone to ghost writers, and it all ties together really well. I tried them a long while back and never got into them for some reason, but then picked them up again fairly recently and am finding that I really like them. The universe is perfect for me, a blend of science, magic and fantasy that really does justice to the mixed-genre style.For those that have read them, how did you start? The author recommends reading the original Shannara Trilogy first, then going back to fill in some gaps before advancing. But if you read them in chronological order, which is how I'm doing it, they actually start with the Word and the Void series, which is a prequel to the entire series of books. According to the author, you ruin your trip through the Shannara world if you read them that way, but I find that I'm rather enjoying it and haven't lost anything so far. In fact, things seem to make a lot more sense this way.I think these are a really good set of fantasy series, and based on a unique concept that I haven't seen before in any other series. They cross just about every genre and do it well. I highly recommend these to anyone who likes medieval fantasy or mixed genre books.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156304#p156304 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks I read his Magic Kingdom for Sale...sold! series, and Brooks writing just didn't do it for me. The characters and plot all felt kind of...flat. Uninspired, colour-between-the-lines. He strikes me as kind of a 3rd rate Piers Anthony, without the sexual peccadilloes. That could be because I've just read too much in that genre, perhaps. Or maybe Magic Kingdom isn't his best writing.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156314#p156314 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks I haven't read any of that series as of yet, not sure it'll be my thing either. I do agree his writing isn't absolutely stellar, nothing compared to the Kingkiller Chronicle or A Song of Ice and Fire, but with the Shannara series at least, the character development seems rather nice so far. Not sure how you compare him to Piers Anthony though, that guy is just strange. His Battle Circle series was kind of interesting though.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156321#p156321 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Well I've not read any of Brooks magic Kingdom or Antony so I can't comment on those. But to be honest I just found Shanara pretty dire. I began with the original Sword of shanara, and it seemed every character was a walking D&D class architype, there was no actual characterisation, (heck there is only one female character in the entire book), the writing seemed extremely flat and clunky and the plot seemed a very pale copy of Lotr. in recognition however that this was Brooks first novel and he'd written many others, I looked at the First King of Shanara, the elfstones of Shanara and the Druid of Shanara. Even though they were less blatant Tolkien parodies, I just found the things flat and colourless due to very sterriotypical characters, unenspired situations, utter lack of propper character developement, blatant sexism and names that frankly in an audio book made me cringe, flik? par? It also irritated me that for all the long speel brooks gave about different magics and how one mage specialised in this and another in that, all mages ever seemed to do was sense magic and druid fire! indeed I got a bit board of druid fire! . the only book that really gave me pause was druids, and then only towards the end thanks to really brooding and quite creepy descriptions of it's monsters and a very alien location, but again there the resolution just felt predictable and lack luster, trying to create tragedy for it's own sake. I also found the same naming conventions to persist, --- I mean the main bad guys name was Ul belc! really, this sounds like someone chugging down a mug of beer "gulp!" "belch!" . I do believe It's a shame Brooks never seemed to learn more about propper characters or plots that didn't l look s if they came from a standard d&D players guide, because actually I do agree the world and concept were quite unique. I liked the idea behind them, and I did think some of Brooks' monsters and locations were quite unique, but really for me there are people who do that sort of thing far better without the clunky writing style, lack luster names and dirth of interesting characters. Tad williams war of the flowers for instance is great for techno magic, and I just finished The Rythmetist by Brandon sanderson, which as an alternate history steam punk style book with a detailed mathematical system was pretty awsome in concept.Really for all Brooks had some good ideas, I just don't feel he's enough of a propper writer to warrent me spending my time, or at least that was my feeling at the last Brooks novel I read.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156341#p156341 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks @bladestorm360: What I meant was that both Brooks and Anthony have a really flat, colourless, uninteresting style of writing. What makes Piers Anthony worth reading, and makes me a huge fan of him, is how strange he is. Terry Brooks has all of the flat writing and predictable plotting of Piers Anthony, without any of the fascinating strangeness or joyful sexy.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156351#p156351 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks [[wow]] dark, what a glowing review of the shannara series, hahaha.Interesting opinions though. I'm not sure why I don't find the writing that bad, especially not after reading some of the other books I have. I do know this though, I pretty much never read anything in audiobook form unless it's graphic audio, and I've even dropped off on that. I prefer to read in text with a Sapi Voice.However, I can tell you this. And this is something that very much impresses me about the series. There will be mild spoilers in the next paragraph, which I don't think Dark will care much about, but anyone else planning on reading the series should stop here.I don't know if he had this all planned out from the start, but the series actually starts in present day Illinois, in the Word and the Void series. I found I was able to relate to some of the characters, and it explains a lot of why there's references to science in the Shannara books, and why some of the names aren't exactly typical fantasy, like Par and Flick, and why there are more modern names in the books like Jeff and Morgan. I think it's funny that you compare these books to the Lord of the Rings though, because I've tried reading the Lord of the Rings several times and have stopped every time, whereas I've been stuck into this series for months and am still enjoying it. I must be one of the only fantasy buff that isn't into LOTR. I even tried watching the movie once and fell asleep, lol.I admit the books don't stack up to some of the other fantasy books around, as I said, but I don't quite think they're worth the absolute verbal shredding they were just given either. But I suppose it's all just a matter of opinion, as in all things. BTW after you mensioned that George R R Martin was influenced by Tad Williams, I picked up all of his books I could find and definitely plan to read them at some point in the fut ure.Fastfinge, well, I'll give you that, Piers Anthony certainly is strange. I've read a couple of his Xanth books, Battle Circle and I think a couple in the Apprentice Adept series, but can't really get into his work much lately. Battle Circle was probably his most down to earth work, though even it had it's strange points.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156355#p156355 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Well since I don't really appreciate adult stuf, and do like my fantasy to have the writing and the characters it's possible that Anthony will not be my thing, though not having read any of his stuff I don't know. Still, I do confess I was a little concerned when I discovered one of Anthony's novels was called "the colour of her panties"URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156356#p156356 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks [[wow]] dark, what a glowing review of the shannara series, hahaha.Interesting opinions though. I'm not sure why I don't find the writing that bad, especially not after reading some of the other books I have. I do know this though, I pretty much never read anything in audiobook form unless it's graphic audio, and I've even dropped off on that. I prefer to read in text with a Sapi Voice.However, I can tell you this. And this is something that very much impresses me about the series. There will be mild spoilers in the next paragraph, which I don't think Dark will care much about, but anyone else planning on reading the series should stop here.I don't know if he had this all planned out from the start, but the series actually starts in present day Illinois, in the Word and the Void series. I found I was able to relate to some of the characters, and it explains a lot of why there's references to science in the Shannara books, and why some of the names aren't exactly typical fantasy, like Par and Flick, and why there are more modern names in the books like Jeff and Morgan. I think it's funny that you compare these books to the Lord of the Rings though, because I've tried reading the Lord of the Rings several times and have stopped every time, whereas I've been stuck into this series for months and am still enjoying it. I must be one of the only fantasy buff that isn't into LOTR. I even tried watching the movie once and fell asleep, lol.I think even the first book has a lot of unique points. For one thing, the main character isn't even a warrior. He travels with a lot of warriors, but he himself doesn't really even know how to use much more than a knife it seems, same with his brother. I also like how even though the main weapon of the series was a sword, and a really well-forged sword at that, it's power wasn't just slinging around magic that could slay the warlock lord, but instead just simple truth, which I've certainly never seen anywhere else. The guy writes combat a lot better than I've seen a lot of other authors as well, which is a big sticking point for me.I'm curious where you got blatant sexism though, because there are woman in these books that are just as good at combat, if not better, than the men, and some much more cold-hearted than any of the other characters.I admit the books don't stack up to some of the other fantasy books around, as I said, but I don't quite think they're worth the absolute verbal shredding they were just given either. But I suppose it's all just a matter of opinion, as in all things. BTW after you mensioned that George R R Martin was influenced by Tad Williams, I picked up all of his books I could find and definitely plan to read them at some point in the future.Fastfinge, well, I'll give you that, Piers Anthony certainly is strange. I&# 039;ve read a couple of his Xanth books, Battle Circle and I think a couple in the Apprentice Adept series, but can't really get into his work much lately. Battle Circle was probably his most down to earth work, though even it had it's strange points.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156355#p156355 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks As I recall, that book was about a weird princess who liked to climb around and was either afraid that people could see up her dress, or liked to show it off, I can't remember. But yeah, that's the kind of oddness you can expect to see in his books. Not necessarily bad in my opinion, just a little too strange for me in most cases. Which is weird because I"m a very strange person.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156359#p156359 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Well appologies Bladestorm, I think you were making your last post while I replied to Fastfinge about the Piers anthony stuff. Regarding Sword of shanara and lotr, it is the books' plot structure that is so similar, event for event it's almost identical with different place names, though if you've not read Lotr you wouldn't pick this up. One aspect however the "not a warrior" thing is exactly what made Lotr, and indeed the Hobbit before it so remarkable in fantasy since basically pre tolkien all fantasy was of the Conan the barbarian type of thing, tolkien was the first to write about ordinary people. The reason I say sexism isn't because of female warriors (albeit I think I only counted one in the four books I read), but because of female chracters actually doing anything! Sexism indeed isn't just about every woman being a hard case, but about female characters being as dynamic and interesting as male ones. < /p>this is one reason why, even though the Culture of a world like Martin's means that there are far fewer female characters who get involved in combat (albeit with exceptions), Martin's books don't count as sexist since female characters have as much involvement with events and realistic personalities as male ones. In Brooks books most women appeared and went "ah, handsome male hero, me fall instantly in love with you for no readily apparent reason" (that when they weren't being kidnapped like the single female character in Sword of Shanara). Now in Fairness this is an area where Lotr was also lacking, due to the time it was written, albeit Tolkien does have several female characters get heavily involved with the plot, and even some major ones such as Galadriel and Eowin. All of this I wouldn't mind so much though if I found brooks plotting a little more interesting. I do agree his world is a unique concept where all his races came from and the mix of science, however I just never found any of the actual magic or quests interesting or any of the people who engaged upon them to be people I really cared about, indeed most seemed D&D class architypes. Regarding combat, well Brooks never stood out for me in that area, not like someone like Douglas Hill or David Gemmel. Indeed while Gemmel's plots are rather predictable, his combat is pretty fun! Brooks was okay, but only okay, and that didn't really give me enough next to the rest of his books. Regarding names, well I always like the human sound. Even when i read in braille I'd have to know how a name actually sounded! out loud. This is why so many brooks names just felt utterly wrong, and as if he'd just chucked letters at the page with no thought for how people would actually say them in normal everyday use. he didn't even tie t hem to a specific different language either. As I said I did try my best to be fair to brooks in terms of reading several books of his and giving him a reasonable go, heck, I even read his novelization of Starwars Episode 1, but it just seemed the style, characters and D&D class architypes didn't improve. Btw, it's interesting you mention truth as a sword. Terry Goodkind explores the same idea in his sword of truth series, though has the interesting point that it depends not on the actual! truth, but on what the sword wielder believes! to be the truth. Although Goodkind severely goes down hill for me as he goes on (indeed I've not read any books after his eleventh), I did enjoy the first Sword of truth book, before the right wing preaching and sexism went too far, partly for the business of the sword and the idea of truth behind it. Then again Goodkind is pure standard magic fantasy, so no marks for interest there, albeit he doesn't plum the depths of rp class architypes. Lastly,as a humerous notion, why is the main wizard in Brooks' books called Alanon? isn't that the short form of Alcoholics anonymous! whenever now I think about characters saying "quick! we need to meet Alanon!" or "Alanon will save our lives!" it makes me smile, is everyone in Brooks land a raging alkie? .URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156361#p156361 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks @Dark: You'd probably be OK with the Xanth series. Panties don't actually have a lot to do with the plot of The Color of Her Panties. well, no more so than panties have a little bit to do with everything Piers Anthony ever writes, because I suspect Piers Anthony was born! a dirty old man. If you're reading any Piers Anthony book, you should expect fanservice girls for the main character to ogle...even if the main character is a girl. Anyway, that book is number 15 of the series, so by the time you get there, you'll know what to expect. Mostly, what xanth has is puns. It starts off as a trickle in the first 5 books or so, but then...the flood increases. Lots and lots and lots of puns. If you don't like puns, you will not enjoy Xanth. You'd also be OK with The Incarnations of Immortality series; almost nothing sexual happens on-screen in those books. I read both of those series when I was under 16, and did n't find anything icky in either of them when I was that age. Amusingly enough, the vast majority of Anthony's readers are female. I suspect this is because his fanservice girls do actually get to be main characters, get character development, and play other important roles in the plot of their books. They just all happen to be explicitly young and pretty, with a few exceptions. This sounds way more negative than I intend it; while I'm well aware of his many flaws, Piers Anthony is never-the-less my second favourite author. You can feel safe giving anything in Xanth, Adept, or Incarnations of Immortality a try, without getting into anything overly erotic. Even his erotic work tends more towards really, really strange, rather than really, really sexy. I remember pirating an e-book of spam as a teenager, and expecting to get turned on by it. Then it turned out to be a book about...this guy who has a Penis that can cure aid s, so this lady doctor cuts it off and steels it, and then he gets a detachable penis, with different types and lengths of shaft that he can attach, and even one that's forked! So he goes on a quest that involves having lots and lots of sex with his new tool in order to recover his original non-detachable dong. Or something like that; it's been over 10 years since I read it, but those are the points I remember. I'm pretty sure my teenage "what!" face throughout that entire book was probably pretty classic. This is making me want to go and re-read spam, just to see if it is as utterly odd as I remember. @bladestorm360: You are not alone. I have tried 4 times to plow my way through The Lord of The Rings, and I just can't manage it. I get like three quarters into the first book, and then realize that nothing. ever. happens. Then I start twitching whenever characters are walking anywhere. Because if the re is an award for most amount of walking done by the characters in a series, Lord of The Rings would win it, hands down. Then I realize that the entire reason the lord of the rings exists is to create the archetypes used by D&D, and every other fantasy work ever. So I'm familiar enough with things like Elves and Trolls and Dwarves and goblins and dragons and Orcs already, so I don't need to bother finishing these books. Then I give up.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156367#p156367 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Edit: Spam filters come directly from hell. If you want to know the title of the book I'm discussing, convince the admins to turn the god damn thing off. Poorly coded word replacement filters have done more to ruin productive discussion on this forum than absolutely anything else. No, I will not purposely misspell things to cater to a fundamentally broken and stupid system. @Dark: You'd probably be OK with the Xanth series. Panties don't actually have a lot to do with the plot of The Color of Her Panties. well, no more so than panties have a little bit to do with everything Piers Anthony ever writes, because I suspect Piers Anthony was born! a dirty old man. If you're reading any Piers Anthony book, you should expect fanservice girls for the main character to ogle...even if the main character is a girl. Anyway, that book is number 15 of the series, so by the time you get there, you'll know what to expect.&nb sp; Mostly, what xanth has is puns. It starts off as a trickle in the first 5 books or so, but then...the flood increases. Lots and lots and lots of puns. If you don't like puns, you will not enjoy Xanth. You'd also be OK with The Incarnations of Immortality series; almost nothing sexual happens on-screen in those books. I read both of those series when I was under 16, and didn't find anything icky in either of them when I was that age. Amusingly enough, the vast majority of Anthony's readers are female. I suspect this is because his fanservice girls do actually get to be main characters, get character development, and play other important roles in the plot of their books. They just all happen to be explicitly young and pretty, with a few exceptions. This sounds way more negative than I intend it; while I'm well aware of his many flaws, Piers Anthony is never-the-less my second favourite author. You can f eel safe giving anything in Xanth, Adept, or Incarnations of Immortality a try, without getting into anything overly erotic. Even his erotic work tends more towards really, really strange, rather than really, really sexy. I remember pirating an e-book of spam as a teenager, and expecting to get turned on by it. Then it turned out to be a book about...this guy who has a Penis that can cure aids, so this lady doctor cuts it off and steels it, and then he gets a detachable penis, with different types and lengths of shaft that he can attach, and even one that's forked! So he goes on a quest that involves having lots and lots of sex with his new tool in order to recover his original non-detachable dong. Or something like that; it's been over 10 years since I read it, but those are the points I remember. I'm pretty sure my teenage "what!" face throughout that entire book was probably pretty classic. This is making me want to go and re-read spam, just to see if it is as utterly odd as I remember. @bladestorm360: You are not alone. I have tried 4 times to plow my way through The Lord of The Rings, and I just can't manage it. I get like three quarters into the first book, and then realize that nothing. ever. happens. Then I start twitching whenever characters are walking anywhere. Because if there is an award for most amount of walking done by the characters in a series, Lord of The Rings would win it, hands down. Then I realize that the entire reason the lord of the rings exists is to create the archetypes used by D&D, and every other fantasy work ever. So I'm familiar enough with things like Elves and Trolls and Dwarves and goblins and dragons and Orcs already, so I don't need to bother finishing these books. Then I give up.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/v iewtopic.php?pid=156367#p156367 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Yeah, that was my problem too. I tried reading the hobbit and found the writing style to be too childish, though supposedly it was meant as a sort of late children's book anyway. Then I tried the first LOTR book and got about to the same point and just got bored. I can't for the life of me figure out why that's supposed to be the hallmark of medieval fantasy.Dark, yeah, that's basically what I was trying to say. Brooks is OK at combat, though definitely not the best. A lot better than some though. I'm looking at you, Simon R. Green. Gah. It at least seems like brooks puts a little bit of research into writing his combat, or has enough imagination to make it believable rather than just writing a paragraph about someone randomly hacking away with a sword till everyone's dead.I actually have read all the Sword of Truth books up to 12, not sure if there are anymore out. No idea why I forgot about that series since it's one of my favorit e fantasy series, though you're absolutely right about one thing. Book 12 just felt like a cheap tack-on to the end of the series to keep fans of the series appeased. He was originally supposed to be done at 11, which would have made sense, since one of the cool points of the series was that there was a new wizards rule revealed every book, and now that can't happen from 12 onward. 12 was decent, but nothing compared to the others, and indeed by comparison I actually have forgotten most of the major details of it.Fastfinge, lol, that almost sounds like some weird spinoff of Flexible Survival. Though of course, if anything were a spinoff, it'd be FS, since Piers Anthony was around long before that game ever existed. But that's what it reminded me of.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156434#p156434 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks @bladestorm360: Sort of, I guess. Though it isn't really furry. I'd think his short story _In The Barn_, from the science fiction anthology _Dangerous Visions_, would come much closer to being an inspiration for FS. If you haven't read it, the story involves human women who are kept in barns and used for milk, and I think I remember something about how they have their thumbs cut off as babies to prevent them developing manual dexterity and thus intelligence. Again, though, it's been a long time. I remember it being horrifyingly creepy and uncomfortable.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156437#p156437 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks @bladestorm360: Sort of, I guess. Though it isn't really furry. I'd think his short story _In The Barn_, from the science fiction anthology _Dangerous Visions_, would come much closer to being an inspiration for FS. If you haven't read it, the story involves human women who are kept in barns and used for milk, and I think I remember something about how they have their thumbs cut off as babies to prevent them developing manual dexterity and thus intelligence. Again, though, it's been a long time. I remember it being horrifyingly creepy and uncomfortable.Edit: And didn't he do a story where someone has sex with a pig or goat or something? I remember something about that. I'm really afraid to type piers Anthony sex with pig into google and see if I can jog my memory. It isn't helping. Though the Google results did turn up Firefly; I had forgotten about the Pedophilia in that one. Oh, man. Yeah. I must've been repressing. I remember reading that book quite clearly, I just forgot entirely about that bit. [[wow]]. If you want to get into Piers Anthony, stick with Xanth and Incarnations.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156437#p156437 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Edit: Yes, I do, in fact, hit the spam filter on every post I make to this forum for one reason or another. Hopefully my refusal to re-edit to avoid it will bring to everyone's attention how utterly broken and worthless it is. @bladestorm360: Sort of, I guess. Though it isn't really furry. I'd think his short story _In The Barn_, from the science fiction anthology _Dangerous Visions_, would come much closer to being an inspiration for FS. If you haven't read it, the story involves human women who are kept in barns and used for milk, and I think I remember something about how they have their thumbs cut off as babies to prevent them developing manual dexterity and thus intelligence. Again, though, it's been a long time. I remember it being horrifyingly creepy and uncomfortable.Edit: And didn't he do a story where someone has sex with a pig or goat or something? I remember something about that . I'm really afraid to type piers Anthony sex with pig into google and see if I can jog my memory. It isn't helping. Though the Google results did turn up Firefly; I had forgotten about the Pedophilia in that one. Oh, man. Yeah. I must've been repressing. I remember reading that book quite clearly, I just forgot entirely about that bit. [[wow]]. If you want to get into Piers Anthony, stick with Xanth and Incarnations.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156437#p156437 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Well regarding Lotr, I'm afraid I'm an absolute Tolkien nut and pretty much have been ever since the age of five, so obviously I have opinions on the series. I do agree Lotr isn't a usual fantasy but that is pretty much because it is not written as what we would understand as a fantasy novel. it's a work of historical fiction set in a world where the history happens to be false. This is why there is so much walking and not a battle every five minutes. While it is true the D&D architypes of elves, orcs etc were partly based on Tolkien, at the same time tolkien's creations are far more complex when you know something about the world and history. For example, on initial meeting Galadriel just seems to be standard ancient sorceress. It's quite different when you actually realize that she is close to twenty thousand years old and literaly the third generation of elves ever! to be created. Then all the stuff about her recreating the elda days makes a little more sense, ditto with the idea of her being Sauron. While I will agree Lotr isn't an easy book and notfor everyone, and certainly not what modern fantasy readers would expect, at the same time it is! absolutely unique and nobody has ever done anything similar in terms of world, legends and story, and then putting realistic characters into that world, albeit some people have come close. Still as I said, it's probably not for everyone. Regarding brooks and combat, what really! put me off brooks combat descriptions was the Darth Maul fight in starwars episode 1. I was really looking forward to a full, blow by blow account of the hole thing. But "Flurry of strokes" is about as descriptive as Brooks goes, heck, he doesn't even tell you what colour or design people's light sabers were and from his description you could almost think Darth Maul's blade was more a pitchfork than two swords together att the ends. While there are certainly much worse combat writers out there, even among classics (Robbert Jordan's use of random vaguely oriental sounding combat moves instead of actually tellling you what was going on got up my nose much as there was a lot else I enjoyed in Wheel of time, there are better ones too. Regarding sword of truth, well as I said I quite enjoyed the first book as a sort of 6 out of 10 fantasy, albeit I wish the plot had felt slightly less episodic nd that it hadn't been quite as blatantly sexist. However from there the series just went down hill, bigger enemies, more grusome torture, lots of right wing rants and a good serving of deus ex. There were still odd good bits of character, battle, description or emotional resonance, but as the series went on it became an exercise in picking the wheet from the chaff, and every book seemed to come with more chaff than wheat, especially! as regards Goodkind's more and more blatant right wing preachery! I wanted to finish book eleven to see what happened to the emperor and how things resolved and because I'm not one for leaving a series unfinished (which should also show my distaste of brooks), however, I will confess the last few books were something of a slog. That being said I recently did hear from another fantasy fan that book 13 was a pleasant surprise in quality terms, and he advised me to give Goodkind another try so I might well do so. Regarding Anthony, well I don't know. The problem is being genophobic, anything too erotic can be rather too uncomfortable for me, indeed I recently had a very bad experience with a certain book, though usually if the sections are brief and have what our tabletop gm refers to as "fade to b lack" I can zone out long enough to get past and go on with the rest of the story. Anthony may or may not be too far, I won't know unless I try, though I confess my recent bad (indeed extremely! bad), experience has made me a wary.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156466#p156466 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Well regarding Lotr, I'm afraid I'm an absolute Tolkien nut and pretty much have been ever since the age of five, so obviously I have opinions on the series. I do agree Lotr isn't a usual fantasy but that is pretty much because it is not written as what we would understand as a fantasy novel. it's a work of historical fiction set in a world where the history happens to be false. This is why there is so much walking and not a battle every five minutes. While it is true the D&D architypes of elves, orcs etc were partly based on Tolkien, at the same time tolkien's creations are far more complex when you know something about the world and history. For example, on initial meeting Galadriel just seems to be standard ancient sorceress. It's quite different when you actually realize that she is close to twenty thousand years old and literaly the third generation of elves ever! to be created. Then all the stuff about her recreating the elda days makes a little more sense, ditto with the idea of her being able to take on Sauron if she wished. Likewise, i love the fact in lotr magic is so butle. No randomly coloured fire, just personal power and charisma most of the time, for all the rather amusing telekynetic staff fights in the film. While I will agree Lotr isn't an easy book and notfor everyone, and certainly not what modern fantasy readers would expect, at the same time it is! absolutely unique and nobody has ever done anything similar in terms of world, legends and story, and then putting realistic characters into that world, albeit some people have come close. Still as I said, it's probably not for everyone. The Hobbit is indeed a children's book, and was intended as such, though since Tolkien already had the history and world n built, a good few elements made it in, though again The hobbit is an odd book to read, indeed in many ways Tolkien's books are a set of coincidences. As I said I appreciate they're not for everyone, since they're very different from anything most people would understand as fantasy literature.Regarding brooks and combat, what really! put me off brooks combat descriptions was the Darth Maul fight in starwars episode 1. I was really looking forward to a full, blow by blow account of the hole thing. But "Flurry of strokes" is about as descriptive as Brooks goes, heck, he doesn't even tell you what colour or design people's light sabers were and from his description you could almost think Darth Maul's blade was more a pitchfork than two swords together att the ends. While there are certainly much worse combat writers out there, even among classics (Robbert Jordan's use of random vaguely oriental sounding combat moves instead of actually tellling you wh at was going on got up my nose much as there was a lot else I enjoyed in Wheel of time, there are better ones too. Regarding sword of truth, well as I said I quite enjoyed the first book as a sort of 6 out of 10 fantasy, albeit I wish the plot had felt slightly less episodic nd that it hadn't been quite as blatantly sexist. However from there the series just went down hill, bigger enemies, more grusome torture, lots of right wing rants and a good serving of deus ex. There were still odd good bits of character, battle, description or emotional resonance, but as the series went on it became an exercise in picking the wheet from the chaff, and every book seemed to come with more chaff than wheat, especially! as regards Goodkind's more and more blatant right wing preachery! I wanted to finish book eleven to see what happened to the emperor and how things resolved and because I& #039;m not one for leaving a series unfinished (which should also show my distaste of brooks), however, I will confess the last few books were something of a slog. That being said I recently did hear from another fantasy fan that book 13 was a pleasant surprise in quality terms, and he advised me to give Goodkind another try so I might well do so. Regarding Anthony, well I don't know. The problem is being genophobic, anything too erotic can be rather too uncomfortable for me, indeed I recently had a very bad experience with a certain book, though usually if the sections are brief and have what our tabletop gm refers to as "fade to black" I can zone out long enough to get past and go on with the rest of the story. Anthony may or may not be too far, I won't know unless I try, though I confess my recent bad (indeed extremely! bad), experience has made me a wary.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156466#p156466 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: [Audiogames-reflector] The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks
Re: The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks Well regarding Lotr, I'm afraid I'm an absolute Tolkien nut and pretty much have been ever since the age of five, so obviously I have opinions on the series. I do agree Lotr isn't a usual fantasy but that is pretty much because it is not written as what we would understand as a fantasy novel. it's a work of historical fiction set in a world where the history happens to be false. This is why there is so much walking and not a battle every five minutes. While it is true the D&D architypes of elves, orcs etc were partly based on Tolkien, at the same time tolkien's creations are far more complex when you know something about the world and history. For example, on initial meeting Galadriel just seems to be standard ancient sorceress. It's quite different when you actually realize that she is close to twenty thousand years old and literaly the third generation of elves ever! to be created. Then all the stuff about her recreating the elda days makes a little more sense, ditto with the idea of her being able to take on Sauron if she wished. Likewise, i love the fact in lotr magic is so sutle. No randomly coloured fire, just personal power and charisma most of the time, for all the rather amusing telekynetic staff fights in the film. While I will agree Lotr isn't an easy book and notfor everyone, and certainly not what modern fantasy readers would expect, at the same time it is! absolutely unique and nobody has ever done anything similar in terms of world, legends and story, and then putting realistic characters into that world, albeit some people have come close. Still as I said, it's probably not for everyone. The Hobbit is indeed a children's book, and was intended as such, though since Tolkien already had the history and world n built, a good few elements made it in, though again The hobbit is an odd book to read, indeed in many ways Tolkien's books are a set of coincidences. As I said I appreciate they're not for everyone, since they're very different from anything most people would understand as fantasy literature.Regarding brooks and combat, what really! put me off brooks combat descriptions was the Darth Maul fight in starwars episode 1. I was really looking forward to a full, blow by blow account of the hole thing. But "Flurry of strokes" is about as descriptive as Brooks goes, heck, he doesn't even tell you what colour or design people's light sabers were and from his description you could almost think Darth Maul's blade was more a pitchfork than two swords together att the ends. While there are certainly much worse combat writers out there, even among classics (Robbert Jordan's use of random vaguely oriental sounding combat moves instead of actually tellling you wh at was going on got up my nose much as there was a lot else I enjoyed in Wheel of time, there are better ones too. Regarding sword of truth, well as I said I quite enjoyed the first book as a sort of 6 out of 10 fantasy, albeit I wish the plot had felt slightly less episodic nd that it hadn't been quite as blatantly sexist. However from there the series just went down hill, bigger enemies, more grusome torture, lots of right wing rants and a good serving of deus ex. There were still odd good bits of character, battle, description or emotional resonance, but as the series went on it became an exercise in picking the wheet from the chaff, and every book seemed to come with more chaff than wheat, especially! as regards Goodkind's more and more blatant right wing preachery! I wanted to finish book eleven to see what happened to the emperor and how things resolved and because I& #039;m not one for leaving a series unfinished (which should also show my distaste of brooks), however, I will confess the last few books were something of a slog. That being said I recently did hear from another fantasy fan that book 13 was a pleasant surprise in quality terms, and he advised me to give Goodkind another try so I might well do so. Regarding Anthony, well I don't know. The problem is being genophobic, anything too erotic can be rather too uncomfortable for me, indeed I recently had a very bad experience with a certain book, though usually if the sections are brief and have what our tabletop gm refers to as "fade to black" I can zone out long enough to get past and go on with the rest of the story. Anthony may or may not be too far, I won't know unless I try, though I confess my recent bad (indeed extremely! bad), experience has made me a wary.URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=156466#p156466 ___ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com http://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
