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I stumbled across these a few weeks back before I went on holiday and am now almost at the end of the third book. The writing is a bit iffy in places but the general concept and the story is really quite good.

A friend of mine told me that this has been made in to a tv series called The Legend of the Seeker but I am having visions of sub-standard sets, poor book to tv conversion and dashed images of the way I see the characters (something akin to Xena which I only managed to half watch twice because of how awful it was).

Has anyone read the books and seen the television series? If so is it worth watching?

A_n_t wrote:The writing is a bit iffy in places but the general concept and the story is really quite good.

That's how I felt towards the end of the first book, by the end of the 3rd, 4th or maybe 5th book I couldn't stomach anymore of it.

Lets just say without ruining it, they are written by formula and once you work that out you can always predict exactly what will happen in the story 2-3 chapters before it does.(No mentalism techniques required)

I have only seen clips of the series, but if I am correct it picks up from the 2nd or 4th book and Richard Cypher has been changed dramatically to be more of a TV hero steretype.

If you like fantasy fiction, please give the Wheel of Time series a go if you already haven't far more grit and harder to predict.

I have already started to notice the formula you're referring too but I'll stick with it for now and maybe avoid the television series.

Will check out The Wheel of Time though, that is Robert Jordan isn't it?

Yep, they are written by Robert Jordan apart from the ones finished by his family members from his notes after he passed away. I haven't finished the series but found them to be excellently written, impossible to predict even when they drop hints and use excellent scale by branching the story well.

Terry Goodkind should have stuck to a trilogy.

I sort of felt this way about Wheel of Time. It was brilliant until book 4. Despite trying at least three times now, I cannot progress past halfway through it. It just seems to stall and run out of steam.

If you like these, have you come across the Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks? Another formulaic series that goes on and on, but the early books are still worth a read. Belgariad by David Eddings are pretty good too. My all time faves, that stick closely to AD&D are the early trilogies in the Dragonlance books by Weis & Hickman. Raistlin is the best character ever devised.

Anyway, I'll shut up now

Too many books, not enough time. I wish someone would turn me into a vampire

Wishmaster wrote:Terry Goodkind should have stuck to a trilogy.

I sort of felt this way about Wheel of Time. It was brilliant until book 4. Despite trying at least three times now, I cannot progress past halfway through it. It just seems to stall and run out of steam.

If you like these, have you come across the Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks? Another formulaic series that goes on and on, but the early books are still worth a read. Belgariad by David Eddings are pretty good too. My all time faves, that stick closely to AD&D are the early trilogies in the Dragonlance books by Weis & Hickman. Raistlin is the best character ever devised.

Anyway, I'll shut up now

Too many books, not enough time. I wish someone would turn me into a vampire

Don't shut up, you made some great points. Although I only read the Wishsong of Shannara trilogy and wouldn't rate it as amazing it was enjoyable.

Dragonlance on the other hand was how I learnt to enjoy reading fantasy, my brothers had the first three trilogies and I read them all. The first trilogy was perfect, I was in literal tears at least twice and physically smiled many more times. Being a twin myself I found the Twins trilogy extremely touching. I liked Caramon more than Raistlin, but Raistlin was still a better character. And Tasslehoff was writing genius.

Anyway maybe I should shup up now. But not before I ask, Any of you read The Magician by Raymond E Feist? A classic in my collection.

SmallHands - It's great to know someone else out there agrees about the quality of Dragonlance. After the third trilogy (iirc), guest authors began contributing and with a few exceptions, the whole thing was spoilt. They just cashed in on the success and ruined it.

The idea of the twins (aside from the AD&D aspect) was what made that series for me. Tass (and Fizban!) was hilarious, Flint and Sturm tragic. The books had everything to make you feel the full range of emotions. I can't name many books that have stayed with me for so long. These would be top in my list of recommendations to anyone who wants to read fantasy that's easy to get into.

I've read quite a bit of Feist and enjoyed them all. Especially, the urban fantasy Faerie Tale.

Another very good author of fantasy novels with his amazing Druss the Legend is the late David Gemmell. More hack and slash/action than many others, he still wrote some amazing stories.

Michael Moorcock - A legend and genius. Sci-fi and fantasy at their very best. Elric, wow. I wouldn't recommend Moorcock as a first read though. He delves into some very obscure plot lines and the stories aren't the easiest if you're not used to this style.

Right, I am going to shut up now hehe!

Eddings' Belgariad series was OK, though written with an audience age of 12-14 in mind, and awfully formulaic. I found it good enough to read all the way through, but I'm not likely to ever pick it up again or read the sequels.

Some of the D&D books are brilliantly done, others are obviously churned out by hacks. The best I've found are the ones written by RA Salvatore:
Icewind Dale trilogy (The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, The Halfling's Gem)
Dark Elf trilogy (Homeland, Exile, Sojourn) -- set before the Icewind Dale saga, but written afterwards
He's carried on the storyline with further tetralogies and trilogies, but I haven't read those. Salvatore is an excellent writer, far above the usual run of D&D authors.

The Twilight Giants trilogy by Troy Denning (The Ogre's Pact, The Giant Among Us, and The Titan of Twilight) was also pretty darn good. Flawed in parts, slightly girly, and certainly not a patch on Salvatore when it comes to writing -- but very enjoyable.

What ticks me off is the apparent need of fantasy publishers to put everything out in trilogies or series. I know it's for sound business reasons -- basically to get more books sold -- but it's annoying.

I adore the Shannara series. I was given the Sword of Shannara when I was 9 and was hooked from then on. Some of the later books were quite ropey and I got the impression someone else may have been writing them and Terry Brooks was just slapping his name on it. I also was not too keen on how they linked the Word and the Void in to the Shannara story. The Legends of Druss was good though.

Dragonlance was very good, however I did find some of the descriptions of Caramon's toned physique a bit tiresome after awhile, Raistlin was an amazing character though. I also liked Robin Hobb's Farseer books, I liked the idea of the Wit and the Skill.

I have never read anything by David Eddings that I can remember but I do remember reading a series of books by Joe Dever called The Legends of Lone Wolf when I was quite young, maybe 10 or 11 but they suddenly stopped. The central character Kai, the wizard/sorcer type character beginning with B I think and a sort of demi-god called Alyss. Not sure if I would think it was so great if I read it again now but at the time I thought they were brilliant.

Robbie wrote:Eddings' Belgariad series was OK, though written with an audience age of 12-14 in mind, and awfully formulaic. I found it good enough to read all the way through, but I'm not likely to ever pick it up again or read the sequels.

It was written for a younger audience and was formulaic, you're right there. At the time, the dry humour and bickering between some of the main characters and tale of the young orphan boy becoming something more were still relatively new in the genre and Eddings got away with it. If he were to release the series now, I doubt it would do as well.

Besides Robbie, seeing as you have a mental age of 7 according to your description below your avatar, you have no reason to complain about the target age group!

Pulman's Golden Compass was astounding, as was Garth Nix's Sabriel - both offering something new to fantasy. I haven't read the follow-ups to either of those books yet though. I must admit, I like quite a few of the Young Adult fiction stories.

Try the Night Weaver Trilogy by Brent Weeks and the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - both excellent (esp love the magic system in Mistborn).

Incidentally, Brandon Sanderson is the author chosen by Robert Jordan's family to complete the Wheel of Time series. Three more books to go in that with the next one due out in October this year.

Richard

Wishmaster wrote:Besides Robbie, seeing as you have a mental age of 7 according to your description below your avatar, you have no reason to complain about the target age group!

Yep, it was too old for me...

Thanks for reminding me about the avatar. Time to change the physical age, though not the mental age. Birthday today!

Robbie wrote:Thanks for reminding me about the avatar. Time to change the physical age, though not the mental age. Birthday today!

Many happy returns!

Thank you! I treated myself to Hauntiques and the Paul Carnazzo three-pack of ESP wallet cards.