I gotta disagree here. Terry Goodkind's fantasy is exactly the kind of genre-ish fantasy that we need to get beyond (like David Eddings or Jordan)...
Martin's series exhibits a realistic view of the world (his own fantasy world) where people are neither good nor bad. Main characters can die, and do not suffer from the superhuman-ism of the typical fantasy protagonist. And, there is a logical (sometime subtle) story arc as we move from book to book.
With Goodkind, I got the feeling that he was making things up as he went along. The first book was quite enjoyable and brave in permitting torture to be so accurately drawn. It was his follow-up efforts that soured me to him as a writer.
The next books should have moved beyond the characters he had already used. It reminded me of watching Star Trek. How often can the exact same protagonists be invoved in the-world-will-die situations where everything hinges upon their actions? How often will new (previously unknown) enemies arise from nowhere (not mentioned in previous books) and challenge these protagonists?
That being said: I could never put the books down while I was reading them. They are excellent escapism. They are mediocre to poor epics.
My suggestions:
-- glen cook's Black Company series
-- mervyn peake's Gormenghast
-- robin hobb's Assassin Trilogy and Liveship Traders (a bit soap-operaish though)
-- stephen donaldson's Thomas Covenant Series
-- anything by gene wolfe (althoug a bit too erudite)
-- guy gavriel kay's Tigana
I spent a summer working for Softdisk in Shreveport LA, back in ohhh.. I think 94... It might have been 93... not sure
I did QA work for all their subscription software including a little gem called Catacombs 3D which semed remarkably like Wolfenstein 3D. It was at that point that I heard the story about the Id guys having been former employees...
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I gotta disagree here. Terry Goodkind's fantasy is exactly the kind of genre-ish fantasy that we need to get beyond (like David Eddings or Jordan)... Martin's series exhibits a realistic view of the world (his own fantasy world) where people are neither good nor bad. Main characters can die, and do not suffer from the superhuman-ism of the typical fantasy protagonist. And, there is a logical (sometime subtle) story arc as we move from book to book. With Goodkind, I got the feeling that he was making things up as he went along. The first book was quite enjoyable and brave in permitting torture to be so accurately drawn. It was his follow-up efforts that soured me to him as a writer. The next books should have moved beyond the characters he had already used. It reminded me of watching Star Trek. How often can the exact same protagonists be invoved in the-world-will-die situations where everything hinges upon their actions? How often will new (previously unknown) enemies arise from nowhere (not mentioned in previous books) and challenge these protagonists? That being said: I could never put the books down while I was reading them. They are excellent escapism. They are mediocre to poor epics. My suggestions: -- glen cook's Black Company series -- mervyn peake's Gormenghast -- robin hobb's Assassin Trilogy and Liveship Traders (a bit soap-operaish though) -- stephen donaldson's Thomas Covenant Series -- anything by gene wolfe (althoug a bit too erudite) -- guy gavriel kay's Tigana
I spent a summer working for Softdisk in Shreveport LA, back in ohhh.. I think 94... It might have been 93... not sure
I did QA work for all their subscription software including a little gem called Catacombs 3D which semed remarkably like Wolfenstein 3D. It was at that point that I heard the story about the Id guys having been former employees...
I think this link: the link on which you click
explains the history quite well. ( I remember Dan Tobias... what a character)
I really loved Rescue Rover.
Daniel