Tolkien Geeks: Geek Out Here. :)

[martin wilson]

Hi all

The Anduril MKII, when you have to absolutely, positively kill every m***********g orc in the room.

Thanks for the recommendation Dane, my choice would be The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant by Steven Donaldson, another ring bearer but very different to LOTR. It's not as good though.
It's very difficult to read works in the same genre/ inspired by Tolkien, because my inner critic is going 'rip off' all the time, unfair I know but I can't help it.

All the best.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Martin

I'm heavily into Thomas Covenant too, and I have to agree he's pretty fair, but not as good as JRRT...though I do have a very soft spot indeed for Donaldson's two "Mirror" books, which are hugely under-rated...drifting off-topic so I'll stop right there!

Cheers

Dave

[martin wilson]

Hi all

It must be 20 years or more since I read the Covenant books, I think Donaldson has written another 3 so that takes it up to 9 now? I want to see a giant possessed by a raver so c'mon Hollywood.

I tend to go on recommendations, so I will be looking out for Dane's pick and I would like to hear more about Mirror, I'm pretty sure Ausgirl who started this thread wont mind it being a general Tolkien/fantasy genre thread, he said nervously.....

All the best.

[Ausgirl]

Of course I don't mind! Though I reserve the right to the occasional random rant about things obscure and Tolkienish.

Wheel of Time... My daughter thinks it hilarious to tell her friends that Mum uses the first book as a sleeping pill. It's true! I bought the books years ago, and to this day have never gotten past page 30 of book 1 without nodding off. I dunno what it is.. his overly wordy descriptions, plodding along for pages, waiting for someone to do something..zzzZzzzzzZzz

The books are immensely popular among young gamers in my experience. But yeah. I keep book 1 by the bed, the rest are as yet untouched.

I absolutely love Song of Ice and Fire -- all those books. And the TV series, for that matter.

I'm yet to find anything that compares strongly to Lord of the Rings. If comparisons must be made.

[Cogidubnus]

I'm pretty sure Ausgirl who started this thread wont mind it being a general Tolkien/fantasy genre thread, he said nervously.....

(Equally nervously) What I've described as Donaldson's "Mirror" books, are actually more formally referred to as "Mordant's Need".

This consists two novels "The Mirror of her Dreams" and "A man rides through", both being based upon an innocent young woman, Terisa Morgan, being accidentally "translated" via a mirror into a parallel world, wherein mirrors as such do not exist, except as part of a rare mystical art performed by a few specialists, who can "translate" matter through mirrors into/out of other parallel worlds/places...

They are much lighter in tone than the Covenant series, and have since their publishing in the mid/late eighties become great favourites of mine...

All the best

Dave

[Ausgirl]

Oh.. all this has reminded me.. of my own long-abandoned fantasy novel! Gosh. Haven't even thought of it in a while. Now I feel terrible guilty for dropping it in favour of short fiction and poetry, which I've been floundering about in for quite some years now. hm! Novels are intimidating things, though. Great unwieldy Jenga-blocks of text. Attempting to write one, I think, has mainly achieved a much greater sense of admiration for the people who actually do so successfully.

[martin wilson]

Hi all

Thanks Dave,they sound intriguing, one of my great pleasures is mooching amongst charity shop book shelves, I think they are called goodwill shops in the U.S.A, dunno what they are called in Oz.
So now I've got another set of books to look out for, and reverse Murphy's Law says I will see them sooner rather than later.

Ausgirl

What's your book about? you are amongst friends here, unless you mention cricket of course.

All the best.

[Dane_F]

Of course I don't mind! Though I reserve the right to the occasional random rant about things obscure and Tolkienish.

Wheel of Time... My daughter thinks it hilarious to tell her friends that Mum uses the first book as a sleeping pill. It's true! I bought the books years ago, and to this day have never gotten past page 30 of book 1 without nodding off. I dunno what it is.. his overly wordy descriptions, plodding along for pages, waiting for someone to do something..zzzZzzzzzZzz

The books are immensely popular among young gamers in my experience. But yeah. I keep book 1 by the bed, the rest are as yet untouched.

I absolutely love Song of Ice and Fire -- all those books. And the TV series, for that matter.

I'm yet to find anything that compares strongly to Lord of the Rings. If comparisons must be made.

The first ~100 pages were specifically written to try and immitate Tolkien's world building. I listened to an interview with Robert Jordan before he passed away and he said the idea he had was to start the book off in a similar way to Tolkien but then go in a completely different direction with it. He certainly succeeds in going in a completely different direction. If you haven't made it past the first 100 pages then I would implore you to try and push through. The story goes in some amazing directions and the first 3 are some of the best of the series.

It is without a double a world building book however. Where LOTR is a fast paced tight moving story this series focuses a lot more on atmosphere and political strifes.

Two other series that are either not finished or I haven't finished yet but I like are The Book of The Law Series and The KingKiller Chronicles. They both feel derivative from previous book series but are good reads.

I should also mention The Dark Tower Series. I don't think it is as good as any of the other series I've mentioned but it does have my two favorite characters in a book ever - Detta Walker and Blaine the Train. It was Stephen Kings' attempt to build a fantasy world and while some parts are entertaining it just clearly shows he is not a fantasy writer by any means.

I suppose all this shows is I read a lot of Fantasy novels.

[Cogidubnus]

I'm a great fan of much of King's work, (his work is very variable, some superb, some good, and some badly flawed IMHO), but consciously avoided the Dark Tower series for a long time...I had a sub-conscious aversion, I suppose, to how well or badly such a writer would adapt to the outright fantasy genre.

When I did dip my toe in the water I was initially very pleasurably surprised...the first three or four books went down very well indeed...Detta especially, but even Blaine the train too! You're quite right Dane.

After that, however, it just seemed to drag on...big time over-long...especially as he's consistently churned out, in my view, far better conventional fiction right through...

All the best

Dave

[martin wilson]

Hi all

King, As Dave said, immaculately. I remember reading something he did with Peter Straub. Chuffed if I can remember what it was called, but yeah, stick to the haunted cars Steve.
Don't mind the 100 pages, JRRT, seems intent in the first part of LOTR in describing every blade of grass between the Shire and Bree, and I do like my politics.......
The LOTR and the Covenant are probably the longest books I've read, mostly it was anthologies, which only entitled me to saying halfway through films, 'hang on a minute. I've read this!'
All the best.

[Pcdunn]

This may date me, but... The Narnia books by C. S. Lewis are a must for a Tolkien fan, and also his "Space" trilogy. Lewis and Tolkien were both part of the Inklings club, and probably the most talented. I love Aslan!

I got hooked on the TV show "Game of Thrones" via library DVDS, but haven't seen it past season two. I have bought the books, but mislaid the first one, so haven't begun reading them yet.

Mercedes Lackey writes both traditional fantasy and urban fantasy, mostly young adult books. I like her series set in Victorian London involving Elemental Mages.

Also, the "Hatrack River" series set in an alternate colonial America is neat (can't recall the author's name right now...)

Finally, for graphic novel readers, you must try "Fables" by Bill Willingham. It imagines a Great War in Fairytale land driving refugees into our world, where evil follows them. The characters and plotting are fantastic, as is the art. Much darker in places than the TV show "Once Upon a Time", certainly.

[Ausgirl]

PCdunn, I would recommend forgoing the Game of Thrones books until after you've watched the whole series to date, because - spoilers. It'll remove a great deal of suspense from the series, which does -- like LoTR - diverge from the books here and there, but not enough to save you from wishing you didn't know what was going to happen next.

martin, fantasy books never sound good in synopsis.. mine is about a group of very naughty boys whose arrogance has consequences that ripple through the world and beyond for untold thousands of years. Including the creation of a demi-sentient 'monkey's paw' type of objext, which is fun to write about. Perhaps one of these days I'll actually finish it. Heh.

I really enjoyed 'The Belgariad' by David Eddings, quite a few years ago now. And not-really-fantasy-but-kinda-sorta, is the Necrosope (and subsequent Whampyri) series by Brian Lumley. The first truly new take on vampires there'd been in decades, at time of writing, and extremely action-packed, with cold war psychic spies (reflecting Lumley's time in service) interdimensional portals and all sorts-- and also a smidge of Lovecraftiana just for flavour. Blood and guts and naughty bits abound. Highly recommended, and there's 13 or so books in the series.

[martin wilson]

Hi all

A demi sentient monkeys paw, that's just about the worst thing anyone could imagine, for those of us who remember that shambling,squelching thing banging on the door in the original story.......

Donaldson uses invocation of the dead in the Covenant books, not great on epic sounding names our Steve, one of the shades conjured is called Lord Kevin.

I liked the Swamp Thing comics, written by Alan Moore, and the splendidly named Dick Durock who played it in a couple of so bad they're good films back in the 80's (?)
Swampy is probably the film I most wanna see made, and must include John Constantine, actually played by someone English and blonde this time, I reckon Paul Bettany would be good, although it would be nice if Sting had a cameo, as he was the inspiration for the look of the character.
All the best.

[Ausgirl]

I liked the Swamp Thing comics

I think perhaps we may have been separated at birth, martin.

I collected Swampy comics like mad as a kid, he was (before Hellboy..) my No.1 antihero crush. I had a good collection which my nanna - bless her - threw out. Along with the rest of my thousands of comics, some of which might be worth an absolute fortune now.

What do you think of the current Constantine TV series? I'm rather enjoying it. And the casting is pretty good. Unlike Keanu Reeves -- but let us not speak of that.

[Ausgirl]

If you haven't made it past the first 100 pages then I would implore you to try and push through. The story goes in some amazing directions and the first 3 are some of the best of the series.

Well.. alright. I'll give it a shot. Best I read it in the mornings, though, hehehe.

I just downloaded Farmer Giles, along with several Tolkien works I haven't read. So much for everything else I planned to do this weekend..

Oh martin - and the monkey's paw analogy was less about the shambling dead than the 'be careful what you wish for'. Though there's shamblers elsewhere in the book... zombies scare the daylights out of me, so I had to put at least one in.