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So, A Long Time Fantasy Fan Just Discovered Terry Brooks!

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So, A Long Time Fantasy Fan Just Discovered Terry Brooks!

Old 03-11-07, 06:58 PM
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So, A Long Time Fantasy Fan Just Discovered Terry Brooks!

I've read a lot of Fantasy in my day, I started with Dragonlance in the late 80's, read Tolkein, the game Betrayal at Krondor got me hook on Feist. I've read Eddings (through Mallorean), I read 4 books of Wheel of Time before I realized he was repeating everything, I read the Wizard's First Rule series, I've read a lot.

Well, I purchased Sword of Shannara and Elfstones of Shannara TWELVE years ago, and just got around to reading them now. All I can say is YES YES YES! I've been starving for good fantasy for quite awhile, Terry Brooks was there all along waiting to be found! I sort of wish that I could read more about the characters from SOS, especially Balinor, Flick, Menion, and Panamon, but Brooks seems to jump a generation or 2 with every book. I don't mind I guess. But man am I happy. I looked as his bookography, and this guy has like 15 more books that I haven't read!

With the discovery of Terry Brooks, the last Potter book, the next Song of Ice and Fire, and Feist's comeback with Darkwar, I am PUMPED that FANTASY IS BACK, BEOTCH!
Old 03-12-07, 09:22 AM
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I've read...

I guess the first four or five books. The only thing I didn't like was SOS was such a rip-off of Lord of the Rings, a good one, but a rip off none the less. Drove me nuts to the point where I couldn't read the thing without comparing the two. His later Shannara stuff isn't that great IMO, but I've got a friend that eats it up.
Old 03-12-07, 10:50 AM
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I only read the first two books in the Sword of Shannara series and couldn't finish them because I just found them way too similar to LOTR.

If you like great characters with your fantasy then I seriously recommend you check out George R. R. Martin's Song Of Ice And Fire series, which has some of the greatest characters I've ever read in fiction. And if you do decide to read the series, don't get too attached to any characters as the author has a habit of killing off major ones.
Old 03-12-07, 11:42 AM
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I read Brooks once. I won't read him again. Zzzzzz.

There's good, original fantasy out there. It's just DAMN hard to find it sifting through the piles and piles of knockoff garbage.
Old 03-12-07, 12:11 PM
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Originally Posted by PalmerJoss

If you like great characters with your fantasy then I seriously recommend you check out George R. R. Martin's Song Of Ice And Fire series, which has some of the greatest characters I've ever read in fiction. And if you do decide to read the series, don't get too attached to any characters as the author has a habit of killing off major ones.
The OP already said he is excited for the next in this series.
Old 03-14-07, 01:28 PM
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Originally Posted by Jadow
...I've been starving for good fantasy for quite awhile...
Let me recommend any of the Drenai books by David Gemmell. Start with Legend and go from there.
Old 03-14-07, 09:40 PM
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I'm not a big Terry Brooks fan, but if you like his stuff, you might like Terry Goodkind.

Two of my favorite authors you didn't mention are Glenn Cook and Robin Hobb. You might want to check them out.
Old 03-15-07, 02:55 AM
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I personally just discovered His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman. Great stuff also!
Old 03-29-07, 10:25 AM
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I enjoy Terry Brooks. He's hit and miss (for example I wasn't impressed with the latest 2 strings of Shanarra books with the airships, but I loved the Scions of Shanarra 4-book series). I also enjoy the Knight of the Word books and so far the Armageddon's Children series (looks like it's called Genesis of Shanarra now).
Old 03-31-07, 08:56 AM
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Brooks is the quintessential Extruded Fantasy Product -- a group of heroes searching for enough plot-coupons to defeat the Lord of Eternal Darkness, Evil and Moral Relativism. Okay for beach reading, but there's much better fantasy out there -- Erikson's Malazan series, Pratchett's Discworld series, Bujold's Chalion series, Stross's Merchant Prince series, Carey's Kushiel series, Walton's King's Peace series.
Old 04-01-07, 12:36 AM
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Originally Posted by Sean O'Hara
Brooks is the quintessential Extruded Fantasy Product -- a group of heroes searching for enough plot-coupons to defeat the Lord of Eternal Darkness, Evil and Moral Relativism.
My nomination for post of the day.
Old 04-01-07, 04:06 PM
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Don't forget Amazon has there 4 for 3 sale right now and I know I saw plenty of Terry Brooks in there. The sci-fi/fantasy category had about 7000 books included in the sale.
Old 04-03-07, 03:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Sean O'Hara
Brooks is the quintessential Extruded Fantasy Product -- a group of heroes searching for enough plot-coupons to defeat the Lord of Eternal Darkness, Evil and Moral Relativism. Okay for beach reading, but there's much better fantasy out there -- Erikson's Malazan series, Pratchett's Discworld series, Bujold's Chalion series, Stross's Merchant Prince series, Carey's Kushiel series, Walton's King's Peace series.
LOL yup. So true. I got bored with the 2nd book of Shanara whatever. It was so generic and I could tell how it was going to end halfway through the book that I stopped reading them. So many better fantasy books out there....
Old 04-07-07, 05:44 PM
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I read the first Shannara book. I liked it better when it was called The Lord of the Rings. And was well-written.
Old 04-08-07, 06:42 PM
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Well LOTR rip off or not my all time favorite fictional character is Garet Jax.
Old 04-19-07, 07:26 PM
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Thats awesome, enjoy as you have many novels to read. I could never get into the elistest recommendations of martin and erikson. There were dark extremely depressing worlds with dozens and dozens of characters I didnt give rats ass about nor a world I would want to escape too. Light fantasy is more my thing and TB delivers hardcore.
Old 04-28-07, 06:56 PM
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Madara, that's an interesting point. I actually started out on Brooks and really loved it, until Robert Jordan showed me that there could be so much more. Then GRRM stepped in and really raised the bar. I just don't know how I could ever go back to Brooks or light fantasy.

Having said that, I'm drooling to get my hands on the final Harry Potter, so there may be hope for me yet; Viva Elitism!
Old 04-28-07, 07:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Ozzy's Bat Head
Madara, that's an interesting point. I actually started out on Brooks and really loved it, until Robert Jordan showed me that there could be so much more. Then GRRM stepped in and really raised the bar. I just don't know how I could ever go back to Brooks or light fantasy.

Having said that, I'm drooling to get my hands on the final Harry Potter, so there may be hope for me yet; Viva Elitism!
Ugh, please don't mention George RR Martin in the same breath as Robert Jordan. I can't think of a more overrated fantasy author than Robert Jordan. His stuff is simply substandard fantasy. IMO he's like the Bose of the fantasy book world. All marketing and not much substance.

I've started liquidating my Jordan hardcovers to a local book store. I've concluded that the writing isn't that great, the characterization weak, and the storyline never really goes anywhere. And don't start me on the absurd descriptions of swordfights.

BTW: the first Wheel of Time book comes off as a LOTR ripoff even more strongly than the Sword of Shanarra.

Last edited by GreenMonkey; 04-28-07 at 07:09 PM.
Old 05-03-07, 04:49 PM
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Brooks is my favorite author, and has been for a long time. I've always liked his stuff and I'm waiting to get into the latest series (Armageddon's Children) but I don't have much time for reading anymore lately. For a comedic/fantasy jaunt I suggest the Magic Kingdom series. It is really good too. I also suggest his writing book... even if you aren't a writer it is very good.
Old 05-04-07, 12:49 AM
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I loved the Shannara series. Yes, it is a Tolkien based story, but it is very good. He has gone on too long with it, but the first two series were very good.
Old 05-15-07, 06:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Jadow
I've read a lot of Fantasy in my day, I started with Dragonlance in the late 80's, read Tolkein, the game Betrayal at Krondor got me hook on Feist. I've read Eddings (through Mallorean), I read 4 books of Wheel of Time before I realized he was repeating everything, I read the Wizard's First Rule series, I've read a lot.

Well, I purchased Sword of Shannara and Elfstones of Shannara TWELVE years ago, and just got around to reading them now. All I can say is YES YES YES! I've been starving for good fantasy for quite awhile, Terry Brooks was there all along waiting to be found! I sort of wish that I could read more about the characters from SOS, especially Balinor, Flick, Menion, and Panamon, but Brooks seems to jump a generation or 2 with every book. I don't mind I guess. But man am I happy. I looked as his bookography, and this guy has like 15 more books that I haven't read!

With the discovery of Terry Brooks, the last Potter book, the next Song of Ice and Fire, and Feist's comeback with Darkwar, I am PUMPED that FANTASY IS BACK, BEOTCH!

Holy cow.

Make sure you read the the magic of landover series. Fantasy done very well!
Old 05-15-07, 06:57 PM
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I like how the OP created a topic about his love for terry brooks and pretty much everyone craps on it heh.

You lose OP. drop terry brooks now and read the 'greater' fantasy options out there.
Old 05-16-07, 02:23 PM
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Originally Posted by superdeluxe
I like how the OP created a topic about his love for terry brooks and pretty much everyone craps on it heh.

You lose OP. drop terry brooks now and read the 'greater' fantasy options out there.
Come on now I didn't crap on it, I like Terry Brooks I just suggested another author he might like as well.
Old 05-16-07, 03:40 PM
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Originally Posted by superdeluxe
I like how the OP created a topic about his love for terry brooks and pretty much everyone craps on it heh.

You lose OP. drop terry brooks now and read the 'greater' fantasy options out there.
He wanted to talk about Brooks. People talked about Brooks. If you go to a cigar forum and talk about how great Swisher Sweets are, that's fine. But you'd better expect some folks to suggest Padrons, Montecristos, etc.

What do you want? Only people who like Brooks to take part? It'd be a pretty short thread then, wouldn't it? I don't see the nature of your complaint here. People aren't "crapping" on Brooks just for the sake of being nasty. They're giving honest opinions.
Old 05-18-07, 12:34 PM
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Brooks is an excellent author. I had the pleasure of meeting him once at a book signing in Tampa in the mid 90's. He seemed like a stand up guy. He said that he would sign any books that you brought in and at that time I had most of his stuff in Hard Back so I bought in about 15 books and he signed them all.

Im happy for you that you have found a new author that you can enjoy and one that has been pretty prolific. I have read most of his stuff with the exception of the last 3 or so. I highly recommend his Magic Kingdom for sale/sold series ( guess it might be called his Landover series) very well written and entertaining story.

As you can see, lots of people have lots of different opinions about what authors they enjoy and for what reasons. I wouldn't give them too much weight. Find stuff you like and keep reading. That is the most important thing, KEEP READING. This world would be a lesser place if we didn't have book to enjoy and authors that can tell good stories and unfortunately not enough people are reading what they write. So I would say that as long as you keep reading and enjoy what you are reading, keep at it.

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