Yeah, I agree with you on all aspects that you mentioned on Legend. It was one of his earlier books, definitely not his best. I thought Legend was bland, but okay. He has gotten alot better since then. It sounds like you didn't enjoy it but if you thought it was okay, I would recommend that you give it another chance with some of his later books. IMO, Winter Warriors, Hero In The Shadows, Swords of Night And Day, Sword In The Storm, Ravenheart and the Sipstrassi tales are some of his better works. So if you have the time, give one of them a shot...

Yeah, David Gemmell has a different approach to his writing. He can really get you hook with his story telling and especially his characters IMO. The characteristics of the characters are portrayed with a sense of realism...the confliction, the anger, the hate, the love and such are very well expressed in the writing...the characters are likable as well because of it all. At least I think so. His latter books are way better than his old ones.

I may give some of his later stuff a try at some point. One thing I didn't like is how from sentence to sentence it would switch perspectives to the thoughts of another character..it would always take me a minute to realize it happened so I'd have to start reading the sentence/paragraph again.

Yeah, that took a little getting used to. But I don't remember being confused by it. Maybe he got better at it later on :)

Wouldn't say it confused me..but it made things not flow very well.

I read the first couple of pages at BaM this afternoon. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it on the shelf. Let's see.....30% off with an additional 10% off with a BaM card....it's a no-brainer.

I thought Stephen Kings Dark Tower series was pretty good.

I have read all five of Steven Erikson's series Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. This is the best series that I have read so far. It is huge and complex, with characters that keep you coming back for more. I have read A Song of Ice and Fire series and I have to say it runs second to Steven Erikson. Erikson also writes faster that Martin. The sixth installment of the series comes out around July.

If you read Erikson's work, don't give up on the story. The books are hard to understand, but well worth it in the end. There is a whole website devoted to his work, go to www.malazanempire.com

This series is great and the first 2 books are avalible in the US now, but all five can be gotten from the Amazon.ca in mass marketpaperback.

I've been hearing really good things about Erikson for a little while now. Has he given any indication on how many books his series will be?

10 I believe and it looks like they are being pumped out at about 1 per year. I actually just finished the first book in the series today. Tough going for awhile because it's very complex and it doesn't waste space to explain the world and how things work so you have to figure it out gradually as you go. I hear it takes several books before you fully understand the what and why of everything. I wish it did explain everything because it would make it more enjoyable to know what was going on.

Series was probably mentioned but . . .
 

I'm not in front of the books at the moment so name might be spelled incorrectly. Dennis McKiernan's books are always good reads, first trilogy might be a bit too LoTR for you, but you should get through it to get the basics down. The Novels he has written that are set in the same world are all quite good. DragonDoom may be my favorite, i'm a sucker for that ending.

You just revived a thread from 2005, dude

So what? Aren't we always getting on people because they do not use the search function. I mean he wasn't just bumping it for the sake of bumping

:)

:lol:

I just love thread-revivals! I really tried to jump on the Erickson carpet ride and just love the first novel, then the 2nd came with the 'ascendants' concept and just killed it for me. Gave up mid way through book 3.

Honestly, in all my time reading, I've never had a flame out as fast as this series.

Different strokes then. I thought Memories of Ice was the finest novel I have ever read. Period. You really have to power through the first two books, but by the time you get halfway through Memories of Ice, the biggest payoff of any series ever starts happening. Seriously, I didn't appreciate just how good the first 3 books were until I was halfway through book 5, The Midnight Tides. Plus Tides introduces the greatest "married" couple in fantasy, Tehol Beddict and his "manservant," Bugg. Some of the funniest fantasy is written in those two characters.

And its sad. This thread reminds me that we still haven't gotten a new Fire and Ice novel yet from Martin. Gods, what a lazy bastard.

Ice and Fire.... ;)

I finally started book 2 of this. I loved the first, so hopefully it's more of the same. (it was a while in between readings, so I listened to it on tape a 2nd time as a refresher, there is just so much going on).

Does anyone know if there has been any more word on the HBO series?

According to Wikipedia,

Thanks, thats the last I had heard too, I was hoping the end of the strike may have helped push things along.

One series I would add to this thread is the new one by Patrick Rothfuss that starts with "The Name of the Wind." It is really quite excellent, and highly recommended.

Weave World is epic. The book was split into four books but it might be sold a single book now.

I just discovered Paul Park's Roumania series: A Princess of Roumania, The Tourmaline, The White Tyger and a final book still to be published. Similar to Pullman but Park may be both a better fantasist and writer.

On the same theme are any of the series mentioned complete? Or could people recommend any single books. I do love ice and fire but I'll be damn if I can remember any of the names or who went where in between books.

Weaveworld is indeed epic.

But the split-into-four thing indicates that you're thinking of Imajica.