A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
Excellent epic high fantasy. Martin created a rich world with several huge factions with interesting characters and keeps the tension between them high. There are a couple of fantastic creatures but mostly it's about people and armies.
There were times where I had to keep reading but I didn't want to, because I knew it was going to hurt. Here is an author with the huevos to torment his characters for the sake of the story. Most of us are too scared or too attached to our characters to really make them suffer.
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series started out well, like this, but after the first few books he lost control of the story. Now he has too many characters and the chronology is a mess. I hope Martin can keep it together, because I just started the second book in this series, A Clash of Kings.
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Re:A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
I read the next two books in the series. The second one (A Clash of Kings) was as good as the first.
The third (A Storm of Swords) started out well but then became the most depressing and frustrating fantasy series that I have ever read.
It is depressing because nothing good ever happens in this world. It is frustrating because of Martin's habit of killing off main characters.
Readers feel cheated when the characters they have invested time and emotion into suddenly die. It is a faux pas that authors avoid, and I can see why. I got halfway through this book and I lost interest because the protagonists keep disappearing. I didn't feel like wasting time on another character who will surely die in another few chapters.
I did get through it though. The ending was very good, albeit still damned depressing. I will probably keep going in the series because overall it is so good, but I need to invest in some Prozac first.
I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.
Might have to try
I might have to give this a good look. I've always hated how authors are too afraid to torment their characters, or even kill them. In my view, authors have to pick and choose their character deaths carefully so as not to totally alienate readers, but come on, people die, and that's that. So I'd be curious to see how this series affects me, whether Martin uses death too much for me.
The only other modern fantasy writer I can think of (that I've read) who was a master at tormenting characters and writing epic battles, is Terry Goodkind. Fantastic. But everything else was cliche and stolen from other fantasy writers. He's a hack (albeit a succesful one) with an eye for gruesome details.
I don't know if I'll really get to this series (so much to read, so little time). I'm still pretty brow beaten by the worthlessness of modern fantasy. It's the same old story; remakes of Tolkien essentially. I'm always looking for something new from a writer, and not just the rehashing of old material. That's just my feeling, though.
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Life is a lot like caving: Most of the time you grope around in the dark.
Re:A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
His characters are constantly tormented. You will love it.
As for being tired of Tolkien retreads... wait for Bob the Bureaucrat to make the scene!
In the meantime, you can check out The Curse of Chalion which I also reviewed here someplace. It's a light fantasy rather than epic.
I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.
Re:A Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin
I'd say A Game of Thrones was better than most fantasy books I have read, but I am starting to get tired of the genre now. Only brilliantly-written and original fantasy impresses me now, and that's hard to come by. Most fantasy stories nowadays are derived from other fantasy stories. I am becoming more interested in SF, as it seems that there are better writers in that genre.
To err is human. I am not human.
Totally agree
Greg,
You said it very well. I started on the Jordan and Goodkind series, read someone Raymond Feist, but Fantasy, High Fantasy that is, has mostly drifted into the same monotonous bag of tricks. There's nothing new about this genre. One would think fantasy would be FILLED with creativity, but these days, it's all sword and sorcery which is only a subgenre of true fantasy.
Maybe this is why I started writing those children's fantasy books. That genre is so much more receptive to strange and wonderful creations.
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Life is a lot like caving: Most of the time you grope around in the dark.