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and

Eyesore wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

Just finished The First King Of Shannara (would have been done about a week ago, but I've fallen behind in my reading) and am now starting the book that started it all: The Sword Of Shannara.

Have you read it before? The Sword of Shannara takes a while to get going. Understandable, I think, being his first book. Great series, though.

I've read everything before Armageddon's Children at least once (The Herritage of Shannara four and the origional series three). Until the current one wraps up I'm going through each book of the first two series in geneoligical (sic) order (including the prequal). Just like some people read the Lord Of The Rings all the way through every couple of years, I do so with those. The Herritage of Shannara was the first fantasy series I've ever read (picked up Scions of Shannara for a book report in English class, we were allowed to read and report on any book in the school library) it remains my favorite series of them all. The scene with all the zombie Shadowen in the first book was so damn creepy the first time I read it. I'm also not affraid to admit that I teared up when the chick from The Druid Of Shannara died (also at the ending of Amberle in Elfstones Of Shannara.

DallasBlack wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

Just finished The First King Of Shannara (would have been done about a week ago, but I've fallen behind in my reading) and am now starting the book that started it all: The Sword Of Shannara.

Have you read it before? The Sword of Shannara takes a while to get going. Understandable, I think, being his first book. Great series, though.

I've read everything before Armageddon's Children at least once (The Herritage of Shannara four and the origional series three). Until the current one wraps up I'm going through each book of the first two series in geneoligical (sic) order (including the prequal). Just like some people read the Lord Of The Rings all the way through every couple of years, I do so with those. The Herritage of Shannara was the first fantasy series I've ever read (picked up Scions of Shannara for a book report in English class, we were allowed to read and report on any book in the school library) it remains my favorite series of them all. The scene with all the zombie Shadowen in the first book was so damn creepy the first time I read it. I'm also not affraid to admit that I teared up when the chick from The Druid Of Shannara died (also at the ending of Amberle in Elfstones Of Shannara.

Ah, you mentioned this already. I'd forgotten that was you. I actually picked up the first book in the Jerle Shannara trilogy from the bargain bin and started there. The book cover was killer, and that's what caught my eye. $5.99 was the price of the hardcover, so I gave it a shot. It took me a while to grasp some things, though, since it was so far ahead in the world he created. I knew there were older books, but the thing was so damn interesting I couldn't stop reading. So I read that series first, and then, like you just did, started with The First King of Shannara and worked my way through chronologically.

The Shannara books are essentially the first true fantasy I've ever read (I've only been reading fantasy for like 4 years now). Great books. But he does use the word anathema too much. Pay attention. He uses it in nearly every book. Haha.

On the advice of my cousin I picked up most of the Brooks books at our local library's book sale ($.75 per soft/$1.25 for hard covers) and rounded out the rest of the different series via Ebay. I have them ready and waiting once I get on a Fantasy kick again. Looking forward to it....

I really enjoy reading fantasy. I read about halfway through the Wheel of Time series before I got completely bogged down in yet another 150 page Rand dream sequence. I tried to start A Song of Fire and Ice but I just couldn't get into it for some reason.

I guess I enjoy "Fantasy Lite", I can't have too many factions or characters to remember or else the book seems more like work than fun. In this vein I've been reading Robin Hobbs' Tawny Man and Farseer Trilogies. Both are very fun reads. I really enjoy the kinds of magic he (she?) employs. Not the traditional "lightning bolt" type magic.

I'm currently reading a book by John Feinstein called "Let me tell you a story". Its basically a collection of stories about Red Auerbach, the famous Celtics coach/gm. If you are into sports at all I highly recommend anything the Feinstein writes including A Season On the Brink, and The Last Amatuers.

After I finish Let Me Tell You a Story, I plan to finish out the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. The series started out exellently but kind of fizzles out, I have 2 more books to read.

I'm always looking for recommendations in fantasy if anyone has any.

I'm writing a fantasy series, by the way. =)

kethdredd wrote:

I really enjoy reading fantasy. I read about halfway through the Wheel of Time series before I got completely bogged down in yet another 150 page Rand dream sequence. I tried to start A Song of Fire and Ice but I just couldn't get into it for some reason.

I gave up after the second book. I could not tell any connection between the two and also found out at the time that there was three other books already in the series. I could see that he was stringing out a story WAY too far, the same thing in Terry Goodkind's Sword Of Truth series (I read the first four and thought it was over, six years later I find out that it's stretched to 10, no thank you). I prefer Terry Brooks because his series tells a story through three or four books then ends it and you can read each series without reading the others. I also read Piers Anthony's Xanth books but each one tells a different story (albeit in the same world) and the books are easy reads (I can finish one in three days).

Terry Pratchett has alzheimers. I'm not a fan, but that sucks. He's only 59.

Eyesore wrote:

I'm writing a fantasy series, by the way. =)

Any samples? *hint hint*

I'm currently reading:

The Odyssey - Homer

Tall Tyrion wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

I'm writing a fantasy series, by the way. =)

Any samples? *hint hint*

None yet.

LMK, I'm interested in checking them out.

I fininished Sword Of Shannara yesterday and have already started the Elfstones Of Shannara, my favorite of the first Shannara series.

Rolling Stone.

Man I hate this magazine. I don't subscribe to it - but I buy an odd issue every now and then if someone's cool on the cover. Then when I read it - it aggravates me. A bunch of drivel.

I just read Stephen King's On Writing, as I mentioned in the other thread. I didn't care about the first quarter of the book about his childhood and such, but the rest was excellent. Now I'm reading his collection of shorts called Everything's Eventual.

I was reading George R. R. Martin's A Feast For Crows, but I'm just not getting into this one. It seems like this one is just moving along really slowly. I think he wiped out too many people in the first three books, or put their storylines too far away from each other, so this fourth book is suffering. I'm a little over 250 pages in and it hasn't caught me yet. Quite a difference from the first three, that had me hooked from chapter one. I'll come back to it soon, maybe I just needed a break from these people...

blackieboy wrote:

Rolling Stone.

Man I hate this magazine. I don't subscribe to it - but I buy an odd issue every now and then if someone's cool on the cover. Then when I read it - it aggravates me. A bunch of drivel.

I know, the music they review is mostly crap and if they cover any metal at all it is usually to bad mouth it. And one thing I've noticed is they can't have an issue without an article bad mouthing Christian conservatives. I don't believe everyone has to agree with my beliefs but come on, everyone knows Rolling Stone is a liberal publication, they don't have to keep reminding everyone. That is why I avoid RS like the plague, if I wan't a lecture on how wrong my politics are I can read the New York Times, I don't want to read it while getting an update on music and entertainment.

Yeah, I agree Dallas. Their politics suck as well - and they are very pushy with their agenda.

Lame.

Reading the following:

Manslayer by Nathan Long

Judas Priest:Heavy Metal Painkillers - An Illustrated History by Martin Popoff

The Day of Battle:The War In Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson

Lord of Samarcand and Other Adventure Tales of the Old Orient by Robert E. Howard

Lords Of Chaos by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind.

About the history of the second wave of black metal. It seems to mostly cover the controversial stuff though.

Out with Elfstones, in with Wishsong (Shannara)

nifty read....I got for Christmas..

Still can't get into the A Feast For Crows; it's just slooooooow. Especially compared to the first three. So I started on The Elves of Cintra (Terry Brooks). I love how he's incorporating little things into these books that would show up in later Shannara books. He's also writing the next Landover book now, and has confirmed that he will connect this one definitively with the Word & Void and Shannara books (though he basically already did that since Landover is an altiverse of the real world, which Word & Void is set in).

I'm blowing through this one quick, though; I'm already on page 240 after only a few days. That's ridiculously quick for me.

And hey Dallas, you know about Dark Wraith of Shannara? It's a graphic novel that takes place a few years after Wishsong. It comes out in March.

http://www.terrybrooks.net/shannara/../../dhv/wraith.wmv

Sounds a bit cheesy the way that guy speaks about it. Haha. And what's this pronunctiation of Shannara? The emphasis is on the an? I've always put the emphasis on the ar. Pffft! It sounds dumb the way the guy in that clip says it.

Not one of the Fire and Ice books was anything less than a furious page turner for me.....A Feast For Crows was no different. I'm surprised to see you write that....

Eyesore wrote:

And hey Dallas, you know about Dark Wraith of Shannara? It's a graphic novel that takes place a few years after Wishsong. It comes out in March.

http://www.terrybrooks.net/shannara/../../dhv/wraith.wmv

Sounds a bit cheesy the way that guy speaks about it. Haha. And what's this pronunctiation of Shannara? The emphasis is on the an? I've always put the emphasis on the ar. Pffft! It sounds dumb the way the guy in that clip says it.

I didn't know, thanks for the heads up and your right that does sound like a weird way to pronounce Shannara to me as well.

Just re-reading some H.P. Lovecraft stories.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Not one of the Fire and Ice books was anything less than a furious page turner for me.....A Feast For Crows was no different. I'm surprised to see you write that....

Nope. I'm about 250 pages in and I've lost interest. It's like Martin killed off too many main characters and pushed the storylines of others too far away from each other to be able to write about them in this book. I mean, I scanned ahead and there's no Tyrion chapter, no Jon Snow chapter, nothing about Bran and Cold Hands. And then there's all these new storylines he's bringing in, but he's labeling the chapters things like Captain of the Guard. To me, that seems very impersonal and almost makes me dislike the chapter from the outset.

It's a weird book for me. I don't find it anywhere near as gripping as the first three, which were, as you said about yourself, furious page turners. This book reads like he back himself into a corner. And I think that may be true, since book five has been so long in the making. I think he screwed up.

I'll get back to it, but I'll at least finish the new Terry Brooks and maybe Salvatore's latest before finishing it off.