Fantasy authors you (and I) should NEVER read

[kjk]

Wow.

I'm a pretty voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy, and I have to say that I agree with almost EVERY single author mentioned on these ten pages (especially the first couple pages).

And by agree I mean that over the years, I have tried to read EVERY ONE of the works/authors mentioned (except Gaiman and Diana Gabaldon), over the years, and just would not recommend any of them, much less re-read them.

The only exceptions I noticed were Gene Wolfe (love the New Sun series), Michael Moorcock (love Elric), Zelazny (love Amber) and ...well, damn.

I will admit that Lin Carter was one of the FIRST fantasy authors I read, and I think his Green Star series got me interested in the whole genre (plus it was kinda racy for a 12 year old).

(Cool to find out other people tried the more obscure ones like "Prince of Nothing", etc.. besides me )

[llreader]

Originally Posted by kjk

Wow.

The only exceptions I noticed were Gene Wolfe (love the New Sun series), Michael Moorcock (love Elric), Zelazny (love Amber) and ...well, damn.

I just want to be clear - I think I am the only one who said anything unflattering about Zelazny, and he is one of my favorite authors (I know, I was off the "NEVER read" topic). I just didn't like one book.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by llreader

I just want to be clear - I think I am the only one who said anything unflattering about Zelazny, and he is one of my favorite authors (I know, I was off the "NEVER read" topic). I just didn't like one book.

I loved Zelazney's work when I first discovered it. I have great memories of that time. There've only been few titles I didn't care for, but I can't remember now which ones they were.

My first title I read was "This Immortal," which tied with "Dune" for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. I read this great Zelazny novel before it won the award.

And there was "Lord of Light," about the same time I discovered Herman Hesse.

Great, early novels. He has a few clunkers thrown in there, too.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I loved Zelazney's work when I first discovered it. I have great memories of that time. There've only been few titles I didn't care for, but I can't remember now which ones they were.

My first title I read was "This Immortal," which tied with "Dune" for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. I read this great Zelazny novel before it won the award.

And there was "Lord of Light," about the same time I discovered Herman Hesse.

Great, early novels. He has a few clunkers thrown in there, too.

Everyone has a clunker or two.

Note that _This Immortal_ was originally published as "And Call Me Conrad" in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the book is an expansion of the magazine version.

Similarly, _Damnation Alley_ was originally a novelette, bulked up to be a novel when an editor requested it. The bulk up is not entirely successful, with things like a multi page digression of the voyage of a brave aeronaut to post-holocaust Europe across a storm-wracked Atlantic Ocean. It's the sort of vivid and poetic writing that made Roger famous, save that it has no connection stylistically or in plot with the rest of the book, and breaks the flow of the reading.

I think _Today We Choose Faces_ may be the weakest of Roger's books for me.

Another often considered weak but I enjoyed was _Creatures of Light and Darkness_. This was picked up and trumpeted by the New Wave crowd in the late '60s, which bemused Roger: he'd written it largely as a joke, deliberately tossing in every radical writing technique he knew to see what would happen. It's lots of fun if not taken seriously, and Roger was a bit amazed anyone had.
______
Dennis

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by kjk

Wow.


(Cool to find out other people tried the more obscure ones like "Prince of Nothing", etc.. besides me )

It's funny that you call "Prince of Nothing" obscure, I've noticed that it is quite popular here in Croatia. In general I feel like Sci-Fi and Fantasy is much more popular here than in North America. For example, the Sarah Conner Chronicles and Firefly were popular here, while they had bad ratings when they originally aired on fox. Then again we only have 4 t.v. channels.