Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I don't give authors whole books to "find their groove" (or even to get their groove back.The promise of "it gets better" has never been enough for me to slog through more than a hundred pages or so if nothing is grabbing my interest in that time.
I'm not expecting anyone to keep me continually riveted or anything (although some have), but whole books that leave you feeling, "meh?" Nahhh. Not for me. The really, really long series' have always made me feel like I'm being asked to pay some sort of weird boredom dues to be entitled to enjoy its "good parts."
The promise of the best ending in the world wouldn't entice me to keep slogging through whole books just to get to it.
Of the authors/series you specifically mentioned, I've only read GRRM. I loved the first three books of ASoIaF and hated the fourth. So I quit. I'll be perfectly content to let the TV show tell me how it ends (and it will do so long before George does). No risk of another 1000 page snoozefest by taking that route.
Fans of Malazan take great measures to warn potential new readers that they might find the first book "difficult." But they consistently rave about the rest. And it's complete.
The most diehard WoT fans will admit that there's a not-all-that-tiny swathe of books in the middle that will try your patience (but that Sanderson wraps it up well).
As for Goodkind: has anybody actually read all of the SoT series and loved it? It seems even fans of the first books lost heart before the end.
So if you're bound and determined to read one of them, I say read Malazan. It's finished; and aside from the (potentially) rocky first installment, I've heard no fan of the series mention any significant drop in quality/enjoyment in the later books. None of the others can say the same.
I, of course, would be stalking the elusive standalone fantasy. The pain is shorter-lived when my expectations aren't met.  |
Quick note: Malazan isn't completely finished. Erikson is writing a trilogy set before the main 16 book sequence (the first book is already out), and Esslemont is still working on more (time period unknown) books.