Excellent and free, fantasy in the style of Robert Jordan

[carandol]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

"So, then she like, goes, 'No way', and I go, 'Chuh, yeah, way!', and then he was all, 'kewl'", she exclaimed blondely.

So are there many epic fantasy novels written in this style?

So then Gandalf goes "This is the One Ring," and Boromir goes "The One Ring to Rule Them All? Like, wicked!" and then Gandalf was all "Ash nazg durbatuluk..." Real downer, man.

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

ok, point taken in this specific case, but don't go choosing the most outrageously outdated, currently connotationally loaded example you can think of, or anything, sheesh... i still maintain that a little "murmuring" or "mumbling" or even "shouting" from time to time can make for a less monotonous read. i'm not saying at *every* line, understand... my golly, since when did knowing more than one word become a bad thing ? i'm sure shakespeare wrote plays just so he could *never* have to use dialogue tags at *all*, and just skip the whole mess... (she muttered...)

Oh I wasn't addressing your comments directly or anything. I was just more or less thinking about how the phrase really stands out as absurd nowadays. I don't mind creative dialogue tags here and there. Basically, the only time it's not good be too creative in the use of a dialogue tag is if someone notices the dialogue tag. And "ejaculated" is the one that always pulls me out of the scene.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by carandol

So are there many epic fantasy novels written in this style?

So then Gandalf goes "This is the One Ring," and Boromir goes "The One Ring to Rule Them All? Like, wicked!" and then Gandalf was all "Ash nazg durbatuluk..." Real downer, man.

ha !!! hilarious !

Originally Posted by tsgreer

Oh I wasn't addressing your comments directly or anything. I was just more or less thinking about how the phrase really stands out as absurd nowadays. I don't mind creative dialogue tags here and there. Basically, the only time it's not good be too creative in the use of a dialogue tag is if someone notices the dialogue tag. And "ejaculated" is the one that always pulls me out of the scene.

ah ok, i took that for me. no worries. i admit, "ejaculated" rather startles me too, and i'm used to seeing out of date language in what i like to read...

[billyad2000]

These books are an excellent read,

I've read a lot of knitpicking in this thread and if I had wrote these novels then I would probably be more than a little offended.
It has always been my opinion that it's the story that matters, more than anything.
I am no writing critic, but to be honest i've read hundreds of books where the author gets far too involved with how he is writing, rather than what he is writing. A good example would probably be Robert Jordan. I love his wheel of time series, overall I would rate it among the best, however, in the later books the story seemed to grind to a halt. The writing style couldn't be faulted, but at a great cost to the story.

With the firestaff series this doesn't happen. The story moves at a cracking pace and very rarely slows down. I would even go as far as to say that this easily exceeds a great many of the fantasy novels that I have happily paid money for.

I do warn people that these books are huge, 2-3 times bigger than your average fantasy novel.

[Krystian Galaj]

I noticed that sixth and seventh books are online, chapter by chapter, but not available to download as whole volumes, so it looks like neither of them are finished. Does Fel write parts of both at the same time?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by billyad2000

A good example would probably be Robert Jordan. I love his wheel of time series, overall I would rate it among the best, however, in the later books the story seemed to grind to a halt. The writing style couldn't be faulted, but at a great cost to the story.

So the writing style change from earlier to later books in the series?

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by tompe

So the writing style change from earlier to later books in the series?

It's not so much that Jordan's writing style changed, as that the overall pace of the novels slowed. As the series moved along he kept adding characters and sub-plots and increasing the importance of existing characters. However he didn't really close out existing sub-plots or move characters off-stage to any real degree. As a result he had less space in each succeeding novel to devote to any one plot or character.

With less room, each part of the story moved less as the series went on and so things seemed to drag on. The fact that the series has been going on for about 16 years now doesn't help either.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

It's not so much that Jordan's writing style changed, as that the overall pace of the novels slowed. As the series moved along he kept adding characters and sub-plots and increasing the importance of existing characters. However he didn't really close out existing sub-plots or move characters off-stage to any real degree. As a result he had less space in each succeeding novel to devote to any one plot or character.

Yes, that was what I have heard. So then the writing style is not at a great cost to the story. So there is no contradition in having a good writing style and a good story.

[billyad2000]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

It's not so much that Jordan's writing style changed, as that the overall pace of the novels slowed. As the series moved along he kept adding characters and sub-plots and increasing the importance of existing characters. However he didn't really close out existing sub-plots or move characters off-stage to any real degree. As a result he had less space in each succeeding novel to devote to any one plot or character.

With less room, each part of the story moved less as the series went on and so things seemed to drag on. The fact that the series has been going on for about 16 years now doesn't help either.

I would disagree with at least some of that statement. While the complexity of the story did increase with each novel, the amount of ground each novel covered also decreased. An environment that would take a few paragraphs to describe in the early books would take many pages in later books.
Robert Jordans ability to describe a fictional world will likely never be surpassed, but if he had written the Eye of the World at the same pace as later books it would have been 3x the size.
I also believe that if "The Eye of the World" had been written with the style and pace of later novels then it would never have been published, and even if it was then I doubt it would have sold.

It is my opinion though, that the universe should only ever be a backdrop to the story and I just got the feeling that as the series unfolded the story started taking a backseat to the universe. While this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing it should be consistent throughout the story.

As each new book from the Wheel of Time series was released then I found myself enjoying the story less and less. This hasn't happened with the Firestaff series. The pace is excellent and is consistent through each book. The universe is full and makes a great backdrop for the story, the characters are also well developed and have believable personalities. And most importantly it has a storyline that I am throughly enjoying reading.

As I have already said, I am no writing critic, but it just seems to me that if writing style is so important, and it must conform to the current standards of how something must be written, then how could anybody possibly enjoy Jules Verne, Dickens, Shakespeare, Tolkien, and dozens of others I can think of. How can someone so fixated on writing style and standards possibly enjoy reading a novel which has quite obviously been written without attention to the methods that some people would now consider essential for a good book.

[rhadin]

Has anyone compiled Fels' chapters into books for the Sony Reader? If so, would you be willing to e-mail them to me at rhadin at editorsource.com? Thanks.

[kaas]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Has anyone compiled Fels' chapters into books for the Sony Reader? If so, would you be willing to e-mail them to me at rhadin@editorsource.com? Thanks.

this site - http://www.weavespinner.net/Worlds_of_Fel.htm - hosts the books in several formats (html and rtf beeing amongst them).
With librps it shouldn't be a problem

have fun

[rhadin]

Thanks, kaas. I appreciate the link.

[kaas]

you are welcome! I just posted, fel did the real work
write how you like the books once you finish some of them and post in the sennadar forum.
cheers,
kaas

[Ordinaryuser]

Originally Posted by kaas

you are welcome! I just posted, fel did the real work
write how you like the books once you finish some of them and post in the sennadar forum.
cheers,
kaas

Just thought I'd mention that I finished both the Firestaff series and Pyrosion Chronicles. They all exceeded my expectations which were very high after the first few books.