Terry Brooks

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by rdjack21

I somewhat disagree in that I think that the Malloreon series (continuation of the Belgariad series) is just as good. But the other stuff is just as you said the "Worst example of self-plagiarism I've ever seen".

Sorry... yes. I still tend to think of those first two as one big series after all these years.

[Beerman]

Oh man, I'm enjoying all the ideas that are somewhat similar to my likes of Brooks and Donaldson. Got some things to put on my 'to read' list. Major problem though......free time is not my greatest ally. However, nothing says I have to do this in a certain time frame so I have sentenced myself to 'life' and have the rest of it to finish my ever increasing list.
Thanks for all the good ideas.

[rschauer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Sorry... yes. I still tend to think of those first two as one big series after all these years.

To be fair, it kind of is one big series.

There's a special place in my heart for those books. They really got me back into fantasy novels for a good run. After a long lull following Tolkein, Anthony, and others in high school, my enjoyment of Eddings' books prompted me to pick up the outstanding stuff I missed, primarily Feist and Jordan. Good times.

[HarryT]

One of my favourite Eddings books is the standalone novel "The Redemption of Althalus", which is a different story to his usual . Although, in the interests of fairness, I have heard some people say that they didn't enjoy it.

[rdjack21]

Originally Posted by rschauer

my enjoyment of Eddings' books prompted me to pick up the outstanding stuff I missed, primarily Feist and Jordan. Good times.

Feist and Jordan suffer from the same problem in that they could never really find closure for there series. But to be honest Jordan is worse than Feist.

[rschauer]

Originally Posted by rdjack21

Feist and Jordan suffer from the same problem in that they could never really find closure for there series. But to be honest Jordan is worse than Feist.

Actually, I do enjoy Feist a lot more than Jordan. The only problem I have with Jordan is that The Eye of the World was such a damned good read, and to this day I haven't gotten to a point in the following book that makes me want to finish it. So I shamefully admit that I've actually only read the first book in the series. I've heard from many fans who have read the entire series that they agree the first book is the best by a long shot.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One of my favourite Eddings books is the standalone novel "The Redemption of Althalus", which is a different story to his usual . Although, in the interests of fairness, I have heard some people say that they didn't enjoy it.

I've actually heard great things about this book. I've already decided if I ever read Eddings, I'll start with The Redemption of Athalus. I already have the book actually, so I don't even have to purchase.

[GreenMonkey]

Sword of Shanarra is decent - definitely a bit too LOTRish, but that's almost to be expected for the 70s.

Elfstones and Wishsong are both great.

I really enjoy the Heritage of Shanarra series also, I think it's solid and worthwhile.

I like the Word and Void series a lot too.

However, I wasn't impressed with the Jerle Shanarra / High Druid series at all. Not that great IMO. Derivative and they just felt...uninspired. Some of the plotting (particularly a copout at the end of High Druid) really had issues with both an inability to commit to bad things happening, and plotholes of a sort. I re-read the series again a while ago and concluded that I wasn't going to revisit them again - I'll probably stop at Heritage.

The Genesis of Shanarra books started out very good but started feeling tired toward the end. Still better than Jerle/High Druid.

There's a side-talk about Feist going that is a bit offtopic (someone start a Feist thread!). I think Feist has kept the quality up a lot better. My least favorite was either the Riftwar Legacy books (I never did get past book 1 somehow) or the Conclave of Shadows books - but even Conclave was decent - and I REALLY like the Serpentwar Saga.