The size of current-day companies

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I'd add Julian May to the list as well. Especially the Many Coloured Land and related series. I lost count how often I borrowed those books from the library ...

While it may not be a real fantasy book (there are no elves, trolls, ogres in the traditional sense in them, but rather in more hidden way), they are still awesome.

Yes, The Many-Coloured Land was quite interesting. Unfortunately, my paperback copy (bought new, not even used) had so poorly printed text as to be almost unreadable. This was in the 90's, no e-books. It was extremely annoying and really put me off the rest of the series. I recently bought the series as e-books and plan to read them in the near future. Oh, the joys of the 21st century!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Apache

Yes those three by Brian Daley are well worth reading.

Lord of Light has always been my favorite Zelazny book.
Apache

One's favorite Zelazny book is a bit like one's favorite puppy, you just can't go wrong.

There were a couple of his later books that I wasn't as fond of.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No, he's not evil. He's just unpleasant. I'm all for charming-villains/antiheroes-as-protagonists (I like Jaime Lannister and the Hound in ASOIAF and the TV series, for example) , but I just couldn't stomach Thomas Covenant. He was too annoying. No charm whatsoever.

Of course, I read "Lord Foul's Bane" about 20 years ago, so my memories of him are not too fresh.

I read that series once. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Some of his other stuff is interesting though.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

One of my own favorites from the 80's and 90's is Tad Williams. The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy (fantasy) and the Otherland series (SF, most of the action takes place in a virtual-reality fantasyland). Be warned that his books are really hefty 1000-pages doorstoppers and the first trilogy has pretty glacial pacing.

Let's just say that you need access to a Patronius charm as well. It's rather depressing as I remember it, really, really good, but depressing. Bought it in hard back when it first came out. I actually bought the ebooks a couple of months ago and it's now in my to be read list. In another week, as soon as baseball season is over, I should start whittling that list down a bit.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, The Many-Coloured Land was quite interesting. Unfortunately, my paperback copy (bought new, not even used) had so poorly printed text as to be almost unreadable. This was in the 90's, no e-books. It was extremely annoying and really put me off the rest of the series. I recently bought the series as e-books and plan to read them in the near future. Oh, the joys of the 21st century!

I remember reading the first three books in the series. For some reason or another, I never finished it. Hum, time to grab the ebooks and put it on my to read list.

[AnemicOak]

During the 80's I was in Jr High/High School and remember that I enjoyed reading Fred Saberhagen's "Swords" books. Haven't read then since, so no idea how they hold up or how I like them now.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

[...] , I think that 95%+ of the remaining books is published by a division of either HarperCollins, or Penguin Random House. I only have 5 books by MacMillan (actually: Picador, which is a MacMillan subsidiary), and I have none by Hachette or simon and Schuster. Maybe they just don't sell anything in the genres I read.

Hachette owns Gollancz and the SF Gateway which are huge publishers of SF/Fantasy in the UK and countries that get UK editions. I'd say 90% of the SF/Fantasy ebooks on my wishlist are published by one Hachette imprint or another. (Unfortunately they don't allow retailer discounting, which may be a part of the reason so many of them are still on my wishlist and not yet on my ereader.)

[Katsunami]

Oh, if Gollancz and SF Gateway are owned by Hachette, then I do have a substantial amount of books published by them

[crich70]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

That's why they are called the big 5 publishers. There is actually a number of reasons why the publishers all got gobbled up into a few big conglomerations. Some of it is economy of scale. Some of it is the current tax laws. Some of it is that the current business model in the entertainment industry seems to favor having 3 to 5 companies. The music industry and movie industry is actually pretty similar.

The electronics companies are the same way. When I was in college my math teacher told us once that when he was younger he had a job putting labels on vaccum tubes for things like radios (back before they went all solid state) and he'd put a Sony label on one tube a RCA label on another etc. and all the tubes were the same type. Just the label made them different. Food in stores is the same way. You can take a generic and a brand name can of say corn and if you traced them back through the supply chain chances are the contents of both will have come from the same canning facility and perhaps even from the same field. The difference in prices on the cans is solely due to the brand name on one of the cans.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by crich70

The electronics companies are the same way. When I was in college my math teacher told us once that when he was younger he had a job putting labels on vaccum tubes for things like radios (back before they went all solid state) and he'd put a Sony label on one tube a RCA label on another etc. and all the tubes were the same type. Just the label made them different. Food in stores is the same way. You can take a generic and a brand name can of say corn and if you traced them back through the supply chain chances are the contents of both will have come from the same canning facility and perhaps even from the same field. The difference in prices on the cans is solely due to the brand name on one of the cans.

You are slightly wrong. The brand names pay more to have the first run. The actual generics are the second runs.
Now some grocery stores do buy acres of produce. I know HEB does. Actually they buy entire crops. Poteet strawberries and Fredericksburg peaches come to mind.
Popcorn is the same way except Orville Redenbacher. He has his own fields.

[Dazrin]

I do remember Sword of Shanara fondly from my youth but I re-read it a few years ago and .. wow ... I didn't remember how derivative it was of Tolkien. The original is much better. I liked the next two books and them being much more original than the first one though.

One that I haven't seen here that I really enjoy is the Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula LeGuin (1968-1972). I haven't read the 4th but it was written a couple decades after the first 3.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No, he's not evil. He's just unpleasant. I'm all for charming-villains/antiheroes-as-protagonists (I like Jaime Lannister and the Hound in ASOIAF and the TV series, for example) , but I just couldn't stomach Thomas Covenant. He was too annoying. No charm whatsoever.

Of course, I read "Lord Foul's Bane" about 20 years ago, so my memories of him are not too fresh.

Unpleasant is an understatement to me. Maybe Thomas isn't evil by the end of the book but I couldn't get past the scene with Lena* and I can't think of any reason I would want to attempt these again.

*I had to go look it up in wikipedia to make sure I was remembering it right. I was.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You are slightly wrong. The brand names pay more to have the first run. The actual generics are the second runs.
Now some grocery stores do buy acres of produce. I know HEB does. Actually they buy entire crops. Poteet strawberries and Fredericksburg peaches come to mind.
Popcorn is the same way except Orville Redenbacher. He has his own fields.

Well that's more than I know but it is likely that many brand names are derived from a few companies even if the brand names ship first. And of course at least part of the cost difference is probably due to the name on the product. Either because the brand comes out first or just because of the name itself.

[PeterT]

I managed the first 3 books of Thomas Covenant, struggled with the second 3 and gave up on the final 3.

I just discovered there are actually 10 books!

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by crich70

Well that's more than I know but it is likely that many brand names are derived from a few companies even if the brand names ship first. And of course at least part of the cost difference is probably due to the name on the product. Either because the brand comes out first or just because of the name itself.

What I meant was they get the choice produce. You are right that there are very few canners.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No, he's not evil. He's just unpleasant. I'm all for charming-villains/antiheroes-as-protagonists (I like Jaime Lannister and the Hound in ASOIAF and the TV series, for example) , but I just couldn't stomach Thomas Covenant. He was too annoying. No charm whatsoever.

Of course, I read "Lord Foul's Bane" about 20 years ago, so my memories of him are not too fresh.

Me too. I don't have very clear memories of them, but my lingering impressions mean that I have no desire to re-read them.