Fantasy recommendations

[Rendezvous]

Your very welcome.

[Farseer]

Following my earlier, extended rant (rant, you think?! ) on Brents Weeks and his Night Angel trilolgy, I thought I would cut the poor guy some slack and give 'The Black Prism' a go...

...and got as far as the map in the front. Hobb has the Six Duchies and now Weeks has the Seven Satrapies? Oh, come on!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I'm now really getting the urge to check out Weeks and see if he's really ripping off Hobb that bad. But seriously, aren't you going a bit far here? "[number] of [kind of domain]s" is a fairly common convention. I'm thinking of Martin's Seven Kingdoms, Gemmell's Nine Duchies, Pinto's Three Lands and I'm sure there are a lot more out there.

[Farseer]

Am I going too far? Yes, given the utterly convincing nature of your extremely simple examples, I am! Weeks does receive very strong reviews from a vast number of places, particularly from well-read and established fantasy fans, so maybe it is just me picking on him without cause (which would in turn make me a bit of a bully, and I hate bullies!). I'm thinking that you, and everyone here who hasn’t done so yet, really should read something of his.

I do understand that there are certain repetitious conventions of the genre that are to be expected but...and therein may lie a possible answer (or at least one further insight) into another question you asked about fantasy - Why does the fantasy genre have such a bad reputation? I will post something there at some stage.

Staying true to my own "rule for rant", and high expectations, I must also now concede that if I had read of Gemmell's Nine Duchies and then read of the Six Duchies, if published first, I would have ventured into the same rant regardless of the author.

*hangs head* My humble apologies to you for singling you out for a beating, Brent W. I hereby promise to continue ‘The Black Prism’ with a more open mind…

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I have now resolved to read Night Angel, but it might take a while before I do. I'm trying to shrink down my to-read pile at the moment.

Why does the fantasy genre have such a bad reputation? Yes, repeated cliches and conventions might have something to do with that. However, why should a genre be judged by the worst dreck it produces, instead of its masterpieces? "Literary" fiction is judged by its masterpieces, fantasy by its trash.

One more thing. I read somewhere that the protagonist of The Black Prism is named "Kip". This amuses me, Kip being the Dutch word for "Chicken".

[Oblivia]

Hmmm, no David Eddings?? Shocking. I'd heartily reccomend The Redemption of Althalus as a good first read and then The Belgariad. Also, the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. It mixes Arthurian legend with fantasy and is absolutely amazing. Oh, and I nearly forgot the Shadowleague trilogy by Maggie Furey. Un-put-down-able. I love the wise-cracking firedrake, Kazairl, in it.

['thul]

These beings have, in various places, recommended the books by the eddingses...

[Farseer]

Someone has recommended the following books to me.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Howl’s Moving Castle Diana Wynne Jones

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Tales from the Perilous Realm by J R R Tolkien

White Time by Margo Lanagan

Has anyone here read any of these (if anyone is still out there after I've caused widespread destruction here on thePlenty!)?

[joost]

I've read The graveyard book and Tales from the perilous realm. Both are good books. I've only seen the anime adaptation of Howl's moving castle, and it's one of the best Ghibli's.

[Farseer]

Thanks joost!