Which book are you reading currently? #4

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The Antichrist - Friedrich Nietzsche

 

I finished The Inheritors - for once Chandler actually had a good ending. It was a welcome surprise.

I have started on The Woods Out Back by everyone's favourite writer of schlocky fantasy (R.A. Salvatore). I must say, so far Salvatore really outdid himself of the groaningly corny scale - everytime Mickey McMickey (a leprechaun) says or does anything I start to .

 

All this historical stuff I have to read to my university classes

 

Black Juice (can't remember the author's name...)

 

Guys, if you can find copies, I seriously suggest that you pick up copies of the Fletch series by Gregory MacDonald. You may remember them as Chevy Chase played Fletch in the first novel somtime ago. These are the funniest books I've ever read

I'm now reading Way of the Warrior, Book 1 of the Miyamoto Musashi series by Eiji Yoshikawa

 

_Memories of Ice_ by Steven Erikson - YES!

 

Now THAT is a quality read, Chandos. Not like this "Magician" rubbish. 350 pages in and it still hasn't risen above the quality of your average Salvatore blah-fest. Erikson has great and memorable characters. Feist just seems to have bunch of people who do some stuff.

 

_The Chosen_ Ricardo Pinto,

very in depth, and hard to put down. But equally as hard to pick back up again for fear of never being able to put it down again.

 

I agree with you, HB - Erikson is quite a bit better than Feist. BTW, _House of Chains_ is due for American release in August of 2006. I wish I knew why we were having to wait for so freakin long for books that were released everywhere else, at least so it seems, years ago. But I've never read anything by Salvatore...it doesn't appear I'm missing much though...

 

I've just finished the best book I've read in several years: Assassin's Apprentice by Hobb.

While I seem to always judge everything by Martin's works....I'm not sure that even he can match up with her ability to bring her characters to life and evoke such reader response to their actions. I had a hard time putting the book down. The way she crafts her sentences -- one flows after another with such smoothness, as if someone is talking the tale -- effortless to read and impossible to ignore.

 

Oh, good. I've been thinking about putting something by Hobb on my list, and since I've never read anything by her, that may be a good place to start. But Erikson is first.

 

Spellbound - can't believe its taken you so long to read Robin Hobb, after all the praise she gets on these Boards. The Farseer trilogy is awesome, and I liked the Liveship Traders trilogy even more. For me, modern fantasy is all about Erikson, Hobb, and Martin. Nobody else I've read holds a candle to those three.

400 pages into Magician and it is actually starting to get a little bit better.

 

i'm definitely with HB on this one. at least with Martin and Hobb Haven't tried Erikson or Feist yet though. Witrh the exception of Feist's Faerie Tale which was actually pretty good.

 

I also think that Greg Keyes and Tad Williams are good. But IMHO, Erikson is the standard right now.

 

Paul Auster - "Oracle Night"

 

"Magician" is getting a bit better now. The first 300 pages were complete garbage but it's almost as if a different person took over the writing from that point on.

 

The standard IS Erikson, Martin and Hobb those three are neck and shoulder above everyone else. There are quite a few simmering just below those though like Mieville, Bujold, Keyes and a few more.

 

Carey is actually every bit is good as those three; see Kushiel's Dart.

Currently re-reading Donaldson's Gap Cycle. It's damn good.

 

I've read some of Martin, and to be honest, Erikson is superior. I have not read anything by Hobb, but still, as far as I'm concerned no one has come even close to what Erikson has accomplished with Tales of the Malazan, except Tolkien - and he's the grand master. ATM, I'm in the middle of _Memories of Ice_ and it's the best thing I've read since LoTR for pure accomplishment of narrative structure - so far. IMHO, "Memories" puts Erikson in a class by himself among the current fantasy writers. No one comes close.

[ November 10, 2005, 05:46: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

Ah, Chandos, welcome to the club. Maybe that is why books like 'Magician' seem so shallow to me because Erikson has set such a high standard for me. Erikson's books are just so rich.