A book series I would recommend reading is the Pendragon series. It's a about a boy who is a traveler and goes around to different Territories. Territories are basically different worlds, be it time or place. and That is all I will tell you about the book. It's an adventure book that will suck you into Bobby Pendragon's world and have you reading for hours.
I am looking for books to read, but fantasy tends to lack purpose.
You should try reading some upper-grade dark fantasy- it's usually aimed at a more mature audience so you'd probably like it more. It also usually has more defined plot points, characters, and purpose.
You should try reading some upper-grade dark fantasy- it's usually aimed at a more mature audience so you'd probably like it more. It also usually has more defined plot points, characters, and purpose.
If "mature audience" assumes sexual and violent scenes, that's not what I am talking about, and that's usually what the word "mature" seems to be associated with. Children understand plenty. Watership Down is a great book with plenty of purpose and meaning for children.
If you have something to recommend, you need to specify an actual book or a series. Just as there's plenty of purely entertaining literature in "immature" fantasy, there's plenty of it in "mature" fantasy.
Or dark, upper grade, w/e.
I am not looking for realism or seriousness. I am looking for purpose, message, meaning. It was there in Asimov's writing, it was there in Dune, it was there in LotR, and it was there in Harry Potter (don't kill me). That is what I am looking for.
Equinox, first off, you're giving a very narrow and stereotypical review of the genre. There's plenty of very descent books in it. C.S. Friedman is currently working on a three-part series, the Magister Trilogy, which focuses on the parody of chivalry, national loyalty, the discrepencies between the male and female psyche, and the conflict between faith and reason. Terry Brooks' Word and Void series is a wonderfully deep and plot-driven trilogy with some of the most well-developed characters I've ever seen, and his ability to capture places and people rivals most authors to this day. Neither of those, though dark fantasy, are as you describe. They're what I consider upper dark fantasy, the good kind. Not the crappy kind that just throws around gore and sex for a younger-teenage-boy appeal. In fact, Word and Void's main character is a girl that is followed through from childhood to adulthood, and no, she isn't described as erotic with a boob job. The series takes a realistic look on poverty from both opposing angles, the abuse of drugs and the socio-pathological effects it has on the user, family, and friends, and many other things to boot.
Some books that I would not recommend would be Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series- all words and no power with very poor writing skills and nebulous character archetypes. If you're in to Science Fiction, Tad Williams' Otherland series is alright. It has many good moments, but unfortunately a lot of them get drowned out in his obsession with wordiness and books that are longer than they need to be. Also, he wrote a novel of atypical fantasy appeal- The War of the Flowers- that you might like. It breaks away from typical fantasy themes. I read it over again here and there.
I didn't say the whole genre represents itself so, I just said that merely because something is mature and dark doesn't mean it's good, and vice versa (you seem to be saying that non-dark fantasy is worse if I'd like this more), which means you need to specify so that I can read good dark fantasy. Genres don't really matter, books do. Thank you.
I didn't mean to say that all other fantasy subgenres, or any other genres, period, are inferior. My own tastes change with the wind. I can enjoy any genre if it's written well, and just like any other genre, there are a ton of bad books written in it.
I would recomend the Cirqu Du freak series and the Demonota series. Those are really good books. The demonota has more action/blood/gore but Cirqu Du freak has more adventure and can pull you in. The author of the two series is Darran Shan (The Diablo Archive will suck you in as well :P)
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If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Equinox, if you read the first book I guarantee you they you'll get hooked. You should at least read the first second and third. reason = the third book gives you so much to think about in modern times. But don't read it until you read the first and second cause you'll be confused. That is if you actually do.
Whos the auther of these books. Hard to look em up without the author
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www.myspace.com/mpotatoes for all your Trans Siberian Orchestra listening pleasure
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
I just realised I'm commenting about a month after the person before me. Bah! Whatever...
Perhaps it's just me, but the books really weren't all that interesting, and didn't hook me. I wasn't drawn into them the way I am with Steven King (who gets carried away quite often, describing every FREAKING thing in the room, including the dust, the copious amounts of dust...). The descriptive language was average, and the author should have picked up a thesaurus. It's been a while, but there was something else that bugged me... I can't remember right now, I'll go look at them later on.
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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Here's to hoping His Noodly Appendage touches you and may His Sauce rain down upon you,
-GM
RAmen
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster website: www.venganza.org
To be honest, I'm a book nerd, I've read a wicked amount of books and they are mostly fantasy and the books I've enjoyed most must be "The Wheel of Time". It's a book written by Robert Jordan.
It's a book serie consisting over 14 books and 9685 pages!
YES!!!!! Finally someone else here who appreciates Wheel of Time. Although this is really not the place to discuss that topic.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
i think english lit, is the best way to fins books that challenge you to think, grow, and shape your own ideas. it is also a way to find good fictional (most of the time not fantasy) books that you will enjoy reading time and again. however i recomend looking up the symbolism and such, as you read, otherwise you may not get what the author is trying to portray.
I highly suggest the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini, Redwall series by Brian Jacques (It is a bit childish, I know, but a good read nonetheless), and Dragon Lance Chronicles which I can't remember authors. If you seen the Eragon movie, don't let it stop you from reading the books as the books are always better, more detailed, and easier to understand.
Also a great series to read would be the Forgotten Realms series by R. A. Salvatore. The character Drizzt Do'Urden, and Shadow Panther companion, Guenhwyvar, are the reason I like the series and highly recommend it.
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Just as the Scorpion hunts...
Silently Lurking...
"Nothing is True. Everything is Permitted." ~ Ezio Auditore de Firenze
There's nothing wrong with reading Harry Potter, I also read that series. Here is a list of all the books of the Forgotten Realms series that R. A. Salvatore wrote:
Martin's main work is the series "A Song of Fire and Ice" which features a middle age land slowly decending from a long summer into a long winter, with a political climate that mirrors the weather. Some of the best plot twists of any author I've read. Four books have been released, with another 3 planned, but unfortunately he works slower than Blizzard so don't expect anything new soon.
Carey's best work is her "Kushiel's" series, which consists of two trilogies set in the same land, around the same time. Huge sweeping plots, large and superbly devolped character cast, and an element of subtlty that is unmatched in anything i've read. Her prose is elegant and graceful, a pure pleasure to read. The books all deal heavily with sexuality but it is such a huge part of the land and characters that you forget how different it is from everyday life. By far my favorite author.
If you're into Historical fiction, there are several books by Jeff Shaara. "Gods and Generals" along with "To the Last man" are the only ones i've read, but I highly reccomend the latter. It details the somewhat fictional experiences of the first world war through the eyes of four real world characters. You can pull a good history lesson out of reading it, and the characters really come to life as people, not just names in a dusty history book.
Though that is a good series, I personally recommend the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony, and the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko.
Both series are set in a Modern Fantasy setting, though the Incarnations of Immortality is set in a world very different than ours as it combines Magic and Technology.
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------------------------------------------- Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
-------------------------------------------
I am looking for books to read, but fantasy tends to lack purpose.
The Arthurian Companion is the first book, or is that a different series?
You should try reading some upper-grade dark fantasy- it's usually aimed at a more mature audience so you'd probably like it more. It also usually has more defined plot points, characters, and purpose.
If you have something to recommend, you need to specify an actual book or a series. Just as there's plenty of purely entertaining literature in "immature" fantasy, there's plenty of it in "mature" fantasy.
Or dark, upper grade, w/e.
I am not looking for realism or seriousness. I am looking for purpose, message, meaning. It was there in Asimov's writing, it was there in Dune, it was there in LotR, and it was there in Harry Potter (don't kill me). That is what I am looking for.
Equinox, first off, you're giving a very narrow and stereotypical review of the genre. There's plenty of very descent books in it. C.S. Friedman is currently working on a three-part series, the Magister Trilogy, which focuses on the parody of chivalry, national loyalty, the discrepencies between the male and female psyche, and the conflict between faith and reason. Terry Brooks' Word and Void series is a wonderfully deep and plot-driven trilogy with some of the most well-developed characters I've ever seen, and his ability to capture places and people rivals most authors to this day. Neither of those, though dark fantasy, are as you describe. They're what I consider upper dark fantasy, the good kind. Not the crappy kind that just throws around gore and sex for a younger-teenage-boy appeal. In fact, Word and Void's main character is a girl that is followed through from childhood to adulthood, and no, she isn't described as erotic with a boob job. The series takes a realistic look on poverty from both opposing angles, the abuse of drugs and the socio-pathological effects it has on the user, family, and friends, and many other things to boot.
Some books that I would not recommend would be Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series- all words and no power with very poor writing skills and nebulous character archetypes. If you're in to Science Fiction, Tad Williams' Otherland series is alright. It has many good moments, but unfortunately a lot of them get drowned out in his obsession with wordiness and books that are longer than they need to be. Also, he wrote a novel of atypical fantasy appeal- The War of the Flowers- that you might like. It breaks away from typical fantasy themes. I read it over again here and there.
I didn't say the whole genre represents itself so, I just said that merely because something is mature and dark doesn't mean it's good, and vice versa (you seem to be saying that non-dark fantasy is worse if I'd like this more), which means you need to specify so that I can read good dark fantasy. Genres don't really matter, books do. Thank you.
I didn't mean to say that all other fantasy subgenres, or any other genres, period, are inferior. My own tastes change with the wind. I can enjoy any genre if it's written well, and just like any other genre, there are a ton of bad books written in it.
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
I just realised I'm commenting about a month after the person before me. Bah! Whatever...
Perhaps it's just me, but the books really weren't all that interesting, and didn't hook me. I wasn't drawn into them the way I am with Steven King (who gets carried away quite often, describing every FREAKING thing in the room, including the dust, the copious amounts of dust...). The descriptive language was average, and the author should have picked up a thesaurus. It's been a while, but there was something else that bugged me... I can't remember right now, I'll go look at them later on.
Here's to hoping His Noodly Appendage touches you and may His Sauce rain down upon you,
-GM
RAmen
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster website: www.venganza.org
Also a great series to read would be the Forgotten Realms series by R. A. Salvatore. The character Drizzt Do'Urden, and Shadow Panther companion, Guenhwyvar, are the reason I like the series and highly recommend it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._Salvatore#Forgotten_Realms
Ya, it's a big list, enjoy!
I'm still reading the books, there's that many as I usually go through 2 books a month on average.
Martin's main work is the series "A Song of Fire and Ice" which features a middle age land slowly decending from a long summer into a long winter, with a political climate that mirrors the weather. Some of the best plot twists of any author I've read. Four books have been released, with another 3 planned, but unfortunately he works slower than Blizzard so don't expect anything new soon.
Carey's best work is her "Kushiel's" series, which consists of two trilogies set in the same land, around the same time. Huge sweeping plots, large and superbly devolped character cast, and an element of subtlty that is unmatched in anything i've read. Her prose is elegant and graceful, a pure pleasure to read. The books all deal heavily with sexuality but it is such a huge part of the land and characters that you forget how different it is from everyday life. By far my favorite author.
If you're into Historical fiction, there are several books by Jeff Shaara. "Gods and Generals" along with "To the Last man" are the only ones i've read, but I highly reccomend the latter. It details the somewhat fictional experiences of the first world war through the eyes of four real world characters. You can pull a good history lesson out of reading it, and the characters really come to life as people, not just names in a dusty history book.
Both series are set in a Modern Fantasy setting, though the Incarnations of Immortality is set in a world very different than ours as it combines Magic and Technology.
-------------------------------------------
Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
-------------------------------------------
People seem to like recommending books.