((Game of Thrones, The First Law, The Name of the Wind, Mistborn, Dragonbone Chair, Wheel of Time))
I enjoyed epic fantasy as a kid and read a lot of it, but time passed and I moved on to other things. A couple of years ago I started taking the train to work, and after a ten-plus year hiatus, I picked it up again. I like reading a nice swashbuckling Epic Fantasy on the train; don’t know why. I’ve also read a bunch of fantasy that I don’t consider to fit in the Epic Fantasy genre – The Curse of Chalion, several Neil Gaiman books, Among Others (Jo Walton), lots of Terry Pratchet. In the interest of figuring out what to read next, and saving some of you from bad books, here’s a breakdown of the true Epic Fantasy series I’ve read in the last few years:
A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin – I picked up Game of Thrones back in winter/spring 2011 when I heard that HBO was getting ready to put out a show of the series. This was what really got me re-started on epic fantasy a few years ago. I’d heard good things about it and wanted to check it out before a TV audience got their hands on it. Not gonna discuss it at length here: we’ve all read it. [ul][li]Good: moral ambiguity; eschews many tired fantasy tropes; engaging story; writing style is clearly targeted at grown-ups[]Bad: later books in severe need of editor, scissors; it starts to seem like Martin doesn’t know where he’s going with the story; Martin is about 800 pounds and looks 20 years older than he is, and at the rate he’s going, he’ll be dead before he finishes the series[]Rating: 8/10[/ul][/li]
The First Law, Joe Abercrombie – The next series I picked up after the GoT series. I kind of regret it, because it was mostly downhill after this. One problem I have with the entire genre is that magic breaks plots. Most authors deal with this by having their wizard say “ah, I could teleport the macguffin here right now, but it is your destiny to climb Mount Nastypants to retrieve it, young hero-of-mysterious-parentage, and I cannot interfere with fate.” And that’s bullshit. Whereas in The First Law trilogy, the greatest wizard in the land responds “I don’t fucking know how to do that, asshole. Why don’t YOU conjure the macguffin here with your fucking smart mouth?” A lot of authors try to inject comic relief with a modern sense of humor, like the genie from Disney’s Aladdin, which breaks the setting for me. But Abercrombie’s occasional dry humor manages to fit in with the setting perfectly. [ul][li]Good: flawed, interesting protagonists; great occasional humor; tight, non-rambling storytelling (I’m looking at you, GRRM); also clearly written for grown-ups[]Bad: Some parts suffer from Raiders of the Lost Ark syndrome (I.e. if you think about it too hard, you realize that nothing the protagonists did actually affected the outcome in any way); magic system is still somewhat plot-breaking []Rating: 9/10[/ul][/li]
The Kingkiller Chronicle, Patrick Rothfuss – AKA The Name of the Wind. Another pretty good series, this one’s a bildungsroman. Probably the best magic system of any on this list, it actually goes into some pretty serious detail about how it all works. In most of these works, the magic will be something like “The protagonist-of-mysterious-parentage focused his energies, and suddenly the troll-ogre-goblin burst into flames. The old sorceress turned to him and exclaimed that he was the chosen one!” But here, Rothfuss actually shows the effort involved in the magic, and creates a system where it makes sense that magic doesn’t solve all problems. [ul][li]Good: non-plot-breaking magic system; fun setting; well-written dialogue[]Bad: most characters are pretty two-dimensional, including protagonist who seems to have no faults/flaws; series is incomplete, and author is writing novellas in the universe of the trilogy instead of actually completing the trilogy []Rating: 8/10[/ul][/li]
Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson – Overrated. There, I said it. Everyone said this was the modern LoTR, the era-defining epic fantasy series for this generation. But it’s really not. Let’s get right to the…[ul][li]Good: Okay, the magic system had some novel concepts. And there was ONE interesting plot twist, re the bad guy turning out to be a not-so-bad guy.[]Bad: all the characters were boring; the protagonist spends way too much time mooning about feelings; the antagonists all suffer from roll-eyes classic genre arrogance; huge swaths of the plot make zero sense in retrospect, and Sanderson spends a good quarter of the series lampshading; the second book was blatant filler, and should have been condensed down to three paragraphs in the third book to make this a two-book series []Rating: 3/10[/ul][/li]
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Tad Williams – AKA The Dragonbone Chair. After Mistborn, I wanted something guaranteed. I’d heard that The Dragonbone Chair was a classic, and was partial inspiration for A Song of Ice and Fire. Hoo boy, this one is a kick. It’s like Williams wanted to compress all of the classic epic fantasy tropes into one series, and end up with the distilled and concentrated essence of Epic Fantasy that you can keep in your freezer and mix with three cans of water to make a normal epic fantasy series. He’s got the protagonist-of-mysterious-parentage. He’s got the aloof elves in a land of dying magic. He’s got the sword of power. He’s got the ambiguously magical mentor who dies in chapter six to save the progatonist. He’s got the wily gnome sidekick. He’s got the princess in disguise. He’s even got the evil bald advisor to the king who dabbles in dark magic. Look, I guess you could say that it’s the inspiration that the rest of the genre drew from, but you’d be wrong. The first book was published in 1988. I cannot fathom why this is considered such a big deal. [ul][li]Good: I guess if you’re into that sort of thing? []Bad: Nothing interesting or different at all; three quarters of the book are descriptions of the protagonist’s dreams, which seem like possibly foreshadowing or perhaps even magical prophesying, but aren’t; disappointing conclusion in which it’s unclear what the protagonists even did that saved the day; so much waffling around and filler waiting for plot to happen []Rating: 2/10[/ul][/li]
The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan – This is another classic: another one considered genre-defining. I’m currently on book three. I’m enjoying it, though I don’t know if I’m going to do fourteen fucking books of this. This one also has all the standard fantasy stuff (protagonist-of-mysterious-parentage; aloof elves in land of dying magic, etc.), but Jordan seems to mix things up enough that I actually care about the characters and plot. Obviously, with fourteen books, a lot of it is going to be filler. But so far, Jordan seems to be doing a good job of making it interesting filler with actual plot and character development. [ul][li]Good: it’s fun. I know it seems to suffer from a lot of the same problems as Tad Williams, but at least this one’s entertaining[]Bad: weak/simplistic writing style often feels like it’s trying to be a Young Adult novel (in fairness, back in the '80s and '90s genre fantasy was often considered to have a primarily YA audience); Jordan can’t write women for shit. They’re all either distant Ice Queens, or weak simpering idiots. If I make it that far, I’m hoping Sanderson does a better job; magic system that manages to occasionally break the plot, and still occasionally be broken by the plot; plot occasionally driven by characters getting a distant look in their eyes and saying “we have to do XYZ because of fate” with no further explanation []Rating: 6/10[/ul][/li]
Sorry if this is a little bloggy. What am I missing with my discussions of these series? What should I read when I finish (or get tired of) Wheel of Time? Where is the charm in The Dragonbone Chair? Is there anything out there as good as The First Law trilogy?