[spoiler]Kvothe is a ridiculous Mary Sue. He’s awesome at everything–but most especially at sexing. Never mind that he’s a virgin, he’s so good at sexing that he seduces a sex goddess whose modus operandi is seducing young men! Give me a goddamn break.
Also, the ninjas and their ideas about sex made no sense at all, nor did their immunity from STDs. Also, I got really bored with yet more of Kvothe in College and kept waiting for something important to happen.[/spoiler]
I loved the first book, and I read pretty quickly through the second one, but the second one left a bad taste in my mouth.
My favorite book series was David Eddings’ The Belgariad, followed by The Malloreon. It’s a series I’ve revisited a couple times, and it’s almost like getting together with an old friend.
No, they start silly. They get creepy as hell after that, not to mention stupid and repetitive. Piers Anthony spends too much time thinking about/describing little girls’ underwear. He’s grotesque.
Me too. It starts off just a bit slow, but 200 or so pages into the first book things really start cooking. The writing won’t blow you away, but the plotting, the magic system and the characters are very interesting.
Oooh…gotta disagree here. I forced myself through the first 2 books, but I found the writing so bad and the story so played out I couldn’t go on.
I don’t know what of Abercrombie you’ve read, but the stand alone Best Served Cold was very good, although not a typical high fantasy novel.
I was going to say that. Eddings was definitely in a rut there for a while in terms of new ideas.
Of course, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy those books. In fact, I still do, from a “Heh, these characters are awesomely entertaining and their banter is hilarious” standpoint, but they’re kindof a guilty pleasure and I’d stop short of actually recommending them. Especially to someone who didn’t like Codex Alera, which I feel has some of the same feel to it.
…and neither version is worth reading, IMHO. The Wheel of Time sort of reminded me of them, only with the obnoxiousness spread to more characters and pages.
I just realized that all the OP’s rankings were for series. Are you interested in some stand-alone books?
Deathless, by Catherynne Valente, is the best I’ve read this year. It’s a retelling of Russian fairy-tales under the reign of Stalin. Lyrical, sexy, and thoroughly Russian.
In the Night Garden, by the same author, is a novel told very much in the fashion of Arabian Nights, with direct and indirect allusions to Arabian Nights. For example, in AN, characters often introduce their stories by saying something like, “It could not be more interesting if it were inked into the corner of your eye”; in Night Garden, the stories are literally inked onto the eyelids of the primary storyteller. It’s also quite lovely. (Technically it’s not a stand-alone, as there’s a sequel, but it works beautifully by itself).
Fair enough. [spoiler]I found the part with Felurian to be the least-interesting and dragging part of the novel. I liked all the stuff with the Adem, and found their philosophy on sex interesting if obviously unworkable outside of a small community. And their mistake about how babies are made seems like the sort of thing that could be believed by a medieval-era people.
As for the Mary Sue thing … yeah, but that’s kinda the whole foundation of the story, even back to the first book. I see the whole series as unapologetic about it being about a Mary Sue, albeit with good writing and interesting story. But one aspect of Mary Sues is that they’re somewhat subjective and everyone has different points at which it pisses them off.[/spoiler]
His writing is definitely rough in the Night Angel trilogy. I liked his current book, The Black Prism more, though the magic system felt like he was trying to emulate Sanderson too much without success; and I know others have complained about the writing there too.
It’s established in TWMF that Kvothe is at least something of an unreliable narrator. He was caught outright making stuff up about his sword. So it may just be his opinion of himself.
I kind of love that interpretation, and it’s almost enough to make me forgive the book :). I think there’s not really any in-text justification for it, but it’s still pretty fantastic–especially since these are the stories a middle-aged man is telling about his teenaged self. If you’re right, it’s wonderfully pathetic.
My point is, once you’ve read the Belgariad, you’ve essentially read ALL of Eddings’ series, as he seems to have just one template for a series.
Mercedes Lackey? I’ve only read a couple of stories by her that were marginally acceptable. Yes, I’ve read Valdemar books. Not acceptable. My daughter used to work in a used book store, and would bring books home for us to read and then return them, so it was sort of like having our own private lending library. I read several Lackey books and I am to the point now where even if I can read them for free, I won’t bother with them. I wasn’t paying any money to read them, but I was spending my time.
Hugh Cookss Chronicles of an Age of Darkness is worth a look, though there is some unevenness wuth some of the books being way better than the others. Still love me some Drake Douay tho.
I would have LOVED the Valdemar stories when I was a preteen and horse crazy…and had vastly lower standards. I still like horses and horse stories, but I value my time a bit more highly now.
But that’s the state you’re in when you haven’t read any of his books to begin with.