10-29-2021, 07:55 PM
(10-27-2021, 10:47 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: I got two thirds through Mistborn before giving up. I picked up The Way of Kings part one and two in a thrift shop a couple of days ago. After reading a few chapters I gotta say, I find it REALLY hard stomaching the utilitarian (if that) prose combined with the almost obsessive focus on convoluted magic systems. This guy should be writing D&D source books, not novels.
So this is what typical mainstream fantasy is like these days, huh?
I've been sneaking fun reading as I've been working on this thesis, and I've still been reading the Black Company books. They are fun, but sometimes I also find that they just sort of gloss over atmosphere in favor of character intrigue and plot. It's really not bad, just a different style. But, yeah, sometimes it kills the mood a little. Erikson does the same thing, but then he'll throw something at you that just HAS to be a spectacle, like a huge mysterious statue or something. When you get those kinds of things, it makes up for the fact that the city is just "the city," or whatever. I think as long as they don't write like Raymond E. Feist, it'll probably OK
Haven't tried Sanderson yet, but I have Way of Kings packed away somewhere. I'm going to take a crack at a Jim Butcher book soon. I've heard good things.
Recently, I was in a SF mood, and I bought a book by Ben Bova (I work at a used bookstore, and with my employee discount, it's peanuts to take a chance on paperbacks). It was awful. I guess he was an influential editor, but that must have been his main skill. (So, if we're starting a list of authors to avoid, put him on there, ha!) Reason I bring that up is that I just hate it when there's some author with a lot of praise that I can't wait to check out, and then I'm unimpressed.