The GMG SF/Fantasy/Horror Club

[DavidW]

Never read Shannara, but I did read Donaldson's first trilogy (Lord Foul's Bane, etc.),  which has enough borrowings from LOTR to justify charges of Grand Theft.  And the original element, the semi-emo semi-anti-hero did not thrill me either.  Though you will note I had enough interest in the books to read the entire trilogy.

Donaldson's Gap Cycle is up next for my space opera reading.  I read the first novel (The Real Story) several years ago.  Not only was it not at all derivative, but it was refreshingly absolutely different from all other space opera.  I guess this just goes to show that we shouldn't punish anyone for a derivative first novel.

[Karl Henning]

Anyone else here dig Robert Sheckley's Dramocles: An Intergalactic Soap Opera?

[kishnevi]

Donaldson's Gap Cycle is up next for my space opera reading.  I read the first novel (The Real Story) several years ago.  Not only was it not at all derivative, but it was refreshingly absolutely different from all other space opera.  I guess this just goes to show that we shouldn't punish anyone for a derivative first novel.

Derivative first trilogy, to be precise😄
But I will look for Gap Cycle

[jochanaan]

I've actually read most of the Shannara series.  It's not bad, but you can tell Mr. Brooks was a lawyer; he uses three times as many words as he needs to tell the story. The Landover series is a little lighter; one gets the feeling that Brooks wanted to write a "comic fantasy" but it doesn't come off that way.

On the other hand, I am continuously fascinated with the Covenant books.  Stephen Donaldson is a good enough writer to hold my interest, and there are enough differences between The Land and Middle-Earth, and Frodo and Thomas Covenant, to negate any charge of "theft."

The Gap Cycle is good, but very dark.  I like the way Donaldson portrayed the super-corporate villain. The two-book Mordant's Need may actually be some of his best writing.

Speaking of comic fantasies, I think I want to try Terry Pratchett's works some time.  I've heard they're hilarious...

[DavidW]

I've finished the Wheel of Time, started 17 years ago!  Great final novel.

[mn dave]

I offer these links to the S&S/fantasy fan.

http://www.erbzine.com/mag35/3566.html
http://swordssorcery.blogspot.com/
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/04/mind_meld_the_best_sword_sorcery_stories/

[DavidW]

The Black Company is the only one of those that had been on my radar. 

I guess I can follow suit, I've been using this article as the basis of my space opera explorations for years now:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/06/mind_meld_the_best_space_operas_in_science_fiction/

[mn dave]

A Ball of Beasts (Thanks, Jezetha). How to combine books 4 and 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire:

http://ballofbeasts.weebly.com/

[DavidW]

A Ball of Beasts (Thanks, Jezetha). How to combine books 4 and 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire:

http://ballofbeasts.weebly.com/

That link contained no pics of books duct taped together!

[mc ukrneal]

The Black Company is the only one of those that had been on my radar. 

I guess I can follow suit, I've been using this article as the basis of my space opera explorations for years now:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/06/mind_meld_the_best_space_operas_in_science_fiction/

What did you like most from this list so far?

[DavidW]

What did you like most from this list so far?

Funny enough the completely unambitious Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series.  Instead of grandiose space opera, it is detective fiction with a scifi setting.  They are kind of like Asimov's Caves of Steel and the Naked Sun if you liked that.

On the grandiose side, Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite scifi writers.

[DavidW]

Well I've finally cleared through the clutter of unfinished fantasy series, so now I can finally take a second crack at Malazan: Book of the Fallen.  I've read the first three novels, and then I hit a snag part way through the fourth.  I realized that I took too much time between volumes to hold everything firmly in place in my head.  In anticipation of giving the series another chance, I had purchased the paperbacks so that I might be able to quickly look at the dramatis personae and the glossaries.  What I didn't realize is that it took me so long to finally get here... that the ebooks have been updated with a full blown X-Ray that also accounts for previous novels.

My question is start with the ebooks that I already own or read the paperbacks?  This such a stupid first world problem, but for some reason I can't decide!

[Karl Henning]

Psst, Davey, did the PDF land? Thanks!

[DavidW]

Nope.  Come to think of it, I think amazon blocks all but the user from sending stuff through the kindle address.  Send 'em to my gmail, and then I'll have it delivered to my kindle.

[Bogey]

About to open this one.  Merci, David!

[DavidW]

Cool cool.  Hope you like it. 

[Karl Henning]

About to open this one.  Merci, David!

Hm.  Just had a free sample sent to my Kindle

[Bogey]

which when the book was published would have been sci-fi in its own right.

[mn dave]

I read Neuromancer way back in the day. Didn't like it too well; probably didn't understand it. Maybe I'll read it again one day. After I read these billion other books.

Now reading some PULP HORROR:
[asin]B005D1OXCC[/asin]

0:)

[Karl Henning]

which when the book was published would have been sci-fi in its own right.

Forsooth!

Trust you & the family are enjoying the summer, Bill!