Fantasy Authors

[Raven]

I've been hearing about the Wheel of Time series for years, but I've not read them yet. . .
What would you say about them?

Largely due to Coir's work, I've recently been reading Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books and enjoying them.

[Bear]

I have not read Wheel of Time, though I know some who have. A good friend of mine read them all and said it wasn't worth it; he finished in part because of "sunk opportunity costs": he had invested so much time into them, he wanted to finish them. He said Sanderson's last three books were the best, and would have been better if he was working off his own material. Basically Jordan is the master-describer, but is dreadfully slow moving the plot along, particularly in the middle and later books - in part because he didn't want to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. What he originally thought would be a 6-book series became a 13-book monstrosity. So when we bemoan 3-part Hobbit film trilogies, we should also blame folks like Jordan who did the same thing to his books and set the precedent. So the Wheel of Time is one of the bestselling High Fantasy series, but is just not worth reading through all of it.

I've heard nothing but good stuff about Earthsea. How much of a time commitment are they?

[Raven]

So far, I have read the first three Earthsea books, the original trilogy. Le Guin published more books, but I think they came a bit later.
I enjoyed them, and they are pretty quick reading, not thick tomes like the Wheel of Time books seem to be (I see them on the bookstore shelves). In all, I enjoyed them but I admit that they can be stark. I'd love o discuss them from a philosophical point of view if you read them. Le Guin is something of a philosophical fantasy writer I think. She seems to be to be writing about something beyond the story a lot of the time. Sometimes her perspectives feel bleak, at least from a Christian point of view, but the books are an engaging ride, the primary character fun to watch, and the world system interesting. I'd say worth a read.

Has anyone read the Shanarra books or know anything about them? I've thought of picking one up if I can find the first one, but I don't know much. I saw an episode or so of a TV series but it was too sexual -- fantasy TV/movies lately are relying on that, it seems. One of the things I know is that it's a kind of a post apocalyptic fantasy world. Terry Brooks is the author, I think.

I have never watched the series due to the graphic sexual content, but my wife is a fan of the Game of Thrones books and has talked to me about them a fair amount. I was on the fence a while about reading them but I picked up the first pretty cheap and am about a fifth or quarter of the way through it. So far, I'm still on the fence. Aspects of it I like, and aspects I find a bit tiresome. Some things are intriguing and well written and told, other things lost me. We'll see how I feel about it by the end of the book.

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Can't say anything about Shannara. I have copies of the original trilogy and its prequel, but I've really never read them. Same thing with the Game of Thrones books (technically titled A Song of Ice and Fire) - have them, haven't picked them up. It's a combination of laziness and distraction mixed with procrastination. Heck, I've never finished the first Earthsea book - got about a quarter through, then other (unimportant) things came up. That's how it is for me with most books, unfortunately.

[Raven]

Google honored the 37th anniversary of the publication of the Neverending Story today with a Google doodle on the front page.

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

For those who have e-readers, you may want to check out Randy Lee Eickhoff, who, in addition to a couple Westerns, undertook what may be an impressive feat - a six-volume prose retelling/translation of the entire Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. The first book, The Raid, is still in print in paperback (of course), but the rest are digital exclusive; you'll have to get back copies if you want physical format, like I do.

https://www.amazon.com/Randy-Lee-Eickhoff/e/B001H6SCJW/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_4?qid=1504476254&sr=8-4

If anyone reads them or has done so, let me know how good they are.

I would love to read all the Branches of Irish mythology in their entirety, but it seems that they are not available that way, if at all. I'm disappointed.

[Philosoraptor]

I'm glad someone brought up LLoyd Alexander. Taren Wanderer is still one of my very favorites.

Two newcomers: Robert Jordan (1948-2007), Wheel of Time. 13 volumes of 800-1000 pages each. Doorstoppers. Finely written characters and an oddly compelling setting of good and evil. Why oddly? Because of.... George R. R. Martin (1948 -) who is the current reigning king, unreasonably called the "American Tolkien" but reasonably called a master of fantasy prose. He has some of the best characters in fantasy literature, and his writing is vivid (and contains lots of parts the discerning reader will, ahem, need to skip). In particular, his short story, The Ice Dragon, is a modern masterpiece.

[Raven]

What with how much I've heard about Robert Jordan, one of these days I'm going to have to try one of his books.
I've not read The Ice Dragon, but I did finish the GoT book series. I don't know if it will ever be finished by Martin. In fact, I fear it may not. I don't want to have to accept an ending written by the television people. 

[Philosoraptor]

$100 says it won't be. The last one was published five years ago, and he's still not done with the sixth.

$200 says that even if it is, the ending will be super lame. Despair can get you through a wonderful first and second act, but always fouls on the landing.

[Raven]

I wouldn't take the $100 bet, but if I were a betting man, I might take the $200 one. I don't think Martin is entirely despairing. While I think he might make the fates of the individual characters difficult, I suspect their end will be self-sacrificial. The whole thing is really coming down to -- will humans work together finally if their very survival is at stake, or will they essentially destroy themselves entirely?

A pertinent question.

[Philosoraptor]

The sense I get from his work and a lot of well-done pop culture in general (e.g. the HBO GoT series, The Last of Us, Chandelier, etc.) is one of beauty but with despair at its heart - a belief in the Fall, but no hope in the Resurrection. There's a sense of irresistible decadence and decay, but no (or at least little) hope that anything could be truly, radically different. And it somehow feels different than the Silmarillion, which goes as dark as a Christian can without giving into despair at the triumph of evil.

[Raven]

The thing about the Silmarillion, and something that arguably makes it very Christian in a sense, is that throughout all the ravagings of Middle Earth, there remain the Valar and with them in Valinor multitudes of "saintly" elves, always hovering, waiting, watching. Hence, there is the sense that while smaller battles might be lost and individual lives torn apart (I.e., Turin, a truly tragic figure), there remains ultimate, cosmic victory.

Now in a GoT type environment, we have the incredible brutality and darkness of the human interactions, but at the same time, we see an overarching war being waged with the white walkers and their seeming attempt to reduce all the world to ice and darkness. I am not certain that Martin would save any individual character, but I doubt the stories would end with a white walker victory. That said, I would expect it to be treated in a more cyclical nature -- temporary victory in a cycle.
Maybe that reinforces your argument that nothing "could be truly, radically different." Nevertheless, perpetual cycles of danger and victory are arguably not entirely hopeless.

I am not familiar with the Last of Us or Chandelier, so I can't comment on those, but take another masterfully told saga of television: Battlestar Galactica (the newer series). Here is a show that delves into the darkness of humanity and survival, showing plenty of tragedy, but ultimately explores a cycle of destruction and rebirth like the one I described above. It's a real masterful work of storytelling (beware, there is sexual content).

I think the trope of narrowly-averted disaster and a destiny of rebirth in a continual cycle is not an unusual trope, considering both the nature of seasonal time on this earth and the cycles of destruction and "rebirth" that we arguably see historically in human civilizations. 

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

This topic hasn't got any flexing in over a year now, but I don't want it to die off. Does anyone have any more discussions on fantasy authors that they'd like to share? If you've been following the blog, is there anyone on there that you'd like to talk about? Is there anyone who's NOT been on it that you'd like to see me cover?