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I couldn't believe that Chirstopher Paolini took the name 'Arya'. She's one of my favorite characters ever (From A Song of Ice and Fire). No touchie, Paolini! Grr. And, the big 'twist' at the end of Eldest drove me crazy. How lame! And, with Eragon, I thought there was no place but up for the movie... I was wrong. I thought Hollywood would fix Paolini's errors... Understating cliches, emphasizing the interesting bits (I like the 'shield' girl.), but they didn't.
To whomever thought that the Dragon of Despair was the end, you're welcome (I'm much too lazy to quote.) Charles DeLent didn't help much when in his review of 'Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart', he said it was a good second book, wheras most second books are the weakest in the trilogy. Silly, silly man. But, he's forgiven since he's awesome. The fourth book's description really turned me off to the series... But don't worry. It's really good. It just picked a horrible little blurb thing to go on the back cover.
The sixth book just came out in March (My birthday was in March, and I got it with my birthday money. It was fate.)
Neil Gaiman's books creep me out. I read 'American Gods', and it was during an intensive 3 week camp, where I was living on a college campus, and I was soooo freaked out. I thought, 'I'll read a book, to wind me down.'. No such luck. As luck would have it, the next book I read was 'A game of thrones'. Things FINALLY got better when I reread enchantment. I had to take a break. I'm very impressionable when it comes to books.
Another good series was Pamela Dean's trilogy... 'The Secret Country', "The Hidden Land', and 'The whim of the Dragon'. Awesome books. Patricia Wrede's YA books about Dragons were also good. Very light. Not like a Song of Ice and Fire (Although I like that series... Just not all at the same time.)
I liked the Deed of Paksenarrion too, although I think I already said it. Whoops. I'm too lazy to check. Sorry.
Posts: 438 | Registered: May 2006
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Another suggestion for more of a themed fantasy subset would be Marrion Zimmer Bradley's "Mists of Avalon" and other associated books. That one was a bit disturbing to read as a 6th grader, but is a very interesting take on the Arthur legend.
Also, I believe it's the Deathgate series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman I found quite enjoyable (whenever it was that I read them) and had someone interesting different takes on elves and the like.
If you're looking for more young adult reading I also highly reccoment Lloyd Alexander.
as for things being derivative of tolkein, while some are worse than others (both in terms of writing and derivation) the man is such a giant in the field that you have to allow for a lot of his influences to come out all over. Both in terms of general heroic themes as well as the world he built... as someone who grew up on Tolkein and D&D (highly derivative of his work) you come to accept a "standard" world view with respect to things like elves and orcs and dwarves... while people can deviate from those norms you're gonna often run into 2 conflicts: 1) They used an elf or elf-like race therefor they are just tolkein derivatives (even if much of their story is quite original) 2) They used an elf or elf-like race but changed it enough that it doesn't jive with my "normal" perception and therefore bugs me.
and just because various things are derivative doesn't mean that they're entirely unenjoyable. in their day I got great enjoyment from many Forgotten Realms books, David Eddings and even the Shannara books. I might not enjoy them as much now that I have a more expansive/cultured literary palette, but at the time I liked them well enough.
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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