jvj

In JV's journal entry, Aug 22nd, 2008, she answered the question:
"What are your favorite fantasy novels? -Edgar P"

At that time, I was facing my own question of, "what will I read when I'm done with Master And Fool? I'd already read JV's six other published gems, two of them twice.

JV listed four Authors and their works, in her response:
The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula L. Le Guin
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb.

The first one that caught my eye was Robert Jordan, as I'm currently on a very long break on book 7 of the late author's Wheel of Time story. The Eye of the World is book 1 of The Wheel of Time. It is good but its very very long. Several of the books I'd read so far were just shy of a thousand pages each.

I went online and read the summaries for the other three and decided to try The Deed of Paksenarrion and Assassin's Apprentice and purchased them online. I wanted to read Paks first but Assassin won the race to my mailbox. A few dozen pages into Assassin I was disappointed at the lack of up-front-action that I'd been used to ala-JV. I'd been reading JV's
books for the better part of a year and was grading one author's style (Robin Hobb) on that of JV. A few months later I would learn that my impatience almost cost me the experience of a good story. Paks book 1 had come in the post and I eagerly grabbed it and ran down to my coffeeshop hangout. Paks had a similar story buildup to Assassin, but I was determined to read past the slow start because its summary had a word that always gets my fantasy-spidey-sense tingling... "Paladin".
By about page 70, Paks had me locked in and there I stayed through books two and three. The plot change in book three was like traveling down the highway on a bus and suddenly it falls onto its side! I was pissed off, shocked, amazed, saddened, and thrilled throughout. I'm sidestepping specifics on purpose, so as not to ruin your paks-experience.

After finishing book3 of The Deed of Paksenarrion last weekendk, I found myself heading to lunch on Monday with nothing to read. Then I remembered Assassin's Apprentice. I walked by the parkinglot, on my way to a deli down the block, and opened the trunk of my trusty blue toyota. Whew! there it was. Starting over at page one, I had more patience after getting over the hump in The Deed of Paksenarrion, and started six year old Fitz' adventure with new eyes. I read 25 pages at lunch and after work I read past page 37, where I'd stopped before, and continued to page 75-76 where the single page prologue from inside the font cover greeted me. Today (Saturday) I'm a hundred pages in and its about time for me to go online and order the rest of the books in this story. Assassin's Apprentice is book one of Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy.

In closing, I think that my ideas of these two stories starting slowly was due to my own expectations from having enjoyed JV's writing style repeatedly prior to giving these stories a go. If you should decide to try one/both of these trilogies, I suspect there'd be a healthy chance that you might disagree with my 'slow start' comments. And thats just fine.

Thank You JV, for your input on Aug 22nd.
You were spot on, though it took me a bit to adjust to other's writing styles.

I'll keep Wizard of Earthsea in mind for later.

Dave

well with me, I was reading a lot of fantasy before I came to JVs books- I think I had read up to about book 9 of The Wheel of Time series, Had read the Balgariad and the Mallorean from David and Leigh Eddings and a few other random series thrown in as well. I was used to slow starts from the outset, and just took it as a prerequisite for fantasy in general.

J.V is my favourite authors because of the fact that she breaks from this mold and has a real edge to her writing that I haven't found in any other fantasy writers style.

personally I have read the Farseer trilogy, and thought it was great, but apparently her other series ( I think its called the live ship traders) is supposed to be better?!

If you like the Farseer Trilogy, you will want to read the Liveship Traders Trilogy as well as the Tawny Man Trilogy, in this order. All trilogies take place in the same world, although Liveship Traders rarely touches the Duchies.
Having read all three, I still like Farseer the most. Combined, this nine books surpass most other fantasy I've read so far. Robin Hobb is definitely one of my favorite authors, at this time even ranging above JV.

Thanks Akerbos.
Once I'm over my shock, I'll get up off the floor and type in a reply!
LOL, jk !!!
Assassin's Apprentice has got its hooks in me and is reeling me in as we speak (er, type).

Dave

ooog, I need to order the other 2 assassin books!

Some excellent book reviews D.

Like Akerbos, I have covered all Robin Hobb books. She definitely counts as one of my favourite authors, after JVJ. But I agree with D, she takes a while to get going. She doesn't have that ability to grab you on the first page al la jvj style.

I will honest though (and I know this is blasphemy) I really did not like Wheel of Time. I managed to get to about half way through book 4 when I just gave up. After 3 and a bit books, I just wanted to hurt the characters, they just annoyed me so much.

This is just a generalisation, but I often think that females write better / more believable characters than their male counterparts, George RR Martin being the exception.

Thanks Di, that is part of my dilema with Wheel of Time. I want to know what happens to some of the characters, but fortyfive hundred more pages??? heh, maybe someday, we'll see.

I thoroughly enjoyed Robin Hobb's Assassin's books and of cours Ms. Jones books...I enjoyed Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule books, and was wondering what do you all think of the series based on his books? Does it help the fantasy genre?...I'm not a TV watcher but find that I like it...

D, I have not read a complete story by JVJ, but three of Hobb's, so I have to rank like that. JVJ already ranges above every other third person writer I have read so far, because she writes that intimate.

I have finished book four of WoT two weeks ago. I think the greatest "problem" of the series so far is that no important characters get killed despite their continuing stupidity. Thus, Jordan tries to tell loads of stories at once and never manages to finish a thing. But I will continue on because I like complex stories, and this one is, if nothing else, complex.

Di:
I agree with you on WoT. I got to book 5 and just was flabbergasted that it was going to go on (at that time) for 5 more thousand page installments! The main thing that I appreciated about WoT was when Jordan brought in the past (a la Andre Norton) technological civilization. For some reason, being raised on AN and Lin Carter, etc. I enjoy when sf and fantasy are combined.

I read the Farseer books when they came out, and I seriously can't recall anything about them! They must have engaged me at the time, but they obviously didn't last or impact me.

In a similar way, JVJ's first trilogy, though it enthralled me at the time (over 10 years ago), left not much ikn the way of plot or storyline behind. Thus, having just picked up JVJ again (I quickly read The Barbed Coil last month, and found it for the most part satisfying - just the earlier half was way more captivating than the latter for some reason) I am going to reread the Book of Words.

As far as Goodkind, I read TWFR when it came out, and found it fairly violent. I was disappointed in it at the time, and (unhappy with the map & world) found it hard to believe I should commit to any sequels. The one thing I recall fondly, is the description of the run through the trees with the spider's web being broken.

As far as good writers, well I am probably more chauvanistic than most, but among my favourites are three women: C. J. Cherryh, Andre Norton, and Agatha Christie. When I did read more fantastic fiction I enjoyed Lin Carter (my first love: Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series and his own pastiches), Edgar Rice Burroughs, L. Sprague de Camp, Zelazny's Amber, Williams (only Memory Sorrow, Thorn), Donaldson's first trilogy (havn't read any others), Dave Duncan, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Howard, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Michael Moorcock, A. E. Merritt, and, of course Tolkien.

This is getting long.

Akerbos wrote:I have finished book four of WoT two weeks ago. I think the greatest "problem" of the series so far is that no important characters get killed despite their continuing stupidity.

Exactly that Akerbos! The "stupidity" and it does not matter what they go through, witness or loose, they remain they same. No growth factor what-so-ever.

I can't stand Terry Goodkind. I have said this before, so apologies for repeating it, but seriously, if you want flat, single dimensional characters TG is the way to go. I haven't seen the show, but (once again sorry for repeating) I think it would work better as a tv series. Perhaps they will be less nauseating in 22 minutes weekly instalments with lots of ad breaks.

I wish you wouldn't hold back soo much Di.
Please tell us how you really feel !!!!

haa haa haa, just kidding <dave ducks!>

LOL Sorry, that was a bit over-the-top wasn't it? My grumpiness today seems to be rubbing off on everything. I was going to go on about Terry Brooks too, but decided it was too much effort.

Dave, when my frying pan reaches you, can you chuck it back please?

Di, not sure if I have a throwing arm quite like you do, but I'll give 'er a go!

haa haa haa

Dave <--silly mood today

Witchary wrote:it does not matter what they go through, witness or loose, they remain they same. No growth factor what-so-ever.

The boys are changing quite a lot, I think, but the girls not so.
But I think Jordan should have focused on one or two main characters. Not all inner conflicts are convincing.

Robin Hobb's "Fitz" books (6 of them, or 9 if you really stretch it to the Fool's influence, heh) are some of the most "non" typical Fantasy that you'll ever read.

They are excellent books. But different.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods has to be one of the best single novels I've read .. Period. It's a fantastic piece of story-telling. So go read it if you haven't!

I'm more of a "see the good" than try and work out where an author falls down. However, Terry Goodkind has made some particularly staggering admissions that have turned me completely off his books.

His complete and utter disregard for telling a story over pushing his "Ayn Rand" (apologies to any fans reading this) agenda is insane. His books have turned into one big listen-to-my-awesome-world-view session.

Ha ha. There's a couple of my opinions.

Oh, and for a world-view done well, I'd recommend C.S.Lewis's The Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. The man knew how to tell a story.

Another thing. I'd proffer that Julie is one of the premier epic (as a sub-genre) fantasy writers of our time.

I've mentioned these before, but scenes like Duff's, the Bluddroad and Death meeting Raif will stay with me while ever memory serves. And with the previews of book 4, we have the "bigness" scope revealed.