The one good thing covid did for me was make it to where I work from home most of the time which gives me more time to read. After I finish some borrowed books and other books in my immediate stack I was thinking I’ll read either the Elric books or the Witcher books. I’ll eventually read both but which one should I start with?
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Elric. The Witcher is just a pale polack imitation.
Neither. Start reading Bernard Cornwell.
What did he write?
The Sharpe's series and the Saxon tales. Both excellent reading.
Cool! Will check it out.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7956.Treason
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22876.Reave_the_Just_and_Other_Tales?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=T8RjxZR1wF&rank=1
if Reave the Just clicks with you then Donaldson's 2 big series Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Gap Cycle are pretty amazing
I actually prefer Donaldson's Mordant's Need (Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through) to Covenant, which I do like, but it's been awhile since I read it all the way through.
I remember the mirror series felt more cinematic and "lighter" than covenant which isn't hard because the first covenant series is like wading through a tar pit. I think you are right that might be a better intro to SRD.
Agreed, but it has enough Donaldson sensibilities to prepare the reader. The villain is a true bastard.
Thanks!
I could never get into the Elric books. But for a classic, and very different “saga-like” fantasy book try “The Broken Sword” by Poul Anderson. That guy knew more about Norse myth than almost anyone.
I’ve seen his books at the bookstore. I think I have some of his sci fi. I’ll check it out. If his writing is based on Nordic mythology I’m sure Hollywood can’t wait to bastardize it.
He is most known for sci fi, but the Norse stuff is great, and the Broken Sword an often overlooked gem. I think I noticed some parts of Game of Thrones series being inspired by it (didn’t read the books though, just saw the show).
Clockwork Elf by Alfred Haus
It has a few errors but is an amazing read. An elf and an engineer hunt monsters in late victorian England. It tells the story from multiple views, and has some fun action sequences.
Is Raymond Feist still okay? I haven't kept track. I read his books because of Betrayal at Krondor and they seemed okay at the time. He eventually killed off all his main characters and jumped forward into the future and I lost interest, but it seemed like rollicking good fantasy tripe to read on the train.
Cool. I’ll check it out. I’ve most read sci fi and the first long series of fantasy I read was Ice and Fire. Got me wanting to read more. Well fantasy that’s actually finished.
I think you could call it finished enough, in that there are big obvious points at which you can quit and call it finished. Think "And then 200 years later" and you can just nah.
Nobody ever talks about it anymore, and I find this surprising. It was rollocking good fantasy, and (I consider this a positive) never got optioned into a telenovela or a movie or whatever. One of the early books got turned into a (very good) PC game and that's it. The PC game eventually had a shit sequel that had nothing to do with either the first game or the books but that's it.
The Krondor books were a damn sight better than the GRRR MARTIN stuff that caught on so much later.