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[Fishersalwaysdie]

I notice that creating the maximum amount of text is his speciality.

[Bromor Neckbeard]

What, he's worse than Jordan or Tolkien in that regard?  This I gotta see.

[SirHoneyBadger]

I don't think anybody can be worse than Jordan.

What's funny is that Pratchett has probably written more than anyone else named in this thread, but nobody accuses him of wasting words.

Anybody here read Gene Wolfe? He really is the best writer out there. Not the most popular, by any means, but amazing.   

[Fishersalwaysdie]

What, he's worse than Jordan or Tolkien in that regard?  This I gotta see.

Nah, nowhere close. But after a book or two he's  just circling around attempting to delay the ending.
The beginning was good because there was little to no magic, but soon enough he ruined it. I don't really have anything against magic itself, but the execution of it was pretty bland and uninteresting.

[chaoticag]

What's funny is that Pratchett has probably written more than anyone else named in this thread, but nobody accuses him of wasting words.

To be fair, the least amount of time I spent on a Jordan novel was a week, wheras a Pratchet novel can be finished in 24 hours.

Jordan tends to go all out in details, to the point where I backtrack more often than I usually do, while Pratchet leaves your imagination to fill in the gaps (for example, there was a part in which he describes a barbarian hoard in the Light Fantastic simply by telling you that they wear leather if you want them to).

By virtue of being a comedy, you tend to pay more attention to what Pratchet has to say, because you want to laugh, while Jordan's style is basically an epic or a long story with a person (or people) who embodies the values of his author's culture, so it's mostly dry with a sprinkle of comic relief here and there.

That's about it in a nutshell.

[SirHoneyBadger]

I agree, and you've summed their two styles up commendably well. 

Terry Pratchett, I think, has a desire to open up his audience to new ideas, and the way he accomplishes that is through humor, by way of fantasy writing.

Neil Gaiman claims that Pratchett is really a Science Fiction writer, and I think that's right (Infact, he's written some very good science fiction.).

He asks a lot of questions that start with "What would happen if...?" and manages to allow his readers to come to their own conclusions, while he provides the tools. I think fantasy just lets him have more freedom than science fiction, which is why he ultimately moved away from it.

As a writer myself, I can completely sympathise with how terribly hard it can be not to answer the questions that my writing asks. It's really very tempting to just say "and that's because Lord So-and-so, in the year 1000AZ, came to the conclusion that such-and-such was the right and proper, only Thing to do." Giving up control over your innermost expression is a frustrating thing to have to learn, and I'm still trying to learn it.

It's so much easier than casting your creative efforts out into the wind, in hopes of drawing somebody in, from where they were, to where they want to be--inside *your* head.

Personally, I think Pratchett's a philosopher, a gentle, humorous sortof semi-modern Socrates.

Robert Jordan can't be faulted for wanting to write, or for writing. His biggest flaw is only that he wrote what he wanted to write, without taking is readers' perspective into consideration.

There's creativity-and skill-and a lot of experience present in his works (and I *have* read atleast 9 of his books), but ultimately, it's an act of literary masturbation--pleasurable and satisfying for the performer-and with perhaps a certain thrill for the voyeur-but no real audience interaction, and less and less real storytelling craft, due to it's increasing insularity.

The fact that it's a performance masks the other things it lacks, somewhat.

If I had to sum there styles up as concisely as I'm capable of, I'd say that other people relate to Jordan, while Pratchett relates to other people.

That's the difference, for me.

[inaluct]

Has anyone read The City of The Singing Flame?

[Micro102]

im just gonna reccomends a book series. the shannara series, written by Terry Brooks(a guy).

i think there are like..................10 books in all. 6 books contianing their own group of peoples adventures, and 4 book at the end having one huge story. and yes all the books are connected.

very nice read, dont need to adapt to its wrters style like i need to do wth others

[SirHoneyBadger]

Terry Brooks isn't too bad, except that his books become progressively more convoluted, even labyrinthly baroque, to the point where I can't imagine reading one of his new books without rereading everything else he's ever written again (possibly twice).

After doing all that, and with extensive notes, and a couple of good fan websites in hand, I might pick one up again (but I learned my lesson last time I did, unprepaired.).

Not that they're not enjoyable, just that I never quite get what the fuck's going on in them, anymore...

His Landover series is along the same vein--and worse--than Piers Anthony's 'Xanth' novels, though.

Has anyone recommended the Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series? Those are fairly easy to get into, I thought, and-aside from a generally depressing and masochistic mindset-not bad writing.

Lots of original, useful concepts, if you can get past the desire for one of the other characters to kick Thomas's ass and steal his damn ring.

I'm guessing nobody's read Gene Wolfe? That's a goddam shame, and I don't mean that lightly.

A couple of other series that are older (and supposedly intended for young adults), but well worth reading, include The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander, and The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper.

Both concern Welsh mythology, and are accessible, extremely well-written, and very informative.

[Bromor Neckbeard]

I've read the Chronicles of Prydain a couple hundred times.  I don't think I've picked them up in a decade or so, but I grew up on them.  I also had the "Black Cauldron" game for the IIc.

Has anyone read The City of The Singing Flame?

Dammit, I was doing... something...  Well, I'm apparently about to.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Me too, they're great books.

Growing up, I read those, the Dark is Rising books, Madeline L'engle's stuff, the Narnia books, the Hobbit, little bits and pieces of the Lord of the Rings, Robin McKinley's 'The Hero and the Crown' (great book, as is The Blue Sword), pretty much everything by Piers Anthony (especially the Adept series), Tom Deitz's books (which are great), the Dragonlance books, and the Stainless Steel Rat books.

I've probably also read Raymond E Feist's 'Faerie Tale' atleast 5 times, too. It's by far my favorite by him.

[JoshuaFH]

Does anyone else like epic poems?

I really enjoyed "The Song of Roland", I read it twice. It's about Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, and how he shoves Christianity down everyone's throat, but then he gets betrayed and dies in the most epic battle ever. He also had Durandel, which was supposedly a holy sword that could never break, or something. It's really awesome, understanding the old english can be pain sometimes though.

[Aldaris]

Have His Dark Materials and the Mortal Engines series been mentioned yet? And for anyone into sci fi that has a few months/years to spare I can advise the books by Peter F hamilton (Thicker than some bricks.) or the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanly Robinson (thicker than your average human foot, near the ankle.) Both are great but devour any free time and/or ability to sleep.

[chaoticag]

I have read the Dark Materials trilogy, and I have enjoyed it, but it feels really child oriented in retrospect. I'll read anything good, but I'm not too sure about others and their take on that.

[SirHoneyBadger]

I like Kim Stanley Robinson. I've got his 'Years of Rice and Salt' book around here, somewhere...maybe...and somebody actually stole another of his books I had.