Like many, I cut my eye teeth on Tolkien, starting with The Hobbit (which was a delight) and then onto The Lord Of The Rings (which became something of a chore) and less than halfway through The Silmarillion I gave up on swords and sorcery completely.My only indulgence was Dungeons And Dragons but even then I leaned more towards the likes of Ravenloft than Forgotten Realms and the like.And then, in the late eighties, new horror sensation Clive Barker wrote a book called Weaveworld.At last, someone had written a fantasy with balls...and not a talking dragon in sight.
To date, the only fantasy stuff I ever entertain is Barker's.When he writes for adults, as with The Great And Secret Show and Imajica, he really writes for adults, and when he writes for kids, as with The Thief Of Always and Abarat, he doesn't shy away from the dark stuff; he never patronises his audience.
Oh yes! Clive Barker is terrific. Weaveworld and The Great and Secret Show are superb.
Also, The Damnation Game.
Oh yes, The Damnation Game is a great read.Not only is he a major talent, he's also a thoroughly nice bloke.Met him at a few signings and he really does enjoy spending time with his fans.
Yep, I knew that but I got it wrong above data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7This was supposed to be the last book (12) but it's now the first of the last three data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I really liked the Mistress series and I've read them a few times too.I agree about your view on Feist too.The Magician is probably my favorite book.
Feist is also my fav but I've started getting board of his books (and i miss jimmy and Erick)
I agree his last books are like episodes of Lost. You don't really seem to care anymore. He should have started up something new. Jimmy the hand was awesome.
A lot of kudos for Steven Erikson here. He might be my next purchase data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
The Felix & Gotrek series are really appealing to me, anyone who's read E Fiests work, could get into those books, even though they do tend to have a kinda soap operah feel to them ( being you know the main characters are gonna live through what ever is thrown at them ) its still really good finding out how they got thier.
If you haven't started reading them, try them out, seperately they're quite short 250 to 350 page stories, but if u get the omnibusses they do 3 books for £10 in games workshop as part of the omnibus.
Have been reading the following recently and would recommend them:
Brandom Sanderson (who is currently writng the ending to the wheel of time series by the late Robert Jordan) - Hero of Ages triolgy - would also recommend Elantris
Ian Irvine - Fate of the chosen - a great series of books.
Steven Eriksson - Dust of Dreams - one of my favourite authors
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Blood of the Mantis - an entertaining set of books
Kate Elliott - Traitors Gate
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss - a very good read
Also like Feist and Martin (when is he ever going to finish the next book!) and Abercrombie