OT-Black Company

[Xietor]

Were any of Glenn Cook's other books worth reading. I read the Black Company trilogy a few months back, and enjoyed them.

Someone on this forum had recommended the Black Company.

[Renojustin]

Nah, and Black Company got a little silly after the first few books, too. Really the George RR Martin precursor though. Cook was one of the Low Fantasy genre pioneers. If you liked Black Company, try Game of Thrones, etc by Martin, or The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon.

Really the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin completely eclipses Tolkien in every way and is the best series I've ever read in my life, after 2000+ novels.

You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hurl.

[Endoperez]

Renojustin said:
The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon.

How do the two latter books compare to the first?

I rather liked the first one, but I put down the second one because it kept head-shotting my suspension of belief. Okay, she's not happy, okay, she's going through a mountain range, she has a magic item?, what does this magic elf-place have to do with her?, there is a magic what hunting them?, etc. It felt like a tacked-on sidequest, in a bad way.

[Edi]

I liked Black Company all through the Books of the South, but it was the Books of Glittering Stone where it started to go into the really weird stuff, especially the Murgen book.

Glen Cook's new series, Instrumentalities of the Night is great. It's set in an alternate Europe, though it could use a good map or otherwise you have to guess what is where, which is frustrating. You know it's good when I recommend a book which is set in an alternate real world based setting, because normally I absolutely detest them.

As far as SoIaF, bleh. Started out good and had a lot of good ideas whose execution is all over the place, rambling around and too many characters are killed off simply on a whim, leading to the story to going nowhere. Certain other aspects of the books I find rather distasteful, as I have said in the past.

I much prefer stuff by J.V. Jones, Janny Wurts, Chris Bunch, Gail Z. Martin, David Farland, Sarah Ash and others.

[Tuidjy]

Edi beat me to it. The Instrumentalities of the Night are easily the equal
of the very best books of the Black Company.

[Wrana]

Well, I can only say that Black Company series is great. Of course, Book of Murgen IS weird - after all, it's supposed to be written by a man who "was mad almost half the time"! And Book of The Lady contains discrepancies with other ones - of course! Actually, the way Glen Cook makes different characters tell about the same occurencies differently is what marks him as good writer - one among the best in the genre, from my point of view. It is also very similar with real war memoires... Of Instrumentalities, I've read only the first one, so don't currently know how well it develops further. His old Dark Empire cycle is surely good enough - a pity it wasn't finished.
Gerge Martin, relative to this, is just boring. It's much more interesting to read actual chronicles on which his novellization is based - and this speaks a lot, as chroniclers didn't aim at being amusing...
I would recommend Robin Hobb for "those who like their fantasy dark". Plus Barbara Hambly, of course. Plus some Russian writers, but they probably won't be translated into English soon...

[sansanjuan]

Renojustin said:

Really the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin completely eclipses Tolkien in every way and is the best series I've ever read in my life, after 2000+ novels.

You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hurl.

Agreed though I would put it on equal footing with JR's stuff. Unparalleled character development. I read the first one in 1996 and lamented the next wouldn't be out for a coon's age. When it did come out I'd forgotten about the series (my retrograde amnesia). Now I'm rereading the first one thanks to a chance Father's Day gift from my step kids and looking forward to finishing them in succession.
-SSJ

[JimMorrison]

Eclipse is a very strong word, when referring to a pioneer in a field.

I mean, in some circles if you were to say "Hawking is such an amazing mathematician, his work completely eclipses Einstein!" - well, you might get stuffed into a particle accelerator. >.>

[Xietor]

Thanks for all the advice!

Jordan and martin were both very strong starters, but neither was the equal of Tolkien. Tolkien told a masterful story that actually had an ending. Yes he had sub plots, but they never distracted him from the main theme and he tied them all up nicely and concluded the series.

Jordan actually died before he finished his series, which began to decline from a lack of vision. Martin has too many subplots as well, and is having a hard time finishing his story.

[HoneyBadger]

The first book of SoIaF was so revolutionary, so full of hope and promise, that it literally took my breath away, but sadly, the rest of the series hasn't lived up to that. It's still very good, and contains a lot of very high notes, but the greatness of the first book is diluted by too much grub-work and wordiness. Martin, in my opinion, should have sat on the sequils, ignored publishers' demands, and even avoided signing with a publishing house until each book was as refined and good as he could make it-and retained some very strong editorship. It's a lot like the Matrix-it starts off eye-popping, but then degrades into an effort that still looks good, still intrigues, but disappoints as well, and ultimately, feels rushed and half-baked.