Favorite Fantasy Book Series?

[Soirana]

Some authors excel at telling stories, and some authors excel at having good stories to tell. Very seldom an author excels at both those things at the same time.

I've been in SF writing myself and from what i've heard and tried simultaniously advancing story properly and trying to describe rich original world is basically impossible. One of these ends being sacced to some extent.

[Evil Knievel]

I really liked the song of ice and fire. Although i agree. At times, it is lengthy and slow.

A great many of books at some point get into lengthy descriptive parts, and i gave up too often then. Best solution so far for me: reading as i enjoy it, skimming when parts that don't catch my attention. Lifetime is finite, the number of books out there is not.

My girlfriend even jumped chapters when she could not wait to see what would happen to the imp.

Anyway, the number of loose ends left after finishing a volume only increases, and especially when number six is five years away from now, that's quite frustrating. That indicates a grand finale at some point, where everything converges. I rarely saw an author pull that off without becoming pathetic. They tend to cram loads of monumental stuff into the final parts without gaps or new interesting things, and that takes away the "epicness".
(for the same reason, many movies at around minute 70 start to decay when the fast music starts)

I also think that Martin was too reckless in the past, killing off some characters easily that used to be pillars of the story arc. They have been built up to be loved or feared over many chapters, sometimes volumes, and often cannot be replaced so easily (spoiler: Tywin? ) . I think that westeros ended up quite hollow for this reason.

My rambling signal has gone off a while ago, so I ll suggest last the night angel trilogy from brent weeks, a kind of opposite book series, a lot less depth but really fast-paced and colorful (all shades), and short.

[gut]

So I'm studying a bit of programming and decided to (clumsily) parse a few fantasy books on my HD as an
excersize (and for a few giggles). I wanted to see how naughty Sci-fi/fantasy is now as compared to the
olden days. Have we become more naughty through the years? Does a bit of spicy language make for a
more interesting book? I just started by scanning for the bad language, but extended it to include more
violent and/or morbid ones as well. I intentionally excluded some of the racy words, as they were not used
often enough to change the gist of the results. I only scanned the (somewhat limited) collection of ebooks
I had in .txt format on my HD, and only picked samples from a few authors. Most of these are from authors
I like, though I added some in just because I remembered them being popular to so many other readers.
(I tried to read them in the past, sometimes repeatedly, and failed from boredom). Here is gutt's naughty
list (left many things out):

naughty_list = ['shit', 'damn', 'hell', 'piss', 'whore',
'slut', 'bitch', 'ass', 'bastard',
'shits', 'hells', 'pisses', 'whores', 'sluts',
'bitches', 'asses', 'bastards', 'pissed', 'rape',
'agony', 'torture', 'murder', 'thief', 'thieves',
'crime', 'prostitution', 'prostitute', 'prostitutes',
'stab', 'decapitate', 'dismember', 'stabs', 'stabbed',
'stabbing', 'raping', 'murdered', 'murdering',
'tortured', 'criminal', 'kill', 'killed', 'killing',
'slay', 'slayed', 'slaying', 'assassin', 'assassinate',
'assassinated', 'stealing', 'steal', 'stole',
'stolen', 'death', 'deaths', 'dying', 'dead', 'suffer']

[('Jordan, Robert - 01 - The Eye of the World v2.0.txt', [(158, 'dead'), (61, 'kill'), (56, 'death'), (43, 'killed'), (27, 'dying'), (19, 'killing'), (10, 'stabbed'), (6, 'steal'), (6, 'stabbing'), (5, 'tortured'), (5, 'stole'), (5, 'murder'), (5, 'agony'), (3, 'thief'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'stealing'), (3, 'stab'), (3, 'slay'), (3, 'murdered'), (3, 'deaths'), (2, 'thieves'), (1, 'torture'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'crime'), (432, 'total naughty words')]),

Well, here is one that bored me. Hard to believe, with all that carnage going
on, eh? The remarkable thing though, not a single swear word?! Do I read that
right? Impressive. Seems that what naughtiness there is in 'the eye of the
world' is mainly people either killed, dead, killing, dying, or about to kill or
make someone dead. Maybe worth a retry : D


('Paolini, Christopher -01 Inheritance.txt', [(56, 'killed'), (50, 'kill'), (49, 'death'), (38, 'dead'), (9, 'steal'), (8, 'stabbed'), (8, 'killing'), (8, 'agony'), (7, 'torture'), (6, 'dying'), (5, 'stolen'), (4, 'tortured'), (3, 'thief'), (3, 'stole'), (3, 'stealing'), (2, 'suffer'), (2, 'stabbing'), (2, 'slaying'), (2, 'murder'), (2, 'deaths'), (2, 'criminal'), (1, 'thieves'), (1, 'stabs'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'murdered'), (1, 'crime'), (1, 'bastards'), (1, 'bastard'), (1, 'assassin'), (1, 'ass'), (278, 'total naughty words')]),

I liked this one, and the naughty words didn't seem to affect the quality of the
read for me. It seems there is little scandalous language in alagasiahldskhfals or
however this land is pronounced, just a lot of killing, torturing, thieving and some
stabbing thrown in for good measure. I couldn't remember who the 2 bastards and the
ass were, until I realized those were prolly all references to Galbatorix : D


('Pratchett T - Discworld 01 - The Colour of Magic v2.0.txt', [(63, 'death'), (35, 'dead'), (19, 'kill'), (18, 'thief'), (14, 'hell'), (7, 'killing'), (7, 'killed'), (5, 'thieves'), (5, 'steal'), (5, 'assassin'), (4, 'damn'), (3, 'tortured'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'stabbed'), (3, 'murder'), (3, 'agony'), (2, 'whore'), (2, 'dying'), (1, 'whores'), (1, 'stole'), (1, 'stealing'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'murdering'), (206, 'total naughty words')]),

Awwww. Good ol' Pratchet. Don't need to cuss when yer a genius. Well there isn't
so much killing on the disc, but there still seems to be a lot of dead??? Ah, the
patrition does good work Theiving in Ankh Moorpork is thriving as always though.


('Salvatore, R.A - Icewind Dale Trilogy 2 - Streams of Silver.txt', [(105, 'assassin'), (36, 'death'), (30, 'dead'), (20, 'kill'), (17, 'killing'), (13, 'killed'), (10, 'damn'), (8, 'thieves'), (6, 'thief'), (6, 'agony'), (5, 'murder'), (5, 'dying'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'murdered'), (2, 'hells'), (2, 'hell'), (2, 'deaths'), (2, 'bastard'), (1, 'whore'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'stole'), (1, 'stealing'), (1, 'stabs'), (1, 'stabbing'), (1, 'stabbed'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'crime'), (1, 'ass'), (285, 'total naughty words')]),

Wait, 105 occurances of 'assassin'? Ah, I remember now. I think... Must be the one
with... what's his name? Artemis Entrary (or such)? This has to set a record for
'assassin' occurances in just about any one book. Well, maybe Soirana's notes might
beat it. Anyway, it seems like maybe someone got cursed out for something somewhere
along the line in this story... prolly for assassinating someone. *nods*


('SoIaF_book_1_A Game Of Thrones.txt', [(267, 'dead'), (114, 'death'), (109, 'kill'), (86, 'bastard'), (65, 'killed'), (52, 'damn'), (28, 'murdered'), (28, 'bastards'), (26, 'murder'), (23, 'dying'), (20, 'whore'), (19, 'hells'), (16, 'stolen'), (15, 'whores'), (14, 'steal'), (14, 'killing'), (12, 'agony'), (10, 'piss'), (9, 'shit'), (9, 'crime'), (9, 'bitch'), (8, 'thieves'), (8, 'ass'), (7, 'stabbed'), (6, 'suffer'), (6, 'stole'), (6, 'slay'), (6, 'hell'), (5, 'slut'), (5, 'rape'), (5, 'deaths'), (3, 'thief'), (3, 'stealing'), (3, 'murdering'), (3, 'assassin'), (2, 'pissed'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'sluts'), (1, 'slaying'), (1024, 'total naughty words')]),

Another boring one, and I remember being turned off by all the naughtiness. I think this
book is the only one that has almost as many bastards as murderers. I don't know the name
of the land in this series, but judging by all the whoring, raping, pissing and shitting,
I think it makes Ankh Moorpork look like paradise.


('SoIaF_book_3_A Storm Of Swords.txt', [(397, 'dead'), (211, 'killed'), (203, 'kill'), (138, 'bastard'), (104, 'death'), (54, 'dying'), (45, 'murder'), (44, 'steal'), (43, 'whore'), (41, 'murdered'), (35, 'killing'), (29, 'suffer'), (27, 'stolen'), (25, 'piss'), (23, 'stole'), (22, 'shit'), (22, 'hells'), (21, 'whores'), (20, 'slay'), (20, 'hell'), (18, 'stabbed'), (18, 'rape'), (18, 'crime'), (18, 'bitch'), (18, 'bastards'), (15, 'damn'), (12, 'agony'), (11, 'thieves'), (11, 'stealing'), (10, 'stab'), (6, 'thief'), (6, 'pissed'), (6, 'deaths'), (5, 'raping'), (4, 'stabbing'), (4, 'shits'), (3, 'slaying'), (3, 'murdering'), (2, 'tortured'), (2, 'slut'), (2, 'assassin'), (1, 'bitches'), (1, 'asses'), (1, 'ass'), (1719, 'total naughty words')]),

Had to scan a second one of these, just to make sure I didn't portray it unfairly.
It seems this dope's fans sent him some complaints about the language in the first
books being too tame. As a result, there are now twice as many bitches and bastards
going around stabbing and thieving and suffering and dying than ever before. No wonder
so many readers love this series 0_o


('Terry Goodkind -Confessor.txt', [(143, 'death'), (126, 'dead'), (71, 'kill'), (64, 'killed'), (30, 'agony'), (20, 'murder'), (20, 'killing'), (15, 'suffer'), (15, 'rape'), (14, 'stabbed'), (13, 'torture'), (12, 'stole'), (12, 'dying'), (6, 'tortured'), (6, 'stolen'), (5, 'steal'), (5, 'murdered'), (4, 'stabbing'), (4, 'crime'), (2, 'whores'), (2, 'whore'), (2, 'thief'), (2, 'stab'), (2, 'criminal'), (2, 'bitches'), (2, 'bastard'), (1, 'stealing'), (1, 'deaths'), (1, 'bitch'), (1, 'assassin'), (603, 'total naughty words')]),

This guy (Goodkind) is a bit of a nut, so I expected the naughty count to be rather
high, if from nothing else than just all the torturing in Da'hara alone. Seriously,
30 agony's? REaLy? We ShOuLd inViTe ThIs GuY tO tHe ForUMs! hE WOuLd fIt RiGHt iN!


('TOLKIEN, J R R - THE HOBBIT.TXT', [(46, 'dead'), (21, 'killed'), (12, 'death'), (11, 'thief'), (10, 'kill'), (6, 'thieves'), (6, 'stole'), (5, 'killing'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'stealing'), (3, 'steal'), (3, 'murder'), (3, 'dying'), (2, 'suffer'), (2, 'stabbing'), (2, 'stabbed'), (2, 'crime'), (1, 'torture'), (1, 'stabs'), (1, 'stab'), (143, 'total naughty words')]),

Middle-Earth turns out to be quite tame! I suppose that is no surprise, what with
Sauron being (mostly) dead and Gandolf running around scaring everyone straight via fear
of firework related punishments. Quite a few of these are no doubt refering to 'stealing'
mushrooms from farmers or loot from Smaug, and those are both actually fine.


('Weis & Hickman - Deathgate1.txt', [(87, 'assassin'), (74, 'death'), (69, 'dead'), (42, 'kill'), (20, 'murder'), (20, 'damn'), (19, 'killed'), (15, 'hell'), (14, 'dying'), (9, 'murdered'), (9, 'bastard'), (8, 'suffer'), (7, 'killing'), (5, 'agony'), (4, 'murdering'), (4, 'deaths'), (3, 'stealing'), (3, 'crime'), (2, 'tortured'), (2, 'torture'), (2, 'stolen'), (2, 'slay'), (2, 'criminal'), (2, 'bastards'), (1, 'whores'), (1, 'thieves'), (1, 'thief'), (1, 'stole'), (1, 'stabbed'), (1, 'prostitutes'), (430, 'total naughty words')]),

Hmm, another 'assassin' main character, and one born a bastard at that. Still, it is
what it is. And to think, the land of this book is Airianus, not even the labrynth


('Xanth 02 - The Source of Magic.txt', [(27, 'kill'), (27, 'dead'), (26, 'death'), (15, 'hell'), (12, 'killed'), (10, 'suffer'), (10, 'slay'), (8, 'damn'), (8, 'bitch'), (5, 'ass'), (5, 'agony'), (3, 'stabbed'), (3, 'dying'), (2, 'stole'), (2, 'steal'), (2, 'stabbing'), (2, 'slut'), (2, 'killing'), (1, 'tortured'), (1, 'torture'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'murdered'), (1, 'dismember'), (1, 'assassin'), (175, 'total naughty words')]),

Good ol' Xanth didn't let me down. There is almost as much slaying as killing, and
that is always a good sign. Good thing I didn't include 'panty' on my naughty list.


('Zelazny, Roger - Amber Chronicles, The 01 - Nine Princes In.txt', [(30, 'dead'), (18, 'hell'), (16, 'damn'), (15, 'killed'), (15, 'death'), (13, 'kill'), (5, 'killing'), (3, 'suffer'), (2, 'torture'), (2, 'bitch'), (2, 'bastards'), (2, 'bastard'), (2, 'agony'), (1, 'stolen'), (1, 'slay'), (1, 'pisses'), (1, 'dying'), (1, 'deaths'), (1, 'bitches'), (1, 'ass'), (132, 'total naughty words')]),

I somehow remember this book being a bit more violent??? Apparantly, tracing
patterns leaves very few dead. Either that or the deaths of entire armies are
just chalked up with one brief 'the army of furry ones all died' summary (more
likely : D).


('Alexander, Lloyd - Chronicles of Narnia.txt', [(80, 'death'), (13, 'slay'), (13, 'dead'), (7, 'dying'), (5, 'stolen'), (3, 'kill'), (2, 'torture'), (2, 'suffer'), (2, 'stole'), (1, 'thief'), (1, 'stealing'), (1, 'steal'), (1, 'stabbing'), (1, 'stabbed'), (1, 'killing'), (1, 'agony'), (134, 'total naughty words'])]),

How the amber chronicles beat the chronicles of bleeping Narnia, I'll never know. 0_o


('Brooks, Terry - Word and the Void 01 - Running with the Demon.txt', [(38, 'killed'), (34, 'dead'), (19, 'death'), (19, 'damn'), (17, 'hell'), (11, 'kill'), (9, 'killing'), (5, 'dying'), (4, 'suffer'), (3, 'murder'), (2, 'stole'), (2, 'stabbing'), (2, 'stabbed'), (2, 'pissed'), (2, 'ass'), (1, 'steal'), (1, 'bitch'), (1, 'bastard'), (1, 'agony'), (173, 'total naughty words')]),

It is now that I'm wondering if 'demon' should have made the naughty list? Nah, then
I'd have to do witches, necromancers, etc... They ain't naughty, just misunderstood.


('Eddings, David - Belgariad 01 - Pawn of Prophecy.txt', [(12, 'dead'), (11, 'thief'), (10, 'stolen'), (7, 'steal'), (7, 'kill'), (6, 'stole'), (5, 'death'), (4, 'dying'), (3, 'stealing'), (3, 'murdered'), (3, 'killing'), (2, 'killed'), (2, 'agony'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'stabbed'), (1, 'slay'), (1, 'criminal'), (79, 'total naughty words')]),

Saint David entertained a lot of people with a minimum of... well, anything naughty.
12 dead? Really? In a fantasy book? How? This is another I never finished, so maybe I
am just a naughty boy.


('Herbert, Frank - Dune 4 - God Emperor Of Dune.txt', [(72, 'death'), (54, 'stolen'), (33, 'dead'), (31, 'kill'), (18, 'killed'), (16, 'agony'), (10, 'damn'), (7, 'suffer'), (7, 'stole'), (7, 'deaths'), (6, 'dying'), (6, 'crime'), (5, 'rape'), (4, 'killing'), (3, 'torture'), (2, 'steal'), (2, 'hell'), (2, 'criminal'), (2, 'assassin'), (1, 'whores'), (1, 'tortured'), (1, 'stabs'), (1, 'stabbing'), (1, 'slaying'), (1, 'slay'), (1, 'murder'), (1, 'hells'), (1, 'assassinate'), (296, 'total naughty words')]),

I now realize that 'killer' isn't on my naughty list -_- There would have been
1000's of 'killer's from the 'fear is the mind killer' phrase alone, which probably
just goes to show how unfair this whole naughty test is anyway


('Myth 01 - Another Fine Myth.txt', [(19, 'kill'), (19, 'dead'), (17, 'assassin'), (16, 'killed'), (6, 'thief'), (3, 'steal'), (3, 'killing'), (3, 'dying'), (2, 'suffer'), (2, 'death'), (1, 'torture'), (1, 'stole'), (1, 'stabbing'), (1, 'deaths'), (1, 'criminal'), (1, 'assassinated'), (1, 'agony'), (97, 'total naughty words')])]

If anyone hasn't read another fine myth, go do so now. It is maximum fun and
minimal killing, dying, whoring, stabbing etc... : D

[ghostrobotmoonzombie]

im really enjoying all of Joe Abercrombies books.

the first law trilogy.
best served cold.
the heroes.
red country.

great characters and awesome reading

also, the Painted Man and The Desert Spear by peter brett are very good, with the third instalment to be out next year

[Cass]

The best fantasy I've ever read is Stephen Erikson. The Malazan books of the Fallen, and now the newly started Kharkanas trilogy. It's very hard to get into, but once you do it's utterly rewarding. (Kind of like Adom, eh?) A

It's so far above the level of most fantasy that since discovering him there's very few fantasy books I can still enjoy. Even Martin (on a re-read) seemed flat and not so well-written, and those books are way better than most fantasy (except book five, which was just... disappointing).

Abercrombie is on my to-read list.

[Alucard]

Just don't expect ANYTHING to be explained by Erikson (or have superhuman memory and comprehension, or external spoily sources). I finished the 10 books, but I left dissatisfied.

[Carter]

The best fantasy I've ever read is Stephen Erikson. The Malazan books of the Fallen, and now the newly started Kharkanas trilogy. It's very hard to get into, but once you do it's utterly rewarding. (Kind of like Adom, eh?) A

It's so far above the level of most fantasy that since discovering him there's very few fantasy books I can still enjoy. Even Martin (on a re-read) seemed flat and not so well-written, and those books are way better than most fantasy (except book five, which was just... disappointing).

Abercrombie is on my to-read list.

The new books by the second malazan writer aren't quite as good, but still worth a read.

really liking abercrombie at the moment, he reminds me a bit of Gemmell, but with better world building.

I was a tad dissastisfied with a crippled god too. It ended the plot line of the crippled god, true, but didn't feel like the end.

Looking forward to Jordan/Sandersons final Wheel of Time book which is out on the 7th. Annoyingly they decided to get cute with the marketing and made the book arrive just when everyone's christmas break ended.

[grobblewobble]

So I'm studying a bit of programming and decided to (clumsily) parse a few fantasy books on my HD

I'm curious what would come out for Stephen King's Dark Tower.

Ah, Terry Goodkind's confessor.. full of bdsm torture scenes.

[Pim]

It would be helpful to include a total word count for each of the books parsed, and the naughty / neutral ratio.

[tootboot]

Fantasy books seem to be very long these days and include a lot of sexual violence, two things I dislike.

(I'm not opposed to long books in principle but Book 1 of your 10 book series being almost as long as the LOTR trilogy is really pushing it)