PDA

View Full Version : Favorite Fantasy Book Series?



mdrew93
06-14-2011, 02:28 AM
Just wondering what people who play ADOM read. I am currently reading the incredible Wheel of Time series by Robert Jorden. If you haven't read them, you really should check them out. The series is incredibly long (14 books, each about 1000 pages). It in my opinion is fantasy at it's best. Jorden is an incredible author. I have also read the Xanth series by Piers Anthony (about five years ago) and a little of David Eddings books (although I have most of them). But The Wheel of Time just blows them all away. Fantastic writing.

Anyway, any of your favorite series/books/authors, post below.

gut
06-14-2011, 02:54 AM
i tried to read wheel of time several times, but just couldn't get
interested. everybody praises it so much, i keep trying it again
and again. just seems stupid to me. i am willing to suspend my
disbelief enough to enjoy just about any fantasy, but there are
just limits. having said that, i will list my fantasy book enjoyings
relatively chonologically.

xanth

Robert Asprin's 'another fine myth' series. I have read (and listened to) the first book 'another
fine myth' so many times i almost have it memorized. I may load it again when I'm done typing :D

legend of huma and some other dragonlance

cleric quintet and a bunch more from R.A Salvatore

Death Gate Cycle series (one of my favorites)

a bunch of Terry Brooks stuff, especially liked 'Landover' and 'running with demons' (was it also
called trolltown?)

Terry Goodkind, Sword of Truth series (this guy is a nut (and i really hope i'm not mixing my terry's))

harry potter (was really late to this series, just eventually gave in to the inevitible)

several more good ones i'm forgetting, i'm sure


here is an old brinkster link about this topic
http://adom.brinkster.net/forum/messages.asp?thread=1649&start=14538&page=1&tmp=61832

JellySlayer
06-14-2011, 07:02 AM
I think my favourite is probably Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (the inspiration for HBO's new Game of Thrones show). It's really in another league compared to pretty much every other fantasy series I've read: the depth of characters, complexity of plot, and amount of detail are really stellar. Definitely worth a look for anyone who loves fantasy. The series is very dark and is definitely geared to an adult audience.

I've read the Wheel of Time and am kind of hot and cold on it. Some of the books are very good, a few others are really dreadful--particularly in the books 6-10ish range. The last few have been much better (sadly, I think my favourite books in the series are the posthumous ones). I think what Jordan's books suffer from is mostly very flat characters. All of the good guys are good guys; all of the bad guys are bad guys; very few characters ever really break out of their established moulds.

I enjoyed the Sword of Truth series quite a bit as well. Goodkind gets a little preachy with the Objectivism in some of the latter books (although not quite to the level of Atlas Shrugged), which gets a little annoying. Some of the plots are pretty contrived too, but it's good fun for the most part.

When I was younger I enjoyed the books by Raymond E. Feist (Midkemia series? I don't know if there's an official name for the whole thing). I haven't picked up any of his books in over ten years though, so I don't know if I'd still find him as compelling as I did.

Silfir
06-14-2011, 12:35 PM
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams is probably my favorite as regards to High Fantasy that is not Lord of the Rings. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn is pretty damn great, too. Haven't read the Wheel of Time yet. I have read David Eddings and I thought it was alright, but that was a long time ago.

I haven't read Song of Ice and Fire either. As far as dark fantasy goes, I'm pretty sure it doesn't get darker than Joe Abercrombie. His First Law trilogy is excellent, it's just that you yearn for the the jolly optimism and rainbows of a world war documentary after you're done.

Soirana
06-14-2011, 01:20 PM
Witcher:)

Guess i am not reading english series anyway as slavians looks better for me.

ironcash
07-20-2011, 09:19 AM
I have read most of R.A. Salvatore's books and enjoyed them but what i really liked was the 'War on the spider queen' series

It was produced by R.A. Salvatore but each book in the six book series has a different author. I think Salvatore wrote out the general story then each author expanded on it in their book.

It is about Lolth going silent and a group of bad a** dark elfs travels to from Menzoberanzan to different area of the underdark to the surface and to a few different planes.

It seems like it's a little more adult oriented then Salvatores book a little more dark and in depth.

I would highly suggest it to any fan of Salvatore, forgotten reals, D&D, or fantasy in general

xan
07-21-2011, 01:37 AM
I'm currently reading the wheel of time too! Almost finished book 8.
Some other series you might want to check out that I really enjoyed are:


The Farseer Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy - Robin Hobb, Fantastic series, probably my favourite. There's also 2 more series set in the same world though I haven't yet read them.

Pelmen the Powershaper - Robert Don Hughes

Cenotaph Road Series - Robert E. Vardeman

Spellsinger Series - Alan Dean Foster, This series was pretty funny though the books became slightly formulaic as I progressed through them.

The Winter of the World - Michael Scott Rohan, I've only read the first 2 of these and I really enjoyed them, still trying to track down the others.

The Duncton Chronicles, The Book of Silence - William Horwood, Really enjoyed this series when I read it about 15 years ago.

Dragon Knight - Gordon R. Dickson, Some interesting characters in this one, and the grumpy wizard always made me laugh.

Vlad Taltos - Steven Brust, I've only read about 3 or 4 of these but they are good, I'll re-read them once I get them all!

The Axis Trilogy - Sara Douglass


This is all I could think of at the moment, but it should keep you going for a while :)

FatMagic
09-08-2011, 05:56 PM
Just finished reading two standalone books by Brandon Sanderson (who is writing the posthumous Wheel of Time books) named "Elantris" (his first book) & "Warbreaker". Both good books I would recommend to anyone. I really enjoy Brandon's writing style. I started Wheel of Time a few years ago, and couldn't get into it either. Stopped around book 3.

If anyone is interested, you can actually get "Warbreaker" for free right from Brandon's site. Or here's the link to download the full book in PDF (from his site): Warbreaker (http://www.brandonsanderson.com/drafts/warbreaker/Warbreaker_hardcover_1st_ed.pdf)

Other Fantasy Series I enjoyed immensely:

- Dragonlance books by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (see list of specific books below)

+ Chronicles Trilogy (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, Spring Dawning) followed up years later by Dragons of Summer Flame
+ Legends Trilogy (Time, War & Test of the Twins)
+ The Raistlin Chronicles (The Soulforge & Brother in Arms)

- Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (EXCELLENT SERIES!!)

+ Dragon Wing, Elven Star, Fire Sea, Serpent Mage, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, The Seventh Gate

- Harry Potter Series (quite good if you get into it. it really is!)

Silfir
09-08-2011, 07:39 PM
I read Elantris too and it was a great read, but if you haven't read Mistborn yet, you are missing out.

nathrakh
09-08-2011, 09:52 PM
I too like various Dragonlance books.

e: I used to go to library and loan a good few kilograms of those massive opuses of "books". It's so addicting I often read all night. Damn, I need to start visiting the library again - it's free here after all!

FatMagic
09-09-2011, 01:12 PM
I read Elantris too and it was a great read, but if you haven't read Mistborn yet, you are missing out.

That's my next read :-D

grobblewobble
09-09-2011, 03:22 PM
Read some of Sword of Truth, enjoyed the first books. But the latter books were too.. I dunno. It stopped interesting me.

Read Lord of the Rings when I was young and easily impressed, it remains a favourite.

I read a few books of Robin Hobb and liked them a lot, would like to read more from her.

Also liked the Dark Tower series, even though I am rather ashamed to admit it. They were overall not great books, but somehow I enjoyed them anyway.

Heard a lot of good things about song of ice and fire, it's on top of my to-read list.

Moeba
09-09-2011, 11:05 PM
well certainly one of the things that could be said of the song of fire and ice is that it could use an 18+ label, if those would be given to books. With the film series, I didn't come farther than the first delivery because of this. Nonetheless the books are quite interesting indeed; not the usual fantasy.

I suppose my favourites are these, more or less: Harry Potter, Robin Hobb (except for the series without the dragons) and the Wheel of Time. The last books by Brandon Sanderson were nice indeed, so probably I'll go reading Elantris and the others soon.
For Lord of the Rings I probably saw the movie too often :D (guess I saw the first part about 15 times)

JellySlayer
09-26-2011, 09:35 PM
Also liked the Dark Tower series, even though I am rather ashamed to admit it. They were overall not great books, but somehow I enjoyed them anyway.

I didn't think the series was that bad. The story has great characterization that I think is very compelling, and is, at times, pretty hilarious. The plot is coherent in a weird sort of way (except for book 4...). I think the problem is that King is much better at building up tension in his stories and then resolves it in some lame, anticlimactic way. He has this habit where you get to the "Oh no, how on Earth are they going to escape this time?" part, and then the bad guy trips over a rock, breaks his skull and dies.

grobblewobble
09-27-2011, 10:41 AM
I didn't think the series was that bad. The story has great characterization that I think is very compelling, and is, at times, pretty hilarious.
Ah, you read it as well? What book did you like best?

The things I liked best about the series was the way he pictures scenes, lots of ruins of an ancient civilization that decayed, interesting bad guys. I think my favourite book would be the Wastelands.


I think the problem is that King is much better at building up tension in his stories and then resolves it in some lame, anticlimactic way.
Yeah, that's King in a nutshell. Also the total story didn't seem that consistent to me.. It isn't clear why Roland wants to reach the tower, and the events feel a bit random sometimes. Also, in the later books I started to get tired of King referencing his own books and himself.

But yes, still worth reading.

JellySlayer
09-27-2011, 05:26 PM
I think I liked Drawing of the Three and Wastelands best (and I'll include the first bit of Glass that finishes off Wastelands with those... one of my favourite scenes from the whole series). My understanding of the series is kind of screwed up, because I read Drawing first and never got around to reading the Gunslinger until a couple years after I'd already read Wizard and Glass, so the first book never really fit in properly for me. Except for the one scene at the start of it, I think Wizard and Glass is probably the weakest book in the series, although I didn't really care much for the last book either.

Buckner112
03-28-2012, 10:00 AM
a BOOK?
well if we talk about books there is only one book i can think of -Harry Potter :D
but it's not exactly fantasy.

Silfir
03-28-2012, 04:21 PM
And the way I know it's a spammer is, of course, that Harry Potter is absolutely fantasy, even if not classical high fantasy.

(And the fact there used to be a download link in this guy's signature and the wrong answer to the profession question)

gut
03-30-2012, 01:43 PM
i think maybe another attempt to get tb to implement an actual r/c question check is in order...

drivshred
05-13-2012, 03:10 PM
"Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin" ~ I haven't read this yet and you made me wonder what the story of this is all about.

_Ln_
05-13-2012, 03:30 PM
"Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin" ~ I haven't read this yet and you made me wonder what the story of this is all about.

Don't read near golden-haired women, because you can accidentally punch them in the face in incredible feats of rage. Starting with book 2 especially.

Al-Khwarizmi
05-13-2012, 05:39 PM
I have read quite a lot of fantasy... these are my favourite fantasy series:

- Discworld novels, by Terry Pratchett: how can it be that no one has mentioned them yet? They parody everything under the sun in the past and present, but under a fantastic setting, and they are just hilarious.

- Song of Ice and Fire: complex books with an intrincate plot and lots of politics in a world of weak magic. Awesome.

- Lord of the Rings: a classic, but still great, better than 99% of the books that try to copy it.

- Dragaera cycle by Steven Brust: hard to find, at least in my country, but very worth it. Very fast-paced books, at times somewhat exaggerated but lots of fun. Original and very different from any other fantasy cycle.

- Elric of Melnibone cycle by Michael Moorcock: Was someone talking about dark fantasy? Well, Song of Ice and Fire is great but it's a Hello Kitty coloring book compared to this. Prepare to suffer.

- Death Gate cycle by Weis and Hickman: I read those aeons ago so I don't really remember the details, but I do remember they were very good, much better than Dragonlance (I used to love Dragonlace when I was around fifteen, but later I found them too immature).

- Narnia cycle by C.S. Lewis: I liked these books when I was like 7 or 8 years old, but I can still read them now and they're still good. Good-hearted fantasy with roots in classical tales.

- Harry Potter: also good-hearted fantasy with roots in classical tales, but with a modern touch. Very good except for the ending, which was really lame and disappointing IMHO. A pity.

Deg
06-25-2012, 04:30 AM
I honestly never know how to answer this question properly. The fantasy genre is so broad and varied I find it also impossible to pick a favorite series/book. I love different books for different reasons.

To generalize I would have to say anything written in the Forgotten Realms would be a favorite. My very first novel back in the 80's was Spellfire by Ed Greenwood. This opened my eyes to the world of literature like nothing previously had before.

Wheel of Time Series: The level of detail of the setting draws me in and I get lost in the numerous pages written by a great writer. (Thankfully they found one of my favorite authors to complete the series off, Thank you Brandon Sanderson!)

Lord of the Ring's: When it comes to high fantasy and painting a picture of a world few writings match the level of Tolkien. His works are classics and will endure the test of time.

Green Rider Series: A strong female lead is nice to see and the writing evokes vivid images of the world. It is easy to get lost in the struggles of the characters in this series.

Last and definitely not least....

Anything by Brandon Sanderson. Hand's down his writing style makes him my favorite of all the "new" authors.

Roarke
06-26-2012, 01:29 AM
Discworld and A Song of Ice and Fire are my standbys, though I like a fair heap of other stuff, even some of the Warcraft Expanded Universe (from when WoW was a thing).

Grey
06-26-2012, 11:30 AM
I recently read 3 of the Song of Fire and Ice books and was pretty damned disappointed. The pacing is terrible, too many characters are uninteresting, and when things do actually happen the exposition is often poor (like learning about an important battle through dialogue after the event). I can't imagine slogging through books 4 and 5. I think it's a bad case of a writer doing well, getting a big ego, and no longer heeding the advice of editors. A big pair of scissors liberally applied could do wonders for the books.

Roarke
06-26-2012, 01:04 PM
Just as a point of interest, the books you read came out before he was a big-name writer. Although I agree that the narration is very unwieldy at times. He can really do a better job describing someone's outfit than what's actually happening at times...

Still, I find that the dialogue (between interesting characters) is excellent and the world-building is phenomenal. It's all a matter of opinion.

Soirana
06-26-2012, 04:35 PM
I recently read 3 of the Song of Fire and Ice books and was pretty damned disappointed. The pacing is terrible, too many characters are uninteresting, and when things do actually happen the exposition is often poor (like learning about an important battle through dialogue after the event). I can't imagine slogging through books 4 and 5. I think it's a bad case of a writer doing well, getting a big ego, and no longer heeding the advice of editors. A big pair of scissors liberally applied could do wonders for the books.

That is one of few series i read all in English, so you can guess my opinion.

As far as narration goes.... most of time it is eternal drag, describing anything except things which would make progress ending in sudden boom of corpses... Well, some like it some not:) Overall things sort of improve in book 5 although 3 and four are somewhat worst. I got feeling writer simply got carrried away with world.

I also heard some proposals like - if Danny and dragons line would appear in like book 3 and went on more condescend it would be lot of better. Same goes for a lot of other lines too.

Grey
06-26-2012, 05:49 PM
He liked talking about food a lot, I seem to remember. There's more descriptive talk of various courses than there is of battles or dramatic events. And some of the character had such whiny internal monologues going on for pages and pages... And *everything* would be foreshadowed beyond any surprise. Blah... Perhaps he was too much in love with his own world. It seemed like some characters were shifted around the place just to show off the places instead of to develop the characters. I enjoyed the first book, but the second was disappointing and the third was a right slog.

Soirana
06-26-2012, 05:57 PM
There's more descriptive talk of various courses than there is of battles or dramatic events.

Pretty much true. I always thought that was to represent how the life goes - 350 days you eat, work and make bad jokes and if you lucky 15 days in year are worth to remember.

Battle descriptions would need wast improvement that is true.

Deg
06-26-2012, 09:05 PM
The Martin book discussion is interesting as I share similar views towards his writing as Grey. I have had a similar discussion with a friend of mine who also is a big fantasy reader and his argument to me was he found the Wheel of Time series having basically the same issues a martin's books. I really enjoy WoT but Martin's works are not enjoyable to me.

Now I pose the question to you all:

Do you find the style of Martin's writing and Jordon's writing the same? Does the pace in both series put you off? How much is too much detail in a series?

Grey
06-26-2012, 09:10 PM
I've not read any of the Wheel of Time, so I guess I can't say. If I ever do I will come back and answer. But right now Martin's books have put me off fantasy almost altogether. Tolkien and Howard are the only fantasy I can currently abide.

gut
06-27-2012, 01:14 AM
the difference for me is that I tried and failed to get interested in WoT several times,
but only tried and failed to get interested in icyhot once

JellySlayer
06-27-2012, 02:07 AM
The Martin book discussion is interesting as I share similar views towards his writing as Grey. I have had a similar discussion with a friend of mine who also is a big fantasy reader and his argument to me was he found the Wheel of Time series having basically the same issues a martin's books. I really enjoy WoT but Martin's works are not enjoyable to me.

Now I pose the question to you all:

Do you find the style of Martin's writing and Jordon's writing the same? Does the pace in both series put you off? How much is too much detail in a series?

It's hard to judge the whole series for either of them, because both are kind of all over the place. (minor spoilers, but I'll try to be good).

For instance, the first 2-3 books of Wheel of Time I think personally are pretty well paced. Honestly, as a stand-alone trilogy, they're incomplete, but not terrible. I mean, yes, they're still doorstoppers, and if you aren't into that kind of thing then you won't like them regardless, but for the most part, all of the characters have fairly well-defined and interesting goals and story arcs. The series starts getting bogged down in the next couple books, and I think 6-8 or so are really dreadful. Maybe even 6-9. His editors probably should have told him to write those as one or two books in total. I think part of the problem is you have, say, Egwene who has a major story arc that goes on from about book 6 to book 13, and a lot of it is just kind of political manoeuvering and you don't get the big payoff until the last book in her arc. When you have the same with almost every character (don't get me started on Perrin/Faile/Berelain...) and don't really have a good sense of the big picture... The last two books are quite good, partly because I think Brandon Sanderson has better pacing than RJ, and partly because a lot of those storylines that drag on for seven or eight books suddenly pay off big time.

The series also suffers from a lack of good villains, IMHO. Except for Lanfear and Ishmael in the early books, the Forsaken are all pretty incompetent and don't really pose a serious threat more than sort of an obligatory end-of-level boss type thing.


As for Martin... again, it's up and down. The first book I think is pretty tight. The second book is a bit sluggish. The third is top-notch, and the last two, especially book four, really drag on. If you watch the series, I think you sort of see the same--the first season is quite good, but the second season, particularly the middle couple of episodes, are kind of dull. I think the reason here is sort of the same... when you get into these extended storylines, you're going to get some downtime with the characters now and then, and if too many of them get too much at once, it doesn't work so well.


I think for both series, I'd say you can put it down to having too many plot threads at once. I mean, if you only have two or three storylines, even if they're told from multiple points of view (eg. the early books in both series), then the storyline feels a lot more coherent, and the author doesn't need to describe five or six or eight different settings. Martin has I think 13 or so POV characters, most of which are, at least currently, following entirely separate narrative arcs. I've never counted with Jordan, but I'm sure it's at least that many in a given book, especially later on.

Although, this sort of thing is a problem with any extended fantasy series, IMHO. Tolkien's books have the same problems, as far as I'm concerned.

grobblewobble
06-27-2012, 09:18 AM
Didn't read much of Ice and Fire, did watch. I find it hard to feel much sympathy for any of the characters. Perhaps the book is more realistic by not having any clear good to oppose the evil, but..

Maybe Ned Stark should is supposed to be good? However, the moment he killed one of his trusted scouts who came running back after being confronted with Others, without even stopping to think, I could no longer care about him. Shows he's incompetent, naive and merciless. I find myself rooting for the Others, hope they kill every last character in the book.

Grey
06-27-2012, 12:52 PM
I think where Lord of the Rings does things a little better is that it's happy to not show a group of characters at all for a whole book, keeping the focus on the development of a lone group. In the Ice and Fire books it felt like some characters had chapters here and there just to remind you that they still existed, so you had a lot of boring chapters that make you stop caring at all about that character.

_Ln_
06-27-2012, 01:47 PM
Didn't read much of Ice and Fire, did watch. I find it hard to feel much sympathy for any of the characters. Perhaps the book is more realistic by not having any clear good to oppose the evil, but..

Maybe Ned Stark should is supposed to be good? However, the moment he killed one of his trusted scouts who came running back after being confronted with Others, without even stopping to think, I could no longer care about him. Shows he's incompetent, naive and merciless. I find myself rooting for the Others, hope they kill every last character in the book.

Well, he is. That was not his scout, but a member of a certain group within the universe - Night Watch. When you join every thing you did in the past is forgiven (it mainly (but not 100%) consists of criminal due to this) and you pretty much severe any ties with the outer world. Deserting (as that guy did) is punishable by death and Stark, being the one to capture the guy, delivered the blow.


I think where Lord of the Rings does things a little better is that it's happy to not show a group of characters at all for a whole book, keeping the focus on the development of a lone group. In the Ice and Fire books it felt like some characters had chapters here and there just to remind you that they still existed, so you had a lot of boring chapters that make you stop caring at all about that character.

I don't know, I really liked this huge plot thing and kept intact with all characters. Got hooked on Martin's devious skill with torturing his readers maybe? :)

Cut out Daenerys out of 2nd season and it will be perfect. Episode 9 alone is better than the whole 1st (and 2nd) season. It gets you so close to feeling the atmosphere of the events, it's breathtaking.

JellySlayer
06-27-2012, 03:13 PM
Didn't read much of Ice and Fire, did watch. I find it hard to feel much sympathy for any of the characters. Perhaps the book is more realistic by not having any clear good to oppose the evil, but..

Maybe Ned Stark should is supposed to be good? However, the moment he killed one of his trusted scouts who came running back after being confronted with Others, without even stopping to think, I could no longer care about him. Shows he's incompetent, naive and merciless. I find myself rooting for the Others, hope they kill every last character in the book.

Ned Stark is lawful neutral. He's a soldier; he does his duty. The law says that deserters from the Night's Watch are to be executed, so that's what he did. As _Ln_ notes, the man wasn't a trusted scout. From Ned's point of view, if anything, he wasn't to be trusted at all because he was an oathbreaker. The Others are also, as far as he is concerned, mythological. In modern terms, it would be like somebody saying that they were attacked by medusas.

But yes, Ice and Fire is big into characters that are morally ambiguous. Some of the characters are good some of the time. Few of the characters are good all of the time, and those that are have a tendency to die off quickly.

[edit]That said, it isn't entirely untrue that Ned is incompetent, naive, and merciless, either. Much of the first book/season deals with Ned's shortcomings and the failures of his system of honour.


Cut out Daenerys out of 2nd season and it will be perfect.

I'd probably cut Ross too...

grobblewobble
06-27-2012, 04:47 PM
Ned Stark is lawful neutral. He's a soldier; he does his duty. The law says that deserters from the Night's Watch are to be executed, so that's what he did. As _Ln_ notes, the man wasn't a trusted scout. From Ned's point of view, if anything, he wasn't to be trusted at all because he was an oathbreaker. The Others are also, as far as he is concerned, mythological. In modern terms, it would be like somebody saying that they were attacked by medusas.

Hmm.. I shouldn't have the words "trusted scout", but my impression was that it wasn't this simple. IIRC the guy had been part of the Night's Watch for a long time, with a good track record. He had gone off with a group of three and they were all competent fighters.. so the fact that one of them came running back as if he'd gone mad and the other two had disappeared should have been a hint that it wasn't a simple desertion imo. At the very least, I think Ned should have made more of an effort to question him. I also had the impression that tales of Others had more credibility than complete myth among the people of the North, but perhaps I misunderstood.

Soirana
06-28-2012, 09:32 AM
Hmm.. I shouldn't have the words "trusted scout", but my impression was that it wasn't this simple. IIRC the guy had been part of the Night's Watch for a long time, with a good track record. He had gone off with a group of three and they were all competent fighters.. so the fact that one of them came running back as if he'd gone mad and the other two had disappeared should have been a hint that it wasn't a simple desertion imo. At the very least, I think Ned should have made more of an effort to question him.

If the guy wants to run back to Night watch nobody would make problem. Once you run southwards from Wall with black cloak on your shoulders it is that simple.

Both Walkers and Night watch are somewhat relict of past on the time book 1 starts. Walkers are legends and Watch is... mostly guys who would be dead due to crimes/other reasons if not joining it. On top of that Watch is actually supposed to defend realm against walkers... since walkers are
the fucken reason The Wall was built in first place.

Starks are just landlords in northern region of seven kingdoms, for example i do recall wildlings rethering to them as southern lords in few places [they do give explanation "southern" is anything south of wall], questioning or dealing with Watch or stuff beyound Wall is totally out of their business.
In other words "North" and "Beyound the Wall" have very little in common. Maybe that is not stressed at all in series, as much as long winter/summer cycles are not.

Al-Khwarizmi
06-30-2012, 03:33 PM
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.

For example, Paul Auster typically writes about the most uninteresting things one can imagine (IMHO). His novels are about middle-aged American divorced dads who like baseball, and stuff like that. In many of his novels, nothing relevant happens at all, in fact most of them have no ending worth the name, you just run out of pages at some point and voilà, it's the end. However, the guy writes so damn well that he still makes me buy all of his books and get addicted to them almost every time.

Martin is a bit on the opposite territory, i.e., his writing may not be top notch (I don't think it's bad either, but it could be improved) but the world, characters and stories he has imagined are awesome. In my opinion, that more than makes up for the imperfections in the writing style or the changes of pace.

Furthermore, I'd say that phenomenon is quite common in fantasy. Tolkien's writing style is not top notch either, in fact I'd say he shares lots of the flaws some of you are pointing out about Martin (slow pace at times -remember Tom Bombadil?-, focus on irrelevant things, dispersing characters, etc.) But he created a surprisingly rich world and made us live on it while we were reading LoTR.

By the way, I very much enjoy Martin's culinary digressions. You can tell that many of you are from the US or UK, places of the world where cooking is seen as a chore to get rid of as fast as possible, rather than an interesting art and one of the key defining points of a cultural identity :)

Soirana
06-30-2012, 04:50 PM
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
07-01-2012, 09:12 AM
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
12-29-2012, 05:57 PM
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 :D


('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
12-29-2012, 10:18 PM
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
01-03-2013, 03:28 PM
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
01-03-2013, 06:15 PM
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
01-04-2013, 09:23 AM
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
01-04-2013, 10:56 AM
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
01-04-2013, 08:53 PM
It would be helpful to include a total word count for each of the books parsed, and the naughty / neutral ratio.

tootboot
01-04-2013, 11:56 PM
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)

gut
01-05-2013, 10:23 AM
I have read none of these books:

[('The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie.txt', [(112, 'damn'), (89, 'dead'), (72, 'bastard'), (58, 'killed'), (51, 'hell'), (47, 'shit'), (42, 'death'), (41, 'kill'), (23, 'piss'), (17, 'killing'), (15, 'stabbed'), (11, 'assassin'), (11, 'ass'), (10, 'stab'), (9, 'torture'), (9, 'bastards'), (9, 'agony'), (8, 'murder'), (7, 'pissed'), (7, 'dying'), (7, 'bitch'), (6, 'stabbing'), (5, 'whore'), (3, 'tortured'), (3, 'thief'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'murdered'), (3, 'crime'), (2, 'thieves'), (2, 'deaths'), (2, 'criminal'), (1, 'whores'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'stole'), (1, 'stealing'), (1, 'steal'), (1, 'stabs'), (1, 'rape'), (1, 'bitches'), (695, 'total naughty words'), (196526, 'total words in book'), (282, 'neutral words per naughty')]),

I now see the value of including the ratio. I also see what tootboot means
by 'too long'. Seriously, 200,000 words? Geez! Anyway, one naughty word
every 282 non-naughty ones doesn't look so bad, but... this book has more
shitting than death, that can't be good.

('The Alloy of Law_ A Mistborn Novel - Sanderson_ Brandon.txt', [(36, 'dead'), (34, 'kill'), (27, 'killed'), (22, 'damn'), (21, 'criminal'), (17, 'thieves'), (15, 'death'), (13, 'stolen'), (12, 'crime'), (11, 'hell'), (10, 'dying'), (8, 'stealing'), (7, 'steal'), (7, 'killing'), (6, 'murdered'), (4, 'thief'), (4, 'stole'), (4, 'murder'), (3, 'bastard'), (2, 'stab'), (1, 'whores'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'murdering'), (1, 'deaths'), (267, 'total naughty words'), (99919, 'total words in book'), (374, 'neutral words per naughty')]),

A bit more tame here. The ratio is only slightly better, but it seems the
naughtiness of the words seems much reduced. Hmm, now I need to start
ranking naughtiness, as it is unfair to put words that aren't even
censored on TV as being equally naughty as those that are... Who am I kidding,
I'm far too lazy for that :D

('The drawing of the three - Stephen King.txt', [(79, 'dead'), (59, 'shit'), (57, 'kill'), (55, 'hell'), (43, 'killed'), (40, 'ass'), (35, 'death'), (31, 'dying'), (25, 'bitch'), (10, 'damn'), (8, 'killing'), (7, 'stealing'), (6, 'piss'), (5, 'rape'), (5, 'crime'), (4, 'stole'), (4, 'murder'), (4, 'agony'), (3, 'tortured'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'bastard'), (2, 'whore'), (2, 'thief'), (2, 'steal'), (2, 'slut'), (2, 'raping'), (2, 'murdering'), (2, 'murdered'), (2, 'bitches'), (1, 'torture'), (1, 'thieves'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'sluts'), (1, 'pisses'), (1, 'criminal'), (1, 'bastards'), (510, 'total naughty words'), (132520, 'total words in book'), (259, 'neutral words per naughty')]),

This is from the 'Dark Tower' series that grobble mentioned.

('The gunslinger - Stephen King.txt', [(50, 'dead'), (26, 'kill'), (22, 'death'), (15, 'hell'), (13, 'dying'), (12, 'killed'), (8, 'murder'), (7, 'killing'), (6, 'shit'), (6, 'agony'), (5, 'ass'), (4, 'stabbed'), (3, 'whore'), (3, 'steal'), (3, 'bitch'), (2, 'tortured'), (2, 'slut'), (2, 'rape'), (2, 'pissed'), (1, 'thief'), (1, 'stabbing'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'slay'), (1, 'murdered'), (1, 'deaths'), (1, 'damn'), (1, 'criminal'), (1, 'bastard'), (200, 'total naughty words'), (69556, 'total words in book'), (347, 'neutral words per naughty')])]

This one isn't too bad, considering the premise of the book.

Esoteric Rogue
01-05-2013, 01:01 PM
Well.

My favorite book was "The Sleeping Dragon" but I never read the Guardians of the Flame series. (The first book fully explore the premise -- at least from here to there, even if not all points between -- so I couldn't reason how further adventures could be any more exciting.)

Favorite series is Dragonlance Chronicles.

Misc notes:

Myth Adventures were obviously just a series of adventures, and I like them very much... until I was 15 and it was explained to me that those were children's books.

Elric Saga disappointed me when I realized they are just a series of adventures rather than epic tale; I wanted much more continuity.

I'd like to send props out to SnarfQuest!

grobblewobble
01-05-2013, 03:17 PM
('The drawing of the three - Stephen King.txt', [(79, 'dead'), (59, 'shit'), (57, 'kill'), (55, 'hell'), (43, 'killed'), (40, 'ass'), (35, 'death'), (31, 'dying'), (25, 'bitch'), (10, 'damn'), (8, 'killing'), (7, 'stealing'), (6, 'piss'), (5, 'rape'), (5, 'crime'), (4, 'stole'), (4, 'murder'), (4, 'agony'), (3, 'tortured'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'bastard'), (2, 'whore'), (2, 'thief'), (2, 'steal'), (2, 'slut'), (2, 'raping'), (2, 'murdering'), (2, 'murdered'), (2, 'bitches'), (1, 'torture'), (1, 'thieves'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'sluts'), (1, 'pisses'), (1, 'criminal'), (1, 'bastards'), (510, 'total naughty words'), (132520, 'total words in book'), (259, 'neutral words per naughty')]),

The count might be twice as high if you also scan for "fuck" and "fucking". :p

Silfir
01-05-2013, 04:39 PM
I have to admit - I don't think "lots of shitting and death" is that inaccurate an estimation of Joe Abercrombie's books. They're all the way at the gritty, dark and cynical end of the scale. There are few characters who are not murderers or assholes or murderous assholes, and those who aren't tend to have other crippling character flaws and none of them are happy. The only guy who's happy in that world is also the biggest and most powerful murderous asshole.

I really, really enjoyed reading those books, mind you. I love the author's style and sense of humour and I love the stories told in them - and I love the characters, too. With very few exceptions, they retain just enough humanity that you feel for them, even if they also happen to be murderers, cowards, assholes or just complete nutcases.

gut
01-05-2013, 09:38 PM
('The drawing of the three - Stephen King.txt', [(79, 'dead'), (59, 'shit'), (57, 'kill'), (55, 'hell'), (43, 'killed'), (40, 'fucking'), (40, 'ass'), (35, 'fuck'), (35, 'death'), (31, 'dying'), (25, 'bitch'), (10, 'damn'), (8, 'killing'), (7, 'stealing'), (6, 'piss'), (6, 'fucked'), (5, 'rape'), (5, 'crime'), (4, 'stole'), (4, 'murder'), (4, 'agony'), (3, 'tortured'), (3, 'stolen'), (3, 'bastard'), (2, 'whore'), (2, 'thief'), (2, 'steal'), (2, 'slut'), (2, 'raping'), (2, 'murdering'), (2, 'murdered'), (2, 'bitches'), (1, 'torture'), (1, 'thieves'), (1, 'suffer'), (1, 'stab'), (1, 'sluts'), (1, 'pisses'), (1, 'criminal'), (1, 'bastards'), (591, 'total naughty words'), (132520, 'total words in book'), (224, 'neutral words per naughty')])

Steven 'potty-mouth' King -_-

theseus12
01-06-2013, 07:40 PM
The Dark Tower series of Stephen King. I haven't even read all of them, but I do when I get the chance. I read the entirety of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle. started off pretty good, but I was dissapointed in the end on how Galby got his. I mean, seriously.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS!! Maybe it's not Strictly a fantasy series, but it's totally awesome!! Gripping action, smooth humour -and a small touch of romance in the end between our fav team Percabeth, but nothing major- and more mythology than you can shake a stick at. what's not to love?

Ichthys
05-31-2013, 01:46 AM
Does the Dresden Files count? Might not be "high" fantasy enough.

Nevermore
07-01-2013, 02:50 PM
Obviusly the J.R.R. Tolkien's books. Next the series of Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock and as third place the Dragonlance saga.