good Lord what fantasy are you reading?

Try Guy Gavriel Kay (my personal writing Ghod)
he's...well... godlike  Not saying he's without flaw, but he totally gets
it done for me
Start with Tigana even though it was the second book he wrote (the "first"
being the Fionavar Tapestry books... The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire,
The Darkest Road)
Tolkein fans will find the Tapestry books derivative (not without reason)
and much as I seriously love them -- they're his first effort and it shows.
Tigana is much richer. (the use of memory, music

The shame about the Tapestry trilogy (the only trilogy he's done, btw...
fear not to get mired in endless books. He doesn't work that way) is that he
tries too hard to get in pretty much everything. It's really a study of the
archetypes of myth/fantasy (primarily British, but there's pieces of
Russian, Icelandic, Polish etc etc) and in working through it all his focus
sometimes gets muddled. Still -- they're beautiful.

One of the things I like about his books is that he doesn't tie up all the
storylines - there will be "pre history" you know nothing, or little about,
and there's room at the end for "life goes on" which makes the story exist
beyond the reader. The primary complaint from readers of Tigana was that
they felt the ending was a set-up for a sequel, but it isn't. It's simply
his way of saying that the life goes on.

Also, what may be a drawing interest for you -- he writes very strong female
characters. You won't find any empty-headed types twisting an ankle as
they're running away, or bossoms heaving while they wait for the man to bail
them out, "take them" or any other mindless crap.

I could wax rhapsodic, but I'll refrain :)

One note -- there is torture, there is warfare, but it's not the driving
force of the book, nor what you'll remember afterwards.


----- Original Message -----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: [BR-2] RE: class divisons in Tolkein


> You know, I really don't find some of the more recent critiques of Tolkein
very
> interesting. They miss much of the point of his writing -- or, worse,
treat his
> books and note very good children's stories --.  The "Class division"
thing is
> one of the latest -- He was reather better than some of the fantasy
writers who
> followed him, IMHO,blatant S&M sexual fantasy,the ancient culural disease
> called slavery, bloody and violent warfare and torture, gawdaful "cities
in the
> desert" senarios that defy logic.  Endless "magical
swords" told &
re-told.
> Bla. Picking on Tolkein is a seemingly fashionable passtime currently. He
was
> one of the first, where the fantasy benchmark was set a generation ago --
and,
> the only critiques that are really interesting discuss his work in context
of
> that fact. Lezlie
> >
> >Worse: the fools who insist that their favorite author/pieces of fiction
must
> >somehow be more progressive than their era, because they cannot imagine
liking
> >something that conflicts with their notions of right and wrong.
> >
> >darkelf, those folks give me headaches
> >
> >=====
> >Obsequium parit amicos; veritas parit odium.  - Cicero
> >(Compliance produces friends; truth produces hate.)
> >
> >__________________________________
> >Do you Yahoo!?
> >SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
> >http://sbc.yahoo.com
>

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