Sara Douglas - BattleAxe.. From the Axis trilogy
probably more from that trilogy, but I haven''t read them yet.

RED DWARF! Comedy writen to its best

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

I don''t know whether I''d call them perfect, but I don''t think I''ve ever been so enthralled in a series as I was in the Amber chronicles by Roger Zelazny.

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Original post by felonius

And while I am at it Fahrenheit 451 is actually quite poorly written too in my humble opinion. Interesting story, though.

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It used very interesting terms for various gadgets and other things. I can''t give any examples, because I read the Finnish translation (usually I read books in the original language if I can).

-Jussi

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Original post by felonius

Tolkien might be the inventor of a new genre, but when you compare his works with later works in the fantasy genre his books generally lack behind. There is too long travelling descriptions and long chapter with no real content. The Hobbit is quite a trivial story (original for its time but not anymore) so it can hardly be called a "perfect book". And Lord of the Rings has many boring sections. Take for instance the chapters in the forests of the Ents.

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The hobbit is actually a children''s book, and begins as a trivial story. Yet, at the end it becomes much more than that, which is why I like it. The style of writing accomodates the growth of the main character, Bilbo, throughout the length of the book. I haven''t seen many other writers that do this.

The long traveling descriptions are good, in my opinion. Tolkien is the only author that has managed to create a living, breathing, consistent and complete world in just a few chapters. For the genre, that certainly doesn''t count as "no content" to me. I LOVED the ent forest.
What I do not like is the rambling kind of fantasy. Something awesome and new happens every chapter. YAWN! That''s pulp to me. I don''t find it enjoyable or realistic to read about ever more incredible situations. It''s desensitizing.
The end of the Lord of the Rings is magnificent. It doesn''t end in a magnificent final battle where good overcomes evil. Not really. It ends in the weakness of Frodo, and the overpowering evil within Gollum that accidentally destroys the ring, saving the world from Sauron. The heroism is that two small people managed to get all the way there, and got lucky.


Anyway, another book that certainly classifies as perfect writing to me:
Anne Rice''s Interview with the Vampire.



People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~

My perfect books would have to be JJR Tolkens books (Havn''t read all of the yet) and all of Neil Stephenson books. Neils books just feel real, the characters are real. The best part is their written in the kind of language that you use when talking to friends over a couple of bears. Real nice and easy to read.

With Tolkien, the language is flowery as all let out but you can see through it all and see what the characters are on about. Also the stories aren''t about great adventures with super happy scooby doo endings. Even the Hobbit though it is a childs story, the "heroes" are modivated by greed not honour or the search for a weapon of mass destruction with which to slay the enemy.

The Novel by Jin Yong are very good. He is a legendary Chinese writer among the chinese. He write kung-fu books, and the strength of his novel is he write some very good characters in his books. Last year, a writer from China says his story are cheap and this writer get flame from everywhere (internet, newsgroup, newspaper). This is an example of the popularity of Jin Yong.

(((I might get flamed for this.))) I found the bible to have some interesting story. I also like some buddhism sutra. Not all of buddhist sutra are theory, some of them talks about story of buddha and his disiple and their past life. I found the story interesting to read.

Here''s one story I found in buddhism sutra:
The story says that the buddha was once a king in his past life who is very unselfish and is willing to give anything away. Some people come and want his eye and he give them away. Some want his hand/legs/ear/toungue/penis/wife/children and he give them away. His officer was very angry at him and though he is stupid and throw the king away and let him die. As a result, some insect/worm comes to eat his flesh. (In the end he live in heaven for such unselfishness)

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Original post by dwarfsoft

Anything Fiest! The whole damn lot of them... Lots of depth and originality in story

LOTR... has some strange properties for the 3 books separation
Book I: All history, no feeling...
Book II: Bit of history, a little more feeling...
Book III: Relatively NO history, lots of feeling...

Anyone else notice that? I didn''t like Book I because it didn''t seem to have any emotion behind the writing, but I liked II and III. Anyone else feel the same?

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

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I like the first book most, then they got worse. Altough they were all still brilliant. Everyone I''ve spoken to agrees that the first book it''s the best, weird huh? Still, The Hobbit rocks Read it the first time back in like 3th grade, and still love it .

"Paranoia is the belief in a hidden order behind the visible." - Anonymous

#lengthy post warning

IT''s kinda funny to see all of you people only mention fantasy litterature (apart from anonymous above).

What about classic litterature ? What''s wrong with Shakespeare for instance ? I still remember the feeling when I saw Henry the Vth. The Saint Crespin battle speech is probably one of the most compelling thing I have ever read/heard. Why ? Because of the crescendo, because of the desperate situation (a mere 500 soldiers against the thousands of french troops, if I am correct ?), because it works on me everytime I hear/see it...

I notice no one really explain why they think their choices are well written. This thread is turning more into "my favorite author kicks ass" ... which is kinda pointless. For instance, why would I read Feist ? "BEcause it rocks" doesnt convince me, sorry.

Dwarfsoft : I agree with your remark on LOTR. I remember finding the first book quite lenghty at times, mainly the part until they reach Rivendell. Some things shine among the first book, but it''s true that it wasnt the best book. My favorite is the Riders of Rohan, and especially the battle of Minas Tirith (I hope I am not making a mistake in the names...), with the death of Theoden, and the fight of Eowyn. That scene is just Tolkien at its best. The description really pictures the dramatic moment, and the braveness of Merry and Eowyn is just the kind of scenes I always love.
Tolkien is good at descriptions, no one can really deny that. There is also a lyrism to the writing that you wont find in more recent authors. The language Tolkien uses has something poetic to it, that most modern authors forget to the benefit of action and story. That''s what you who judge the plot "simple" forget, Tolkien wasnt a great plot maker (IMHO), he was more of a storyteller, counting simple tales in a beautiful way...

O.S.Card has some very interesting books, in terms of plot. The one thing I dont like in his writings his the underlying religious thing. The books are good, but for some strange reason end up being SO manichean... the homecoming serie for instance is a very interesting story, but what could be an excellent scifi/fantasy mix with a very complicated plot, seem to turn into a bible based parable. Almost propaganda ... eeeak.
On the other hand, take his novel "The Lost boys", and you get an excellent "6th sense" style twist, with a very interesting depiction of a Mormon game programmer, and his life ... hard to really describe the whole thing. The underlying religion is still there, but it fits quite well the story.

Ah well ... another lengthy post by yours truly.

youpla :-P

Well, okay, I liked the Winnie the Pooh books by AA Milne - they still make me laugh (I''m sure that at 20 I''m far too old for them though)