Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Forum

@Bardoly:

Unfinished Tales is a good read.

Right now I am re-reading Wheel of Time and I am in the middle of Book #5 (The Fires of Heaven) so I won’t have a chance to read any other books for a while. But now my interest list is growing for what to read next. Keep the list of good books coming you guys.

Read all of Tolkein’s books. I am also sucked into LOTR Online.

The Dune series has some excellent novels. Aside from Dune itself, the House books are all enjoyable reads. I actually enjoy most of Brian Herbert’s books more than his fathers.

I know I am not the only fan of of Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars novels. I recommend those to any and all fans of Star Wars. I see Grand Admiral Thrawn posts here. The best bad guy in the Star Wars universe besides Vader.  Too bad the guys in charge of the books now don’t deal more with Zahn and fire all the New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Farce crowd.

Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is a favorite as well. It is a shame he passed away before finishing it. The fellow finishing Memory of Light broke the novel up into three parts but has done very well so far.

Do any of you know if the movie The Hobbit has started filming yet?

@ABWorsham:

Do any of you know if the movie The Hobbit has started filming yet?

Go to this website for the latest:

http://the-hobbit-movie.com/

As previously noted, Tolkien, Robert Jordan and George RR Martin are a must…

In addition, you should try:

The original Dragonlance Series by Weis and Hickman (circa '85).  Great storytelling…

R.A Salvatore’s Forgotten Realms novels (chronicles the dark elf, Drizzit’s adventures…).  Great characters…

Lords of Dus series (4 books) by Lawrence Watt Evans (may be hard to find…try ebay or Amazon)

When I get done with my very slow re-read of Wheel of Time, I shall give some of these books a try.

Brain have you read “The Gathering Storm” yet? I couldn’t put that one down and have been left panting for the next two.

No, I have not, I am re-reading the series first, but life kind of got in the way and I am only on Lord of Chaos right now. The Gathering Storm is waiting for me though. Is Sanderson as good as Jordan?

The book is pretty good and impossible to put down. Sanderson is pretty good but different than Jordan. For the most part I couldn’t tell which parts of the book Jordan wrote and which parts were Sanderson’s. There were a few places I just wanted to shout “No” and more than a few I had to read again just because so much was happening.  When you get to it you will enjoy it.

I heard that a lot of the loose ends are getting tied up.

Spent the last year rereading the entire series also…literally on the last few pages of Knife of Dreams…excited to read The Gathering Storm.

I heard that a lot of the loose ends are getting tied up.

Oh yeah quite a few. The whole book gives a sense of the end coming- even with some of the side characters.

I would have to say that they’re probably not great.  Does anyone else who has read the “Dune” books have a different opinion?

I tend to agree. However his son and Kevin Anderson did a number of books that were quite good. The “House” books in particular. The also did a series that focused on the Butlerian Jihad which was also interesting but it spanned a lot of time. They also wrote two books that conclude the whole series and they weren’t bad.
I tried Paul of Dune and found it ok, not good enough to buy Winds of Dune which came later.

I actually like Brian Herbert’s writing much more than his father’s. How much of that is Kevin Anderson (co author) I really don’t know. I wasn’t a fan of Anderson’s forays in the Star Wars novels.

Bardolay and tkroll,

Thanks for your take on the Dune books.

I think I’ll read other books first.

@Bardoly:

I just bought “The Gathering Storm”, and I want to read it, but I think that I’m going to have re-read a few of the books to get back into the series properly.  I will probably start back at the beginning since the series is so good.

A science fiction book which I read recently which was pretty good is “Born of Fury” by David Weber.  I had read the original book, “Path of the Fury”, and I had really liked it, so I was happy to find out that Mr. Weber was going to write the backstory.  This book is actually the backstory AND a slightly updated version of the old book combined together in one volume, and it is quite good.

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I recently went on vacation, but now I’m back, so I’ll probably edit/update the first post of this thread in the not-to-distant future, so if anyone has any suggestions for the first thread, you’re welcome to suggest away.

If you just want the main plot without rereading. You could start here:

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=13372

Leigh Butler is doing a great job. She is only up to Book #7 right now.

I am still re-reading WOT, I’ve made it to Book #7; A Crown of Swords. Books #4-6 were long books.

Just finished Crown of Swords and moving onto Path of Daggers.