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ShenLong
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06 Aug 2010, 2:22 pm

conundrum wrote:
Mutate wrote:
Dune (sci fi/fantasy mix really but the most gripping novel i have read)


Seconded.


Ditto.



Ambivalence
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06 Aug 2010, 5:15 pm

conundrum wrote:
Mutate wrote:
Dune (sci fi/fantasy mix really but the most gripping novel i have read)


Seconded.


I think Dune is a bit on the heavy side, and the rest of the series gets heavier and duller. But it is a good book.

Michael Scott Rohan's The Anvil of Ice (etc), Vance's Dying Earth and Zelazny's Amber novels are fun and at roughly Dune level complexity. The Amber books and Dying Earth are fantasy must-reads and MSR is funny if you know some mythology. :wink:

Avoid Thomas Covenant, the Wheel of Time and George "oh God, when will he stop?" Martin's Song of Ice and Fire at all costs. :lol:

Oh! If you can find them, Fritz Leiber's Grey Mouser stories are excellent examples of their type. They're usually in short story collections like Lovecraft and Conan stories.

The Belgariad is trashy but light fun.

Just about anything by Dianna Wynne Jones is worth reading. :)


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Tollorin
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06 Aug 2010, 6:18 pm

The Hobbit, by far the most easy to read of Tolkien works.


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ShenLong
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06 Aug 2010, 6:45 pm

Tollorin wrote:
The Hobbit, by far the most easy to read of Tolkien works.

Yes, the Hobbit isn't too hard to read if you're over say, 14.



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07 Aug 2010, 12:17 am

Guess I've got a lot to look into. :D

Thanks!

But... Ambivalence: Why avoid Song of Ice and Fire and Wheel of Time? I've heard pretty good things about them...



buryuntime
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07 Aug 2010, 12:21 am

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. It is about 500 pages, but read it anyway. If you like it even a little read the next one, Gormenghast. It´s even better.



ShenLong
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07 Aug 2010, 12:51 am

Dnuos wrote:
Guess I've got a lot to look into. :D

Thanks!

But... Ambivalence: Why avoid Song of Ice and Fire and Wheel of Time? I've heard pretty good things about them...


I think because they're quite difficult.



olso4644
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07 Aug 2010, 1:22 am

Ambivalence wrote:
conundrum wrote:
Mutate wrote:
Dune (sci fi/fantasy mix really but the most gripping novel i have read)


Seconded.


I think Dune is a bit on the heavy side, and the rest of the series gets heavier and duller. But it is a good book.
:)




Agreed. The first dune book, the second dune book, the third dune book, but do not go any further.



Ambivalence
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07 Aug 2010, 9:34 am

Dnuos wrote:
But... Ambivalence: Why avoid Song of Ice and Fire and Wheel of Time? I've heard pretty good things about them...


ASOIAF is very long and very complicated. My advice is that if you want to check it out, read A Game of Thrones only, because while it is very clearly intended as the beginning of a series it is a good book by itself, but then ignore all the other books in the series until GRRM finishes the bloody thing, which he seems unwilling or unable to do at present. He's spent the last five years writing book five of at least seven; at that rate expect a conclusion no earlier than 2020... :?

...provided he doesn't die before finishing the series, which leads on to the Wheel of Time, which is also very complicated, even longer, unfinished, and isn't that good to start with. :)


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Mutate
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07 Aug 2010, 10:57 am

the song of ice and fire books are great, but he seems to have given up on finishing them - the last book was part 1 of a split novel which he promised part 2 soon, and that was 6 years ago. Awesome books though, hopefully either him or someone appointed by him will give us an end some day.



DemonAbyss10
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09 Aug 2010, 12:40 am

Mutate wrote:
the song of ice and fire books are great, but he seems to have given up on finishing them - the last book was part 1 of a split novel which he promised part 2 soon, and that was 6 years ago. Awesome books though, hopefully either him or someone appointed by him will give us an end some day.


well a few weeks ago on his blog he stated he had to now split up book 5 into 2 books, but that he is very close to finishing it. So expect a 2011 release :/


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TechnicalPacifist
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10 Aug 2010, 7:06 am

I'd recommend A Song of Fire and Ice, if it didn't ruin your faith in.. everything.