Just got Feist's work recommended by both Earthdog (old member) and my nephew, and I like it a lot, although in Silverthorn it gets bad already. What are your opinions on the adventures of Pug?

Oh, and before I hit the post button:
SPOILER!!!
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I thought Tomas' struggle with the Valheru Ashen Shugar was so incredibly lame. He only made that up so that Tomas had his little story as well, and not everything would be about Pug's adventures on Kelewan.

I think Feist is one of the most overrated authors I've ever read. His droll, narrative style just isn't all that interesting. And he seems to write fantasy for the sake of things being fantastical. That sounds stupid, I know, but compare him to someone like Frank Herbert, who implicitly uses his 'Dune' Sci Fi world to desribe themes and movements that could not be described in a contemporary setting.

I dunno, I just that Feist, like alot of Fantasy authors, is just gratuitous and bland.

More often then not, I find the plot to be unoriginal and predictable. Still, I like his writing style, so I continue to buy his books. The character Pug is quite horrible. The Elminister of Feists storyline. He should just kill him off and be done with it. Fortunately, the characters improve (slightly) during the coming series.

Despite this rather negative review, I still like Feists work. In fact, I own most of it. Read some more books, then judge for yourself [img]smile.gif[/img]

Give David Eddings a try,I realy liked the characters in his stories.Like Sparhawk and his buddies.I think one of the first stories was "The Crystal (?) Princess+ or somthing like that.Been a long time since I read those..

I have read Eddings (Belgariad!!) and his writing is loads better than Feist. Eddings has a lot of good humour in his books IMHO. Cracks me up a good many times [img]smile.gif[/img]

I liked Feist in the beginng but like all fantasty authors who don't know when to end a series - can anyone say "Robert Jordan" or "Terry Brooks"? - Feist has killed the cash cow by continually milking every penny he can from her.

I'll withhold my comments on Eddings. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

*anxiously awaits comments on Eddings* [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Totally agree with you on Jordan and Brooks, although I have to say that Brooks' "Heritage of Shannara" series is one of the most inventive and twisting fantasy book series I've ever read. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Really, Link?! The Heritage series was that good? Truly I enjoyed the first trilogy of the Shannara series and even parts of the second series, but I eventually gave up. I may have to seriously look into the Heritage series. I remember the ending to The Elfstones of Shannara and was completely blindsided by the major twist at the end. If Hetitage is like that I'll be most pleased.

As for Eddings, well I tried his writings several times and found him sophmorically light. :D

SLIGHT SPOILERS!!
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Without spoiling too much: I (and I've heard this from others as well) hold the opinion that Brooks gets better and better along the way. Instead of delving further in his Lord of the Rings rip-off "Sword of Shannara", he explored the whole idea of magic a bit better. This started in the Elfstones, and went on in "The Wishsong of Shannara" (IMHO a great invention, that wishsong).

Instead of inventing new powerful enemies that don't show much inventiveness from the writer's side, Brooks created a grand story in the Heritage of Shannara, instead of 4 seperate stories. The beginning might seem lame, but it truly gets better along the way. The ending, for one thing, is more complex than you could ever imagine.


EDIT: About the Elfstones. Yeah, I never saw that plottwist coming either. What I admire most about the characters is that Will loved Amberle very much, and she loved him as well. Then you've got the gypsy girl (forgot her name) as well. What happens to Amberle is truly a great event story-telling wise, especially in the whole environment the characters are in at that particular moment. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[ 05-06-2004, 07:56 AM: Message edited by: Link ]

Wasn't Sword of Shannara from Terry Brooks?

My bad, it should've been Brooks [img]smile.gif[/img]

I thought voyage of the Jerle Shannara started off strong, with some very well done characters and plots, as well as technology, but the story was less engrossing than Heritage or Elfstones, many of the "twists" were visible a mile away, and the quality overall was lower than I expected, his knight of the word series was a similar experience for me, great openning book, but the second and third novels made social statements that seemed like they were being made for their own sake, without any real drive to make them something I should care about, whereas Running with the Demon had me well within it's grasp and I didn't want to let go. (the 5th Magic Kingdom For Sale book, Witches Brew, left me cold as well)

I own nearly all Brooks' Shannara books, with an exception of one or two. I don't own the newest of them all, but I'm not too sure if I want to. It's getting too "Wheel of Time"-ish to me, really :rolleyes:

[ 05-06-2004, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: Link ]

I think Eddings AND Feist are severely overrated. :D I haven't bothered with Brooks so far. The only thing that Feist did that I really liked, he didn't even do on his own: the Daughter of the Empire stuff. I thought that was a quite engrossing trilogy. Eddings gets progressively WORSE, not better, in my opinion: that Althalus crap novel is one of the worst pieces of shite I've ever read. I'm not trying to be provocative here, just my honest and heartfelt opnion (as a literature student [img]tongue.gif[/img] so blaah).

Yeah well, in my own defense: I was mainly talking about the Belgariad, which I like very much. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I've read and enjoyed most of Eddings and Feists' books and thought they were very entertaining! Maybe not "War and Peace" but they were entertaining!!

Eddings, Feist and brooks are overrated and bothersome authors. Everything is too predictable, charachters are colourless and almost utterly undeveloped.