I went to buy some novels recently, and I found out I have no idea what to buy anymore.

I'm looking for fantasy/science fiction novels.

In the newest novels released, have read Sara Douglass, George Martin, Robert Jordan, and I'm currently getting the Terry Goodkinds novels.

I heard a lot about Robert E. Feist, but I'm not too sure if I should get his books, I played a video game based on one of his book, Return to Krondor, and it seemed to me like a pretty average story. Is he really a good writer? As good as the ones I mentioned above?

Also, do you know any other good authors I have not heard about? I'm mainly reading fantasy novels, but I'd be interested in futuristic science fiction novels, too.

And please, don't mention Dungeon and Dragons based novels, I have no more interest in those.

Oh! And someone once recommended me "The deed of Paksenarion" or something like that. Does anyone have any info about that?

Anything by Vernor Vinge is great. Some of his older books (The Peace War and Marooned in Real time) are hard to find but well worth the effort to locate. His two latest books, A deepness in the sky, and a fire upon the deep are both great and Hugo winners. Check him out [img]smile.gif[/img]

Btw, its Raymond E. Feist and not Robert E. Feist. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Well, I will recommand that you get his Riftware saga books. They are a favorite of mine(and really great ) though I would not recommend that Tears series(Tear of the God etc) of his. And he has a new book called "Talon of the Silver Hawk" which looks good.

Another of my favorite author is Mercedes Lackey. Try her Arrows of the Queen series for a start.

The Empire trilogy which Feist wrote with Janny Wurst is probably some of his best work. Though it makes more sense if you read the Riftwar books first. I don't recommend buying any of the Krondor books. I don't know a single person who actually liked them.

I'm having some difficulty getting into Feist to tell you the truth...maybe it's because I had just finished with GRR Martin's hard-hitting ASOIAF series, which had incredible depth. I read Magician after that (the fact that the typeset they used was terrible didn't help) and found it very fluffy and lightweight compared to ASOIAF. It wasn't *bad*, it just seemed to suffer in comparison.

I'm reading the second book now (Silverthorn) and it's a bit better. I heard that the Serpentwar saga was the best one, but I wanted to read the whole thing in chrono order.

Anything by Robin Hobb. 'Nuff said.

Memnoch: Feist has a very light writting style. Some people enjoy it, others find it a bit too simplistic. Personally, I didn't like the Rifwar books. Too many Uber characters in the end. The Serpent War saga is alot better IMHO. It has better characters, and I like the way in which multiple storylines eventually come together in the last few books.

*Minor spoilers*

The "too many uber chars getting uber too quickly" was quite apparent in Magician I thought, with Pug and Tomas in particular. I know a lot of time passes during the novel but we don't get that sense of pace and progression with characters that I get with Martin or Tolkien for example. And with Tomas it's all because he was lucky enough to get lost and find the find of a lifetime. Hia character depth disappeared after that. :rolleyes:

Looking forward to Serpentwar though.

Yepp, I am currently reading the second book of The Tawny Man series(her lastest book) and its great. I hope she don't take too long to produce the 3rd book, coz frankly speaking, I don't know how I will last till than [img]tongue.gif[/img]

This is her best series so far imo, her trilogies just kept getting better and better.

[quote]Originally posted by Memnoch:

Quote:

*Minor spoilers* The "too many uber chars getting uber too quickly" was quite apparent in Magician I thought, with Pug and Tomas in particular. I know a lot of time passes during the novel but we don't get that sense of pace and progression with characters that I get with Martin or Tolkien for example. And with Tomas it's all because he was lucky enough to get lost and find the find of a lifetime. Hia character depth disappeared after that. :rolleyes: Looking forward to Serpentwar though.

I found this rather irritating as well. Especially because I accidently read the Serpent War books first... However, if you consider that Feist based his books on his PnP roleplaying games, it becomes a bit more understandable ;)
On another note; if you read all the books in the proper Chronological(spelling) order, you'll find the 'Legends of the Riftwar' and 'Krondor' books between the Riftwar and Serpentwar series. My recommendation; don't read them. Though they provide more details on some of the cultures (the Dark Elves, the Tsurani) they aren't really a part of the series. I've been told they were written by other authors, after which they placed Feists name on the cover. Though I actually enjoyed the second Legends book, its a waste of money if you are not a huge fan.

[ 06-01-2003, 12:57 PM: Message edited by: Dreamer128 ]