A Matter of Perspective

The last one of my Wheel of Time books was finished yesterday. That leaves me without any decent fantasy books as I’m spending time at my parents place over the summer. The only fantasy here is those books that I left behind when I moved into my small student apartment two years ago. I had quite a bookcase back then, and books are heavy. So I made some tough decisions between which books I wanted to read again and which that just didn’t cut it. David Eddings and his twenty-or-so books were left in that Bookcase of Shame. This was a bit weird, since I had loved Eddings before.

Back in the days when I first started reading fantasy, David Eddings was my thing. I couldn’t possibly understand why he wasn’t the crowned king of fantasy. Then I expanded my circle of writers I read to more than ten, and Eddings slowly faded away. I read Tolkien (again – first time I almost choked on The Lord of the Rings, it was just too massive for my inexperienced mind), Stephen Donaldson (also again), Robin Hobb, R.A. Salvatore, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, and many others. All these writers gave me a new perspective on what rich and entertaining writing meant for me. The next time I picked up an Eddings book I was amazed on how horrible it was. The writing was thin, the characters were shallow, the jokes were dumb, and the story was silly. Not at all what I had experienced when I first picked up The Diamond Throne – the book that started my fantasy interest - all those years ago. I just couldn’t understand how I had actually loved these books.

That’s what a wider perspective gives you. Don’t think you know what’s best if you haven’t seen it all. It just might be something that you have missed, something so beyond what you are used to that it becomes your new standard.

Trolls, there is a special place in hell just for you. It’s right beside bad humor, and Adam Sandler is your host.

See what I did there?

6 comments:

  1. George R.R. Martin?

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  2. Argh, yea I forgot him. He is too good to be in the "and others". I even have his A Dance with Dragons in the list on the right /facepalm

    Katherine Kerr also deserves a spot in there as well.

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  3. China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss (Name of the Wind is simply *spectacular*), Marcus Sakey... you have plenty of options beyond Robert Jordan's tired plodding through redundant plot wasteland :D

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  4. Er, Joe Abercrombie, not Marcus Sakey... wrong "The Blade Itself" author!

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  5. I have read some Neil Gaiman, but the other names are new to me. Thanks for the tips, will be sure to check them out since I'm all out of fresh books after this summer.

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  6. Who in their right mind doesn't love Terry Pratchett?

    For easy but enjoyable reading, have a go of Jim Butcher. He does the Dresden Files and a fantasy series Codex Alera.

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