Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn or Shadowmarch?

[Tansy]

Just started Shadowmarch and it hasn't grabbed me like MS&T did, but will persevere with it

[chopper]

m s &t all the way for me. War of the Flowers is an outstanding single-volume fantasy, but i remember bugging my library for weeks for each volume of M s & t because it was that good.
and today i've just picked up the whole lot in Oxfam for £2 each!

rapturous joy!

s

[Grimward]

*Blows dust off long dormant thread...hack, choke, cough...where's my HEPA filter!*

I love Tad Williams' stuff. Let me make that abundantly clear before I say anything else. While I still need to read his solo efforts, I have read MS&T and Otherland to their conclusions, and the first two Shadow books as well.

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn was an impossible act to follow. For anyone. I don't care who you are, if you're the author, you're just not topping that series. He takes just enough time in The Dragonbone Chair to introduce you to the world, and from there it's one long roller coaster ride of plot twists and conflict depiction. Couldn't put any of these books down.

In many respects, it's probably good that he wandered off into Otherland. I purchased all the Otherland books, and read them all, too, but it many places it was a struggle. The images he created were on par with anything from the Fantasy books, but character development, like the characters in the plot, often seemed lost, only giving us insight into each at a snail's pace.

Otherland did one good thing, I think: It probably gave him the right amount of time to retool for the Shadow books. I like the Shadow books in their own right, but even if the third book (Shadowrise) comes out and is spectacular, it still won't bring the series into the same league as MS&T, IMHO.

So, if there are any others out there still wondering which of his Fantasy series to read first, The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell, and To Green Angel Tower are your best bet.

[TorrnT]

I have read only 2 of Tads books, the Dragon bone chair and the Stone of farewell.
I couldn't bring myself to read the last one in the series, after reading DGs work this was tedious in places, like Simon's many paged escape through the dungeons/catacombs, i cant remember how many pages it took him to get out the other side, but even one page was to long.
The the same stuff again as he searched for the sidhe city.
I will say, Tad showed a lot of promise plot wise and if you skip past the meandering psychedelic babble there is plenty of meat and plot twists.
But also some of the side plots do not meet up to there expectations and fizzle out.

I hope i have not offended any one with these comments, i was 21 when i got these books must be 18 years ago, approx. Maybe a re-read is due.

[biodroid]

I thought MST was good, I really like his style of writing.

[TorrnT]

I realise what my problem might have been, I had just finnished steven donaldsons second trilogy about covanant, i think i may have been over sensitive to that self reproach narritave, where simon questions him self and reality.
I think i will give MS&T another try, many here laud it as an LotR equal, but im definately skipping the catacome part.
(19 years later and i still feel tainted by Donaldson)

[the smiling weirwood]

Isn't Steven Donaldson the one that wrote that book about the girl and the mirror world? I hated that book...

[Grimward]

He's one and the same, and Mordant's Need/A Man Rides Through (not sure which you're referring to...they're the two books in the series I think you're describing) were among his "lighter" efforts!

I liked them myself, but feel compelled to clarify here that his style seems very different from Tad Williams' to me. Have you read any of Williams' work and, if so, what did you think of it? Great avatar, by the way....

[the smiling weirwood]

Oh yes, I've read everything by Tad Williams. You can find a rather unorganized post on the otherland thread about that work.

I enjoyed Shadowmarch, it was slow to start to pull you in, but pull you in it does.

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn are of course wonderful and probably the best "epic" fantasy I have read. I like G.R.R.M. better, but his work can't be described by just one genre. Williams pretty much epitomizes epic fantasy in MST though.

Thanks