Soldier Son Trilogy....

[Overread]

hmm I think I only picked Hobb up because there was a Dragon on the front of Liveships!
Oh and a bit of wolf stuff in Farseer

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

It's still depressing that Eddings is dead, and I don't know how I'll react when old diabetic Piers Anthony will pass....


But perhaps I can keep my stuff going by branching off.

[Overread]

It is indeed a sad thing when an author passes away - and heck we all selfishly wish they had finished things before they leave us .
All you can do is remember that there are new authors out there just as good, if not better = one just has to find them tis all

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

I only wish I was as good an author. I can't really write freehand for a long period of time, and with my laptop's AC down and out, well, I haven't practiced much.


But, I try to improve all the time I can....

[Quokka]

The general consesus seems to be that the soldier son trilogy is a little more uneven than her six dutchies series but having said I think most of the people who have posted here read six dutchies first then soldier son, there's definitely some similarities and a 'style' to Hobbs writing (like with most authors) imo. So maybe that'll change things, I appear to be in the minority and enjoyed the second half of the series more than the first and I also really liked that it was just a 3 book series and not the life long commitment that most fantasy authors ask of us now days .

[Hilarious Joke]

Hobbs is one of my very favourite writers. I loved Shaman's Crossing, I think it works well as a stand-alone as well as the first in a trilogy. Forest Mage was an excellent second book, I found it quite moving. Renegade's Magic I found disappointing, but I know some who liked it.

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Originally Posted by Quokka

not the life long commitment that most fantasy authors ask of us now days .

Terry Brooks' Shannara books coming to mind there, Quokka?

Well, just a few pages into the first one of this trilogy, and I have to say....I REALLY hope Nevare's not as naive throughout the entire series as he seems to be as a boy here....

[Overread]

Originally Posted by Quokka

I also really liked that it was just a 3 book series and not the life long commitment that most fantasy authors ask of us now days .

I often get the feeling (esp with writers like Fiest and McCaffrey) that they don't write those long, never ending series out of choice, but more because they prove popular and the publishers want more of them.

[Hilarious Joke]

And having invested so much time and effort into their world and their characters, they are loathe to abandon them.

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Not so much so with characters, HJ-why do you think I quit reading Pern? I saw a volume that listed someone other than Robinton as Master Harper and thought, 'That's it. I can't pick this up.'


But worlds....eh, you're right. (No offense, Mr. Jacob, but your Xanth series comes to mind. Perhaps should have learned terminology before writing them?)

[Overread]

Originally Posted by Hilarious Joke

And having invested so much time and effort into their world and their characters, they are loathe to abandon them.

Certainly I think that comes into it - but reading some of their books one gets the impression that the same heart and soul that was in the early books starts to become lost in the later volumes (even to the possible points where they start to make large errors in the content and history of their worlds, I belive this has been seen in Fiests work). That is not the writing of someone keen to keep that world alive but more (to my thinking) that of someone writing but not writing what they wish to really be writing (For whatever pressures - though publishers is the normal one)

[Hilarious Joke]

That makes me sad.

I actually was thinking about Hobb herself when I wrote that - I think she really missed parts of that Six Duchies/Bingtown/Rain Wilds world and that's why she's gone back there with Dragon Keeper.

I will say that Feist's works definitely have lost their original appeal for me.

[Overread]

To me Feist lost his power right after his first book. I just didn't get the feeling that the following books were approaching that same level of quality - they started to felt a little like DnD stories. I think it was a mistake for him to abandon the more epic fantasy line that he has in his first book and adopt the shorter, more party based fantasy

[Hilarious Joke]

I think it was a mistake for him to abandon the more epic fantasy line that he has in his first book and adopt the shorter, more party based fantasy

This is true in Silverthorn and in the books after the initial Riftwar trilogy, but I think Darkness in Sethanon is actually his most epic in scope.

[ratsy]

Originally Posted by Hilarious Joke

This is true in Silverthorn and in the books after the initial Riftwar trilogy, but I think Darkness in Sethanon is actually his most epic in scope.

I still enjoy Feist. I am actually trying to re-read them all right now (of course only between new books that I havent read)...I have read the first 5 so far and enjoyed all of them with the execption of The Prince of the Blood , just Feist trying to do something he wasnt good at... I still find that when characters die there is no emotion behind it...probably one of the worst authors for that.