Wow!
BTW, Flying Crane, Fire and Ice is maybe the best series I have read yet. HBO has licensed it for a series, but I hope it doesn't happen. There's far too much blood, incest, and young people doing very grown things to make it work for the small screen.
AoG
Complete agreement on all counts. It would almost have to be a rated X movie, for violence and sex, but it wouldn't be a true porn flick.
When I was younger, I read a lot of fantasy stuff, until I finally figured out that very little of it is truly unique, and much of it is really poorly written. So I drifted away from it for years.
A couple years ago I began to drift back into it again, and re-read some of the old things that I had read when I was younger (some good, much bad). Then I went into a neighborhood bookstore that specializes in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror/Gothic Fiction, and asked for some recommendations.
Fire and Ice was the first of their recommendations that I read, and I was just blown away. The quality of the writing was just WAYYYYY above the average crap that makes up the bulk of the genre.
Then I stumbled into Stirling's
Dies the Fire, and I think he's in a pretty close second place, as far as quality of writing. I mis-spoke in my prior post, book FOUR is still in hardback, there is no book five and I don't know if there ever will be or not.
I'll list a few of the other books I've read, that you might want to check out.
Ursula LeGuinn's
Earthsea stories, beginning with
A Wizard of Earthsea, started as a three volume trilogy, but has grown to 6 or 7 now. They are all fairly short, but I believe were very well written. It involves a main character who studied at a Wizarding University (I believe Harry Potter is a VERY CHEAP rip-off of this story), but set in its own Midieval universe. This series was begun quite a while ago, probably the 1960s or 1970s, so it's been around for a while.
Another series was written for a younger audience, is the 5 volume Prydain stories by Lloyd Alexander, beginning with
A Book of Three. It is another midieval type setting, drawing heavily on Welsh mythology, good vs. evil and such. In a way, it's sort of a Tolkienish story aimed at a younger audience, but I loved it as a kid. I read it again a few years ago as an adult, and found that it is still a very good story. Well written, and certainly not "dumbed-down" for children like much of today's writing is. Again, these were written in the 1960s.
Another series that I liked when I was younger is the Book of Swords, by Fred Saberhagen. I read them again as an adult, and I don't think the writing is of the same caliber as some of the others, but I found the idea behind the story to be compelling. The series starts with
The First Book of Swords, and is a trilogy. Then, he continued the story with the
Books of Lost Swords, of which there are 8 or so volumes, I haven't read all of these.
The idea in this story is that the gods (Greek archtypes) are very petty and selfish and small-minded. They ask Vulcan to make 12 swords of power, to be distributed among the humans, basically to see what happens, and for their amusement. So these swords, each possessing one unique magical quality, are sprinkled by the gods among the various human populations, and a certain amount of chaos ensues as people try to possess them and fight over them and whatnot. Then it is discovered that these swords can kill the gods themselves, and suddenly the gods want them back.
There is one situation in one of the later volumes of Lost Swords, the story of the sword Farslayer, that I found pretty amusing. The power that this sword has is that you can magically fling it away, and it will kill your enemy from a distance. The sword vanishes when you throw it, and it reappears with the blade buried in the chest of the enemy you have named, no matter where he is. No amount of distance or protection or armor or fortifications can stop it. It is a guaranteed kill. The problem is, once you have used it, it doesn't come back to you. It stays where it is until someone else picks it up and uses it.
This sword falls into the hands of a family that was in the middle of a generations-old blood feud with another family. And they just take turns flinging the sword back and forth, killing each other off, one at a time until both families are decimated. Every time someone used it, they knew retribution would be visited upon themselves, but they just couldn't help it. They kept using it. I really liked that whole idea, thought it was pretty funny.
Here's another idea: have you read the Beowulf epic poem? It's a bit different from a modern novel, but is an inspiration for many of the fantasy stories of today. It might be a good one to check out, if you haven't. There are numerous translations on the market, so you ought to be able to find one that works for you. Most of them are translated from the Olde English into modern English, but try to retain the poetic style of narration. If you aren't used to this kind of thing you may need to struggle with it a bit, but it's a great story. And stay the hell away from the new, animated Beowulf movie with Angelina Jolie. I see there is also a novel on the market, based on this movie version. Absolute garbage, and a real disgrace.
A novelized rendition of the Beowulf story that I found compelling is
Whose Song is Sung, by Frank Schaefer. In this novel, the story is told from the point of view of one of Beowulf's companions. It's pretty hard-core with violence and stuff, and a very good read. I stumbled onto it in a used book store, and found it to be pretty good.
anyway, hope some of these ideas work for ya. I'll try to think of some other good ones...
. Brilliant for ideas and creativity but marked down for being a bit too 'real' in that regard.
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