Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Books!
Michael Williams speaks highly of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, having just read the seventh, concluding volume. He compared it to a couple other major series; Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Mitch jumped in, recommending Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series.
I know there are other fans of some of these series out there, and I commented so extensively I thought I would copy it here as well. I said:
I’ve never read the Dark Tower Books. Between you and my nephew, I am now most intrigued. My nephew mentioned it when he opened the Michael Whelan calendar I got him at Noreascon for Christmas.
I couldn’t get into the first Martin book. Maybe someday if I try again… My sister loves those.
I’m a big Wheel of Time fan, but agree on the later books having bogged down. Hopefully he will crank it up as expected in the next one, and come to a grand conclusion in a total of not more than two books after that.
Sword of Truth I like but have mixed feelings about. As Deb observed when she couldn’t make herself finish the second one, it’s boring in places. I didn’t really notice the libertarian overtones, amazingly, until the one I described as Goodkind channeling Ayn Rand, but more entertainingly and concisely, into a fantasy novel. I forget the title, but it’s the one where he makes the statue.
SoT is one of those where I will read the cover blurb, say “eh, whatever” because it sounds uninteresting, then eventually will read it and find it anything from an acceptable read to excellent, but not so compelling that I scramble to get the next volume and read it no matter how bad the cover makes it sound.
I’m afraid that despite Jordan’s failings, I am a Wheel of Time addict who will buy Knife of Dreams within days of its release in hardcover, and read it relatively promptly. I know, they have doctors for that.